[Atomic Robo] Funny Story

Oh, Dervil. If only you could protect this geek from mistakes like these.

Hey, so -- funny story! Apparently a rather bizarre typo made it through the layout process on Majestic 12, and now it's there forever and ever and ever and there's nothing I can ever do about it and I'll just have to live with it and why would that be a problem anyway when I'm so well-adjusted?

Here's what happened. All of the sample PCs for Majestic 12 (on pages 42-43) were given four of five aspects, with the fifth, or "Omega" aspect, being left blank for the player to fill in themselves. This made it through editing just fine. Somehow, though, in layout, that "Omega" line migrated down to the "Stunts" header just below it. Together they combined to form "Omega Stunts." Which sounds pretty cool, admittedly, but it's not what we meant to put there.

Now, how did I not notice this in the multiple read-throughs I did of the final text? Dude, I have no idea. I probably gave the headers short shrift, just assuming they were correct, because typically they are, and I'm willing to bet everyone else did the same.

The upshot is that now the final printed product has these six glaring, glaring errors in them, forever and ever. The odds of Majestic 12 getting a second print are probably... not high, let's say. So this is it!

This may not be a big deal to you -- I bet you're super-understanding, even! -- but needless to say it will haunt my every waking moment, as is evidenced by the fact that I only just found out about this about an hour ago and am now blogging about it.

I'll do what I can do prevent this sort of thing from happening again, which may or may not involve retreating into the Santa Susana Mountains (which are not local, BTW), playtesting Fate hacks with, I dunno, raccoons (they can hold dice!), and eventually declaring my cave a sovereign nation (Proofreadia).

(Thanks to Nicholas Arroyo for pointing out this mistake on the Fate More Kickstarter page.)

[Fate More] Get On It!

Hola, amigos! I know it's been a long time since I rapped atcha, but I've been hecka busy. Or... neglectful. Little of both, probably.

Anyway, I come to you today with an important message about Fate More.

What's Fate More? See, this is the problem.

Fate More is Evil Hat's Kickstarter campaign to publish more Fate material in hard-copy form. Most of this material has already been written and even released in PDF form, so the Kickstarter is basically just about covering the costs of printing and distributing these titles. It's already successfully funded, as you may be aware, but it's entering its final 48 hours and there are some really fantastic stretch goals and "Extras" that may go tragically unfulfilled. And the very thought of that makes the Hulk sad.

Or maybe just angry.

What's been unlocked so far? ONLY ALL OF THIS:

• Venture City, a greatly expanded Venture City Stories. Fate supers!
• Do: Fate of the Flying Temple, a standalone FAE take and sorta sequel to Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple.
• Young Centurions, a FAE prequel to Spirit of the Century featuring young-adult PCs and all that that entails.
• Atomic Robo: Majestic 12, a supplement for ARRPG all about playing Majestic 12 agents as the good guys (because they are). Brian Clevinger coughed up a bunch more detail on Robo's world, and I wrote some fun new mechanics for M12 missions and requisitions, then it was edited and laid out -- I'm getting too detailed here. Point is, it exists, and you can get it through this Kickstarter.

In addition, Evil Hat will release an open-license version of ARRPG's rules for modes, mega-stunts, and brainstorms. And I guess I'll have something to do with that, too. And if you think that's cool, there are plans to open-license other stuff, including:

• Venture City's power-construction rules.
• War of Ashes' miniatures combat rules -- that I wrote!
• Lots of cool new mechanics from various Fate Worlds & Adventures releases -- many of which involved me somehow to varying degrees!

(Forgive me for focusing on stuff I wrote or edited, but it's my blog.)

Speaking of the Fate Worlds & Adventures line, that's kinda the main thrust of this whole thing -- compiling them into full-color hardcovers. 

The campaign's almost certainly going to hit that $50K stretch goal, which includes two things I worked on (PK Sullivan's The Three Rocketeers and Nick Pilon's Frontier Spirit). But it's the third one, at $80K, that I most want to see succeed, because it contains Deep Dark Blue, which is the closest I've come to actually writing one of these things myself. The actual author is Lore Graham, who created and wrote the bulk of it, but I'm technically credited as a writer, I believe, mostly for my submarine construction and combat rules. So, y'know, for purely selfish reasons, I'd like to be able to hold that in my hands. 

And, uh, so would you! Right? Because it also has Slip, which has got to be the weirdest of these things I've worked on (in a good way, of course), and Eagle Eyes and House of Bards. Imagine, an entire house of bards!

(I didn't work on anything in Worlds Rise Up, unfortunately, but it has four cool settings of its own: Behind the Walls, Sails Full of Stars, Gods and Monsters, and Nest. I wasn't involved with them and don't really know anything significant about them either, but Evil Hat don't make no trash.)

If this is you -- not literally Atomic Robo from 1926, but metaphorically -- Evil Hat explains it a lot more thoroughly in this Kickstarter update. And while you're there, back the thing! You only have about 48 hours left to help bring hard copies of these books (and all that open content) into existence!

[Atomic Robo] The Robo Has Landed

Pictured: Atomic Robo, existing as a physical product
you can hold in your hands and everything. 

Has your copy of Atomic Robo: The Roleplaying Game arrived yet? Well did you preorder it? Of course, at this point you could just buy it, because it's out and in stores. You are running out of excuses, in other words.

In all seriousness, it's been extremely gratifying to see ARRPG getting such a great reception from people online. I spent more than two years neck-deep in this game, so it's really rewarding to see tweets like this, or this, or this thing here, or this other bit over here plus this frankly embarrassing praise, and so on. I guess what I'm saying is that the approval of strangers is very important to me, and then on top of that I'm obviously not able to be one-hundred percent sincere about any of this because it's so genuinely affecting. All of this boldfacing is actually part of a defense mechanism against emotional vulnerability. So... thanks!

Anyway, if you're still waiting for yours to show up in the mail, or even if you aren't, you can while away the empty, meaningless hours listening to a couple recent Robo-oriented (Roboriented!) podcasts.

Late last month I was on Useless Drivel talking with Rob and Matt about a bunch of stuff, including but not limited to:

• A radio show I had in college (that apparently had a MySpace page)
• The Thrilling Adventure Hour
• GI Joe, sorta
• The Heroes of Three Crossings
• Crimson Skies
• The Shieldwall minis wargame and the War of Ashes RPG
• The Kerberos Club
• Jadepunk
• OSS 117
• Luchadores
• Atomic Robo
• Legends of Anglerre (sad face)
• The not-at-all-secret origin story of the Atomic Robo RPG
• Why this blog is called "Spirit of the Blank"
• Living the dream

(I mention on this podcast that I'm going to make those Crimson Skies Fate dogfighting rules available, and that's still my intent, but they're not up yet. End of line.)

And just a couple weeks ago, Atomic Robo scribe Brian Clevinger talked Robo and the Technocracy with Ryan Macklin on Master Plan. The focus of the conversation is RPG licensing from the licensor's point of view, and also Brian corroborates my ARRPG origin story, which is kind of a relief.

On a related note, Ryan and Tim Rodriguez are running a Kickstarter right this very moment for Backstory Cards, so go get in on that.

BONUS PODCAST RECOMMENDATION: The last episode of Nearly Enough Dice (episode 141, for future generations) has a very nice, unapologetically glowing review/unpaid endorsement of ARRPG. The episode isn't completely Robo-centric or anything, and neither I nor Brian are interviewed on it, but still, it's good. Especially if you're like "ARRPG sounds pretty cool, but I dunno, I need someone with a Scottish accent to convince me," then this is -- it's the podcast for you. It's almost eerie how precisely they've tailored this episode to suit your exact needs. You'd be foolish not to listen.

[Off-Topic] Kickstarters Ahoy!

After all this time without a post, you'd think the first thing I'd talk about would be how things went at ECCC, or those D&D-ish Fate Core characters from OrcCon, or what you can expect to see in the Fate System Toolkit, or any number of other Fate-relevant things.

But nope! Instead I'm gonna pimp some Kickstarters (most of which are, admittedly, Fate-relevant).

Fate Dice

It's a funny thing -- in the playtester feedback for Fate Accelerated Edition (and Fate Core too, I'm sure), we kept getting people correcting "Fate dice" to "Fudge dice." But of course, they didn't know of Evil Hat's plan to make their own "premium Fudge dice" to accompany all this Fate Core stuff that's about to come out. It only makes sense, from a business perspective. May as well sell the dice as well as the game, y'know?

Anyway, no surprise, this one's a runaway success, with (as of this posting) one stretch goal already hit (Atomic Robo dice!) and 30 days to go.

Why you should back it: They're great looking dice. You need more dice. Get more dice. Plus, it'll increase the world supply of Fudge -- I mean, Fate dice, and that's only a good thing.

Fudge It! Fudge Dice Infusion

I know Rustyn, sorta -- we're more like acquaintances, I guess -- but even if I didn't I'd still give her Fudge dice Kickstarter a shout-out. What sets this apart from the Fate dice Kickstarter (so far) is that she's taking a very democratic approach to the colors and inks of dice that'll be produced, which I think is pretty cool.

Unfortunately, as of this posting, she's still more than $2,000 below her initial goal with only 11 days to get there. I'm going to pin that on some bad timing, which has put her more or less in direct competition with Evil Hat for Fudge dice-related Kickstarter dollars. But it'd be a shame if that stopped her from getting more pretty, pretty Fudge dice on the market.

Why you should back it: More pretty, pretty Fudge dice on the market! Plus, her video's funny. That's worth at least a few bucks right there. If you can, throw $10 at this one and still back Fate Dice. Both deserve support.

Professional MP3 Background Loops for Roleplaying Games

Okay, fine, I know Wes Otis too, but again, even if I didn't, I'd call this one out.

Generally speaking, I don't care about background music for the games I run. And when I'm a player in a game with background music, if the music's any good I'll get totally distracted by it (as awesome as Colin Jessup's SotC Star Wars hack Spirit of the Force was, I couldn't help but call out the names of the tracks he'd play from the Star Wars scores, because I'm some kinda jerk). And if it's not, I'll be totally distracted by it, but not in a good way. What I'd much prefer is something that just sets the tone and lends ambiance.

Which is exactly what Wes has done here! It's like he read my mind. And you guys, I don't like to swear on this thing, but these tracks are [REDACTED] charming. Wes is an audio engineer by trade, and it really shows here. Go listen to the samples. It will not surprise you that he's raised north of $14K when his initial goal was a paltry $1,000.

Why you should back it: [REDACTED] CHARMING! Plus, having more resources like this available to the general gamer population would be very cool. It's a worthwhile product.

Precision Machined Metal Dice

For the record, I do not know Amber Rix.

But I did back her previous campaign for Precision Machined Dice, and I'm very pleased with the terrifyingly sharp stainless-steel cubes I got out of it. There, she demonstrated very clearly how dedicated she is to making the most precise dice she can, with the math to back that up. And to Hell with you and your precious wooden table surface! TITANIUM DICE!

Her current campaign, however, is to produce metal dice meant to be actually used at the table, instead of put on a shelf and feared. (My stainless-steel 2d6 are on a shelf.) Amber has a proven track record, and this thing's already blasted way past its initial goal of $4,000. As of this posting, it's at $67K and change, with a little under two days to go. (Her previous campaign hit $153K.)

Why you should back it: Quality product, history of success, dice that'll knock over every mini on the table every time you roll 'em. What's not to like?

Okay, that's it for promoting other people's work. Next post, it's back to me, me, me!

[Atomic Robo] Cover Preview

I have a preview of the cover for Atomic Robo: The Roleplaying Game below, but first, a brief post-mortem on the Fate Core Kickstarter that just ended.

It was super-successful.

Seriously, 10,103 backers? Who was expecting that kind of incredible support? If you're a backer, take a moment to realize that's 10,102 other people who now have Fate Core. Find them and play! It's out there in the wild in a big way. I'm willing to bet that most games available for free on the Web aren't downloaded by 10,103 people over the course of 56 days. If you were already one of the Fate faithful, I have good news. That game you like, to paraphrase a certain backwards-talking little person, has come into style in a big way.

Pretty cool, right? I came into Fate Core late in the development cycle, and I had nothing at all to do with the management of the Kickstarter (I was as surprised by The Day After Ragnarok and Dresden Files Accelerated announcements as you were), but still: If you kicked in even a buck, thanks for supporting this game I worked on. You guys are great, and I'm excited for everything that's about to come down the pike.

Anyway -- the cover! Check out those robot fists!

[OrcCon 2013] More Like Fate CoreCon!

OrcCon's comin' up, President's Day Weekend (February 15th-18th), and that thing is positively lousy great games. In particular, and of more immediate concern for you if you're reading this blog, it's lousy with Fate Core games. Here's a breakdown of who's running what when, and how many seats are still available as of this posting, after Saturday's initial pre-reg onslaught.

• Friday at 8:00 pm: Big Damn Heroes, run by Sayler Van Merlin. This game explicitly has no pre-determined premise -- everything will be decided at the table. Sounds like a challenge for Sayler, but I'm sure he's up to it. Should be interesting. Max four players, four seats open.
• Saturday at 9:00 am: Atomic Robo and the Invaders from Mars, run by me. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, both the observations of science and the evidence of our eyes lead to the inescapable assumption that those strange beings who landed in the New Jersey farmlands of Grover's Mill tonight are, in fact, the vanguard of an invading army from Mars." You get the idea. Max five players, two seats open.
• Saturday at 2:00 pm: Bait and Switch, run by Seth Halbeisen. I don't know Seth! But this is a Fate Core treatment of Shadowrun (I dunno, maybe it isn't) called ShadowPunk! Exclamation point! Max six players, five seats open.
• Sunday at 9:00 am: Tron: Rebellion, run by Morgan Ellis. "Greetings, Programs! The Grid is now under the complete control of CLU. The outlaw Tron has been derezzed, and the tyranny of the Users is at an end. All remaining ISOs are to be rounded up and derezzed. Any attempt at resistance will be met with swift punishment in the games. The perfect system will finally be achieved. End of line." Signing up for this game today was my top game-signing-up-for priority. It'll give me the chance to say "Greetings, Programs!" and have it be totally acceptable in context. Max four players, one seat open.
• Sunday at 2:00 pm: Stand and Deliver, run by Seth Halbeisen. This is Seth's other ShadowPunk! game using Fate Core. I still don't know him. Max six players, four seats open.
• Sunday at 2:00 pm: F1: Expedition to the Sinister Temple of the Reptile Cult on the Borderlands, run by me. "Come celebrate games both old and sorta new! A confused mess of several classic D&D and AD&D modules as seen through the lens of Fate Core, this promises to be, if nothing else, a good time for me personally. Characters will be provided and references will be made. No experience with Fate Core is necessary." I wanted to hack Fate Core for something, but I couldn't decide what. Then dndclassics.com came online, and that was the end of that dilemma. Max four players, one seat open.
• Sunday at 8:00 pm: F2: Descent into the Hidden Tower of the Silver Demonweb at Dunwater, run by me. My other D&D Fate Core game. A nominal sequel to the earlier game. Max four players, no seats open (!).

At the risk of sounding, like, way into myself, I'm probably looking forward to my D&D Fate Core games the most. I kinda love the characters I made -- they're full of rules tweaks, including two separate magic systems, and I'm really curious to see how they play. I'll post the character sheets in the next week or so.

[Atomic Robo] Tentative Table of Contents

Hey, Happy New Year! I know I'm more than two weeks late on that, but the baby was two weeks early, so it all balances out.

(BTW, have you checked out the Fate Core Kickstarter lately? It's doing all right.)

The usual thing I say in answer to the question "How's Atomic Robo coming?" is "Work continues apace," which is wholly accurate. But for all that, it's not a very interesting answer. So I figured I'd give a little progress update here in the form of a tentative table of contents -- or at least the names of the chapters as they stand now, not in any particular order other than the one that makes sense to me right now off the top of my head. The bolded stuff is already done and ready for editing, barring a few examples or something. The italicized stuff is at least partially done.

• Robo's World (Note: This is Brian's stuff on the setting; I think it's done.)
• Timeline
• The Basics
• Outcomes and Actions
• Aspects and Fate Points
• Modes, Skills, and Stunts
• Making Characters
• Challenges, Contests, and Conflicts
• Let's Do Some Science
• Factions
• The March of Progress
• Running the Game
• Telling Stories the Atomic Robo Way
• Playing in Multiple Eras
• Character Write-Ups
• Intro Scenario

So, as you can see, it's mostly good to go (to editing). The current wordcount (not counting "Robo's World") is about 70,000 words, which is trending on-target.

A few details on the in-progress chapters:

• "Factions" talks about factions (like Tesladyne) as characters, and the role they play in the game. This is mostly a revision of a chapter from the playtest material, with some new bits added.
• "Playing in Multiple Eras" is about era-hopping campaigns. This is something we talked a lot about in the early going as a mode of play the game heartily supports. That's still true. Right now this chapter is an extensive outline and lots of notes, but could arguably be reduced down to a call-out box in another chapter rather than claiming an entire chapter of its own. As much as we all (that includes you and me) like the idea of era-hopping, it really only shows up in two volumes -- 1 and 3 -- and the first volume of Real Science Adventures. Does a chapter on this subject have a place in the book? I dunno. How about I write it and we find out?
• The character write-ups -- there are around 30 of them -- are the biggest time-sink I still face. Several are already done, having been written for playtest purposes (Jenkins, Jack Tarot, Helen, two different versions of Robo, Otto Skorzeny, and a few others), but some of the remaining ones require a little more research. This has taken the form of me twisting Brian's arm to write me some short bios. "Ow! Ow!" he says. "No, don't make me talk more about Atomic Robo!" It's hard to listen to sometimes. But really, at this point, I don't know how much I could differentiate, mechanically speaking, between, say, just about any two She-Devils. Or Benjamin and Koa. Or Mac and Slim. I have a feeling some of these may end up looking a bit like the proto-PCs I made for playtests: modes, a few skill improvements, one or two aspects, and a stunt, with the rest to be filled in by the player during play. But I guarantee the really iconic characters, like Helsingard and Dr. Dinosaur, will definitely get the full treatment. Anything less would be -- say it with me -- mammalian treachery.
• The intro scenario is the one from the playtest. It's revised, done, and ready to go, but it should probably be reformatted for ease of editing. Because I'm a nice guy.

So there we are! Pretty close.

Oh, and obviously, revisions to Fate Core prompted by Kickstarter backer/playtester feedback will have an effect on ARRPG, but right now it's tough to anticipate how much of one, so I'll deal with that as it comes.

[Atomic Robo] Let's Play It Your Way

Did everyone have a good Christmas or whatever? Ours was... a little more complicated than we'd expected. And I'm pretty much run off my feet as a consequence. But in celebration of the Fate Core Kickstarter campaign hitting 5,000 backers yesterday, here's a tiny little preview of Atomic Robo: The Roleplaying Game. Specifically, it's an example of how we're using Atomic Robo itself to illustrate some game concepts.

In this case, it's conceding a conflict.

(But first, have you read Atomic Robo and the Flying She-Devils of the South Pacific yet? You really should. I don't want to spoil anything for you, but it's been out for a while now, so... that's on you.)

On with the example!

Robo tries to intimidate Takeshi with an Intimidation total of +4. Takeshi defends with Will and gets a +7—success with style. He gets a boost of Numbers On My Side.

Robo changes tack and decides to use Physics to try creating an advantage instead, based on the idea that using ion guns in an enclosed metal environment is an inherently bad idea. The GM decides that this will be an unopposed roll, and it succeeds. Robo creates the aspect Science On My Side.

Undeterred, Takeshi goes on the offensive. He rolls Intimidation and gets a +5, and invokes Numbers On My Side to make it +7. He also spends a fate point to invoke his aspect Only Victory and Defeat to bump that up by +2 more, for a +9. Then, in a gutsy move, he spends another fate point to invoke Science On My Side for another +2. Takeshi and his men don't care about their own safety. That makes his total +11.

Robo doesn't think he can beat that, nor does he want to end up with a consequence from this, so he decides to concede. He loses the conflict, but on his own terms: Takeshi will keep him alive for now, but incapacitated. Robo gets a fate point for the concession.

Now, a couple points:

One, this is only one possible interpretation of this conversation -- you could call Takeshi's first line in that first panel as an Intimidation attempt, for example, as well as Robo's rather threatening "It'd kill you too."   Or maybe Takeshi's first line is him creating an advantage. They're all valid, and any of them is totally plausible in play. But this is the one I'm going with. For me, up until the point when Robo literally threatens physical violence, they're just talking, sans dice. But when Takeshi casually insults Robo's piloting skills, Robo's player decides, "All right, it's on."

Two, normally in the book, I don't use characters as players, such as "Robo gets a fate point," but in this case I'm prioritizing brevity. These are captions; I don't want them getting too long.

I plan to use this technique as often as is feasible in ARRPG. The actual panels from the comic are an amazing resource, and we'd be crazy not to take advantage of them.

[Fate Core] Rules vs. Settings

This is a warning.

So! That Fate Core Kickstarter's been pretty crazy, am I right? It's great to see so many people excited enough about it to back the campaign -- exactly 3,600 people, as I type -- and also to see how many of them are new to Fate with this edition. That's awesome.

Not surprisingly, there's a lot of discussion about Fate Core in various places around the Internet, and a lot of it's revolving around what it can do. Most of the time, inquiries about this kind of thing look something like this:

Really enjoyed the Terra Nova TV series when it was on and was wondering if it would be possible to make that kind of setup using the FATE system?

(That's James Cartwright, commenting on the Kickstarter page.)

Or this:

I would love to see a strong example of a heavily race based system. Ideally in my mind an anthropomorphic animal game in the vane of Redwall, Mouse Guard, or Ironclaw.

(That's Jonathan Dietrich, also on the Kickstarter page.)

These both sound like great games to run with Fate Core. Terra Nova may have let me down as a show, but the premise was cool -- sci-fi tech and dinosaurs! As for the anthropomorphic animal thing, well, I own Mouse Guard and backed Cairn, so I'm in.

My reaction to this kind of thing is always the same: Yeah, of course Fate can do that. What does it really involve, anyway? Knowing the source material? Fate Core gives you everything you need to sort out the rest.

This is a pretty unfair attitude, I know. I'm so used to hacking Fate and talking about hacking Fate and seeing Fate hacks that at this point it's kinda That System Everyone Hacks to me. You want to do something with Fate? Great! Go do it. What are you waiting for? Again, unfair.

However, there's an actual point to be made here as well. As I also said on Twitter, there's a real difference in Fate Core between saying "I want rules for..." and saying "I want a setting that's like...." 98% of emulating a genre using Fate Core is knowing the genre well in the first place.

Do you need special rules for shooting a dinosaur -- rules that aren't already in Fate Core? I don't think so. I mean, sure, you'll want to stat up some dinosaurs, but that's definitely within the scope of the rules as written. Do you need special rules for playing a sword-wielding mouse (as opposed to a sword-wielding human)? If everyone's playing an animal, make sure everyone has at least one aspect describing what kind of animal they are. (And then, y'know, stat out some cats and weasels.) Hashtag done!

Let's take Fate Core assistant developer Brian Engard's Wild Blue setting as an example. Wild Blue is part Western, part fantasy-magic stuff, and part supers. It has new rules for the magic-and-supers stuff (in the form of gifts), because Brian had a specific vision for how those work in the setting that he needed to convey. It has a couple new skills that suit the setting. And... that's it for new rules. Because Fate Core does everything else.

But Jonathan Dietrich came back with this:

Which is a great question! I tried to answer it on Twitter, but Twitter's not the best medium for that sort of thing, so let's see if it I can do it justice here.

What we're really talking here when we talk about sci-fi dinosaurs or heroic rodents isn't rules, but setting. Most of what'd be in a good Terra Nova RPG built on Fate Core would be descriptions and stats for things from the show -- an implementation of the system, sure, but off the top of my head I can't think of anything especially new it needs in terms of rules or mechanics. (Of course, I'm no Terra Nova scholar or anything, so maybe I'm misremembering.)

Anthropomorphic animals? As a complete game, I'd want lots of descriptions of animals and examples of aspects and stunts for each. But what I can't imagine is that any of that would deviate from the tools that Fate Core gives you. Maybe -- maybe -- you'd want size and scale rules, but extras can do that as-is. (The Extras Toolbox will probably have those size and scale rules, but still.)

The thing is, the protagonists in these stories do things that "baseline" human protagonists do in Fate Core anyway. (Well, apart from, like, gathering nuts for the winter, I guess.) They don't shoot laser beams from their palms or have super-strength or bend the laws of reality or anything. Even if they're mice or voles or whatever, they do what mice or voles or whatever in the setting do -- which makes mice or voles or whatever the new baseline, which means you don't need special rules for them. If you know your source material and follow the directions in Fate Core, you'll get the game you want.

With all that established: What makes Atomic Robo so special that it need its own book?

This is a fair and complex question.

One, Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener want to do it. I want to do it. Evil Hat wants to do it. Lots of Robo fans really want us to do it. So... we're doing it.

Two, ARRPG may be an implementation of Fate Core, but it has several significant divergences meant to engender the kind of play we want to see out of an Atomic Robo game. Modes simplify character creation and skills to get players playing ASAP. We expect some people who buy the book will be Robo fans first and RPG fans second, or totally inexperienced with RPGs, so right from the start "quickplay" was the default. (Fate Core's easy for first-timers to pick up too, of course; a lot of these core concepts of ARRPG were established long before I even set eyes on Fate Core.)

Y'know how I said I'm not a Terra Nova scholar? Over the past year, I have arguably become an Atomic Robo scholar. Eating, breathing, and sleeping Atomic Robo has had a huge effect on the game in a hundred little ways. Atomic Robo doesn't tell stories the usual Fate Core way, so ARRPG structures stories the Atomic Robo way. The game has mechanics that emulate some specific stuff from the source material, like a group of Action Scientists working together to apply science to a mystery, a quick method for handling the in-game invention of new technology, and the capacity of characters (like Robo himself) to greatly exceed normal human limits.

What else? Aspects are categorized differently. There are no phases. There's no refresh (another very early decision). PCs start with more stunts. There's a subsystem for building customized skills outside of the extras framework. ARRPG has the great GM advice from Fate Core, but with an eye toward telling Atomic Robo stories, and new tools to help you do it. And because I wrote it, it has a random table. Maybe two. Maybe a random number of random tables. We'll see.

(Incidentally, some of the above will probably make it into the Extras Toolbox in some form or other.)

On top of all that, it's a thorough sourcebook for Atomic Robo -- more information on the Robo-verse than you'll find in any other book, plus a bunch of great art from Scott, both from the comic and new stuff. As a fan of Robo, this might be my favorite part of it.

Anyway. What was I talking about? Something to do with rules vs. settings in Fate Core?

[Fate Core] Surprise!

Surprise!

The Fate Core Kickstarter campaign has kicked off a little earlier than anticipated, thanks to editor Jeremy Keller and all-around provocateur Fred Hicks.

You've probably already checked it out. If you haven't yet, it's, uh, doing pretty well. Funded in under 15 minutes, hit the first two stretch goals shortly thereafter.

And in case you weren't already aware of this particular tidbit: If you back at any level -- including the $1 Access level -- you get immediate access to the draft copy of Fate Core.

Not bad, right?

This is all kind of novel for me. It's the first project I've worked on that's gotten the Kickstarter treatment. I had nothing to do with setting up the Kickstarter itself, nor am I currently on the hook to produce any new material as part of a stretch goal. So really, in a sense, I kinda don't really have much of a stake in this beyond wanting people to like and play a game I've worked on. (As I've said before, I've been extremely lucky so far in my RPG freelancing career to have worked on pretty much only fairly high-profile, well-received projects.)

But I'm going to be watching this Kickstarter with as much attention and enthusiasm as, I dunno, this, or this -- because it's always fun to see a highly anticipated campaign for a cool project go from "funded" to "ridiculous runaway success." Join me, won't you?

Join me.

[Fate Core] Coming Soon

So everyone knows about this by now, right?

No?

If you don't, you really should check it out.