Fate: Best Practices

 

In a fit of nostalgia this week, I appeared on a podcast (Mastering Dungeons; long-time listener, first-time guest) talking about Fate, of all things. I was ostensibly there to talk about campaign creation, but I was, uh, all over the place. It brought up a lot of thoughts about Fate in general, some of which made it into the conversation, but many of which stayed on my page of notes (I had notes). And I thought, hey, if I were still blogging regularly, this could make a plausible blog post. So that's what it is now.

These are just things that, IMO, make Fate really shine.

Play honestly. I talked about this a little on the podcast, but Fate is not a game that's overly concerned with things like balance and action-economy. If you go into it looking for ways to exploit the system, you will find them, and you will make the game less-fun for you and everyone at the table. Play the character your aspects say you are; conversely, give your character aspects that make them a fun, integral part of the story rather than an efficiency-machine. Given Fate's roots in the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game and the goals of its creators, it should come as no surprise -- if I had a nickel for every time I've heard Lenny Balsera say "F#ck balance," I'd have about 35 cents. Let us also heed Ryan Macklin's famous warning that "The math will f#ck you." I may have those attributions reversed, or maybe they've both said them, possibly simultaneously at the Big Bar on 2 at Origins. Regardless, nothing but respect for these two foul-mouthed kings and their massive contributions to our beloved Fate.

Rename skills and approaches. This really only applies if you're making your own campaign, but for a Fate game set in a very particular time and place, I think one of the best things you can do to set the tone is to tailor your game's skills and/or approaches (or whatever your equivalent) to match. Fisticuffs instead of Fight. Skullduggery instead of Deceive. That kind of thing. Til Dawn's approaches -- Chill, Dark, Fabulous, Fierce, Shady, and Technical -- are a great example of this. They don't correspond to FAE's usual Careful, Flashy, et al., but they indelibly lay out what your mindset should be as a player or as a GM. This is a game about futuristic, gender-bending mecha-DJs getting in and out of drama while musically battling it out with other futuristic, gender-bending mecha-DJs on stage. Imagine how much less evocative that'd all be if its approaches weren't so distinctive.

Go hard against the PCs. Don't hold back, GM. If it gets too hot for the player, they can always concede. In fact, make getting them to concede a primary goal, when the story warrants it. To do this, start with overpowering your major NPCs. The PCs have a top skill of Superb (+5)? Cool, this guy has Legendary (+7) Skull-Cracking. The players will frequently have a fate-point advantage over you, and an easy way to compensate for that is by just upping the skills/approaches of your important NPCs. Just keep the focus on offense. A superhuman ability to avoid damage will make for a superhumanly boring badguy. Overpowered antagonists virtually force the PCs to work together, creating advantages for each other and coming up with creative solutions beyond "I guess I hit him again." That dynamic is one of Fate's key strengths, IMO, so lean into it.

"Save your fate points for being awesome." You can't really talk about how to run a great Fate game without invoking (no pun intended) Morgan Ellis, whom I associate closely with these wise words. Setting aside the profound life-lesson this phrase represents to me, the idea here is to value what your character can do by spending your fate points on exciting action rather than avoiding the repercussions of someone else's action. Not to say that you should let yourself get taken out of a conflict, but don't pillow-fort and fritter away your precious narrative currency on playing it safe. Take some stress. Take consequences. Hell, take all the consequences, then concede and get more fate points to spend on being awesome later. The one tiny bit of Fate that I think everyone can agree isn't the greatest (how's that for diplomatic?) is that a successful defense doesn't explicitly force the fiction to change. Success with style gets you a boost, and a tie gets the attacker a boost, but there's that little two-shift range in there where kinda nothing happens. We don't like that. So really, there's no reason to not just take a point or two of stress instead. And then you can spend the fate point you saved on being awesome later on.

But do spend your fate points. Sort of a corollary to the above. The worst way to end a session of Fate is with a pile of fate points in front of you. What a waste! You probably earned those fate points with compels and GM-manipulation, so spend them already. One way you can at least limit the hoarder's tendency to hoard is by making the players "discard" fate points down to their refresh at the end of each scene. Or if you want to be more severe, refresh could double as your fate point maximum as well (although that could cause problems of its own, but that'd be a whole other blog post). Point is (again with the unintended puns!), spend 'em if you got 'em. They're not doing anyone any good otherwise. Spend fate points, be awesome.

I think that's it, and honestly this went way beyond my notes, so it ended up being more thorough than I'd expected. But now I want to hear from you, as seemingly every YouTuber says at the end of a video. What's your advice for getting the most out of Fate? And thanks again to Shawn and Teos of Mastering Dungeons for having me on.

Remembering Morgan Ellis

I've been trying to write this for the past 10 days, on and off, so stick with me.

Morgan Ellis, a good friend of mine, died last week unexpectedly. I say "unexpectedly" despite him having been hospitalized since before Christmas, during which time his condition improved and worsened but mostly worsened, because I never, ever expected that it would end like this. It's hard to believe. I know it's real, that he's really gone, but every time I think about what that means for all of us he had to leave behind, my mind recoils.

It's been forever since I posted on this blog, but Morgan has figured fairly prominently in it. We knew each other through conventions, where we'd show off our Fate hacks to each other. I don't think I'd be a professional in the RPG world if it weren't for us encouraging and pushing each other. We'd make plans in advance of Strategicon to align our schedules so each could play in the other's games. Our mutual enthusiasm fed upon itself, in the very best way. 

The night I learned he'd died, on a Zoom call with many of our mutual friends, I looked way back in my inbox to find the first emails we'd exchanged, and of course they were bouncing Fate ideas back and forth and asking one another what and when they'd be running at the next convention. It may seem unreasonable that someone I only saw a few times a year could end up being such an important person in my life -- I mean, it's not unreasonable to me, and if you're reading this it probably isn't to you either -- and to be honest I didn't realize just how important he was until I was forced to face a world without him in it. And I've been struggling with that ever since, trying to, if not make sense of it, because it doesn't make sense, then to process it in a way that might improve my life in his absence the way he improved it in his presence.

I think it's this, and it's going to be a little cloying and mawkish, but like I said above, stick with me:

Don't spend your fate points on defense. Save them for being awesome.

This is something Morgan and I said frequently when talking about Fate. Take the stress, take the consequences, whatever -- all of that stuff makes your character more interesting and the game more dramatic. Spending all your resources on protecting yourself makes for a duller game.

It always seemed like Morgan knew everyone in RPGs, especially in indie games. Every convention -- Strategicon, Big Bad Con, Origins, Gen Con, Comic-Con, and plenty of others I've never attended -- he had connections. Whenever it is we get to go back to Origins, it won't be the same without him in the Big Bar on 2. I didn't see him there a whole lot myself, for reasons I'll go into soon, but if I was looking for him and he wasn't at Games on Demand, it was a pretty good bet he'd be there, in a knot of what I'm going to affectionately call "cool kids."

I was not. When I'm at a convention I'm constantly driven by the thought that "I should be playing a game now." I build very little in the way of downtime into my schedule, if I can help it. This means I spend very little time socializing, the thing that, for many people, conventions are all about. I'm like, hey, I didn't fly all the way out here to socialize! I can do that at home!

Except I don't, because at Strategicon, our local convention(s), if there's a hole in my schedule that isn't a meal time, something has gone wrong. I remember the first time I went to Big Bad Con, and all my friends were going out to dinner, and I was like "I think I'm going to stay here in the hotel room and watch Forensic Files."

So what does all this have to do with anything. Okay. 

Morgan did not spend his fate points on defense. He spent them on being awesome. 

In the days after his death, social media was full of people mourning him, including many who'd never even met him but knew him by reputation. He was a tireless advocate for the things he loved, and he loved a lot of things. He made his connections one table of players at a time, and those people never forgot him afterward. He leaves behind only a handful of published credits, which is a shame because there was no end to his creativity and ingenuity. I'm so glad he was part of the team for Shadow of the Century, because no one on Earth was more qualified to work on a game about the '80s than he was. 

Morgan was well-known not so much for what he did, but for who he was. That is the mark of a good life. Far too short, tragically, heart-wrenchingly short, but very, very good.

I will always cherish the memory of the two of us on stage at the ENnies in 2015, accepting an award for Atomic Robo. Two dorks babbling about how great the source material is and how Morgan knew about it for years before I ever got an email from Brian Clevinger. That felt like such an achievement, and I'm so glad he was there to share it with me. 

One time he said "We should figure out a game to play together outside of a convention" and I said "Totally!" and then we never did that. We only saw one movie together (at least it was at the New Beverly), despite both of us loving movies. We lived far enough apart that it wasn't easy to get together, and I felt too needed at home on the weekends to work something out. I was spending my fate points on defense.

So as broken-up and broken-down as I am about him being gone, I feel like I knew only a sliver of him. But it's a sharp sliver, and it's deep under my skin. Plenty of people knew him better, but I am still stunned, shocked, shaken. 

I don't have a great way to end this, no concluding epiphany. I didn't know how important he was to me until he was gone, and I'll always be grateful he was a part of my life.

[Atomic Robo] Robotoberfest

Well, it's the last day of Sept, so you know what that means: It's almost time for Atomictoberobofest!

That's right -- Atomic Robo comes to your town, if you live in Tampa Bay, FL or Fresno, CA or Oakland, CA.

First up is Necronomicon in the Sunshine State, where John Campbell will be running some sort of ARRPG game. That's happening next weekend, October 9-11, so if you're around there or are willing to make the trip, go check it out.

Then I'll be at ZappCon in beautiful Fresno -- where the city motto is "You can get there from here!" -- running some sort of ARRPG game on the morning of Saturday the 17th. The blurb's super-vague, so maybe it'll be a Majestic 12 game, maybe it'll be "Atomic Robo and the Invaders from Mars," maybe it'll be a Robo Force game, I dunno. There's no way to know.

I'll also be part of a panel on Sunday the 18th at 2:00 pm about family gaming. Because ARRPG won a Silver ENnie for Best Family Game at GenCon this year, so it's only logical that I'd be able to speak about family gaming at some length, right? Please come to that panel and see if that's at all a reasonable assumption.

And if you can't make it to Fresno that weekend but you can make it to Oakland for some reason, it better be because you're going to Big Bad Con.

UPDATE: Though I can't find them on the schedule itself, there is apparently at least one Atomic Robo game happening at Big Bad Con on Sunday the 18th, as well as Morgan Ellis running Shadow of the Century, and also there'll be other Fate games, although I see exactly one on the schedule, so I dunno what the story is there. 

[Gen Con 2015] Self-Indulgence

It's been two weeks since Gen Con, and since getting back life's been pretty busy with family stuff (yay), work stuff (yay), and one of my kids going back to school (YAAAAAAAY!!!). I'm rapidly running out of time to crow about this -- arguably, I already have -- but I can't just let it go without comment.

You're probably already aware, but Atomic Robo: The Roleplaying Game won a Silver ENnie for Best Family Game at Gen Con a few weeks ago! I dunno, I think this is pretty cool.

Friends kept telling me Robo was going to win this very ENnie (it was also nominated for Best Game, as you may recall, but the competition there involved D&D, The Strange, Firefly, and Mutant: Year Zero, so we all agreed even Silver was highly unlikely), but I steadfastly went in with zero expectations, so when the award was announced I was genuinely surprised. Not the least of which because there was serious competition in the Family Game category as well -- I wouldn't have been shocked if any of the other nominees had gotten the Silver instead.

I don't know how much sense I made during my brief acceptance speech. I'd been thinking of and rejecting jokes for it for a couple weeks, so fortunately I didn't step onto the stage with a bunch of material that just had to be heard. But I thanked the judges, the voters, Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener, my wife and kids, everyone on stage with me (Morgan Ellis, Brian Engard, and Sean Nittner, though I honestly thought John Adamus was standing behind me too), and Adam Jury, but I bet I forgot to thank Evil Hat as an entity, or Fred Hicks for bringing me on board as a freelancer in the first place, or others who helped and whom I forgot in the moment. So I'm doing that now. Thanks!

Morgan then told everyone that they oughtta check out Atomic Robo the comic, especially if they want to introduce their kids to comics, then I chimed in to agree, then we got into a brief bit of "Sorry I never told you about Atomic Robo, Mike!" and "Yeah, this guy, he never even told me about Atomic Robo!" and I bet everyone in the audience was like "WTF are these two clowns talking about?" but fortunately we got off the stage right after. Regardless, I'm glad Morgan spoke up.

Then afterwards I went and played an 11:00pm game of D&D. Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford were there, so I congratulated them on their many (many, many) wins, and Jeremy says, "Hey, this guy over here" -- here he jerked a thumb in Mearls' direction -- "he's got the Atomic Robo RPG on his shelf at work!" And Mearls says, "Hey, whatta you gotta go and tell him a thing like that for, ya rube!" Then he went to poke Jeremy in the eyes with two fingers, but Jeremy put his hand up in front of his face to block him, so Mearls just slapped him on the back of the head. I dunno, some of that may not have happened -- it was a crazy night -- but the bit about Mearls having a copy of ARRPG in is office is true, that I rememeber for sure.

The next day, when I was back there playing D&D again (I played a lot of D&D at Gen Con...), they both signed my PHB, thusly:

I don't know how well you can read it there, but Mearls wrote "Thanks for playing the #2 best RPG of 2014," implying that ARRPG was the best, which is nice. Then he told Jeremy to write "Atomic Robo is better than D&D," to which Jeremy reacted with genuine doubt. I told him to just write whatever (or just sign his name, which was, y'know, what I thought was going to happen), so he wrote "Isn't D&D kind of OK?" And to think, he was so well-spoken at the ENnies when he accepted all those awards.

What else happened at Gen Con? I ran two fun games of Majestic 12, one off-books game Wednesday night when we were all too tired to see it through, and another Friday morning that had plenty of energy to the end. Oh, and I went to a fantastic baseball game, probably the funnest thing I did all weekend, but I've found that most Gen Con attendees are surprisingly disinterested in minor-league baseball, so I'll just leave that there.

Anyway. No joke, the real honor was that ARRPG was nominated for something at all. The medal's icing on the cake. The most important part to me is that people are playing and liking the game. So if you're one of those people and you voted for Atomic Robo, thanks! If you're one of those people but you didn't vote, then you missed an easy opportunity for me to owe you one. If you don't like Atomic Robo in the first place, you seem to have stumbled upon the wrong blog, but take a look around and maybe you'll see something you like.

[Gamex 2015] Fate On Demand

Gamex is coming up over Memorial Day Weekend. That's just a few weeks! Event pre-reg opens tomorrow, so if you're planning to attend or just thinking about it, here's a roundup of the scheduled Fate games thus far. Not as Fate-heavy as some Strategicons past, but still plenty of variety. And you may notice there's something a little odd about this list of games. Can you guess what it is?

Voyages of the Starship Loki (Friday 2:00pm, GM: JiB)

Deep in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, far from the security of the Federation a lone Peacemaker class starship explores the unknown parts of the galaxy. These are the voyages of the starship Loki. Will the crew survive the dangers so far from home space? Voyages is a sci-fi game set in a Star Trek-esque future where humans have spread out to explore the galaxy using the Fate Core Rules.

JiB's all Fated-up for Gamex! He's normally a Hero kinda guy, but for this con he's going all-in for Fate. And all it took was years of positive experiences! Anyway, this sounds fun, right?

Kingsman (Saturday 9:00am, GM: JiB)
Welcome to Kingsman, tailors to the finest of gentlemen for over 100 years. MI6 has reported a potential threat to the crown. Arthur is certain that the government wankers won’t be able to do anything about it, so it’s up to Kingsman to save the realm yet again. Kingsman is a modern super spy game set in London using the Fate Core rules. Can you save the queen and the realm?

Hey, it's that movie everyone liked but me! Regardless, it's a super-solid premise for an RPG -- exactly the sort of thing that appeals to me. Clandestine private paramilitary problem-solving agency, secret history, fancy umbrellas... it's all there. You should be there, too!

Neon Rose: A Cyberpunk Mystery (Saturday 2:00pm, GM: Patrick Thompson)

A mystery set in a post-apocalyptic, futuristic world where corporations rule and technology is abundant.

So... cyberpunk, in other words. Patrick, playing it close to the vest! If you like Fate, cyberpunk, mysteries, things held close to vests, or GMs named Patrick, this is the game for you. And if you like all of those things, this is the game you've been waiting for your whole life.

Spirit of Hyboria (Saturday 2:00pm, GM: Seth Halbeisen)

Rippling Muscles, dark shadowy cultists, and way too many snakes. What every great struggle in begins with, except for you! Bring you sword, your skill, your subterfuge, your spells. Vanquish the rising tide of evil. Save innocent sacrifices. Barbarians always welcome.

Didja hear about that new Conan RPG coming later this year? Well who needs it! Seth's running this thing in just a few weeks! This is a Fate Accelerated Edition game, which seems perfectly suited to Conan to me, and Seth's been running plenty of Fate at Strategicon -- not to mention an ongoing Atomic Robo campaign at home -- so check it out. Enough talk! *throws dagger*

Aeon Wave (Saturday 8:00pm, GM: Patrick Thompson)
Discovery of an ancient Martian radio signal known as the Aeon Wave has led to the development of advanced technology called Aeontech. The shift of technological power toppled governments and gave rise to the megacorps who currently wage war over the priceless secrets held within. Hidden in the shadows of the megacorps freelancers battle to save humanity from the fate portended by the Aeon Wave.

Did you back this on Kickstarter? Either way, it exists now, so here's your chance to play it.


[UPDATE] The Wages of Despair (Saturday 8:00pm, GM: Morgan Ellis)
How you ended up on this worthless rock of a planet in the ass end of space is your own tale to tell. Another day paradise living on borrowed time and maxed out credit. But now OrbitOre Interstellar needs to move 80 megatons of unstable Anti-Matter across dangerous, uncharted space. They have a ship, all they need now is a crew. It’s a suicide mission, but a hell of a payday. What else have you got to live for? (Come play Bulldogs! Sci-Fi That Kicks Ass)

See here! Morgan's running not just a Fate game, but a Bulldogs! Fate Core game. (Did you back that?)

Vinternacht (Sunday 9:00am, GM: JiB)

People don’t travel away from Ebbe in the winter. But, then Ulrich was murdered and now none of you are safe. The Jarl’s thugs are searching through the town for you, but you escaped into the forest and climbed the Trollvegge. Now the weather is turning bad and it’s going to be hard enough just to survive the winter night. Vinternacht is a Viking age game using the Fate Core Rules.

JiB's really got a thing for Norse stuff, am I right? Anyway, this sounds like a fun game about camping.

Aeon Wave (Sunday 2:00pm, GM: Patrick Thompson)

Kinda the JiB and Patrick show, huh?

And then there's Games On Demand, running all day Saturday and Sunday. I don't know exactly what'll be on offer there, but odds are Fate games will be happening at least once or twice a day, so if you miss out on everything else somehow, go take advantage of that. RPG coordinator Jim Sandoval really wants Games On Demand to be a big thriving thing at Strategicon, and you can help get it there simply by playing a game on demand.

Anyway, did you spot the odd thing about this list of games? It's that I'm not on it! Yeah, for the first time in I don't know how long, I'm not running a Fate game at Strategicon. I am running a game -- Star Wars: Blood Moon, Friday night -- but it uses Mini-Six, not Fate. Change is good. Plus I have all of these other games that I don't often get a chance to explore. Plus it's just good to play a variety of games. Okay, I think I've justified that well enough.

If more Fate games get added, I'll update this list. Like I bet Morgan's probably planning to run something. Stay tuned!

[OrcCon 2015] Fate With a Side of Fate

Hey, OrcCon's this weekend! And, as usual, there's a whole whack of Fate games happening. Pre-reg for these events has already closed, but the majority still have open seats for sign-up on the day.

Friday the 13th
"The Rule of Magic" (Fate Core, GM: JiB)

Crown Jewel of the Free City of Aescerlon, the Schola di Magii rises glittering above the streets of the mighty city, and from there are all real decisions made in Aescerlon. Will you survive the plots and intrigue of the most powerful magical conclave in the world? Schola di Magii is a high fantasy game where magic is the force that gives both power and position but at what cost.

I don't know anything about this other than what's in the description, but it's JiB, so it'll be fun and you should get in on that. Is this an established setting, or is it something he made up? I don't know either! Find out!

"Star Wars: The Dark Times" (Fate Core, GM: Morgan Ellis)

It is a dark time in the Galaxy. The Republic has fallen and the evil Galactic Empire has risen. The Jedi have been outlawed and all knowledge of them has faded into legend. But now rebellion against the Empire has begun and civil war threatens to consume the galaxy.

Morgan and I were both bitten by the Star Wars bug this OrcCon, thanks to Rebels. As I've related many times, our first experience with Fate was Colin's Star Wars hack of Spirit of the Century, back before I knew either of them, so this is a very natural turn of events. I'm not sure what time I can get there on Friday, but hopefully I can make it to this game. If not, you must play in it for me.

Saturday the 14th
"Scum and Villainy" (Fate Accelerated, GM: Seth Halbeisen)

A smoky bar, strange music, and rare exotic drugs. This is where you live, when you're not on a ship. Maybe it's your ship, maybe it's someone else's, but it's a ship, and that means freedom to do what you want, where you want, and blast things if you want to. Until the Empire steps in, they piss on everybody's parade. Maybe this is the big score, the one that gets you out of debt for good.

More Star Wars Fate! Seth's a Fate mainstay at Strategicon, so between his expertise with the system and a can't-miss premise -- you are Han Solo! -- this is obviously worth playing. Do so!

"Thieves' World" (Fate Core, GM: JiB)

Thieves’ World is a gritty street level fantasy game set in Sanctuary, the location of the Thieves’ World Series of books. Sanctuary is always dangerous, but something dark is moving in the shadows and narrow alleys, something that has even the most hardened of Sanctuary’s denizens afraid. Many people have left or are making plans to leave and those that remain talk of the end of the world.

Hey, JiB's back with another Fate thing! If you're not familiar with it, Thieves' World is a very cool setting created by a Robert Lynn Asprin bunch of hippy D&D-playing authors in the '70s who essentially wanted a shared home for their communally shared fantasy characters. Chaosium produced a multi-system boxed set for it back in 1981, but, tragically, Fate was not included because it didn't exist at the time. Thankfully, JiB is here rectifying that error.

"Hana Academy" (2:00 pm, Fate Core, GM: Jesse Butler)

Welcome to Hana Academy! This is a game about relationships and finding yourself in a magical high school setting. You will be playing one of the Gifted, someone apart from the bulk of the student body who will be able to engage with the supernatural elements of the setting. Each of the gifted can be easily identified by their unique symbol, or garland. Midterms approach, will you be ready?

I don't know this setting or where it might be from (other than the Elemental Plane of Anime), and I'm not sure I know this particular Jesse, but y'know, that sounds like a thing! Go check it out.

"Funkadelic Dance Off" (2:00 pm, Fate Accelerated, GM: Seth Halbeisen)

It's a meme catastrophe! A wish -mash of 70's bling, 80's indigence, and 90's criminal grit. Everything goes down at the Roxy, where anything that's hip happens, including Sex, Drugs, and Extreme Violence! Pick a meme, and save the day, all while swinging a nunchuck and sipping a Mojito... Lots of bad guys, Ninjas, and you, being awesome. Period.

I have no idea what's going on here, but it really sounds like Seth does. Memes! '80s-style poverty, which I'm sure isn't what he intended to say there! Ninjas! "Pick a Meme" sounds like he might be repurposing (or maybe just renaming) approaches in an interesting way. On an unrelated note, it's the second game from him to mention drugs in the description. Is he trying to tell us something? Something about drugs?

"Star Wars: The Dark Times" (8:00 pm, Fate Core, GM: Morgan Ellis)

"The Kaiju vs. Mecha Power Hour" (8:00 pm, Mecha vs. Kaiju, GM: Ira Traborn)

For you, it's just another day of killing evil kaiju (or other people, whatever). But then something different happened. A pair of twin fairy priestesses calling themselves the Cosmos summon you and other kaiju fighters to their dimension to battle a great evil that they need help with fighting. Can you and your allies face this great evil to save a world not you own, but similar?

...so if you didn't get in on the Mecha vs. Kaiju Kickstarter that wrapped up about a year ago and want to see what it's about, this is the game for you. I don't know this Ira Traborn guy, but he's running a few cool-sounding games (like this one) at OrcCon this year, so good on him.

Sunday the 15th
"Carnivale du Malheur" (9:00 am, Fate Core, GM: JiB)

Carnivale is a gothic horror fantasy game set in Ravenloft, the Domain of Dread. As members of the Carnivale you travel the highways and byways of the lands of Barovia. People call you gypsies & worse but you call yourselves Vistani and you have seen things that the townsfolk fear to utter even in the safety of their homes. But, will even the mighty Vistani survive the storm brewing in the mists?

Hey JiB! Why do you insist on doing this to yourself? Just run the same game three or four times! This is too much work. He must be doing it for a good reason, though, and that reason is probably "Fate Ravenloft." Play in it! You won't have a malheur. That's the Mike Olson Guarantee*!
*Not to be construed as a guarantee.

"Operation Crossover" (9:00 am, Atomic Robo: The Roleplaying Game, GM: Me!)

Since 1947, the brave soldier-scientists of Majestic 12 -- that's you -- have toiled in the shadows, waging a secret war against threats the average civilian doesn't want to believe exist. Whether securing rogue Tesla-tech, apprehending dangerous terrorists, or exploring other dimensions, you keep America safe from things that go "ZKZZRAK!" in the night. Today's mission: saving the world. Again.

Yes! One of these games is actually run by me! (For the record, I'm running two other games in two other systems this weekend.) This is a playtest of sorts of the Majestic 12 supplement Brian Clevinger and I have been working on. Would you like to see the PCs for it? Well, here they are anyway.

"Hana Academy" (2:00 pm, Fate Core, GM: Jesse Butler)

"The Kaiju vs. Mecha Power Hour" (8:00 pm, Mecha vs. Kaiju, GM: Ira Traborn)

And that's it! Twelve Fate games. Not bad. Come out and play-yee-yay.

[Gamex 2014] Días De Los Juegos!

Pretty definitive, I'd say.

Gamex pre-reg opens tomorrow at noon PST, and naturally I'm running a couple games. In honor of Atomic Robo: The Roleplaying Game being kinda out, or at least available in the wild as an actual put-together book instead of a binder of out-of-date rules, I'll be running two games using ARRPG -- one set in the Robo-verse, and the other set in an entirely plausible but unrealized version of the Robo-verse.

Saturday night is my Crimson Skies game using ARRPG as a base. If you don't know what Crimson Skies is, that picture up top should go a long way toward filling you in. Here's the blurb:

The year is 1937, and North America has shattered into more than a dozen competing nations, rife with conflict. With interstate highways and railways a thing of the past, travelers take to the skies. So too do a new breed of air pirates, kept in check by you, the brave men and women of Blake Aviation Security! 

The Crimson Skies setting has a (to me) surprisingly fleshed-out background for a minis game. Yeah, there was the PC game too, and I played the X-Box game a ton, but a lot of it never really comes up in those games, at least not that I remember. If the blurb reads a little vague, that's because I only have a vague notion of what the scenario will be about, but it'll come together before then. It always usually does!

I wrote, obsessed over, and then playtested some Fate-based dogfighting rules that were meant to evoke the Crimson Skies minis game. And they were a lot of fun, let me tell you. I'd play it again right now if I could. But they were also way too involved to stick into the middle of an RPG scenario a couple times. So I've gone back to the drawing board to simplify, simplify, simplify, and I'll be trying this new set of (still fun-seeming) rules out sometime before Gamex.

(For what it's worth, that overly complex version we playtested last night really is a lot of fun and does a pretty good job of translating what most of us think aerial combat is to the tabletop milieu. I stand by it and think it's probably worth developing. But if I were to register that game, it'd be in the Miniatures department, not RPGs.)

Sunday night is a sequel to "Bring Me the Head of Dr. Dinosaur!", the ARRPG game I ran at OrcCon back in February. The PCs feel like they have a lot left in 'em, and that first scenario (which did indeed result in the death of Dr. Dinosaur when a sentient lemur bullseyed the not-a-velociraptor with, if I recall correctly, Jenkins' combat knife) ended on a real "Okay, so what happens to these four weirdos now?" cliffhanger, so that's what we're going to find out. The blurb offers... some hints:

The Asterion Four in "Dia De Los Inmortales!"In 2011, a crack commando unit of genetic experiments was very nearly sent to prison for a crime they definitely committed. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if they didn''t cause it to begin with, you''d better hope you can figure it out without the help of... The Asterion Four!

Beginning to sense a vague pattern here? I thought it'd be more fun to establish who these four are rather than summarize a premise, which might end up spoiling something in a way that spoils some other fun.

What else is going on, Fate-wise? Well, Morgan's running a sorta-related ARRPG game Sunday morning:

Robo Atómico Y La Invasión De Los VampirosThe future of the world depends on Atomic Robo to save Mexico City from a full scale invasion by the sinister Dr. Valkyrie and her army of extra-dimensional vampires. Atomic Robo, Luchadors, Spies, and Science! Using Evil Hat Productions'' brand new Atomic Robo: The Roleplaying Game.

I'm not sure why we're both running games with Spanish titles. Maybe it's a Cinco de Mayo thing.

He's also running a session of Brian Engard's excellent Venture City Stories Friday afternoon, but I'm not going to be there Friday afternoon, so I don't approve that at all, but it might work out for you, I dunno:

The Corporations have unlocked the genetic code to create super humans. Now heroes and villains clash in the streets of Venture City. A gleaming metropolis surrounded by decaying urban sprawl, a city full of superpowers, villainous corporations, and ruthless gangs in a near-future setting where superpowers are for sale. Come play this new Superpunk setting for Fate Core from Evil Hat Productions.

Friend of the both the blog and me Wes Otis is running a Fate game Saturday night that... well, the blurb makes my head swim. I would play in it if I could. In a heartbeat. Check this out:

Hassbeck's CaseHassbeck was a jerk, now he's a dead jerk. He was also a net runner with a lot of credits in the bank and no loyalty. Karma came calling after years of bills not being paid and he found himself in the dead book. the city of Sigil is full of dead cyberpunks who thought they'd live forever. But before he died, Hassbeck stole files from the Lady of Pain, and now the hunt is on, winner takes all.

Like, WTF is going on here? Cyberpunk meets Planescape? What hath mad science wrought?

[Atomic Robo] Character Creation Example

A couple days ago, ARRPG layoutist Adam Jury sent me a two isolated pages to review, and after I did that reviewing, it occurred to me that they'd make a pretty good preview snippet for a preview-hungry public. They're not the most art-intensive two pages in the book, but they do a good job of showing you one or two ways in which we're swiping elements of the medium (of comics) for our own gamey purposes.

So here it is: an example of E-Z No-Math Character Creation. Enjoy!

[Gateway 2013] More like Fateway 2013!

Get it? Because, like, lots of Fate stuff on the schedule? Ah well.

With the release of Fate Core and FAE, I suppose that was inevitable, but still, it's cool to see so many GMs embracing them. Gateway, the last of the three annual Strategicon game conventions in Los Angeles, is just a few weeks away (August 30th-September 2nd), but pre-reg opens tomorrow, August 10th. And this is our last convention at the Sheraton. Next year we move to the Hilton down the road. So many memories, presumably!

There are no fewer than thirteen Fate Core, FAE, or Atomic Robo games on the schedule. Breakdown after the jump!

That was the jump. Did you enjoy it?

Friday 2:00 pm 

F4: Escape from the City of the Doomed, With Special Guest Ivid the Undying (Me)
"In Great Kingdom, Unknown searches for YOU." This dumb joke I made to myself at 1:00 in the morning sparked a vague idea for another in a series of AD&D pastiches/homages using an increasingly drifty Fate Core as a base. This one's less about mashing up old modules and more about being a genuine sequel to the three adventures these five PCs have already experienced together. Here's the blurb:

"In Great Kingdom, Unknown searches for YOU." -Yakov the Weary, Jester. WHAT WITH ONE THING AND ANOTHER, our heroes find themselves imprisoned in Rauxes, capitol of the most powerful empire on Oerth. Can they win their freedom before the city is reduced to dust? Is this the end of these Fate Core adventures based on old-school AD&D influences? I still have three weeks to prep, right? Find out!

Friday 8:00 pm

Star Trek: To Boldly Go (Morgan Ellis)

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Potemkin. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. Play classic Star Trek using the new Fate Accelerated Edition rules.

Ack! I would totally play in this if I weren't running a game Friday night (not at the convention). I bet the approaches are things like Security, Command, Science, etc. Right? I don't know, I'm just guessing. Mor importantly, Morgan is the cervello di tutti cervelli of Fate GMs, so you can't go wrong here.

Saturday 9:00 am

Freeport - Under the Waves (Sam Carter of Mars)

Freeport, the City of Adventure! A local has discovered something strange in the waters off the coast of A''Val.. and needs some intrepid souls to help sort it out. What will await you below? Fame? Fortune? Death? [A Freeport adventure using the new rules-light Fate Accelerated Edition ruleset.]

I've known Sam for, I dunno, almost ten years, and after all this time I still think it's "funny" to append "of Mars" onto his name. At any rate, people sure like that FAE, huh? Cool. Sam's another great GM, even if he is a friend of mine, so if you can get into this one, you won't regret it. Oh, it should probably be noted that this has no relation to the Fate Freeport book in development with Green Ronin. This is Sam's own thing.

IOU: Freshthing Orientation (Seth Halbeisen)

You've never heard of this college, were stunned by the sudden acceptance letter, and the volumes of attached fine print, and you're pretty sure it might be a prank... This campus is different. REALLY DIFFERENT! That building is a huge tree! Another is a glowing creator... Your tour guide just stunned a T-Rex while avoiding a saw-bladed Frisbee! Is that a TALKING cat?!?!? What kind of school is this?

Another great Fate GM, by all accounts, Seth is a person I do not know. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be "glowing crater" instead of "glowing creator," but either way it sounds pretty compelling.

Saturday 2:00 pm

Return of the Iron League of EVIL! (Seth Halbeisen)

Just when you though the world was safe again. They are back and ready for vengeance. Huge Iron shod blimps blot out the sun, Steam Powered Ninjas at every corner, and goliath engines of destruction threaten the city. Only YOU can defeat them! Only your team has a chance... Only the CENTURIANS can save the day!

And another game using FAE. On the basis of Seth's sterling reputation as a Fate GM, I'm not going to correct the spelling of "Centurians." Respect.

Saturday 8:00 pm

The Flying She-Devils of the Pacific (Kristine Chester)

Victory has been achieved, WW2 is over, and the troops are coming home! Only the war isn't quite done for the She-Devils, a group of lady pilots who have remained in the Pacific frontier to take down would be warlords.

Kristine's also running this Atomic Robo scenario at GenCon, so if you missed it there, now's your chance! I have the PDF of the PCs open in a tab in Chrome as I type this, and they look pretty sweet, so sign up.

Freeport - A Quick Errand (Sam Carter)

A member of The Syndicate has gone missing. Finn thinks a rival is involved, but without proof he needs to move carefully. You can serve as his hand in this business - with no ties back to him if things get ugly. He's offering exactly what you need (and hinting you definitely should not refuse his job offer). [A Freeport adventure using the new rules-light Fate Accelerated Edition ruleset.]

Sam Carter, FAE, Freeport, play it, etc.

A Dark and Stormy Night (James)

When:1939. Where:island of Vincoa, in the South Pacific. Who: the air ace, the big game hunter, the academic, the native and the spy. What: a fast paced game of pulp action! It late 1939 a group of adventurers have found out the Curse of the Emerald Octopus did not bring them the wealth they have sought out. On a dark and stormy night can they fight off the shark toothed Jade Shark cultists?

I'm not sure which James this is, but the blurb contains the phrase "shark-toothed Jade Shark cultists," so I say go play it. This is a Fate Core game, bee-tee-dubs.

Sunday 9:00 am

The Centurions of Science! (Me)

Hi. In this game, you get to play Nikola Tesla, Wong Kei-Ying, Annie Oakley, Harry Houdini, and a version of Winfield Scott Lovecraft (father of HP) who's a kick-ass secret agent instead of the syphilitic nutbag he was in real life. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME?

Did I mention I wrote these at 1:00 am? This one of the ARRPG scenarios I'm running at GenCon, so again, if you missed it there, you can play it here. There. At Gateway, I mean.

Smoldering Memorandum (Patrick Rowley)

Steve Hatchett has convinced his buddies to come out to Palm Springs with him for some well-deserved R&R, courtesy of his rich girlfriend's Country Club membership. Of course, there''s no rest for a burned spy, so wherever Matthew Easton goes, trouble isn't far behind...

I don't know what this FAE game's about, exactly, but Pat was my neighbor in the dorms at UC Irvine back in the early '90s, and we played AD&D multiple times a week (because college and dorms), so that seems like endorsement enough to me. Pat's one of those Happy Jack's people; if you are too, you may know him better as Mouser.

Sunday 2:00 pm

Open Minds (Patrick Rowley)

It's a quiet day for Alpha, the top-line Psionic Rescue and Retrieval unit in the Southern California branch of The Sanctuary. As a matter of fact, it's been too quiet. No new psychic eruptions in weeks. No nefarious Collective plots to subvert the current World Order. No attacks on Sanctuary agents. Either the entire Psionic world has suddenly gone quiet, or something big is about to happen.

Hey, another FAE game from Pat! What a supportive friend. Interesting side note: Pat used to be a ride op on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. But don't ask him about it -- he has absolutely no stories about his days in the Magic Kingdom.

Fate of a Kingdom (James Forest)

In the world of Eave, humans are not the dominant creatures, but still that have developed their own kingdoms. The Kingdom of Danaan and the Empire of Tulathe are two such human powers amid the sea of the elves that hold the sway over the world. It is an anime inspired world of pseudo-science, magic and swashbuckling Players will be the first to play in this world.

Ooh, I bet this is the same James from before! I can't be sure, though, so I'm not going to risk misinforming you. This sounds like a pretty cool concept, right? I've been watching a ton of Sword Art Online lately, which is probably making me more receptive to the premise than I normally am, and I'd normally be really receptive to it anyway. (Advice: SAO's totally worth watching, but you can stop after the opening titles to episode 16. Trust me.)

Sunday 8:00 pm

Science Team Super Five vs. Biomega: Tokyo Under Attack (Morgan Ellis)

With the threat of Biomega long gone, Japan's premiere extra-normal defense force, Science Team Super Five, has dedicated its resources to the scientific betterment of mankind. But the dread specter of Biomega has returned to threaten the world. Long silent alarms call the new Science Team Super Five into action. Armed with their advanced Reflex Armor suits, cutting edge science, and hard trained teamwork. Will it be enough to stop the giant beasts of Biomega?

What's not to love about this Atomic Robo game from Morgan? He's also running it at FateCon at Endgame this weekend, so if you missed it there you can play it at Gateway. I certainly plan to. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go make the PCs for this now.

[Atomic Robo] Various Updates

How I feel lately.

Man, it's been a while, right? I've just been too busy and/or tired to talk to you. You know how it is. But let's have a few updates to keep you in the loop.

What's Up With ARRPG?
I don't know why I was so excited that the edit punch-list was so short when it only takes three words to say "Rewrite this chapter."

To that end, I've enlisted the aid of Brian Engard to help get these Jeremy Keller-edited chapters revised and back to Jeremy Keller. Brian, of course, is part of the Fate Core team, so I have every confidence etc.

A big -- really big -- part of the revision process has been reformatting all of the examples in the book to align with the new aesthetic. We're still using panels from the pages of Atomic Robo to illustrate rules concepts and provide examples, which is great, but instead of just showing panels with captions (like the one above), we're providing a running dialogue between the GM and the players, all of whom happen to be Action Scientists. It's been a ton of work, I'll be honest with you, but the results are really satisfying, and it's going to result in a more engaging experience for the reader.

So, to sum up, it's coming along, and soon it will be out of my hands entirely, at which point we can talk about things like printer and shipping delays.

How Was Gamex?
Great! Two of the three games I ran were a lot of fun. The one that wasn't was an ambitious endeavor that didn't really come together the way I'd imagined.

I'm running the ARRPG scenario, "Robo Force," at GenCon. Wanna see the character sheets? Here.

I also ran a D&D-like Fate Core-based (based!) game called "Return to the Expedition to the Sinister Temple of the Reptile Cult on the Borderlands." There were blaster pistols and a froghemoth. Wanna see those character sheets? Look upon them and be confused!

As for the games I got to play, Morgan Ellis's really wacky way-out-there TMNT Fate Core game didn't involve any teenagers, ninjas, or turtles, although we did have a super-evolved marmot, a walrus from Ancient Egypt, a sentient hadrosaur from another dimension, and my character, Oreo Futurebaby, P.I. It was... pretty silly. And a lot of fun.

Respected TV critic and not-really-my-RPG-protege Todd VanDerWerff ran another Fate Core game based on the TV series Vikings. It was... well, look, there were some problems with the game, but still, it was gratifying to see Todd, a mere year and a bit after I introduced him to RPGs, running a game that I'd helped write. That was awesome. And I sure like that Vikings show. He promised me I'd have a chance to play Athelstan, and he did not lie about that, more or less.

Isn't San Diego Comic-Con Coming Up?
It is, yeah, and I'll be running ARRPG there, too, on Thursday at 2:00. I don't think the gaming schedule's up yet, but when it is, I'll be on it. (I'm also scheduled for a Saturday game, but I'll tell you right now, I'm going to have to bail on it to see this.) I'm also probably going to run a game at Gam3rcon that weekend, as is tradition, sort of.

[Gamex 2013] Fate Core Games A-Poppin'

Robo Force in action.

We still have a couple days to go before Gamex this weekend, and there are a bunch of Fate Core games on the skedge (that's short for "schedule" -- like I said, only a couple days left, so I don't have time to type out "schedule"), so let's break 'em down.

Friday 2:00 pm: "Death of an Aristocrat" (GM: Brian Allred)

Someone must really want this guy dead. Sounds easy, but for 20k nuyen, 

there must be a catch somewhere...

I've known Brian for years -- we spent most of those years playing in a couple of weekly D&D campaigns -- but I have no idea what this game is about. Sounds cyberpunky. Nuyen... isn't that a Shadowrun thing? Regardless, I'm sure he knows what he's doing.

Friday 8:00 pm: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness" (GM: Morgan Ellis)

It's 1984 and the City is overrun by crime and corruption, the gangs control the streets, terrorism is rampant, corporations fueled by greed seek power and control, and Ninja clans lurk in the shadows. Only a small group of Mutant Animals born of some Strange Encounter, or created by Science, 

and trained in the ways of the Ninja can clean up the City. Let's play some TMNT&OS using Fate Core.

First of all, this is how you write a blurb for a convention game: evocative but totally open-ended and vague. I can only assume Morgan wrote it that way for the same reason that I write 'em that way: because holy crap, the deadline to submit games is this Friday and I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I know I'd like to run a game of whatever, so here's something compelling without going into specifics. Textbook. Anyway, I'm in this game.

Saturday 9:00 am: "Robo Force" (GM: Me!)

Robo Force is the codename for the UN's league of highly trained Action Science Commandos. Their purpose: to defend human freedom against Baron Helsingard, a ruthless megalomaniac determined to rule the world at any cost. Led by the daring Atomic Robo and armed with cutting-edge science, Robo Force never gives up the fight! Rohhh-BO!

I ran a session of this at a Dead Gamers' Society meet-up back in March, and it went pretty well, so now I've put more effort and thought into it [read: I've been watching GI Joe] with the idea that it can go even better. It's also a chance to shine it up a bit in preparation for GenCon.

Saturday 2:00 pm: "Shadowpunk - Tailchaser" (GM: Seth Halbeisen)

Backstabbing and betrayal. Business as usual. But now it's happened to you. Well, you and your team. Now you've got a crap ton of marked data and no where to sell it too. No paycheck, and it looks like the target corp wants vengeance. Just another day in paradise.

I still don't know Seth Halbeisen! I believe we're connected via Google+ or something, but that's it. He's the most prolific Strategicon Fate GM I've never met. But he keeps running these games, and players keep signing up, so that's gotta be good.

Saturday 8:00 pm: "Vikings IN Vikings: Among the Vikings" (GM: Todd VanDerWerff)
America's love affair with Vikings continues, in this brand new adventure of seafaring Norsemen. Ride out to find strange lands off somewhere in the far West, lands filled with unusual men and fearsome beasts. Characters will be provided, or you can make your own Viking.

I'm not in a position to give out awards for best game titles -- but if I were, Todd would at least be in contention. I'm really looking forward to this game, not only because Vikings and Fate Core, but because I have this weird sense of... I dunno... pride? I introduced Todd to RPGs last year when I talked him into attending OrcCon, and now here he is, running a game I helped write! (He's also running Cat and Prime Time Adventures, a game he's supremely qualified to run on account of him being a TV critic and all.) But really, the fact that he's GMing multiple indie games per Strategicon has almost nothing to do with me and almost everything to do with Todd being a natural at this stuff.

Saturday 9:00 pm: "Spirit of Hyboria"

Come adventure in a land of ruthless warriors, vengeful barbarians and dark sorcerers. Where magic is a curse, and things man was not meant to know walk the land. Where the gods are watching, so be bold and live well. All this and swords too!

Obviously, if I weren't playing in Todd's Vikings game, I'd be in this game, guaranteed. I especially appreciate the "Spirit of" construction -- it feels old-timey at this point, which I like.

Sunday 2:00 pm: "F3: Return to the Expedition to the Sinister Temple of the Reptile Cult on the Borderlands" (GM: Me!)

OMG you guys, there are totally some more problems that only a party of adventurers can solve! This ode to AD&D (via Fate Core) is a sequel to a couple games I ran at the last OrcCon. If you played in those games, come reclaim your character! If not, come claim a character before those returning players beat you to it! Experience with Fate Core not required.

More of this nonsense. It was fun at OrcCon, so I'm going to see if we can keep it going. Because if we can, I'll run one of these at every Strategicon using the same PCs. Just like before, I'm using this game as an excuse to playtest something new I've been working on, so the PCs will look a little different than they did last time.

So there you go! A lot of great Fate games, just like I said. I did not lie. If I get a chance before the con, I'll post the Robo Force and D&D-ish characters.

[Fate Core] Games at ECCC! UPDATED!

Where will the Fate Core and Atomic Robo gaming be at Emerald City Comic Con? And will it be raining in that room?

I can't answer the second question (yet), but as to the matter of location, it looks like we'll be we are on the lower level of The Conference Center. That's the building across the street from the convention center, apparently. That's where Story Games Seattle will be, so that seems like the most likely place for us to set up shop too. We have a dedicated table just for Atomic Robo games at a circular table in the Story Games Seattle area. Many thanks to Ed Healy and Ben Robbins for securing that for us.

That said, it's possible that there's a better place for us in the conference center proper, but I kinda doubt it. As I may have mentioned, I haven't been able to get anyone to give me a definitive answer on where, when, and how other tabletop gaming is happening at the con, but from the website it looks like it's all going to be in The Conference Center. The really good news is that it's open until midnight, so we can run games fairly late.

I'm planning on running at least two more games of ARRPG this weekend: Saturday afternoon at 1:00, and Sunday morning at 9:00. Morgan's also around to GM it and the Fate Core Tron game we will obviously force him to run. Sunday, a local playtester named John Powell will also be there to run a game. So yeah, Atomic Robo games are happening.

Regardless, sign up for games at Table G-4. That's where Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener will be flogging their wares. Here's a map:

You can also sign up for games in the Story Games Seattle area, by their big sign next to the Gamma Ray Games table.

[Fate Core] ECCC and Fate Con

So! Coupla things coming up for Fate Core fans on the West Coast and/or who enjoy travel.

Next weekend, March 1st through 3rd, Morgan Ellis and I will be up at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle running Fate stuff. Most notably, we'll both be running Atomic Robo, and probably something else using Fate Core too. (Put in your requests for Morgan's Tron game now.) And maybe something else entirely that's not even Fate. Hey, we like all kinds of games!

When will we be running them, and where in the convention center will those games be taking place? I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea! Every attempt I've made to even see something resembling a schedule of games, let alone put something on it, has met with utter failure at best and apparent apathy at worst.

So here's what we're gonna do. For the ARRPG games, we'll see about having a sign-up sheet on-site, hopefully at the Comixology booth, if we can swing that. One of those ARRPG games will be Sunday morning (sometime, somewhere) and Brian and Scott will both be players, so take note.

The other Fate Core games... I dunno. I'll post something here next Friday when I actually get there and see what we're working with. Follow me on Twitter for specifics. There will be tweets.

After that, on April 13th, at Endgame in Oakland, CA, the first-ever Fate Con will happen with a vengeance. Two time slots, 10 am to 2 pm and 3 pm to 7 pm, with as many as seven games per slot (man, I gotta get up to Endgame sometime). So maybe 14 Fate Core games in a single day! That's crazy. Go up there and make it happen. Me, I have a prior engagement, so sadly I won't be able to be there. But you -- you should totally go. It's not the sort of thing you want to miss, unless you've already told your wife that nothing's more important that weekend than going to see this play for her birthday, and even if there were a convention that weekend -- which there wasn't when you said that -- you'd bail on it without hesitation for her sake. That's just a f'rinstance.

[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] Playtest Round 3 Is Now

At last, the time is upon us, as foretold in the scriptures. By "scriptures," I mean "this blog, a few days ago."

Last night I sent out an email to the Round 3 playtesters. If you should've gotten it (because you sent in your signed Disclosure Pledge) but didn't, contact me and/or leave a comment here.

For pre-existing playtesters, this revision contains some pretty significant changes -- all improvements, from where I'm sitting. Weird skill construction has been spelled out more clearly. Ditto brainstorms, plus a minor change to how they work. One of the modes lost a skill. (Guess which one!) (It's Action.) All of the sample characters have been revised. A bunch of little typos have been fixed. Terminology has been updated. A chapter on the basics of Fate Core has been included. (About time, right?) Challenges have changed a lot. E-Z No-Math Character Creation has been simplified even further. Etc.

So yeah, it's been a pretty thorough revision. Every document got some attention to one degree or another, although the big winners were Modes, Skills, and Stunts and Challenges, Contests, and Conflicts (previously known as Contests, Challenges, and Conflicts). Part of this is because Fate Core is in an advanced stage of editing, which means I have a more definitive set of rules to draw from for ARRPG, and part of it's because we've gotten some great playtester feedback to incorporate. By "great," I mean consistent -- the commentary has been pretty uniform overall, which makes it easy to know what needs work.

In other words, thanks to all you playtesters who've gotten back to me with comments! Even though I haven't replied to all of you, because I'm just one put-upon man and you are legion, rest assured I read your emails and appreciate you taking the time to send them. Keep it up!

UPDATE: If you're not part of the playtest yet, it's not necessarily too late. Download this and follow the instructions.

Speaking of playtesting: Morgan Ellis, friend of the blog, ARRPG collaborator, and my platonic Fate-mate (starting to rethink that phrase now), is still looking for a couple of players for an ongoing ARRPG playtest campaign in the Los Angeles area. If you want in on that and you're cool -- what am I saying! Of course you're cool. You're reading this, aren't you? Anyway, get in touch with him if that's you.

[Atomic Robo] Playtest Updates

Lots of times, I like to make this joke I stole from Peter Schickele where I say "A number of people have asked me about [something-or-other], and both of them wanted to know..." etc. See, the joke is that it's not many people doing the asking, even though it doesn't sound that way at first.

I cannot make this joke with Atomic Robo.

Interest has been... high. Very high. A side benefit of this has been that I've really gotten familiar with contacts and mailing lists in Gmail. Just never needed to use 'em before! But now I really do, because as I type this -- and I'd have to check on this to make certain -- I'm pretty sure Round 3 of the playtest is full. Round 3. In case you're just joining this whole Robo discussion, I haven't even announced Round 2 yet.

Now, that said: Do not despair. If you're interested in playtesting, please please download the Disclosure Pledge and follow the instructions thereupon. These playtest rounds are like unto waves on the beach, one after another. I will get you in there somewhere.

So if you've done that already and you're not in Round 1, you're probably wondering, "Well, when do I get to get in on this?" Here's the scoop on that.

• I'm in the middle of a revision right now. The game has already gotten better, thanks in part to the feedback of the Round 1 playtesters, which has been invaluable. I'm especially excited about this revision, partially due to the Extras chapter, which I think is pretty cool.
• I expect to update the playtest docs this weekend. (An email will go out to the Round 1-types when I do.)
• Shortly after I do that, I'll also email the Round 2-types. So: to more definitively answer your question, this weekend. That's the Mike Olson Guarantee.
• Round 3, whoever you are (and there are a lot of you), I will get you guys up and running within two or three weeks. Thanks to Morgan and Chris, we've got a couple ARRPG playtests happening at Big Bad Con the first weekend of October, and I want to make sure that everyone involved gets to experience the best version of the rules I can make available. As it happens, the timing's perfect for Round 3.
• Assuming there is a Round 4, and I see no reason to believe there won't be, it'll probably begin around the middle of October. It'll also probably be our last round of playtesting, because we need to wrap this thing up by November at the very latest. (Originally, it was October, but the parallel development of Fate Core, and the resulting revisions and rethinking of ARRPG, kinda messed with that a bit. Fate Core's awesome, by the way.)

For the record, even though I said I'd only be taking 20 groups in Round 1, I took... more. And even though one could reasonably assume I'd only earmark another 20 groups for Round 2, I've earmarked... more. Because I'm a big softie and have a hard time saying no to Atomic Robo fans.

[Atomic Robo] San Diego Comic-Con Playtest!

Okay, I'm biting the bullet here and finally settling on a time for the ARRPG playtest on Saturday. It's going to be in room 15AB at 2:00 pm.


I've decided that there's no way I have the patience to get into Hall H for The Hobbit anyway, so let's play Atomic Robo instead.


Saturday, 15AB, 2:00 pm. Look for the guy in the Tesladyne shirt. First four or five people there get to play. I FORGOT MY TESLADYNE SHIRT. Damn it. Well... look for a guy in some kind of shirt who looks like he's playtesting a cool new game about Atomic Robo.


Those of you lucky enough to be at Connecticon, of course, can maybe squeeze into Adam's ARRPG playtest, also happening Saturday at 2:00 pm. Get on it!


Incidentally--playtest last night (Thursday) at Gam3rcon went really well. Only one guy knew Atomic Robo, and only one (other) guy was familiar with FATE. The other three were just curious about new games, I guess. But they acquitted themselves well and had a lot of fun. The scenario (based on a premise by Scott Wegener) was effective and the players enjoyed sorting it all out. We didn't have time to finish, due to a variety of factors--it's been a pretty harried Comic-Con for me already--but that didn't dampen anyone's enthusiasm for the game. Everything rules-wise was well-received. Despite their best efforts, though, they evinced a nearly frustrating lack of criticism!


Morgan Ellis will probably be harsher at tonight's playtest. Or maybe not.

[Atomic Robo] [Kerberos] GenCon Events! Again!

I Googled "gencon logo" and got this.

A while ago, in a moment of benign "The sky is falling!" confusion, I incorrectly warned about the imminent opening of event pre-reg for GenCon. I was wrong, I apologized, and, as a nation, we all moved on. Now, though, it's on -- that thing I was talking about in the previous sentence (see above) starts tomorrow, May 20th, at 9 am PST.

To help get you ready for that, here are the dates and times of the FATE games with which I will be involved in some way.

First, the Atomic Robo RPG sessions, run variously by myself, Morgan Ellis, Andy Blanchard, and Chris Czerniak:
Thursday, 2:00 pm
Friday, 2:00 pm
Friday, 2:00 pm (another one)
Saturday, noon (changed from 2:00 pm)
Saturday, 2:00 pm
And also another one for Saturday, 2:00 pm

They're all at the Marriott in the Indiana Ballroom, as part of Indie Games Explosion, a subsidiary corporation of Games on Demand. So there'll probably be more ARRPG games available on demand, as well.

I'm also running one session of The Kerberos Club (FATE Edition) on Friday at 2:00 pm. It's called "A Past from the Blast," and, to recap, the blurb is as follows:

Danger! Intrigue! Explosions! It's all in a day's work for the Strange members of the Kerberos Club, who answer the call when a series of bombings spark panic in the streets of London.

That one's also at the Marriott, in Ballroom 2, if I'm reading that correctly. Let's hear it for centralized gaming.

It'll be very interesting running both of these systems at the same convention. In many ways, the world of Atomic Robo feels like a kindred spirit of the world of the Kerberos Club -- if you advanced the setting of The Kerberos Club forward several decades and changed a few (admittedly big) things, you could end up with Atomic Robo. So I guess it only makes sense that the versions of FATE that power these two games have a similar relationship. Some of the design goals for ARRPG owe a lot to Strange FATE, and some elements of the latter have been carried over whole-cloth into the former. I'm looking forward to it. Look forward to it with me, won't you?

UPDATE: And a few hours after pre-reg opened, everything's sold out. That's encouraging, right? If you missed out, buy some generic tickets and keep hope alive.

[Sword-and-Planet] The Spirit of the Red Planet

Late on mentioning this -- I've been sick, and then other pressing matters just kept on pressing -- but I got to play with the Actual People, Actual Play crew a few weeks ago, and the podcast of our after-game discussion is now available online.

Hopped up on John Carter as most of us were (all of us who'd seen it), we decided to play Morgan Ellis' excellent Spirit of the Red Planet, his sword-and-planet FATE hack. I've talked about it on the blog before, I'm pretty sure. Previously, I'd played Throk, the token Thark-esque Martian. (Perhaps it's no coincidence that my favored Spirit of the Shattered Earth character is Gorlla the Mighty Crorc.)

This didn't happen in our game, but it could've.

Nobody played the John Carter surrogate Cyrus Turner, so, in a weird twist, he ended up an antagonistic character, the third corner in a love triangle between the princess and Kalyan the heroic-ish pirate. Me, I played a Red Martian psychic/shaman-type. There were towering three-legged battle-mechs, an epic sandstorm raging out of control forever, and an extremely Pyrrhic victory, among other things. Great stuff, as always.