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MattintheHat
2010-08-07, 09:31 PM
So I was looking at the Dresden Files RPG because a friend who really likes the series wanted to play it. The FATE system is unlike anything I've ever used (mostly d20 stuff, some M&M which I also use for universal stuff, and a game or two of GURPS), and I really can't get a feel for how well designed it is without playing it. Since we don't have a lot of time to meet, I don't want to waste a session or two and discover the game is terribly designed or something.

That all being said, does anyone have any experience with the FATE system in general or the Dresden Files RPG specifically? What did you think?

Xefas
2010-08-07, 10:31 PM
Dunno if you mean Fate 2.0 or Fate 3.0, but I own the pdf of Fate 2.0 and have a small amount of experience with it.

I like the character creation process a lot. The primary mechanic is very simple and very intuitive if you're playing with a group of friends. If you're playing at a convention or similar, however, there may be some initial discrepancy about what constitutes "Fair", "Good", "Superb", etc.

That said, the rules are much lighter and will take some getting used to for someone transitioning from D&D/d20/Gurps/etc. There's no "optimization", or fiddly rules interpretations or anything. Did you spend the last 10 years practicing swordsmanship? Then you're a Good Swordsman. That's it. End of story. There's no extra +1 to squeeze out of an obscure Alternate Class Feature, so stop trying.

It also has much more room for non-combat situations. Since the same mechanic is used for physical conflict as well as social conflict, or anything, really, and because you don't advance just by going around murdering things that scale in difficulty linearly with your level, you have more room to explore your character as more than just a killing machine that chose to be a gnome just so they could take that one prestige class that kills everything in one hit.

In my experience, games like these take a lot more "challenging the character's personality and development" know-how from the GM than mechanical know-how. In a d20 game, if you want a quick way to entertain everyone, throw some gnolls at them and it'll take 3 hours of your session to slog through them. In Fate, and indeed many other RPGs, the dice-rolling takes a very short amount of time, so you need to get the players involved and caring about their characters and whatever form of plot they are interested in. If you can do that, ideally, it won't matter what system you use, because the fun will evolve organically from the player character interacting with one another in the setting you've created. At the point, the mechanics should be as out-of-the-way as possible, which I think Fate 2.0 does well enough.

Don't know anything about Dresden Files, though. :smallsmile:

Bosh
2010-08-08, 01:20 AM
One free copy of the Fate 3.0 SRD here: http://www.crackmonkey.org/~nick/loyhargil/fate3/fate3.html

The Dresden Files version of Fate 3.0 changes a lot of the details but the core rules are the same. FATE is very very very awesome at being flexible without being handwavy and it encourages good RPing better than any other system I've ever read. A few things to keep in mind:
-The characters can be pretty powerful, don't be afraid to throw a lot of stuff at them.
-FATE is all about doing "if this adventure was a Dresden Files book what would happen next" NOT "if that Harry says about reality was true, what would happen next." It's all about getting the feel of the story right, not having realistic things happening.
-Aspects are incredibly awesome, just read the advice about how to write them up and help the players follow it.
-FATE is a damn system system (the core of it could be written up on a note card) but some of its basic assumptions are very very different from D&D to make sure you get your head wrapped around those differences before you play.

FATE is a very fun game as long as everyone approaches it like FATE, not like D&D, it can rub some people the wrong way, but I've had more fun playing with FATE than with any other RPG system, when it clicks it really really clicks and all of the parts really come together well.

potatocubed
2010-08-08, 06:52 AM
Ahem. *points at sig*

I don't know if it works as well as I'd like it to, but that's what testing is for.

/advertisement :smalltongue:

I was actually thinking of trying to run a brief playtest game on these forums. Keep an eye on the recruiting subforum if you're interested.

InaVegt
2010-08-08, 06:58 AM
FATE 3e is, in one word, AWESOME.

It's heavily focused on getting the narrative right, and on almost enforcing roleplay. I definitely recommend DFRPG and its cousins, SotC and Diaspora.