FATE
Rules Introduction
“Conflicts” : aka Combat
• Situation Aspects : 3 to 5 evocative things about the conflict location
• Examples : Mood, weather, lighting, movement obstacles, things to hide
behind, things you can knock over or wreck or use as improvised weapons,
things that are flammable
• Zones : 2 to 4 is good for a conflict
• A zone should be no bigger than a house
• If an area is separated by stairs, a ladder, fence, or wall, it could be divided
into zone
• Situation aspects might make moving between zones more difficult
On Your Turn in an “Exchange” (a battle round)
• Move one zone (either before or after your action)
• To move more than 1 zone, you could use your action to take an “Overcome” action
to use Athletics to move
• Take an Action
• Overcome : Use a skill to achieve a goal (skill-check)
• Create an Advantage : Make a durable buff or de-buff
• Attack
• Full Defense : (forego other actions that round) All defend actions for the exchange
at a +2 bonus for the round
• Reactions
• Defend
• To avoid an attack (either by an NPC or the environment)
• To defend against someone creating an advantage against you
• Active opposition to someone else’s “Overcome” (skill-check) action
Turn Order (Initiative)
• Based on Skills
• Physical conflict : Notice skill first, then Athletics, then Physique
• Mental conflict: Empathy skill first, then Rapport, then Will
Notice Athletics Physique Tie-breaker
Claud Notice +3
Roberta Notice +2 Athletics +2 Physique +3 Investigate +1
Lapis Zule Notice +2 Athletics +2 Physique +3 Investigate +0
Archimedes Notice +2 Athletics +0 Physique +0 Investigate +3
Calema Notice +2 Athletics +0 Physique +0 Investigate +1
Fate Dice Rolls
“The Ladder”
• Roll 4d6, Each d4 is either +1, 0, or -1. Find the total
• 5-6 = Success +1
• 3-4 = Neutral 0
• 1-2 = Fail -1
• Some examples
• 1 (-1), 6 (+1), 4 (0), 5 (+1) = +1
• 5 (+1), 2 (-1), 3 (0), 4 (0) = 0
• 5 (+1), 6 (+1), 5 (+1), 1 (-1) = +2
• 2 (-1), 3 (0), 4 (0), 4 (0) = -1
• When rolling, you want to match or beat your opposition
• Active Opposition : someone is rolling against you
• Passive Opposition : from an obstacle that has a set “Ladder” rating (DC)
Attack!
• Physical Attack
• Melee : Fight Skill (Target opposes with Athletics)
• Ranged : Shoot Skill (Target still opposes with Athletics)
• Mental Attack : Provoke Skill (Target opposes with Empathy)
• In both cases, Defend is a reaction
• Outcomes (as the Attacker)
• Fail : You roll lower than your opposition – your target is unharmed
• Tie : You roll the same as your opposition – target is unharmed but you gain a boost
• Succeed : You roll higher than you opposition by a total of 1 or 2 – you hit and the target has to
take stress or consequences equal to the total (the “shift” amount)
• Succeed with Style (Crit) : You roll higher than your opposition by 3 or more – you get the option to
reduce your hit by 1 to gain a boost as well
• Boost : A transient aspect with one free invocation during the current scene
(after which it goes away)
Attack Modifiers
• Invoke an Aspect – either after you have rolled or someone else has
• Come up with a reason an aspect aids your attack (the “Justification”)
• Spend a FATE Point
• you get {Refresh} of these per session, where {Refresh} is normally 3
• Your Refresh could be lower if you spent Refresh point at character creation or advancement to get
more stunts
• You and then either
• get a +2 bonus on your current roll
• reroll all your dice
• Pass a +2 bonus on to another character’s roll
• Add +2 to any source of passive opposition, such as environmental effects
• Use a Stunt (or an “Extra” or a “Burn Shift Extra”)
• For example, Lapis Zule has the “Dirty Fighter” stunt that gives a +2 bonus when using
dirty tactics (like biting, gouging or throwing sand in eyes)
• Use Gear/Weapons (which are also “Extras”)
• Like Lapis Zule’s Spiked War Maul giving a +2 bonus
Stress, Consequences, Conceding
• Concede a fight
• You get a Fate point for choosing to concede
• An additional Fate point for each consequence taken
• Your opponent gets anything they wanted from you
• You are removed as a concern for the opposing side – out of the conflict
• Stress : use up Physical or Mental stress boxes to absorb a hit
• You can only check off 1 stress box per hit (depending on the size of the boxes you have left,
you might have to over-spend)
• If you haven’t absorbed all the shifts with a stress box, then you need to take a consequence
• Consequences : 4 slots - mild, moderate, severe, extreme. You can only use 1 per hit
• Mild : absorbs 2 shifts
• Moderate : absorbs 4 shifts
• Severe : absorbs 6 shifts
• Extreme : 8 shifts, but you must replace on of your aspects with the extreme consequence
Recovering from Stress & Consequences (healing)
• Stress: All stress boxes are recovered at the end of a conflict
• Consequences : Regain use of a Consequence slot
(mild/moderate/severe/extreme) in 2 steps
• Begin Recovery
• With an Overcome action (must be done at a low-tension, distraction-free time)
• This represents first aid or medical treatment for Physical injuries, therapy or counseling
or some other self-care activity for Mental ones.
• If you succeed, rename the consequence to reflect it’s in recovery (Broken Leg could
become Stuck with a Cast), but this doesn’t free up the consequence slot
• Wait the required amount of time
• Mild consequence : requires one scene after the recover action
• Moderate consequence : requires one whole session after the recover action
• Severe consequence : requires one whole scenario (at a significant milestone)
• Extreme consequence : permanent, but you can make it milder at then end of a Major
milestone to indicate you’ve moved past most of the debilitating effects
Discovering Aspects
• During a Conflict, players know most all Aspects – of monsters, NPCs, the
game, the situation, and the other PC’s
• The GM might keep some aspects secret if not knowing something is important to the
narrative of the story, say in a murder mystery whodunnit
• But, the player’s characters do not know all the aspects!
• They only know what would be apparent or obvious or already known
• Players take Overcome (skill check) actions for the characters to discover other
attributes so that they can Invoke them
• That could be a Lore check to apply your knowledge you’ve gained in the past to figure out the
aspects of a creature or item
• It could be an Investigate check to do a computer search or analyze a crime scene for clues or
looking up something in a book or library
• It could be a Notice check to observe something and deduce an aspect
• Outside of a conflict, it would be a Contacts check to find someone who knows something about
what you’re investigating
Your Turn Anytime Roleplay
Move 1 Zone
• Before or after your action
• Overcome action using Athletics to Dash
(move 2 zones)
Invoke an Aspect after
someone has rolled to
gain a bonus to a roll, Pay
a fate point
Compel an Aspect on a PC or
Take one Action NPC to add drama to the scene
as a new fact – a complication
• Attack!
(Physical/Mental) Do a Hostile Invocation
• Fight/Provoke : same zone on a PC or NPC aspect
• Shoot : 1 zone away that works against them
• Full Defense (like
Dodge) Declare a Story Detail
• Create an Advantage
• Establish a new Aspect with free Invoke Defend (a reaction)
• Invoke an existing Aspect for free against an Attack
• Overcome (skill check)
• Remove an aspect you’ve been tagged
with, for example a consequence
Aspects – Compels versus Hostile Invocations
• Compelling Aspects – Adding drama to roleplay
• Add Drama & Complications – But not Hostile, not against their interests. Expect to negotiate
the terms of a compel with the DM or target player.
• Who can you compel? - A PC or NPC (but seldom a nameless NPC or monster)
• Who can compel you? - Any player, including yourself and the GM!
• What Aspects can you use? - Any including your own, another PC’s or NPC’s, the scene,
location, game, or anywhere that’s currently in play
• What does it cost? - Nothing to propose a compel, but you can pay a fate point to keep the
complication from happening.
• What do you get for accepting the compel? – A fate point
• Why would you compel another PC? - It’s a way to give them fate points
• When should you compel? - Usually during role-play, and probably not during conflicts
• Hostile Aspect Invocations
• Invoking a PC’s or NPC’s aspects against them (especially Consequences aspects)
• A targeted PC’s player gets a fate point, but it’s only available at the end of the scene
• You pay a fate point to do the Invoke as usual
• Invoking never gives a minus to a roll, only a bonus to some other roll or DC
• That could be a bonus to passive opposition in an Overcome action
• It could be a bonus to a defend check
FATE Points
• What you can do with them – spend FATE points to:
• Invoke Aspects to get or give a bonus on dice rolls
• Prevent a complication from happening after a Compel of one of your aspects
• Use a Compel on another player’s aspect to propose a complication for them
• Certain powerful Stunts (or Extras) may require spending a FATE point to activate them
• Declare a Story Detail (that works to your advantage) – but you have to justify it by
relating it to your aspects (and the GM can veto or ask for a revision)
• How to get additional FATE points
• Accept a complication as a result of a Compel on one of your aspects
• Be the target of a Hostile Aspect Invocation
• Concede in a conflict
• Wait until the start of the next session, when you get your Refresh value as FATE points
(your Refresh is normally 3 unless you spent Refresh points to get more Stunts during
character creation or advancement)
Create an Advantage Action
• Create a new Situation Aspect
• Gives your character a benefit by:
• Doing something to change the environment (like by setting something on fire)
• Discovering new information that helps you (like learning a weakness of a monster by doing research)
• Taking advantage of something you’re previously observed (like an opponent’s bad temper, or a tell)
• The new aspect can be “tagged” to a character or the environment
• For example, an NPC is “on fire” versus there’s fire all around the NPC
• A player/GM can do an Overcome check to get rid of an aspect tagged to the PC/NPC
• If you succeed, you get a free Invocation of the aspect (no fate point needed)
• Succeed with style : 2 free Invocations
• Fail : you don’t create the aspect or you create it but someone else gets the free Invoke
• Tie : you get a boost instead of the situation aspect
• Invoke a new Situation Aspect
• Succeed or Tie : Get a free Invoke of the aspect (instead of needing to pay a fate point)
• Fail : You give a free invoke on that aspect to someone else instead
• Succeed with Style : 2 free Invocations on that aspect
How to Hide and use Cover in FATE
• Use “Create an Advantage” with the Stealth skill to create an aspect on
yourself like “Well-Hidden” if guards are passing by, or “Hard to Pin Down” if
you’re fighting in the dark
• If you hide during a conflict, you can then use your free Invoke against a future Shoot
or Fight attack to gain a bonus for your Defend against it
• An opponent can take an Overcome action to Notice you and dismiss the aspect
(defend with Stealth)
• If you have a Stealth Stunt like “Slippery Target”, that lets you defend against Shoot
with Stealth
• If there’s an aspect in the zone that would let you take cover, you can use
Create an Advantage to duck behind it, or Invoke the attribute with a fate
point. In either case, you get a bonus on your defense roll against an attack.
You can also use Create an Advantage to make an aspect as something to
take cover behind
Obstacles: Hazards, Blocks (e.g. traps, locks), Distractions
• A Hazard (trap) works like an NPC and has a turn in the turn order
• Each turn it attacks and if it succeeds, adds its Weapon rating to its shifts
• Hazards can’t be attacked
• Hazards can create advantages, but they can’t overcome obstacles
• A PC can create an advantage against a hazard, and it defends with passive opposition
• Hazards can hidden, just like any NPC, with an appropriate aspect
• A Block prevents you from doing something you want to do
• Use Overcome with an appropriate skill to get past it
• For example, use Burglary against a locked door
• A Distraction prevents you from taking certain actions
• It can be an attribute and represents a choice
• Each choice represents a decision for the PCs, and each option comes with
repercussions
Gear : Weapons & Armor Ratings
• Anytime you want to use the Shoot skill, it’s presumed you have something to
shoot with. But, you might also have special gear weapons that have a weapon
rating. You might also have special gear armor. Gear is normally represented as
an Aspect (but in Burn Shift, it also could be a combination of an Aspect and a
Stunt).
• Weapon Rating : Minimum number of shifts you generate on a hit. For example,
if a Weapon has Rating 3:
• Tie : Shifts = Weapon Rating
• If you Rolled 1 or 2 shifts on your attack : that becomes 3 shifts
• Armor Ratings : Maximum number of shifts of stress you will take from an attack
• Armor ratings trump Weapon ratings
Character Advancement : Milestones
• Minor Milestone : end of a play session or one piece of a story resolved
• Switch ranks of 2 skills, or replace one Average (+1) skill with one that’s not on your sheet
• Change any single stunt for another stunt
• Purchase a new stunt (by spending a Refresh point, but you can’t go below 1)
• Rename one character aspect (other than your high concept)
• Significant Milestone : end of a scenario or conclusion of a big plot event (approx. every
2 or 3 sessions)
• Gain 1 additional skill point to either buy a new skill at Average (+1) or increase an existing skill by 1
rank
• Rename any severe consequences to begin the recovery process
• Major Milestone : end of a story arc (approx. 3 scenarios), death of a main NPC villain,
or other large-scale change
• Rename any extreme consequences to reflect you’ve moved past its most debilitating effects
• Gain an addition point of Refresh (which you can spend immediately on a stunt or keep to give you
an additional fate point at the beginning of sessions)
• Advance one skill beyond the campaign’s current skill cap, if you’re able to
• Rename your character’s high concept if you want to
