FAE! We’re not talking sprightly elves with pointy ears (well, we COULD be, but not if you don’t want to). No, this time we’re referring to Fate Accelerated Edition! One of our favorite things about this game is that it’s so flexible. Never played Fate Core? You can play FAE! You’re playing Fate Core but want to add some aspects of FAE? You can do that too! Want to bolt FAE onto another game like Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple or The Dresden Files? YOU CAN DO EEEEEET.
FAE. It can do ANYTHING.
Clark Valentine can do anything too. Like write for FAE and the Leverage RPG and and The Dresden Files RPG and a bunch of stuff for Margaret Weis productions, and now I’m out of breath, not to mention tired just thinking about all that work. Anyway, everybody give a big round of applause to Clark for bringing us today’s sneak peek. FAE. Even the sprightly elves love it.
What is Fate Accelerated Edition?
Remember those books where the teenage wizards struggle against the Dark Lord of Evil? That movie where the dwarves fight to recapture their mountain home from a dragon? That animated TV show about the elemental sorceress resisting an uprising trying to take over the city?
Aren’t those awesome?
Here’s your chance to put yourself in the heroes’ shoes in stories like those.
Fate Accelerated Edition is a tabletop roleplaying game, where you and your friends gather around and tell stories full of danger, excitement, and adventure. You might have played games similar to this before—Dungeons & Dragons is a very popular one—but don’t worry if you haven’t; this booklet will guide you through it.
Telling Stories Together
So you’ve gathered your friends, your dice, and your index cards, and you’re ready to play Fate Accelerated Edition (we’ll call it FAE from now on). Time to create some stories!
What Do You Mean, “Tell Stories”?
FAE is all about telling stories. You create a group of characters and follow them through some imaginary adventure that you all take turns telling little parts of.
Who Do You Want To Be?
Once you’ve decided what kind of story you’ll be telling in your game, you decide who your character is—what they look like, what they’re good at, and what they believe.
How Do I Make the Character?
Now it’s time to start writing stuff down. Grab a pencil and a copy of the character sheet. Some people like to use form-fillable PDFs on a laptop or tablet computer. Any of that’s fine, but you definitely want something that lets you erase and change.
Creating Characters: The 30-Second Version
- Write two aspects: a high concept and a trouble.
- Write another aspect.
- Give your character a name and describe their appearance.
- Choose approaches.
- Set your refresh to 3.
- You may write up to two more aspects and choose a stunt, if you wish, or you may do that during play.
Approaches are descriptions of how you accomplish tasks. Everyone has the same six approaches:
- Careful
- Clever
- Flashy
- Forceful
- Quick
- Sneaky
Each approach is rated with a bonus. Choose one at Good (+3), two at Fair (+2), two at Average (+1), and one at Mediocre (+0). You can improve these later. We talk about what each approach means and how you use them in How To Do Stuff: Outcomes, Approaches, and Actions…
WAIT! You can’t just stop there! NEED. TO. KNOW. MORE!
Hey Dustin,
I know what you mean. When I selected snippets for this I kept saying “oooh, and I want to put this in, and this in, and this…” There will be more soon, when FAE hits the shelves!
Thanks! I can’t wait!
So… when will FAE be released to the general public? How much will it cost? Where might when get a general break down of the differences between FAE and Fate Core?
Hi Matthew, I’m assembling that data now and I’ll get back to you soon with more details.
Matthew. FAE will be released in the spring and the MSRP will be $5. FAE has several targets:
Gamers who want to play quickly, with a rules-light system.
First time (and young) gamers.
Fans of existing product lines (like Do and Dresden Files) looking for a game system.
Fate Accelerated Edition will be system you can transition in and out of from Fate Core as it will use many of the same precepts (aspects, Fate currency, skill ladder, refresh) by adding (or removing) the additional Fate Core details.
I’ve been around the block a few times… nowadays, I just want a book that is under 100 pages so FAE sounds perfect to me.
I’m going to stay tuned in for a more precise release date for sure. I really should have backed the kickstarter so I didn’t have to wait so long!!! x_x
I won’t argue with anyone who says they should have backed the kickstarter, for sure.
Several of the posts (those with downloads) are backer-only, but there is still a ton of information about the Kickstarter and the Fate Core products that came from it here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilhat/fate-core/posts
So in FAE, are skills replaced with Approaches?
Yep!
What bogs down DND and most rpgs is okay, here’s the super awesome climax of the story. Combat will take about 4 hours. Talk about killing the excitement. Meeting the villian you’ve waited weeks, months or years to see is supposed to be invigorating, but in most games its “Awesome. Now we get to play hurry up and wait.” As excited as I was to read about Fate Core, I’m doubly, nay triple excited to read about FAE. This is how it should be: just enough dice rolls to make failure a possibility. All the stats and stuff should make your character a person (or whatever), NOT be a way to min max just to do slightly better at a four HOUR combat session. I’M SO EXCITED! I really wish I had found out about this game sooner!
I agree about the bogged down nature of other games for sure. I’m not sure about losing skills though. I feel like they are a customization point that many players really look for in a game, and with only a few approaches, I’m worried my players won’t go for it. I think it would be great for Storytelling, but I’m worried that my players are too attached to the numbers to make them feel awesome. I think I’d need to run this with “Real” characters instead of “Heroic” characters, which might not jive for my people.
Though the game lacks Skills it still has Stunts to emulate that specialized nature that some players look for. Approaches are less narrative than they seem at first… meaning fine tuning a character’s definition isn’t hard at all with aspects, approaches and stunts.
In the next sneak peek… could we talk about advancement or something? Or just… you know… release it so’s I can have it?
That’s true, I hadn’t thought about stunts still being around. That makes me feel better, heh.
I was pretty excited to see the whole Fate Core thing kick off, though I was too broke to get in on it. I thought that FAE was just like a quick start rule set like some other guys have out for their games, but it sounds like instead of a watered down version with limited options this is more of a concentrated version. I hope I can get a look at it pretty soon. I mean it is spring already, right? Happy Easter. Gimme da egg!
Yup, “concentrated” is a good way of putting it. We hope to have it out to the rest of the world in the next couple months!
The problem with skills is there really are too many to cover for any given Aspect. Lets say Bob is a World Class Brain Surgeon. Most doctors don’t know how to take a blood pressure or run an EKG machine. Are you going to have that as a skill? What is Joe the Neurosurgeon giving up to take Take Blood Pressure? Approaches work so much better, because they address how you attempt something, even if you aren’t trained. The rest is up to the GM. They figure out the difficulty for YOUR character and tell you what approach(es) you can use.
A brain surgeon could probably figure out how to take a blood pressure. They could figure out an EKG machine if the instructions were on paper or on screen. So Blood Pressure is set at Mediocre, EKG at Average or so. Brain Surgery is set at one of the upper middle tiers. (Honestly Brain Surgeon would be “Level 1.”) Brain Surgery is no joke, even for a trained surgeon. Mike the Barbarian has no chance of successfully doing it. But he could fumble his way through a Blood Pressure which for him might be Average or higher. EKG is pretty unlikely for him, but possible. Successful brain surgery? The GM could simply tell him the chance is zero OR let him do it and watch the patient die as soon as he makes the first cut.
*Brain Surgeon would NOT be Level 1.