Fate Core Sneak Peek: Wild Blue

Hi Folks, as the Fate Core Kickstarter has closed with a triumphant finish, we want to give everyone who isn’t already a backer a sneak peek at the Fate Worlds Wild Blue setting

From Bulldogs! co-author Brian Engard comes this setting of six-guns and superpowers, monsters and outlaws and keeping the peace on the frontier. It’s a dangerous world out there, but opportunities abound in the Blue Lands for those willing to help themselves:

Lemme Tell You How We Got Here . . .

Most don’t remember how we got here or where we came from. Hell, it’s only been a few generations but it seems like people got pretty short memories. Maybe they just got more pressing concerns. Folks got stories though.

What the history books say is that we fled a great vast empire who wanted to stamp us out because we recognize the Sun as giver of life and ruler of all creation. Heretics, they called us. We weren’t having any of that so we up and left, sailed the great blue seas until we found this place. We settled it and we prospered.

I ain’t entirely convinced that that’s the whole story though. This land is just a little too rich in magic, in resources, in valuable and wondrous things for our arrival here to be an accident. We may have fled that empire, and it may have had something to do with our faith, but I think wealth had something to do with it too.

Whatever the case, we’re here. There were people here when we got here, though I don’t rightly know that people is the right word. They call themselves the Folk, and they sure as hell ain’t human. They come in all shapes and sizes, some pleasing and some downright monstrous, and they’re steeped in the magic of the land like a sponge that’s been sitting in water for a spell.

They did not welcome us with open arms. – Whitehorse

Character Creation

Character creation in Wild Blue follows the same steps as character creation in Fate Core: you choose your aspects, select your skills, and take some stunts. There are two additional steps that you go through as well: choosing your gear and choosing your gift.

Gifts and Costs

Like Whitehorse said, this is where we get to it: the good stuff. Wild Blue is a wild west fantasy, but it’s also a game about super-heroes and super-villains, and about power with strings attached.

You play a Warden in this game, and every Warden is also a Power: one of those people born with supernatural gifts that set them apart from everyone else. Some people fear you, some hate you. Some worship you the way a modern person sometimes worships a celebrity or an athlete, but more so. You see, in addition to being powerful and flashy and super-cool, you also keep them safe. You watch over them, protect them from criminals, bandits, pirates, monsters, wild Powers, and the Crimson Council. You’re a hero.

The thing that cements your role as a hero is your gift, your super-power. Every Power has exactly one of these (there are rumors about Powers born with more than one gift, but those are just rumors, right?), and every gift comes with an associated cost. When you create your gift and your cost, you’ll fill out a part of your character sheet that looks like this:

I have the power to _____________________ . . . but ____________________

Where it says “I have the power to”, what you’re filling in there is your gift. This is the superhuman ability that sets you apart from the rest of the population, the thing that you can do and nobody else can. Some Powers might have gifts similar to yours, but nobody else has your gift. The way you make this true is by phrasing it in a way that makes your gift unique. Sure, others can fly, but only you fly on wings of light or walk on the air as if it were solid. Treat this a bit like an aspect (because it is, in some ways), but feel free to make it an aspect that you’ll invoke a lot more than the GM compels it.

Where it says “. . . but”, that’s where you put your gift’s cost. Every gift has a cost, and the cost must be roughly equal in potency to the gift. They do not, however, have to be directly linked. You can have a gift and a cost that have nothing to do with each other. Maybe one person can fly on wings of light . . . but only in the light of the sun, while another person can walk on air as if it were solid . . . but cannot say something that is not true. Both approaches are fine, as long as both gift and cost are likely to come up with the same level of frequency.

But what do they do? I’m glad you asked. A gift . . .

• Provides justification for fictional actions.
• Provides two stunts worth of benefit.
• Can be invoked as if it were an aspect.
• Gets better with time and experience.

A cost . . .

• Provides justification for fictional actions.
• Provides context and limitation for your gift.
• Can be compelled as if it were an aspect.

Let’s tackle these one by one…