(Actual play) Post apocalyptic FATE, or the search for area 51

[Sensorium]

Well, I finally got a campaign going, and we're two sessions in so I have enough material to start the actual play thread.

The Setting: It's a North American, post apocalyptic setting of my own concoction set 100 years from now. The time line goes something like this.

2025: Sudden climate change makes farming conventional crops problematic in most areas.

2030: tropical diseases appear throughout America.

2040: Genetically engineered crops and life forms help feed America, but the genetic engineers can't keep up with the quickly altering climate.

2045: tropical diseases and famine have begun to take large toll on population. Coasts abandoned due to rising sea level.

2055: First states, then cities on west coast secede from union so as not to be under resource sharing laws.

2060: Scientific endeavor has slowed to a crawl due to diversion of funding to basic survival. However, technology has progressed radically in the previous years, resulting in wide spread genetic engineering of humans and animals for cosmetic and functional purposes, mind machine interface and cybernetics, limited nano technology and semi-intelligent computers.

2075: Super drought hits America leading to further lose of social structure. year credited as "end of world as we know it." Sea level drops, but remains above year 2000 levels.
Area 51 reported as being bastion of technology in possession of high-tech weaponry, super efficient solar powered water and food synthesizers and other marvels.
A band of 112 people leave the city state of Reno and head west seeking a wetter home.

2076-2105: The band from Reno colonize the recently de-oceaned city of San Francisco(SF) calling them selves Citizens tribe.
Semi-intelligent computer organizer for SF awakens from dormancy due to re-exposed solar cells and has its drones replant the super hardy orchards that helped feed SF before it was submerged.
Humanoids with scabrous, reddish brown skin and predatory tendencies begin to be spotted on the south side of SF, steadily increasing their numbers up until 2105.

This brings us up to the time and place of the player characters (PCs). The PCs are members of Citizens tribe, which by 2105 has been whittled from its peak number of 150 people down to about 60. This is primarily due to starvation, competition with other tribes and predation by the scabrous skinned humanoids who are generally referred to as "demons"due to their appearance. Citizens tribe lives in the remains of a mall. Their primary food source is the city maintained orchards in and around the mall and some hunting of animals. The tribe's access to technology is varied. High technology can still be found in use, but it can no longer be manufactured or repaired. Shoddy guns can be made using a make shift forge and scrap metal.

The Campaign Setup: Citizens tribe's elected officials, the council, have decided that the tribe cannot withstand the increasing number of demons in the area and the subsequent casualties. The tribe may have to move out of the city eventually, but that would be very dangerous as well, leaving a ready food source and entering unknown territory filled with genetically engineered creatures and other futuristic madness. So the council is going to have a group of tribes persons trek all the way back to Reno to look for technology that can help save the tribe. If Reno turns out to have been abandoned, and all the tech taken, then the goal is to find area 51 and get the tech from there.

Doesn't sound smart or likely does it? Guess what, its not quite the truth of the matter either, so hang on until the punch line before you judge.

The Players and Characters:

How character creation works with FATE is you pick a defining characteristic of your character concept (called an aspect) and four skill points for every aspect. What aspects let you do in terms of dice mechanics is let your character reroll or add a bonus to a roll related to that aspect. Skills should be fairly obvious, but for anyone who wants more info about FATE I highly recommend downloading it for free at www.faterpg.com.

For my game each character picked five aspects with skill points attached and three "free aspects" with no skill points attached that are supposed to help develop the characters personality.

There was one other rule for character creation. The law of conservation of mass and energy is to be applied to characters, unless there is a supernatural ability involved. Meaning no hidden nanotech armor that can cover your body at will and should weigh 200 pounds, but doesn't weigh anything when it isn't engaged.

I have three players, Allan, Christin and Jake.

Allan's Character: Miguel Hueveros

Aspects:
Tiger School(martial art) 2
Cyborg 1
Techie 1
Survivor 1

Free aspects:
Loner(out cast) 1
Hispanic 1
Composed(martial arts focus) 1

Skills:
martial arts 4
Firearms 3
Computers 1
Repair 2
Modify 2
Cybernetic Limbs 3
Solar collector 1
Alloy Skeleton 1
Animal/Monster Lore 2
Wilderness survival 1
Awareness 1

Description: In Character: A young man who has wandered the SF area for most of his life. He has undergone cybernetic augmentation at some point in his life, though one shudders to think of the conditions the procedure(s) was(were) performed under.
His legs and arms have been replaced, along with some skeleton reenforcement. His cyber limbs are actually driven by synthetic muscle that is still power in the same way as normal muscle. As well he has a solar powered generator that makes sugar out of water and CO2 which helps power his demanding synthetic muscles.

Miguel is a recent addition to Citizen tribe and he still isn't a fully excepted member, but his valuable technical skills and cybernetics are to good for the tribe to pass up.

OOC: Miguel's most defining characteristic at this point is the ability to beat the living crud out of most things that don't have armor plating or guns. he spent a lot of skill points on his cybernetics and martial arts and as far as I'm concerned he's earned the right to be a kung-fu (or tiger school in this case) fighting machine when compared to a normal human.

Jakes Character: Darin

Aspects:
Hybrid form 1
Stalker 2
Speed 1
Stealth 1
Back attack 1

Free Aspects:
Smart 1
Determined 1
Bragger 1

Skills:
Stealth 4
Tumble 3
Hybrid form 1
Tracking 2
Knife 3
Preform Auditory 1
Heal wounds 1
Profession(hunter) 1
Two knife fight 2
Back attack 2

Description: IC:Darin, when he was young, was taken by one of the semi-intelligent computer's drones. He was later returned to his tribe with a few rough, oval patches of skin like that of the demons possess. When he willed it the patches of skin would expand over his body and make in look like one of the demons.

Eventually Darin left his tribe and became a bounty hunter of sorts for other tribes, hunting demons in exchange for food or equipment. He is naturally suited to his line of work because the demons can't tell that he isn't just another demon when he has his second skin up, not to mention that it provides a small amount of protection.

Darin has been trying to associate himself with Citizen tribe for a time, but like Miguel has not been accepted yet and isn't as likely to be as Miguel given the appearance of his second form.

OCC: It's odd, when I think of Miguel I don't' think of his crushing, cybernetic martial arts moves first, I think of him being an out cast techie who happens to be able to do that stuff. When I think of Darin, however, he appears squarely behind something freshly killed, knives in hand. The irony is, Miguel has gotten most of the kills so far because he really did spend more points on upfront combat. Darin has to be attacking from behind with two knives to be as effective as Miguel. Jake is still enjoying his character though, tracking has come in real handy and it is not that difficult for him to get behind people with that stealth skill.

I'll finish up christina's character and the first session next time hopefully.

[dbisdorf]

I notice you moved away from using adjective descriptors for ratings (Good, Great, Superb) and used numbers instead. How has that worked for you? Have you used adjectives before and didn't like them? Just curious ...

[Sensorium]

Thank you for asking dbisdorf.

Their are several reasons I'm not using adjectives heavily for my game. one reason is book keeping, it's just easier for me to write a number than a word, and the number is what I need for die rolls anyway.

The second reason is I would soon be running out of adjectives. I've altered combat in some respects so that a character using a modern weapon like a rifle that they are at least competent with will have a chance of getting a 12 or higher.

Modern ballistic weapons get two numbers. One number is added straight to the character's attack roll (pistol, good, 2), the other number is a multiplier applied to the result of the attack roll (pistol, good, 2, X2). Let's postulate that Freddy the gunman is shooting at Greg the barbarian. Freddy's a good(+2) shot with a pistol and his pistol is a fair(+1) make. Freddy needs a fair shot(+1) to hit Greg, who is charging him, and Freddy rolls a +1, which means he is performing just above his average and means a final roll of +4 on the ladder. Freddy has beaten the target number by 3, which would normally garner a hurt result, but with the X2 gets an injured. Now, if Freddy had been lucky and rolled a +4 that would have added 3 to his MoS and translated into a 12 on the ladder with the X2, and a shot to Greg's head. Weapons like bazookas get times three to the MoS. The point of the rule is to simulate weapons that aren't massively more accurate than say, melee weapons would be at close range, but are massively more damaging.

Any comment on this rule would be appreciated.

[dbisdorf]

I have the same problem with running out of adjectives. When I have characters who are Good or Great in certain skills, that leads to a fair amount of rolls going off the adjective scale. So we wind up saying "Superb+1" or "Superb+2" a lot, which has always seemed kind of kludgy to me.

A multiplier to the MoS certainly seems like a good quick way to make combat more deadly. However, in your example, did you omit to add in the modifier for the pistol's accuracy? Freddy was a great shot (3) with a good pistol (2) and rolled a +1 ... shouldn't that give a final result of 6? Which would have been a MoS of +5 over the target number (1), giving 10 points of damage and a kill shot?

Do you actually have pistols that give a +2 accuracy modifier? That's a pretty substantial bonus in Fudge ...

[Sensorium]

I'm Sorry I didn't mention this before, but one of the confusing things about using numbers instead of adjectives is that when keeping track of skills it takes one skill point to get you to an average unmodified roll so my natural impulse was to write.

skillname 1

To represent that there is one skill point there, but this leads to confusion when you're thinking about what number to add to you're skill roll because you have to subtract one from the number listed.

I think to take care of this I will write skills like this.

Skillname 3 (+2)

The first number to keep track of skill points, the second to keep track of bonuses to die rolls.

Though you are right that I did mix up the example in my last post. I said the pistol was (good), which would be a +2 bonus, when I wanted to say a +1 bonus but got confused with the skill point book keeping system.

I will go back and edit out the confusion.

[Sensorium]

Christina's Character: Melindah

Aspects:
Fast 2
Elemental 2
Sub-telepath 1

Free aspects:
Non Yet.

Skills, needs revision and will be changed:
Archery 3
Fletchery 1
Sprint 2
Wind powers 4
Empathy/insight 3
Charming 1
Set/craft trap 2
Awareness 2
Distress awareness 1
Agility 2

Description IC: Melindah has been protecting Citizen tribe with her strange abilities for many years even though she is only in her early twenties. No one in the tribe, her included, knows why she has the ability to manipulate the wind and to find those in danger. She was not taken by the city computer and there are no notable inheritable genetic alterations that run in her family.

OOC: OK class, who can spot the one that isn't the same. Thats right, I have a super hero PC. I was prepared for players wanting the supernatural as an element in the game, so I'm OK with this. The only thing I have to do is sit down with her at the next game and rework her wind powers skill into a stunt system that limits the number of times per-scene she can use it to do something major, like send someone flying across a room.

Christina is new to RPing and is trying to get a handle on how to play. FATE, although rules light, might not be the best thing to start her playing with because of the free form character generation and development. I think she will get the hang of it once she sees how Allan and Jake handle themselves some more. It also helps that Allan is Christina's wife and helps her out between sessions.

First Session:

The council of Citizen tribe has called for a meeting of the tribe in in the place that they have used for such purposes since their arrival in San Fransisco 24 years ago, the ancient rotunda of the mall that the tribe calls home. Rumor has it that they have decided on a course of action to counter the demons, which have increased in number and boldness recently, even daring to attack the mall once by night.

The tribes persons, mostly original style humans, but peppered with interesting specimens, from gene modified anthropomorphs to the very rare ones with minor cybernetics, gather and mill about on the sand covered floor of the rotunda. The sand a remnant of the previously higher sea level.

The council lines one of the second floor balconies in a semi-circle. Old Griscom, the figurehead leader of the council, sits in the center of the semi-circle a few chairs away from his namesake, and grandson, Young Griscom.

Old Griscom stands along with the other council members, his medium length, white hair framing his aging Caucasian face and aquiline nose. He says "Our government comes to order now, here in the place we have held sacred from the beginning. So we began, so shall we continue." All the council members sit. Young Griscom all the while has had a small smirkish smile on his face, turned to a dead, grayed sheen by the heavy metals his body shunts to his skin to protect him from UV.

Old Griscom continues speaking once all the council members are seated "We the council have decided that, as a tribe, we cannot withstand the loses we have been suffering from the new predators that have come to the city. They have killed and maimed too many already, but we will not allow this to continue.
The council has concluded that the only answer is to send a party of our people to look for a place our parents told us held power and might from the past age, Area 51. Hopefully power still resides there, power that can be returned here to help us turn the tide of survival in our favor."

A person in the crowd yells up to the council "How will the people be picked for this party?!"

Old Griscom replies "Volunteers will be accepted , but Young Griscom will be in charge of assembling the necessary people who do not offer their service.
Young Griscom, speak now of who you have selected."

Young Griscom Rises and addresses the crowd "Only those necessary to complete such a journey, and those the tribe can spare have been selected to go. Those who have been selected will be gathered by agents set to the task."

Old Griscom asks those gathered if there is anything more to be addressed. Miguel Yells back up "I have explosive Diarrhea and can't go." Old Griscom Yells back " Miguel, you should take these proceeding with a bit more gravity I suggest." OOC: I really did ask him if he wanted to say that and he said yes. IC: Old Griscom and the other members of the council leave the rotunda and the crowd begins to disperse. Miguel and Darin are talking when one of Young Griscom's "agents" approaches them and says:

Agent: You two, come with me, you have been selected to be in the party sent to find Area 51.

Darin and Miguel ask and find out that if someone who has been selected doesn't go they will be forced out of the tribe. They go with the “agent” and are taken to a smaller side room off of the rotunda where the initial selectees are being taken to be accounted for. Darin and Miguel notice that the truly best hunters in the tribe are here, roughly five people, and that the rest are some of the weakest and least skilled adults from the tribe. Melindah, a mutual friend of both Miguel and Darin is also there. The party gathered in the room number about 15 to 20.

Old Griscom enters the room, approaches Miguel and Darin and greets them. Before Old Griscom can get to what he came to talk to them about, however, Miguel asks what’s up with all the weak people, not suited to such endeavors, being sent with this party. Old Griscom tells them that Young Griscom is using this mission as an excuse to get rid of the tribes weak, while at the same time increasing his chances of taking control of the tribe by sending the best and most respected hunters, who would have been competition for leadership, on the mission. Old Griscom has lost much of his former sway with the council and is powerless to alter their minds, but he has come here to offer some advice to Miguel, who he thinks is the best chance the mission has for success.

Old Griscom tells them about several other tribes in San Fransisco That might lend people or equipment to the mission because they are being attacked by the demons as well. Among the most interesting tribes he mentions are a small band of all viral medics ( viral medics are people infected with a genetically engineered virus that lives in, and alters, their brains, giving comprehensive medical knowledge. The virus also gives an endorphin reward for using that knowledge that can become addictive. people with the virus are marked by a red cross, covering a red bio-hazard trefoil on their foreheads. The virus is nontransmisable except by direct contact with brain matter ) and a particularly hard hit group of genetically engineered humans that call themselves the primals (The primals altered themselves before the collapse of society. They gave themselves increased strength, size and intelligence, but to provide for all the increased ability they need more protein, and they progressively lose emotional stability without enough). They have three days to get anyone they can from these other tribes before the party is to leave.

Miguel and Darin decide to leave immediately and that the viral medics should be the first ones they approach. They grab Melindah, fill her in and head out.

OOC: Christina was late and only arrived as Miguel and Darin were leaving.

IC: The PCs were told by Old Griscom that the viral medics have wandered the south end of the city for many years, though they are being driven farther north by the increasing demon population coming from the south. So the PCs head south, hoofing it over the sand covered streets and managing to get to the South side with no interference, but they still have a lot of ground to cover to find the viral medics (VMs). Suddenly Melindah's psychic ability kicks in and in a vision, as disembodied viewer, she sees a brown robed man run into an alley, chased by a lone demon. She also gets a sense of the direction the place she's just seen lies in.

OOC: This how Christina specifically described the power working. She sees the person in danger and gets an idea of the direction, thats it.

IC: Melindah tells Miguel and Darin what up and all three of our Heroes are off. They quickly find the alley that the man and the demon ran into, though there is no one there now, just a door in the side of the alley swinging open in the mild wind.

OOC: This is about a fourth of the way through the first session and where I will pick up next time.

[Sensorium]

Inside the open doorway is a darkened stairwell that leads both up and down. The sound of pounding feet can be heard coming from the darkness below. The party continue their chase after the demon down into the dark, with only the light from the open doorway above them to see by. A few landings down they can see the demon standing over a prostrate figure who is almost certainly the man it was chasing before.

Miguel does a jump kick at the demon from the top of the stair above the landing where the demon and the man are standing, knocking it into the back wall of the well. Darin is close behind him, stabbing the demon once before it pulls away into the corner next to the stair leading up. Melindah launches an arrow at the demon, but misses in the darkness and moves in closer. The demon and the party wait for a moment, the demon holding in the corner waiting to be attacked, party waiting for it to a make a move. The demon blinks first, running at Melindah, trying to get by her, but Melindah sends a blast of wind at it that knocks it flat. Miguel and Darin quickly kill the the demon after that with fist and knife blows while it's on the floor and can't retaliate.

The man the demon was chasing has been huddled on the other side of the landing during the short fight. The party turn to him now and see in the dim light that he is a viral medic. They ask to be taken to the rest of his tribe, he asks how he can know that they wont kill his tribe as they just killed the demon so easily. They give him the lowdown on the mission, and reasonable convinced that the party aren't mass murderers, he takes them to the rest of his tribe.

The VMs move frequently and mostly live out of old nylon tents and in whatever buildings they have chosen to be near when they stop for a time. The PCs arrive with the VM they saved and are taken to the leader of the VMs, who isn't really a leader, but is just older and more respected by everyone than the other VMs. When the party ask about having one of the VMs come on the mission the head VM tells them that there is someone who could go, and directs them to a small shabby tent with a tall, shabby, dirty bronze haired man in it. The head VM says the tall man's name is Haldane and that he can be sent on this mission, to which Haldane only reacts by increasing his sad look that says " I don't know what I did to the universe, so I wish it would stop taking it out on me." The head VM Explains the situation to Haldane and forcefully asks him if he will go on the mission. Haldane only nods and starts gathering his things.

[Sensorium]

Just clearing things up about my firearms rules. I don't think I stated them correctly before.

I am basically using the simple weapons system with a multiplier at the end.

A pistol looks like this

Pistol, +2, x2.

You roll with your appropriate weapons skill, and only if you beat the target number to hit the target do you add the +2. Then, with the +2 added in, you multiply the margin that you beat the target number with by 2.

[Sensorium]

Wow... This brings back memories.

This was the point in my life where I really started to get down with just making up whatever I felt like for games.

I have to say that I was not the best GM, but what I lacked in plots that made sense and characterization I hope I made up for in shear bizzaro wierdness, sheep themed insane AIs, and mutant semi-villains who resemble a cross between Scorpious and the Professor from Futurama.