Recently tried out the FATE character creation system with my regular play group. Lands of Nadurea is my homebrew setting for a historical/fantasy Classical era D&D campaign I've run off-and-on for the past year. The
FATE of Dominia campaign would be centered around highly restrictive anti-arcane theocracy Dominia, formerly the home of an ancient Magical Empire, and it's neighbors.
The major games that influenced my FATE customization were Spirit of the Century for it's refined version 3 mechanics and D&D for material to be converted. SotC was off genre and too powerful for the characters I wanted. FATE 2.0 being generic and elementary made it easy to modify for the kind of game I wanted. PC's would start with 5 aspects and 20 skill points, with any desired stunts to be constructed from excess points a la Extras.
My players cover a wide range of gaming types: Phil is a min-max power gamer with decent role playing talents; Nicole is more narrativist like myself but is rules savvy too; Kim is a casual gamer that focuses on character portrayal, relying on rules help from her husband Chad -- whom is a true optimizer specializing in thief types. Character creation would be a round-robin story telling session aspect per life event, phase by phase. I told them to jot down some skills they may have picked up during each life event, but not to worry about point assignment until the end.
Phase 1 Childhood
First up was Chad. Being a GM himself, I figured he'd come up with a concept easiest. He chose to be a merchant's son living in brisk trade port city far from the capital. At this point in the nations history, pagan immigrants were being force out to avoid "cultural contamination", young Suefus lost many friends and his father many business contacts in the expulsion. The family moved south to the motherland of the refuges in protest and to preserve their partnerships. Chad took the aspect
Worldly.
Kim chose to be an Elf girl from Dominia's fertile but war torn northern neighbor. Being an elf, I had to look further back in history as her phases covered 50 years where Chad's human phases were roughly 10. Fieledra witnessed a peace movement arise during the build up to another feud and joined it. One side took advantage and started the war, while the other side decried the pacificists disloyal and the movement was quashed. Many of her old friends grew into loyalists forsaking their adolescent beliefs and breaking the elf's heart. Kim took
"Men have pretty words they don’t Stand By" aspect to show her disillusionment with Humans.
Elves and other demi-humans I decided to model with Intrinsic extra that cost skill points. Elves cost 8 out of their 20 point pool, costly at first glance but balanced when you factor the bonuses they get: Immune to sleep, well trained in weapons, etc. Actually, given the elf's background in pacifism, I may let her trade in her martial training for more skill points. This is the type of flexibility I enjoy with FATE 2.0.
Nicole's character Seffie was a peasant from Dominia's war border with savage lizardfolk from the southern swamps. Her father was conscripted into the war and executed when trying to desert to return to his family. Her older brother volunteered to restore family honor. They sent only father's broken spear to her grief stricken mother, his body left to rot, but Seffie was more ashamed of him than sad. Still the constant upsetting of her family led the girl to become
"Edgy".
Jorvon was a half orc orphan Phil created, raised by the church. Ostracized by other children, many of which lost their parents to Orc pirates, he later learned that his father --moved by love of a woman-- betrayed his orc brothers to defend a village. He died there with his lover, but the few survivors remembered his sacrifice. Jorvon promises to honor his parents by learning to become a
Champion of the Weak.
This finishes the first aspect of childhood. The second was a continuation of similar themes. Suefus returned to his birthplace to suffer extreme culture shock, having adopted many of the ways of the foreigners expelled. His Uncle Lucis took over the family business here and helped his nephew adjust by teaching him how business is done in Dominia.
"Mentor: Uncle Lucis" became his second aspect. Fieledra began wandering after losing many of her friends to old age. She learned much of the cultures surrounding her homeland, took the
Worldly aspect also. Seffie began playing at soldier and was noticed when the corpse of her brother was returned to the family. The girl was conscripted but her mother threatened suicide if another loved one was taken by the war. Seffie said she was no coward like her father was, leading her mother to disown her. Nicole's exact in character quote was
"Cowardice is the Greatest Sin", new aspect. Jorvon showed a talent for empathy and was inducted into the clergy, he took the aspect
Blessed of Rydan to receive the beginnings of clerical magic training.
Phase 2 Professional Initiation
Raiders beset the trade routes Suefus traveled for his uncle. They lost good merchandise until more guards were hired. Chad's character though not a natural fighter was forced pick up some tricks from the guardsmen he spent months traveling with. His third aspect
Scrappy reflects this.
Fieledra traveled east to the cosmopolitan Holy City of Pelass, center for learning. There she found much of the discourse in esoterics that she'd hungered for in her rural upbringing. Unsure of what to train into, Kim took the option traditionally chosen by the casual game: Bard. To reflect her diverse learning and model a bardic ability, she chose as an aspect
"Knowledge is Power."
Seffie was sent to the swamp front to fight the savages. I took this time to use the organizational stats I'd done for the church of Dominia and the lizard clans forces to see how it turned out. It was brought up that this was similar to life paths in Traveller where one could die in character creation. Never having played it, I always thought that was a cool feature -- still being five hours into the session a loss would be a shame. Maybe a maiming would be more apt. Moot point, Dominia won in the single roll by 1 shift. A costly battle that halted the lizard advance and established a new outpost along the border called Crucible. Nicole chose the aspect
Veteran of Crucible, which can be invoked to understand swamps and their threats or fame amongst soldiers and compelled to resurface grim memories of battles.
Jorvon struggled against his inherent ... difficulty in academics that half orcs are known for but was assisted by a NPC superior Brother named Haegan whom was himself of orcish heritage. By purchasing only a few half orc extra bonuses, I was able to create a "Quarter Orc" character. Phil's roll was assisted my the mentor to determine how well he handled his trials, resulting in 3 positive shifts. Jorvon was now ordained as an acolyte. To reflect the cooperation he benefited from he took the aspect
"Two heads is better than One".
Tie-in Phases 2.5 and 3
At this point, the players would link their characters through shared adventuring. Partnering was simple with two couple at the table. Chad and Kim's Suefus and Fieledra sought to explore the ruins of the ancient Arcane Empire that Dominia cleansed of magic a millennia before. They rolled skills against the quality of Dominia's home guard and where able to find a minor scroll that sold well. For aspects, Chad chose
"No Risks No Gains" and Kim
"Tall Tales to Tell", her magical training began here. Phil and Nicole's PC met in Crucible. Jorvon was posted their as healer for the big push the army was launching to secure Crucible's territory. Seffie was a Centurion here. Rolls made gave an even victory: the border was re-established at a great cost in life. Jorvon took
"Hold the Line!" as his fourth aspect. Seffie was greatly traumatized by losing so many peers that had become like her new family. Nicole chose
Weight of the Fallen for number 4.
Phase 3 began with an adventure with Fieledra partnered with Seffie and Suefus with Jorvon. The Centurioness saved the Bard from a lynching for telling profane tales and escorted her in her travels. Kim took
Bard's Luck to show this. They played out the rest of this like a chick flick with lots of character exposition over a debate of the necessity of war versus the virtues of peace. Seffie see the futility of war and it's wastefulness, Nicole took
Faithless aspect. Suefus while trying to establish trade routes to Crucible met Jorvon and a deal was struck. They became involved with a gnome heist of church wealth. In my setting, Gnomes being innately arcane casters and agents of magical innovation are harshly oppressed. When they caught up with the thieves, after a brief scuffle (gnome beat by several shifts) the two brokered a surrender and got back the stolen riches.
"Let's not resort to Violence" was Phil's choice, Chad chose
"Have I got a Deal for You".
At this point, I explained the pyramid to them and skill points were assigned. Magic I planned to handle with a separate pyramid for spell slots bought like skills with each level representing a level of spell Average being level zero. With 20 skill points for Jorvon and 12 for Fieledra having those expensive elf traits it was hard for them to divide them between mundane skills and magic.
Phase 3.5
I decided to give another aspect and four skill points to close their third phase. We were all storied out by now (7 hours in) so they just chose one to round themselves out: Suefus
"North is thata Way."; Fieldra
Center of Attention; Seffie
Captain of the Home guard; Jorvon
"What doesn’t kill me makes me Stronger".
The extra skill points helped but I decided I wanted magic a bit more valuable. I made level one spells average pyramid level and allow a certain amount of cantrip/orison per scene based on total phases, effectively giving them another whole spell level. We'll see what comes of it. I still have another player that was absent last week.
All in all, despite not getting a full adventure session going that night they liked character creation as much as they did gaming in other systems. I attribute this to their being creative rather than looking up rules and pouring over a multitude of options present in other games.
They cant wait to actually play these
heroes.
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