LongCon 2024

Posted on July 2, 2024 by First Age

It has been a joy to bring back LongCon, a convention formatted for tabletop roleplaying games that last the full weekend. We have just had a great weekend with games that have had the room to breathe, exploring a full mini-campaign all in one weekend. It’s like being a student again!

The most important preparation for the event was to consider how such a format will work for the GMs and players. After an open process of consultation, I came up with some guide lines for the event: https://longcon.ttrpg.uk/index.php/about/

Essentially, the event forms over a period, with open game pitches and a player selection process that seeks to establish workable groups for the full weekend. This is critical for an event where you will be with the same group throughout. The process as written is probably over specified, but it seeks to address many of the possible concerns about the format.

The games seemed to go well, and we have had good feedback and enthusiasm from this year’s attendees to do it again. So, we will!   More information on the LongCon website and our Discord. https://longcon.ttrpg.uk/

I played in Dom’s Stealer of Souls / Black Sword classic double adventure using the Tripod system as the rules. The game was great fun, and Dom  sustained the pace perfectly for the weekend. The tripod rules worked a treat, providing support for scaling the mundane to the sorcerous heights, and gave us high impact conflicts that were resolved in a couple of dice rolls.

Maybe I’ll offer something next year?

Here are our groups for 2024.

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State of Play – June 2024

Posted on July 2, 2024 by First Age

With the first half of 2024 in the rear view mirror, I thought I’d take a peek as to how my own ttrpg play is going.

 81 sessions.

As is customary there are a few stand out campaign games, with a swathe of one-shot fun, thanks to my convention attendances.

My online streamed game of Mongoose Traveller 2e – ‘The Borderland Run’ has been a continuous joy, with the first story arc reaching a conclusion in a few weeks, but with a new arc to follow, heading into the Pirates of Drinax Though fortnightly, it has run consistently, and I do what I can to prioritise my Sunday early evening to get to play. It’ll go down as one of my classic games and a delight to play. 

Trudvang setting, Dragonbane rules has been a core part of my GMing this year, and I have greatly enjoyed the combination. I have a lovely group, sized well to accommodate a couple of players who have been busy and not able to attend so consistently. I had hoped to stream the game, but one player doesn’t want to be live streamed (and fair enough), so I am private streaming the game to finesse the technology and get the volumes right. I hope the game continues to entertain as we head into the depths of Snowsaga.

Dom’s ‘Achtung Cthulhu’ continues with a breadcrumb trail of clues and encounters, as our heroes uncover Nazi meddling with things what should be left alone. I like this iteration of 2D20, which covers the action very well. It’s interesting that the group dynamic has encouraged me to take a more backseat and supportive role. Although I am being swept along, I am enjoying others play, and intrigued to see how it builds to an inevitable ending.

And thanks to Dom for using Tripod for the Longcon ‘Stormbringer’ mini campaign. It was great to play with this light and flexible game again, and so encouraging to see it effortlessly handle the scale of the conflicts, mesh in the powers of Chaos and Law, and resolve the intensity with exciting outcomes that resolve in a couple of dice rolls. Using Tripod helped us to enjoy the majority of the two pack scenario, and be well timed for a late afternoon ending on the Sunday.

I expect the doughnut will expand a little with different systems in the second half, with my top three growing in session numbers. As Age of Arthur wanders into early playtest, it should make an appearance in some measure. I sense either Shadow of the weird Wizard or Symbaroum may make some in-roads, but I am expecting to be surprised by what emerges. I will stream a mini campaign of something this year.

This is the most gaming in six months I have done, possibly ever. High quality too. Such is the way of retirement, desire, and a gaming community of great GMs filled with play opportunities.

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A Return to Role VTT and Streaming Settings

Posted on June 19, 2024 by First Age

With Role VTT bringing back cameras, and making some progress on their integration with Owlbear Rodeo, for maps and tokens, I have made a return to use the platform in my own gaming.  There is now a subscription for the service, which is long overdue, and it is generous of them to offer a full year credit for backers. Role is now supported by just the two original creators, without any sort of team to back them up. I think it is likely that any development on the platform will necessarily be at a glacial pace, which is a shame, as it is a solid framework that could push forward to be a really compelling place to game.

As it is, one of the key features of the VTT is the capability to get a system up and running on it in a couple of hours, to get into a game as quickly as possible. Paul and I will be working on Age of Arthur 2nd edition, something i’ll talk about much more in other posts and places. Getting a workable sheet in Role to run the game, took about an hour. Most of the time will be spent getting some attractive assets into the ‘Room’ and working out how to manage them.

Here’s an early screenshot of the room:

The beginnings of a Role VTT Room

It’s been interesting re-acquainting myself with Role after a lengthy (and continuing) sojourn over to Foundry VTT. Foundry has a powerful and flexible journal system that enables the presentation of many assets onto a canvas at the same time. The journal system also has folders, enabling a tidy way to manage lots of assets.

I think the best way of displaying several assets at the same time is to create them as graphical tokens and place them onto a map (which provides more control over size) or a displayed image. Above is an example of what I’m doing. The NPC is presented as a card (actually a token) on top of a shared image. I can then create many cards and display them as we are playing.

Another thing that I will need to get used to (again) is that in Foundry everyone has their own view of the canvas and the position of their webcams. In Role, it is very much a shared space with a common view, like a real table. So, anything placed as a token can be moved by anyone. It really is like people picking up paper assets at a table. It’s fine, just a different mode of being.

OBS Input Audio Filters

My first streamed game was, largely, a success, and I think captured the fun of the session fairly well. It was a delight to have a number of the Dungeon Muser’s roster of players together with me for a game, including the Muser himself as a player. One enduring disappointment was my microphone volume, which is lower than the other participants, even though it doesn’t sound that way when actually playing live.

Some judicious YouTube surfing has found me a very good tutor for OBS settings. I am now running with a number of Input and Output filters, including ‘Gain’, which digitally boosts my volume. And yes, I really do think I have to turn myself up to 11, or at least by 11!

To afford me some more screen real estate, I am going to try and stream in 1440p 2k. This gives a better screen definition than trying to do the same thing by applying a zoom on the browser window itself. It does require me to have at least 6mb/s upload speed, and I can just about manage that (oh why can I not have full fibre!).  

I run a fortnightly game on Foundry. To check my settings, I am going to stream the regular game but to a private channel, as I have a player that does not want to be streamed. This will afford me a chance to test the settings, and my mic volume in particular. 

There is some enthusiasm for me to run some more D&D4e. I would stream that but using Foundry, as there is a very good system on there for that, including all the monsters. My OBS settings  don’t need to change. Perhaps I can squeeze that into the streaming schedule too?

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RPG Actual Play – a YouTube Streaming Test

Posted on June 13, 2024 by First Age

I’m not a big watcher of live stream RPGs, but I do participate in a channel full of great games that are routinely streamed. The Dungeon Musings channel is an unpretentious ‘fourth wall’ channel, of gamers simply playing lots of games from back in the day and today (to coin a phrase). There’s no editing, and although the sessions are quite disciplined and well prepared, they also reflect incidental chat and mid session breaks. It’s been a real boon to my gaming to be involved.

Although not a prodigious consumer, I thought I’d try running some streamed games. I have managed one in the past, but not since moving to Linux, nor with Foundry as the VTT. In some ways the VTT is irrelevant as OBS is just pointed to a window on your system. As it happens, I’ll be running a Dragonbane game set in Trudvang, with players taken from the Dungeon Musing’s roster, including Kevin himself. No pressure then!

The basics can be setup quite quickly, but getting the screen to record well, and working out my own sound has been a pain. My voice input is at +350 milliseconds to get good synchronisation with the video. That took a lot of trial and error. Working out the optimal window screen resolution to record at also took some working out. In the end, good old FHD 1920×1080 seems to be the best for legible handouts, though I have gone for -90% on the browser window to enable me to squeeze a bit more in to the window. Maybe if I ever get full fibre to my house, will I be able to up the resolution.

I have ‘quiet’ mic input issues. This seems to be mitigated by having the output going through my earbuds from the Bluetooth speakers, which makes little sense to me.  I’ve increased my sound in OBS to +110%. On a test my voice is clear, but it may prove to be something else to keep an eye on, when I only have so many eyes. 

OBS running in Fedora Workstation

I’ve put a bit extra in for the game itself to make sure that it runs smoothly, and gives a good experience for the players. The adventure is simple and strongly routed, with some signature Trudvang moments to introduce players to the setting.

You can join me on June 15th at 19:30 BST on YouTube.

If this proves successful, then I might run a series of streamed games on my channel. The measure of success being that I technically can get it working, and that it proves enjoyable. I’ll be looking to showcase some games that perhaps don’t get such a lot of actual play, and my style will be relaxed and ‘fourth wall’.

Possibles include: DragonQuest, Heroic Fantasy, Shadow of the Weird Wizard, Alternity, The Chronicles of Future Earth, Age of Arthur, Gods, Keltia, Infinity 2D20. The muse may promote others.

It would be great to showcase games that are not widely known or that have apparently ‘had their day’.

Appreciating that not all my gaming buddies like the idea of live actual play, I suspect this will form just another string to the bow, rather than the main volley to my gaming.

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Keltia – a return to Arthur

Posted on June 10, 2024 by First Age

 

I still wonder at the games that never made it to actual play. With more time on my hands I am looking to make that right, ad as i find it difficult to let any of them go, I might as well run them. Or so i thought…

Keltia sits in that group of ‘historical based’ Cubicle Seven presented games from the French company: Le 7ème Cercle. I have played Qin and Yggdrasil with great enjoyment. Keltia, their historical Arthurian game, shares mechanics with the Norse Yggdrasil, along with suggestions for a blend of the two. The games are still available in English, at least in PDF, though not all the lines were translated, leaving some gaps for the amateur book translator.

Keltia is a nice traditional skill based D10 dice pool system, Keeping the highest two and summing them to beat a difficulty number, with the D10 exploding on a 10. The Skill level is added to the result. The system has a heroic meta currency, a series of Gifts, Weaknesses and Combat Feats to spice things up. Perhaps not the most revolutionary engine out there, but it plays solidly for a heroic low fantasy game.
The setting is given a lot of book space, making it a trove whether you play out using the rules or not. The game focuses on the Arthur of Gwynedd, ad is well described. You’ve got more than enough here to give your game a distinct post-Roman flavour for the heroics to come. This is very much a historical grounded game with lashings of magic and old gods woven into the fabric.
Of course for me to run the game, it would either have to be a convention game, or put onto a VTT. At time of planning, Role had not returned with web cams, so I planned to put the game onto Foundry… 

A nice evocative splash screen, to get the players ready for the mysteries and dangers ahead.
Foundry doesn’t have a working system for Keltia. I forged ahead to build something that would give a full play experience using the ‘Custom System Builder’ module, allowing even someone like me to get a functioning, if not that pretty, character sheet up and running. It records all details and manages dice rolls.  
The Keltia game system on Foundry VTT

It was time to get some adventure ideas thrown about to enable a game launch to happen, as all other ‘obstacles’ had been put to the legendary sword. Really, it was only then that I stopped and thought: “Why am I not using Age of Arthur?”. I mean, I’ve actually written a full Arthurian RPG with my partner in rhyme, Paul Mitchener. This wouldn’t get Keltia played, but it would return me to a veiled place in history that I love to explore.

Then I got to thinking about an Age of Arthur second edition, refreshing the setting text a little, but mostly uplifting the game engine from our ‘Disapora VSCA’ inspired Fate to the ‘Cosmic Fate’ recently released by Sarah Newton and Typhon Games. This would also afford us the opportunity to refresh the presentation of the book and bring it back to peoples attention.
So, rather than run Keltia (oh look, I still might…), I have started work to bring the Age of Arthur text into a ready to update state. That’s a fairly major project, with a lot of steps to go, and yet I reflect that there are many Arthurs, so maybe there is some room for Keltia too…

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Shadow of the Weird Wizard

Posted on May 28, 2024 by First Age

I have taken some time to have a quick look at Shadow of the Weird Wizard and thought I’d make a note of my first impressions. As ever with such enterprises, I’m conscious that the proof is in the eating of the pudding, and generally that’s where the satisfaction lies. Having been around the block a few times, I can generally sniff out a game from a good read, at least well enough to know if it should get some future dedicated game time.

Shadow of the Weird Wizard looks to be an excellent D20 level based heroic fantasy game with lots to recommend it for both one shot and campaign play. I really like what I have found.

I havered over backing this game. With D&D 4e in the much loved pile, 13th Age on the shelf, Pathfinder 2e looking gloomily at me, and my own ultra light and fast ‘Heroic Fantasy’, I really didn’t need another F20 game. I was drawn in by the designer, Robert J. Schwalb (with broad and impressive design credits, including some seminal 4e), and good things that have been said about the Shadow of the Demon Lord. I don’t really know much about that game except for a quick skim, 10 manageable levels, and an interesting looking character development path system. I jumped in wondering if this would have some of my loved 4e flavour in the mix, and it certainly does.

Character creation is based on Paths, which you select at three tiers. You start with one of four Novice Paths at 1st Level, and these each provide you with a number of Talents. More are gained at Level 2 and then, at Level 3, you pick an Expert Path, which further diversifies the character. At Level 7 Master Paths provide further specialisation. These paths provide a huge array of variety, and look to be great fun. Laced throughout this process are a host of flavour tables to provide great playable story for the character.

It looks good.

I was also delighted to see that there was an attractive Foundry VTT system for the game. I’ve loaded it for a quick reconnaissance. You have to populate your own Compendium, but the core of the game is there and ready for you to build characters.

An attractive looking Foundry System Module

 The game system looks to be very straightforward and quick. D20 Rolls are made using one of the four attributes, with the attribute number above 10 providing a static bonus.  Boons provide one or more D6s, with the highest of the D6 results also adding to the roll. Banes work the opposite way and cancel out Boons on a one for one basis. You’re looking to roll high and match or beat a target number, one of which might be the Defence of the opponent.

With 33 schools of magic, each with a smattering of evocative spells, you have plenty of magic to play with. The three tiers of play have a steep power curve for the ten levels of advancement. Master Spells will take out a Novice Tier character with ease. I took a quick look at one of the Master Pyromancy spells just to check out the KAFLOOM! on offer:

Continue reading →

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Playing The Chronicles of Future Earth

Posted on May 13, 2024 by First Age

 I had a great time at the North Star SF ttrpg convention weekend in Sheffield, UK. I ran the Swallower of Souls adventure for the new Chronicles of Future Earth RPG, powered by the Cosmic Fate rules.  Cosmic Fate is a fantastic iteration of Fate Core, with everything you might expect from fate, plus some innovations and flavouring to deliver a rocking game!

I’m a member of the Typhon team that publish the game, and have written with Sarah Newton, the author, in the past. I started my journey with Typhon as a backer for this game, but was so excited by the prospect of it that I took a more active role.

My crew of players included experienced Faters, one new to Fate, and another of the ‘I can’t get my head around Fate’ persuasion. Everyone had much fun with their very capable and exotic player characters. I think some people went straight off afterwards to buy the game!

My Chronicles players at North Star

The Chronicles of the Future Earth is a big and deep game set in our very far future, with a stagnant civilisation in peril and in need of heroes. The player characters are highly competent, and reflect a cross section to be found in and around the Springtide Civilisations, including human, ‘jeniri’ species of the Cousins of Humankind  and ‘esteri’ Not-Humans of Earth. What’s not to like about a six limbed mantis warrior?! 

The Swallower of Souls Quickstart does a superb job of introducing the rich setting, the core rules of the game, six heroes and a tasty adventure. The adventure is full of setting information that you can lean into as much as you wish, alongside a neat example run through, using a five scene structure, to guide you along a likely path. The adventure could easily be played over at least two sessions, but with some judicious time management, and inventive play, it can be completed in a convention slot duration (3.5 hours for me).

Some observations, having had an absolute blast with it.

The player characters are extremely competent, and able to generate heroic high number skill roll results. Don’t be surprised if, with a good Cosmic Fate dice roll thrown in, that they can take out a key NPC in one spectacular result. Sometimes a level 2 stress box and a moderate consequence isn’t enough to soak the attack! NPCs could similarly cause problems, though my crew were too quick and clever to suffer any lasting consequences.

Everyone is useful in combat encounters even if not a classic melee combat fighter. Deathly threats and swaggering confidence can unnerve the ‘Willpower’  of adversaries, with a wiped out mental stress taking them out.

The D6-D6 Cosmic Fate dice mechanic produces a slightly swingier and impactful range of +5 to -5. There was a fair amount of invoking aspects to gamble on a better result on a re-roll.

Cosmic Fate implements a ‘Bonus Cap’ that limits the number of bonuses depending on the skill of the individual. My players thought this was a good thing, even when it limited them.

This was my first run through of the adventure and my first time with Cosmic fate in this setting. I was buzzing by the end, and what a climax we had. Our bard got a critical hit (a Cosmic Fate addition) with an arrow shot to the eye of the main adversary, The game ended with our Void sorcerer reaching out for the temptation of the dark side.

I’m looking forward to the next two books in the Chronicles of Future Earth series: Chronicler’s Guide and Guide to Future Earth. Cosmic Fate is to be a re-usable OGL and I am already underway with a project to use it for my other games. Outstanding.

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Fulsome Gaming – one third into 2024

Posted on April 29, 2024 by First Age

 With the first third of the year almost through, I thought I’d reflect on some gaming stats so far, and serve as a compliment to my recent ‘Walk on by‘ post. Although apparently on the melancholy side, ‘Walk on by’ was only really making the point that there is only so much you can give time to, and if one game falls by the wayside it is usually because another is there for you.

With nearly 50 sessions of play so far, it looks to be a high tide of play for me this year. Here are the system counts:

With my D&D 4e long running game, and my Strahd 5e play both receding into scrabbled memory, the elephants have left the room. Some celebratory Heroic Fantasy 2e provides a whiff of the big one, and a hope that I can play out some more of that nice little Black Hack game that I managed to publish in this period. The two front runners are no surprise, with Dragonbane always to be a frequently played system, not least through a running campaign, and convention fun too. Traveller figures have been bolstered with two very different running games that I am really enjoying playing. Tom’s Darrian in Space is a hilarious academic romp of a exploration, with all of his signature touches of wimsy and variety. Good stuff. The streamed ‘Borderlands Run‘ game is one of the best I have played in my 40+ years, with confirmation that it will continue into year 2 of play, once this particular adventure is completed. I look forward to my fortnightly Sunday nights.

Scheduling difficulties have slightly held back my other Wednesday game of Achtung Cthulhu 2D20. We seem to have hit our stride for now, so expect the play to continue for a good chunk of the year as we globe trot, chasing nefarious Nazi occultists, presumably unto the Platonic Atlantis itself.

Convention play and Dungeon Muser occasionals give me breadth as well as depth. With retirement and good fortune to know so many great gamer people, my play opportunities look to be expanding as this year progresses. The ‘regulars’ now could be:
  • Monday night – Pete’s 13th Age 2nd Edition playtest game, possibly at Patriot Games
  • Alternate Wednesday night – my Dragonbane Trudvang, heading towards a Snowsaga
  • Alternate Wednesday night – Dom’s Achtung! Cthulhu 2D20
  • Fortnightly Thursday morning – Tom’s Traveller game (about to wrap?)
  • Fortnightly Thursday night – James’ Honor+Intrigue, with a host of bucket list games to follow
  • Fortnightly Sunday night – Dungeon Muser’s Traveller game
I clearly need to squeeze some more in and get another game going; what’s wrong with Tuesday? 😆
Most play is on a VTT with a breakdown as follows:

I may not have the instance of using Role VTT quite right, but know that Dom switched from it to Roll20. Most of my play is on Roll20, with all my GMing pretty much on Foundry these days. With the freeze on development, disappearance of the development team, and loss of the captivating integrated video, Role won’t be a feature for me this year. I’ll be playing on Fantasy Grounds for the Honor+Intrigue game, having just got it working on my Linux PC.
I’m loving Foundry just now, and have just enough about me to make player sheets for games that aren’t officially supported by the platform.
It’s true that I am quite fickle. With the slightest of suggestion from Tom I have picked up Keltia, the traditionally styled Arthurian game, sharing the same rules as Yggdrasil. There’s a danger that this forgotten regret will see some actual play.
For every game I run, I play in two. That’s a healthy ratio, which I think I’ll be following throughout the year.

The next two-thirds of the year will see more of the regulars, a switch to supporting Typhon Games’ The Chronicles of Future Earth, and maybe a Keltia game. If I can get my head down, then my writing will be a dark fantasy game using ‘Cosmic Fate’ set in an old fantasy world that takes me back to my early years.
It’s a ll good, and much more to come!
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Walk on by

Posted on April 27, 2024 by First Age

 Yesterday I got a particularly severe bout of ‘I am never going to be able to play this game again’. Time and opportunity are the main culprits, but I thought it interesting as to which games sprung to mind, and which ones didn’t.

Yesterday’s eternal regrets include:

  • 13th Age – maybe the second edition will pull me back, or will Shadow of the Weird Wizard finish it off?
  • Conan 2D20 – a superb, now almost legacy 2D20 implementation
  • Degenesis – brief convention play. Want more.
  • Fading Suns
  • Faith
  • FGU games
  • Forbidden Lands – Dragonbane has a lot to answer for.
  • Lone Wolf – briefest of play with my youngest. A Dragonbane return?
  • Numenera (plus any other Cypher)
  • Qin, Yggdrasil, Keltia – I have enjoyed th first two never played the third.
  • Shadows of Esteren (I’ve just Kickstarted the next book…)
My ‘surprised I haven’t accepted the inevitable’ include:
  • A shed tonne of PbtA/FitD games that I wibble over every time Revelation is coming up) 
  • Baroque Space Opera – I never played it and I clearly still want to.
  • Heavy Gear (especially now that I want to try 4e)
  • Symbaroum – or maybe I’ll run it all for three years? Nah..
  • True20 – Dragonbane has a lot to answer for.
YES! I really think I will play these dragons again:
  • D&D 4e – I think this is simply my super hero fantasy RPG.
  • DragonQuest – I think that is what Grogmeet is for?
  • Dragon Age
There is, of course a malaise of others that swirl about hopefully, impatient for some actual play. As much as I could endlessly edit the above lists with many a more, I’m better leaving them as a point in time remorse, which I can return to from time to time. A shrine of lost experiences, sacrificed to the glory of others.
That leaves many that I haven’t even questioned the possibility of not playing. I continue to fool myself more deeply with them.
And you have to remember that I am always playing BRP in my head.

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Cosmic Fated Chronicles of Future Earth

Posted on April 17, 2024 by First Age

I suppose I hadn’t expected to return to Fate. If you were to base your expected game development time on the games played at conventions, you might sidle up to some Free League, Modiphius 2D20, or Forged in the Dark coolness. You would be entirely forgiven for forgetting about Fate, a game engine that felt to be in rude health and driving a lot of play, perhaps about five years ago. It has since vanished from the convention circuit, with a few choice exceptions.

It was great to get some actual play in via Pete Atkinson, who reliably runs fun and engaging convention games. At Seven Hills this year he ran some Fate Core Jadepunk, which I signed up for in a heartbeat. We played a hover train heist against a syndicate of low life ne’er do wells, and in Pete’s capable hands the story flowed with the Fate Point currency in full and vibrant exchange. I really enjoyed the game, and it reminded me how much I like the Fate system.

In many ways Fate is a very simple skill based game, perhaps slightly obscured with some unique language and terms that I’m conscious can switch off a swathe of the gaming community. The number of times that I read ‘I can’t really get my head around Fate’ are beyond the counting. The reason for this relates to one of the strengths of the system: a flexible and creative use of descriptive phrases that helps lean into the story, whilst mechanically affecting the outcome of scenes.

Although a front and centre ‘game economy’ is no longer that unusual, not least thanks to the aforementioned popular 2D20 system, the open and creative nature of ‘Aspects’ in Fate can leave players uncertain how to actually play the game, beyond the standard use of skills.  Aspects are short phrases that can describe many things in the game, including exploitable facets of characters that are leveraged to effect in play. The ensuing to and fro of ‘Fate Points’ to power these Aspects, and to access +2 bonuses after the skill roll, or enable Fate dice re-rolls, or incorporate new story details, really gives a Fate game an interactive story building flavour, bringing in game, scene, equipment, and character aspects. There is also a sense that your PC only really fails if they are not prepared to give enough of themselves to succeed. On top of that, it’s additionally worth noting that Fate characters are very capable individuals from the get go, with Skills and Stunts (game breaking cool things) that place them well above the average.

I have played all three flavours of Fate and enjoyed all of them. My history goes back many years, prior to the current Fate Core version, having written and published the ‘Age of Arthur’ RPG with Paul Mitchener. This was mechanically based on the rules chassis presented by the Diaspora RPG, another fine game that I wonder if I will ever play again?! What fun we had with our Arthurian game, which I think still holds up today and continues to have occasional sales every month. Returning to it would only involve a slight tidy up and closer adoption of current Fate thinking.

Up to very recently, if I were to run a Fate game myself, then I would use either Core or Condensed versions. Now however there is a new version, Cosmic Fate, an iteration of Fate Core that is detailed in Sarah Newton’s just released Chronicles of Future Earth RPG. What an amazing game that is! This has shunted me onto the Fate track for convention RPGs that I will run.

My Chronicles of Future Earth game, pretty much good to go!

Cosmic Fate is a very particular blend of the Fate toolkit, with some key innovations. Perhaps most significant is the introduction of a Bonus Cap that limits how much you can tag after the skill roll, and based on the level of the skill that you are using. More skilled individuals can use more Aspects. I sense that Cosmic Fate, with its swingier D6-D6 core dice roll, provides a slightly grittier experience with a shade less certainty in outcomes. This particular take on Fate enthuses me, and I hope to see how I can use it more broadly than Chronicles.

I should have anticipated at the beginning of the year that Fate would re-emerge as a front running game system.  In a limited capacity, I am providing some ad-hoc support to Typhon Games, the new company that now has Sarah and her games portfolio, along with other games in development. It’s great to see Chronicles out there, and look forward to lots of fun play.

When running Fate, I always struggle slightly with the return flow of Fate points to the players. I think the key bit that I miss is encouraging player ‘self compels’ of their character’s aspects, or just ‘playing to your character’ as we more usually call it. Being alive to this and frequently rewarding the players with Fate Points is something I need to get better at. As a backstop I am stealing Pete’s method of giving out a Fate Point to everyone on the hour. It will take the pressure off me a bit and help to ensure that there is a good flow of the Fate Point currency back to the players.

Cosmic Fated! 

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