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A tabletop roleplaying system, based on Fate.

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Simple!

This is a game-system I made up, that's like Fate, but generalized. It combines and simplifies skills / approaches / stunts (numbers / mechanics stuff), and adds mechanics that the base system leaves out (attributes like strength, intelligence, equipment and tools) which other game systems have, using the guidelines from the Fate System Toolkit.

It's All In The Numbers!

Skills, approaches, stunts, etc, have all been combined. They're all effectively just numeric bonuses to add to the dice-rolls, so I felt that having completely disparate rules for them all was too cumbersome, and too limiting.

So now, you can make your character as broad or specialized as you want. Hopefully this is balanced for small groups of people, but if not, Fate is meant for cooperative play anyways, so rulings can be made individually.

The way it works, is that specialized things are cheap, and broad things are expensive. A character who only wants to have the skills Lockpicking, Derringers, and Traps might get them all for one point per +1 bonus / level. They also take a stunt "Pistol Whipper: +2 attack with pistols in melee" for one point. Then they dump the rest of their points into extra stress-boxes, and they're a durable thief! Their friend, also playing in a game of espionage and sneakery, will have similar skills. However, since they want to take out enemies rather than avoiding them, might allocate their skills differently. They pick handguns (more broad than derringers) for 3 points per level, karate-chop for one point per level (specific to non-lethal melee damage), and throwing-stars for one point per level (similarly specific). They take a more broad stunt than their sneaky friend, "Hat Combat: +2 attack with hats (melee or ranged)" for three points. Then, they dump the rest of their points into sneakery at nine points per level, which covers camouflage, disguises, quiet-walking, grappling hooks - everything else for being a spy!

How expensive is everything, and how many points do players get? I made a table / spreadsheet, to have the cheapest things one point per level, small groups of related skills or less-narrow stunts at three points, and even broader groups at nine points and twenty seven points. I also gave some examples of what might be "typical" skills / stunts / approaches, based on what's in the main Fate rules or SRD guides. However, you might want to play the game more broadly or narrowly - just slide the columns left or right, to suit your playstyle! As for starting skills, based on Fate Core and Fate Accelerated, it looks like players should start with about 10-20 points to spend. More gritty games would have lower starting economies, and more adventurous games would have higher starting economies, as well as more broadly-defined skills or groups of skills.

It's All Relative

Note, that all skills / stunts / approaches are relative to a +0 "boring guy" or "average gal". What "average" means will be specific to your game and setting. Generally, a character that has no bonuses at all, would be the typical Joe Schmoe of yoru world, neither overweight, dim-witted, or weak, nor lean, strong, or clever - a completely forgettable person, unsuitable for adventures of any kind!

Note that the base Fate rules are all written to have powerful bonuses, and mighty skills. Everything about your character is assumed heroic - some sections even mention this explicitly! In this system however, you can play whatever types of characters you want. To facilitate this, penalties may be traded for your character, at the same point-value as bonuses. So, a person who wants to play a mighty barbarian who is strong (very broad), brave (fairly broad), and skilled with an axe (a typical "skill"), but doesn't quite have enough points, might put their Intelligence (very broad) at -2 to get points refunded to spend on the rest of their character. It is recommended not to have skills go below -3, and broad skill-groups or approaches below -2. Game-masters are also encouraged to invoke those character-penalties just like Aspects, to create interesting story-beats and drama!

Luck

Luck is a special skill/stun/thing, which is almost as good as a skill at the same level. So, it'll cost 3/4 the normal cost for that level (specific skill, group of skills, etc). How it works, is yu add one extra die per level, and reroll the lowest L dice once. If you want to make an unlucky character, reroll the high dice instead of the low.

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A tabletop roleplaying system, based on Fate.

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