A Journey, at least in a story sense, is not just traveling from point A to point B. Neither is it investigating and exploring, though that gets in the ball park. A journey, is about discovering, confronting, and coming to a resolution with a problem by means of starting in one location and moving to another location. The stops on the way are the beats in which either the journey, or the protagonist are making an action to get the upper hand on the problem. The conflict itself has to be something that is both personal and part of the protagonist, and at the same time, something that is acting against the protagonist.
In game terms, this kind of story has to include an inner conflict then, and that inner conflict has to be mirrored in the external action of traveling from place to place. I'm thinking about how to model this in Fate. The first thing that comes to mind is that there has to be an Extra attached to the character or characters that defines the problematic conflict. It at once has to be something dear to the characters, something that they have good reason to want to hold on to, and yet that also provides the lingering thorn.
In mechanical terms it has to be something that they both find strength in, and that turns against them. That pretty clearly sounds like an aspect.
The point of the journey story, is to travel, explore, and strive to overcome that issue. That sounds like a stress and consequences mechanic, and it is attached to that aspect.
The third thing though, is that the journey has to have an outward reflection. The important stops, the locations that are memorable have to be points that offer a conflict with the chance to reveal something important about the problem to the hero. This sounds kind of like a challenge then by Fate mechanics.
So it seems that the way to build this sort of story, is to build the extra that will become part of the character this way. To begin, the primary aspect needs to be something that is important in the character's life, urgent enough to demand that it be confronted, and dependent on traveling to another location. It needs to be something that also can be invoked such that ******
Friday, November 17, 2017
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Approaches In Fate, And Some Ideas On Drifts
I was looking back at articles about other ways to use approaches in Fate.
HERE Fred Hicks offers - Detect, Fight, Know, Move, Sneak, Talk
HERE Fred talks about several other facets of the approaches question. Default approaches are adjectives that describe how and can be used as adverbs to take an action - Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky. Alternatively, what can be done can be dealt with through approaches like the old Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma; or who through professions like Hitter, Hacker, Thief, Grifter, Mastermind. Or why as with Duty, Love, Glory, Power, Truth, Justice, or Anger, Joy, Disgust, Sadness, Fear.
Cortex Plus does two column stats based on pairs of questions, e.g. "who am I on the team/what are my strengths", or "what are my values/what do I care about".
HERE is a discussion that poses the proposition of determining approaches by using the rubric of "good, fast, cheap - pick two".
Here Rob Donough discusses his two column FAE approach. Examples include approach+crime (Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky + Hitter, Hacker, Thief, Grifter, Mastermind); or style+passion (Force, Wits, Resolve, Grace+Loyalty, Love, Hospitality, Honor); or action+necessity (Mind, Money, Muscle, Moxie+Quality, Speed, Efficiency). Vincent Baker also does something similar in his separate game In A Wicked Age, with his set of: Covertly, Directly, For Myself, For Others, With Love, and With Violence.
These are interesting articles, because I have thought several times since I first read Fate Accelerated and the description of approaches suggested that if you can do what and how, you should also be able to do when, why, where, and who. Of course, this would depend on the game, and they would have to be chosen as the best way to thematically reinforce the setting. So I read these links, and it got me thinking enough to give it a stab... here are several drifts dealing with other ways of refocusing what a particular Fate game is about.
* * *
WHAT
These are pretty much the default for games since skills were introduced as a thing. Heck, even old D&D had proficiencies in weapons or thief skills for instance. This one bears less discussion, wanting only the refinement of what skills fit a setting and how broad. GURPS goes with very narrow skills, Fate with very broad; for every one skill in Fate Core, you could with little effort pull out 5-10 of that skill set from an exhaustive GURPS skill list.
HOW
As dealt with in FAE, many different actions can be taken with any given approach. You can fight or persuade both either Forcefully, or Sneakily. Again, ground covered by Fate. This seems to lend itself very well to hyper competent characters in very iconic settings. Star Wars and supers settings are good choices. You never wonder if any given character can fly a star-ship or engage in a shoot out, only the details of how they do so. With supers, it is assumed that they live hightened reality lives and if they need to fight, drive in a high speed chase, or hack the villain's lackey's computer, there is no real question that they can, though individuals might differ in how.
These then, are new ground (at least for me... undoubtedly someone else, somewhere has already written these into a game).
WHEN
It seems that this would obviously only be just the thing where time is a major thematic element. For example, off the top of my head, a time travel game might use when approaches, or Tenses. A verb tense is about action... that is doing things. For a drift that plays with time, Tense could be a way of doing things that works like the Resources skill in that, it has a stress track of it's own and reduces by one for every successful use until refreshed. They could include Past, Future, Manifold, Synchronous, Timeless (+3/+2/+1/+1/+0). This could easily be included with a two column Fate approach as well which allows up to four professions (+3/+2/+1/+0), though it might be more fun just to have a stunt progression that gives bonuses which assume that the time traveler has all the time they need to have become expert in many professions and can invoke stunts to justify expertise as needed.
WHERE
This one is I think the toughest nut to crack. However, here is my thinking... the critical question, is what kind of stories make where you are matter to the story? Journey stories? If so, then perhaps the Positions might be: At Home, On The Road, In Camp, At Market
WHY
This seems to lend itself to motivations or ideals. Truth, Justice, Duty, Love, Glory, Power; these have already been noted from Cortex Plus games. Here is a drift of a similar kind that includes these Motivations: Righteousness, Courage, Benevolence, Respect, Sincerity, Honor, Loyalty, Discipline (+3/+2/+2/+2/+1/+1/+1/+0). An alternative set might be: Loyalty,
WHO
Myself, Friends, Loves, Foes, Strangers two-columned with Love, Hate, Fear, Sadness, Anger
---
Need to think more on these...
HERE Fred Hicks offers - Detect, Fight, Know, Move, Sneak, Talk
HERE Fred talks about several other facets of the approaches question. Default approaches are adjectives that describe how and can be used as adverbs to take an action - Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky. Alternatively, what can be done can be dealt with through approaches like the old Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma; or who through professions like Hitter, Hacker, Thief, Grifter, Mastermind. Or why as with Duty, Love, Glory, Power, Truth, Justice, or Anger, Joy, Disgust, Sadness, Fear.
Cortex Plus does two column stats based on pairs of questions, e.g. "who am I on the team/what are my strengths", or "what are my values/what do I care about".
HERE is a discussion that poses the proposition of determining approaches by using the rubric of "good, fast, cheap - pick two".
Here Rob Donough discusses his two column FAE approach. Examples include approach+crime (Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky + Hitter, Hacker, Thief, Grifter, Mastermind); or style+passion (Force, Wits, Resolve, Grace+Loyalty, Love, Hospitality, Honor); or action+necessity (Mind, Money, Muscle, Moxie+Quality, Speed, Efficiency). Vincent Baker also does something similar in his separate game In A Wicked Age, with his set of: Covertly, Directly, For Myself, For Others, With Love, and With Violence.
These are interesting articles, because I have thought several times since I first read Fate Accelerated and the description of approaches suggested that if you can do what and how, you should also be able to do when, why, where, and who. Of course, this would depend on the game, and they would have to be chosen as the best way to thematically reinforce the setting. So I read these links, and it got me thinking enough to give it a stab... here are several drifts dealing with other ways of refocusing what a particular Fate game is about.
* * *
WHAT
These are pretty much the default for games since skills were introduced as a thing. Heck, even old D&D had proficiencies in weapons or thief skills for instance. This one bears less discussion, wanting only the refinement of what skills fit a setting and how broad. GURPS goes with very narrow skills, Fate with very broad; for every one skill in Fate Core, you could with little effort pull out 5-10 of that skill set from an exhaustive GURPS skill list.
HOW
As dealt with in FAE, many different actions can be taken with any given approach. You can fight or persuade both either Forcefully, or Sneakily. Again, ground covered by Fate. This seems to lend itself very well to hyper competent characters in very iconic settings. Star Wars and supers settings are good choices. You never wonder if any given character can fly a star-ship or engage in a shoot out, only the details of how they do so. With supers, it is assumed that they live hightened reality lives and if they need to fight, drive in a high speed chase, or hack the villain's lackey's computer, there is no real question that they can, though individuals might differ in how.
These then, are new ground (at least for me... undoubtedly someone else, somewhere has already written these into a game).
It seems that this would obviously only be just the thing where time is a major thematic element. For example, off the top of my head, a time travel game might use when approaches, or Tenses. A verb tense is about action... that is doing things. For a drift that plays with time, Tense could be a way of doing things that works like the Resources skill in that, it has a stress track of it's own and reduces by one for every successful use until refreshed. They could include Past, Future, Manifold, Synchronous, Timeless (+3/+2/+1/+1/+0). This could easily be included with a two column Fate approach as well which allows up to four professions (+3/+2/+1/+0), though it might be more fun just to have a stunt progression that gives bonuses which assume that the time traveler has all the time they need to have become expert in many professions and can invoke stunts to justify expertise as needed.
WHERE
This one is I think the toughest nut to crack. However, here is my thinking... the critical question, is what kind of stories make where you are matter to the story? Journey stories? If so, then perhaps the Positions might be: At Home, On The Road, In Camp, At Market
WHY
This seems to lend itself to motivations or ideals. Truth, Justice, Duty, Love, Glory, Power; these have already been noted from Cortex Plus games. Here is a drift of a similar kind that includes these Motivations: Righteousness, Courage, Benevolence, Respect, Sincerity, Honor, Loyalty, Discipline (+3/+2/+2/+2/+1/+1/+1/+0). An alternative set might be: Loyalty,
WHO
Myself, Friends, Loves, Foes, Strangers two-columned with Love, Hate, Fear, Sadness, Anger
---
Need to think more on these...
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