Different Ways to handle Mooks and Mobs in Fate

 

One of the tings I love about Fate – I love that the knobs and dials of the game are exposed and intended to be adjusted to fit your game.

I was recently doing some cross-referencing across various Fate books, and realized that the concept of Mobs (groups of adversaries combined into a single entity) is presented differently every single time. In every single book. And they are different in pretty significant ways. Like… I kinda knew in the back of my head that the various books I’d read had different presentations, but I’ve always just been using the Fate Core version, or Skein version (see below), but now that I’m looking at it closely… man, this is overwhelming and a bit frustrating. The only other subsystem where I’ve seen this much variation is magic! The impression I get, and this is complete conjecture, is that there are some glaring issues with the baseline implementation in Fate Core, so subsequent books keep playing with it, looking for the right solution. And the differences are significant enough that it’s hard to see what the knobs and dials actually are within the system.

So that’s my purpose in writing this. I can’t possibly playtest all of these to understand the variations, but I can compare them, and try to call out the key differences and weaknesses that they provide. Ultimately, this is about me trying to make sense of all this, and identify where the knobs and dials actually are. I’m going to do a comparison of each implementation, and try to analyze the pros, cons, and implications of each. That being said, keep in mind that I’ve only ever used the Fate Core Mob rules and Skein’s Warband rules at the table, so consider my comments on the others to be uninformed opinions. For those who want to look at things themselves, I’ll provide links to the Fate SRD, or page references for stuff not covered there.

It seems like there are three variables to play with in terms of taking an individual adversary as a chasis, and then turning a bunch of them into a single entity. Three area’s you can play with and make choices between.

• Skill – What sort of bonuses do the minions get for acting as a group, if any? This is primarily about turning weak enemies into a legitimate threat. Something else that is worth considering, is whether a given approach encourages adjusting nameless adversaries threat levels, or does everything use the Good at +2 / Bad at -2 dichotomy presented in FAE? This is really an adversary design question, not a Mob question, but that decision about adversaries has meaningful impacts for the Mob version.
• Stress – When you mash together a bunch of Mooks into a single entity, how do you calculate the stress for that entity? One note – It helps my brain to add a [0] stress box, because in Fate you generally aren’t Taken Out when you mark off your last stress box, but if you take any more, you are then gone. For me, it’s easier to have a box to mark off when the guy is out.
• Action Economy – An inherent truth of combining a bunch of Mooks into a single entity is that you lose action economy, and action economy is really important in Fate. So when you want to threaten PC’s, there is a balancing act between the bonus on the dice, and the number of times that those dice get rolled.

For each implementation, I’ll provide an example of whatever that version looks like. For versions that can scale the quality of the adversaries, I will use a Fair (+2) quality, which is most comparable to the Good at +2 / Bad at -2 FAE Mook design. I will use a group of 4, since that is an interesting breakpoint in several examples.

Alrighty, here we go…

Fate Core

Fate Core introduced the concept of Mobs, which are group of Nameless NPC’s. It’s worth noting that Nameless NPC’s can scale from Average to Good quality. This is the baseline for comparison for all the other implementations. So this section will be a bit longer than the others.

• Skills – Each NPC beyond the first adds +1, using the standard Teamwork rules. So as the Mob gets whittled down, its offensive power gets weaker with every loss. Or at least, that’s how I’ve always understood this rule. BUT – see my note below…
• Stress – Combine all of the stress of each NPC, one for one, into a pool. When a mob takes a hit, shifts in excess of what’s needed to take out one NPC are applied to the next NPCs in the mob, one at a time. There is a bit of an un-intuitiveness to the way Stress gets counted, mainly due to the trickiness of scaling stress boxes in Fate Core compared to the simpler approach using 1-stress boxes outlined in DFA and the Adversary Toolkit, but in the end, this is a minor quibble. The basic gist is – a mob of X dudes take exactly the same amount of stress to take out as X individual dudes. You definitely need to keep track of how many dudes are left in the Mob.
• Action Economy – Something about this baseline implementation is that you can easily divide up the groups to apply pressure to all PC’s, maintaining an equal Action Economy to the party. And since the Teamwork mechanic gives a pretty linear relationship between group size and Action Economy, this feels pretty good. As groups collapse, stragglers can very easily regroup up to keep a bonus to their rolls, at the expense of Action Economy, or keep their Action Economy, but lose their bonuses. It’s quite natural to start with a big gang of dudes, and just spread them out to each PC, and figure their Teamwork bonus and stress pools dynamically, so you match the PC’s action for action.
• Here is an interesting bit regarding the Teamwork bonus, which is what gets out of control with this approach – when I went to the SRD to review this, there’s a link to an article by the awesome Ryan Macklin, “Revising Teamwork in Fate.” In this, he proposes some limits to the Teamwork mechanic. The bit that is relevant to our purpose here, “The benefit you can get from teamwork caps at your skill rating. After that, you’re not really able to utilize the additional help. So you can get the benefit of four people helping you if you have a skill at Great (+4), just one person if your skill is Average (+1).” So using this, a mob of Average (+1) NPC’s would cap at Fair (+2). This makes mobs of weak minions only barely more dangerous than an individuals, and it mainly makes a Mob about being a big sack of Stress. This perspective is interesting in light of some other implementations, so keep it in mind.
• Also interesting is the Comments section of that article. At one point Ryan responds, in reference to using the Teamwork mechanic with Mobs, “That doesn’t tell you to use the teamwork rules to determine their strength.” His comments seem to imply that the intent of Mobs was NEVER for them to get an unrestrained Teamwork bonus on Attacks, but instead that the Mob should just get the Stress of the group, and Attack as a single. I certainly didn’t get that sense from text, and I don’t think I’m the only one. Also, I find this interpretation rather unthreatening.
• It’s implied by the example in the Fate Core book that the bonus applies to Defense rolls as well as Attack rolls, though I don’t think that’s actually intended in the Teamwork rules, since that is about teaming up on a pro-active action, not a Reaction (though a Mob could theoretically choose to team up to support the Defense action, rather than the Attack, but I don’t personally think they should be able to do both in the same exchange). I chalk this up to a case of a mistake in the example.
• There are a few issues this approach. It mostly stems from the way Teamwork works, when you apply it to a big group of weak Mooks. This quickly creates mega-dangerous Mobs. A handful of Average minions is going to wreck some face until you beat it down (but if you interpret the Teamwork bonus applying to Defense, too, then that will be hard!). It also results in the Mob getting progressively weaker and weaker, which is kind of anti-climactic. But it’s clean and logical. But as we’ve seen, there is a lack of clarity about whether you are even supposed to be using Teamwork as written with Mobs? If you used Ryan Macklin’s proposed limitation, then you still can’t make a group of trash Mooks into a viable threat, since their bonus can only go from a +1 to a +2, for example.

Yakuza Ninjas – Mob of 4 Fair Quality Nameless NPC’s

• Aspects: Shadowy Ninja Assassin; Loyal Yakuza to the Death
• Skills: Fight (+2), Stealth (+1), Athletics (+1)
• Teamwork: starts at +3, reduce by 1 for each NPC lost
• Stress: [0] [1]  |  [0] [1] |  [0] [1] | [0] [1]

Fate Accelerated Edition

FAE introduces the concept of Groups of Mooks.

• Skills – This very explicitly uses the same stats as an individual, so there is no bonus to this dimension for grouping up. “Each of these groups acts like a single character and has a set of stats just like a single mook would.” This means that Groups of Mooks just generally operate at Fair (+2), assuming that they’re “Skilled at” combat, or Mediocre (+0) if they aren’t. This also means that a Group of Mooks doesn’t lose any threat as they get beat down. They is exactly as dangerous on their final exchange as they were on the first (ie – not very).
• Stress – You still pile the Stress together, but in a much reduced manner: “Give them one stress box for every two individuals in the group.” But keep in mind that these are scaling stress boxes. This is interesting because as the mob gets bigger, they get some big stress boxes, but as boxes fill up, a 1-stress hit could still mark off a 5-stress box if that’s all there is available. So as a group gets large, its stress pool will eclipse a similar Mob from Fate Core, but on the low end, they are weaker. It’s also worth noting that you don’t actually need to worry about how many Mooks are left. Once you group them up, the group is simply a unified entity. On the other hand, the only thing that adding more dudes to the Group does is add stress. There is no balancing act between Stress and threat. It’s just all Stress.
• Action Economy – You completely lose Action Economy with this approach, and get nothing in return. There is no no trade-off between group size for some bonus, versus dividing up for more actions.
• This generally makes Groups of Mooks sacks of stress with very little threat. A mob of 5 is just as dangerous a an individual, they just stick around longer. But that’s generally consistent with Mooks in FAE in general, which is why I’m not generally a fan of them. And the chasis that they are based on doesn’t allow for any scaling of threat, every Mook is always a +2 for what they’re good at, and a -2 for what they’re bad at. Now obviously, a GM can mess with those, but that isn’t presented as an option, it just is what it is (to be fair, FAE gives quick and dirty approaches to things). They are very good for throwing a big group of minions at the party and letting the players feel pretty awesome.

Yakuza Ninjas – Group of 4 Mooks

• Aspects: Shadowy Ninja Assassin; Loyal Yakuza to the Death
• Good At (+2): Hand to Hand combat, Infiltration, Loyalty
• Bad At (-2): Social Interaction, Broad Daylight in Public
• Stress: [0]  [1]  [2]

Three Rocketeers

This implementation basically take a scaling variation on Mooks from FAE, and then group them up like Mobs from Fate Core.

• Skills – The Mob basically use the Teamwork rules from Fate Core, but the base chasis is a FAE Mook with some more scalable control. “Each mook in a mob after the first adds +1 to actions when doing something the mooks are skilled at.” While no hard limits are imposed, they do give the guidance “It’s best to keep the mooks in groups of three.” However, it does imply that the bonus applies to all Actions, not just the proactive 1/round like with Teamwork. So this means it could apply to Defense actions, which will make the group hard to take down if they are Skilled at their combat skill.
• Stress – Exactly the same as Mobs in Fate Core.
• Action Economy – Same balancing act of skill bonus versus action economy as Fate Core.
• This results in all the same issues and benefits as Mobs from Fate Core, but it’s a bit clearer in the explanation, and it’s guidance, which I appreciate. Also, I appreciate the evolution of the FAE Mook to have some choices in threat scaling. And if you stick to the guidance of Mobs of 3, and just manage several Mobs of 3, you should be just fine, and can find a nice balance of threat, stress, and action economy. But this doesn’t solve the issues present in the Fate Core mechanic, it just provides better guidance around using it in such a way to avoid those problems.

Yakuza Ninjas – Mob of 4 Medium Mooks

• Aspects: Shadowy Ninja Assassin; Loyal Yakuza to the Death
• Skilled (+2): Hand to Hand combat, Infiltration, Loyalty
• Poor (-1): Social Interaction, Broad Daylight in Public
• Teamwork: starts at +3, reduce by 1 for each Mook lost
• Stress: [0] [1]  |  [0] [1] |  [0] [1] | [0] [1]

War of Ashes

War of Ashes uses Minions, which are basically the same as Mooks from FAE, and then mobs them up into Groups of Minions.

• Skills – Group of Minions have the same Good at/Bad at skills of their base Minion, but then, rather than using Teamwork, War of Ashes adds in their new mechanic of Weight. This is really interesting! “If the heavier side outweighs their opponents in the zone by at least two to one, they can replace any one of the dice they rolled with a [+]. If the heavier side attacker outweighs their target by at least four to one, they can replace two of the Fate dice results with [+].” This serves to give the mob a +1 or +2 bonus for outnumbering, but it affects the average result of the dice, rather than the range of possible numbers. This is a neat mechanic that seems like a spiritual cousin to Red & Blue dice for weapons. It’s also worth noting that, like Groups of Mooks in FAE, Groups of Minions operate at full power until they are taken out. Their Weight doesn’t decrease as they decline.
• Stress – This takes the 1/2 stress approach to Groups of Mook from FAE, but adds a little extra. “Give them the same stress an individual would have plus one stress box for every two individuals in the group.”
• Action Economy –  Groups do lose Action Economy, but they get a Weight bonus to compensate, up to a +2. I like the balancing act between arranging groups to maintain a 2:1 ratio or 4:1 ratio, versus getting the action economy of multiple groups. The fact that there are bonus breakpoints and a ceiling, instead of the linearly scaling bonus in Fate Core, give you interesting decisions during a battle. That’s a really fun tactical dynamic for the DM!
• So in summation, this implementation is basically the most similar to Groups of Mooks in FAE, but giving them a little extra threat, and a little extra staying power, which I’m digging. There’s a lot to like here!

Yakuza Ninjas – Group of 4 Minions

• Aspects: Shadowy Ninja Assassin; Loyal Yakuza to the Death
• Good At (+2): Hand to Hand combat, Infiltration, Loyalty
• Bad At (-2): Social Interaction, Broad Daylight in Public
• Weight: 4
• Stress: [0] [1]  [2]  [3]

Age of Arthur / Skein

If you aren’t familiar with it, Age of Arthur by Paul Mitchener & Graham Spearing, is an awesome game built on Fate, that came out either right before or right after Fate Core. While not an Evil Hat product, it’s still an awesome Fate-based game, and in particular it has a good implementations of Mobs that I think is worth including in this analysis, called Warbands. They also released a free SRD, called Skein, which you should definitely take a look at (and then go pay money for Age of Arthur, because it’s a great book!). Warband members (Skein pg 68) are defined by their quality (+0 through +4), which is their combat skill as well as stress. They are generally similar to Nameless NPC from Fate Core.

• Skills – Warbands get a +1 when in a group of 2-3, and a +2 in groups of 4-6.  Groups larger than 6 don’t get any further bonus. They explicitly call out that this bonus does not apply to Defense. It’s worth calling out that this is a good example of how slightly tweaking the breakpoint for bonuses (comparing Skein to War of Ashes) is a nice dial that the DM can easily fiddle with to control the dynamics they want. I really like the idea that outnumbering your enemy gives you a significant advantage, but only to a certain point. Beyond that point of diminishing returns, the extra bodies simply add more staying power, and not additional threat.
• Stress – This uses the same approach as Fate Core, where all stress is piled together, and shifts in excess of what’s needed to take out one NPC are applied to the next NPCs in the mob, one at a time. Warband members in Skein have a stress score equal to their quality, effectively having that many 1-stress boxes, like in the Adversary Toolkit or DFA. And when they run out, they are taken out.
• Action Economy – Much like War of Ashes, the break-points in the bonuses create an interesting balancing act between skill bonus and action economy.
• This is a method that I have used in my own games, and I really like it. You have flexibility of Mob quality, and numbers, and an interesting balancing act between group size for the bonus versus action economy. Big groups of weak adversaries become legitimate threats with as much staying power as you need, without getting out of control, and mobs of high-quality adversaries become downright terrifying.
• I think the comparison of this version to War of Ashes is worth considering. Both provide a bonus of up to +2 for a handful of dudes ganging up on one PC. The Skein version is very simple and easy to use, but it in much more dangerous, because it shifts the entire spread of outcomes upwards by 2. The War of Ashes version is a bit fiddlier to use, but it cleverly shifts the average and bottom limit up by 2, but not the upper limit.

Yakuza Ninjas – Fair Quality Warband of 4 

• Aspects: Shadowy Ninja Assassin; Loyal Yakuza to the Death
• Combat Skill – Fair (+2)
• Warband bonus: starts at +2, reduces to +1 at 3 members, gone at 1 member
• Stress: [1] [1] |  [1] [1] |  [1] [1] | [1] [1]

Fate Adversary Toolkit

The Adversary Toolkit introduces Fillers, which are very similar to Nameless NPC’s from Fate Core, with a slightly modified spread of skills below the apex skill, which isn’t a big deal, and a switch to 1-stress boxes, like in DFA. This seems to be the new approach to stress going forward, which I do like. The scaling stress boxes in Fate Core are more interesting, but man, the single-stress boxes are easier to manage, and easier for new players to grok. Anyways, they introduce the concept of Grouping Fillers…

• Skills – This implementation does increase the skill level for the group – “For every two Fillers with the same skill in the group, add a +1 bonus to that skill.” This is very similar to the Teamwork approach presented in Fate Core, but it scales more slowly. They also, wisely, give a limit, “A Filler group’s skills can never be rated higher than Great (+4).” I think it’s also important to call out that nothing is said about whether you should or should not apply this bonus to Defend actions. My personal opinion is that you shouldn’t. However, I do feel that this implementation is a bit stingy with skills. I think I prefer the skill spread as written in Fate Core.
• Stress – They use the same approach as Fate Core, but modified for the single-box stress, and make them fairly hardy. They also allow for combining Fillers with differing stresses, though this also means that you are definitely tracking individuals being taken out. “To make the group’s stress track, arrange the stress boxes of each filler in the group into a single track. Divide up the track so you can figure out when each filler in the group gets taken out, with weaker fillers on the left and stronger fillers on the right.” They also give a good visual example, like this – [0] [1] [1]  | [0] [1] [1]  |  [0] [1] [1] [1]
• Action Economy – Groups lose some Action Economy, but they are compensated. Like War of Ashes and Skein, the scaling bonus, combined with a bonus limit, creates an interesting balancing act between skill bonus and action economy.
• I really like this implementation! I like that it allows combining groups of slightly different Fillers, and that it is pretty explicit about how to handle the skill levels and stress management. I like that it lets the group present a greater threat than an individual, without allowing the threat level to spiral out of control. Depending on the campaign, and then group of PC’s, I might want to play with the threat limit of Great (+4), but that’s an easy knob to turn. The mechanical structure is sound and clear.

Yakuza Ninjas – Group of 4 Fair Quality Fillers

• Aspects: Shadowy Ninja Assassin
• Skills: Fight (+2)
• Group bonus: starts at +2, reduces to +1 at 2 fillers, gone at 1 filler
• Stress: [0] [1] [1] |  [0] [1] [1] |  [0] [1] [1] | [0] [1] [1]

Dresden Files Accelerated

DFA uses Minor NPC’s (pg 212), that are basically Mooks from FAE, except they use 6 x 1-stress boxes, which is appropriate to DFA, although that seems like a LOT of stress.

• Skills – Mobs of Minor NPC’s have the same stats as the base Mook, but they get a baseline threat bonus, “a mob gets an inherent +1 teamwork bonus on any roll,” but then they also get a special AOE ability, “a mob can roll to attack all the PCs on their turn.” This effectively gives them as many attacks as they need, which very cleverly solves the action economy issue.
• Stress – The way I read it, a Mob of Minor NPC’s still has 6 stress, the same as the base Mook. In fact, it seems like they are mainly intended to be used as a Mob, because 6 stress is a LOT for a Mook. For comparison, a single Fair (+2) NPC from Fate Core has 1 stress, while a single Minor NPC in DFA has 6 stress. But gang up 4 DFA Minor NPC’s, and it still has 6 stress.
• Action Economy – This approach completely turns the skill bonus/action economy balancing act decision on its ear compared to every other implementation. There is no management or balancing to worry about. You simply design a Mook, declare that it is a Mob, give it a +1 bonus, and a special attack AOE attack option. These bonuses don’t go away as the Mob gets worn down, so the intensity contin. You also don’t have to worry about trying to divide up groups to engage all of the PC’s to equalize the action economy. The AOE attack solves for that.
• This is a really clever implementation. Much like a cinematic team of ninja mooks, the fight keeps raging at a steady level, the ninja’s just keep on coming, until they are all suddenly lying on the floor, finished.  I’m not a huge fan of the Good at/Bad at skill style, but skill levels are a knob that is easily manipulated, as is the stress level. The approach is what I find compelling. Build a mob’s skill levels as appropriate to what they are, declare them a mob, give them as much stress as needed based on how long you want them to last, then give them a +1 bonus, and then give them the AOE attack power. Now, because of the abstraction this creates between an individual and a mob, what you can’t easily do in this version is have the group divide up if you want to, for example, apply pressure in two different zones.

Yakuza Ninjas – Mob of 4 Minor NPC’s

• Aspects: Shadowy Ninja Assassin; Loyal Yakuza to the Death
• Good At (+2): Hand to Hand combat, Infiltration, Loyalty
• Bad At (-2): Social Interaction, Broad Daylight in Public
• Teamwork: +1
• Special: Make one Attack against all PC’s in your zone without splitting shifts. Each PC defends separately.
• Stress: [1]  [1]  [1]  [1]  [1]  [1]

 

Summary

After working through all of these different implementations, I think that the one I like the most is Groups of Fillers from the Fate Adversary Toolkit. It creates interesting dynamism between teaming up and action economy, and the method of handling stress is easy to manage and also allows for similar but different Fillers in the same group. It also easily facilitates breaking groups up into other groups, or spreading threat across multiple zones. I do think I prefer the Skill spreads that come from Nameless NPC’s in Fate Core, so at my table, I think I’ll use that, but that has a minimal effect on the approach to grouping them up. Also, though the Adversary Toolkit doesn’t mention it, I think it’s important to not apply their bonus for Grouping up to their Defense, but rather only to the pro-active Action that the Group takes. Otherwise a large group becomes very hard to hurt, which I don’t think is the intent of the mechanic.

I could see myself using the DFA approach to Mobs for specific situations.  I think it would shine when I want it to feel like wave after wave of Mooks, where you aren’t sure if they guy you’re punching now is a new guy, or the same one you knocked down 2 rounds ago who got back up, and I’m happy to lean into the abstraction between the individual and the group.

Thank you for following along with me as I dug into this topic. I really needed to sit down and compare and contract these different implementations, and see how they all work compared to one another.

What method do you use at your table, and are tweaking the rules as written to suit your purposes? If so, what does it accomplish for you?

 

Deadlands Fate – Session 5

See the Deadlands Fate Collection HERE.

This session was recorded and you can hear it at theRPGAcademy.com. It was divided up over two episodes.

Episode 6 – The Searchers… of the Barn

Episode 7 – Mcabre and Mrs. Wessell

What Happened?

The first portion of this session (Episode 6) picked up directly where the previous session had left off, on the front porch of the Wessell ranch house. Sebastian continued hitting on Lizzie, while Martin and Jonah interacted more with Samuel and Jared. They agreed to stay for the next day and help with some repairs around the ranch in exchange for a lodgings and food before they headed off on their way.

Things settled into exploration mode as the PC’s started checking things out. My goal here was to make things seem completely normal, but make the players totally paranoid. This first half was all interaction role playing. The action finally came with the climax in the second half.

Jonah made the acquaintance of Lizzie’s shy but charming little daughter, Annie. He also got a strong hint that Jared was a bad dude. This scene was just freaking adorable, and was a nice contrast to the otherwise dark tone of the campaign.

We got some wonderful insights into Martin’s background and personality as he hung out in the barn with Eric and the lonely cow, Bessie. I really wanted to bring out more of his backstory, since he’d sort of just been the random holy man that had hooked up with the other two. He really won over Eric in this scene.

Sebastian kept working his way into Lizzie’s skirts, but got sabotaged by Jonah. Good times.

They found the slaughter room behind the locked door in the barn (it is a ranch, after all!), which was more than a little creepy, but completely understandable. But they also realized that for a ranch, there seemed to be a distinct lack of livestock, aside from Bessie. There was a delightful sense of paranoia at this point, but no one could really put a finger on why. Scott was the most vocal, and I was just loving it!

The next morning they woke up to a fabulous breakfast being served. The meat was very unusual, and Eric stormed out, and Annie seemed noticeably depressed. What was hilarious was that Scott was freaking out, calling out his suspicions about the meat, but didn’t let it change Martin’s actions. He had actually pinned the tail on the donkey, but I just kept my cool and kept moving forward.

Breakfast came to an abrupt halt when Eric’s friend Steve came crawling down the stairs headfirst, (thump thump! thump thump!), which got everyone’s attention. Only when he pulled himself far enough forward past the stairs did I reveal that his legs had been amputated, and only bloody bandaged stumps were left. Quickly putting 2 and 2 together, the PC’s sprung to their feet and Sebastian had his guns drawn.

A fight broke out in the dining room that was pretty cool, involving flipping tables, running out the front chased by a freight train named Jared, and some fancy gun work from Sebastian. I handled the Wessell family  very loosely in this conflict, shooting from the hip on skill levels and some simple Aspects as I felt they made sense. From my prep, I had a basic idea of what made each tick, so it wasn’t too hard at all.

During the fight, Jonah ran out of the house, and headed to the barn to burn it down. At this moment I raised the stakes and showed him a horde of zombies descending on the property. There was a unanimous reaction of “Oh shit! I forgot about the ZOMBIES!” I couldn’t have been more pleased with this moment! This was one of those priceless moments where you legitimately surprise your players. The zombies started swarming the ranch busting in through the back kitchen door and windows, and generally making a mess of the conflict in the house.

The entire scene ended with the PC’s running away from the ranch house being overrun with zombies, the barn on fire. I would have liked to spend a little more time in this final scene, but we all had to call it a night, so the end was a little rushed. They now have Eric, a teenage boy, and Annie, a little girl, in tow, which should be all sorts of interesting. I will represent those two as a group Aspect, which I’m sure will see some use.

They are headed to their first legitimate town that we’ve seen since this began, which should dramatically change the nature of their challenges and conflicts. I’ll also use it as a chance to have the players help collaboratively create some of the Places and Faces of the city (a la the City Creation rules from the Dresden Files RPG).

Finding Inspiration

I totally stole this story arc from The Walking Dead video game Season 1 Episode 2 – “Starved for Help”. I knew that none of my players had played that game, so I felt free to steal with impunity. I made quite a few changes to convert the St. John family from Walking Dead to the Wessel family in my game, but I kept to the general premise. It gave me a very clever twist that felt totally in line with our creepy Weird West setting. Honestly, even if any of them had played the game, I think there were enough initial differences to obfuscate the connection until the big reveal at the end.

Lesson – Don’t be afraid to steal ideas. Steal from movies, games, published adventures. Take good ideas wherever you find them, and then twist them to fit in your game.

-Razorstorm

Deadlands Fate – Session 4

See the Deadlands Fate Collection HERE.

This session was recorded and you can listen to the podcast at theRPGAcademy.com.

Episode 5 – Bad Day at the Watering Hole

What Happened?

This session picked up where the previous one left off, with our heroes emerging from the desert, exhausted and injured. In the distance they saw a ranch house and they headed there in hopes of finding some peace. As they neared, they saw 3 teenage boys at a watering hole between them and the ranch house. As the thirsty PC’s approached, the boys were suddenly attacked by tentacles bursting from the ground, trying to drag them towards the toothy maw that had just opened. The Desert Thing (basically a small Sarlacc Pit…) proceeded to eat one boy, and injure another, but the two survivors were saved by the PC’s. Notably, I compelled Martin’s “Quick to run” aspect to make him avoid the fight.

This was a fairly simple fight against a pretty hefty beasty. It was hard to kill, due to it’s stunt allowing it to defend with Physique (due to its massive bulk). I actually think this fight was a good illustration of aspects due to the recurring use of the Desert Thing inflicting a “Grabbed” status.

After the fight the PC’s found out that the uninjured boy, Eric, lived at the nearby ranch house, and the injured boy, Steve, lived in the nearby town. Eric was running away, but now his friend was badly injured, and they needed to take him back to the house to be cared for by Eric’s older sister, Lizzie. After learning that Lizzie was a good looking woman in her late 20’s, Sebastian perked up dramatically. They escorted the boys back to the house, and proceeded to have a very tense meeting with Eric’s family. First they met his older brothers, Samuel, the smart one, and Jared, the big mean one. It was clear early on that Jared didn’t want them there, and Samuel was to handled cautiously. Then they met Lizzie, a very polite, clever, capable, and not to mention sexy, country woman, and Sebastian was all over that action. We had to cut this interaction short due to time, and picked it up right there at our next session.

My favorite part of this was that right from the minute they spotted the ranch house, Scott (playing Martin) was  like, “guys, I’m telling you, this house is bad news!” He did an excellent job playing Martin without this suspicion (as if he wasn’t a character in a horror story), but underlying tension added a lot of fun, and continued into the next session.

 

The Desert Thing

Here is the Fate conversion I did of the Desert Thing from the Savage Worlds system, presented in the Deadlands Reloaded Marshals Handbook.

“Surprising tentacles from the sand”  “Aware of all nearby creatures”  “Very slow moving”

Skills:
Physique +4
Notice +3
Fight +3

Stunts:
Massive Bulk – Defend against physical attacks with Physique
Grabbing Tentacles – Gain a +2 to Create Advantage “Grabbed” with Fight. Attack one zone away.

Stress: 4 

 

-Razorstorm

Deadlands Fate – Session 3

See the Deadlands Fate Collection HERE.

This play session was recorded and you can listen to it at theRPGAcademy.com. It was broken up over two episodes.

Episode 3 – The Quick and the Left for Dead

Episode 4 – Dances with Chupacabra

What Happened?

This session began right where the previous had left off, with our three heroes having just jumped off the train. Introductions finally occurred, but Jonah & Sebastian did not divulge the details about Sebastian’s fugitive situation to Martin. We got the beginnngs of a conflict between Martin’s spirtuality, and Jonah’s “I blame God” baggage, which continued to grow throughout the session.

They knew that there was nothing anywhere nearby along the rail to either the East or West, but that if they headed south a few days travel through the Arizona desert they could get to several places. They knew that they were not equipped at all for this expedition, and that the desert would present a dangerous trek.

At this point I explained to them how we would be handling the desert trek mechanically, so that they could weigh their options. The main point to understand was that it was dangerous to travel at the peak of day, and while the night was least lethal, progress and foraging would be difficult. See below for the full write-up on the Arizona Desert.

They chose to follow the train tracks back just a little ways to see if they could possibly find the horses that the Apache raiders had abandoned when they attacked the train. This took them into the evening, without the possibility of making any prrogress (since they were going the wrong way!)  but with the hope of the horses giving them a significant advantage in the conflict. When it got dark, Jonah, being a “City Slicker” had had enough travelling, and made camp for them, while Sebastian and Martin kept looking for the horses. Martin was able to Create Advantage using his Mysticism to call the horses to them. Once the two horses came, Sebastian pulled a jerk move and hopped on one and promptly rode away into the night. Martin, not knowing that Jonah had arrrested him, was surprised, but thought it mostly inconsiderate. We all agreed that this would be an excellent compel for him to get pathetically lost in the dark and wind up going in a circle and ending up back in camp. He made up story that he rode off to lead some critter away from Martin. Between their various interactions, Martin now thinks that Sebastian is a fabulous fellow, and there is some tension between Martin and Jonah’s views on spirituality.

In the night, the group was attacked by a fierce desert monster called a Cupakabara (see this write-up for the full stats). The fight was fast and fierce. I had a rough time knowing how hard to make the monster to challenge the group of 3 PC’s. It actually ended up conceding before it could do too much damage. Had it just been an encounter on it’s own, without the combined pressure from the desert, it wouldn’t have been terribly meaningful, but in that context it worked pretty well. I think it also did a good job of enforcing the predatory and exotic nature of the desert. Coincidentally, it also corroborated Sebastian’s story about leading away a dangerous critter from Martin when they were getting the horses. Between their various interactions, Martin now thinks that Sebastian is a fabulous fellow, and there is some tension between Martin and Jonah’s views on spirituality.

They continued their trek through the wilderness, opting to travel for the morning, taking shelter and resting midday, then travelling for the evening and into the first phase of night, then resting again for the rest of night. To try and keep things from stagnating, I declared that they couldn’t repeat the same combination of Approach and Ability in from one exchange to the next. This resulted in some good creative problem solving as they came up with ways to shuffle their various Approaches and Abilities for best results. Their power combo was Martin being Carefully Mystic to Create Advantage to create a bonus for travel (since he had a stunt that spoke to this), and Jonah being Carefully Athletic to make the actual travel progress roll (since he had a stunt that spoke to this). They had to manage when they used different A&A combinations to ensure they could use this potent combo during their travel phases. This occasionally resulted in some situations that were somewhat questionable, but ultimately entertaining, like Sebastian using his Social Ability to “warm” everyone’s spirits against the cold night.

As we got on into the second and third day, I started throwing pumping Fate Points into the desert to up the ante. For example – I invoked the desert’s “Prairie Storms” aspect to intensify the challenge. The conflict took it’s toll, and by the time they finally “took out” the desert, every single player had at least one Consequence of some kind, and they were really sweating. But, they persevered, and a settlement appeared in the distance, to everyone’s relief.

How Did It Work?

The Fractaled Desert

Narratively, I wanted this session to focus on them working their way through the punishing desert, like a montage scene in a movie. At first, I was going to run it as a challenge, but I really wanted the desert to grind them down, with a real risk of being “taken out” by the trial. Then I had another idea, thanks to the awesomeness that is the Fate Core Google+ Community. Making use of the “Bronze Rule of Fate,” (aka- the Fate Fractal) I built the Arizona Desert as a fully statted-out opponent. I treated the whole trek as an extended conflict against the desert. Intead of a violent conflict, this was a conflict about survival skills and endurance. The Travel Progress checks, which would normally be Overcome checks, would now be “Attacks,” in that any shifts in excess of the Desert’s active resistance would deal stress on the Travel Stress track. It was one long, ongoing scene, so the stress from any fights during the trek would not recover until the conflict with the desert was resolved. If they were taken out by the desert, they would be at my mercy, which I had a plan for, but if they successfully “beat” the desert, it would fade into the background and no longer present a major obstacle.

In retrospect, I could have done without the Hunger & Thirst attempt to Create Advantage each round. It ended up just generally complicating things, and I don’t think it added much in return. While I do think it was valuable tactically, it definitely added a level of complication that I’m not really convinced was worth it.

One thing that was interesting was that this session highlighted the difference between Teamwork and Create Advantage. Teamwork only adds a +1, but it’s a guaranteed +1. While Create Advantage is potentially much more beneficial, it is by no means guaranteed.

I really like how this all played out. My only complaint would be that towards the end the selection and rotation of Approaches & Abilities got a little more mechanistic, and a bit less narrative. I stopped pushing for detailed explanations of what they were actually doing. Part of this was that we were very pressed for time towards the end and needed to wrap up quickly, so we started cutting corners, but also just because I got lazy. Nonetheless, it created a very interesting tactical challenge, I got to explore some interesting new angles in the Fate system, and everyone had fun with it, so I’d say it was a victory!

The Arizona Desert

“Mercilessly scorching Desert”  “Stark rocky cliffs”  “Scrubby vegetation”  “Terrible things stalk the night”  “Praerie Storms”

Skills

Climate +3 (Attack)

Hunger & Thirst +3 (Create Advantage)

Travel Progress +3 (Defend)

Stunts

Scorching Days, Exposed Nights – During the peak of the day (Travel phase 2) gain a +2 to Climate Attacks (total of +5), and -2 during night time (Travel phase 4 & 5) (Total of +1)

Dark Night – Due to the intense dark, it is difficult safely travel at night, as well as to forage for food or water. During the night time (Travel phase 4 & 5) gain a +2 to Travel Progress “Defense” and Hunger & Thirst Create Advantage (total of +5 each).

Travel Stress [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Each day consists of five phases. Each phase will be an exchange in the conflict with the Desert.

1 – Morning

2 – Midday

3 – Evening

4 – Late Night

5 – Early Morning

Rules of Conflict

The party must rest at least 2 phases per day. During each phase, the Desert makes a Climate attack against all members of the party individually. In order to make progress, the party must make Travel Progress “Attacks” against the Desert. The Desert makes a single Hunger & Thirst attempt to Create Advantage against the group as a whole (single Defense roll for the group) only during the phases in which the party is active. The same members cannot contribute to both the Travel Progress attack, and the Hunger & Thirst active resistance, they must choose which they will contribute to.

If you use one combination of an Approach & Ability in a particular round, you may not use that same combination for the same action type in the following round. For example, if I used Cleverly Skilled to make a Travel Progress Attack this round, I could not do the same thing next round. I could, however, make a Carefully Skilled Progress Attack.

-Razorstorm

Deadlands Fate – Sebastian Kane

See the Deadlands Fate Collection HERE.

This is one of the PC’s from our Deadlands Fate game. I’m aware that he has an extra Aspect than normal.

Sebastian Kane

High Concept: Silver Tongued Rascal
Trouble: I was Framed! (in Kansas City)
I “owe” the Witchita Witches
I’m worth more alive than dead
I’m faster than the other guy
Living the Saloon Life

Approaches

Careful
Clever +1
Flashy +1
Forceful
Quick +2
Sneaky

Abilities

Athletic
Combative +1
Influential
Skilled +1
Social +2

Stunts

Because I am a Silver Tongued Rascal I get a +2 to Sneakily Social Overcome Rolls.

Because I am faster than the other guy I get a +4 Quick Combat roll on the first action of each fight. Also, If I do lose initiative, I can trade this +4 in and go first instead.

Because I live the Saloon Life I can spend a fate point to ensure the assistance of any neutral or friendly female NPC’s

Refresh: 3

Stress: 3

Deadlands Fate – Session 2

See the Deadlands Fate Collection HERE.

We played the second session of our Deadlands Fate game right before the holidays. The recorded podcast of our session is up at theRPGAcademy.com.

Episode 2 – “The Good, the Bad, and the Zombie”

What Happened?

We jumped in right in where we left off the last time, with the dead train passengers rising from the dead. Martine fled from the zombie in his car, shutting him behind a door. He then moved through the train back towards the conductor’s car, where Jonah and Sebastian were. He reached a passenger car and saw the same scene of carnage that the others saw in the passengar car near them. Passengers rising from the dead, eyes glassy, their bodies twisted, attacking the other surviving passengers and Apache raiders alike. At this point the players suddenly thought to ask about the cowgirl they’d seen earlier. I got a big grin on my face as I let them know that in the confusion of the attack, she is nowhere to be seen.

Martine avoids the carnage by climbing on top of the passenger car, at which point he sees the cowgirl on top of the conductor car ahead of him. She swings over the edge of the train, kicking in through a window in a move that would make James Bond proud. She crashes through the window of the conductor car, where Jonah was, kicking the conductor square in the jaw, and immediately pulling her gun on Jonah. She insisted that he hand over Sebastian. To prove just how serious she is, she shoots the conductor in cold blood.

Sebastian was just outside the conductor car, and proceeds to pull a clever trick to send a stream of zombies from the nearby passenger car pouring to the conductor car, but not before Jonah managed to jump out of the way. The zombies attack the Wichita Witch assassin in the conductor car, and the last the group heard was a loud frantic chanting, and then a fiery explosion. Just outside the conductor car, Sebastian agilely makes his way up to the roof of the passenger car, where Martine has also ended up. Jonah was stuck down just outside the conductor car fending off the attacks from the zombies down there, with some assistance from covering fire from Martine up above. He turned a grapple to his advantage and leapt from the backs and shoulders of zombies up to join Martine and Sebastian on top of the passenger car. This whole sequence was pretty badass, and full of pulpy awesomeness.

At this point everyone realized that since the Witch’s explosion, the train was starting to slow down and would presumably stop, with them standing on top of a horde of zombies. Rather than get trapped up there, the heroes opted to leap from the train down a shrubby hill, with Martine’s mystically enhancing the vegetation to cushion their fall. Sebastian and Jonah had a little middair scuffle trying to make the other cushion their fall for them. It was pretty hilarious.

The train continued on down the tracks, carrying the zombies on down the line. We ended with the heroes realizing that they while they had escaped the immediate crisis, they now had a new problem on their hands. They were stranded in the middle of the Arizona desert and were completely unprepared for such a trek.

This was a super fun sequence. I felt like I invoked some legitimate horror at the beginning with the zombies, but things naturally took on a very cinematic and pulpy quality before long. The players started getting a better feel for how Creating Advantages can really be effective. The characters really started coming into sharp focus. And most importantly, everyone seemed to have a great time!

How Did It Work?

Through the train sequence, I established each car as a zone, with the platforms between them also creating another zone. We got into a bit of confusion when Sebastian tried to pull off his trick to sick the zombies from one car on the Wichita Witch Assassin in the other. I had to stop the action and sketch things out roughly (since I’m really not using tactical maps at all) to clear it up. I ended up letting Sebastian’s player, Michael, spend a Fate Point to declare that the doors opened up a certain way to pull it off. I probably made it too easy for his trick to neutralize the Witch, but it was clever, and I was just kinda rolling with stuff. In retrospect, I really like her as a recurring issue, so I’m kind of glad no one actually saw her die.

As Jonah found himself trapped on the platform with the zombies, I planned to ramp up the pressure by progressively stacking a growing teamwork bonus against him. However, he got out of that mess after the second round, so it didn’t really have time to build up that much pressure.

Frankly, there really hasn’t been anything too lethal yet. I’m still feeling my way out for how difficult different things are. A little stress was taken, and a few Fate Points were spent by the players, but there were no Consequences taken, and I didn’t spend any of my Fate Points. This was definitely a session where the “rule of cool” reigned.

I haven’t come up with a good method yet in Roll20.net to keep track visibly of PC stress, Fate Points, and aspects. The character sheets in Roll20 are just inaccessible enough, and awkward enough. Thus far, everyone has their characters on the same Google Doc, which I can easily toggle over to peak at. Not a great solution, but working… sort of.

-Razorstorm

A&A Early Playtest Reflections

I’ve been rather quiet both here on the blog and on social media lately, so I thought I’d give a quick update. Despite my lack of updates, I’ve actually had games happening! My Deadlands Fate game had it’s second session, which you can listen to a podcast of over at DnDAcademy.com. If you are interested in hearing this method in action, you really should give it a listen. I also recently started a once-a-week  lunchtime gaming group at my office. This one is a modern fantasy game heavily influenced by Dresden Files RPG and World of Darkness. I’ll get more info up on those soon!

Some Basic Reflections

 Both of those are using my Approaches & Abilities method (A&A), and thus far, I’ve been very pleased actually seeing it in action. My one disappointment is that neither campaign lend themselves to any sort of politicking, or power struggles, or even needing resources (yet), so no one in either game has made any use of the “Influential” ability. I think I can safely say that many campaigns will ignore this ability, but I don’t think I can safely say that it doesn’t matter yet. In particular, I have my eye on an Age of Arthur game using this method, which I imagine having a very Game of Thrones kind of feel, and I think that ability would see excellent use in that game. I also think my other games will see some value in it at some point, but not often.

One thing that I have really started loving about this system is that the abilities are all interpreted through the lens of the character’s aspects and Approaches. Two characters may both have Athletics at a +2, but between their different Approaches and their individual aspects, that ability means different things to each character. This is especially true for the Skilled ability.

Approaches, and Player Psychology

 One thing I’ve found myself doing is that a player will make a basic statement of what they want they want to do. I will respond with something like, “Great, that’ll be a Combative check, but HOW are you doing it?” Basically, I nail down the Ability that is being used, but let them determine the Approach. It seems to help provide helpful structure for the players. If they state an Approach without any further explanation, I usually say “What about how your doing this makes it [Approach]?” and at that point, I always get a good colorful description of what they’re doing. I feel like my original hypothesis of the A&A method is playing out as I predicted. The Abilities provide a clear anchor for the action, which makes it easier for the Approaches to drive flavor, description and characterization.

I am also occasionally finding myself saying, after they state a desired course of action, “based on what you’ve described, there’s no way you can use [Approach].” Or “if you try to do that using [Approach] then it will be harder, how else might you do it?” I usually only bother doing this to push them off of their peak Approach, to get some variety in things, and keep them on their toes. Also some things I just lock into a certain Approach. For example – I’m handling Initiative by always calling for a roll using their Quick Approach, plus an ability appropriate to the conflict. For combat (the most common example) they can use either Athletic or Combative, their choice. I’m finding that these factors keep players from always relying on their peak Approach.

To be honest, I’ve actually been surprised at how often players happily volunteer to use their secondary Approaches and Abilities instead of their peak approach. They pretty much NEVER use Approaches or Abilities that they have zeros in, but I’m honestly not surprised by this. My wife straight up said this after our first play session with her swashbuckler, Scarlet VonRosen. “Those other things may as well not exist, because I’m going to do my darndest to figure out how solve every problem using either Combative, Social, or Athletic, while being Flashy, Clever, or Sneaky.” To which I say, bravo! Instant character style and identity. There’s enough variation there to keep things interesting, but it also keeps characters focused on what makes them awesome.

I’ve also just updated the playtest doc with a few minor additions. You can get it here, if you want to give it a spin for your own game.

Deadlands Fate Collection

This post is a collection of all posts and content related to my Deadlands Fate game.

Rules and Setting

• We are playing in the setting of Deadlands, published by Pinnacle Entertainment for the Savage Worlds setting, but we are playing using the Fate RPG system by Evil Hat Productions.
• This game is using my Approaches & Abilities FAE method. At this time I have not added any other special rules related to converting Deadlands, but I probably will in the future.

Session Writeups

• Session 1 (Episode 1 below)
• Session 2 (Episode 2 below)
• Session 3 (Episodes 3 & 4 below)
• Session 4 (Episode 5 below)
• Session 5 (Episodes 6 & 7)

Podcast Recordings at theRPGAcademy.com

• Episode 1 – “3:10 to Hell”
• Episode 2 – “The Good, the Bad, and the Zombie”
• Episode 3 – The Quick and the Left for Dead
• Episode 4 – Dances with Chupacabra
• Episode 5 – Bad Day at the Watering Hole
• Episode 6 – The Searchers… of the Barn
• Episode 7 – Mcabre and Mrs. Kessel

Characters

• Sebastian Kane – Silver Tongued Rascal (played by Michael)
• Jonah Augustus – Gentleman Bounty Hunter (played by Caleb)
• Tetabiakte Martín Maldonado de Jesús – Tribeless Jesuit Mystic (played by Scott)

Bestiary

• Simple Zombies
• Arizona Desert
• Chupakabara
• Desert Thing

Resources

• We are playing the game over Roll20.net, using the Google Hangouts integration for audio/video.

Magic in A&A FAE

Here is how I’m treating magic in my campaigns I’m playing with my A&A FAE method. This includes my Deadlands Fate game, as well a few others I haven’t written about yet. I’m treating this as the standard Extra for most all of the Campaign Special Ability XYZ’s that I left an open slot for in my Ability spreads. I will probably tweak this as I deal with more specific stuff, but this will always serve as my common starting place. I see this being used easily for magic of all stripes, but also for things like Net-Running in a Cyberpunk game, or Vampiric Blood Power, or Werewolf Gnosis, or the like.

Magic (or other Campaign Special Ability)

Permission: At least one Aspect that references your special Ability

Cost: Investing points in an Ability appropriately named for your campaign (Arcane, Alchemy, Psychic, Shamanic, Mysticism, etc). Sometimes a player may opt to not invest any skill points, and simply rely on Approaches, or perhaps an Ability Swap stunt. The aspect is granting permission.

Actions: Without any investment of stunts, this ability can be used to Overcome, or Create Advantage. It can also be used to Defend against Attacks of it’s type (in a campaign featuring a variety of magics, I’d allow them all to defend against each other). It cannot be used to Attack without investment of stunts. My default, the assumption is that this Ability can be used at range, up to whatever distance you and the DM agree is appropriate.

Stunts: Beyond these two standard stunts, additional stunts can be added following the normally proscribed patterns for the A&A method.

Defend: Use this Ability combined with an Approach to Defend against any type of Attack, not simply Attacks of similar type.

Attack: Use this Ability combined with an Approach to Attack.

Ability Swap: Use another ability instead of the main ability for certain applications. Example – “Use Social instead of Druidic Magic when Creating Advantages to inflict curses on your targets.”

Simon Baltar

NOTE – This is an updated version of this character based on the playtest version of my A&A FAE Method. You can find the original HERE.

High Concept: Umbral Inquisitor Detective

Trouble: Can’t Stop When I’m On to Something

Raised by the Glitterhaegen Mean-Streets

A Loyal Servant

Graduated from the Academae with Flying Colors

Approaches

Careful +2

Clever

Flashy

Forceful +1

Quick

Sneaky +1

Abilities

Athletic +1

Combative

Influential

Skilled +1

Social

Arcane +2

Stunts:

Occult Forensics – Because I am a highly trained magical investigator, when I am Carefully Skilled and attempt to Overcome or Create Advantage while studying a scene for clues, I can add my Arcane as an additional bonus. In addition to mundane clues, this also allows him to perceive magical paraphernalia, signatures, residues, and auras.

Abjuration – Because I specialized in Abjuration magic at the Academae, I can use Carefully Arcane to Defend against any attack, not just other magical attacks.

Evocation (-2) – Because I studied Evocation combat magic at the Academae, I can Forcefully Attack with Arcane, and I gain +2 when I forcefully Overcome or Create Advantage with the same.

Extras:

Arcane Magic – Simon uses my standard Magic Extra rules. His relevant Ability is Arcane.

FAE METHOD

Approaches

Careful +3

Clever

Flashy

Forceful +2

Quick

Sneaky +2

FATE CORE METHOD

Skills

Investigate +4

Will +3

Lore +3

Stealth +2

Notice +2

Athletics +2

Deceive +1

Burglary +1

Forceful +1

Provoke +1