[Gamex 2013] Fate Core Games A-Poppin'

Robo Force in action.

We still have a couple days to go before Gamex this weekend, and there are a bunch of Fate Core games on the skedge (that's short for "schedule" -- like I said, only a couple days left, so I don't have time to type out "schedule"), so let's break 'em down.

Friday 2:00 pm: "Death of an Aristocrat" (GM: Brian Allred)

Someone must really want this guy dead. Sounds easy, but for 20k nuyen, 

there must be a catch somewhere...

I've known Brian for years -- we spent most of those years playing in a couple of weekly D&D campaigns -- but I have no idea what this game is about. Sounds cyberpunky. Nuyen... isn't that a Shadowrun thing? Regardless, I'm sure he knows what he's doing.

Friday 8:00 pm: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness" (GM: Morgan Ellis)

It's 1984 and the City is overrun by crime and corruption, the gangs control the streets, terrorism is rampant, corporations fueled by greed seek power and control, and Ninja clans lurk in the shadows. Only a small group of Mutant Animals born of some Strange Encounter, or created by Science, 

and trained in the ways of the Ninja can clean up the City. Let's play some TMNT&OS using Fate Core.

First of all, this is how you write a blurb for a convention game: evocative but totally open-ended and vague. I can only assume Morgan wrote it that way for the same reason that I write 'em that way: because holy crap, the deadline to submit games is this Friday and I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I know I'd like to run a game of whatever, so here's something compelling without going into specifics. Textbook. Anyway, I'm in this game.

Saturday 9:00 am: "Robo Force" (GM: Me!)

Robo Force is the codename for the UN's league of highly trained Action Science Commandos. Their purpose: to defend human freedom against Baron Helsingard, a ruthless megalomaniac determined to rule the world at any cost. Led by the daring Atomic Robo and armed with cutting-edge science, Robo Force never gives up the fight! Rohhh-BO!

I ran a session of this at a Dead Gamers' Society meet-up back in March, and it went pretty well, so now I've put more effort and thought into it [read: I've been watching GI Joe] with the idea that it can go even better. It's also a chance to shine it up a bit in preparation for GenCon.

Saturday 2:00 pm: "Shadowpunk - Tailchaser" (GM: Seth Halbeisen)

Backstabbing and betrayal. Business as usual. But now it's happened to you. Well, you and your team. Now you've got a crap ton of marked data and no where to sell it too. No paycheck, and it looks like the target corp wants vengeance. Just another day in paradise.

I still don't know Seth Halbeisen! I believe we're connected via Google+ or something, but that's it. He's the most prolific Strategicon Fate GM I've never met. But he keeps running these games, and players keep signing up, so that's gotta be good.

Saturday 8:00 pm: "Vikings IN Vikings: Among the Vikings" (GM: Todd VanDerWerff)
America's love affair with Vikings continues, in this brand new adventure of seafaring Norsemen. Ride out to find strange lands off somewhere in the far West, lands filled with unusual men and fearsome beasts. Characters will be provided, or you can make your own Viking.

I'm not in a position to give out awards for best game titles -- but if I were, Todd would at least be in contention. I'm really looking forward to this game, not only because Vikings and Fate Core, but because I have this weird sense of... I dunno... pride? I introduced Todd to RPGs last year when I talked him into attending OrcCon, and now here he is, running a game I helped write! (He's also running Cat and Prime Time Adventures, a game he's supremely qualified to run on account of him being a TV critic and all.) But really, the fact that he's GMing multiple indie games per Strategicon has almost nothing to do with me and almost everything to do with Todd being a natural at this stuff.

Saturday 9:00 pm: "Spirit of Hyboria"

Come adventure in a land of ruthless warriors, vengeful barbarians and dark sorcerers. Where magic is a curse, and things man was not meant to know walk the land. Where the gods are watching, so be bold and live well. All this and swords too!

Obviously, if I weren't playing in Todd's Vikings game, I'd be in this game, guaranteed. I especially appreciate the "Spirit of" construction -- it feels old-timey at this point, which I like.

Sunday 2:00 pm: "F3: Return to the Expedition to the Sinister Temple of the Reptile Cult on the Borderlands" (GM: Me!)

OMG you guys, there are totally some more problems that only a party of adventurers can solve! This ode to AD&D (via Fate Core) is a sequel to a couple games I ran at the last OrcCon. If you played in those games, come reclaim your character! If not, come claim a character before those returning players beat you to it! Experience with Fate Core not required.

More of this nonsense. It was fun at OrcCon, so I'm going to see if we can keep it going. Because if we can, I'll run one of these at every Strategicon using the same PCs. Just like before, I'm using this game as an excuse to playtest something new I've been working on, so the PCs will look a little different than they did last time.

So there you go! A lot of great Fate games, just like I said. I did not lie. If I get a chance before the con, I'll post the Robo Force and D&D-ish characters.

[Fate Core] Significant Milestones

Yeah, I'm just stealing from Fred for the title of this post, but it's so damn apropos!

Fate Core and Fate Accelerated Edition are off to the printers. I have the PDFs right here. They look pretty great. I'm pretty thrilled that my name has somehow ended up on the covers for both books. Fate Core, I expected; FAE, I did not. But Evil Hat values their editors, so hooray for Jeremy, Amanda, and me.

Y'know what else is awesome? The cover price of FAE. Take that, Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition! I like Savage Worlds a whole lot -- I just never thought I'd see a mass-produced core RPG book that undercut its price point so severely. It's a good time to be a cheap bastard.

Anyway, I seem to have a bit more Fate System Toolkit work to do here -- editors, amirite? -- so I'd better get back to that, but I couldn't help crowing a bit about these two books.

[Off-Topic] Kickstarters Ahoy!

After all this time without a post, you'd think the first thing I'd talk about would be how things went at ECCC, or those D&D-ish Fate Core characters from OrcCon, or what you can expect to see in the Fate System Toolkit, or any number of other Fate-relevant things.

But nope! Instead I'm gonna pimp some Kickstarters (most of which are, admittedly, Fate-relevant).

Fate Dice

It's a funny thing -- in the playtester feedback for Fate Accelerated Edition (and Fate Core too, I'm sure), we kept getting people correcting "Fate dice" to "Fudge dice." But of course, they didn't know of Evil Hat's plan to make their own "premium Fudge dice" to accompany all this Fate Core stuff that's about to come out. It only makes sense, from a business perspective. May as well sell the dice as well as the game, y'know?

Anyway, no surprise, this one's a runaway success, with (as of this posting) one stretch goal already hit (Atomic Robo dice!) and 30 days to go.

Why you should back it: They're great looking dice. You need more dice. Get more dice. Plus, it'll increase the world supply of Fudge -- I mean, Fate dice, and that's only a good thing.

Fudge It! Fudge Dice Infusion

I know Rustyn, sorta -- we're more like acquaintances, I guess -- but even if I didn't I'd still give her Fudge dice Kickstarter a shout-out. What sets this apart from the Fate dice Kickstarter (so far) is that she's taking a very democratic approach to the colors and inks of dice that'll be produced, which I think is pretty cool.

Unfortunately, as of this posting, she's still more than $2,000 below her initial goal with only 11 days to get there. I'm going to pin that on some bad timing, which has put her more or less in direct competition with Evil Hat for Fudge dice-related Kickstarter dollars. But it'd be a shame if that stopped her from getting more pretty, pretty Fudge dice on the market.

Why you should back it: More pretty, pretty Fudge dice on the market! Plus, her video's funny. That's worth at least a few bucks right there. If you can, throw $10 at this one and still back Fate Dice. Both deserve support.

Professional MP3 Background Loops for Roleplaying Games

Okay, fine, I know Wes Otis too, but again, even if I didn't, I'd call this one out.

Generally speaking, I don't care about background music for the games I run. And when I'm a player in a game with background music, if the music's any good I'll get totally distracted by it (as awesome as Colin Jessup's SotC Star Wars hack Spirit of the Force was, I couldn't help but call out the names of the tracks he'd play from the Star Wars scores, because I'm some kinda jerk). And if it's not, I'll be totally distracted by it, but not in a good way. What I'd much prefer is something that just sets the tone and lends ambiance.

Which is exactly what Wes has done here! It's like he read my mind. And you guys, I don't like to swear on this thing, but these tracks are [REDACTED] charming. Wes is an audio engineer by trade, and it really shows here. Go listen to the samples. It will not surprise you that he's raised north of $14K when his initial goal was a paltry $1,000.

Why you should back it: [REDACTED] CHARMING! Plus, having more resources like this available to the general gamer population would be very cool. It's a worthwhile product.

Precision Machined Metal Dice

For the record, I do not know Amber Rix.

But I did back her previous campaign for Precision Machined Dice, and I'm very pleased with the terrifyingly sharp stainless-steel cubes I got out of it. There, she demonstrated very clearly how dedicated she is to making the most precise dice she can, with the math to back that up. And to Hell with you and your precious wooden table surface! TITANIUM DICE!

Her current campaign, however, is to produce metal dice meant to be actually used at the table, instead of put on a shelf and feared. (My stainless-steel 2d6 are on a shelf.) Amber has a proven track record, and this thing's already blasted way past its initial goal of $4,000. As of this posting, it's at $67K and change, with a little under two days to go. (Her previous campaign hit $153K.)

Why you should back it: Quality product, history of success, dice that'll knock over every mini on the table every time you roll 'em. What's not to like?

Okay, that's it for promoting other people's work. Next post, it's back to me, me, me!

[ARRPG] Tabletop Day and Fate Core

Tomorrow, as part of like three things (International Tabletop Day, the Indie RPG Project, and the Dead Gamers Society), I'm running a game of Atomic Robo at Cal State Fullerton. Click here for further details on the when and where.

The whole event is all about Fate, so there'll also be David Hill and Filamena Young running Apotheosis Drive X and White Picket Witches, respectively, and someone I don't think I know will be running Spirit of the Century, which now feels like a real blast from the past even though it came out, like, less than seven years ago. Fate Fate Fate!

As for the ARRPG game, you can probably guess from the picture up top that it's inspired by the old Robo Force cartoon from the '80s. If you're anything like me -- by which I mean "an old person" -- you watched Robo Force just about every day after school without really noticing just how utterly ridiculous it was. (Remember the episode when Robo breakdances? Yeah, that happened.) I still have the action-science figures.

Anyway, most of that show was reputedly based on Tesladyne's real-life clashes with dissociated Department Zero branches and DELPHI cells -- and not Baron Helsingard, like it was in the show, although that'd explain why the main badguy's named General Nul -- so we're going to play a game of that. I've been watching way too much Robo Force on YouTube lately, so please, come on out and make that sacrifice worthwhile.

Ro-BO!

[Fate Core] Games at ECCC! UPDATED!

Where will the Fate Core and Atomic Robo gaming be at Emerald City Comic Con? And will it be raining in that room?

I can't answer the second question (yet), but as to the matter of location, it looks like we'll be we are on the lower level of The Conference Center. That's the building across the street from the convention center, apparently. That's where Story Games Seattle will be, so that seems like the most likely place for us to set up shop too. We have a dedicated table just for Atomic Robo games at a circular table in the Story Games Seattle area. Many thanks to Ed Healy and Ben Robbins for securing that for us.

That said, it's possible that there's a better place for us in the conference center proper, but I kinda doubt it. As I may have mentioned, I haven't been able to get anyone to give me a definitive answer on where, when, and how other tabletop gaming is happening at the con, but from the website it looks like it's all going to be in The Conference Center. The really good news is that it's open until midnight, so we can run games fairly late.

I'm planning on running at least two more games of ARRPG this weekend: Saturday afternoon at 1:00, and Sunday morning at 9:00. Morgan's also around to GM it and the Fate Core Tron game we will obviously force him to run. Sunday, a local playtester named John Powell will also be there to run a game. So yeah, Atomic Robo games are happening.

Regardless, sign up for games at Table G-4. That's where Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener will be flogging their wares. Here's a map:

You can also sign up for games in the Story Games Seattle area, by their big sign next to the Gamma Ray Games table.

[Fate Core] ECCC and Fate Con

So! Coupla things coming up for Fate Core fans on the West Coast and/or who enjoy travel.

Next weekend, March 1st through 3rd, Morgan Ellis and I will be up at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle running Fate stuff. Most notably, we'll both be running Atomic Robo, and probably something else using Fate Core too. (Put in your requests for Morgan's Tron game now.) And maybe something else entirely that's not even Fate. Hey, we like all kinds of games!

When will we be running them, and where in the convention center will those games be taking place? I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea! Every attempt I've made to even see something resembling a schedule of games, let alone put something on it, has met with utter failure at best and apparent apathy at worst.

So here's what we're gonna do. For the ARRPG games, we'll see about having a sign-up sheet on-site, hopefully at the Comixology booth, if we can swing that. One of those ARRPG games will be Sunday morning (sometime, somewhere) and Brian and Scott will both be players, so take note.

The other Fate Core games... I dunno. I'll post something here next Friday when I actually get there and see what we're working with. Follow me on Twitter for specifics. There will be tweets.

After that, on April 13th, at Endgame in Oakland, CA, the first-ever Fate Con will happen with a vengeance. Two time slots, 10 am to 2 pm and 3 pm to 7 pm, with as many as seven games per slot (man, I gotta get up to Endgame sometime). So maybe 14 Fate Core games in a single day! That's crazy. Go up there and make it happen. Me, I have a prior engagement, so sadly I won't be able to be there. But you -- you should totally go. It's not the sort of thing you want to miss, unless you've already told your wife that nothing's more important that weekend than going to see this play for her birthday, and even if there were a convention that weekend -- which there wasn't when you said that -- you'd bail on it without hesitation for her sake. That's just a f'rinstance.

[OrcCon 2013] D&D-ish Fate Core PCs

Hey, I almost totally forgot to post these Fate Core characters for my games at OrcCon this Sunday, F1: Expedition to the Sinister Temple of the Reptile Cult on the Borderlands and F2: Descent into the Tower of the Silver Demonweb at Dunwater!

So here they are. Enjoy picking them apart, if you're the kind of person who does that.

On that note, I should mention that they're not, strictly speaking, by-the-book Fate Core characters. They're more of a product of hacking Atomic Robo. But Atomic Robo's built on Fate Core, so... it counts!

And don't forget, I'm running Atomic Robo Saturday morning -- a scenario I prepared a couple months ago but never ran called Atomic Robo and the Invaders from Mars. Here are those characters, too, if you want to see them.

Oh, how's Atomic Robo coming along? Well, thank you. Getting stuck in the canonic character write-ups now, in between prepping for the weekend's gaming. Brian Clevinger, as I may have mentioned before, kindly wrote brief bios for close to 30 characters from the pages of Atomic Robo, some of whom had never before been given anything more than a name and a face. Now we know all about 'em! I'll post a few of those next week -- they're fun.

Also coming soon: info on Fate games I'm running at Emerald City Comic Con! Stay tuned!