Spirit of the Century actual play audio

I was searching the Net the other day for some Spirit of the Century (SotC) actual play for a friend of mine who plays in my regular group. He was looking for some well-done audio. Good news: I found some.

A simple Google search brought me to a page on archive.org which houses an ample supply of SotC actual play audio recordings. Some are scenes, some are full adventures. They're pretty much all done by Mel White who records the podcast, Virtual Play.

The quality of these recordings is impressive. Most of the other actual play audio I've sampled on the Web suffers from various problems, primarily these three:

• The mic isn't good and it's really hard to hear everything that's going on
• There is a lack of focus and players are constantly making jokes
• The audio isn't edited down to the interesting bits, so you're forced to sit through all the tedium

What I love about Mel White's recordings is that he solves all three problems. His recording quality is good - you can hear all players. He keeps a lot of focus, so the adventure is always moving forward. (Part of this could be that I've been listening to sessions recorded at conventions. I can see where this kind of session would be conducive to game focus, in contrast to a group of buddies sitting around the basement table eating pizza, joking left and right.) While the audio isn't edited, as far as I can tell, it's really not an issue since there is negligible downtime.

But what makes these recordings really enjoyable to me is that Mel seems to really understand SotC. He knows how the game works, and he's good at guiding players to use the mechanics well. Listening to the situations in his adventures improves my own knowledge of the system, which will in turn improve my GMing.

If you want to hear SotC in action, download some of the files I linked to above and enjoy Mel's great work.

News: RPG Geek and PDQ#

This week, the Games on the Table News Dept has some topics of interest for you.

The new Geek in town

Don't you enjoy those times when your life is energized by the anticipation of something good? So do I. And right now, I'm really looking forward to a treat that's coming down the pipeline for roleplayers: RPG Geek.

When it comes to board gaming, BoardGameGeek is the ultimate one-stop website on the internet. They have everything you could want: community, a marketplace, a complex and comprehensive database of all the board games you can imagine, all synchronized through and through. You can track your personal collection, track plays, write reviews and articles, upload files and images - it does it all. The site is a masterpiece, meeting all the needs of people in the hobby.

Just this week, the code for BoardGameGeek was rewritten to improve functionality. Part of the upgrade to BGG 2.0 included the ability to more easily transpose the structure of BGG to other hobbies. This has been one of the constant requests from the BGG community, and now Scott Alden and his team have done it.

The first known transposition will be RPG Geek. I'm looking forward to this. Imagine one database where you can look at reviews, images, user-created files, and where you can track your own RPG collection, all the while communicating with other gamers. There are good RPG sites and communities out there, but none that do everything, especially not with the quality of the BGG interace. Get ready, my roleplaying friends. This will be a sweet site.

I'll have my eyes on the progress and release of RPG Geek. When the site is up, you know you'll hear about it here.

Swash your buckles with the new PDQ

Although I haven't yet had the opportunity to actually play or run a game using the PDQ system, I do follow the happenings of Chad Underkoffler's work on his PDQ system. The system interests me because it is rules-light, and seems to share some of the qualities I appreciate in Spirit of the Century (Fate 3.0 system). I do own Tim Gray's Questers of the Middle Realms which is built on the PDQ engine and look forward to playing it.

In late 2008, Mr. Underkoffler made available an updated version of the PDQ core rules called "PDQ#" (PDQ Sharp). This version is specifically tailored to a swashbuckling game. It is this set of rules that the upcoming Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies will be built upon.


When I first read about S7S last year, I was immediately intrigued. The idea of sky pirates and airships is just sweet to me. The airships in the Final Fantasy video game series were always fascinating, and while I didn't play Skies of Arcadia, it looked cool, and I bought the soundtrack. I love the idea of airships/sky pirates/sky sailors. (I also tried reading Paul Stewart's The Edge Chronicles, but the gritty style had me returning the book to the library before I finished the first half of the book. Still, the morsels about sky pirates were cool.)

So I was pretty excited about the concept of S7S, until I read this page in Mr. Underkoffler's blog. While the bit about "setting-heavy" isn't attractive to me, what really turns me off is this statement:

S7S has intriguing (to me) sexual politics. Each Island has a different take on gender relationships; this is intentional. I'm afraid that people won't notice it. The inclusion, here, is intended to spark intriguing thoughts: a female Viridese Warmaster interacting with a Colronan Musketeer SHOULD bring up culture-clash. I crave it.

But will other folks find it as interesting as I do?

This kind of thing would quickly spoil the good parts of an RPG for me. First of all, I work to keep "sexual" out of all my hobbies except for my marriage. But even worse is if sexuality is tied up in a world's politics. I just don't know what to think right now regarding S7S. I wonder if PDQ# would enable playing in my own world of airships and cloud islands? I have yet to read PDQ#, so I can't determine that just now. It's on my list of things to do when I get the time. Stay posted for my thoughts on PDQ and S7S in the future.

The taste of pulp

In another session or two, I'll finish the current adventure I've been GMing. It's in a fantasy setting, using the SotC rules. After that, one of the other guys is taking over as GM for a standard SotC game, by the book, with a few little mods.

In the past, I would have said, "I don't really want to play anything other than fantasy. That's part of the fun for me." I'm a big fantasy fan, hence my love for the fantasy setting in roleplaying. But now that I've been exposed to SotC, through reading the book and playing it, I've really come to appreciate the pulp genre. My tastes have adjusted to the point that I'm actually eager to play in the pulp setting now.

So, I'm psyched for the upcoming adventure, when I'll be sitting back into the player's seat. The guy who's GMing and I have been talking a lot about SotC, and how we can improve our use of it for the upcoming adventures. We've realized that we need to be much more active in our spending of Fate points and in performing maneuvers. We're also thinking of tweaking the skills system to use something other than the pyramid.

I also had a little burst of inspiration the other day and jotted down some neat ideas for the next SotC adventure I'll run. So much fun roleplaying, so little time. Drat!

So, thanks to the guys who created SotC, not only for a good system, but for writing a newbie's guide to the appreciation of pulp.

The importance of urgency in roleplaying

Out of several roleplaying sessions, you're likely to have one or two stand-out, highlight sessions. Yesterday was such a day for our group.

The PCs have been attacked numerous times during this adventure. Each time, the attack is performed by covert and unseen enemies. There has been no clue as to who is after them, or why. Until recently....

After a mid-night onslaught against the PCs, in their inn room, by 10 superbly strong men, the PCs interrogated one of them who was still conscious after the skirmish. The attackers all spoke with strange, slurred, incomprehensible speech. But this one fellow managed to utter one word, which sounded like the name of a person they knew - the head of the craftsmen's guild. The man who had welcomed them to town and given them a free booth for the craftsmen's convention.

That was two sessions ago. The following session, the players were all fired up to go find this man and do some serious talking, even though it was the middle of the night. They located the guildmaster's house and snuck around the back. Using Elros' energy magic, all three PCs hovered safely over the 10-foot wall surrounding the courtyard at the back of the house. Rwake then proceeded to climb through an open window into a small study. At the same time, Leo worked the complicated lock on the back door until it successfully unlatched. Then, as Leo opened the door, much to the PCs' dismay, alarm bells started ringing from the top of the house.

That is where we began yesterday's session. Immediately, there was a sense of urgency. The guildmaster's house was rigged with an automated alarm system that only someone like him could have crafted. The PCs heard viciously barking dogs coming down a hall toward them, accompanied by yelling voices.

This urgency was great. I was moving things along pretty quickly, in real time. I didn't want the players to have too much time to meta-game the scene. They came up with a couple of options - fight or flee. Leo and Elros chose flee. Rwake chose to stay and fight, to be consistent with his character. He requested a compel, which I honored, and he got a fate point for it.

Running back through the courtyard to the 10-foot boundary wall, Elros launched Leo and then himself over the wall, after which they both rolled successful stealth checks, keeping to the shadows outside the wall. A moment later, someone loosed three muscular attack dogs into the study where they had smelled an intruder - Rwake. Trapped in a corner between two sets of shelves, he quickly launched a paralyzing dart into one of the dogs before they lunged at him with teeth and claws.

Taking some damage, Rwake realized things were unmatched. So he decided, "I'm going to use my staff to vault over the dogs, then make a quick flying leap out the window." I asked him to roll, and his roll was a success. On the way out the window, he slammed a shoulder and twisted an ankle, but he made it out alive. Two dogs quickly ran around to the back door which Leo had left open in his retreat and darted for Rwake once again. The poison from the dart had left one of the three dogs disabled inside the house.

Elros, per Leo's recommendation, was now doing a pullup on the wall to see what was happening on the other side. Using pure mental power, Elros wielded more energy magic to float Rwake back over the wall. As Rwake left the ground, he narrowly avoided the thrown ax that someone from inside had just thrown at him through the doorway. He made a successful stealth check when he landed, and all three PCs retreated to the back of the building to come up with a plan. The sounds of locals and constables echoed from the front of the house now.

All this time, the players felt the need to keep moving, to plan quickly, and to avoid being seen. They would be regarded as criminals now, if they were seen or caught. They were almost certain they had been seen heading this direction earlier in the night. They decided that their only option was to find an answer behind the mysterious attacks before they could be found. They couldn't risk being caught.

A young urchin named Vonny Jaywhistle whom they had earlier befriended happened to be in the area that night and gave the PCs a "Pssst!" from behind a nearby building. The PCs joined him and found out that some of Vonny's friends had reported seeing the guildmaster enter his nearby warehouse earlier that night. The PCs stationed themselves in small tree-enclosed area within sight of the warehouse and took a few minutes to plan their next course of action.

Everyone came away from this session feeling good about it. Whether they were correct or incorrect in their suspicions, the players had an idea of what they wanted to do. They had a reason to move quickly. The law would now be their enemy unless they revealed the greater criminal. They had avoided unnecessary combat. Rwake had earned a fate point in the process. For the first time in a long while, they had a solid sense of direction, and much was on the line.

It's hard to line this kind of thing up. But this session reminded me how helpful urgency is to an adventure. We all came away pleased and eager for the next session.

In the player's seat: my first SotC pulp adventure

I never thought I'd want to play any setting other than fantasy. The fantasy theme is what first made roleplaying attractive to me. I'm a huge fan of fantasy and I thought I'd never want to try any other option. But alas, I play with a group who wanted to test the waters of pulp. Pulp is still a somewhat nebulous genre in my brain. The SotC book highlights many examples, and I've kind of got the idea now, but I'm certainly not comfortable with the genre yet. Having recently finished GMing our first attempt at Fate 3.0 rules, AC volunteered to GM something before we continue the campaign I am running. He suggested trying something into which he can incorporate Spirit of the Season. So this is it - my first attempt at something other than fantasy. Fortunately, while learning the Fate 3.0 rules from the SotC book, I learned a lot about playing vanilla SotC and the using the pulp genre.

This time, AC is GMing, and Llama, J, and I are playing. AC is starting off with a small adventure he has memorized from past experience, and then he'll take us on new adventures if we like it when we're done. All of us players have been getting our characters pieced together over the last couple weeks. Today, I will share with you my SotC character. We did not strictly follow the character creation rules from the book, especially when it got to giving our characters novels and co-starring in each other's novels. That isn't happening. We just created our characters with all of our stats ahead of time. So here he is, my SotC character.

Name: Grey Five
Age: 40
Height / Weight: 6 ft, 170 lbs.

Background Summary: Grey Five grew up in Dartford, England, born in 1882. His given name was Anders Tanworth, son of a public transportation systems specialist. William, his father, offered Anders almost any experience he desired, hoping to open up many doors through which Anders could walk into life. Included among his interests during his youth were hunting, fencing, reading, etiquette, and art.

When he was in his teens, his life changed without him knowing it. A scout from the Century Club happened to be in attendance at a fencing championship, which Anders had won with apparent ease. Impressed with Anders' stunning reflexes and speed, the scout made note and thereafter, the life and goings-on of Anders Tanworth were tracked and observed covertly by the Century Club. They never lost interest.

Anders continued as usual for the next couple years, thriving in all of his interests. The Great War was now a reality. One Saturday, while heading home from an errand, a man pulled him aside into an alley. The man was the scout who had been tracking Anders' progress. He explained to Ander's that the Great War was drawing into itself more people and more resources. "It's only a matter of time before you find yourself registering for the draft like other chaps your age," he said. "But I know you, Mr. Tanworth, and I have an alternate path to offer you." Anders didn't say a word, but continued listening. "My name is Oswald. I've been observing your for the last few years on behalf of the Century Club. We are prepared to offer you a position as a Centurion."

Life was a big rush following this event. Anders accepted the proposition, unable to turn down what sounded like a fascinating adventure. It might be dangerous, but certainly more interesting to him than the soldier's life. Soon after joining, he was placed in Oswald's division, the Grey Division. This division specialized in spy / assassin / operative training. Anders was trained for a short time in England, then transferred to the USA. There are only a handful of Centurions in each Color Division (this is not in the book - I made it up). The Color Divisions strip them of their true identity and instead give them a new name consisting of their Color and a number. So, Anders Tanworth ceased to roam the earth when the Grey Division adopted its new member, Grey Five.

Grey Five stuck with his upbringing. He is a proper gentleman, always wearing a suit, preferring high-buttoning jackets. He wears a bowler hat, black gloves, and glasses. Years down the road found him stationed in Hawaii for a time. While here, he befriended a young man who had adopted a hobby Grey Five had never witnessed - surfing. This young man taught Grey how to surf and it soon became one of his favorite ways to spend time off duty. He approached the engineers serving the Grey Division and asked them to design a small board which would strap on his feet and allow him to slide on various surfaces. It would need to be lightweight, bulletproof, and small enough to fit under his suit coat. The engineers said they could try anything. The final product came out just as Grey had imagined. He named it the Stuntboard and soon began training with it at the Centurion facilities. This and his modified Luger, "Claire," are his main equipment. Here is the sketch I did of Grey Five, scanned from my character sheet.

Grey Five

I think my idea for the Stuntboard goes back to the late 1980s when I had a favorite G.I. Joe character by the name of Muskrat. He came in a 2-pack and got much use. He came with a long blue machete-style blade, a rifle, and a small "swampboard" which could fit on his back or plug into his boot. I also usually gave him a whip, which I think was an accessory belonging to Croc Master. I went looking and tracked down some pictures. Below is a picture of Muskrat, totally decked out. Below that is a picture of his swampboard. This had to be the subconscious inspiration for the Stuntboard. Ah, childhood.

Now, let's get onto the stats. For those of you who are familiar with the Fate system, the following will make sense. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, I will explain briefly what all of these things are.

Aspects are some attribute belonging to your character, usually central to their life or history. Aspects are created by the player and may take any form. For instance, you could give your character the aspect Always Hungry. But aspects are usually more fun, and easier for the GM to use if you add a bit more flavor to them. So, Always Hungry might be more interesting if, instead, you named it "Does anyone else smell food?" Now the GM really has some flavor to work with.

Aspects can be used to benefit you. If you roll poorly and want to add 2 to the result, or just reroll all dice, you can pay a Fate point to the GM to gain that benefit. But, your aspects can also be compelled by the GM. This means that he can use them against you, forcing you to make a decision. So, let's say your character is trying to focus on an important task, but someone walks by with a plate of food. The GM could compel your "Does anyone else smell food?" aspect and say, "What are you going to do? You need to finish this task, but someone just walked by with rich-smelling foods. You're having a hard time resisting the urge to follow the man and ask for a bite." Now you have to either go with your hungry nature, or you can fight it. If you goes with it, the GM gives you a Fate point. If you fight it, you have to pay the GM a Fate point.

Skills are 15 things you're best at. You will have 5 levels of skills, from Average to Superb. You have more skills on each lower level, and only one thing you're Superb at. You can make this skills up, or use those listed in the book. SotC has a very thorough set of skills which meet any need for the pulp game.

Stunts are a guaranteed way of doing something well. You can make them up, or use those listed in the book. Stunts are usually related to one of your skills. For instance, if you have a character who is good at the Guns skill, he can choose from several Guns stunts which will give him a guaranteed benefit. For example, the Quick Draw stunt allows a player to draw his gun as a free action. Usually, drawing a weapon counts as a supplemental action, which gives you a -1 to your roll for a skill.

So, here are Grey Five's stats.

Aspects

1. “This will have to do.” (Quick to come up with alternatives, use anything as a weapon)
2. Fine English Gentleman (Proper and gentlemanly upbringing and behavior)
3. “I’ll be in the library.” (Loves to read and study)
4. “Leave me out of it.” (Prefers to avoid unnecessary conflicts and stay out of trifling matters)
5. “Does he ever miss?” (Accurate with guns)
6. Think Fast (Able to process matters very quickly under pressure for reasonably good outcomes)
7. “I’m pretty sure he’s telling the truth.” (convincing speaker, good at deceit)
8. Face to Face (Has a preference for doing things at face value, avoids sneaking and underhandedness if possible)
9. Stuntboard (Qualified to use his Stuntboard)
10. The Grey Division (covert spy / assassin training / athletics skill)

Skills

Superb (+5)	Athletics
Great (+4)	Guns	Rapport
Good (+3)	Academics	Alertness	Resolve
Fair (+2)	Burglary	Endurance	Stealth	Weapons
Average (+1)	Art	Deceit	Fists	Investigation	Sleight of Hand

Stunts

Stuntboard (using gadget as a stunt)
Improvements:

1. Bulletproof
2. Lightweight
3. Shoelocks

Quick Draw (Guns): Draw gun as a free action.

Acrobat (Athletics): Perform complex athletic maneuvers, like shooting while swinging on a rope. The difficulty of the task is decreased by 2 points. Rolls for falling get a +2.

Five Minute Friends (Rapport): Pay a Fate point to increase the chances of gaining good standing with a stranger in a few minutes.

Walking Library (Academics): I have knowledge equal to a library of my Academics skill level.

---

To close this post, I have the first session report for our SotC adventure!

We all sat down in the conference room after several weeks off. This time AC was in the GM seat, easily the most experienced of us all. We introduced our characters: Llama is playing as a young pyro-maniac demolitions expert named Nigel Wickston. J is playing as a big Russian special ops guy by the name of Igor Steel. One of Igor's arms is a gattling gun. J's Russian voice is fun, and a good compliment to Grey Five's British accent.

I'm going to try describing the session in present tense this time, for a change.

It's Christmas Eve. The scene begins with the three of us driving a Centurion car, receiving a radio communication from one of our commanding officers, a man who goes by "Father." He instructs us to go to the scene of a recent crime involving dynamite. The backstory is that our characters are in the middle of a larger mission to track a huge amount of missing dynamite. This recent crime could be a lead in our search. So, we head over to the scene of the crime, which happens to be the front of a pizza restaurant. In front of the building are the remains of a police car, partly blown to pieces by dynamite.

We meet up with an officer on the scene by the name of O'Malley, who happens to be an acquaintance of Nigel's. He gives us a rundown of the scene: some people with guns and dynamite are inside and there are possibly hostages. Looking through the windows we see a few figures. One shaky fellow is near the front door. He opens the door quickly, shows us a lit stick of dynamite and warns the police to stay back.

Grey Five walks up to the door carefully and prepares to talk to the shaky guy, but instead asks for a little help from Nigel - after all, dynamite fans are better at talking with dynamite fans. So Nigel pulls out a stick of dynamite and shows the guy in the doorway: "Look, I have one too!" Achieving a lucky roll on Rapport, Nigel draws the guy out the door and engages him in conversation about dynamite. While the crazy guy is standing there holding his dynamite, Grey ever so carefully reaches over and pulls the lit fuse from the stick of dynamite, rolling it up and stashing it in his coat pocket. He then slips quietly behind the guy and into the pizza parlor.

Inside there is a really big guy who points a gun at Grey. On Grey's heels, Igor also enters the parlor, gattling arm hidden from view within the sleeve of his big military coat. There is also a commanding lady behind the counter, yelling and holding the pizza parlor employee by his shirt. The big guy threatens Grey and Igor, telling them he'll shoot if they try anything.

Igor says something to the big guy. At the sound of Igor's Russian accent, the big guy stiffens up and yells: "She has agents everywhere!" Then fires a shot at Igor, which misses by a good margin. Igor then raises his gattling arm and fires a single shot at the big guy's arm, knocking him down behind the pizza counter and disarming him.

Grey runs at the counter and uses his Acrobat stunt to vault over the counter while drawing his gun, landing safely on the other side, gun pointed at the demanding lady, ready to grab the big guy's gun. The lady swings the pizza guy around and pushes him toward Grey, keeping herself hidden safely behind the pizza guy's body for a moment.

This is where the session ended. Igor and Grey are in parlor trying to deal with the criminals, and Nigel is out in the front talking shop with jittery dynamite guy. A couple guys will be out for some of the upcoming sessions. I'm not sure how we'll deal with that. We're also adding one more buddy of ours to the group. We also decided as a group to sit down when we're all available and figure out ways to tie our backstories together. J was pushing for this because it is built into the 5-phase character development as presented in the SotC book. We all agreed this would be fun, so that's coming up before too long. Who knows - maybe I'll change some of my aspects.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #12

It was our last day of work before Christ's Mass vacation, and it was a Friday (roleplaying day), so we filed into the conference room for one last session before the new year.

Last session, the party had finally defeated the monstrous spider after a long and tense battle. Today, they began by resting up. Leo and Elros had sustained some minor injuries, which Rwake was determined to heal. Pulling a bowl from his hide-sewn travel bag, Rwake began cooking some herbs in the dead spider's lair. Purple smoke filled the room and the other party members cringed as Rwake rolled up wads of spider web silk, coating them with his pungent herbal concoction. He then placed one makeshift web-bandage on Leo's wounded arm, and one on Elros' side. Rwake also took time to investigate the spider's dead body to see if he could locate a storage cavity for the spider's venom. Succeeding with +3 on his Anatomical Knowledge roll, he found the venom and soaked it up with more wads of spider silk. He then coated the poison balls with leaves from his bag and stashed them away.

Leo was eager to leave the room, so they agreed to go back to the central chamber where they rain was dripping through a hole in the ceiling. Here, they pulled out food and chomped while regaining their strength. Rwake pulled out a flattened banana-potato vegetable thing and offered some to the others, which they declined. Elros, weirded out by Rwake's food, shared some bread and dried meat with the tall jungle dweller. Rwake in turn handed Elros a handful of small nuts, which Elros accepted and found that he actually enjoyed. Elros listened in the quiet for signs of the storm dying, but thunder could still be heard above them.

After recuperating for a spell (and erasing all stress boxes - no one had any consequences), the party headed for the last unexplored corridor, just off the entry chamber. Rwake headed stealthily down the passage . . . then rolled a -3. Suddenly he managed to dislodge a large stone with one hand on the wall. The stone tumbled down, causing a loud thud and the hissing sound of many falling pebbles, kicking dust up all around them. Waiting quietly, they heard nothing in response. So Rwake, throwing caution to the wind, lit up a torch and proceeded into the room at the end of the hall. On the far wall of the room, they see an upright sarcophagus with a strange winged head.

The head of the sarcophagus began moving, in an instant revealing long tentacles and flying toward Rwake, swinging a tentacle at him. Below, the party enters the last room of Hightower Tor:

The creature was recognized by Leo (using his Academics roll of +2) to be a gronuluk. This was fun for me because the gronuluk was a creature I had created long ago, when drawing creatures for an RPG game I was creating for fun. So this was my first chance to actually use the gronuluk for something.

Rwake rolled a +3, dodging and rolling to avoid the gronuluk's suction-cup-covered tentacle. Rwake then loaded his blowgun (-1 to his action), firing a dart at the hovering creature, rolling a +4. The gronuluk rolled a +5 for flying and barely dodged the dart as it whisped by.

Elros, ready to deal some damage, drew his sword (-1 to his action, -1 for the spin earned on the gronuluk's defense) and cast some energy magic, hoping to squash the gronuluk to the floor. He rolled a +3, which the gronuluk defended against with a Flying roll of +4, resisting the force of Elros' spell. You can see Elros below, casting his energy magic, Leo at his side:

Meanwhile, Leo had pulled out a dirk, launching it at the gronuluk's open mouth. Leo rolled a +4 against the gronuluk's defense of +0. The gronuluk attempted to shrink itself, but was caught too quickly by Leo's dirk, dealing 4 stress. The gronuluk returned to its full size and shook the dirk from its mouth, swinging a tentacle now at Leo, attempting to grab him. It achieved a +1 on its roll, which Leo dodged with a +3. He had been ready for the gronuluk's retaliation and made his move flawlessly.

Rwake sprang back into action, blasting another dart at the floating creature, rolling a total of +4. The gronuluk, rolling a +5 on its Hide skill, shrunk quickly to the size of a small ball, tentacles wrapped around itself, still hovering. The dart flew past, doing no damage.

Elros, fed up with the size-shifting gronuluk leaped forward once more, slashing out with his sword. Both Elros and the gronuluk rolled a +1. Elros spent a fate point to gain +1, finally dealing 1 stress to the creature.

Leo followed Elros' attack by drawing and flinging two knives at the gronuluk's face. Again, both rolled +1s. The knives swept by the gronuluk as it dodged with its mad flying skillz.

At this point, the gameplay was beginning to feel stale. Long ago, they had defeated the "boss" of the dungeon - the dagwir zombie. Then, they faced an even tougher foe in the spider's lair. Now they were rolling poorly against this goofy little floating octopus creature. We were out of time, and weren't going to meet again until January. I had to think quick. Here is what followed:

Me: Suddenly, the gronuluk starts to shift and shrink again. It begins glowing, blue, then purple, lowering to the ground. It slowly floats down, still glowing, until it touches the ground, forming a new shape. When the glow dies down, you see a Lufan man standing before you. He coughs for a minute, then says, "Thank you! You have freed me! I was trapped in the body of that gronuluk by a magic spell and you freed me by attacking the gronuluk spell!"

[shock and laughter from the players]

"What year is it? I've been trapped here for, I don't know how long..."

J (as Leo): "How did you get like that?"

Me: "I remember I was exploring the tor for treasure. I came into this room and a wizard of some sort was there. He cast a spell on me and I've been a gronuluk ever since, mindlessly hiding out in the head of that sarcophagus. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Renk."

[more laughter and joking]

"Are you coming or leaving? Can I go with you? Are you able to heal me? I'm hurt."

[The party takes to treating his wounds from the short battle.]

AC (as Elros): "Yeah, we're leaving as soon as this storm let's up."

Me: As you are treating Renk's wounds and chatting, you hear the thunder stop. There is no more pounding of hail. Everything becomes quiet. The storm has moved on. J, tell us how you convince the others to join you as you head for our next adventure. (I had told J before hand what was coming up and that he would need to convince these guys to come with him.)

J (as Leo): "Well, I'm heading for the city of Gryborn to attend the Craftsmen's Convention. It only happens every few years. You're welcome to come with me."

[Elros and Rwake agree]

Me (as Renk): "Do you mind if I come with you? I need to get of here. I have no idea how long I've been trapped here."

[They accept his company. He gives them a ring from his hand and tells them it's a Translator's Ring. It allows the wearer to understand the languages of Mrug, Noggit, and Dagwir. They comment on how that would have been useful earlier. They exit through the main entrance to the tor and behold hail piled at the base of the hills. Leo's cart is slightly damaged and filled with hail as well.]

So that ended our little learning adventure. We all gained a better understanding of the new Fate 3 mechanics, as written in SotC. Next year, we will take a break from this campaign to play a SotC adventure using the recent released Spirit of the Season. AC will be GMing. When that is done, we plan to continue this campaign as the party heads northeast to the city of Gryborn for the Craftsmen's Convention.

For fun, here's a scan of my original sketch of a gronuluk:

And here are the special item cards I created. When the PCs found these treasures, I handed the players these cards. They are a combination of the original adventure's treasures with my own mods. The sketch art is my own. The drawings were scanned, then modded in Photoshop to create the cards.

There was much joking about this one, no one wanting to wear it for "style" reasons.

May you enjoy much good roleplaying and gaming of all other sorts during the Christmas season. Until January, it's going to be mostly board gaming posts, but keep your eyes out because I plan to write a little something about a recent RPG system discovery. Thanks for reading!

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #11

We had taken last week off on account of my wife giving birth to a new baby. But this week, I arrived back at work, ready to dive back into Hightower Tor at the Friday lunch game table. This week, it was our muscled jungle master who started off the scene - still fighting the monstrous spider. As you may remember from last time, the spider has been ignited with flames all across its hard and hairy back.

Rwake began by attempting a stunning feat.

Llama: "I use my staff to polevault up onto the spider's back."

J: "Isn't the spider still on fire?"

Me: "Yeah. He's still on fire all over his back."

Llama: "Okay, I try to land on his head."

Me: "His head's on fire too."

J: "Is the spider still taking damage from the fire?"

Me: "Yeah. He did last session and he will again on his turn."

Llama: "All right. I spend a fate point to say that there's an open spot on the spider's back where the flames have gone out, near the head."

Me: "Okay, that sounds good. Roll. The difficulty is Fair (+2)."

Let me cut in here. For those of you who may be considering GMing with Fate, you might be wondering, "How'd you decide on the difficulty?" The answer is: I just picked something that seemed not to high and not too low. I figured something like this would be possible for Rwake, but harder than Average. So I said Fair. Setting difficulties can indeed be tough sometimes. For the sake of keeping the game flowing, I recommend just picking something just as I did - not too high, not too low. I find this process of elimination easier than pinpointing the perfect difficulty. The important thing is that the PCs have fun, so just pick something and let the players give it a whirl. Below, you can see Rwake, safely perched atop the spider.

Back to the scene. Rwake rolled a -2, added his +5 for Jungle Gym skill (flipping and jumping around the jungle) for a total of +3. His plan worked, and he successfully landed square on the bare spot he had aimed for. Crouching, he grabbed the nearest crevices in the spider's neck joint and hung on for dear life.

Elros, still near the spider, plunged his sword into the spider's leg for a +7 on his Swordsmanship. This gave him one shift above the spider's +6 Athletics roll. This inflicted one stress point which rolled up to the spider's 7th and final box on his stress track, leaving only consequence boxes. Below, Elros prepares for attack, while Rwake watches from atop the spider.

Getting in on the action, little Leo sprang forward, chopping at the spider's back left leg with his Shortsword of Shock. The spider was focused on Leo, so I figured the difficulty of this slash would be Mediocre (0). The spider wasn't doing anything to defend itself. It was simply outnumbered. Leo rolled an Average (+1), dealing one stress, which rolled up to a Mild consequence. I decided the spider now had the aspect "Overwhelmed". It was surrounded, and taking damage from every side, including its flame-broiling backside.

At this point, the spider offered a "concession". Since the spider wasn't a person, I just explained that the spider was clearly backing off with no intent of further conflict. In the Fate 3.0 rules we're using, the opponents can accept the concession, or they can refuse it and keep fighting. Each player explained why he didn't want to simply leave this battle behind. The primary reason they agreed on was that they didn't want to leave this spider to consume more victims exploring these ruins. So they refused the concession, earning the spider a fate point.

The spider recognized that its attackers were still hostile and lunged at Elros once again, achieving +7 on its Melee roll. At the same time, the spider made an attempt to throw Rwake from its back. I gave the spider a -1 to his roll because I couldn't remember the exact ruling of doing two actions simultaneously with one attempt. I rolled a +2 for this attempt. Rwake used his Death Grip stunt (+2 to rolls of strength when holding an opponent) to grip a crevice in the exoskeleton with hands of super jungle strength - a roll of +4 total, saving him from being thrown. Elros, for his part, moved to dodge the spider's attack, but with a +3 roll, he was crushed between the grotesque pincers of the spider's mouth for 4 stress, then tossed aside.

Then on Rwake's turn:

Llama: "I pull out my knife and find a weak spot to stab the spider."

Me: "Oooo, so as you feeling around you discover the spot Leo had been hammering with a chisel earlier?"

Llama: "Sure - do I need to spend a fate point for that?"

Me: "Nah. That's what Fate is about. This kind of stuff works out for you guys. So do you jab the knife into Leo's crack?"

[giggling from around the table]

Rwake: "I tag the Overwhelmed aspect to get +2 on my attack for a total of . . . +6."

Me: "The spider's exoskeleton is weakened, so that's going to be a difficulty of +3. You dealt 3 stress. Your blade sinks in and ooze starts to spill out."

Players: "Eeeewwww."

Me: "So now the spider is trying to madly shake Rwake off its back. It now has the Moderate consequence of 'Half-sensing'. Rwake struck something in the spider's neck joint to hinder its senses. The spider is visibly struggling now."

Elros, still aching from his spider bite, got up and charged the spider (supplemental action for -1) and rolled a +2 for his sword attack. That gave him the shift he needed against the spider's Average (+1) roll to move the damage up to a Severe consequence. Jumping into the air and slicing a two-handed slash, Elros' sword cleaved through the spiders eyes and mouth. The spider took a new temporary aspect of 'Weakened'.

Webbing now began too shoot wildly from the spider's abdomen, near Leo. The little Lufan quickly darted around to the front of the spider (supplemental action), using his Close at Hand stunt to freely pull out a long chisel and a short carving knife. Aiming at the wounded face of the beast, Leo flung both "weapons", rolling a +2 against the spider's +3 dodge. Leo now uses the free tag of the spider's new "Weakened" aspect to reroll his Thrown Weapons skill, achieving a +5 this time. those 3 shifts of stress took the spider into the Taken Out state. Leo's knife cut through part of the spider's face, while the chisel lodged deeply into one of the eyes. The spider wriggled for a few moments, screeching its last, and finally dropped lifeless to the dusty floor of its lair.

Before dismounting, Rwake wedged his knife into the spider's neck joint and methodically broke all connections, ensuring the spider's final death. Behold below - the monstrous spider fallen. Notice Leo's chisel embedded in the spider's eye.

A post-battle examination of the room turned up a Pearl of Power, which allows the owner to enhance the benefit of one stunt per day. Elros also found a leather pouch containing 15 silver among the corpses. He kindly split the silver between the three of them and headed back to the hallway.

So, after many weeks, they have finally bested the monstrous spider, Elros reasonably damaged from the experience.

Our next session won't be until the second half of January, once we're all back from Christmas break. It will probably take another 3 weeks or so to finish this adventure. After that, AC is going to take over GMing and we're going to play through the holiday-themed, Spirit of the Season. Some of us, especially J, have been wanting to try a real SotC adventure, pulp-theme and all. While I'm not into the pulp genre, I am willing to give it a try. So, AC stepped up to run this next adventure. Once we've finished that, we'll move on to the continuation of this campaign, following the story of Elros, Leo, and Rwake. The adventure will be one of my own creations. Thanks for those of you who read these reports. Comments are always appreciated.

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #10

After skipping one week, we were back around the table, continuing the deadly battle against the monstrous spider, deep in the underground passages of Hightower tor.

When last we saw Leo, he was on the ground, having been thrown from the spider's back. Now, he sat up, noted the spider's shaggy back and quickly devised a plan. Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a phial of sticky potion and threw it so that it splashed all over the spider's hairy back. Then, reaching into a pouch of flammable powder, he tossed a handful onto the layer of sticky substance. Leo ended his turn shouting to his party members, "The spider is flammable! Hit him with fire!"

This is an example of a maneuver. This maneuver placed a temporary aspect of "flammable" on the spider. Below, you can see Leo standing next to J's newly acquired specialty Fudge dice, a gift from gaming buddy AC.

Still enraged by having been stabbed by Elros in the belly (last session), the spider shot his head down to chomp Elros in his hideous pincers. Elros only managed a +1 on his dodge, while the spider rolled a total of +3 for Melee. Elros spent a fate point to gain +1 on his roll, giving him a total of +2. Elros managed to roll mostly out of way, but stumbled on some cocooned carcasses underfoot, giving the spider an open window to deal 1 stress with a bite to the hips.

Rwake, having burned the webbing off of his legs, leaped up, grabbed his knife from the ground, and ran at the spider, brandishing a burning torch. Crossing one zone (-1 to his action), he threw the torch over the spider's head, hoping to ignite its back. He could have tagged the "flammable" aspect, but didn't, and I didn't think to recommend it, but I really should have. Rwake gets a -1 and spends a fate point to bump it up to 0. The spider got a +4 with its Athletics skill and managed to skitter to the right, avoiding the torch and positioning itself with its back to the wall, assessing its attackers. The torch landed on the ground in front of Leo. Below, Rwake runs up to throw his torch.

Recognizing his window of opportunity, Elros quickly wielded a burst of Energy magic to toss the torch once again at the spider's back. He rolled and modified total of +6. The spider, attempting to evade the torch by hiding, managed only a +2. For some reason, I used one of the spider's aspects (I can't name it here because the players don't know the spider's aspects) to add 2 to the roll, which was futile since it only got the spider's attempt up to a +4. So, having needlessly wasted one of the spider's fate points, the spider scurried backwards, climbing now up the wall, butt first. The torch got close enough to set the flammable spider aflame. This maneuver gave the spider a new temporary aspect of "On Fire". This replaced the "Flammable" aspect. Screeching out, the spider hastened its upward climb, keeping it's many eyes on the adventurers below. Below, Elros wields magically throws the torch at the spider.

Leo, using his "Close at Hand" and "Anything Goes" stunts, pulled some old rotten daggers from among the corpses at his feet. Achieving a total of +5 with his thrown weapons skill, he flung the daggers upward. I had set a difficulty for this attempt at Fair (+2). One dagger hit missed, while the other made contact with one of the spider's eyes (eye contact?), inflicting 3 stress to the spider.

On the spider's turn, it managed a +2 on its Climb skill to get a few more yards up the wall, now approaching the ceiling. All above them, the PCs could only see blackness and no sign of the ceiling. But the flames on the spider's back allowed them to keep tabs on their foe.

Rwake, thinking to use his understanding of creatures, attempted to listen to the spider to see if he could guess at what the spider's intent might be. I decided this was a long shot, and therefore gave it a difficulty of Superb (+6). Rwake rolled a -1 and gave up the attempt.

With the spider at a safe distance for the moment, Elros began discussions with his companions about possibly leaving the spider and abandoning this battle. I remembered that Elros had an aspect called "A Score to Settle", which is based on a rivalry from his past. I decided that this would make Elros unlikely to leave a conflict behind. So, I took this opportunity to compel his "A Score to Settle" aspect. He accepted my compel and received a fate point for it. This was very exciting for me because it was perhaps the first time we have ever seen a compel worked out in one of our Fate adventures. I was surprised to see that someone was actually trying to do something that went against their nature. I jumped on this opportunity, just to watch a compel work itself out. So, Elros decided to stay in the room and pursue the spider to the finish.

Elros, using Energy magic again, attempted pull to pull the spider down from the ceiling. The rest of us felt that this was not likely to realistically work out against a spider in its element. But, I finally reasoned, Elros has Energy magic as his highest ranked skill (+5) on the skill pyramid. This is what Fate is about. It may not be likely for an ordinary adventurer to pull a giant spider down from its webs with magic, but for a Fate adventurer, this kind of feat is quite possible. Characters in SotC are intended to be the best of the best, beyond normal humans. That's how we are using PCs in this adventure. So, I told him to go ahead and try. Elros rolled a +5 total. Dissatisfied with this result, he used his "Educated at Prestigious Highcloud Tower" aspect to reroll, this time getting a +6. Against the spider's +5 Climb roll, this gave Elros 1 shift. I decided this was enough to pull the spider's front legs loose. The spider was now dangling face-first, hanging onto the ceiling by its back legs.

Leo fished around in the corpses, this time finding an old rusted dirk. I set a difficulty of Great (+4), against which Leo rolled a +5 for thrown weapons skill. The spider took yet another injury to the face - 1 stress.

At this point, the players were wondering how I was going to play out the fire. After some discussion, I finally looked at my cheat sheet on my GM screen and saw that there are some fire rules. Using this table, I decided that the spider would now take 2 stress from the fire licking its exoskeleton.

The spider now pushed off the ceiling with surprising speed, dropping straight down to land on Elros. Elros rolled Athletics to dodge the attack, achieving a mere +1. Spending a fate point, he notched it up to +2. The spider rolled a +3 for Melee, smashing Elros with one leg as Elros rolled out of the way, taking 1 stress. That made it two close calls for Elros this session.

Next session, we'll see what Rwake plans to do about the flaming, furious, massive spider.

Week after week, J takes nice pictures during the session for me to use on these session reports. This week, he managed this very nice shot of his new Fudge dice, placed among a scattered pile of fate point counters. These new Fudge dice are very befitting J's style. I'm very happy for him.

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #9

After a few weeks off, the whole team was back together to pick up our adventure through Hightower tor. This week, it was Leo's turn to start us off.

Leo, pleased with his new sword, attempted to hack at the nearest spider leg he could get to. I approved the use of his Fists skill for this attempt. His Fists skill (+2), a +1 roll, and a -1 (supplemental action to get up and run at the leg) gave him a +2. Here, I mistakenly rolled using the spider's Endurance skill, which we later decided wouldn't really be the correct roll. I should have simply given the task a difficulty, or had the spider fight back with something like his Melee skill. The spider's roll, in any case, came up a +5. Leo did no damage. Below, you can see Elros and Leo positioned for attack. Our makeshift spider was quickly prepared by Llama before the game.

The spider now lifted a leg to squash Leo, rolling a total of +5 for Melee. Leo rolled for Athletics, hoping to dodge the blow, rolling a total of -1. Leo's player, J, said, "Having been trained in this type of dodging by Sporren, Leo is likely to get a successful dodge". So, using his "Trained by Sporren" aspect, J rerolled, acquiring a +3 total. I informed him that this wasn't enough to dodge the spider's +5 attack. J used Leo's "I've still got what it takes" aspect, saying, "Leo doesn't want to fail in front of his younger party members, he puts in extra effort to use the spider's leg to push off of and move himself out of the way." Adding +2 for his aspect, and spending a fate point, Leo successfully used the spider's leg to pull himself out of the way of danger, rolling to the side.

Rwake, still wrapped in webs up to the waste, pulled out a 10-inch dart, dipped it in spicy hot chubo juice, and loaded his blowgun. Aiming for the spider's eyes, he shot, rolling a -1. The spider rolled a +3, a fact I disclosed to Llama, Rwake's player. Llama used Rwake's "I can blind both eyes of a snake. With one shot. As it strikes." aspect to attempt an improved blowgun attack, paying a fate point. He rerolled, getting a +1 this time, still not enough to succeed against the dodging spider. Below you can see Rwake back in the hallway, launching his blowgun attack.

Elros harnessed as much Energy magic as he could and channeled it at Leo in an attempt to lift Leo up onto the spider's back. I decided the difficulty would be Great (+4) for this feat. After all, he didn't have much time, Leo was a relatively heavy item to lift, and he was trying to lift Leo a long way up with a lot of control. He got a base roll of -1, added his Energy Magic skill of +5, and spent a fate point to invoke his "Trained at Prestigious Highcloud Tower" aspect to add 2, giving him a total success of 2. In my magic system, this is called a Level 2 spell. Because he had rolled a high Resolve check before casting, the spell did no composure stress to him. Leo soared up and landed directly on the back of the monstrous spider.

Leo used his Close at Hand stunt to pull a chisel and hammer quickly from somewhere on his person, with no supplemental action deficit. He felt around for a joint in the spider's exoskeleton. Then, jamming his chisel into the joint, he began hammering it with all his might. Again, I allowed him to use his Fists skill (+2), since this seemed like close range melee combat to me. I gave this attempt a difficulty of Great (+4) because, according to the SotC table of breaking things, the exoskeleton was agreed by all to probably have Great thickness. Leo rolled a +2, giving him a total of 4. He would need more than that to do damage.

Elros wanted to help, so I allowed him to use a feature of Fate 2e: to spend two of his own fate points to give a +1 to Leo's roll. This gave Leo one shift, which I counted as damage against the spider. SotC experts may find some errors with my GMing in here. I admit I may not be right on with the rules, but for our group, flow and cinematics are more important than looking up rules during the session. I run my rulings by the group before using them, and they approve. Here's Leo on the huge spider.

The enraged spider screeched again and reared back to throw little Leo from his back. The spider's roll of +2, plus his Melee skill of +4, gave him a total of +6. Leo rolled a +3 for Might to hang on to the spider's hair, but lost his grip and flew back several feet to land on the hard ground, amidst piles of cocooned corpses. Stunned, he took a moment to look around and decide what to do next.

Rwake, finally fed up with his stationary state, lit a torch and burned up the webs still binding his legs, saturating the area with an acrid stench worse than burnt hair.

Elros had managed to stay safely positioned in front of the spider during all of this, and now decided to use his skill as a swordsman and attack. His initial roll was not great. But with his Swordsmanship skill and his "Never good enough" aspect (for which he spent a fate point), he boosted it up to a +6, remembering his humiliation at being defeated by the king's champion all those years ago. Strengthened by his resolve to succeed, he leaped forward, aiming a deadly stab at the spider's exposed underbelly as it launched Leo from its back. I set the difficulty of damaging the underbelly to Good (+3). This gave Elros 3 shifts. The spider took 3 damage. The sword had pierced the spider's belly, but not deeply.

We begin next time, once again, with Leo.

This was a great session. First of all, we were glad to finally be playing again after the few weeks off. But on top of that, everyone contributed to a very creative and cinematic session. AC always works hard at making Elros' actions interesting, and he really delivered today with his "make Leo fly" action. Then, on top of that, when J took the camera, he delighted us all by having Leo pull out a chisel and hammer of all things! All in all, it was an exciting session, reminding us all what a great hobby roleplaying is.

Spirit of the Century: actual play reports on RPG.net.

On the Fate Yahoo group, some GMs have posted links to actual play reports. "Actual play" means they are recording sessions of actual gameplay, the way I record them here on Games on the Table. Some are in text form, some are in audio form.

Someone recently posted a thorough actual play thread for Spirit of the Century on RPG.net. The campaign is called The Empire City Centurions. Read it here.

I appreciate when people take the huge amount of time required to write detailed accounts like this. If you are still learning Spirit of the Century, these types of actual play reports are useful for learning the mechanics by watching them in action.

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #8

With pockets full of gold pebbles, the party left the zombie's burial chamber behind, heading down another narrow hallway they had passed earlier.

Rwake crept cautiously down the hall, torch in hand. Elros and Leo followed closely behind, ready for anything. At the end of the hall, Rwake held up a hand for the others to stop. They had come to a new room. Through the doorway, they could see the forms of various sized bodies. They appeared as cocoons, wrapped in gray, silky threads. With keen awareness, Rwake noticed fine nearly-invisible strands crossing every which way over the open door. He moved his torch forward and watched as it snapped and melted the strands away. "It is as I thought," he said. "Spiderweb."

*THWIP!*

A huge stream of web gripped Rwake and pulled him into the room where the PCs could see the form of a monstrous black spider. Rwake quickly tried to cut through the strand of webbing connecting him to the spider, but his blade only stuck fast to the web. He began burning through the web with his torch, but the spider was only shooting more webbing, entwining him from the waist down.

Meanwhile, Elros readied himself in the doorway while Leo ran around to the left, flanking the spider. The spider lunged its hideous head forward to chomp on Rwake, but Rwake, quick and strong, reached out and grabbed a hold of the pincers, holding back the spider's bite. He took this window to use his "sqeak, squeaker, sqeakin" skill in an attempt to calm the massive creature. The spider's resolve roll was not enough. Rwake achieved 4 shifts. I decided to give the spider 4 composure stress. We agree that was the best way to play this out. After all, the spider's nature is to kill and eat, so being sidetracked from that seemed, in a way, detrimental to its mind.

Elros took action from the doorway, casting Energy magic, which succeeded against my set difficulty of +2. His spell grabbed Rwake with magical energy and pulled his body against the tension of the web. Rwake went floating back, stopping just in front of Elros, hovering in midair, the spiders web still connected, but pulled taut. It was a struggle of magical power against the physical sturdiness of the spider's web.

J and AC decided that it would be better for Leo to have the Mastercraft Shortsword that Elros had carried off from the knight's tomb. J paid a fate point and explained, "Hey! As it turns out, Leo's the one who took the sword!" This was a very good use of a fate point - an example of exactly what they can be utilized for. Wielding the sword, Leo discovered that this amazing weapon was surprisingly light and easy for him to grip and swing.

Leo leaped forward and sliced downward with the shortsword, attempting to sever the stretched web still gripping Rwake's floating form. His roll came out at -1. J used Leo's "Make me proud, son" aspect to reroll, drawing on Leo's need to live up to his father's expectations. The reroll came up Mediocre (0) - only a slight improvement. Spending another fate point, he added a +1 to his roll - bumping it up to Average (+1). I decided this would be reasonable for such a special weapon, especially since the web was already pulled tight. The sword severed the web, and to the astonishment of all, did not stick to the web. It sliced clean through.

This moment brought up a discussion. In SotC, players can take a Weapons skill. I didn't like the idea of each player taking a generic skill that made them good at all weapons, so I asked them to specialize. Leo's specialty is thrown weapons, as we've all seen. So when he decided to use a close range melee attack, the question arose - "How good is Leo at sword use?" I offered this option to J: how about you use the sword for the rest of this adventure, and say that when you have time, Elros is training you to use it. Then, when we start the next adventure, you can add shortsword to your weapons skill. J and the others liked this idea and agreed to proceed that way.

As soon as the web was cut, the released pressure launched Rwake back into Elros, tumbling them both to the hallway floor. The spider reared back in frustration, screaming a spider's vile chirping scream. Spotting Leo as the closest opponent, the spider swung a long front leg into Leo, collapsing him back several feet into the wall, causing 3 health stress to the little Lufan.

Rwake, still entwined from the waist down, sat up as well as he could and shot a blow dart at the spider, piercing one eye and causing 4 health stress. Since the dart was poisoned, the spider is required to roll for endurance every subsequent turn.

In the mean time, Elros jumped up (supplemental action = -1 to roll), crossed a zone (-1) and launched a direct attack with his sword. He rolled a -3, giving him -5. Invoking his "Death defying" aspect, he rerolled, totaling +3 this time. The spider rolled a +4 total on his defense. Elros' attack turned out to be valiant, but not enough.

During this action, it was requested by one player that maybe I should compel Elros' "Death defying" aspect to force him to go after the spider. I felt that this wasn't a situation where that would really be useful because the situation didn't really call for a death defying action, and because Elros' intent was already to attack the spider, so using the aspect would actually be beneficial for him. So that's how we played it out. It was a good chance, anyway, to discuss when compels would be appropriate. We're all still trying to understand these new features in Fate 3.0.

Next week, Leo's up!

Post game feedback was interesting. One player, used to Fate 2e reported that the new system feels like it is taking away from the fun because it feels so rules heavy compared to the freeform nature of Fate 2e. This player felt that our discussions and decision-making and ruling and joking during our sessions was wasting too much time which could have been used enjoying the imagination experience.

Another player, also accustomed to Fate 2e, felt that the tedious discussions and struggles of learning the new system were worth it. He seemed glad to discuss them.

The last player, used to several systems other than Fate, seemed completely content, very much enjoying learning the workings of a new system. This player loves reading RPG books and studying new systems. He explained that Fate 3.0 is a far cry from his heavy d20 experience, but he is thoroughly enjoying it all the same.

This spectrum of feedback raises a common issue for me as the GM. How do I keep all the players happy? My encouragement to the first player was to continue making the system work the way he wanted it to. That very approach is, in fact, encouraged by the Fate designers. Color should be prevalent above all. The system should be made to conform to our style of play and our idea of fun. So the goal is now to encourage every player to communicate well with the rest of us on their preferences and ideas, and to each contribute to making the game play out the way they each find to be fun. It's certainly a group effort, with a few complications, but I think this group can work it out. I reminded the players that this short adventure was our chance to break ourselves in to the new system, to struggle through the new mechanics in a throw-away type of generic hack-n-slash adventure. The next adventure, of my own creation, will hopefully suit everyone's RPing needs much more. It's the classic balance between mechanics / rules and cinematics / acting. Both must be carefully employed to maximize the fun. That is really the challenge of a roleplaying group as a whole.

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #7

At the beginning of this session, we were reminded of what a step it can be to transition from the very freeform Fate 2e to the more defined and detailed Fate 3.0. We began by taking several minutes to discuss the difference between declaring aspects and guessing aspects. Declaring involves a knowledge skill and requires no time (which distinguishes it from making assessments). Guessing aspects is a form of spending a fate point to tag an aspect you suspect to exist, known only to the GM. Declaring introduces a new aspect, guessing tags an already existing aspect. I also took this time to remind everyone that aspects are not just any feature of a person or scene. They are something that has been pre-determined by the GM or introduced during play by GM or players. They exist for the purpose of potential utilization. So, you can't just say, "I tag that guy's Black Hair aspect to get a +2 on my roll!!" Just because he has black hair doesn't mean it's an aspect.

Soon we kicked into action and Leo started us off by throwing a hammer using his thrown weapons skill and adding a +1 from Elros' defensive Overflow at the end of last session. He and the dagwir both totalled 3s - the dagwir dodged the thrown hammer.

Rwake's attempt to thrust a stab was deflected by the haft of the dagwir's mace. Elros, watching all of this, stepped in with an attack of his own. His sword went into the zombie's head and was pulled back out. Elros achieved a +4, which rolled up to the next empty box - box 9 of the dagwir's stress track.

The dagwir knight, still fighting, jabbed his mace at Elros who ducked, throwing the dagwir off balance, giving another +1 to Leo (defensive Overflow). Thoroughly frustrated by this resilient zombie, Leo launched a frenzy of small metal objects at the dagwir, which stick into him, causing him 3 shifts of damage, which rolled up to box 10.

Next, Rwake took a long-shot guess that the zombie had the aspect "scared of fire" and thrusted a torch in his face, paying a fate point to tag it. I told him that the zombie didn't have that aspect and that undead succeed on all resolve rolls. I didn't take his fate point, although, looking back, I think I should have. But, in this case, he was so far off, and this was the first attempt anyone had made at guessing an aspect - I figured, let him keep it.

Elros, creative magician that he is, decided that maybe he could confuse the dagwir by casting an illusion on his body that made him look like he was alive again. I determined the roll for the spell to succeed on the dagwir's whole body would be Good (+3). Elros rolled a -3, but used his "Educated at Prestigious Highcloud Tower" aspect to reason that, with his training, he can't fail at this kind of spell. He handed over the fate point and rerolled. This time his total was +2. He paid another fate point to invoke his "Never Good Enough" aspect, drawing on the power of his issues. The illusion was successful! But alas, the dagwir took no notice. He is undead after all. AC laughed it off though. He knew it was a stretch. But to the PCs now, their opponent looked like a fully living dagwir with non-corroded armor.

The dagwir took a sweeping mace attack at Elros who parried and used his riposte stunt, causing 1 stress to the dagwir, checking of the dagwir's last normal box. Elros rolled a +8, giving him 4 shifts - another +1 to Leo!

Next, our little Lufan friend, Leo, jumped up on the table (represented by 4 Fudge dice) as a supplemental action. From there, he proceeded to fling sharp metal objects at the dagwir's head - metal balls, small gears, clock hands - earning 3 shifts of stress. Since the dagwir's normal boxes were all checked off, this rolled up to a minor consequence (known to me to be his only consequence). I asked J to describe the consequence. J explained that the sharp objects stuck all in and around the zombie's eyes, rendering him "blinded", which became the name of his consequence. Here you can see Leo on the table (J's LEGO guy was back in action!):

At this point, I had a bit of information to give them. I had them all roll for Knowledge of Undead. Leo got a +3. I explained that Leo learned from his extensive reading that undead can only be destroyed by severing the spine. It was also decided that Rwake would have this knowledge from his +1 roll.

So, Rwake used his Vital Spot stunt to locate the weakest spot on the dagwir's spine. The tribesman was having to guess a bit because Elros' illusion was still in place, obscuring the reality of the dagwir's being. Elros thus decided to unravel the illusion as a supplemental action, then swung his sword in a attempt to slice of the dagwir's head. We took this opportunity to joke with AC that at last Elros was doing something other than stab. He finally slashed! Elros spent a fate point to tag the zombie knight's Blinded aspect, gaining a +2 - giving him a total of 5. The dagwir rolled an unfortunate +2. These 3 shifts in Elros' favor rolled up to mark of the dagwir's Taken Out box. That was it for the zombie knight, after which the adventure is named.

The zombie's head flew from the body, landing on the floor and spewing acid from the neck, as the body fell to the knees and slumped forward onto the floor, puffing up ancient dust.

On searching the body, Elros discovered the dagwir was carrying something very attractive on his belt: an ancient Mastercraft Shortsword of Shock (an item I created that gives him a few benefits when used). Now that the undead fiend was no longer a threat, the party had time to collect the gold pebbles strewn about the ground, which they did - 6 gold worth (which is a lot in our game world).

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #6

Having dispatched the noggits in the rain-dripping room, the party searched the next hallway. At the end of this hallway was another dark, dusty room. Rwake stepped in first to examine the room. Hidden among the dust were tiny sparkles of gold, strewn all about the floor. In the center of the room was a large stone table - the resting place of an ancient dagwir (big beastly humanoid) knight. Elros and Leo came up to join Rwake just as the dagwir rose up as a zombie, ready to defend his tomb. He prepared to attack Rwake, javelin in hand, spiked mace at his belt. Below you can see the party heading into the room. J forgot his LEGO dude, so for this session he borrowed a little mini from AC - a mini that well represented J's little Lufan character.

Rwake is always first initiative-wise because he has the highest alertness. He immediately used his "Vital Spot" stunt to give himself a free +2 to his next attack. Elros, having just entered the room used his Empathy skill to assess the dagwir's motives, but failed. We had a laugh because the dagwir's motives were pretty clear - javelin ready to throw and all. On the other hand, AC is really skilled at doing the unexpected, which makes the roleplaying experience better for everyone.

Leo ran past the others, quickly pulling out and launching two daggers at the dagwir zombie. The dagwir rolled a -1, but used a fate point to invoke one of his aspects, giving him a reroll, which came up even. He took 4 stress from Leo's daggers grazing him.

The dagwir let his javelin fly at Rwake, who took a meager 1 stress. Rwake quickly pounced onto the dagwir hoping to get a knife in him, engaging the dead knight in a grapple. The dagwir took 2 stress from Rwake's knife. Careful to avoid hitting Rwake in the low light, Elros stepped forward and lunged a stab at the dagwir's knee - Elros rolled 8, Dagwir rolled 4: the dagwir took 4 stress, which rolled up to 5 since he already had taken 4 stress earlier.

Leo took this time to run around to the opposite side of the room for a new vantage point. I hadn't decided on a difficulty, but he rolled a +2 ("Fair" in Fate terms), so I called it a success.

The dagwir, with Rwake in his grip, rolled using his zombie melee skill, achieving a -2. Using another aspect (and spending a fate point) to reroll, he came up with a +1 on the dice, which added to his Average (+1) skill and his Acid Spit stunt (+2) gave him a +4 total. He opened his mouth and spewed a vile stream of acid aimed at Rwake's head. Fortunately for the tribesman, he also rolled a +4, barely managing to get his head out of the way, avoiding the acid attack.

Rwake spent his next turn successfully swiveling around, effectively placing the dagwir between himself and Elros. From his new angle, Elros slid his sword blade under the leather straps on the zombie's shield and sliced them, with 7 shifts on his roll. This was a good experience for us because had had so few opportunities to resolve maneuvers. Elros used his shifts to kick the shield aside and place a 1-round aspect on the dagwir: "Where's my shield?" For those learning the SotC system, this is called a "fragile" aspect - it wears off rather quickly. Temporary aspects that hang around longer are called "sticky".

Now that the dagwir had an aspect on him, the first tag of it was free, which Leo took. After a poor initial roll, Leo used his "Trained by Sporren" aspect to reroll the dice. (Sporren was the character played by Llama in our first ever Fate adventure - he was a knife throwing master. J wove that character into Leo's backstory, which was very cool.) The dagwir struggled against Rwake, trying to secure his now shield-less side, but Leo's sidearm knife throw was perfectly aimed, causing the dagwir knight another 6 stress.

The dagwir then broke free of Rwake's grasp and swung at him with his large spiked mace. Rwake rolled, adding +2 using his "Oratune, King of the Jungle" aspect to boost his defense. After all, Rwake would have avoided animal attacks several times in his days as a jungle master. That gave him enough to avoid taking damage from the dagwir's blow.

Rwake then thrusted his knife in, causing 2 stress to the dagwir. Elros, the quick and ready swordsman managed a successful stab at the dagwir's chest, causing him 3 more stress. Leo, seeing another window of opportunity threw another knife sinking it into the dagwir's abdomen, causing 4 stress, which rolled up to 8. And the dagwir just kept fighting, as the undead are wont to do.

The dagwir now turned his attention to the Laani swordfighter, Elros, who easily blocked his swinging mace, achieving defensive Overflow. This Overflow will apply as a +1 to Leo's action when we begin next week's session.

AC played his role very well in this session, thinking outside the box, and testing various aspects of the game, giving us some laughs along the way. For this reason, I rewarded him with a fate point.

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #5

Another Friday, and another session of Fate. This week our goal was to finish this scene in which the PCs have been battling two noggit raiders.

When we left off last week, Leo had tripped and subdued the enemy we've been calling Noggit A. I spoke online with some other Fate GMs and they told me this block action (reactive tripping) really isn't allowed in the rules. Since I didn't want to look it up at the time, I had simply ruled that Leo could trip the retreating noggit. So, the noggit conceded, throwing down his weapon, as Leo jumped on his chest to hold him down. The noggit spoke to Leo in his native tongue, which sounded to Leo like just a bunch of growly nonsense. Leo didn't bother trying to communicate with the noggit. Instead, he tied his arms up so he couldn't pull anything fancy. Here you can see Leo sitting on the surrendered noggit (miniatures not to scale...):



Rwake was the first to make an attack. He had to pick up and load his blowgun, which I counted as a supplemental action, giving him a -1 to his attack roll. *THWIP*! He blasted a poisoned wooden dart across the room, connecting with Noggit B's hand. We spent the next few minutes as a group discussing how the poison ought to play out. A couple players went flipping through the SotC book looking for how poison works, and others talked about how it could realistically play out. In the end, we did what the book made it sound like we ought to do, but we still weren't sure. So, the potency of Rwake's poison beat the Endurance of the noggit. He took no stress, but did take a moderate consequence of "Poisoned". You may remember, he already had a minor consequence of "Slow movement". Discussing it later, Llama and I now have a better idea of how this should play out in the future. Below, Rwake shoots his blow dart across the room at Noggit B, who is engaged in combat with Elros. By the way, that miniature of Rwake was designed by Llama himself. Whenever we roleplay, he designs his own minis out of clay, which is very cool. After all, the more everyone invests in the game, the more fun it is for the group.



Elros took this window of time to pull a tricky sword stroke, rolling a nice +6 total, disarming Noggit B. The javelin the noggit was holding flew through the air, its tip landing in a hole in the grate in the middle of the room. After a couple seconds, the javelin had slipped all the way down the drainage shaft, out of sight. Having taken two consequences, Noggit B was now ready to join his raiding buddy in surrender. He threw his shortsword on the ground and dropped his arms, offering concession to Elros with empty hands. Elros borrowed a length of rope to tie the hands of this noggit as well. Below, Elros launches his disarming move against the now poisoned noggit. You also get a nice close-up view of some official Fudge dice (Fate is built on Fudge). Another tasty photograph taken by J (Leo's player).



Having both noggits now tied up, the PCs spent a few moments debating how they ought to deal with their prisoners. Rwake, uninterested in the negotiations, left through the northern door to scout out the next hall, from which the noggits had entered.

Leo and Elros took time to search the noggits for valuables. Over his armor, Noggit A wore a standard belt. On top of that belt, he wore another belt, loosely placed - clearly not intended to be practical. Leo decided this must be a valuable item and took it from the noggit.

Before this adventure, I created some little treasure cards. I drew some sketches of the items, scanned them, then added text in Photoshop. The belt that Leo acquired now was called the "Belt of Lifting". It allows the wearer to gain a +1 to rolls when lifting or carrying weight. I'll have to post an item card for you to see at some point. I'm really into little things like that. In our last game, the GM had a map for us that he had created, as well as drawings of places we went. He also had some other items he gave us that were images printed on paper. I'm a very visual person, so I like seeing pictures of things like items, just to see how cool they are. I always loved looking at the pro sketch art in the D&D manuals.

Leo went down the hall to follow Rwake (who had also gone and fetched the magical orb of light from the southern hallway). Elros was left with both noggits in the dripping room. Noggit A got to his feet and ran down the southern passage. Noggit B looked as if he wanted to do the same. Elros, acting on his good side (which fits the character's goals), sliced the ropes on the noggit's hands and bid him leave. AC explained to the rest of us that he figured he ought to leave the noggit on somewhat friendly terms just in case "the whole noggit army was waiting in the next room". A series of jokes and laughter ensued over the situation and we decided to end the session. Next week, the PCs have the choice to examine the next room at the end of the hall, and another narrow passage heading to the east.

One final photo J took - his bag of dice all spilled out. You can see a variety of dice, including a Magic: The Gathering countdown die, some Fate point counters on the left (Go pieces), and two sets of Fudge dice in the background. Thanks to AC for sharing his stash of Fudge dice with the group each week.