Stranger Shores: Character for a Hangout Game

On Thursday, I am GMing a hangout game in the Stranger Shore setting. The game is supposed to serve as a short introduction into FATE Core. I've prepared five characters for the players to choose from. The skills are already adjusted to reflect the latest changes to FATE Core. All characters still have aspects and skill slots for the players to customize them. The faction names are explained in this post. All characters start with Refresh 3, stress boxes are based on Physique and Will respectively (and thus not listed).

Malthusian Fallen Angel

Aspects:
High Concept: Fallen Angel
Faction: Malthusian Conspirator
Community: Shady Dealings

Skill Pyramid:
Great (+4): Contacts
Good (+3): Elemental Control (Light), Resources
Fair (+2): Fight, Shoot

Stunts & Extras: 

• Sinister Reputation: You can use Contacts instead of Intimidation to create advantages based on the fear generated by the sinister reputation you’ve cultivated for yourself and all the shady associates you have.
• Seven League Stride: By apparently walking straight into a wall or a shadow, the character can teleport to another location within one day travel of his current location. The player needs to spend a FATE point to use the stunt.
• Elemental Control (Light): Can use light to overcome obstacles, create advantages, attack and defend.

Humanist Community Leader

Aspects:
High Concept: Coarse,yet gentle Ogre
Weakness: People & things are fragile
Faction: Humanist Spokesperson

Skill Pyramid:
Great (+4): Physique
Good (+3): Provoke, Empathy
Fair (+2): Fight,

Stunts & Extras: 

• Brutal: Use Physique instead of Fighting to physically attack a physically unharmed opponent.
• Tough Hide: Armor:2 vs all attacks causing physical stress.
• Incredibly strong: gain +2 to Physique, when overcoming any physical obstacles to movement.

Demonic Geneticist

Aspects:
High Concept: Purified Demon
Weakness: Cold-wrought iron
Faction: Darwinist Geneticist
Job: Researcher at GenTech Industries

Skill Pyramid:
Great (+4): Lore
Good (+3): Elemental Control (Fire), Investigate
Fair (+2): Fight,

Stunts & Extras: 

• Scientist: Gain +2 to Lore, when creating advantages related to biological research.
• Flaming whip: Gain Weapon:2 when physically attacking with your flaming whip
• Elemental Control: Fire. You can use fire to overcome obstacles, create advantages, attack and maybe even defend.

Iconoclast Warlock

Aspects:
High Concept: Wicked Warlock of the North
Weakness: For whom the bell tolls
Faction: Iconoclast clawing at the gates of Faerie

Skill Pyramid:
Great (+4): Witchcraft
Good (+3): Lore, Will
Fair (+2): Deceive, Notice

Stunts & Extras: 

• Witchcraft: You can use the Witchcraft skill to overcome obstacles and create advantages
• Warlock: You can use the Witchcraft skill to attack and defend.
• Knowledgeable: You gain +2 with Lore when creating advantages related to the weaknesses of supernatural creatures

Albigensian Nephilim

Aspects:
High Concept: Haughty & arrogant Nephelim
Faction: Disgusted Abligensian
Community: Fear and Loathing in Juneau

Skill Pyramid:
Great (+4): Provoke
Good (+3): Sorcery, Will
Fair (+2): Fight,
Average (+1): Physique

Stunts & Extras: 

• Indomitable: Armor:2 vs all with Provoke or Witchcraft/Sorcery attacks causing mental damage
• Sorcery: You can use your Sorcery skill to overcome obstacles and create advantages
• Curse Heaven! You can use Provoke instead of Sorcery to attack people in churches, cemetaries and other sacred places mentally

Stranger Shores: Character Creation

In FATE Core, characters start out with a relative modest refresh of 3 FATE points. Something I really like, because the maximum of three stunts is easier to create than the five that are required by other FATE games. Also, it leaves the opportunity to just go with one stunt and keep your refresh higher.

On the other hand, looking at my templates, I see that most of them require one to three stunts (i.e. refresh) to build. That's a lot. Also, I don't want players to get rid of the initial mundane stunt in favor of defining themselves exclusively by the Extras. Additionally, every player character is supposed to be a supernatural creature.

Therefore, each player character receives at character creation:

• Five aspects
• A skill pyramid topped at Great (+4).
• One free stunt
• One free extra that normally costs one refresh
• Three refresh (to keep or buy additional stunts or extras)

A note about skills: initially, I had designed my own skill list for Urban Fantasy games. But that isn't really viable anymore. The list was aimed at young adults discovering the supernatural world around them. Stranger Shores deals with other issues. Therefore, I am using the default skill list with no changes at all. The list is quite servicable. Maybe I could rename Rapport to Charm, but that is also not strictly necessary. The Lore skill deals mostly knowledge about the Nightfolk, Heaven, Hell and Faerie. If it is supposed to deal with academic or scientific knowledge, you can model that by taking an appropriate stunt.

Note: This is the last post about the Stranger Shores, as I've dropped the idea. Also, one of my players remarked that it is a bit close to Vampire: The Requiem.

Stranger Shores: The Character Aspects

Since I still don't want to use the phase trio, I am defining what the five aspects should be about.

• High Concept: The aspect that tells us what your character can do and what he is at his core. Should include a reference to the type of Nightfolk your character belongs to. It will serve as the permission to take appropriate Extras.
• Weakness: Rather than a trouble aspect, the Nightfolk has specific weaknesses. Each template lists several possible weaknesses. The character is required to have a weakness in form of an aspect.
• Faction: The faction aspect should describe your membership in one of the five factions. It can include your attitude, something you do for them or your expectations about the faction. The name of the faction doesn't have to be part of the aspect, as long as it is clear from the aspect what faction you belong to. Talk to your gamemaster and your gaming group about this.
• Community: The next character aspect deals with your role among humans. How do you relate to your neighbors, what do they think about you? It can be about friendships or rivalries; about good deeds you have done or crimes you have to hide.
• Job: The last character aspect describes what you are doing to earn a living. The aspect can be about your reputation, your competence or incompetence, your profession, your attitude towards your job or  your realtions to your colleagues. Really about anything job-related (e.g. "I am the worst mechanic in town", "People just like my coffee and my smile", "I can't stand to go in the office each day", "Independently wealthy"  - again just a few quick examples, you'll come up with something better, I am sure).

Stranger Shores: Factions

Initially, I thought that going the way of a conflict between Light and Darkness, Seelie and Unseelie would be a good way to go. But then I thought: "Wouldn't it be more fun to have light and dark creatures working side by side, forced by the circumstances to co-operate? That makes for better story." Next, it became pretty obvious what the big issue is that will influence which believes a member of the Nightfolk holds. Of course it has to do with the Event. How to deal with being stranded on Earth. From there, the factions grew naturally, and I like games with factions. They represent inbuilt conflict and thus opportunity for dramatic stories. These are the factions:

• Albigenses: They refuse to live among humans. They believe that they have offended the Faerie Queens, God and/or Lucifer. Now they want to atone for their perceived sins. Most of them atone by being better monsters. The Albigenses pay lip service at best to the Silver Settlement and try to literally get away with murder. They are armed and dangerous.
• Darwinsts: The Darwinsts are, like the Humanists and Malthusians, concerned with life on Earth. More specifically with procreation of the Nightfolk. They seek to find ways to have offspring, because they want to ensure the survival of the Nightfolk. Many Darwinists have secondary leanings as Malthusians or Humanists. In fact, they sort of present a common interest between the two factions, even though they are the smallest faction because of their highly specialised interests.
• Humanists: They want to live quietly among humans. They want to adapt, even to the point of having as little contact as possible to other Nightfolk. Most keep loosely in touch and usually have a communal gathering point at a local bar run by a Humanist. Some Humanists believe that they have to battle the Malthusians and oppose that faction.
• Iconoclasts: They want to return into their own realms. They believe that they have been abonded on Earth, but that it is their birthright to return by force if necessary. They seeks ways to open the gates into the Otherworlds by any means necessary. Demons and angels among the Iconoclasts have usually turned from their purpose and renounced their believes and loyalties to Heaven and Hell. As a whole, the Iconoclasts are driven by study and the quest for knowledge.
• Malthusians: Better to reign on Earth than serve in Heaven or Hell sums up their believe. They also have adapted to living among humans, but they gravitate to positions of power and influence. Malthusians believe that they are destined to rule humanity and find purpose in subjugating political and economic institutions.

No matter which faction a member of the Nightfolk belongs to, s/he has to follow the rules laid out in the Silver Settlement.

Urban Fantasy: Stranger Shores

Note: In the next days I'll publish my notes for "Stranger Shores". I've already discarded the overall concept and will be going for something different. But after having written this already, I figured that I could as well publish it - and buy myself some more time to come up with an idea.

Finally, while starting to get my setting bible together, inspiration hit me. While I totally like Urban Fantasy, I want to do something different from the settings that have come before (e.g. Neverwhere, The World of Darkness, Urban Arcana, The Dresden Files, Supernatural, Buffy, Grimm, etc). The high school idea fell through with my players, and as much as I like Storm Calling, Storm Summoning and The Void from the FATE Core: Magic System Toolbox, I want to do my own thing. Something that I feel is uniquely my own idea. It's not going to be a mash-up like a lot of the settings in The FATE Worlds Compilation, it's going to be straight Urban Fantasy (uh..., well maybe not so straight, as I like me some queer content).

The premise, set to suitably dramatic introductory music.

On January 1, 2000 the world changed. Not for humanity, but for everyone else. The Otherworlds, whether called Faerie, Heaven or Hell simply closed. They threw out their tenants into the real world, the mortal realm, and shut their doors. Stripped of most of their powers, the faeries, angels and demons had to learn to live a mortal live. No longer immortal, they are vulnerable to accidents, diseases and violence. Only age does not hold dominion over them. Thirteen years have passed since then and the nightfolk has adapted to living unnoticed among the teeming masses of humanity, their numbers dwindled as a result of initial internecine conflicts. But cooler heads eventually prevailed, founding the Silver Settlement, delineating the rules of co-existence on Earth. In each city, a council is tasked with enforcing the rules of the settlement. You are those councillors and this is your story.

That is the premise. At first, what was still missing, was what the players are doing in the setting. I like the idea of them being some sort of police force enforcing the rule of the Silver Settlement. Unfortunately, that's also the point where it gets less original. Of course, the movie (and book franchise) Night Watch comes to mind, as well as the Wardens in the Dresden Files or Dogs in the Vinyard. But letting the player characters be a police force has several advantages. First, the player characters have a reason to stick together and involve themselves in the story. Secondly, the comment of a player about playing "competent" characters would be satisfied. Third, having them play authority figures within the setting is something I so far have rarely done, thus giving the campaign something unique. Maybe let's not call them a police force. They are not watchers, guardians or observers. They are councillors. People tasked with mediating disputes and organizing the co-existence of the various factions.

Okay, let's see what my net gains and losses are. I feel that I have a sufficiently original concept, something that hopefully engages the players. The concept offers a perspective on Urban Fantasy that I feel is somewhat unique. While the entities are still old, they are new to Earth. They are forced to contend with everyday life as oppossed to being set appart like in the World of Darkness. What I am losing is the human angle and the connections to a mortal family. Friends certainly figure into it, but no family.

Urban Fantasy: Rethinking Wizardry

I like FATE, because in it's simplicity lies beauty. The way fudge dice with their + and - symbols are beautiful, because they are uncluttered (except when they are from Q Workshop). Because I like simplicity, I am loath to work much beyond the basic framework of aspects, stunts, skills and two stress tracks (one physical, one mental) to describe things.

Wizardry with its mandatory stunt, its skill and four add-on skills is already more complex than I like.

Now, in the Google+ Fate Community, Fred Hicks has written three interesting answers to this comment about converting Ebberon:

Answer #1 by Fred Hicks:

Quick & dirty, give her a Sorcery skill that can do all four basic actions without needing any sort of equipment or justification beyond what you normally do to cast a spell as a sorcerer. Then let her do some stunts that make for particularly awesome things when she spends a fate point: "Fireball: Spend a fate point to roll one attack roll against all targets in a given zone", etc.

Answer #2 by Fred Hicks:

You could also sidestep the fate point thing, and instead give her a separate Mana Stress track. She takes a point of stress every time she casts a spell that uses one of the expanded stunt abilities; she could keep going past the end of that and start taking consequences, but that gives her a per-scene limited budget that clears out every time she gets some rest. Very D&D like.

Answer #3 by Fred Hicks:

Yeah. It might be more 'fair' to make Magic a skill that can do 2 of the 4 actions, but you can add more actions with stunts; or to make Magic more than one skill, but each skill covers a different kind of magery, i.e., one magic skill's Overcome Obstacle doesn't cover the same range of obstacles that another skill's does, etc.

Wizardry already follows these guidelines pretty closely, but still not to my satisfaction. Therefore I am rewriting Wizardry/Witchcraft/Sorcery to be a bit more generic and less precise:

Wizardry/Witchcraft/Sorcery

You still need to take a Wizardry skill and the skill can be used to overcome obstacles and create advantages. Since this is fairly flexible, it also costs you a stunt. Each time you use your Witchcraft skill, you take one point mental stress (as I don't want to introduce a new stress track).  Adding the Warlock stunt lets you use the Sorcery skill to create attack and defend. Still costs one mental stress per roll. The rest of the rules just get cut as being overly complex. When you want to do something more impressive, create another stunt for it, following the suggestions of Fred Hicks. 

Urban Fantasy: The Supernatural Part 2

Part 1 gave us a list of Extras to select from; Part 2 will show some creatures that possess the listed abilities. Of course, these aren't the only inhabitants of the supernatural side of our still unnamed setting. The creature packages will be geared towards beginnig characters in terms of costs (thus less than three stunts). In order for a player character to be that type of creature, the high concept aspect of the character should name the creature.

The currently available Extras are:

• Stunts: Anthevôke, Beast Shape, Clairvoyance, Claws & Fangs, Pass Wall, Seven League Stride, Supernatural Endurance, Wallwalker, Wings, Wizardry (wizardry has add-on stunts, but they aren't required).
• Skills: Elemental Control, Opening, Wizardry.

Remember the first design decision of the setting: There are no vampires? We'll add a second one to that: There are no demons or angels. I've run enough stories and campaigns about these kind of creatures. I would like to have something new.

Changelings

Cost: One or two stunts and one skill slot.

They aren't like the changelings from Changeling: The Dreaming or Changeling: The Lost. They are simply a catch-all category for those people born with strange abilities. Are they descended from faeries? Is there such a thing as a faery realm? We don't know yet. But maybe changelings have a connection to them, if they do exist. Something about changelings is slightly off. Their arms and legs may appear to be too long, their hair color has a shade that is a bit odd, but nothing too obvious (like blue highlights in black hair, a deep coppery red or a tinge of aubergine), their eyes may sparke with hints of gold or silver. Sometimes their faces and bodies are slightly contorted or bend. On closer inspection, they stand out.

A changeling should grab one or two stunts from Anthevôke, Clairvoyance, Claws & Fangs, Seven League Stride/Shadow Walking and/or Wallwalker. Additionally, the usually have some skill at Elemental Control or Opening.

Ghosts

Cost: One to three stunts.

Your character has already died, but something kept him from moving on to the afterlife. The trouble aspect, the Family aspect or the Relations aspect could revolve around that. Did anyone even notice that you are dead? You usually seem quite solid and are visible to others.

A ghost should take the Pass Wall stunt, and he can also take Supernatural Endurance and/or Seven League Stride. But they don't have to. Physical attacks can still hurt you and even take you out, but cannot be destroyed unless someone burns your body.

Werewolves

Cost: One to three stunts. 

Werewolves can be born or infected by the bite of another werewolf. They might follow traditional folklore and have weaknesses to silver, wolfsbane or be influenced by the moon. If the player decides that her werewolf has one or several of those weaknesses, she should work that into her character's trouble aspect.

A werewolf usually has the stunts Beast Shape, Claws & Fangs as well as Supernatural Endurance. But depending on the setting he may only have Beast Shape or Claws & Fangs. In the latter case, his werewolf shape is probably quite monstrous. Supernatural Endurance may be taken at a latter point in the game.

Witches

Cost: One to three stunts and a skill slot.

Practioners of the magical arts are commonly called witches. But they could be called magi, sorcerers or shamans. They carry a traditional mark, which may be red hair, a prominent birthmark (called a witch's teat by some) or they might be completely ordinary folk. Witches usually are born as such and can look back on a whole family line of witches. The heritage runs very often through the mother's side of the family tree, but any offspring maybe a witch, regardless of gender.

Witches have to take the Wizardry stunt (also called Witchcraft or Sorcery) and an associated skill. They may take up to two additional extras from Abjuration, Enchantment, Ritual and Warlock (each worth a stunt).

Other Creatures

The four types listed above are just meant to get you started. Maybe your character is something else entirely, like a:

• Dragon: Claws & Fangs, Wings and the skill Elemental Control "Fire".
• Murder of Crows: Beast Shape (murder of crows), Wings and Supernatural Endurance.
• Selkie: Beast Shape (seal) and maybe "Water".
• Wereraven: Beast Shape (raven) and Wings.

In the end: be creative and talk to your game master. You are not even limited to the Extras introduced in Urban Fantasy: The Supernatural Part 1. Maybe you want to be a Medusa whose natural form can turn people to stone.

Urban Fantasy: The Supernatural Part 1

With the character aspects and the skill list, I've got the high school part of the setting covered. What remains is the supernatural. That needs to be defined in order to give the players some ideas what kind of characters they can play.

I've already defined that you need a high concept aspect that describes the supernatural side of a character in order to access special abilities. Those special abilities are modelled as Extras in FATE Core. I don't want to go the route of the Dresden Files RPG, because as much as I love the setting and the rules, I think the supernatural powers are very complex. Especially since a good part of people I am playing with qualify as "casual gamers" according the Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering. So, I want to have something straight forward that doesn't need many rules behind it. Essentially, everything a player needs to know about his character should fit on his character sheet (i.e. the Extras box).

Before defining possible creatures, I want to have some example powers I can assign to them. After mulling this over, I came to the conclusion that some Extras will be modelled by additional skills that you can just add to your skill pyramid. Other Extras will cost in Stunts. But I would prefer each Extra to cost at maximum one Stunt instead of many to keep the math down and flexibility high.

Anthevôke (stunt)

This stunt is named as homage to Steve Berman's Trysts anthology. It basically describes Psychometry, the ability to read the history of an item just by handling it. This allows the character to use Research to create an advantage on an item. If the anthevôke spends a FATE point, he can use the item as intended for a scene, even without the fuel the item usually needs to run. After that scene, the item is broken and needs to be repaired with Crafts.

Beast Shape (stunt)

The character can take on the shape of an animal or in some rare cases animals. This costs a FATE point and lasts for the rest of the scene. While in animal shape, the character gains a new and separate great (+4) skill column. The skill column contains four of the skills Athletics, Fighting, Notice, Physique and Stealth. The skills replace the normal rating a character has in these skills. Common shapes and their suggested distribution are:

• Cat: great (+4) Stealth, good (+3) Athletics, fair (+2) Fighting and average (+1) Notice.
• Murder of Crows: great (+4) Notice, good (+3) Fighting, fair (+2) Athletics and average (+1) Physique.
• Raven: great (+4) Notice, good (+3) Athletics, fair (+2) Stealth and average (+1) Fighting.
• Wolf: great (+4) Fighting, good (+3) Athletics, fair (+2) Notice and average (+1) Stealth.

Note: Of course these are just suggestions and the player is encouraged to work with the game master to come up with a reasonable skill column.

Note the Second: The beast shape might change your Physique, thus changing your physical stress track!

Clairvoyance (stunt)

Once per session, the clairvoyant can enter a trance and divine the future. The player can place an aspect on the game session that can be invoked once for free.

Claws & Fangs (stunt)

The character can grow vicious claws and fangs. The character gains Weapon:2, when growing those claws and fangs.

Elemental Control (skill)

The character can control one element like fire, air, water, cold and so on. The Extra is treated as a skill that is called like the Element it controls (i.e. "Fire", "Air" or "Cold"). Element control skills cannot be used to directly overcome obstacles, but they can be used to create advantages or to attack. The can also be used to defend against opposite elements or by stopping mundane attacks with their element.

Opening (skill)

The skill Opening can be used to open locked doors and containers without needing any keys. It is a hommage to Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

Pass Walls (stunt)

The character is able to pass through solid walls, through floors and even into rock. No roll is necessary, but the character takes two mental stress for each wall he passes through.

Seven League Stride (stunt)

By apparently walking straight into a wall or a shadow, the character can teleport to another location within one day travel of his current location. The player needs to spend a FATE point to use the Extra. The ability might also be called Shadow Walking.

Supernatural Endurance (stunt)

The character gains two more physical stress boxes. Supernatural toughness is treated as an Extra, because it shouldn't be available to just anyone; only those touched by the supernatural may have extra endurance.

Wallwalker (stunt)

The character is able to walk on walls and even ceiling without much effort. He can easily bypass ground-based or height-based obstacles while doing so, thus requiring no roll to overcome the obstacle.

Wings (stunt)

The character can literally grow wings. While flying, the character can move more swiftly (two zones instead of one per exchange) and ignore ground-based and height-based obstacles.

Wizardy (skill and one or more stunts)

Wizardry is a special case. It takes a special skill to use that the player can call either Wizardry, Sorcery or Witchcraft. The skill becomes part of the skill pyramid. But he also needs a stunt to practice Witchcraft. That stunt lets him use Witchcraft instead of any other skill to overcome obstacles. In its basic form, it cannot be used to create advantages, attack or defend. Wizardry is very flexibel, because it can be used instead of any other skill. Therefore, it can only be used once each scene. Each additional use causes two mental stress. Successes with major costs and ties should create additional mental stress or consequences, representing the exhaustion the character is pushing himself to.

A sorcerer can take additional stunts to improve his performance with Sorcery:

• Abjuration: The character can use Wizardry to defend himself against attacks instead of Athletics or Will. This counts as a normal use of Wizardry, except when defending against a Warlock. Abjuration can be used as many times as the character wants to defend against attacks made with Wizardry without causing mental stress.
• Enchantment: The character can use Witchcraft to create advantages that may even be used by other characters. They follow all the rules of advantages after they have been created. Enchanting still counts as using Sorcery.
• Ritual: The character knows one reliable way to use her Wizardry to produce  a result. This ritual needs to be agreed on with the game master and doesn't count as a use of Wizardry anymore. It still can only be used to overcome an obstacle.
• Warlock: The character can use Sorcery to attack.The opponent defends either with Athletics, if the attack can be physically dodged, or with Will, if the attack is mental. The warlock decides, if he wants to do physical or mental damage.

Note: Wizardry is closely modelled on the FreeFATE version of the ability.

That's it. My initial package of powers for Urban Fantasy. I am not sure about the pricing for some of these. Maybe Beast Shape needs to cost two stunts instead of one... Feedback is welcome.

Next we are looking at some of the beasties that could populate the setting.