Sand & Silk: The setting pitch

The orcs are leaving their ancient northern mountain strongholds to conquer the Jasareef Empire. Their cunning half-orc leader Grask Skullcrusher and his cabal of fiendish warlocks plan to subjugate the human cities. General Ashourina Palasar has suffered a crushing defeat at the battle of White Water Springs against the orc hordes. The general herself has gone missing in the aftermath of the battle. The situation is looking grim and dire indeed in the north.

Yet in the southernmost province, where the Doomglaroon river winds its way through a steep canyon in the Nadashareen desert into the Eloysian sea, life goes on as always. The troubles in the north are just distant echos heard through rumors and tales of veteran soldiers. Sharamsar, the poisoned jewel of the Jasareef empire languishes in the sweltering heat and humidity of the river delta beneath the twin temples of Relkas and Tanit. The monotony of the passing days only disturbed by the arrival of a new governor, the estranged Prince Shaybo Khadon who has been exiled by his step-brother the emperor to this remote backwater city. The arrival of the prince and his court signals a shift in the balance of power with in the provincial capital.

When you realize that the past is past...

For the past month or so, I've been working on a campaign setting for the new Dungeons & Dragons game (5th edition to some, Next to others, D&D to me). It wasn't a new campaign setting, it was a coherent amalgamation of nearly all my ideas regarding a fantasy game settings of the past 28 years ago (except for the Drowning Woods). I wrote 20K words, about 117K characters, only to realize that setting might jam on paper, but that all in all it felt hollow and stale. The oldest parts of the setting are from the 1980ies and follow close in Tolkien's and to a lesser degree Eddings' footsteps. The newest parts are from about 10 years ago, and started with a dream. They are a grittier, more daring, at least that's what I tell myself. I took time and did a map in Campaign Hexographer that is based on an original map from 1990 drawn during my stay in the US. All the pieces fit together and finally make sense, even though some parts of the setting exist solely, because everything should have a place there. The setting roughly covers a continent the size of Europe without Russia. I have the mythology down, a total of 20 deities, and a history stretching back ten thousand years. At least in broad strokes.

Then I set back and took a look at the setting. I even started to construct the map for the campaign area. But gradually I realized that the setting is complete, but that maybe I just don't want to play there. It feels dated, it doesn't match my current sensibilities.

My influences on the setting were:

• Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
• David Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon
• Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon
• Diana L. Paxson's The White Raven
• Mercedes Lackey's The Last Herald Mage
• A hint of Robert Asprin's & Lynn Abbey's Sanctuary
• The AD&D 2nd Edition Historical Reference series (Age of Heroes, The Celts)
• Myranor (a setting for the German role-playing game The Dark Eye)

All in all pretty standard, but my tastes have changed in the last 28 years (maybe not changed, but shifted). Instead of the above I would rather like to DM in a settting inspired by:

• Richard Morgan's World in Need of Heroes (The Steel Remains, The Cold Commands, The Dark Defiles)
• Tanith Lee's Tales of the Flat Earth
• Mary Renault's The Persian Boy
• More than a hint of Robert Asprin's & Lynn Abbey's Sanctuary
• The Spartacus TV Series (Gods of the Arena, Blood & Sand, Vengeance, War of the Damned)
• The Vikings TV Series
• The setting of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (just plain awesome)

In short, a somewhat grittier, edgier, moodier, darker and more exotic setting. A setting of sands and silk, sweltering nights and desperate days, splendor and decadence. A setting that marginalizes the standard races like halflings, dwarves, elves and gnomes, and instead features dragonborn, tieflings and drow. And I guess, I just hit on my working title Sand & Silk.

Methods for Shared Setting Building

The various FATE games thrive on communal setting building. It seems to be hard-wired into the mindset of the game. Today I'd like to take a look at the different methods out there.

FATE Core

The group selects two issues and turns them into aspects, then creates a couple of NPCs to attach as "faces" to the issues, and after that creates some important locations and their faces. The Dresden Files RPG works similar, as it served as the blueprint for that method.

Diaspora

Each member of the group rolls up some game values for a system or two in the local cluster, then assigns aspects to the systems and connects them to the other systems.

Starblazer Adventures/Legends of Anglerre

Everyone marks a small circle on a piece of paper, then lines are drawn from the circle to the nearest edge of the paper. This partitions the map into sectors, city quarters or large natural features. Then everybody again places circles inside the map partitions. Each area and each circle gets a name and an aspect. Instant map of the game area with aspects and names.

White Picket Witches

Each player creates a Place of Power defined by a Leitmotif (basically a theme song) and assigns three of the seven Assets of the game at Great, Good and Fair level to the place. Name the place and you are good to go.

That's a very quick rundown of the currently available methods as starting place to create my own (or decide which one I like best). I admit that I am partial to the White Picket Witches method.

The Invisible Light

Sometimes you realize you are not only late to the party, but that the party is already over. About two weeks ago I discovered the Scissor Sisters. More specifically this:

Yesterday, I finally realized why the voice reading the final lyrics sounded so familiar: Sir Ian McKellan was reading them. Yes, sometimes I am really stupid that way.

I so want to turn this into a FATE hack. It reminds me a bit of the old Frankie Goes to Hollywood song "Welcome to the Pleasuredome".

"Babylon,
Where bricks of mortared diamonds tower,
Sailor's lust and swagger blazing in woman's beams,
Whose lazy gaze penetrates this sparkling theater of excess and strobed delights,
Painted whores, sexual gladiators, fiercely old party children,
All wake from their slumber to debut the bacchanal.
Come to the light! Into the light! The invisible light."

Only I don't have any idea how to do this. I don't even know, if I got the lyrics right. And probably no one is going to want to play the resulting game with me.

Somehow, I visualize this as an old, rundown club dating back to 80ies, visited by aging drag queens, younger (but not young) hypersexualized leathermen, older gay men and their friends hanging out and dancing   in the flashing lights. Yet, after midnight, a bacchanal starts. The club works its own magic. The men and women visiting the club each having paid their price to partake of a special kind of magic. Something that recharges at the club and carries them through the day. But each night, they are drawn back to the dingy club, meeting the same old crowd and feeling strangely at home. They are of the night and know about the strange dangers lurking in the backstreets of downtown. Guardians against the darkness.

As the face of this club I visualize:

Reginald "Regina" Frazier
Canon aspect: Aging drag-queen bouncer
Tragic flaw: Sucker for a handsome face
Casting aspect: Peter Dinklage in drag
Further aspect: A Heart of Gold
Further aspect: The Babylon is my life's work

Assets: Great (+4) Classy, Good (+3) Dangerous, Fair (+2) Sensitive
Stunts: "Tell me your story" (+2 on rolls with Sensitive to get people to open up)

Note: I used White Picket Witches to do the aspects and stats, because that's the quickest way to do them at the moment.

Don't ask me all where this is coming from. I should probably watch less "Lost Girl" and try to catch more sleep.

White Picket Witches: Preparing a Convention Game

On Saturday, there will be the first ever Gratisrollenspieltag (the German version of the Free RPG Day). I've volunteered to run a game of White Picket Witches with FATE Core at the FLGS in Nuremberg. Now, all I need to do is prepare for a four hour gaming slot. Time will most likely be to short to explain FATE, build the setting and have an enjoyable adventure. Therefore I am thinking about preping something beforehand and let the players fill in the blanks. My ideas so far:

• Give the whole session a theme/premisse to work from.
• Strip the game down to three families and prepare the name, a starting aspect and assign the type of magic practiced by the family. At the convention, I'll let each player come up with one additional aspect, until each family has three of them.
• Have a list of possible places of power prepared and let the players pick about three and design them.
• The character sheets will be half prepared. I will assign a name, a type of magic and some of the aspects (childhood to tie them together, heritage to tie them to the family; leaving canon aspect, tragic flaw and casting to be decided by the player. Maybe I'll do part of the canon aspect.) Also, the magic spell and a stunt will have been chosen already.
• Let them create two antagonists.
• Create one metaplot beforehand that will be the focus of the session.

That should cover me? Maybe as a back-up I'll have Mr Scratch and/or May ready.

The premise will be: "You are scions of the five families (well at least of three of them). You spend your childhood on the island getting into all sorts of trouble, and then left for college. Four years later, you are back together on Moon Island. You all have changed, but the island hasn't."

The three families will be named as Gardner, Gifford and Grant. The others (not appearing) will be Hargrove, Haynes and Howard. But the Howards have vanished.

• The Gardners are practicing Muscle Work and are "As one with the earth and the island".
• The Giffords are practicing Bone Work and are "As a blight upon joy and happiness"
• The Grants are practicing Breath Work and are a "Pillar of the community and the church"

Possible Places of Power:

• Abandoned Howard Estate
• Black Rock Forest
• Boat House Diner
• Canary Beach
• Moon Island High School
• Morgan Creek Resort
• Some other place the players think about

The metaplot will be "The families' crypts have been opened and the rest of the dead has been disturbed."

Do you think this will get me through a four hour convention game?

White Picket Witches: Stunts for Brain Work

I've defined Brain Work as "the magic of magic. The power to alter leylines and Places of Power. The crystal clarity of thought. The way to read and control thoughts. Aligned with time." Now it's time to give the usual three spells as an example of what Brain Work can do.

Eye of the Storm: On a Great (+4) or better roll and spending a FATE point, the witch creates a temporary Place of Power around herself. The magic will dissipate at the end of the next scene, but until then, Face-Offs can happen here. The Place of Power is heavily tinged with the personality of the witch and yet not as powerful as a real Place of Power. There is no Leitmotiv, it has only one FATE point and the highest Asset of the witch becomes the only asset of the place at Fair (+2).

The Dragon's Path: On a Great (+4) or better roll, the witch may alter the Leitmotiv of a Place of Power for the rest of the scene without spending a FATE point. The witch accomplishes that by altering the flows of power around the place. A leyline was sometimes called a dragon's path. That's where the spell gets its name from.

Mood swing: When the witch succeeds with a Great (+4) or better roll, then she can lower an Asset of a character or Place of Power by 2 points and raise another Asset of the same character or place by 2 points for the rest of the scene.

Note: With Brain Work I am going a bit meta. But I think that's in keeping with the idea of this kind of magic.

White Picket Witches: The Sixth Family

Something the preview doesn't tell you about is the magic of the sixth family that left Salem. The preview offers five magic styles: Breath, Skin, Muscle, Blood and Bone. They each symbolize a certain kind of magic.  But nothing hints at the magic of the sixth, forgotten (or lost or destroyed) family. That's got me thinking.

There is a pattern to the magic of the Five Families. Successively progressing deeper into the body. What comes beneath the bones? I came up with two answers: organs and the brain. Therefore, the sixth kind of magic could be either Organ Works or Brain Works. Organ Work doesn't sound that cool, so may be Entrail Work? Hm... Anyway, here is a short take on both works:

Organ Work: Messy things, hurtful things, knowledge and power from beyond space and time, to gaze too deeply is to invite madness. Things even witches were not meant to know. Aligned with deepest darkness and despair.

Brain Work: The magic of magic. The power to alter leylines and Places of Power. The crystal clarity of thought. The way to read and control thoughts. Aligned with time.

Interestingly, both types of magic would give the Five Families a reason to extinguish the sixth. Did they do it out of fear? Necessity? Envy? Or mixture of all three? Does the deed bind the Five Families together or will it rip them apart?

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: Wizardry Examined

On last Friday, the preview of the magic system toolbox for FATE Core was released. In addition to some great magic systems, it also contained an introduction that gets you to think about magic in terms of the fiction not the rules. I suddenly noticed what I was missing from my own look at magic.

So, let's take another swipe at Wizardry/Sorcery/Witchcraft, this time trying to answer the five magic questions about tone, costs, limits, availability, source.

1. Tone: As currently written, magic doesn't have a flavor. Magic doesn't kill things. People do. Magic represents a way to circumvent the natural laws. Magic is like knowing the keyboard short-cuts of the universe. You save yourself a lot of time using them.

2. Costs: Magic is mentally taxing. You are using short-cuts to circumvent natural law, this is mind-boggling, even if you know what you are doing. Unless you are exceptionally headstrong, you won't do much of it.

3. Limits: I want the magic of the setting to be a bit low-key. Sure, you can overcome obstacles with it and create advantages with it, but you'll probably not sling around big fireballs (unless you are a Warlock). Magic will be able to affect people and small areas, but nothing bigger than a room or the handful of people in it. Anything beyond that will drastically increase difficulties beyond the FATE ladder.

4. Availability: I mentioned that you had to be born a wizard/sorcerer/witch. Not just anyone can learn the keyboard short-cuts of the universe. In a mid-sized town there are probably about a handful practioners, not more.

Note: I usually don't like the idea of entitlement through blood, but that seems to fit the urban fantasy genre.

5. Source: Unknown. Nobody knows who discovered magic, why it is there in the first place or what purpose it is suppossed to have. Magic runs in the blood of family lines that stretch back to the dawn of humanity. If someone in the setting would try to follow the ancestral lines, they would discover the great wizards and sorceresses from legend within those lines.

Urban Fantasy: Idea shot down

Last Friday we had another session of our regular Vampire: The Requiem game. Before the game two players talked to me about the premise for the Urban Fantasy game. Frankly, they simply aren't interested in the least to be High School teenagers slowly discovering their supernatural heritage, the issues that come with it and the obligations they owe. They can get behind a game about Urban Fantasy, because they acknowledge that this is what I like and what the majority of the players can relate to. But they don't care for playing teenagers or in a high school setting. One player clearly stated that he wants to play someone competent and experienced at what he does, reflected both in the fiction and the character sheet. I tossed a couple of ideas in (including "Angels over New York", inspired by the Kickstarter preview art for FATE Core). But nothing really sparked, except going back to the Dresden Files RPG (which I don't want to do for a variety of reasons. Some being: complexity, wanting to play FATE Core, doing my very own setting, etc.).

This development leaves me with:

• A skill set for Urban Fantasy. I would need to introduce some skill about knowledge about the supernatural, because that is deliberately missing from the skill list.
• An extras set for Urban Fantasy. Still need to decide about magic, now that the FATE Core Magic Toolbox is available to Kickstarter backers.

What I need to do:

• Think about a new premise.
• Think about the setting. 

Deciding factors are: I probably have a Skype group willing to play with the originally proposed idea. But I can only sustain one setting, so ideally Skype group and regular group happen in the same setting, but with different premises. Doing Wolves Point for a group of competent adults will probably end up being a setting very similar to the one used by my Vampire: The Requiem campaign (set in a small town), so I question the wisdom of repeating this. One alternative that immediately springs to mind would be moving to a bigger city like New York, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, London or Berlin. Another one would be a road movie style game happening in one of the northern states of the US (like Montana or Washington State). Then I could keep Wolves Point and tie it into the bigger picture. I usually like to keep my games local due to a rotating player roster, so ranging over too wide an area will not work.

These are just thoughts going through my mind right now, nothing settled yet. I'll keep you posted.

Steampunk: Design Guidelines

Last time I discussed the various Steampunk RPGs I own with quick notes about what I like and dislike about them. Now, let's get this focused for an actual Steampunk setting.

The setting will:

• Be set in the actual 19th century as a starting point.
• Be set on Earth. Countries and cities will conform to real world historical cities and countries.
• Have a divergent history from our own.
• Have devices running on steam and mechanics instead of electricity and electronics.
• Have actual magic. System needs to be discussed.
• Include some discussion on Victorian values (slightly updated, but recognizable).

The setting will not:

• Have fantasy races. In my opinion they don't fit with a believable Victorian aesthetic and serve no real purpose except sell the game to die hard fantasy fans.
• Be set on a pseudo-Earth. Serves no purposes, except increasing the amount of detail that has to be created.
• Feature regular trips to other planets. If I want to do that, I can play Space 1889.

Genre: Steampunk

I want Wings of FATE to be about more than just urban fantasy, therefore I will branch out the discussion somewhat. Another genre besides urban fantasy that has always sparked my interest is Steampunk. I own a variety of Steampunk games, but have never run any one of them for any length of time. That is due to a variety of reasons that I'll explain for each product.

Space 1889 was the earliest Steampunk game I know of. In 1989 the genre Steampunk didn't even exist. My gaming group at that time couldn't get behind the concept of a Victorian Age space game, so we never played more than one or two sessions. I still like Space 1889 best of all the games. Today you can even chose between different flavors: the original game, Savage Worlds and Ubiquity (German only). 

Airship Pirates, the RPG inspired by the awesome Steampunk band Abney Park. Go and check out their music. It's fantastic. The game runs on a streamlined version of Heresy engine (as is Victoriana). As much as I like the music, I dislike the postapocalyptic setting. Steampunk is in my opinion a fusion of Victorian historical background and a divergent technological angle. Airship Pirates takes away the Victorian values of the setting in my opinion.

Victoriana also runs on the Heresy Engine, but with levels and magic and stuff. I like the idea of "gutterrunners" put forth in the game. The emphasis is more on magic than on technology (at least in the corebook). Also the period illustrations by Gustave Doré are elegantly and effectively used as chapter openers. It's supposed to be a game about conflicting ideals and ideas, but tries (too) hard to be different. It's got dwarves, elves, orcs and the whole gamut of fantasy races. In the end too much Tolkien in a world that is similar to earth, yet not identical.

In a similar vein I dislike Wolsung. The rules are overly complex, fantasy races are used to stereotype ethnic minorities, and the world is still earth-like, but even more changed than in Victoriana. Who ever decided that pairing Tolkien races with a pseudo-Earth makes a great steampunk game? What I absolutely like about Wolsung is the genre discussion, the encounter locations and extensive beastiary.

Unhallowed Metropolis has the right vibe. Carefully modernized Victorian values in a new dark age. One of the creators called the game "Medicinepunk". In my opinion a fitting moniker. The setting description is very thorough and hits the right notes (I especially dig the intelligent discussion on prostitution and corsets for men - but that's just me). The game system is serviceable but a bit overly complex, especially at character creation.

There is one Austrian Steampunk RPG called Finsterland. It is a great effort, especially since it less about  Victorian flavor than Wilhelmian flavor. Especially for German gaming groups somewhat more recognizable and an interesting outlook on the own history before the great war. It is set in a fantasy world and uses a d10 pool system.

Last, but not least there is of course GURPS Steampunk. An invaluable resource, even if you do not play GURPS (which I don't). But it discusses character archetypes and possible technological innovations.

All in all, I like something about most of the Steampunk games I own, but none of them are the perfect fit. FATE Core might be of some help here. So I expect to see some posts about Steampunk in the future.

Urban Fantasy: The Setting

Now that skills and extras are in place, it's time to describe the setting. The premise: "high school teenager discovering their supernatural heritage, the issues that come with it and the obligations they owe" lends itself to a more personal scope. Something that is also supported by the the aspect categories that I have given earlier.

Most of the source material is set in small towns in the U.S. (except Hex, which I completely forgot to mention). Therefore, I am going to pick a small town as the site of the game. About ten years ago, I did a short Vampire: The Masquerade campaign in a small town and I still got my notes lying around on my hard drive. The game was heavily inspired by Twin Peaks and The Shinning. The town was called Wolves Point and very loosley modelled on the real town of Wolf Point, Montana. I think I am going to reuse my notes, because the town deserves some more action.

Three big issues stick out, when thinking about the town. One comes from my notes, the second from the description of the changelings and the third from the description of Grizzly Peak in the Slayers Handbook of the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer RPG.

Issue #1: There is a big howling vortex of ghosts located in the setting. They contain the angry spirits of the Native Americans massacred by the white settlers. It spins out massive amount of negative energies and unlucky coincidents. (Current issue)

Note: This is a completely fictional event, but somehow fitting to the setting.

Issue #2: The faerie realm is drawing near. The otherworld will come into conjunction with material world again after centuries of lost contact. This might not be a good thing for both worlds involved. (Impending issue)

Issue #3: Wendigos are terrorizing the logging camps around Wolves Point. There is a family who habors them secretly. The wendigos will serve as a sort of "default" antagonist. (Current issue)

These issues should be turned into aspects:

1. Every day life is cursed by angry spirits.
2. The Otherworld is drawing near.
3. The woods of the wendigo

I probably will let the players pick two of the three issues, in case they are fine with them. Otherwise, they are welcome to create one or two issues themselves.

Next time we will discuss faces and locations.

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: Secrecy and Discovery

One of the tropes of the source material listed, is the fear of discovery or rather the need to keep ones abilities secret. I want that in the setting, because the supernatural is suppossed to be hidden and just out of reach. Being discovered could vastly complicate a characters live.

Most of the Extras are pretty obvious when used. If there are witnesses in the scene that do not know about the characters' abilities, then there is the risk of discovery. I see two ways to run this:

(1) The player character needs to roll Lying or Stealth to cover up his abilities.
(2) The non-player characters roll Notice to see, if they notice something is odd and not quite right.
(3) The player characters roll an active defense against the observation attempt.

Method (1) gives the player more control over the roll, but also runs the risk of burning much needed resources like advantages and FATE points to remain unnoticed. Either the game master or the player decides which skill is used Lying or Stealth, or if the better or worse of the two skills is used.

Method (2) reduces discovery to a check made by the game master. It will probably resolve quicker and cost less additional resources.

The game master also needs to decide, if a seperate roll for each supernatural character is made or one roll for all characters. Method (1) probably relies on making a role for each character and method (2) on making a role for the scene.

Player character cover-up

The difficult of the Lying/Stealth roll is pretty straight forward. The difficult starts at mediocre (+0) and rises by +2 for each  stunt Extra used by that character in the scene. If a character has used an Extra skill, the difficulty of avoiding discovery is equal to the level of the skill used (the theory being that more powerful abilities are more impressive and obvious in their display). If a character used both skills and stunts, use the higher difficulty for the Lying/Stealth roll. The difficulty is reduced for each zone difference between the observers and the character.

Outcomes:

• Failure: The bystanders notice that something isn't quite right. Depending on circumstances, they may not be able to place a finger on what is actually wrong, but at the least they become super-suspicious of the character. The character gains an aspect that describes being discovered.
• Tie: The character fears discovery and flees from his present location or the observer gains a boost on the character or the character takes a mental stress.
• Success: The character remains undiscovered.
• Success with style: The character remains undiscovered and may immediatley clear a mild mental consequence as relief sets in (or downgrade a more severe mental consequence, if there is an available consequence slot at the next lower level).

Bystanders noticing

Unless a supporting NPC or a main NPC is present, assume that the Notice skill of the bystanders is average (+1). They have to roll higher than the player character's Lying or Stealth skill (as determined by the situation and the game master). For each stunt Extra used they receive a +2 bonus on their skill roll. If an Extra skill was used, they receive the skill as bonus. The difficulty is increased for each zone difference between the observers and the character.

Outcomes:

• Failure: The observers are none the wiser.
• Tie: The observers harbor suspicions and get a boost on the character.
• Success: The observers discover that the character is a monster.
• Success with style: The observers discover that the character is a monster and immediately cause two mental stress to the character.

Players roll versus Bystanders

The third option lets the players roll Lying or Stealth and the bystanders roll Notice. The bystanders receive bonuses to their roll like described above: For each stunt Extra used they receive a +2 bonus on their skill roll. If an Extra skill was used, they receive the skill as bonus. The player characters receive +1 bonus for each zone difference between themselves and the observers. Obstacles may also add to the player characters' rolls.

Outcomes:

• Failure: The bystanders notice that something isn't quite right. Depending on circumstances, they may not be able to place a finger on what is actually wrong, but at the least they become super-suspicious of the character. The character gains an aspect that describes being discovered.
• Tie: The character fears discovery and flees from his present location or the observer gains a boost on the character or the character takes a mental stress.
• Success: The character remains undiscovered.
• Success with style: The character remains undiscovered and may immediatley clear a mild mental consequence as relief sets in (or downgrade a more severe mental consequence, if there is an available consequence slot at the next lower level).

After looking over the three possibilities, I will probably use the last one, because that seems to provide the most dynamic way to handle discovery.

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.

Urban Fantasy: The Skill List

The game about high school teenagers slowly discovering their supernatural heritage and the obligations that come with it needs skills (apart from also needing a catchy name, but that's another story). The list given in FATE Core serves as a starting point, but I feel that the skill names should reflect the setting (and I don't like some of the skill names).

The names and skills that work are Athletics, Burglary, Crafts, Drive, Empathy, Fighting, Notice, Physique, Shooting, Stealth and Will.

But some of the other names and skills don't work quite so well. Let's take a look at Contacts, Deceit, Intimidation, Investigation, Lore, Rapport and Resources. They all sound very adult and high-minded. I want something more juvenile that sounds like teenagers would do it.

Contacts: I don't think that teenagers would have contacts. High school seems to be about being popular and  popularity seems to decide if other students do you favors. So I would call that skill "Popularity" and otherwise leave it as it is.

Deceit: Sounds very adult and also includes the ability to project false personas. Something I don't see teenagers doing. So I would go with "Lying" instead of Deceit.

Initimidation: Again, I don't see teenagers as intimidating some one. At school you are usually "Bullying" people.

Investigation and Lore: Both skills usually tie together somehow in a modern setting with supernatural elements. In much of the source material investigation usually involves hitting the books (be it in Gilles' library,  old diaries in the Salvatore household or reading werewolf hunter files on a tablet PC). Then there are people in the know. They just know from personal experience and study about the supernatural. Also, since this is high school, academic achievement and knowledge about science is present in the setting. But is that important enough to the story that I need a skill for that? One last issue that plays into Investigation and Lore is the presence of computers. In many games that is still considered a separate skill. But in the end, computers are on the verge of becoming ubiquitous tools that anyone can handle without much knowledge. Simply start the app. That is what I am going to do:

Investigation gains an emphasis on research in the library or online. It really doesn't matter where you get your knowledge. It is important that you how to search for clues and how to execute your searches. Thus Investigation becomes "Research". The skill can be used to overcome obstacles and create advantages, but no attacks and defenses. I could see both happening with preparation, so they'd be the province of stunts.

Lore is a bit more difficult. It could be split into a mundane skill called Academics or Science and a supernatural skill called Lore or Occult or Mysteries. But I am not going to do that. The game is about the slow discovery of supernatural abilities. Therefore there will be no skill (except Research) that allows a player to bypass the process of discovery through play. They simply won't know. They have to experience the supernatural. I still would like to measure academic achievement though and generally obscure (but practical) knowledge like Willow and Danny being knowledgable hackers, or Lydia being able to brew a pyrophric cocktail. Or simply having a skill that can be rolled to determine the success on an exam. I am thinking "Geek" here. The skill can be used to overcome obstacles and create advantages. Various special applications can be modelled by stunts.

Rapport: I simply don't like the name of that skill. If you are being nice to someone to get what you want, you simply turn on your charm. So Rapport gets renamed to "Charm".

Resources: Adults have resources, teenagers usually have allowances. So that's what I am going to call the skill: "Allowance". Still someone with a Great (+4) Allowance will probably rather drive a Porsche than a Rabbit to school.

The final skill list for an urban fantasy game set at a high school than looks like this:

• Allowance
• Athletics
• Bullying
• Burglary
• Charm
• Crafts
• Drive
• Empathy
• Fighting
• Geek
• Lying
• Notice
• Physique
• Popularity
• Research
• Shooting
• Stealth
• Will

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Yes, I know that according to FATE Core you should ideally talk with your players about the setting and then create it together. But I would like to pitch a setting to the players and then add more setting info and details based on their input.

I really really like Urban/Contemporary Fantasy, where the supernatural and the mundane exist unknowingly side by side. Of course, as I am a big fan of the White Wolf games like Vampire, Changeling and Mage, this is not really a surprise.

So I would like to have a setting inspired by those games, but a bit more inclusive and yet more narrow in focus. For one thing: since I run games about vampires most of the time, a basic guideline will be: There are no vampires. They simply don't exist. There might be creatures that could be confused with vampires, but in the end they will be different and just be mistaken by the uninformed observer for a vampire.

For inspiration I am looking at some TV series I like:

• Buffy: The Vampire Slayer
• Teen Wolf (MTV series, not Michael J. Fox movies)
• The Secret Circle
• The Vampire Diaries
• True Blood

Also, the movie "The Covenant" will be an influence.

Then there are of course games I like and that will serve as inspiration. I am staying clear of anything White Wolf here, because I would like to be different.

• Deliria
• Dreaming City
• Monster Hearts

Strangely, books will have less of an impact, as I want to steer clear of the Dresden Files and they constitute the majority of Urban Fantasy I read. But that still leaves Steve Berman's short story collection "Trysts" and his  novel "Vintage: A Ghost Story".

A lot of the sources deal with teenagers and the supernatural. So I am narrowing the setting down to a High School where teenagers slowly discover their supernatural heritage, the issues that come with it and the obligations they owe.