Red Box Fate - Aspects & Actions

This is part of the Red Box Fate series - bringing modern RPG tools into an Old School framework.

How do our characters do stuff in this game? What can we do?

The mechanics are fairly simple, but there are a few key words to learn along the way. If you're familiar with D&D terms or Fate terms, I'll highlight them as we go - but the comparisons between the two systems should make everything self-explanatory without having prior knowledge of either game.

Core mechanics

1d20 + Ability modifier + Archetype + Approach     vs     DC

More about those Approaches & Archetypes in another post.

The "DC" here is short for "difficulty class", a D&D term. Here's the D&D table for typical difficulties, with the equivalent Fate terms alongside:

D&D term                DC          Fate term             

Very easy                   5              "Poor"

Easy                          10             "Mediocre"

Medium                    15             "Average"

Hard                          20             "Fair"

Very hard                  25             "Great"

Nearly impossible    30             "Fantastic"

Outcomes

Compare the total to a target number, which is either a fixed difficulty or the result of the GM’s roll for an NPC. Based on that comparison, your outcome is:

• You fail if your total is less than your opponent’s total.
• It’s a tie if your total is equal to your opponent’s total.
• You succeed if your total is greater than your opponent’s total.
• You succeed with style if your total is at least 5 greater than the DC or your opponent’s total. "Style" can mean you gain Advantage , or impose Disadvantage on your opponent, or some other benefit or consequences - haggle with the GM.

Now that Outcomes have been briefly covered, we can talk about Actions and how the outcomes specifically work with them.

Actions

So it’s time to start doing something. You need to leap from one moving horse to another. You need to search the entire library for that spell you really need. You need to distract the guard so you can sneak into the fortress. How do you figure out what happens?

First you narrate what your character is trying to do. Your character’s High Concept, Class, Background, and Archetypes provide a good guide for what you can do. In Fate terms, these may be called Aspects - more about that term shortly.

However, you're not limited to doing what it says on your character sheet. Just because you're a World-weary Fighter with a great Martial score, that doesn't mean you can't Flashily Socialise! You can combine any Archetype and Approach and Ability together that makes sense for what you're trying to achieve.

How do you know if you’re successful? Often, you just succeed, because the action isn’t hard and nobody’s trying to stop you. But if failure provides an interesting twist in the story, or if something unpredictable could happen, you need to break out the dice.

 

Create an Advantage

Exploiting an Aspect of the scene or characters to gain Advantage (or impose Disadvantage), or creating an Advantage that you can use later.

Creating an advantage is anything you do to try to help yourself or one of your friends. Taking a moment to very carefully aim your crossbow, spending several hours doing research in the wizarding guild library, or tripping the thug who’s trying to rob you — these all count as creating an advantage. 

If the target of your action is a character of some sort, the may get a chance to use the Defend action to stop you. 

The advantage you create lets you do one of the following three things:

• Create a new situation advantage.
• e.g. "I pull over the cabinet so that it blocks the passage, giving me Advantage on Defence" or "I berate the seneschal forcefully so that they get flustered, giving us Advantage to persuade them."
• "Discover" an existing situation advantage or another character’s aspect that you didn’t know about - i.e. inventing the advantage as if it existed in the scene.
• e.g. "I discover that the warrior's shield strap is poorly buckled, so I can gain Advantage exploiting this weak defence," or "I notice the seneschal is getting distracted by their paperwork, so I have Advantage to get them to sign our pass real quick."
• Take advantage of an existing aspect of the scene.
• e.g. "So if the warrior's shield is poorly strapped on, I'll use that to gain Advantage on ripping it out of his hands," or "You said the seneschal is distracted by their paperwork, so I'll use that to gain Advantage on just causally walking on past them."

Once you've created or discovered an Advantage, you'll need to take another action to use it, but if you're trying to use an existing aspect to gain an Advantage, it's allowed to be part of the same action, or later, whichever works best for you.

If you’re creating a new Advantage or discovering an existing one:

If you fail: Either you don’t create or discover the Advantage at all, or you create or discover it but an opponent gets to invoke the Advantage instead.

The second option works best if the aspect you create or discover is something that other people could take advantage of (like Rough Terrain). You may have to reword the aspect to show that it benefits the other character instead of you — work it out in whatever way makes the most sense with the player (or GM) who gets the benefit. You can still invoke the aspect if you’d like, but it’ll cost you a Fate Point.

If you tie: If you’re creating a new aspect, you get a Boost. A Boost is a brief Advantage that only lasts one time. Make something up and get Advantage from it once for free—after that, the Boost goes away.

If you’re trying to discover an existing aspect, treat this as a success (see below).

If you succeed: You create or discover the Advantage aspect, and you or an ally may use it once for free. Write the aspect on an index card or sticky note and place it on the table to keep track of it - there can be a lot of aspects in play at any time!

After it's been created, other people can take advantage of it as an existing aspect (see below), or by spending a Fate Point.

If you succeed with style: You create or discover the Advantage aspect, and you or an ally may use it twice for free, or you can use it once as part of the same action (saving you a turn, as if it was an existing aspect).

Usually you can’t gain Advantage from the same aspect twice on the same roll, but this is an exception; success with style gives you a BIG advantage!

If you’re trying to take advantage of an existing aspect you already know about:

If you fail: You don’t get any additional benefit from the aspect. You can still invoke it in the future if you’d like, at the cost of a Fate Point, or you can retry the Create Advantage action. 

If you tie or succeed: You get Advantage from the aspect for you or an ally to use for free (i.e. without using a Fate Point). You can do this as part of the same action, or later on another turn, whichever works best for you.

You might want to draw a circle or a box on the aspect’s note card, and check it off when that Advantage is used. 

If you succeed with style: You get two uses of the Advantage aspect, which you can let an ally use, if you wish. You can use one as part of the same action, or save both for later, whichever works best for you.

Attack

The usual D&D attack, but also used for spells, and social struggles.

Note - how are we attacking? Sneakily, Forcefully, Quickly, Cleverly - etc? And what archetype powers our attack? Arcane, Martial, Rogue, etc? This decides which bonuses we add. Use the narrative to explain how the attack is attempted and resolved.

If you  Fail: No effect.

If you Tie: Attack doesn’t harm the target, but you gain a boost.

If you Succeed: Attack hits and causes damage - see Hit Points & Consequences below.

If you Succeed with Style: Attack hits and causes damage and generates a Boost (a one-off Advantage - see Create Advantage above)

Defend

Replacing D&D's Saving throws, and active defence taking the place of static AC.

To find your Active Defence bonus using D&D's AC, subtract 10 from the total. Roll this against the NPC's total attack bonus + 10 to see if you successfully defend against their attack.

If you Fail: You suffer the consequences of your opponent’s success.

If you Tie: Look at your opponent’s action to see what happens.

If you Succeed: Your opponent doesn’t get what they want.

If you Succeed with Style: Your opponent doesn’t get what they want, and you get a boost. 

 

Overcome

Replaces the usual D&D skill check against inanimate things - to open locks, leap over a wall, climb the cliffs.

If there is doubt that you'll succeed, roll 1d20 and add your Archetype and Approach, as applicable. Use a Fate Point to invoke your character aspects.

If you Fail: Fail, or succeed at a serious cost.

If you Tie: Succeed at minor cost.

If you Succeed: You accomplish your goal.

If you Succeed with Style: You accomplish your goal and generate a boost. 

Aspects vs Conditions 

Fate of course uses its own jargon terms. Almost everything that describes a character or situation can be called an Aspect in Fate, and the game mechanics provide a set of generic ways in which we can interact with those Aspects.

For D&D players, this can be daunting - but those Aspects can easily be thought of as Conditions, and terrain modifiers, and so on. In Fate, we might say a room has an "On fire" Aspect, or that a character has a "Charmed" Aspect. 

Using the mechanics of Fate lets us play around with these situations and conditions, rather than simply apply a fixed set of numbers to our rolls or limits to our actions.

Fate Points

Plenty of d20 games have used Action Points, Hero Points, Force Points and similar to enhance the game play. Fate Points work very much like those familiar systems. In 5th Edition D&D, we've got Inspiration as game mechanic - you gain Advantage on a future roll by playing up to your character traits, both the positive and the negative.
Using Fate terminology, this would be called a "Compel" of your character's Aspects, where you do something dramatic based on your character traits.

Player characters start every game session with a pool of Fate Points - this is called your Refresh score.

You start with 3 Fate Points as your Refresh. You can gain more (and keep them for next session) during play, as explained below. You can - and should - spend them to get bonuses during the game! Remember, they refresh every session.

Spending Fate Points

You spend Fate Points in any of the following ways:

Invoke an Aspect: Invoking an aspect costs you one Fate Point, unless the invocation is free.

Like D&D's Inspiration, you can use Fate Points to invoke an Aspect of the scene or characters to gain Advantage (without having to use your action to Create Advantage)

 e.g. You could spend a Fate Point to invoke your Ranger Class Aspect to attack your favoured enemy with Advantage.

e.g. You could spend a Fate Point to invoke the Difficult Terrain to make you opponent trip and fall.  

Power a Stunt: Some stunts are very potent, and as such, cost a Fate Point in order to activate.

Refuse a Compel: Once a compel is proposed, you can pay a Fate Point to avoid the complication associated with it. Let's explain what a Compel is:

If you’re in a situation where having or being around a certain Aspect means your character’s life is more dramatic or complicated, someone (usually the GM) can compel the aspect. The GM explains why the aspect is relevant, and then makes an offer as to what the complication is. You can negotiate the terms of the complication a bit, until you reach a reasonable consensus. Then you have two options:

•  Accept the complication and receive a Fate Point
• Pay a Fate Point to prevent the complication from happening

 e.g. Your character's Trouble is Anger Management Issues, and you're trying to persuade your way into the Duke's manor, but the gateward isn't cooperating. The GM suggest a Compel of your Trouble aspect so that your anger gets the better of you somehow... You can take the Fate Point and blow your top at the warden, creating complications and more drama ... or you can spend a Fate Point to keep your cool.

Declare a Story Detail: To add something to the narrative based on one of your Aspects, spend a Fate Point. The detail must be agreed by the GM - think of something plausible in the scene, and pitch your idea, and be ready to haggle!

Earning Fate Points

You earn Fate Points in any of the following ways:

Accept a Compel: You get a Fate Point when you agree to the complication associated with a compel, as explained above.

Have Your Aspects Invoked Against You: If someone (e.g. the GM) pays a Fate Point to invoke an aspect attached to your character, you gain their Fate Point at the end of the scene. This includes advantages created on your character, as well as consequences.

Concede in a Conflict: You receive one Fate Point for conceding in a conflict, as well as an additional Fate Point for each consequence that you’ve received in that conflict. (This isn’t the same as being taken out in a conflict, by the way.)

The GM and Fate Points

GMs, you also get to use Fate Points, but the rules are a little bit different than the rules for players.

When you award players Fate Points for compels or concession, they come out of an unlimited pool you have for doing so—you don’t have to worry about running out of Fate Points to award, and you always get to compel for free.

The NPCs under your control are not so lucky. They have a limited pool of Fate Points you get to use on their behalf. Whenever a scene starts, you get one Fate Point for every PC in that scene. You can use these points on behalf of any NPC you want, but you can get more in that scene if they take a compel, like PCs do.

You reset to your default total, one per PC, at the beginning of every scene.

There are two exceptions:

• You accepted a compel that effectively ended the last scene or starts the next one. If that happens, take an extra Fate Point in the next scene.
• You conceded a conflict to the PCs in the previous scene. If that happens, take the Fate Points you’d normally get for the concession into the next scene and add them to the default total.

If the immediate next scene doesn’t present a significant interaction with NPCs, you can save these extra points until the next scene that does.

Hit Points & Consequences

D&D players will be used to hit points being the only measure of how injured you are – and used to the idea that there's no penalty for losing HP, aside from the increased risk of death as your HP are reduced.

Fate uses Stress and Consequences to track damage, giving you lingering effects of the damage from the conflict that can be used against you.

I'm adding Consequences from Fate into the D&D Hit Point system, to allow you to avoid death by taking Consequences – and also to let you inflict Consequences on opponents in place of simple HP damage. This way, a big tough monster can be made more vulnerable or less deadly by clever heroes.

What Are Consequences?

Consequences are new aspects that you take to reflect being seriously hurt in some way. Your character sheet has three slots where you can write consequences. You can take more than one consequence at a time, but you can't have more than one consequence of the same level at the same time. There are three levels of consequences: Mild, Moderate, and Severe.

You can choose to take consequences instead of taking a number of Hit Points of damage: Mild represents HP equal to your level, plus your CON adjustment (minimum of 1); Moderate is twice your level, plus your CON adjustment (minimum 1), and Severe is three HP times your level , plus your CON adjustment (minimum 1).

Mild = (1 HP / Level) +CON

Moderate = (2 HP / Level) +CON

Severe = (3 HP / Level) +CON

You can mark off as many of these as you like to handle a single hit, but only if that slot was blank to start with. If you already have a moderate consequence written down, you can’t take another one until you do something to make the first one go away!

A major downside of consequences is that each consequence is a new aspect that your opponents can invoke against you. The more you take, the more vulnerable you are. And just like situation aspects, the character that creates it (in this case, the character that hit you) gets one free invocation on that consequence. They can choose to let one of their allies use the free invocation.

Let’s say that your 1^st Level Wizard (CON 12 – i.e. no bonus) gets hit hard for 4 points of damage. You only have 4 HP, so you can't absorb all that damage and you’ll be taken out! It's time for a consequence. You can choose to write a new aspect in any of your open consequence slots – let's say you choose Mild —a Sprained Ankle. Mild absorbs 1 HP / Level, so you take 3 HP damage, and have a Sprained Ankle – and you can keep fighting!

Or you might choose a Mild and a Moderate consequence, absorb 1 + 2 HP / Level, taking just 1 HP damage and have a Sprained Ankle and a Broken Arm … but you're still in the scene.

If you’re unable to absorb all of a hit’s damage — by losing HP, taking consequences, or both—you’re taken out.

What Happens When I Get Taken Out?

If you get taken out, you can no longer act in the scene. Whoever takes you out narrates what happens to you. It should make sense based on how you got taken out—maybe you run from the room in shame, or maybe you get knocked unconscious.

Giving In

If things look grim for you, you can give in (or concede the fight)—but you have to say that’s what you’re going to do before your opponent rolls their dice.

This is different than being taken out, because you get a say in what happens to you. Your opponent gets some major concession from you—talk about what makes sense in your situation—but it beats getting taken out and having no say at all.

Additionally, you get one fate point for conceding, and one fate point for each consequence you took in this conflict. This is your chance to say, “You win this round, but I’ll get you next time!” and get a tall stack of fate points to back it up.

Getting Better—Recovering from Stress and Consequences

At the end of each scene, clear all of your stress boxes. Recovery from a consequence is a bit more complicated; you need to explain how you recover from it—whether that’s an ER visit, taking a walk to calm down, or whatever makes sense with the consequence. You also need to wait an appropriate length of time.

Mild consequence: Clear it at the end of the scene, provided you get a chance to rest.

Moderate consequence: Clear it at the end of the next session, provided it makes sense within the story.

Severe consequence: Clear it at the end of the scenario, provided it makes sense within the story.

Renaming Moderate and Severe Consequences

Moderate and severe consequences stick around for a while. Therefore, at some point you may want to change the name of the aspect to better fit what’s going on in the story. For instance, after you get some medical help, Painful Broken Leg might make more sense if you change it to Hobbling on Crutches.

---

Credits

I'm indebted to Killershrike's "Pathfinder Fate Accelerated" for the initial idea that this sort of thing could be done - without their groundwork, I'd have been lost.

Of course the Creative Commons access to D&D's engine and FAE are essential as well - D&D is CC-BY-4.0, FAE is CC-BY-3.0

Old School Essentials collects much of the D&D Basic and Expert set rules into one handy SRD, which you can find here.

---

Introduction & Index

Red Box Fate - Backgrounds & Bonds

This is part of the Red Box Fate series.

Turning D&D's "races" (ugh, no - we're going to call that "Kin"), and 5th Edition's backgrounds and bonds into Fate-style Aspects is pretty simple. Yes, I know Old School didn't bother with Backgrounds, Flaws and Bonds, but they're quite helpful for the Fate style play, so we're stealing them.

These mostly take the place of the High Concept and Trouble - there will be some overlap with your "class" but we're not going to worry about that here yet.

Backgrounds

Every story has a beginning. Your character’s background reveals where you came from, how you became an adventurer, and your place in the world. Your fighter might have been a courageous knight or a grizzled soldier. Your wizard could have been a sage or an artisan. Your rogue might have gotten by as a guild thief or commanded audiences as a jester.

Your background should provide both concrete benefits (features, proficiencies, languages, etc) and roleplaying opportunities.
We'll use these narratively, not as fixed bonuses or once-per-day tricks, but to explain why your character has certain skills, or how the world perceives them.

With your background, you'll have a narrative reason to say "Because I was a hunter, I carefully scan the path for tracks," or "I use my noble background to forcefully press the gatekeeper into letting us pass," or "I flashily sing a bawdy song to distract the crowd while my friends slip out the back," or "Of course everyone round here likes me because of that time I lead the charge against the Winter Raiders - we'll have no trouble getting food and lodging."

Work with the GM to create any background you want - but here are some examples from D&D. You can use these examples to guide you on adapting any of the published backgrounds.

Acolyte

You're a person of the cloth, a recognised and respected religion in the game setting. Those of your church will give you and your companions shelter. You have a deep insight into people's behaviour from the lessons of your scripture. Aside from your almost perfect knowledge of your own faith, you know many things about the religions of others, including those who oppose your faith. You know more languages than usual.

Noble

You're member of the nobility, your family owns or rules lands, you have a title. People are inclined to think the best of your, that you belong in high society, and commoners try to accommodate you and avoid your displeasure. You know the history of the houses of the nobility. You are at home in courtly social situations. You've learned an extra language.

Outlander

You've lived outside of civilisation as a wanderer. You have a knack for navigation - once you've visited a place or read a map, you are almost never lost - and you know how to forage for available food and water, tracking an hunting wild game. You are capable at scrambling over tough terrain. You have picked up the language of a nearby culture.

Sage

You have studied lore and learning. You know your way around libraries and scriptures, and can dig through their secrets better than most. You have an understanding of history and arcane matters, and can apply this knowledge in dynamic ways. You know more languages than usual. You've made one particular topic the focus of your learning.

Kin

Kin is a special aspect that adds to your Background. Your biological and cultural heritage will be a big part of who you are. Instead of keying this as a bunch of granular bonuses and penalties, and special abilities, in Fate terms, we're going to just write "Elf" "Human" "Dwarf" or whatever as part of your High Concept Aspect.

Maybe not just write that - in D&D, each Kin sets some of your descriptions, so we'll need to retain Ability Score Increase, Size, and Speed. The rest can be wrapped up in describing the Kin aspect.

You and the GM will work out what all that means in your game - but here's how those things work for a selection of the common D&D kin, to give the most seamless D&D conversion.

Dwarf

Ability Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Size: Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armour.

Because of their life underground, Dwarves can see well in the dark. They are competent with the tools and weapons of their culture - hammers and axes, smithing and masonry. They know the history of stone, whether worked or natural. Dwarves speak Common and Dwarvish.

Elf

Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
Size: Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Elves have keen senses, they can see far off, and in moonlight and starlight almost as well as broad daylight. Their connection to the Fey folk means they easily slip out of or avoid enchantment magic. 
Elves speak Common and Elvish.

Halfling

Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
Size: Halflings average about 3 feet tall and weigh about 40 pounds. Your size is Small.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Despite their small size, Halflings make great adventurers because they are supernaturally lucky, inherently brave, and nimble.
Halflings speak Common and their own language.

Human

Ability Score Increase: All your ability scores each increase by 1.
Size: Humans vary widely in height and build, from barely 5 feet to well over 6 feet tall. Regardless of your position in that range, your size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Generally Humans get along well with the other Kin - it's said that they are everyone's second favourite.
Humans speak Common, and may learn any other language, especially those of their neighbours.

--

Remember, the Fate way of thinking means you can refer to your Background (including Kin) to explain why your character is able to anything appropriate for your character in the narrative, without having to spend any special effort.
You can also use your Background and Kin with a Fate Point to gain special advantages and abilities when it's dramatic and cool.

Bonds & Troubles

D&D 5th edition introduced us to Flaws and Bonds and Inspiration - roleplaying hooks we can use to gain gain rewards in the metagame. Players of Fate and other systems shrugged and said "Nice of you to join us, finally." 

Sarcasm aside, these should be very familiar ideas from both sides of the fence - both work to get you in-game bonuses. I'll be using the Fate concept of your character's Trouble to replace the Bonds of D&D. 

When you play up to your Trouble, you can claim a Fate point from the GM. Also, the GM can point out that your Trouble should drive your character's behaviour (the GM should never use this to steer you in a particular way, but to nudge you into drama).

Trouble - paraphrased from Fate Core

If your high concept is what or who your character is, your trouble is the answer to a simple question: what complicates your character’s existence?

Trouble brings chaos into a character’s life and drives them into interesting situations.

Your trouble shouldn’t be easy to solve. If it was, your character would have done that already, and that’s not interesting. But nor should it paralyze the character completely. If the trouble is constantly interfering with the character’s day-to-day life, he’s going to spend all his time dealing with it rather than other matters at hand. You shouldn’t have to deal with your trouble at every turn—unless that’s the core of one particular adventure in the story (and even then, that’s just one adventure).

Troubles also shouldn’t be directly related to your high concept — if you are a Stalwart Paladin of Chronos, saying your trouble is The Heretics Hates Me is a dull trouble, because it is already assumed with your high concept. (Of course, you can turn that up a notch to make it personal, like Elder Zarquon Personally Hates Me, to make it work.)

Before you go any further, talk with the GM about your character’s trouble. Make sure you’re both on the same page in terms of what it means. Both of you may want to find one way this aspect might be invoked or compelled to make sure you’re both seeing the same things—or to give each other ideas. The GM should come away from this conversation knowing what you want out of your trouble.

Since your trouble is an aspect, it’s something you should also be able to invoke, right? Because you've been so focused on how this complicates your character’s life, it’s easy to miss how a trouble also helps your character.

In short, your experience with your trouble makes you a stronger person in that regard. Dealing with personal struggles leaves you vulnerable to being tempted or cajoled, but it can also give you a sense of inner strength, because you know the sort of person you want to be. Problematic relationships often cause trouble, but people do learn hard lessons from the troubles they deal with. They especially learn how to manoeuvre around many of the smaller issues their troubles present.

---

Credits

I'm indebted to Killershrike's "Pathfinder Fate Accelerated" for the initial idea that this sort of thing could be done - without their groundwork, I'd have been lost.

Of course the Creative Commons access to D&D's engine and FAE are essential as well - D&D is CC-BY-4.0, FAE is CC-BY-3.0

Old School Essentials collects much of the D&D Basic and Expert set rules into one handy SRD, which you can find here.

---

Introduction & Index

Red Box Fate - Approaches & Archetypes

Part of the ongoing Red Box Fate series, where I adopt material Fate Accelerated (FAE) into a Basic/Expert set D&D framework to add modern flexibility within an Old School game.

(This post is the modified version of the first attempt "D&D Accelerated", where I was trying to keep compatibility with 5th Edition D&D.)

Approaches & Archetypes are the ways in which your character interacts with the world, the options for the actions you take. 

Archetypes describe the source of your power or skill, Approaches describe the way in which you're applying it.

You can make a Clever Martial Attack when you use your knowledge and combat expertise to hit a vital spot, you can Roguishly and Flashily Create an Advantage by tearing down the tangling tapestries while you swing off them, you can Forcefully use Arcane power to blast the locked door off its hinges, Overcoming the obstacle with style.

We'll start with Approaches first, as these may be familiar to FATE ACCELERATED players already, then describe Archetypes.

As you'll see in Classes and Customisation, adding together the bonuses from your Approach and Archetype will give you a bonus similar to the 5e Proficiency bonus, but with a little more flexibility and flair.

---

Approaches

Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky

These are the six approaches that describe how you perform actions.

Careful: A Careful action is when you pay close attention to detail and take your time to do the job right. Lining up a long-range arrow shot. Attentively standing watch. Picking the vault's locks without triggering the traps.

Clever: A Clever action requires that you think fast, solve problems, or account for complex variables. Finding the weakness in an enemy swordsman’s style. Finding the weak point in a fortress wall. Deciphering an arcane codex.

Flashy: A Flashy action draws attention to you; it’s full of style and panache. Delivering an inspiring speech to your army. Embarrassing your opponent in a duel. Producing a magical fireworks display.

Forceful: A Forceful action isn’t subtle—it’s brute strength. Wrestling a bear. Staring down a thug. Casting a big, powerful magic spell.

Quick: A Quick action requires that you move quickly and with dexterity. Dodging an arrow. Getting in the first punch. Disarming a trap as the mechanism ticks 3… 2… 1…

Sneaky: A Sneaky action is done with an emphasis on misdirection, stealth, or deceit. Talking your way out of getting arrested. Picking a pocket. Feinting in a sword fight.

Each character has each approach rated with a bonus - see Classes & Customisation for the numbers, but typically these will be +0 to +1, or more as you gain power and experience. 

Add the bonus to your dice roll to determine how well your PC performs the action you described.

Narrative first

So your first instinct is probably to pick the action that gives you the greatest bonus, right? But it doesn’t work like that. 

You have to base your choice of approach on the description of your action, and you can’t describe an action that doesn’t make any sense. 

Would you Forcefully creep through a dark room, hiding from the guards? No, that’s being Sneaky. Would you Quickly push that big rock out of the way of the wagon? No, that’s being Forceful. Circumstances constrain what approach you can use, so sometimes you have to go with an approach that might not play directly to your strengths.

---

Archetypes

Martial, Dedicated, Roguish, Arcane, Primal, Social

These are the six Archetypes that describe the source of your prowess.

Each Archetype has three thresholds that represent increasing depth of a character's immersion in a particular area of ability, and also increasing the breadth of what the character can apply the Archetype to within the context of the story. 

Thus the difference between a +1 and a +2 in a given Archetype is more than just a probability bonus; the higher level of ability also provides expanded narrative justification for actions pertaining to that Archetype.

For each Archetype, +1 represents basic knowledge, fundamental skill, and general familiarity with the things the Archetype concerns itself with.
As well as providing a dice bonus, the first +1 of a Archetype also helps justify various things within the narrative (along with your Class and Background). It is left to the GM's discretion, but in some cases a character that has Arcane +1 can justify attempting to do things in a particular way that a character without Arcane +1 simply cannot justify, and so on.
In some cases a GM might allow characters lacking at least a +1 in a particular Archetype to attempt something, but at a cost or versus a higher difficulty...or both.

For each Archetype, +2 represents professional competence. This threshold is sufficient for all normal purposes for the majority of the people in the world.

For each Archetype, +3 represents exceptional competence. For the magic oriented Archetypes, +3 is when full unfettered "free casting" is achieved. For the non-magic oriented Archetypes +3 is when truly extraordinary feats beyond what is possible for "normal" people to accomplish become possible.
Only remarkable people (some but not necessarily all player characters or significant NPC's) attain or exceed this threshold for even a single Archetype.

For each Archetype, +4 and higher represents increasingly sublime mastery. Having a bigger bonus helps to reduce the chance of failure and makes world-bending exploits statistically probable, but in practical terms such advanced levels of competence primarily matter when facing off against other similarly progressed characters.

Martial

You have some skill in the warrior arts pertaining to direct armed conflicts, the waging of war, the winning of battles, and combat in general. Knowledge of weapons, armour, tactics, as well as the physical training and discipline necessary to be successful in such endeavours is relevant as well. This Archetype is strongly associated with conflict, battle, and martial concerns. 

At +1 you know how to use and care for weapons more serious than clubs and daggers without embarrassing yourself, how to wear armour heavier than leathers, and basic knowledge of martial culture. You don't have much finesse or technique, but are capable of basic strikes and blocks.

At +2 you have genuine skill at arms and are able to put together combos and flourishes. Depending on your inclinations and background you might be schooled in at least basic tactics and strategy, and possibly logistics as well; but even if untutored you can usually spot an ambush, recognize a defensible position, and so forth.

At +3 and above you are a world-class warrior, capable of impressive displays of martial mastery. You are capable of taking on large numbers of unskilled and less competent foes with reasonable odds of beating them all.
Further, Martial +3 provides narrative justification to defend against not only the mundane attacks it previously protected against, but also unusual and magical attacks that cause physical harm. This can take many narrative forms, from blocking, deflecting, using armour or shield effectively, or even just being extra tough due to being a hardened warrior.

Dedicated

You are attuned to faith, theology, and can harness your inner power or higher calling into potent expressions of your will. This Archetype is strongly associated with spiritual concerns, temples, the afterlife, and the will of the unseen.

At +1 you have some basic theological knowledge and a deep connection to a calling, be it spirit, deity, or a pantheon of deities, or a philosophy or ideal such as "Law". You might have other associated abilities (such as Stunts) granted to you by your observance of the tenets of your belief system.

At +2 you can attempt to channel your focus as a blessing or favour, tapping inner reserves, or healing a minor wound.

At +3 and above you can invoke much more powerful effects...perhaps even 'miracles'. Additionally, Dedicated +3 provides narrative justification for extraordinary feats unattainable by merely normal people, achieving such heights of mental and / or physical mastery that they develop amazing monkish, psionic, or divine abilities or spells.

Roguish

You are a competent, skilled individual of varied talents. This Archetype is strongly associated with hidden talents, cunning and unexpected use of skills, and exploiting openings and loopholes.

At +1 you have some innate shrewdness or are streetwise, and are good at being opportunistic. You are comfortable with clandestine work and know how to handle yourself competently in such settings. You have some practical insider knowledge of the sector of society you are most familiar with and how things really work therein.

At +2 you are good at skulking around unnoticed, stealing things, getting in and out of places you shouldn't be in, dirty tricks 'dishonourable' fighting using pragmatic weapons true warriors tend to disapprove of, being shifty and evasive, and likely some knowledge of the less than lawful sector of society.

At +3 and above you are incredibly competent, deeply knowledgeable in your area of expertise, and are capable of succeeding at tasks beyond the reach of the less skilled.
Additionally, Roguish +3 provides narrative justification to defend against any kind of indirect or surprise attack and to avoid harm by getting out of the way of it. Narratively this can take many forms, such as rolling out of the way, ducking behind cover, 'seeing it coming' and somehow interrupting the attack, and so forth.

Arcane

You are skilled in the magical arts, whether through study or innate power, or some other style. This Archetype is strongly associated with esoteric knowledge, otherworldly things, and manipulation of "magical principles".

At +1 you have relevant esoteric knowledge and awareness of magic, and you can use some magic items such as wands and scrolls that other characters can't use.

At +2 you can work simple spells such as levitating small objects, making magical light, shooting minor arcane blasts, and gain various momentary benefits from minor magical effects.

At +3 and above you can cast proper spells with more powerful effects, as appropriate to your character's concept.

Primal

You are in tune with the forces of nature. This Archetype is strongly associated with natural and wilderness areas, the circle of life, animistic spirits, and the fundamental forces and principles of nature.

At +1 you are comfortable in and have knowledge of the lore of the natural flora and fauna, and the nature spirits of the wilds. You can hunt and survive in the wilderness.

At +2 you are attuned to the natural order, and have some craft that blurs the line between mundane and mystical, such as calming animals, passing without trace through undergrowth, divining water, and so forth.

At +3 and above you can work very powerful magics related to flora and fauna, the natural order, the weather, and the elements including a strong connection to nature spirits.

Social

You are innately good at navigating and control social situations, from hostage negotiation to imperial diplomacy, to charms, mind-reading and hypnotism. This Archetype is strongly associated insight, creative expression, and politics.

At +1 you are more insightful, and have a stronger force of personality than average. You are unusually aware of others' motivations, and capable of powerful persuasion and inspiration.

At +2 you excel making uncanny leaps of intuition, seeing through and practicing deception, and manipulating or inspiring others. Depending on your character concept, this may even take the form of magical spells.

At +3 and above you are capable of cowing entire crowds with sheer presence, and similar feats. Additionally, Social +3 provides narrative justification for extraordinary feats unattainable by merely normal people, such as charm spells or mind-reading spell-like abilities. 
It is also more likely for a character with this level of ability to avoid, shake off, or otherwise resist mental effects beyond the tolerance of a normal person to overcome; for instance to resist or break out of mind control or domination, and so on.

---

Credits

I'm indebted to Killershrike's "Pathfinder Fate Accelerated" for the initial idea that this sort of thing could be done - without their groundwork, I'd have been lost.

Of course the Creative Commons access to D&D's engine and FAE are essential as well - D&D is CC-BY-4.0, FAE is CC-BY-3.0

Old School Essentials collects much of the D&D Basic and Expert set rules into one handy SRD, which you can find here.

---

Introduction & Index

D&D Accelerated - a 5e & FATE mash-up

EDIT - this post is superseded by the new Red Box Fate project.

I keep getting frustrated by the limitations placed on the players and GM by the many editions of D&D, and long for a system with more flexibility - but I recognise that there's so much material out there for 5e D&D, that I don't want to throw that away just for the sake of it.

And while I love the concepts behind FATE (Core, Accelerated, and Condensed), it's got maybe too much open ended play embedded in the assumption of the game to work well as a D&D substitute.

So - here's my hacked-up-stitched-up hybrid monstrosity: 5e Accelerated.

Plans and expectations

Add FATE's flexibility, keep 5e / OSR compatibility

Translation goals:

• D&D Classes are emulated, and can be customised;
• D&D Skills replaced by FATE's Archetypes and Approaches;
• D&D's Class features, Feats, Spells, etc, brought in line with FATE's Stunts, giving us a template to invent new ones with parity;
• Mechanics remain transparent to D&D, so that D&D material can be used seamlessly.

This post will serve as a index for the other posts where I dive into more detail. 

Core mechanics

1d20 + Ability modifier + Archetype + Approach     vs     DC

Archetypes: Martial, Dedicated, Roguish, Arcane, Primal, Social

Approaches: Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky

(Aiming for parity with 1d20 + Ability modifier + Proficiency)

More about those Archetypes & Approaches in another post.

Outcomes

Compare the total to a target number, which is either a fixed difficulty or the result of the GM’s roll for an NPC. Based on that comparison, your outcome is:

• You fail if your total is less than your opponent’s total.
• It’s a tie if your total is equal to your opponent’s total.
• You succeed if your total is greater than your opponent’s total.
• You succeed with style if your total is at least 5 greater than the DC or your opponent’s total. "Style" can mean you gain Advantage , or impose Disadvantage on your opponent, or some other benefit or consequences - haggle with the GM.

Now that outcomes have been covered, we can talk about actions and how the outcomes work with them.

Actions

These are the four actions you may be familiar with from FATE, with some short notes on how they apply in this 5e hack.

Create Advantage

Exploiting an Aspect of the scene or characters to gain Advantage (or impose Disadvantage), or creating an Aspect that you can use later.

Attack

The usual D&D attack, but also used for spells, and social struggles.

Defend

Replacing D&D's Saving throws, and active defence taking the place of static AC.

Overcome

Replaces the usual D&D skill check against inanimate things - to open locks, leap over a wall, climb the cliffs.

Aspects vs Conditions 

FATE of course uses its own jargon terms. Almost everything that describes a character or situation can be called an Aspect in FATE, and the game mechanics provide a set of generic ways in which we can interact with those Aspects.

For D&D players, this can be daunting - but those Aspects can easily be thought of as Conditions, and terrain modifiers, and so on. In FATE, we might say a room has an "On fire" Aspect, or that a character has a "Charmed" Aspect. 

Using the mechanics of FATE lets us play around with these situations and conditions, rather than simply apply a fixed set of numbers to our rolls or limits to our actions.

FATE points

Plenty of d20 games have used Action Points, Hero Points, Force Points and similar to enhance the game play. FATE Points work very much like those familiar systems.

- Like D&D's Inspiration, you can use FATE points to invoke an Aspect of the scene or characters to gain Advantage (without using an action to Create Advantage)

- Some powerful Stunts need a FATE point

- Reroll a check

You'll regain FATE points by accepting story compels, and with a refresh each session.

More about Aspects and Actions - and using and gaining FATE points - in another post.

---

Abilities

STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA

Generate your ability scores as you normally would for a regular 5e game - either point buying, rolling, or by one of the arrays given in the SRD or PHB.

High concept & Trouble

FATE's High Concept and Trouble Aspects are folded up into D&D's "race" (I'm using Kin for this, cause frankly "race" in RPGs is loaded with baggage), Background, Traits, Bonds and Flaws, and character Class.

As we're aiming for D&D compatibility, we'll approach this with the 5e terminology. 

However, you can invoke your Kin, Class, Background, etc, just like any Aspect - these are the narrative hooks on which your characters' stories hang. 

Kin

D&D's "races" get translated here as Kins, and follow the Aspect style of FATE (1 aspect).

Background

Here I'll show how D&D Backgrounds can be translated as Aspects. (1 aspect)

More about translating High Concept and Trouble in the Backgrounds and Bonds section.

---

Classes

First of all, I'll emulate the core D&D classes: Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard.

This will be done by distributing Archetypes (2 at +1 or 1 at +2) & Approaches (2 at +1 or 1 at +2), and assigning an appropriate Stunt (1) for our 1st level, then laying out Progression Tables for the higher levels.

Here, I plan to give the ways in which classes can be customised, and I'll also give the template for making your own custom character without a D&D class.

Last, I'll work on the variant classes (Druid, Monk, Ranger, Warlock) as examples of the customisation process.

Find out all about Classes & Customisation in its own post.

---

Credits

I'm indebted to Killershrike's "Pathfinder Fate Accelerated" for the initial idea that this sort of thing could be done - without their groundwork, I'd have been lost.

Of course the Creative Commons access to D&D's engine and FAE are essential as well - D&D is CC-BY-4.0, FAE is CC-BY-3.0

---

Index

Approaches & Archetypes

Aspects & Actions

Backgrounds & Bonds

Classes & Customisation

Spellcraft & Stunts

Basics & Bodging