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EDIT - this post is superseded by the new Red Box Fate project.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