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.
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
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.
Earning Fate Points
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
- 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.
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 1st 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.
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