Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Fate Core

I want to teach my home group how to play Fate. I figured a one-shot with them as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might help them out. They're all familiar with turtles, their personalities, and abilities. That knowledge should (I figure) help them grasp the concept of aspects and stunts and such. "Oh yeah, Michelangelo is a party dude. I know how I can use that!"

So here are the Turtles, all written up for Fate Core. Enjoy!

LEONARDO

ASPECTS

High Concept: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Trouble: I’ll never be good enough

Leonardo Leads

It’s Raph. A little too Raph.

No business like daisho business

SKILLS

Great (+4): Will

Good (+3): Fight, Athletics

Fair (+2): Empathy, Rapport, Notice

Average (+1): Drive, Stealth, Physique, Lore

STUNTS

Rally (Rapport): +2 to Create an Advantage with Rapport when you deliver an inspiring speech in front of a crowd.

Strength from Determination (Will): Use Will instead of Physique on any overcome rolls representing feats of strength.

Florentine (Fight): While using two weapons, +2 to Defense actions with fight when engaged with more than one opponent.

STRESS

Physical: OOO

Mental: OOOO

CONSEQUENCES

Mild +2:

Moderate +4:

Severe +6:

Refresh: 3

DONATELLO

High Concept: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Trouble: Great big nerd

Donatello does machines

Do it all for April

I’ve read about that!

SKILLS

Great (+4): Crafts

Good (+3): Fight, Lore

Fair (+2): Athletics, Notice, Shoot

Average (+1): Drive, Investigate, Physique, Will

STUNTS

Stick Fighter (Fight): While using a bo staff, +2 to Create an Advantage against multiple opponents.

Gadget Guy (Crafts): Once per session, spend a fate point to add or remove a scene aspect, thanks to some handy device you happen to have with you.

Hacker (Lore): +2 when using a computer with Overcome actions related to technology.

STRESS

Physical: OOO

Mental: OOO

CONSEQUENCES

Mild +2:

Moderate +4:

Severe +6:

Refresh: 3

RAPHAEL

ASPECTS

High Concept: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Trouble: Anger issues

Raphael is cool but rude

Second son

DAMN!!!

SKILLS

Great (+4): Stealth

Good (+3): Fight, Physique

Fair (+2): Provoke, Burglary, Athletics

Average (+1): Shoot, Notice, Crafts, Drive

STUNTS

Tragic Sais (Fight): When you Succeed With Style on an Attack action with your sais, and you reduce your damage to create a disarmed type aspect as a boost, it becomes a full situation aspect with one free invoke, not just a boost.

Brutal Takedown (Fight): Once per fight, when you force someone to take a Consequence, you can spend a Fate Point to increase the severity of the Consequence by one step.  

Sneak Attack (Stealth): You can use Stealth instead of Fight to make your first melee attack against an unaware target.

STRESS

Physical: OOOO

Mental: OO

CONSEQUENCES

Mild +2:

Moderate +4:

Severe +6:

Refresh: 3

MICHAELANGELO

ASPECTS

High Concept: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Trouble: Slack-Ass

Michaelangelo is a party dude

COWABUNGA!

Little brother

SKILLS

Great (+4): Rapport

Good (+3): Fight, Provoke

Fair (+2): Empathy, Athletics, Contacts

Average (+1): Physique, Stealth, Deceive, Drive

STUNTS

Skater Boi (Athletics): +2 to Overcome actions when you are skateboarding in a perilous environment.

Surprisingly Long Chain (Fight): Once per fight, spend a Fate Point to attack a foe up to one zone away with Fight due to the surprisingly long chain on your kusarigama.

Pester (Provoke): You can use Provoke instead of Empathy to learn a target’s aspects by irritating them until they reveal one to you.

STRESS

Physical: OOO

Mental: OO

CONSEQUENCES

Mild +2:

Moderate +4:

Severe +6:

Refresh: 3

Healing Magic in Bitlandia [Fate Core]

I've continued to mull over things for my at-some-point-I-want-to-run-this 16-bit JRPG fantasy game with Fate. I need to consider healing magic.

Grrr... we're badass warriors of Light... Grr grr...

Now, magical/superpowered/whatever healing isn't a big thing in Fate. The Dresden Files RPG all but completely poo-poos it, and the new Fate Core book touches on it only brielfy. What I've seen of the Magic Toolkit doesn't talk about it. Simply said, damage in Fate isn't really that problematic. Stress goes away at the end of a conflict, and most consequences really aren't that bad. They even give you Fate points when they cause you trouble.

That said, the white magic healer is such a common trope in games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, that my Bitlandia setting pretty much requires their inclusion. So I banged out some rules.

For non-healing, flashy-bangy magic, I'm going to adapt the "Storm Callers" magic system presented in the Fate Magic Toolkit. I used that as a starting point and tried to make White Magic fit pretty close with it, mechanically. I also took clues from some of the stunts in the Fate Core book.

Give them a look-see and let me know what you think, gang!

Extra: Healer

Followers of the the Quiet Maiden, Keeper of the White Chalice, can channel powerful healing magic and ease the physical and spiritual wounds of the world. Unlike Storm Magic, White Magic has no elemental connection.

Permissions: None, anyone may follow the path of the Quiet Maiden.

Costs: Aspects, Skills, possibly Stunts.

To become a Healer:

-Reduce your Refresh by one

-Take an Aspect that reflects your relation to The Quiet Maiden, bearer of the White Chalice (i.e. White Chalice Pilgrim, Quiet White Wizard Girl).

-Take the White Magic skill

White Magic Aspects

Passive Effect: The healer is immune to most mild, natural diseases and illness--the common cold, stomach flu, sinus infections, etc.

Invoke to: Nurture - Any action involving healing or caring for the sick, injured, or cursed.

Compel to: Pity - When people are in need, the Healer can be compelled to lend put aside her priorities and lend aid.

New Skill: White Magic

This is the skill used to channel healing magic.

Overcome: Use White Magic to remove stuck aspects relating to illness, curses, or poison. You can also use White Magic to give treatment to a person suffering physical consequences to start the recovery process.  

Additionally, once per conflict, you can try and remove all physical stress from an individual. The difficulty is equal to the highest level of physical stress they currently have.

Create an Advantage: Use White Magic to stick aspects to allies relating to physical well-being, spiritual strength, and other  “Buffs.”

Attack: Use White Magic to attack undead, devils, and other creatures of the Dark.

Defend: Use White Magic to defend against attacks from undead, devils, and other creatures of the Dark.

White Magic Stunt: Healmore

Once per session, you can attempt to lessen the degree of a physical consequence suffered by yourself or another. Spend a Fate Point (you, the healer) and roll to Overcome with a difficulty equal to the stress level of the Consequence. If successful, the consequence is reduced by one degree. Severe becomes moderate. Moderate becomes mild. Mild disappears. A consequence can only be reduced once. This does not work on extreme consequences.

A healer character in Bitlandia might look something like this...

Lyrra Redcloud

Aspects:

Pacifist, shmacifist...

High Concept: White Chalice Pilgrim

Trouble: Fiery temper

A rough and tumble past

(2 aspects left open)

Skills:

Great +4: White Magic

Good +3: Lore, Notice

Fair +2: Will, Provoke, Fight

Average +1: Athletics, Crafts, Contacts, Ride

Stunts:

Healmore (White Magic)

See above

Staff Fighter (Fight)

Get +2  to Create an Advantage when fighting against multiple opponents while using a staff.

Not to be Messed With (Provoke)

Can use Provoke to defend against attempts to intimidate or charm.

Refresh: 2

Physical Stress: OO

Mental Stress: OOO

FATE Core -- Initial Impressions

FATE! Boom! Right there, baby!

I helped Kickstart Fate Core, and my copy of the hardback came in yesterday! Yay! I love the Fate system, and I've gotten a lot of fun out of Spirit of the Century and The Dresden Files RPG. It mixes mechanics that are at the very top of my "crunchinesss" limit with enough soft story-game elements to tweak that part of my gamer brain. Aspects are wonderful things that I've successfully tacked onto things like BECMI D&D.

So I was excited to get a new, cleaner, meaner, easier-to-grok version of Fate. And now I have it in my hands. Sure, I've had the PDF for a while now, but I really hate reading PDFs of any great size. I waited until I got the dead-tree copy before trying to absorb the game.

The physical book just looks great. It's 6x9 inches, which is my favorite size format for RPG books. The hardcover has a nice matte finish with a satiny feel to it. The pages feel good and sturdy (better than the print-on-demand paper I'm used to these days) with very dark blacks. The illustrations throughout are nice, clear grayscale and not muddy at all.

The new version of Fate isn't too different from the old version. Most of the major changes seem to be to terminology, getting rid of a lot of jargon and replacing old terms with more intuitive names. What used to be called a "Tag" is now a "Free Invoke." "Invoking for Effect" is now just called "a player compelling their own aspect." The number of  Aspects has been reduced to five, and the skills list has been trimmed down. Some old skills have been combined into one skill. For instance, Fists and Weapons have been combined into "Fighting." "Provoke" combines the elements of several old social skills.

Blocks, Assessments, and Maneuvers don't seem to be a thing any more. They're all are more or less absorbed into what's called "Creating an Advantage."

Good, clean step-by-step guidelines for creating stunts are here, too. We've also got helpful guides for creating game settings. It's very similar to City creation from The Dresden Files RPG.

I'm still making my way through the book, but I love what I see so far. It's got me excited to start a Fate game. I'm not sure how easy it will be to retrofit the new rules to our existing Dresden game. It probably wouldn't be too hard, but I'm very eager to see what Dresden Files Accelerated has to offer.

I've been hoping to run some classical fantasy once my home group is done with Stars Without Number. It might be easier to talk them into some Fate fantasy rather than Labyrinth Lord or LotFP. Some light heroic fantasy inspired by the 8-bit and 16-bit video game RPGs I loved back in the day? Perhaps...

Actually, a Fate Core version of Funkadelic Frankenstein sounds really damn tempting.