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Page 1: Free FATE FATE/free-fate-v0.2.pdfFree FATE Open Game Content collated, modified and augmented by R Grant Erswell

Free

FATE

Open Game Content collated, modified and augmented by R Grant Erswell

Page 2: Free FATE FATE/free-fate-v0.2.pdfFree FATE Open Game Content collated, modified and augmented by R Grant Erswell

2

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................. 3

What is Roleplaying? .............................................. 3

Character Creation ...................................................... 4

Create a Concept ..................................................... 4

Choose Aspects ....................................................... 4

Choose Skills ............................................................ 4

Choose Stunts .......................................................... 5

Finishing Things Off ............................................... 5

Rules ............................................................................. 6

Making a Test .......................................................... 6

Contests .................................................................... 7

Time Consuming Tasks .......................................... 8

Fate Points ................................................................ 8

Aspects ......................................................................... 9

Invoking Aspects .................................................... 9

Tagging Aspects ...................................................... 9

Introducing & Discovering Aspects ................... 10

Compelling Aspects .............................................. 10

Skills ............................................................................ 11

Skill List .................................................................. 11

Assessments ........................................................... 11

Declarations ........................................................... 11

Knowledge Tests ................................................... 12

Research ................................................................. 12

Skill Descriptions .................................................. 12

Stunts .......................................................................... 16

Stunt Templates .................................................... 16

Conflicts ..................................................................... 18

Running Conflicts ................................................. 18

Attacks .................................................................... 18

Manoeuvres ........................................................... 19

Other Actions ........................................................ 20

Stress and Consequences ..................................... 21

Other Sources of Injury ........................................ 24

Supporting Characters ............................................. 26

Extras ...................................................................... 26

Minions .................................................................. 26

Companions .......................................................... 27

Named Characters ................................................ 28

Chases ........................................................................ 29

Chase Conflicts...................................................... 29

Chase Scenes.......................................................... 29

Passengers.............................................................. 31

Chase Example ...................................................... 31

Equipment ................................................................. 32

Melee Weapons ..................................................... 32

Ranged Weapons .................................................. 32

Armour ................................................................... 33

Explosives .............................................................. 33

Vehicles .................................................................. 34

Workplaces ............................................................ 35

Miscellaneous Equipment ................................... 35

Character Development ........................................... 36

End of Session ....................................................... 36

End of Story ........................................................... 36

Appendix A ............................................................... 37

Sample Benefit Stunts .......................................... 37

Legal Information ..................................................... 45

Amendment History ............................................ 45

Page 3: Free FATE FATE/free-fate-v0.2.pdfFree FATE Open Game Content collated, modified and augmented by R Grant Erswell

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Introduction Free FATE is your gateway to exciting adventures,

suspenseful tales and thrilling action! This guide

helps you and your friends to tell interactive

stories, otherwise known as a roleplaying game.

The Free FATE rules are a cut down & condensed

version of the FATE System (Fantastic Adventures

in Tabletop Entertainment), and are intended to

appeal to gamers who prefer uncomplicated rules

and to act as an introduction to the full system.

The FATE system was developed by Robert

Donoghue and Fred Hicks of Evil Hat Productions,

and based upon the Fudge System of Grey Ghost

Press. The FATE system is (and will be) used in a

number of great games such as:

Spirit of the Century (Evil Hat Productions)

The Dresden Files (Evil Hat Productions)

Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7)

Legends of Anglerre (Cubicle 7)

Diaspora (VSCA Publishing)

To learn more about FATE visit the website:

www.faterpg.com Free FATE requires the use of two six-sided dice

(D6s) of different colours.

What is Roleplaying? A roleplaying game is a means by which a group

of friends can tell a story, a story in which all but

one of them take on the mantle of the protagonists.

The other player acts as Games Master, or GM; she

creates the outline of the plot, describes the

scenery, plays the supporting characters, and

arbitrates over the success or failure of the

characters’ actions. The GM has a lot to do, but it

can be a very rewarding experience!

The players declare how their characters react to

the scenes presented by the GM and the story

progresses through a verbal interaction between

players and Games Master.

Sarah is a Games Master and she has decided to run a

modern day supernatural thriller. She has constructed

a simple plot outline, below, for her two players:

David, portraying a brusque, recently widowed,

police detective called Trevor Maples.

Maria; who is playing Alison Havers, a university

lecturer in the field of parapsychology.

Maria and David previously agreed that Alison was a

close friend of Trevor’s late wife, Caroline, and that

Trevor and Alison helped each other through their grief.

Scene 1 – Alison and Trevor are visiting Caroline’s

grave when they hear a commotion within the church.

If they investigate (and Sarah expects them to!) they

find that the interior of the church is a mess yet no one

is present. Written in the wax of some spilt candles is a

message ‚Help Adam.‛

Scene 2 – The characters will likely want to investigate

who Adam is and his connection with the church. Until

recently Adam was an altar boy, he ceased attending

church after the death of his brother Mark, now buried

in the graveyard.

Scene 3 – The characters can visit Adam’s home but

will be told by his parents that he has run away. An

investigation of his room and computer will point to his

involvement with a gang.

Scene 4 – The characters are likely to want to track

Adam down, when they do they realise he has taken to

drugs to escape his grief over his brother’s death. The

characters must try to convince Adam to leave with

them and return to his parents. They must also deal

with the aggressive gang members.

Epilogue – The next time the characters visit Caroline’s

grave, they will see words being drawn in the dirt by an

unseen hand – ‚Thank you‛.

The example set up and plot above illustrate a few

storytelling techniques. Firstly the player

characters have a reason for knowing each other.

The GM has also given a motive for the player

characters wanting to help; in this case it was

Alison’s professional interest in the supernatural

and both characters’ empathy with Adam over the

loss of a loved one. Quite how obvious an

incentive needs to be will depend upon both the

players and their characters.

Despite a fairly straightforward plot, quite how

this story plays out depends upon the choices of

the players. For example, how will the player

characters find out who Adam is? They could ask

the vicar, speak with members of the congregation

or search through the church’s records.

The Games Master will need to determine how

successful the characters are in these endeavours,

using the Rules, common sense, and judgement of

the players’ roleplaying and choice of approach.

More importantly the Games Master cannot be

sure that the players will follow the plot line at all.

As such she should plan some ways to get things

back on track, or expect to improvise and let the

story evolve into something unexpected.

The important thing to remember is to have fun,

being a Games Master and playing a character are

things that improve with practice. Encourage each

other and provide constructive criticism to help

each other tell better and better stories.

Page 4: Free FATE FATE/free-fate-v0.2.pdfFree FATE Open Game Content collated, modified and augmented by R Grant Erswell

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Character Creation Characters in Free FATE are composed of four

main aspects, Concept, Aspects, Skills and Stunts.

However, a character only becomes more than a

set of words and numbers when a player role-

plays his personality.

Create a Concept The first step in creating a character is to come up

with a concept, a few words or phrases that

describe the character’s personality and role.

Some examples of concepts could be ‚hard nosed

detective‛, ‚inquisitive, yet cowardly, con artist‛, or

even ‚a reclusive scientist with an alcohol problem‛.

The concept should provide the player with an

idea of the character’s motives, values and

behaviour. It should also help the player when

choosing Aspects, Skills and Stunts.

Choose Aspects Aspects are an extension of the character concept

that together paint a picture of who the character

is, what he’s connected to, and what’s important to

him (in contrast to the ‚what can he do‛ of Skills).

Aspects are purely descriptive in nature and have

no numerical rating. They can describe

relationships, beliefs, catchphrases, quotes,

descriptors, items or pretty much anything else.

Some example Aspects are shown below

Always in the thick of it

The death of his partner still haunts his dreams

Never without his trusty .45

Aspects should reflect both positive and negative

features of a character, as they can be used to help

a character accomplish tasks, and also to limit a

character’s behaviour to his detriment (though the

player gets a Fate Point as compensation, see

Compelling Aspects on page 10).

At character creation a player should select up to 8

Aspects to describe his character. If the GM agrees

the player may elect to define some of his Aspects

during the game as personality quirks and

relationships get fleshed out.

For example, David is creating a character for a modern

day supernatural campaign. His concept is ‚a brusque,

domineering, out of shape, detective who has been

recently widowed and has turned to drink‛. David

chooses the following Aspects:

‚I don’t care about your feelings, I want results!‛

Always a hip flask of whiskey in his pocket

‚I’m the brains, let the young’uns do the running‛

Trained by Commander ‚Morse‛ Davidson.

Headline: Wife of police inspector killed in hit &

run

‚A policeman’s notebook is his greatest weapon‛

David asks his GM, Sarah, to choose his last two

Aspects once the game has begun. Sarah agrees.

Choose Skills The next step in creating a character is to choose a

number of Skills and assign them a rating. Skills

can represent both learned ability and also natural

aptitudes and abilities.

Skills are given a descriptive and numeric rating

according to the following chart, known as the

Ladder.

Table – The Ladder

Description Rating

Legendary +8

Epic +7

Fantastic +6

Superb +5

Great +4

Good +3

Fair +2

Average +1

Mediocre +0

Poor -1

Terrible -2

Abysmal -3

A full list of Skills is provided in the Skills chapter

along with an explanation of what each does.

Skills should adhere to a pyramid type structure;

during character creation this means a player

should select 1 Great, 2 Good, 3 Fair, and 4

Average skills. All other Skills that a player does

not select for his character are assumed to be at the

default rating of Mediocre (+0).

David now turns his attention to Skills for his detective,

who he has decided to call Trevor Maples.

David knows that he wants his character to have some

good investigation related Skills and a smattering of

supporting Skills that would cover such things as

forensic knowledge and combat abilities.

David chooses the following Skills and assigns the

ratings appropriately.

Great (+4): Investigation

Good (+3): Contacting, Intimidation

Fair (+2): Alertness, Leadership, Resolve

Average (+1): Drive, Guns, Science, Stealth

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Choose Stunts Stunts are benefits, special abilities, specialisations

or different ways to apply skills that characters

without the Stunt are unable to do. Stunts are

described in more detail within the Stunts chapter.

During character creation a player should choose

four stunts that relate to his chosen skills. The GM

may allow a player to postpone the selection of

one or two Stunts until after the game has begun.

David looks through the list of Stunts and selects the

following to reflect his character’s status within the

police and the abilities he has built up over his career:

Concentration ‚Criminal Snitches‛: Gain a +1

bonus to Contacting when gathering information

about criminal activity in the city.

Specialisation ‚Police Interrogation‛: Gain a +2

bonus to Intimidation when interrogating a suspect

in an official police interview.

Skill Switch ‚Surroundings Read‛: Roll

Investigation instead of Empathy to get a read on

someone when speaking with them in their home,

workplace, car or favourite hangout.

Benefit ‚Police Backup‛: Can call on police officers

to provide physical backup. Backup will consist of

either 6 Fair (+2) or 12 Average (+1) Minions.

Finishing Things Off

Stress Tracks A character has two Stress Tracks that measure

how much physical and social ‚injury‛ he can

suffer before being ‚taken out‛ in a conflict.

The Physical Stress Track reflects the amount of

physical punishment a character can suffer,

whether inflicted by punches, kicks, gun shots, a

fall or burns from a fire.

The Physical Stress Track has 5 boxes which is

increased if the character has an Endurance Skill

above Mediocre (+0).

Table - Stress Track Boxes

Skill Rating (Endurance or Resolve) Boxes

Mediocre 5

Average – Fair 6

Good – Great 7

Superb – Fantastic 8

The Composure Stress Track reflects the amount of

insults, embarrassment, temptation and self-doubt

a character can suffer before they lose a social

conflict, be it a debate, a negotiation, or a seduction

attempt.

The Composure Stress Track has 5 boxes which is

increased if the character has a Resolve Skill above

Mediocre (+0).

David notes that as he did not choose the Endurance

Skill for his character his Physical Stress Track has 5

boxes. Trevor Maples does however have a Fair Resolve

skill and thus his Composure Track has 6 boxes.

Fate Points Refresh Rate Fate points give players the ability to take a little

bit of control over the game, either by giving their

characters bonuses, or by taking over a small part

of the story. Fate points are described more fully

in the Rules and Aspects chapters.

A character begins each adventure with a number

of Fate Points equal to his Refresh Rate which is

calculated at character creation as 10 minus the

number of Stunts the character has (so if all four

stunts are selected at character creation, the

Refresh Rate would be 6).

If a character finishes a scenario with more Fate

Points than their Refresh Rate, they keep these

excess points to use in the next adventure.

Equipment A player can choose a number of items of

equipment with a cost (the purchase Difficulty) of

Mediocre for every defined Aspect and Stunt his

character has.

In addition, a player can choose one item with a

cost equal to his Resources skill rating, two items

at a cost of one less, three items at a cost of two less

and so forth down to items with an Average cost.

Trevor Maples does not have the Resources Skill and so

David can only select 10 Mediocre cost items; for his 6

Aspects (two Aspects are still undefined) and 4 Stunts.

Maria defined all 8 Aspects and 4 Stunts for her

character Alison Havers, and also gave her a Good (+3)

Resources skill. Maria therefore can choose 12 Mediocre

cost items and an additional one item with a cost of

Good (+3), two items at a cost of Fair (+2) and three

items with a cost of Average (+1).

Character Creation Summary 1. Create a character concept

2. Choose 8 Aspects

3. Choose 10 skills (1 Great, 2 Good, 3 Fair, and 4

Average)

4. Choose 4 Stunts

5. Calculate Stress Tracks (5 boxes, more if

Endurance and / or Resolve Skills are chosen)

6. Calculate Fate Point Refresh Rate (10 less

number of Stunts chosen)

7. Choose Equipment based upon Resources.

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Rules

Making a Test Whenever a player wants his character to perform

an action where the outcome is in doubt a Test is

made pitting a character’s Skill against a Difficulty

chosen by the Games Master.

A Test is resolved in the following manner:

1. Determine the Skill to use

2. Determine a Difficulty

3. Roll the dice & modify the Skill Rating

4. Determine Success or Failure

5. If successful, determine Effect

Determine the Skill to use The GM should determine what Skill is

appropriate to the task at hand, for example,

Athletics to climb a wall, Rapport to charm

someone, and Fists to swing a punch.

David is trying to shoot a thug who is assaulting his

friend Alison. The Games Master Sarah determines

that this is a test using the Guns Skill.

Determine a Difficulty The Games Master should gauge how difficult she

believes the task to be. Difficulties, like Skill

ratings, are based upon the Ladder.

Table – The Ladder

Description Rating

Legendary +8

Epic +7

Fantastic +6

Superb +5

Great +4

Good +3

Fair +2

Average +1

Mediocre +0

Poor -1

Terrible -2

Abysmal -3

Sarah, judges that shooting the thug would normally be

a Mediocre task as he is unaware of Trevor and thus

unable to seek cover. However as the conflict takes place

in a dark alley and Trevor does not want to accidentally

shoot Alison, Sarah deems this a Fair (+2) Difficulty.

For many tasks, the GM may use another

character’s Skill rating as the Difficulty Number,

e.g. haggling may use the supporting character’s

Resolve Skill rating as a Difficulty.

If the thug had been aware of Trevor the starting

Difficulty would have been the thug’s Athletics skill.

Roll the dice & modify the Skill Once the Skill and the Difficulty have been

determined the player should roll two six-sided

dice (abbreviated as D6s) to reflect the role of

random chance.

One die should be designated as the Plus Die, the

other designated as the Minus Die. When the dice

are rolled the player need only pay attention to the

die that rolled the lowest number.

If the lowest die result was on the Plus Die,

that number is added to the Skill Rating.

If the lowest die result was on the Minus Die,

that number is subtracted from the Skill.

If the two dice results are the same, there is no

lowest die, and the Skill goes unmodified.

The modified Skill rating is known as the Effort.

Effort = Skill +/- Lowest Die Result

David rolls two D6s and gains a 4 on the Plus Die and

a 5 on the Minus Die. The lowest result is on the Plus

Die, so that is added to his Guns Skill of Average (+1)

for a final Effort of +5; a Superb result on the Ladder.

Determine Success or Failure The Effort should now be compared to the

Difficulty; if it equals or exceeds the Difficulty the

character has succeeded, otherwise he has failed.

David compares Trevor’s Effort of Superb (+5) to the

Difficulty of Fair (+2); Trevor has succeeded.

If successful, determine Effect Sometimes it is not enough just to know that a

character has succeeded; it can be important to

know how well that character has succeeded.

The amount by which a character’s Effort exceeds

the Difficulty is known as the Effect and is

measured in Shifts. The greater the Effect the more

successful the character has been.

Effect = Effort – Difficulty

An Effect of zero shifts is barely a success; the

character has accomplished most of what was

hoped for, but not all. This usually means further

action is required to complete the task.

Previously in the adventure, Trevor was forced to leap

from one rooftop to another to escape a fire. David made

an Athletics test and achieved a success with an Effect

of zero shifts. Sarah declared that Trevor barely jumped

the gap and is left hanging on by his fingertips. A

further Might Skill test was called for in order for

Trevor to pull himself up and out of danger.

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Using Shifts

Shifts may be spent to affect the outcome of a roll.

Often, the GM will implicitly spend shifts in

accordance with the player’s description of his

character’s actions. Sometimes, players may

explicitly spend shifts as well.

Basic uses for one shift include:

Reduce time required: Move the time required

by one shift along the Time Increments table.

Increase quality of outcome: Improve the

quality of the job by one step.

Increase subtlety: Make the job harder to

detect by one.

Inflict Stress: In a conflict, each shift on a

successful attack inflicts one point of Stress.

Gain Spin (requires 3 shifts): See Spin below.

David determines the Effect of his character’s Guns test.

Trevor’s Effort was Superb (+5) and the Difficulty was

Fair (+2), therefore the Effect is 3 shifts; as this was an

attack roll a base of 3 Stress is inflicted on the thug.

Spin

Spin is a special effect that occurs when a character

achieves an Effect of 3 shifts on a Test and doesn’t

use those shifts for any other purpose (e.g.

reducing the time taken, inflicting Stress etc).

Normally Spin simply indicates that the character

performed extremely well, perhaps gaining

admiring glances or special recognition. However,

in some cases, gaining Spin can result in an actual

game effect. Specific effects are detailed elsewhere

in these rules.

Modifiers Modifiers reflect circumstances that make a task

easier or more difficult to perform. Modifiers

impact the test by adding to, or subtracting from,

the Difficulty.

For each complicating factor increase the Difficulty

by one shift up the Ladder, so a Fair (+2) task

which is complicated by 3 factors becomes a

Superb (+5) tasks to perform.

In the example above, the darkness in the alley was one

complicating factor and Trevor’s wish to avoid hitting

Alison was another factor.

Combining Skills Occasionally a secondary Skill will have an impact

on the task at hand, for example trying to shoot a

gun (Guns Skill) whilst maintaining balance on a

precipice (Athletics Skill).

If the second Skill is of greater value than the first,

it grants a +1 bonus to the roll; if the second Skill is

of a lesser value, it applies a -1 penalty to the roll.

Secondary Skill > Primary Skill = +1

Secondary Skill < Primary Skill = -1

When the second Skill can only help the first,

which is to say it can only provide a bonus, it

complements the Skill. A complementing Skill

never applies a -1, even if it’s lower than the

primary Skill. This usually happens when the

character has the option of using the secondary

Skill, but doesn’t have to bring it to bear.

If the secondary Skill comes into play only to hold

the primary Skill back, it restricts the Skill,

meaning it can only provide a penalty or nothing

at all. A restricting Skill never applies a +1, even if

it’s higher than the primary Skill. Often Skills like

Endurance or Resolve are restrictive Skills – as you

get more tired, you won’t get better, but if you’re

resolute, you may not get worse.

Modifies – Can provide a bonus or a penalty

Complements – Can only provide a bonus

Restricts – Can only impose a penalty

Contests As mentioned previously, sometimes the Difficulty

of a task is based upon another character’s Skill

rating. When one skill opposes another in this

manner it is known as a Contest.

When a Contest occurs only one party should

actually roll the dice and modify his character’s

Skill rating, the opposing Skill is left unmodified

and acts as the Difficulty.

If the Skill Test result only equals the Difficulty,

then the Contest is actually a tie; the guard hears a

noise but doesn’t spot the sneaking character, the

characters come to a stalemate in negotiations, or

both characters grab the gun at the same time.

Further tests or action may be necessary to

determine ultimate success or failure, e.g. the

guard may investigate the source of the noise, new

offerings may be made in the negotiations, or a tug

of war begins over the gun.

If the Test fails the opponent has won with an

Effect equal to the number of shifts by which the

Test failed.

If a Contest is between a player character and a

supporting character, in nearly all circumstances it

should be the player who rolls the dice. This

allows the players to feel more in control of the

fate of their characters, and also frees up the GM

from having to grab dice and roll them.

Occasionally however it may be more appropriate

for the GM to make the test for the supporting

characters, using the player character’s Skill rating

as a Difficulty.

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This may be useful when the act of asking for a

dice roll may tip off the player that something is

up; for example asking for an Empathy test may

clue the player into the fact that the supporting

character is deceiving him in some way. Secretly

rolling a Deceit test with a Difficulty of the player

character’s Empathy may be a better option.

Equally, it may be quicker to roll a single Stealth

test for a supporting character and compare it to

all the player characters’ Alertness Skill ratings,

than have four or five players all rolling dice.

Time Consuming Tasks Certain tasks require an extended period of time to

perform; it can take minutes to crack open a safe

and weeks to write a computer program.

Base Time

If a Games Master feels a task requires longer than

a few instances to complete then she should assign

the task a base time period in which it can be

accomplished. The table below lists appropriate

base times to assign to a particular task.

Table – Time Increments

Time Period

Instant

A few moments

Half a minute

A minute

A few minutes

15 minutes

Half an hour

An hour

A few hours

An afternoon

A day

A few days

A week

A few weeks

A month

A few months

A season

Half a year

A year

A few years

A decade

A lifetime

Generations

Centuries

Actual Time

When the Test is made to determine the success or

failure of the task, the player can elect to spend

any shifts of Effect to reduce the time. Each shift

used in such a manner reduces the time taken by

one increment on the table.

Trevor Maples is conducting a police interview with a

suspect. The GM, Sarah, has stated that such an

interview has a base time of an hour.

David rolls Trevor’s Intimidation skill to perform the

interrogation and succeeds with an Effect of 2 shifts.

David elects to use both shifts to reduce the base time

from an hour to 15 minutes, but his Effect is now

effectively zero; he gets enough of a confession to follow

a new lead, but not enough to charge the suspect.

Alternatively, if a character fails the test, the GM

may allow him to spend more time to complete the

task. The time taken is increased by one increment

for every shift by which the character failed. This

cannot be used to increase the Effect.

Fate Points Fate Points allow a player to nudge fortune in his

character’s favour. Spending a Fate Point can

provide one of the following benefits:

add +1 to the total of any dice roll.

to power a Stunt if it is particularly powerful.

to make a minor narrative declaration, for

example introducing an item into the scene

that wasn’t described as previously being

there, e.g. a fire extinguisher. The Games

Master has veto power over this.

Fate Points however can be used to achieve more

potent effects when used in combination with

Aspects; see the Aspects chapter, below, for more

information.

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Aspects

Invoking Aspects As described previously, Aspects are descriptive

qualities of a character; however they can have a

mechanical impact on a game as well. Whenever a

player states that his character is performing some

action that is very much in line with an Aspect, he

may ‚invoke‛ that Aspect.

The player should ask the GM whether he can

invoke the Aspect, explaining why he feels the

Aspect will have an impact on the situation. If the

GM agrees, the player spends a Fate Point and can:

add +2 to the total of the related dice roll,

...or...

re-roll the dice again, taking the new result.

David’s character Trevor Maples is speaking with a

pathologist in the hopes of getting some leads from the

corpse he and Alison discovered earlier, however the

pathologist is being far from co-operative.

David elects to have Trevor use his Good (+3)

Intimidation Skill to convince the pathologist that he

should give his corpse priority and work into the night

if needed. Sarah the GM set the Difficulty at Average

(+1), the pathologist’s Resolve Skill rating.

David rolls the dice and gets a 6 on the Plus Die, and a

4 on the Minus Die; as the Minus Die shows the lower

of the two results David reduces the Skill Rating of

Good (+3) by 4 shifts to Poor (-1). Seeing the result,

David knows he will fail, so he looks to his character’s

Aspects to see if any are applicable.

David turns to Sarah and asks whether he can invoke

his ‚I don’t care about your feelings, I want results!‛

Aspect, explaining that Trevor will have gained a

reputation for making a person’s life a misery if they

don’t produce the goods.

Sarah is convinced and David hands over a Fate Point,

stating that he will play it safe and take the +2 bonus,

turning his Poor (-1) Effect into an Average (+1) Effect

and just scrape a success!

Invoking for Effect A player can also invoke an Aspect for effect, using

it for a benefit that is not related to a dice roll or

Skill use at all. This costs a Fate point like any

other invocation does. For example, a player could

invoke an Aspect that describes a secret

organisation to declare that the group has a

chapter in town.

This is subject to the same sort of restrictions as

spending Fate points for minor declarations (see

page 8) but is more potent due to the focus of the

Aspect. When an Aspect is part of a declaration, it

can make the less plausible more plausible, thus

allowing the player to ‚get away with‛ more.

Trevor is following up a rumour that a local journalist

managed to take some photos of a crime in progress, but

gets the brush off when making enquiries at the

newspaper’s office; it seems someone has threatened the

journalist and she is refusing to talk to anyone.

David asks Sarah to invoke his ‚Headline: Wife of police

inspector killed in hit & run‛ Aspect to state that the

journalist was the one who covered the death of his wife,

and that she had been sympathetic to him back then.

Despite this not being part of Sarah’s original notes for

the scenario, she thinks it will be a nice tie-in to the

character’s back story and allows it, asking David to

spend the Fate point. In return, Sarah role plays the

journalist as recognising the police inspector and

opening up a little because of their past relationship.

Tagging Aspects It is not just player characters who have Aspects,

supporting characters, items, locations and even

the scene itself can have Aspects too. These

Aspects can be invoked by a player just like his

own character’s Aspects; this is known as

‚tagging‛ the Aspect.

Trevor has just interrupted a back room poker game at a

pub known to be the hangout of a suspect. Sarah

describes how the poker players, all local ne’er-do-wells

including the suspect look up worriedly, an atmosphere

of nervous tension settling over the proceedings.

David asks Sarah whether ‚atmosphere of nervous

tension‛ is an Aspect of the scene; thinking about it, she

says it is. David then asks whether he can spend a Fate

Point to tag that Aspect for a Bonus when using

Investigation to get a read on the suspect, Sarah agrees.

David plays out the use of his Skill Switch

‚Surroundings Read‛ Stunt – ‚That’s quite a sum of

money in the pot there Jimmy, and single malt Scotch,

not the blended stuff you usually drink? Come into

some money recently?‛

David rolls his Investigation Skill against a Difficulty

of Jimmy’s Deceit; with the bonus from tagging the

scene aspect, he succeeds and Sarah reveals that Jimmy

has the ‚Guilty conscience‛ Aspect.

Instead of one of the usual benefits for invoking an

Aspect the GM may allow a player to Tag an

Aspect to use a different Skill to accomplish a task

than he normally would. E.g. tagging a scene

Aspect of ‚Fear & Trepidation‛ may allow

Intimidation to be used in a negotiation rather than

Rapport; rather than a charming negotiation it

becomes a set of bullying demands and threats!

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Tagging for Effect Similar to the way in which a player may invoke

his character’s Aspects for effect, so may he tag

Aspects not belonging to the character for effect.

This is usually done to compel the way in which a

supporting character will act; this should be in

only general terms however, and cannot be used to

dictate specific actions. As normal, the GM has the

power to veto any suggestion.

Having learnt that Jimmy has the ‚Guilty conscience‛

Aspect, David asks the GM to tag that Aspect and

compel Jimmy to try to get away when his character

Trevor asks him to accompany him to the station.

David knows that Trevor has already called in backup

and so Jimmy is unlikely to actually escape, but he

hopes that an attempt to flee will give him the excuse to

arrest Jimmy and help prove his guilt.

Sarah agrees to the tag, however she informs David that

it is entirely up to her just how Jimmy tries to get away

– will he charge past Trevor to the door, try to crash

through a window, or up end the table with the cash on

it hoping the confusion provides cover? The specifics are

Sarah’s call.

Introducing & Discovering Aspects Players can, through their character’s actions,

discover Aspects that were previously hidden and

even introduce Aspects to a scene, location or

person via a declaration or a manoeuvre in a

conflict.

When this occurs the player should be awarded a

free tag of that Aspect, i.e. he does not have to pay

a Fate Point to tag it for the first time.

Such a free tag is subject to one key limitation; it

must occur immediately after the Aspect has been

brought into play. A minor delay is acceptable, but

not encouraged. This usually means that the free

tag must be taken within the same scene that the

Aspect was introduced.

In the example above, David discovered a previously

hidden Aspect of Jimmy; ‚Guilty Conscience‛. When

David attempted to tag it for effect Sarah allowed this to

occur without requiring David to spend a Fate Point.

The player may pass his free tag to another

character if he so wishes. This can allow for one

character to set up an ally who is better positioned

to take advantage of the newly revealed Aspect.

For further information on exactly how

Assessments & Declarations work see the Skills

chapter. Manoeuvres are explained in the

Conflicts chapter on page 19.

Compelling Aspects Just as players can tag a supporting character’s

Aspects to dictate the way in which he should

behave, so the GM tag the Aspects of a player

character to compel him to act in a certain manner,

usually to the character’s detriment. This is known

as Compelling an Aspect.

Alternatively the GM may Compel a character’s

Aspects to add a complication to the task at hand,

force an automatic failure of an action, or even

introduce difficulties ‚off-screen‛ such as have a

loved one mentioned in an Aspect kidnapped!

Though this may seem like a bad thing for a

player, a Compel can lead to interesting and

exciting situations, but more importantly a player

who accepts a Compel receives a Fate Point.

Accepting a Compel is the primary way for a

player to gain Fate Points, and as such it is wise to

make sure a character has a number of Aspects

that can easily be Compelled by the GM.

Just as David requested, Sarah has the suspect Jimmy

make a break for it, pushing over the table of cash and

barging past Trevor. Knowing that he requested the

police constables cover the back of the pub, David states

that Trevor will give chase.

Sarah states she is Compelling Trevor’s ‚I’m the brains,

let the young’uns do the running‛ Aspect, stating that

Trevor will only have two exchanges to catch Jimmy

before having to give up wheezing and out of breath.

David accepts the Compel and receives a Fate Point.

Voluntary Compels Sometimes it is the player, rather than the GM,

who identifies a situation where his character’s

Aspects may be compelled. In such cases the

player may bring this to the attention of the GM.

The GM can either agree and hand over a Fate

point, or defer, offering a brief explanation.

Refusing a Compel & Escalation If a player really does not want to accept the

Compel, they can refuse it but doing so costs a Fate

Point rather than earning one.

Rarely, in moments of high tension or drama, the

Games Master can choose to escalate a Compel.

This is an optional rule, and should really only be

used when the character getting compelled is

having a defining moment in his story.

When a player refuses a Compel, the GM can elect

to offer two Fate Points instead of one. If the player

accepts he spends no Fate Points and instead

receives two. However if the player really does

not want to accept he can still refuse, but now it

will cost him two Fate Points.

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Skills Skills reflect both natural aptitudes and learned

abilities. Skills are rated on the Ladder as

described in the Rules chapter, above.

Skill List Academics Intimidation

Alertness Investigation

Art Leadership

Athletics Might

Burglary Mysteries

Contacting Pilot

Deceit Rapport

Drive Resolve

Empathy Resources

Endurance Science

Engineering Sleight of Hand

Fists Stealth

Gambling Survival

Guns Weapons

Assessments Certain Skills allow characters to observe, study

and interact with people and locations in order to

discover useful information about them. Using a

Skill in this manner is known as an Assessment

and usually requires anywhere from a few minutes

to a few days.

Assessments can even be used to uncover

previously hidden Aspects of a character or locale.

Trevor’s ex-con associate Mickey is helping him

investigate a factory from which a number of people

have disappeared. Mickey’s player Joe asks the GM to

use his Burglary Skill to ‚case‛ the factory. Sarah the

GM sets a Difficulty and Joe makes the Burglary Test,

succeeding.

Sarah reveals that the factory has an Aspect of ‚Poorly

maintained fencing‛, an Aspect that could be tagged

(free of charge) in the immediately following scene to aid

an Athletics Skill test to enter the factory grounds.

The Difficulty for the Skill roll to determine

whether an Assessment is successful is set by the

GM. For locations and items, a default Good (+3)

Difficulty will allow characters to successfully

make an Assessment, though this may be

increased if special efforts have been taken to

conceal the Aspects, features and flaws.

For Assessments that focus on other characters, the

Difficulty will often be set by that character’s

appropriate Skill rating, e.g. Deceit or Resolve.

Assessments as Declarations If the GM is amenable, an Assessment may also

allow a player character to ‚discover‛ an element

that the GM hadn’t even thought of previously. In

this manner the Assessment works like a

Declaration (see below) with the player stating that

his character has identified a weakness, Aspect or

other feature. The GM sets a Difficulty for the Skill

roll to see if the character was correct in his

Assessment, or whether he was mistaken. If the

roll fails, the GM may wish to impose a temporary

Aspect on the assessing character to reflect this, for

example ‚Mistakenly believes the security cameras

to have a blind spot‛.

Declarations A Declaration allows a player to use his character’s

Skills to introduce entirely new facts and Aspects

into play by making a statement and testing to see

whether it is true.

Declarations are often, but not exclusively, the

domain of knowledge Skills such as Academics,

Art, Mysteries and Science. Unlike Assessments, a

Declaration takes no in-game time to perform as

they represent a character recalling previously

learnt knowledge.

Maria’s character Alison Havers is helping Trevor

Maples investigate the death of noted psychic and artist

Ray Bremmond. When reviewing the scene of the crime

Trevor is inspecting the deceased’s latest painting and

asks Alison whether there is anything special about his

work.

Maria asks the GM to make a Declaration using her

Average (+1) Art skill stating that Ray Bremmond

always included the colour Veronese green somewhere

in the lower left corner of his paintings as a secondary

signature.

Sarah the GM thinks this is reasonable and sets the

Difficulty at Good (+3). Maria succeeds at the test and

her Declaration is now a fact within the game;

something that can be used to help authenticate

Bremmond’s paintings.

Often a Declaration can be used to assign a new

Aspect to an item or scene, when this is the case

the declaring character gets a free first tag of the

Aspect.

Maria asks Sarah whether ‚Signed with Veronese

green‛ can be an Aspect of all of Bremmond’s paintings,

Sarah agrees but emphasises only the first tag of this

Aspect is free, regardless of which painting is having it

tagged.

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Knowledge Tests When a player wants to see if his character knows

about a certain topic or area of study then a test

can be made using an appropriate skill e.g.

Academics to recall details of an historical battle,

whilst Guns might be used to identify a particular

firearm and who manufactures it.

The Knowledge Difficulty table can be used as a

guide to assign a Difficulty to the task. The greater

the Effect, the more detailed the knowledge the

character has about the subject.

Table - Knowledge Difficult

Obscurity Difficulty

Common knowledge Average (+1) to

Good (+3)

Expert knowledge Great (+4)

Leading expert knowledge Superb (+5)

Known only to one or two

people in the world

Fantastic (+6)

Lost knowledge Epic (+7)

Research If a character fails a Knowledge Test, he can spend

time researching or experimenting to find the

answer as long as he has access to a good library or

laboratory in some form. The amount by which the

knowledge Skill Test failed is the length of time in

time periods (page 8) required to find the answer,

beginning at ‚15 minutes‛.

The Quality of the library or laboratory determines

the hardest possible question that can be answered

within it; so if the Knowledge Skill Test had a

Difficulty of Good (+3) then a Good library or

better is required.

Alison Havers is attempting to identify an occult

symbol left on the body of a murder victim. Sarah the

GM asks Maria to make a Mysteries Skill Test for her

character, setting the Difficulty at Superb (+5).

Alison has the Mysteries Skill at Great (+4), but

unfortunately Maria rolls a 5 on the Plus Die and a 2

on the Minus Die, meaning her Effort is only Fair (+2).

Sarah tells Maria that Alison is unable to identify the

symbol. Maria therefore elects to return to her

university Arcane Library (which luckily is of a Superb

quality) to search for the answer.

As Maria failed the Test by 3 shifts – Superb (+5)

Difficulty less the Fair (+2) Effort – it will take Alison

an hour to find the answer.

Skill Descriptions Academics

Academics measures a character’s ‚book

learning‛; any knowledge that would not explicitly

fall under Science, Mysteries, or Art.

Academics is often used to make Assessments

(page 11) and perform Declarations (see page 11).

In addition, Academics covers knowledge of other

languages; each step above Mediocre gives the

character knowledge of one extra language.

Alertness

Alertness is a measure of the character’s passive

awareness, his ability to stay on his toes and react

to sudden changes in his environment. Alertness

is also the basis for initiative in a physical conflict.

Active searching falls under Investigation Skill.

Art

Art measures the character’s overall artistic ability,

covering the gamut of endeavours, from painting

to dance to music. This includes knowledge,

composition, and performance. Art can also be

used to perform Declarations (see page 11).

Athletics

Athletics measures the character’s general physical

capability, excepting raw power, (which is Might)

and long term endurance (which is Endurance).

Athletics covers running, jumping, climbing and

swimming. It determines movement and acts as a

defensive Skill in physical conflicts.

Burglary

Burglary represents the ability to overcome

security systems, from alarms to locks. Burglary

also includes knowledge of those systems and the

ability to assess them (see Assessments, above).

Contacting

Contacting is the ability to find things out from

people. A character may know a guy, who knows

a guy, or maybe he just knows the right questions

to ask. Whatever his methods, he can gather

information by asking around.

Deceit

Deceit is the ability to hide the truth and convey

falsehoods convincingly. Deceit can be used to fast

talk a security guard, carry out elaborate

confidence schemes or create simple disguises that

can withstand casual inspection (but not close

scrutiny, i.e. any use of the Investigation Skill).

Deceit is often opposed by Empathy, Alertness or

Investigation. Deceit (modified by Rapport) can

itself be used to oppose the use of Empathy to get

a read on a character (in place of straight Rapport).

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Drive

Drive is the ability to operate a ground or water

based vehicle, be it a car, hovercraft, boat or

submersible. It is often used in chases (see page

29).

Empathy

This is the ability to understand what other people

are thinking and feeling. It can be used to spot a

liar or help tell someone what they want to hear.

Empathy is usable as a defense against Deceit, and

is the basis for initiative in a social conflict.

Finally, Empathy can be used to get a ‚read‛ on

someone by performing an Assessment (see above)

using a target character’s Rapport as the Difficulty.

Endurance

Endurance is the ability to keep performing

physical activity despite fatigue or injury. It’s a

measure of the body’s resistance to shock and

effort. In addition to fatigue, Endurance measures

how well a character shrugs off poisons and

disease. Finally, Endurance determines the

number of boxes on a character’s Physical Stress

track (see Stress Tracks, in Character Creation).

Engineering

Engineering is the understanding of how

machinery works, for purposes of building,

repairing and even sabotaging it. Engineering is

often complemented by the Science Skill (see

Combining Skills, page 7).

Engineering can be used to repair devices, given

the right tools and enough time. The GM should

set the Difficulty for the Engineering roll, if in

doubt use the highest value of the device, or its

Resources cost. Repairs also require a Workshop

(see page 35) with a Quality Rating equal to the

Difficulty of the repair minus two.

Rules for creating items can be found on page 35.

Table – Repair Times

Repair Undertaken Time Period

Remove all Stress A few hours

Remove a Minor Consequence A few hours

Remove a Major Consequence A day

Remove a Severe Consequence A week

Fists

Fists represents a character’s ability to fight and

defend himself whilst unarmed. Despite the name,

this Skill can be used for kicks, headbutts and bites

as well as the use of bare hands. Fists is used in

Physical Conflicts.

Gambling

Gambling is the knowledge of how to gamble and

moreover, how to win when gambling. It also

includes knowledge of secondary things like

bookmaking and risk taking.

Finding a game to sit in on can simply be a matter

of going to a casino; private games require a

Contacting Test to find. The stakes of a game are

assigned a rating on the Ladder, this is the

Difficulty for the Gambling Test.

If the Gambling Test is successful, and the stake is

cash or easily liquidated assets, the gambler gets to

make a single Resources Test using the rating of

the stake rather than his own Resources Skill.

If the Gambling Test fails, the gambler must make

a Resources Test with a Difficulty of the stakes. If

this succeeds, the gambler can pay his dues,

otherwise he is in debt preventing him from

gambling any more until he can make payment.

Guns

Guns is used to shoot any type of personal weapon

that fires at range from bows to pistols to

automatic rifles. Guns is used in Physical

Conflicts.

Intimidation

Intimidation is the Skill of unsettling and

sometimes outright scaring another person

through physical threats of violence or more subtle

psychological means. This is also the Skill to use

for interrogation. Using Intimidation is often a

blatant social attack, which someone can defend

against with their Resolve.

Investigation

Investigation is the ability to look for things and,

hopefully, find them. This is the Skill used when

the character is actively looking for something,

such as searching a crime scene or trying to spot a

hidden enemy.

It is also useful for eavesdropping or any other

activity where someone is trying to observe

something over a period of time. When looking for

deep patterns and hidden flaws, Investigation may

be used to make Assessments.

Leadership

Leadership is a multi-faceted Skill. A good leader

knows how to direct and inspire people, but he

also understands how to run an organization. As

such, the Leadership Skill covers acts of both

types, from inspiring comrades to make one last

push on a battlefield, to navigating the maze of

bureaucracy of a corporation.

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Might

This is a measure of pure physical power, be it raw

strength or simply the knowledge of how to use

the strength one has. Might may be used indirectly

as well, to modify, complement, or restrict some

Skill uses.

In combat, Might can be used to help with

particular applications of Fists and Weapons – if

force is a very significant element at play, Might

will modify the primary Skill.

Furthermore, a successful manoeuvre may allow a

character to begin grappling with his foe, allowing

Might to be used instead of Fists in subsequent

exchanges.

Table – Breaking Things

Difficulty Description

Mediocre (+0) Paper or glass.

Average (+1) Flimsy wood.

Fair (+2) Cheap wood, bamboo, some

light plastics.

Good (+3) Non-reinforced wooden board,

an interior door.

Great (+4) Strong wood, hardwood

boards, exterior door.

Superb (+5) Reinforced wood, heavy door

Fantastic (+6) Security door

Epic (+7) Bending prison bars

Legendary (+8) Safe of bank vault door

A character can carry a default amount of weight

as shown on the table below. If carrying more

than this, for each step heavier the character takes

a -1 penalty on all other physical action up to a

maximum of a -4 penalty (up to four steps higher).

A Might Skill Test with a Difficulty of his own

Might will allow a character to push himself into a

category five steps higher for a total -5 penalty.

Table – Lifting

Might Carry (lbs)

Mediocre (+0) 5

Average (+1) 10

Fair (+2) 50

Good (+3) 100

Great (+4) 150

Superb (+5) 200

Fantastic (+6) 250

Epic (+7) 300

Legendary (+8) 350

Mysteries

Mysteries is knowledge of the supernatural, the

occult and psychic phenomena. It covers

everything from experience with hypnosis

techniques to a sense that there is something else

beyond the material world.

Mysteries is often used to perform Declarations

(see page 11). In certain circumstances the GM may

allow Mysteries to be used to make Assessments

(page 11) to discover hidden Aspects of a locale or

person (by reading an ‚aura‛ for example).

A GM may allow a Mysteries Test as she would an

Alertness Test, to notice strange and mysterious

things, in effect it is a sixth sense.

A Mysteries Test with a Difficulty of a willing

participant’s Resolve Skill will allow the character

to put the participant into a hypnotic trance. This

can be used to help the participant recall

memories, calm them down, or help them

remember information.

If appropriate, Mysteries may be used like the

Engineering Skill to create and repair arcane and

magical items. Rules for creating items can be

found on page 35.

Pilot

Pilot is the ability to fly aircraft, whether they be

propeller fighter planes, helicopters, or commercial

jet airliners. It is most often used in chases (see

Chases on page 29).

Rapport

Rapport is the ability to talk with people in a

friendly fashion and make a good impression, and

perhaps convince them to see one’s side of things.

Any time a character wants to communicate

without an implicit threat, this is the Skill to use,

which makes it appropriate for interviewing.

Rapport is the fallback social Skill. While Empathy,

Deceit, and Intimidation are fairly specific in their

applications, Rapport is the catchall that covers

everything else.

Resolve

Resolve is a measure of a character’s self-mastery,

his courage and willpower. It’s an indicator of

coolness under fire and also represents the drive

not to quit. It can play a key part in efforts to resist

torture or strange powers.

Resolve is almost always rolled in response to

something, rather than on its own. Its primary role

is as defence against most kinds of social

manipulation or distraction.

Finally, Resolve determines the number of boxes

on a character’s Composure Stress track (see Stress

Tracks, in Character Creation).

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Resources

Resources is a measure of available wealth, the

specific form this takes, from a family trust fund to

a well invested portfolio, can vary from character

to character (and may be indicated and enhanced

by their Aspects).

Resources is used to determine starting equipment

(page 5) and can be used to purchase items. The

cost of items is measured as a purchase Difficulty

on the ladder and many items are detailed in the

Equipment chapter.

A character can buy reasonable quantities of

anything of a value less than his Resources without

worrying about it. For items greater than or equal

to his Resources, the player needs to roll against

the cost of the item. If successful, the character can

afford the item; if not, he can’t. Characters can only

make one Resources roll per scene.

When a character is in a place where he can’t draw

upon his usual resources, the GM may increase the

Difficulty of making a purchase – anywhere from

+1 for a modest amount of red tape, to a +4 if the

character is limited solely to the already-converted

local currency he happens to have in his pockets.

Science

Science holds the promise of revealing all of

nature’s secrets. This Skill represents a broad

knowledge of scientific method, and includes the

field of computers (including hacking) and

medicine.

Science is often used to make Declarations (see

page 11). In certain circumstances the GM may

allow Science to be used to make Assessments

(page 11).

Sleight of Hand

This Skill covers fine, dexterous activities like stage

magic, pick pocketing, and replacing an idol with a

bag of sand without tripping a trap. While

Athletics is appropriate for gross physical

activities, most things requiring manual speed and

precision falls under this Skill (that said, if you’re

picking a lock, use Burglary).

Using Sleight of Hand is usually a contest against a

target’s Alertness Skill, if the target is on guard

they gain a +2 bonus, however a distraction can

negate this.

Stealth

This is the ability to remain unseen and unheard.

Directly opposed by Alertness or Investigation,

this ability covers everything from skulking in the

shadows to hiding behind a door.

Environmental conditions can greatly affect the

ability to use Stealth, the table below suggests

some modifiers to apply to the Stealth Skill roll.

Table – Stealth Skill Modifiers

Modifier Environment

+4 Pitch black, no visibility

+2 Dark, smoke, thick fog, no clear line of

sight, greatly diminished visibility

0 Dim lighting, cluttered line of sight.

-2 Good Lighting, clear line of sight

-4 Bright lighting, clear area

Survival

Survival is a very broad Skill covering virtually

every sort of outdoor activity from wilderness

survival to animal handling and riding.

For determining whether a character is able to

survive in an environment, the GM should set a

Difficulty appropriate to the harshness of the

environment; success allows the character to

survive. If required the character can also help a

number of other characters equal to the Effect to

survive as well.

When handling animals Survival is often used in a

Contest against the animal’s Resolve.

A successful Survival Test against a Mediocre (+0)

Difficulty allows for a hide to be built that allows

Survival to complement Stealth whilst in it. The

hide lasts for one day, plus a number of extra days

equal to the Effect.

Weapons

This is the Skill for fighting with weapons,

including swords, knives, axes, clubs and whips.

The Weapons Skill also covers the ability to throw

small handheld weapons up to one zone away, or

to use weapons (like a whip) with unusually long

reach to attack adjacent zones, so a character

would use this Skill to be a good knife fighter and

knife thrower.

As a combat Skill, Weapons inherently carries the

ability to defend oneself in a fight and as such,

may be rolled for defence.

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Stunts Stunts exist to provide guaranteed situational

benefits, special abilities and even minor powers,

under particular circumstances.

A Stunt may grant a character the ability to use a

Skill under unusual circumstances, such as using it

in a broader array of situations, substituting it for

another Skill, or using it in a complementary

fashion to another Skill. A Stunt might allow a

character to gain an effect roughly equal to two

shifts, when used in a specific way, or otherwise

grant other small effects. Put more simply, Stunts

allow the usual rules about Skills to be broken – or

at least bent.

Games Masters, and players under GM

supervision, are encouraged to create their own

Stunts to fit their game. To help with this process

Free Fate suggests four templates for Stunts. These

templates provide guidelines on how to create

distinct and balanced Stunts. Players and GMs are

encouraged to give a name to a particular

implementation of a template for ease of reference.

By doing this, it is possible to build up an

extensive list of different Stunts.

Stunt Templates

Concentration A concentration stunt provides a character with a

+1 bonus to a particular Skill when using that Skill

in a particular manner. The scope of this use is

quite broad (but does not cover all uses of the

skill).

For example, a concentration stunt for the

Weapons skill could be when wielding bladed

weapons – be they swords, knives or axes. A

character would gain a +1 bonus to Weapons Skill

Tests when using such a weapon, but not when

using clubs, staffs or whips.

When David was creating his character Trevor Maples

he and Sarah his GM created a Concentration Stunt

that they called ‚Criminal Snitches‛. Trevor gains a +1

bonus to the Contacting Skill when gathering

information about criminal activity in the city. This

bonus is not gained when using Contacting to learn

about any other subjects (e.g. political funding sources,

which actor is secretly seeing that new pop star etc).

Specialisation A specialisation stunt provides a character with a

+2 bonus when using a Skill in a very specific way.

For example, a specialisation stunt for the

Weapons skill could apply when a character is

wielding a particular type of sword, for example a

katana.

If the character also has a concentration stunt that

overlaps with this specialisation, only apply the +2

bonus from the specialisation.

David also created a specialisation stunt for his

character called ‚Police Interrogation‛. Trevor gains a

+2 bonus to the Intimidation Skill when interrogating a

suspect in an official police interview.

David and Sarah agree that this means an interview in

a police station interview room, with another police

officer present and the interview being recorded.

Skill Switch A skill switch stunt allows a character to use one

Skill in place of another when performing a

particular task. The scope of such use is similar to

that of a concentration stunt.

For example, a skill switch stunt may allow the

Athletics Skill to be used instead of Survival to ride

horses and other mounts.

David and Sarah devised the skill switch stunt

‚Surroundings Read‛, which allows the Investigation

Skill to be used instead of Empathy to get a read on

someone when speaking with them in their home,

workplace, car or favourite hangout. If trying to assess

someone away from those environments David will need

to use Trevor’s Empathy Skill; which defaults to

Mediocre (+0).

Benefit A benefit stunt is the catchall category for any

other stunt that doesn’t conform to the previous

three templates. Benefit stunts can provide a

character with access to resources, equipment,

special abilities and other qualities.

When creating benefit stunts some will appear

more powerful than others, if the GM and players

are happy to have such stunts available, then they

should feel free to incorporate them into their

game.

However, if such imbalance is not desired, there

are a few methods to limit the power such benefit

stunts may have, so that they are in line with other

benefit stunts.

Fate Point Expenditure

One simple manner to limit any possible abuse of a

powerful stunt is to require the player spend a Fate

Point in order to gain access to the stunt’s benefit.

Joe wants to create a Stunt that lets his ex-con character

Mickey act first in every exchange of a conflict. Sarah

finds this too overpowering, however requiring a Fate

Point to be spent each exchange provides a more

balanced stunt, one which Joe calls ‚I’m on Top of it!‛

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Pre-requisites

Some Stunts may have prerequisites in the form of

other Stunts that have to be gained before the

benefit stunt can be used. This makes the more

powerful stunt more difficult to obtain, and any

character who does meet the pre-requisites has

shown a particular degree of focus on one concept

that may leave weaknesses in other areas. Thus,

the powerful stunt is more balanced against stunts

that any character can take.

Joe is really focused on making his character Mickey

able to act first in a conflict and suggests another stunt

that provides a +1 bonus to his Alertness Skill Rating

when determining initiative in a physical conflict.

Sarah thinks this is reasonable as it is effectively just a

Concentration stunt.

However, Joe wants to be able to take the stunt multiple

times with the bonuses stacking with one another.

Sarah thinks that this may be too powerful, but not

wanting to say no, she allows it but enforces a pre-

requisite. In order to take this new stunt (which Joe

calls ‚Ready for Anything‛) a character will need the

‚I’m on Top of it!‛ stunt. Sarah reasons that at least

this means a character will have one less stunt available

to use to take ‚Ready for Anything‛.

Joe happily agrees and uses up three of his character’s

stunts to take ‚I’m on Top of it!‛ and two instances of

‚Ready for Anything‛.

It is also possible to have pre-requisites in the form

of Aspects rather than other stunts. This ensures

there is always a particular aspect to compel in

exchange for taking the stunt.

David suggests to Sarah a stunt that will allow his

character to call upon a number of police officer

Minions (see page 26) to act as backup.

Sarah has previously used a stunt called Minions that

provides either 6 Fair or 12 Average Minions (see

Appendix A) however she feels David’s suggestion is

different in that these Minions will have official

authority to enforce the law.

Sarah states that such a stunt requires the character to

have an Aspect that identifies him as an active member

of the police (or other security service). This will allow

her as GM to compel the Aspect to sometimes make the

backup unavailable, and also to ensure the character has

some motivation to use the backup responsibly.

David agrees to the pre-requisite and names the benefit

stunt ‚Police Backup‛.

Uses per Session

A third way of limiting the power of a benefit

stunt is to impose a restriction on the number of

times it can be used per game session.

Joe’s character Mickey is also a gambler, and Joe

suggests a stunt that will allow him to use Mickey’s

Gambling Skill instead of Resources to make purchases.

Joe argues that this represents the winnings his

character accumulates in games of chance ‚off screen‛.

This initially sounds like a Skill Switch stunt to Sarah,

except for the fact that Joe hasn’t suggested a reduced

scope in which the switch can occur; Joe wants to be able

to use Gambling all the time instead of Resources.

Knowing Joe has already assigned Mickey a Great (+4)

Gambling Skill and has a number of gambling related

Aspects he could invoke to gain further bonuses, Sarah

is reluctant to allow this stunt without a severe

restriction. She states Joe can have the stunt but it can

only be used once per game session, explaining that

even with this limit Mickey will likely be able to buy

something with a cost of Great every session. Joe

accepts and names the stunt simply ‚Winnings‛.

Combined Limits

Some especially powerful stunts may still seem too

imbalanced even with one of the above

restrictions. In these instances more than one type

of restriction may be needed in order to balance

the stunt.

In a previous FATE game Maria played a burly soldier,

able to suffer a lot of punishment. In addition to having

a high Endurance Skill, Maria created the ‚One Hit to

the Body‛ stunt that allowed her character to pay a Fate

point and ignore the effects of one attack per game

session. Maria found this stunt extremely useful

despite the two restrictions and saved it to avoid attacks

where an enemy got an especially lucky shot in with a

powerful weapon.

Sample Benefit Stunts

A number of sample Benefit Stunts are provided in

Appendix A; these can be used by players and

GMs when creating characters.

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Conflicts The stories often include moments of intense

action and social interaction, times when the

insults and lead starts flying or swords start

swinging whilst wits are challenged.

Running Conflicts Once a conflict begins, the GM should regulate the

flow of the action using the following pattern.

1. Frame the scene

2. Establish initiative

3. Begin exchange

a. Take actions

b. Resolve actions

c. Begin a new exchange

Framing the Scene The GM briefly describes the location in which the

conflict occurs, declaring any obvious Aspects of

the scene. If the scene takes place in a broad area,

the GM declares the zones the scene will cover,

and in which zone each character begins.

The GM should also determine whether any

participants begin the conflict surprised (e.g.

failing an Alertness Test to spot an ambusher). A

surprised character’s first Defence is considered to

be only Mediocre (+0).

Zones

Zones are loosely defined areas that help

adjudicate which characters may interact with each

other. Generally, people in the same zone can

touch each other; people one zone apart can throw

things at each other, and people two (and

sometimes three) zones apart can shoot each other.

Moving from one zone to another may be

relatively simple; however sometimes there are

barriers to moving between zones – walls,

staircases, chasms, doorways etc – that require a

character use a bit more effort to move zones.

Establish Initiative The order of characters’ actions is determined at

the beginning of the conflict, with characters acting

from highest to lowest Alertness Skill (for physical

conflicts) or Empathy (for social conflicts).

Ties in initiative are resolved in favour of

characters with a higher Resolve. Any remaining

ties are in favour of the player characters (if a tie is

between a player character and a supporting

character), or the player closest to the GM’s right

(if the tie is between player characters).

The initiative order is used for the entire conflict.

Begin Exchanges An exchange is a variable period of time during

which all characters involved in the conflict get to

act. Actions occur in order of initiative as

determined in the previous step.

In turn, each player (or the GM for supporting

characters) announces the action his character is

going to take. This action is usually either an:

Attack – an attempt to directly inflict Stress

and / or Consequence onto an opponent, or

Manoeuvre – an attempt to change the

situation in some way, affecting the

environment or other people, but not in a way

that directly harms them

Once the action is declared, the GM and player

resolve the action according to the rules described

previously and guidance given below.

Once the action has been resolved the next

character gets to act. Once all actions have been

taken a new exchange is started.

Attacks An attack is an attempt to force the attacker’s

agenda on a target, by attempting to injure them,

by bullying them, or by some other means.

An attack is resolved as a contest, with the player

rolling his character’s attack Skill against a

Difficulty equal to the supporting character’s Skill

used in defence, or the player rolling his

character’s defence Skill against a Difficulty equal

to the opponent’s attack Skill, depending upon

whether the player character is attacking or being

attacked. If for some reason a player character is

attacking a player character, only the attacking

character’s Skill is rolled.

Not all attacks are necessarily violent. An attempt

to persuade or distract someone is also a sort of

attack. When determining whether or not the

attack rules apply, simply look for two characters

in conflict, an agenda (or ‚want‛) pushed by the

acting character, and the target or obstacle to that

agenda, the defending (or ‚responding‛) character.

The Skills used to attack and defend depend on the

nature of the attacker’s agenda.

Table – Attack and Defence Skills

Purpose Attack Skill Defence Skill

Wound

or kill

Fists, Guns, or

Weapons

Fists, Athletics, or

Weapons

Deceive Deceit Resolve or Empathy

Scare Intimidation Resolve

Charm Rapport Resolve or Deceit

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A successful attack inflicts an amount of Stress on

its target equal to the number of Shifts on the

attack (the amount by which the attack skill

exceeded the Difficulty, or the amount by which

the Defense skill failed by) plus any weapon Stress

bonus and less any Stress reduction due to armour.

As described on page 7, David’s character Trevor shot a

thug and achieved 3 shifts on the attack roll. The thug

suffers a base of 3 points of Stress plus the bonus from

the weapon (+2 for a handgun) for a total of 5 Stress

points. As this was a physical attack this Stress is

marked off against the thug’s Physical Stress Track.

Defence and Spin

If a character who is defending against an attack

achieves an Effect of 3 or more shifts he gains

‚Spin‛. Spin provides a +1 bonus or -1 penalty to

the very next test made by anyone in the conflict.

The only qualifier for using Spin is that the player

must explain how his character was able to help or

hinder, even if it’s just as simple as shouting some

encouragement or providing a distraction. A

player might not always be able to justify using

Spin. Spin that isn’t used on the next action simply

goes away.

Carrying on from the example above, Sarah the GM has

the thug try to grab Maria’s character Alison to use as a

shield against any further attacks by Trevor.

Sarah states that this will be an attack using the thug’s

Fair (+2) Fists Skill. Maria elects to have Alison try to

duck out of the reach of the thug by using her Average

(+1) Athletics Skill. Maria rolls the dice, resulting in a

4 on the Plus Die and a 5 on the Minus Die.

Maria applies the Plus Die result to increase her

Average (+1) Skill Rating for a Superb (+5) Effort. This

exceeds the thugs Fists Skill by 3 shifts and so Alison

dodges the thug’s grasp and gains Spin. As it is

Alison’s action next Maria elects to take the +1 bonus to

Alison’s action.

Manoeuvres When a character tries to jump to grab a rope,

throw dust in an enemy’s eyes, draw eyes upon

himself in a ballroom, or take a debate down a

tangential path – that’s a manoeuvre.

A manoeuvre is either a simple action or a contest,

with the Difficulty determined by the nature of the

manoeuvre. A manoeuvre that doesn’t target an

opponent is resolved as a simple action.

Most simple manoeuvres like this result in a

character rolling against a GM set Difficulty and

doing something with the resulting shifts,

potentially adding a temporary Aspect to the scene

(such as ‚Barn on Fire!‛).

A manoeuvre can also target an opponent, and, if

successful, place a temporary Aspect on him. The

opponent can either accept the temporary Aspect,

or spend a Fate point to avoid accepting it.

Introducing an Aspect by performing a manoeuvre

provides one free tag of that Aspect as described in

Introducing & Discovering Aspects, page 10.

Maria asks Sarah the GM whether there is anything

within reach that Alison can throw into the thugs eyes,

Sarah’s reply is ‚You tell me!‛

Taking the hint, Maria spends a Fate Point to make a

minor narrative declaration (see Fate Points, page 8)

and states that a half empty pot of paint sits on the wall

directly behind where Alison is standing.

Maria states that Alison grabs the pot and throws the

contents at the thug. Sarah believes that this is a

manoeuvre rather than a direct attack even though

Maria will be rolling her Mediocre (+0) Weapons Skill

against the Thug’s Average (+1) Athletics Skill.

Sarah further states that grabbing the paint pot is a

supplemental action (see below) and therefore Maria’s

Test suffers a -1 penalty, however this is cancelled out

by the Spin bonus gained previously.

Maria rolls well for an Effort of Fair (+2), a success!

Maria declares that the thug now has the temporary

Aspect of ‚Blinded‛.

Temporary Aspects

Temporary Aspects that result from manoeuvres

are usually ‚fragile‛. A fragile Aspect exists for

only a single tag and / or may be cleared away by a

simple change of circumstances. Consider

someone who uses a manoeuvre to take aim at a

target, placing an ‚In My Sights‛ Aspect on the

target. Once the shot’s taken, the aim goes away –

this is clearly fragile. But it could get lost even

before the first shot, if the character who (likely

unwittingly) has the Aspect on him manages to

break line of sight or move significantly.

Some Aspects that result from manoeuvres can be

‚sticky‛. Sticky Aspects don’t go away after they

are first tagged, allowing people to spend Fate

points to continue to tag them. The GM is

encouraged to be much more picky about whether

or not to allow a sticky Aspect to result from a

manoeuvre.

In many cases, the GM may require that the

manoeuvring character gain Spin (see page 7) in

order to succeed at placing a sticky Aspect.

Sarah states that the ‚Blinded‛ Aspect will exist until

the thug spends a supplemental action (see below)

wiping the paint from his eyes.

Luckily, Trevor is the next character to act and Maria

passes the free tag to him to use. Even if Trevor fails to

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subdue the thug in that exchange, the thug will suffer a

penalty on his action for taking the time to wipe away

the paint.

Sample Manoeuvres

Blinding

Whether it’s throwing sand in someone’s eyes,

spraying someone with a harsh chemical or tossing

a can of paint in his face, the goal is the same: keep

him from being able to see. This likely involves the

attacker rolling Weapons and the defender rolling

Athletics, with the manoeuvre succeeding if the

attacker gets at least one shift.

A successful manoeuvre puts the Aspect ‚Blinded‛

on the target, which may be tagged to add to the

defence of his target, or compelled to cause him to

change the subject or direction of an action. It can’t

force a character to take an action he doesn’t want

to (so a blinded character can’t be compelled to

walk off a cliff if the character refuses to move).

Disarming

A successful disarm manoeuvre forces the target to

drop his weapon or otherwise renders the weapon

temporarily useless. The target must either spend

an action to become re-armed, or pick up the

weapon as a supplemental action.

A supplemental action is normally a -1 penalty to

the main action, but when a disarm manoeuvre is

used, the shifts on the manoeuvre increase the

penalty. For example, if the disarm attempt

succeeds with three shifts, when the target tries to

recover his weapon, he will suffer a -4 penalty (-1

for the usual penalty, plus an additional -3) to his

action that exchange.

His defensive rolls are not directly affected by this

penalty, but they are indirectly affected; without a

weapon in hand, he can’t use the Weapons Skill to

defend (Athletics and Fists are still options).

Pushing

Pushing a target requires a successful attack

(usually Fists or Might) and must generate a

number of shifts equal to 1 per 100 lbs or part

thereof (2 shifts for most people) +1 for each zone

the target will be pushed (the +1 is basically the

usual cost for moving one zone). So pushing a

target one zone would require 3 shifts, two zones

would require 4 shifts etc.

A push moves both the target and the acting

character into the destination zone. Any

applicable border conditions affect the roll to push.

Throw or Knockback

It’s possible for a character to knock something or

someone away from himself, without moving.

Knockback covers any manoeuvre that can

accomplish this, including throws.

To knock something back one zone requires the

manoeuvre succeed with 1 shift plus 1 per 100 lbs

or part thereof (so an average person would

require 3 shifts to knockback one zone, the same as

a Push).

However, each additional zone costs as much as

the previous zone did, plus one, so that the cost

increases dramatically over distance (so an average

person would require 7 shifts to knockback two

zones, 3 for the first zone and 4 for the second).

Other Actions Free Actions

Some kinds of actions are ‚free‛; they don’t count

as the character’s action during an exchange,

whether or not a roll of the dice is involved.

Rolling for defence against an attack is a free

action, so are minor actions like casting a quick

glance at a doorway, flipping a switch right next to

the character, or shouting a short warning.

There is no hard limit on the number of free

actions a character may take during an exchange;

however the GM should impose a limit if a player

is taking excessive advantage of this rule.

Full Defence

A character can opt to do nothing but protect

himself for an exchange. By foregoing his normal

action, he gains a +2 on all reactions and defences

for that exchange. Characters who are defending

may declare it at the beginning of the exchange

rather than waiting for their turn to come around.

Similarly, if they have not acted in the exchange at

the time when they are first attacked, they may

declare a full defence at that point, again foregoing

their normal action for the exchange.

Hold Your Action

A character can opt not to act when his turn comes

around. When a character takes a hold action, he

has the option of taking his turn any time later in

the exchange. He must explicitly take his turn after

someone else has finished their turn and before the

next person begins. He cannot wait until someone

declares what they’re trying to do, then interrupt

them by taking his turn (although as an optional

rule, the GM may allow this if the player spends a

Fate point).

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Block Actions

When the character’s action is preventative –

trying to keep something from happening, rather

than taking direct action to make something

happen – he is performing a block action.

He declares what he’s trying to prevent and what

Skill he’s using to do it. Players may declare a

block against any sort of action or actions and may

theoretically use any Skill, but unless the block is

simple and clear, the GM may assess penalties

based upon how hard it would be, or how much of

a stretch it would be. Players should never be able

to ‚cover all bases‛ with a single block.

A blocking character can declare that he is

protecting another character. He makes this

declaration on his turn, and rolls the Skill he’s

using to block; the result is the block strength.

When, later that exchange, any enemy tries to

attack the protected character, the protected

character gets the benefit of either the blocker’s

defence or his own, whichever is better.

For other types of blocks, the blocking character

declares the block on his turn, and rolls the Skill

he’s using to block, subject to any penalties

imposed by the GM. The result is the block

strength. Later that exchange, every time another

character tries to perform the blocked action, he

enters into a contest with the blocker. The

character trying to get past the block rolls the Skill

he’s using for the action (not a Skill specifically

appropriate to the block), and compares it to the

block strength. If the attacker gets at least one shift,

he successfully overcomes the block.

Trying to get past a block always takes an action,

though the GM may grant similar latitude in

deciding what Skill is being used to get past it.

Even if the action is normally ‚free‛, getting past

the block takes additional effort, and thus the GM

can declare that it takes up the player’s action for

the exchange.

Supplemental Actions

Sometimes a player wants his character to perform

a simple action in addition to his main action.

Examples range from drawing a weapon and

attacking, to firing off a signal flare whilst

intimidating the wolves at the edge of the firelight.

Such supplemental actions impose a -1 penalty on

the character’s primary action roll (effectively

spending one shift of Effect in advance). When in

doubt about which is the primary action and

which is the supplemental one, the supplemental

action is the one which would normally require no

dice roll.

Sometimes the GM may decide a supplemental

action is particularly complicated or difficult, and

may increase the penalty appropriately.

Movement

Movement is one of the most common

supplemental actions. When it is reasonably easy

to move from one zone to the next, a character may

move one zone as a supplemental action.

If a player wants his character to move further

than that, he must perform a primary (not

supplemental) sprint action, which entails rolling

Athletics and allowing the character to move a

number of zones equal to the shifts generated.

Sometimes, it is more difficult to move from one

zone to the next, such as when there is some sort of

barrier (like a fence or some debris) or there is

some other difficulty (like getting from a rooftop to

the street below and vice versa). This movement

complication is called a border. The numeric value

of that border increases the penalty for a

supplemental move action and subtracts shifts

from a sprint action.

Stress and Consequences

Stress Stress represents non-specific difficulties a

character can encounter in a conflict.

Stress received from a physical attack is marked off

against the Physical Stress Track (mark off a

number of boxes equal to the Stress inflicted). This

represents bruising, minor cuts, and fatigue.

Stress suffered from a social attack is marked off

against the Composure Stress Track and represents

getting flustered, embarrassed or losing control of

the situation.

When a characters suffers Stress that equals or

exceeds his Stress track he is ‚Taken Out‛, losing

the conflict, unless the Stress can be absorbed by

taking Consequences (see below).

At the end of a scene, unless the GM says

otherwise, a character’s Stress tracks clear out;

minor scrapes and bruises, trivial gaffes and

embarrassments, and momentary fears pass away.

Consequences Stress is transitory, but sometimes conflicts have

lasting consequences, injuries, embarrassments,

phobias, and the like. These are collectively called

Consequences and are a special kind of Aspect.

Consequences reduce the amount of Stress taken

from a particular blow but in turn can be tagged,

compelled (and even invoked) like Aspects and

can have lasting effects.

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Consequences fall into four levels of severity,

Minor, Major, Severe and Extreme. A character can

only carry three Consequences at a time (barring

Stunts which may allow more) and only one

Consequence of each severity level (i.e. a character

cannot carry three Minor Consequences, but could

have a Minor, Severe and an Extreme

Consequence.

Whenever the character is hit for Stress, he may

use up one or more of these Consequence ‚slots‛

to reduce the hit, describing each Consequence as a

particular kind of wound or setback that is not

easy to shake off.

Minor Consequences negate 2 Stress points

Major Consequences negate 4 Stress points

Severe Consequences negate 6 Stress points

Extreme Consequences negate 8 Stress points

The exact nature of the Consequence should

depend upon the conflict – an injury might be

appropriate for a physical struggle, an emotional

state might be apt for a social one. Unlike the

temporary Aspects resulting from manoeuvres,

Consequences tend to hang around for a while and

take time to fade.

Following a short scuffle, during which Trevor suffers 1

point of Stress, Trevor finally handcuffs the blinded

thug. However, in all the excitement Trevor fails to

notice the thug’s friend sneaking up behind with a knife.

A failed defence test results in Trevor taking another 4

Stress! Added to the 1 point of Stress he has already

suffered this would equal his Physical Stress Track of 5

boxes. This means Trevor will be ‚Taken Out‛ unless

he takes a Consequence.

David elects for Trevor to take a Minor Consequence

which he describes as a ‚Nasty cut on his leg‛. This

negates 2 Stress meaning the attack only deals 2 Stress

points. David marks off the 2 Stress on Trevor’s

Physical Stress Track taking the total to 3; he also

writes down the Minor Consequence.

Despite help from Alison, Trevor is unable to subdue

this second attacker and again is struck, this time for 3

Stress points. Trevor needs to suffer another

Consequence or be Taken Out. As he has already taken

a Minor Consequence David elects for Trevor to suffer a

Major Consequence ‚Stabbed in the hand‛.

A Major Consequence can negate up to 4 points of

Stress, however the attack would only have inflicted 3

points. No Stress is suffered and David writes down

the new Consequence.

Normally, the person taking the Consequence gets

to describe what it is, so long as it’s compatible

with the nature of the attack that inflicted the

harm. The GM acts as an arbitrator on the

appropriateness of a Consequence, so there may be

some back and forth conversation before a

Consequence is settled on. The GM is the final

authority on whether a player’s suggested

Consequence is reasonable for the circumstances

and severity.

Taken Out If a character suffers Stress that equals or exceeds

his Stress track and has already taken three

Consequences then the character is Taken Out.

The character has decisively lost the conflict, and

unlike the other levels of Consequence, his fate is

in the hands of his opponent, who may decide

how the character loses. The outcome must remain

within the realm of reason – very few people truly

die from shame, so having someone die as a result

of a duel of wits is unlikely, but having them

embarrass themselves and flee in disgrace is not

unreasonable.

Being able to determine how a character loses is a

very powerful ability, but there are a few limits:

First, the effect is limited to the character who has

been Taken Out. The victor may declare that the

loser has made a fool of himself in front of the

admiral, but he cannot decide how the admiral

will respond (or even if the admiral was

particularly bothered).

Second, the manner of the Taken Out result must

be limited to the scope of the conflict. After the

victor wins a debate with someone, he cannot

decide that the loser concedes his point and the

loser gives him all the money in his pockets –

money was never part of the conflict, so it’s not an

appropriate part of the resolution.

Third, the effect must be reasonable for the target.

People do not (normally) explode when killed, so

that cannot be a part of taking someone out.

Similarly, a diplomat at the negotiating table is not

going to give the victor the ‘keys’ to the empire –

that’s probably beyond the scope of his authority,

and even if it’s not, it’s unlikely something he

would give these away under any circumstances.

What he will do is make a deal that is very much

in the victor’s favour and possibly even thank him

for it.

Lastly, players are not always comfortable with

being on the receiving end of this and may, if they

wish, spend all the Fate points they have left

(minimum of one) and demand a different

outcome, and the GM (or winning character)

should then make every effort to allow them to

lose in a fashion more to their liking. That said, if

this is a real concern, the loser may want to

concede somewhere before things reach this point

(see Concessions, below).

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Concessions Any time a character takes a Consequence, he also

has the option of offering a Concession. A

Concession is essentially equivalent to

surrendering, and is the best way to end a fight

before someone is Taken Out (short of moving

away and ending the conflict).

The character inflicting the damage can always opt

to not take the Concession, but doing so is a clear

indication that the fight will be a bloody one

(literally or metaphorically). If the GM declares

that the Concession was a reasonable offer, then

the character who offered it gains one Fate point,

and the character who refused it loses one.

The Concession is an offer of the terms under

which the character is Taken Out. If the

Concession is accepted, the conceding character is

immediately Taken Out, but rather than letting the

victor determine the manner of his defeat, he is

defeated according to the terms of his Concession.

Many conflicts end with a Concession when one

party or the other simply does not want to risk

taking Major or Severe Consequences as a result of

the conflict, or when neither party wants to risk a

Taken Out result that might come at too high a

price.

David, realising that Trevor is only another couple of

Stress points away from suffering a third Consequence

(which must be either Severe or Extreme) decides to

offer a Concession to the second thug.

He suggests to Sarah, the GM, that Trevor painfully

retrieves the keys to the handcuffs from his pocket and

throws them to the thug shouting ‚Take your damn

friend!‛ before collapsing against a dumpster holding

his bloody hand.

Sarah considers the suggestion – losing their handcuffed

suspect is a significant setback to Trevor and Alison.

Sarah clarifies that Trevor won’t be able to try to stop

the thugs escaping if he accepts the Concession as,

although not unconscious or dead, Trevor will still be

considered Taken Out. David agrees.

Of course, Maria’s character Alison has not been Taken

Out, and she may still attempt to confront the thugs –

but any such attempt will be without Trevor’s help.

Recovery As stated previously, unless the GM says

otherwise, a character’s Stress tracks clear out after

the scene has resolved. Consequences however

can take longer to recover from.

Minor Consequence – A few minutes

Major Consequence – A few hours to A few days

Severe Consequence – A week to A few weeks

Extreme Consequence – A few months

Recovering from Minor Consequences

Minor Consequences are removed any time the

character has the opportunity to sit down and take

a breather for a few minutes. These Consequences

will last until the end of the current scene, and will

usually be removed after that. The only exception

is if there is no break between scenes – if the

character doesn’t get a chance to take five, the

Consequence will remain in place.

Recovering from Major Consequences

Major Consequences require the character get a

little more time and distance. Depending on the

type of Major Consequence they remain in place

until the character has had the opportunity to take

anything from a few hours of ‚downtime‛ up to a

few days.

This may mean getting treatment for an injury,

sleeping in a comfortable bed, spending time with

a charming member of the opposite sex, or sitting

on a beach to ‘forget about it all’ or anything else

so long as it’s appropriate to the Consequence. An

afternoon of hiking might be a great way to get

past a ‚Heartbreak‛ Consequence, but it’s not a

great choice for a ‚Bad Ankle‛.

Recovering from Severe Consequences

Severe Consequences require substantial

downtime, measured in a week to a few weeks.

Generally this means that such a Consequence will

linger for the duration of a session, but could be

cleared up before the next adventure begins or at

least reduced one level.

Recovering from Extreme Consequences

Extreme Consequences generally put characters in

accident and emergency, in jail, in the nearest

rehab, perhaps on their deathbed or fried within

an inch of his life. It’s likely that the character will

be left with lasting effects in the form of an Aspect

(such as ‘Prosthetic Leg’ or ‘Branded a traitor’).

These could require sophisticated medical

treatment usually only found in major cities, or

trained counsellors on hand 24 hours a day to stop

you going over the edge. Healing or recovery will

take a few months. Needless to say the experience

should have a profound effect on the character and

result in the change of some of their Skills and

Aspects.

No Time to Recover

If the character is in back-to-back sessions with no

in-game time between them, such as in a multi-

part adventure, he gets a break; any Consequences

he begins the session with are treated as one level

lower for how quickly they’re removed.

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Medical Attention A character trained in the Science Skill can attempt

to provide first aid to an injured ally during a

conflict and also provide long term care

afterwards.

First Aid

When using the Science Skill to perform first aid in

the middle of a conflict, the character must take a

full action with a target who’s not trying to do

anything else (i.e., forfeiting his next action).

Make a Science Skill test against a Difficulty of

Mediocre (+0); if it succeeds with at least one shift,

the subject may remove one point of Stress from

his physical Stress track. Every two shifts beyond

the first improves this effect by one; for example,

with five shifts, a character can remove three

Stress.

Success can also be used to ‚stabilise‛ someone

who has taken a Severe or lesser Consequence that

would appear to be life-threatening (e.g., a

‚Bleeding to Death Aspect‛) – in game terms, this

has the effect of limiting the extent to which the

Aspect can be compelled. A given person can’t be

the target of more than one first aid action in an

exchange.

Long Term Care

When using Science to address someone’s long-

term injuries, the character will need some kind of

medical kit or equipment and must spend a scene

providing proper medical attention.

This is a use of Science to directly address

someone’s physical, long-term Consequences. If

the roll is successful, then the time it takes the

subject to recover from the Consequence is

reduced by one step on the time table.

At the GM’s discretion, when the doctor in

question gains Spin on the test, the time to recover

may be reduced by two steps instead of one.

Multiple such attempts may not be made. The

Difficulty of the roll depends on the severity of the

Consequence per the table below.

Table – Medical Care Difficulties

Consequence Difficulty to Reduce Time

Minor Mediocre (+0)

Major Fair (+2)

Severe Great (+4) – requires Great level

medical equipment or facility

Extreme Fantastic (+6) – requires Fantastic

level Medical facility

Other Sources of Injury

Falling If a character jumps or falls from a height he may

suffer damage in the form of Consequences (see

above). The severity of the Consequence is

determined by the height of the fall per the table

below.

When a character falls, an Athletics test should be

made. If the Effort is less than Mediocre (+0), the

fall is treated as one category worse than it is. If

the Effort equals or beats a Difficulty based on the

height of the fall, treat the fall as one step shorter

Table - Falling

Fall Height Difficulty Consequence

Short 20 feet Fair (+2) Minor

Medium 40 feet Great (+4) Major

Long 100 feet Fantastic (+6) Severe

Extreme 100+ ft. Not possible Taken Out

Fire Fire is rated by its intensity. At the beginning of an

exchange, a fire inflicts its intensity in physical

Stress on every person in the scene. Intensity

works as follows.

Table – Fire Intensity

Intensity Description

0 The building is on fire, but the fire can

be avoided.

1 Almost everything is on fire, and the

heat is pressing in on you in waves.

2 Everything is on fire, and the flames

lick up near you.

3 Inferno! There may well be nowhere

to run; you have only moments to live.

Explosions Explosions and other area attacks have the

potential to do damage against everyone within

their radius. They are deadly and can end a fight

or alter a scenario significantly once used.

Explosives have three ratings: Complexity, Area,

and Force.

Complexity is the Difficulty to disarm the bomb

once the fuse or timer has been triggered.

The Area of an explosion determines how many

zones the explosion will cover. An area of 1 means

the explosion affects only one zone. An area of 2

means it affects one zone and every zone adjacent

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to it, and an Area of 3 expands it out to all zones

adjacent to that.

The Force of an explosion is a measure of how

dangerous it is once it finally detonates. When an

explosive detonates in a zone that a character is in,

the Force value is the Difficulty of the free action

Athletics test to take cover behind something solid

enough to take some of the brunt of the blast.

People unaware that a detonation is impending

automatically fail this roll. If successful, the

character takes a Major Consequence (unless he

generates Spin, in which case he makes a

miraculous escape). If he fails, he is Taken Out

immediately and suffers an Extreme Consequence.

The Force of an explosion drops by one for each

zone it crosses, so characters in an adjacent zone

have to deal with a Force level that’s one lower. If

there is a border between the zones that would

provide some cover (like a wall) it also reduces the

Force by the value of the border. The Force of an

explosion drops to zero once it reaches its

maximum radius indicated by the area.

Throwing Explosives

Throwing an explosive as an attack works in two

stages. When a character throws an explosive, it’s

an attack using Weapons against a Difficulty of

Mediocre.

If successful, the explosive lands in an appropriate

zone (thrown weapons have a range of one zone),

and if not, it lands in the thrower’s zone.

When the explosive lands, everyone within a zone

covered by its Area rolls Athletics against the

attacker’s Weapons result (from above). If they

gain Spin on this defense roll, they may move one

zone away from the zone the explosive is in by

‚diving clear‛ as a free action.

The thrower has the option to reduce everyone’s

Difficulty to dive clear (he may not want to make it

too difficult for his allies to dive away), as long as

that Difficulty is not reduced below Mediocre.

Anything short of Spin has no effect – they’ll have

to hope that they get a turn before it goes off to

move away, otherwise they will have to deal with

a detonation scenario as described above.

If the thrower makes a bad throw – missing the

Mediocre target entirely – then as noted, the

explosive lands in the thrower’s zone, with the

Difficulty for the thrower to dive free increased by

one for each step he missed the target. The thrower

does not have the option to reduce it, though in

such a circumstance everyone else merely faces a

Mediocre Difficulty to dive clear.

Poisons Poisons have a Potency and a Subtlety Rating.

Potency determines how hard it is to resist and

treat, whilst Subtlety is the Difficulty to detect or

analyze it (using Alertness, Investigation or

Science) – either to prevent exposure or determine

the cause of someone’s ailment. Poisons also need

a means of application, e.g. ingestion, inhaled or

injected.

Fast Acting Poisons

Fast Acting poisons inflict Stress on a target, which

may reflect lethal damage, or knockout drugs.

Such poisons are often found on the blades of

enemies and tips of blowgun darts.

When such a poison is introduced into the system,

the victim must make an Endurance Skill Test with

a Difficulty of the poison’s Potency. If the Test

fails the victim suffers a point of Stress for each

shift by which the Test failed.

The poison continues to act, with the victim

making further Endurance Tests before the first

initiative of each exchange. This repeats every

exchange until the end of the scene (at which point

the poison has run its course) or until the character

somehow stops the poison, such as with medical

treatment (or even inducing vomiting).

Many such poisons may stop if the player acquires

Spin on his Endurance Test (beating the Potency

by 3 shifts or more).

Slow Acting Poisons

Slow Acting Poisons inflict Consequences on the

victim over a prolonged period of time.

Once per scene the victim makes an Endurance

Skill Test with a Difficulty of the poison’s Potency.

If the Test fails by 3 shifts or more (the Poison

effectively gains Spin) the victim suffers a

Consequence (beginning with a Minor

Consequence if one is not already being suffered).

Regardless of severity, these Consequences do not

disappear until after the poison is cured.

This process repeats until the poison is cured or, if

the GM allows, the Victim gains Spin on an

Endurance Test.

Exotic Poisons

Rather than damaging their target, exotic poisons

put one or more additional Aspects directly on

them (as with a manoeuvre rather than an attack).

A victim must make an Endurance Test Skill Test

with a Difficulty of the poison’s Potency. If

successful the symptoms are passing, but if the

Test fails the victim immediately gains the Aspects

as described in the poison. The duration of these

effects depends upon the poison.

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Supporting Characters

Supporting characters are all the people portrayed

in the game by the Games Master, rather than the

characters of the other players, it is for this reason

that they are sometimes referred to as Non-Player

Characters (NPCs).

Supporting characters include both the friends and

foes of the players’ characters, ranging from the

cheerful bartender at the characters’ local pub, to

the corporate CEO who is behind the villainous

acts the player characters are investigating.

There are four different types of supporting

characters that are used in a game of Free FATE.

Extras Companions

Minions Named Characters

Extras Extras are those supporting characters who don’t

often take up much ‚screen time‛ in the

adventure; they are the cast of people on the fringe

of the story, people met along the way.

Examples of Extras include the storekeeper who

sells you that roll of duct tape and happens to

mention the ‚rough looking characters‛ who were

in his store earlier, the border guard who reviews

your forged papers for a tension filled moment

before waving you through, and the politician’s

aide who stymies your attempts to get an

interview with his boss.

Often, an encounter with an extra is purely social

in nature and no Skill Tests are involved.

However, if the story may require an Extra to

make a Skill Test then the GM should refrain from

creating them as fully blown characters, but rather

define their three highest rated Skills (rarely rated

above Good) and maybe an Aspect or two.

Minions The term ‚Minions‛ is used to refer to the large

number of faceless followers of important, named

characters, often the villains of the piece. Minions

are the bodies of the faithful that the heroes must

climb over to take on that villain.

The GM may build a villains’ mob using the

Minion Stunt (see Appendix A) but should feel

free to assign minions on an as needed basis.

Minions have two important statistics, Quality and

Quantity.

Quality Minions may be either Average (+1), Fair (+2) or

Good (+3) quality. This quality denotes their base

effectiveness in one sort of conflict (physical, social

or mental), as well as their capacity for Stress.

Average Minions can take one box of Stress, Fair

can take two, and Good can take three.

Quantity The quantity of Minions is simply the number of

Minions present. Together, Minions act in one or

more groups, each of which is treated as a single

character in the conflict. This allows the GM to

minimize the number of dice rolls being made,

even when the player characters are facing off

against a group of twenty frothing cultists.

Minions who act together as a group are much

more effective than individual Minions, gaining a

bonus to their effective Quality for purposes of

Skill Tests.

Table – Minion Quantity Bonuses

Number of Minions Bonus

2 to 3 +1

4 to 6 +2

7 to 9 +3

10+ +4

As a rule of thumb, when a GM has a large

number of Minions, she should split them up into

several smaller groups – preferably one group for

each player character they face. These groups don’t

necessarily need to be equal in number; sometimes

it makes sense to pit the largest group of Minions

against the most capable opponent.

Also, grouping minions together makes it a little

easier for the characters to eliminate several

Minions in a single action.

When Minions take Stress damage, any overflow

of damage is applied to the next Minion. This

means a solid enough effort can take out an entire

swath of Minions. The attacking character’s Stress

bonus from a weapon is only counted once, but

then any Stress reduction from armour the

Minions are wearing is equally only applied once.

Trevor Maples is continuing his investigation when he

is ambushed by a group of three ‚hoodies‛ wielding

knives. They attack as a single group.

Sarah the GM asks David to make a defence roll using

his default Mediocre (+0) Fists Skill against a Difficulty

of Fair (+2). This Difficulty is based on the hoodies

being Average (+1) Quality with a Quantity bonus of

+1.

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David succeeds in his defence roll and actually manages

to gain spin! David elects to have Trevor attempt to

intimidate the hoodies into running off (a social attack).

David uses his Good (+3) Intimidation skill with a +1

bonus for Spin against the Difficulty of Fair (+2) –

although this is a social attack Sarah believes the

minions’ Quality should still apply as it is in the midst

of a physical conflict.

David rolls the dice and gets a 5 on both dice, meaning

his Skill goes unmodified; this results in a final Effort of

Great (+4); an Effect of 2 shifts, and 2 Stress applied.

As the minions are only Average Quality the first

Stress point takes out one minion, and the overflow

(another Stress point) takes out a second minion. Sarah

describes two of the hoodies shouting ‚Run! He’s a cop‛

and then fleeing. She notes that now that only a single

Minion remains no Quantity bonus applies.

Mixed Groups One of the main uses for Minions, be they ninjas or

yes-men, is to improve the effectiveness of their

leader. Whenever a named character and a group

of Minions are attacking the same target, they are

considered to be attached.

This has two benefits for the leader: he receives a

bonus based on the group size (including him so

even a single minion will result in a +1 bonus), and

Stress suffered is applied to Minions before it’s

applied to him. It has no benefits for the Minions,

who give up their ability to act independently, but

that’s more or less their job.

Leaving or attaching to a group is a free action,

and a character may detach from a group

automatically by moving away from it.

David reminds Sarah that he had called upon his

‚Police Backup‛ Stunt a few minutes before

encountering the hoodies and offers up a Fate Point to

have them appear now rather than later.

Sarah accepts the Fate Point (this is effectively a minor

narrative declaration) and allows David to narrate how

three uniformed police officers round the corner to join

Trevor as he stares at the last remaining hoodie. Trevor

now gains a +2 Quantity bonus for having a group of

four (himself and three Minions).

‚Give it up son, you’re nicked!‛ growls Trevor.

Alternatively, a character with the Leadership Skill

attached to a group of Minions may use his

Leadership Skill to Complement the Minions’ Skill

in Tests (see Combining Skills on page 7).

This allows for villains who don’t have much

combat Skill themselves, but who can still help out

their minions in a fight.

Companions Companions are characters who are a little more

important than Minions but are not quite fully

fledged named characters in their own right.

Companions are either granted as a short-term

story element by the GM, or are established

through the purchase and use of the Contact and

Close Contacts Stunts (see page 38).

They are attached to named characters in the same

way Minion groups are, and thus grant a +1 bonus

in appropriate conflicts due to group size (a

Quantity of two including the named character).

By default, a Companion can assist in one type of

conflict (though the Scope Advance can expand

this). The type of conflict that the Companion can

assist with determines her type.

Table – Companion Types

Type Conflict

Sidekick Physical

Aide Social

Assistant Mental / Knowledge

Like Minions, Companions have a Quality rating

which by default starts at Average (+1); this can be

increased with the Quality Advance (see below).

Companions also get a single Skill column (instead

of a pyramid) with a number of Skills equal to

their Quality. For example a Good quality

Companion has one Good, 1 Fair and 1 Average

Skill.

If desired the named character to whom the

Companion is attached may substitute the

Companion’s Skill level in place of his own if it’s

higher. The Quantity bonus still applies if the

named character has at least an Average rating in

the Skill in question; in effect he is providing the

Quantity bonus to his Companion.

Companions have one Stress box per level of

Quality plus one, for example a Good (+3) quality

Companion has 4 Stress boxes.

In addition Companions give the named character

the ability to withstand an additional Consequence

– specifically, the Consequence that the

Companion is knocked out, kidnapped, or

otherwise removed from the conflict (the severity

of the Consequence would indicate how long the

Companion is Taken Out for).

Unless she has the Independent Advance a

Companion requires a Fate point to be spent by the

named character in order to act alone.

A Companion can have a number of Advances,

with each advance making her more capable.

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Advances

Communication

The Companion has some means of

communicating with her patron in even the

strangest of circumstances (a psychic link, a

dedicated radio transceiver in a wrist watch etc).

Independent

The Companion can act independently without the

named character needing to spend a Fate Point, in

addition the Companion can access the named

character’s Fate Points and up to 2 of his Aspects

that would also apply to the Companion.

Keeping up

If the Companion’s patron has a means of

locomotion or stealth that makes it hard for the

Companion to keep up with him, then the

Companion with this advance has a similar ability.

This ability is useful only for keeping up with her

patron when attached, and for no other purpose.

Quality

Improve the Quality of a Companion by one step

(from Average to Fair, Fair to Good, and so on).

This Advance may be taken several times up to a

maximum Quality of Great.

Scope

Improve the scope of a Companion, allowing them

to assist in an additional type of conflict (e.g.,

Physical and Mental, Physical and Social, Social

and Mental). This may be taken twice, allowing

the Companion to be effective in all three scopes.

Skilled

Each time this advance is taken the Companion

gets an additional column of Skills. However each

new column is one rank lower than the last

column.

For example a Good quality Companion with the

Skilled advance would have 1 Good, 2 Fair, 2

Average Skills. Another Skilled advance would

add only 1 Average Skill.

Stunt

This advance allows the Companion to take a

single Stunt and may be taken a maximum of two

times. This does not allow the Companion to take

Companions or Minions themselves.

Summonable

No matter where you are you can summon your

Companion to you. This normally takes at least

one minute but you may spend a Fate point to

accomplish it in a single round. A summoned

Companion vanishes or leaves if the summoning

character is Taken Out, and will not last more than

one scene either way. They may be summoned

again in a later scene if needed again. This advance

may only be taken once.

Maria has selected the Contact Stunt for her character

Alison Havers. Interestingly Maria asks Sarah the GM

whether this Companion can be a spirit who advises her.

Sarah sees no issue with this, though suggests that

Maria makes one of Alison’s Aspects relate to the

spiritual nature of the companion so that it can be

Invoked and Compelled in ways that will represent the

incorporeal nature of the Companion.

The Contact Stunt provides a Companion with three

Advances. Maria defines her Companion as an Expert,

able to assist in Mental and Knowledge based tasks.

One Advance is spent on Quality increasing the

Companion to be Fair (+2) Quality.

Stunt is chosen as a second Advance and is used to give

the spirit the Concentration ‚Psychic Phenomena‛

Stunt, providing a +1 bonus to the Spirit’s Mysteries

Skill when related to psychic phenomena.

The third Advance is Summonable, quite fitting for a

spirit.

The Spirit is thus a Fair (+2) Aide, with 3 Stress boxes

and two Skills; Maria choose Fair (+2) Mysteries and

Average (+1) Empathy.

Named Characters Named characters are the other major characters in

the story who have a name, as opposed to Guard

#3. They might be major players such as the player

character’s boss, a major ally or enemy. It could be

the main henchmen or the player’s arch nemesis,

the evil alien or mad scientist.

Named characters are defined just like player

characters, with a pyramid of Skills, a set of

Aspects and Fate Points.

If desired a GM can set the apex of the Skill

pyramid (i.e. the top rated Skill) at a higher or

lower rating than Great (+4) – the apex Skill rating

for a starting player character.

For example, Sarah the GM is creating a nemesis for

David and Maria’s characters for the next scenario.

Sarah wants the nemesis to be able to outclass the two

characters and so sets the Skill pyramid apex as Superb

(+5).

This means the villain has one Skill at Superb, two at

Great, three at Good, four at Fair and five at Average.

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Chases Chases are the staple of many thrillers, be they on

foot, riding an animal, car chases or dogfights in

the sky. The key to enjoyable chases is that they

aren’t all about speed. In a straight race the faster

person, animal or vehicle will win but that sort of

situation should almost never happen.

Chase Conflicts Chases play out like any other conflict, with one or

two small differences.

Declare Difficulty for Exchange At the beginning of each exchange in a chase

(regardless of initiative) the chased character’s

player declares a Difficulty of his choice, and

describes what complicated and dangerous

manoeuvre he’s performing that this Difficulty

matches.

Chased Character Makes Test The player of the character being chased then

makes an appropriate Skill roll against the

declared Difficulty. The Skill used is dependent

upon the means of locomotion:

Athletics for a chase on foot

Drive for a car chase or in watercraft

Pilot for a chase in aircraft

Survival for chases on horses or similar

mounts.

This Skill is modified by the Speed of the vehicle or

mount if appropriate (see page 7).

If the Skill Test succeeds, the character pulls it off,

but if he fails, it goes less well than planned – the

character, vehicle or animal gets injured or slips

out of control and suffers Stress equal to the

number of shifts the player rolled below the

Difficulty (as if the character had failed a Defence

roll in a physical conflict).

Pursuer Makes Test to “Attack” Next, the player of the pursuing character (see

below if there is more than one pursuer) rolls

against the same Difficulty. If successful, he takes

no Stress and inflicts Stress to the fleeing

character’s person, vehicle or animal according to

the shifts on the roll, just as if making an attack.

This represents getting close and grabbing at the

fleeing character, slamming bumpers, firing some

shots, forcing the prey into difficult terrain or

otherwise making trouble.

If the pursuer fails the test, he suffers Stress just

like the chased character would.

Pursuer Performs a Manoeuvre Alternately, if the pursuer is not looking to

damage the fleeing character or his ride / mount,

he may roll for a Manoeuvre (see Manoeuvres on

page 19). If successful the Manoeuvre succeeds.

If he fails, the character, his vehicle or his mount

takes Stress as if failing a Defense roll;

overzealousness or poor driving has had him

collide with a nurse’s trolley, sideswipe a

vegetable stand, or rip up his tires on a tight turn.

Ending the Chase The above sequence of events repeats for each

exchange until eventually one party or the other

will be Taken Out, and at that point the chase

concludes. If the pursuer is Taken Out, the fleeing

character escapes, if the pursuer is the one left

standing he has captured his prey.

Multiple Vehicle Chases The above chase conflict rules work well when one

character is chasing another, however often chases

are a lot more crazy than that – it’s a lucky hero

who is only pursued by only one vehicle!

Multiple vehicle chases usually use the Minion

rules (see page 26), with each car equating to a

minion, and all of the pursuers acting as a single

unit making a single roll. If there’s a named

pursuer with a handful of unnamed companions,

the minion vehicles attach to the named leader

normally.

However, if there are a lot of cars – say you have a

named pursuer who has 10 minions – it’s a little

hard (and anticlimactic) to have all of the vehicles

on the field at once. When you look at movies and

the like, the usual pattern is that a few cars show

up in pursuit, they crash, and new cars come in to

take their place, and this process repeats until

there are no more reinforcements.

With that in mind, when you want to play out a

more extended chase that has this kind of pacing,

the Chase Scenes rules become appropriate.

Chase Scenes Chase scenes occur when the players are being

pursued by a large enemy force that appears in

waves. A chase scene is made up of a number of

Chase Conflicts, with the main villain or

henchman (a named character) staying out of the

chase usually until the last conflict.

Over the course of the chase, the pursuing minions

come at the player sequentially, with a new minion

coming in as a prior one is Taken Out. This

continues for the duration of the chase until the

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named pursuer is out of minions, at which point,

she enters the fray and the chase is then resolved

as a final Chase Conflict.

Because for much of the chase scene the named

pursuer is not on the field, the minions never

attach, so they use their own Skill, which is often to

the fleeing character’s benefit. In return for this,

the pursuing villain is given a few tricks to balance

the scales. Players, being heroes, don’t usually use

these rules, since they are potent individuals of

action, however if any PC has the Minions Stunt it

might be suitable to have him be the named

pursuer.

Assign Pursuer’s Chase Points At the beginning of a scene, the GM controlled

named pursuer is given a certain number of points,

which represent the total value of the pursuit.

Table – Chase Points

Points Type of Chase Scene

5 A short chase

10 A major feature of the adventure

20 A climactic marathon of a chase

The baseline use of this value is to determine how

many minions the pursuing character has. Each

minion costs a number of points based on its value.

Purchase Minions At the start of the chase, the GM can spend as

many points as she wants (up to the total value of

the pursuit) in order to buy Minions for the named

pursuer. Higher Quality Minions cost more points.

Table – Minion Chase Point Cost

Points per Minion Minion Quality

1 Average (+1)

2 Fair (+2)

3 Good (+3)

She can choose to have all of these minions go after

the characters from the start or she can hold some

of them in reserve (in which case the reserve

vehicles enter the chase one by one, replacing

individual minions that have been Taken Out).

Also, at any time there are no pursuing vehicles

(i.e. all the minions on the field of play have been

Taken Out), the GM can spend points to add a

single additional pursuing vehicle, which

immediately enters the chase.

The GM may not wish to spend all these points on

Minions though, some may be kept back to pay for

Tricks (see below).

Tricks The GM may spend 1 point per exchange for any

of the following effects:

Reinforcements

This trick allows the pursuing character to add

multiple Minions at once. By spending one point,

the GM is allowed to spend additional points (up

to half the remaining total) on purchasing

additional Minions, which are immediately added

to the field. These vehicles must all be of the same

Quality.

Road Hazard

The pursuers have managed to get someone ahead

of the fleeing character who launches an attack!

The attack uses the named character’s Leadership

Skill as the attack value; reflecting how well

planned and co-ordinated the effort is.

Other pursuing vehicles do not need to defend

against this attack, since in theory, at least, they’re

aware that the hazard is forthcoming. This is one

of main tools the villain may use to offset the loss

of not involving herself directly.

Shotgun!

One of the pursuing Minions is able to make a

ranged attack at the fleeing character in addition to

simply pursuing. For example a vehicle has

someone with a gun in the passenger seat.

Any time the fleeing character takes Stress, it is

increased by one as long as this Minion is still on

the field and able to shoot.

The Last Pursuer

If the pursuing villain is not going to join the fight

herself, she can try to end the chase with one last,

tougher-than-usual Minion. This is the last ability

the pursuer can use, and costs all remaining chase

points (minimum of 1). If the Last Pursuer trick is

used, the villain herself cannot subsequently join

the chase.

The last pursuer is always more impressive than

the previous minions. Perhaps the car is big and

armoured, sleek and black, or maybe it’s

something completely unexpected, like a biplane.

The Last Pursuer is treated as a Good Minion, but

with one extra box of Stress capacity for each point

spent beyond the minimum.

It also has one other benefit from this list:

+3 Stress Boxes

+1 to Athletics, Drive, Pilot or Survival Rolls

Armed (the Last Pursuer is always treated as

having the Shotgun! Effect).

1 point of armour (reducing Stress taken by 1)

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Alternate Movement – the pursuer can move

in a way the fleeing character cannot (such as

flying) enabling him to avoid most hazards.

The pursuer may elect to automatically

succeed at a chase Skill roll, at the expense of

inflicting no Stress on the fleeing character.

The pursuer must only roll if a hazard is

described that forces him to respond.

Dramatic Entrance This is the moment when the named pursuer

reveals herself, and begins the end of the chase. If

the GM has used The Last Pursuer trick already,

this option is off the table.

This costs all the pursuer’s remaining points

(minimum 1) and triggers a Road Hazard trick for

the fleeing vehicle, as the pursuer appears in a

colourful and hopefully hazardous way.

The stats of the pursuer’s vehicle or mount (if

appropriate) depend on the pursuer, and if she

does not have a signature vehicle or mount, she

may use the same rules as The Last Pursuer, above,

replacing the minion Quality with her own Skill.

Once the pursuer is out of points and there are no

pursuers left, the fleeing vehicle finally escapes.

Passengers Whether in a simple Chase Conflict or in a fully

fleshed out Chase Scene, player characters not

directly involved in the chase (e.g. who are

passengers in a car) may still be able to help out.

Each exchange, one passenger may assist the

driver, provided he has the means to do so. This

allows him to contribute to the chase, as long as he

finds a way to describe it, be it shooting at the

pursuers (Guns), pushing a crate out the back

(Might), or just shouting ‚look out!‛ when

dramatically appropriate (Alertness).

The passenger rolls his Skill while the driver rolls

his Drive as usual, and the driver may use the

higher of the two results. There is a limit though!

The same passenger may not help

two exchanges in a row.

Note that the Skill Test only aids the driver, it does

not have any other effect – for instance, a

passenger who is shooting does not get normal

attack results, just the ability to let the driver

choose between the two Test results.

This said, by dint of being passengers in the same

vehicle, all characters – even those not able to roll

in that exchange – may offer to spend Fate points

out of their own pool on behalf of the driver, so

long as they supply a bit of colour dialogue, e.g.,

‚Alleyway ahead!‛

Furthermore, there’s nothing saying that

characters along for the ride can’t be doing other

things that don’t contribute directly to the chase.

While they can only act against the pursuers by

partnering with the driver as described above,

there’s nothing to say that your car chase can’t

feature the Academics guy in the back seat

furiously trying to read through the book the

heroes just stole from the villain’s lair< just in case

the guy’s minions catch up with them and the

book returns to its owner.

These rules allow chases to be resolved quickly

and also focus the chase experience around the

person in the driver’s seat, the character’s shtick of

being good at driving gets backed up.

Chase Example Back on page 10 we saw the suspect Jimmy make a break

for it when confronted by Trevor Maples in a pub’s

backroom. Due to a Compel Trevor only has two

exchanges to finish the chase.

Jimmy is a named character with Fair (+2) Athletics

and a Physical Stress Track of 5 boxes.

Sarah (playing the fleeing Jimmy) declares the

Difficulty for the first exchange at Fair (+2) describing

how Jimmy bursts into the bar and attempts to push his

way through the crowd of drinkers. Sarah makes an

Athletics Skill Test and succeeds with a Good result.

David then gets to roll for Trevor; defaulting to a

Medicore (+0) Athletics Rating. Unfortunately even

with a roll of +1 he fails with only an Average result.

Trevor suffers a point of Stress for failing the Test by 1

shift; David describes how he stumbles over a stool and

crashes into a customer carrying a tray of drinks.

Sarah declares a Difficulty of Good (+3) for the next

exchange as she describes Jimmy trying to shake off

pursuit by dodging between traffic and cross the busy

road outside. She rolls badly; a Poor (-1) result meaning

Jimmy suffers 4 Stress Points, one short of being Taken

Out! A taxi screeches to a halt too late, hitting Jimmy

hard and sending him reeling into the gutter.

David sees his chance and invokes his ‚Trained by

Commander ‘Morse’ Davidson‛ Aspect to have had the

foresight to station undercover cars outside with orders

to stop traffic if the suspect flees. Confident his men

will have done this, Trevor pursues Jimmy into the

road. David rolls a +2, increased to a Great (+4) result

from the Aspect Invocation, succeeding with 1 shift,

inflicting 1 Stress on Jimmy leaving him Taken Out.

Trevor trots across the street and drops his weight onto

the bloodied Jimmy as he struggles to his feet. Between

gasps and wheezes Trevor announces ‚You’re nicked!‛

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Equipment

Melee Weapons The table below specifies the Stress Bonus and

Cost Difficulty for several melee weapons. The

Stress Bonus adds to the shifts of a successful

attack to determine the amount of Stress inflicted

upon the target.

Table - Melee Weapons

Weapon Stress Bonus Cost Difficulty

Fists +0 Not Applicable

Knife* +1 Mediocre

Sword +2 Fair

Hand Axe +1 Average

Great Axe +3 Fair

Club or staff +1 Mediocre

Whip or flail +1 Fair

Stun Baton** +0 Good

*A knife may also be thrown at a target 1 Zone away.

**If a foe is struck by a Stun Baton any Stress inflicted

applies to both his Physical & Composure Stress Tracks.

Ranged Weapons A number of ranged weapons are summarised in

the Ranged Weapons table, the Stress Bonus,

Range in Zones and Cost Difficulty are shown.

Ammunition

Generally, ammunition limits are not given much

concern in a Free FATE game, it is assumed

characters carry extra ammunition and reload

appropriately.

However, running out of ammunition can

occasionally add drama to a scene. Running out of

ammunition is a legitimate Compel for a character

with gun-related Aspects, but even more, it’s an

excellent first Consequence (or even a Concession

if the Conflict is primarily being fought with guns).

Having a foe run out of ammunition could also be

a result of a manoeuvre; for example using

Athletics to run all over the place, drawing fire and

getting the bad guys to expend their ammunition.

Automatic Fire

Ranged weapons capable of automatic fire are

particularly useful for performing suppression and

covering fire. Such weapons gain a +1 bonus to

perform Block Actions (see page 20) using the

Guns Skill.

Table - Ranged Weapons

Weapon Stress

Bonus

Range

(Zones)

Cost

Difficulty

Bow +1 2 Average

Crossbow +1 1 Fair

Musket +1 1 Good

Hand gun +2 1 Good

SMG* +3 2 Great

Sniper Rifle +4 4 Superb

Assault

Rifle*

+3 3 Great

Shotgun** +2 2 Good

Taser*** +0 1 Good

Energy

Pistol

+4 +1 Superb

Energy Rifle +5 4 Fantastic

Shuriken +0 1 Average

*These weapons are capable of automatic fire, see above.

**A shotgun firing shot has a +3 Stress Bonus if used

against a target in the same zone, a +2 Stress Bonus if

used against a foe 1 Zone away, and +1 if 2 Zones away.

***If a foe is struck by a Taser any Stress inflicted

applies to both his Physical & Composure Stress Tracks.

Ranged Weapon Accessories Accessories are represented by Aspects of the

weapon that can be invoked, compelled and

tagged just like any other Aspect. Some sample

ways to use these Aspects are provided.

Laser Sight

Cost Difficulty: Good

Invoke to gain a +2 bonus on a Guns Test.

Tag to roll your Alertness instead of Athletics

for a Defence roll (you see the red dot on you

and dive for cover).

Compel to cause a hidden sniper be spotted.

Silencer

Cost Difficulty: Fair

Invoke to be able to use a gun whilst using

Stealth.

Tag to gain a +2 bonus on a Fists Test to

perform the Disarm Manoeuvre on the

silenced-gun toting foe (you’ve got something

to grab).

Compel to cause the weapon to get caught in

clothing when being drawn.

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Armour Armour can absorb a certain amount of Stress

inflicted as part of an attack, sparing the wearer

from having to suffer that Stress. If an attacker

gets a successful hit then the shield or armour

value is deducted from the total Stress inflicted

(including any weapon Stress Bonus).

To absorb additional Stress, armour and shields

can take one or more Consequences reflecting

damage to the actual worn armour. Consequences

taken on armour can, of course, be tagged for

effects by attackers.

For example a Major Consequence for Plate

Armour may be ‚Badly dented‛, which could be

tagged to help land a blow against the armoured

opponent (the dent funnelling the blow, rather

than deflecting it) or compelled to impede the

armoured person from sprinting.

Once a piece of armour has suffered its maximum

number of Consequences it is also considered

Taken Out, and no longer absorbs Stress.

Consequences can be repaired by qualified

Engineers.

Trevor Maples is taking part in a police raid on an

illegal drugs factory and is wearing a Stab Vest.

Unexpectedly he gets attacked by a worker wielding a

syringe (+1 Stress Bonus). David’s defence roll for

Trevor fails by 2 shifts meaning Trevor would suffer 3

Physical Stress (2 shifts + 1 Stress Bonus).

However the Stab Vest will absorb 1 point of Stress

leaving Trevor to only suffer 2 points. However,

knowing that Trevor is being attacked with a syringe

(which contains goodness knows what) David elects to

take a Minor Consequence to the Stab Vest, meaning it

absorbs all of the Stress (1 for its inherent armour bonus

and 2 for the Minor Consequence).

This leaves the stab vest Taken Out and indeed a

hindrance with David selecting the Consequence of

‚Hanging Clumsily from the Shoulder Strap‛. David

still thinks it is worth it though!

If desired the GM may decide that the Stress

Absorbed value imposes a penalty to all

manoeuvres, Athletics & Stealth Tests.

Table - Armour

Armour Stress

Absorbed

Consequences Cost

Difficulty

Leather 1 None Fair

Chain

Mail

1* 1 x Minor Great

Plate 2* 1 x Minor

1 x Major

Superb

Plate

Mail

3* 1 x Minor

1 x Major

1 x Severe

Fantastic

Stab

Vest

1 1 x Minor Great

Kevlar

Vest

2 1 x Minor

1 x Major

Superb

Assault

Vest

3 1 x Minor

1 x Major

1 x Severe

Fantastic

Assault

Suit

3 1 x Minor

1 x Major

1 x Severe

1 x Extreme

Epic

Explosives The table below lists a few example explosives

along with ratings for Complexity, Area, Force, the

type of Fuse and Cost Difficulty. Rules for using

explosives are provided on page 24.

Fuses The fuse determines when an explosive goes off.

Timer – The explosive detonates after a

predefined time. A crude timer (e.g. fuse wire)

may not be 100% accurate; the number of

exchanges is modified by a dice roll (i.e. it may

detonate up to 5 exchanges early or late).

Grenades detonate after 1 exchange.

On Demand – The explosive detonates on

demand, either by use of a remote switch or

radio trigger.

Table - Explosives

Type Force Complexity Area Fuse Cost

Difficulty

Military Grade Legendary Epic 2 Timer or On Demand Epic

Home Made Superb Superb 1 Timer (crude) Great

Mining Explosive Fantastic Fantastic 1 Timer or On Demand Superb

Plastic Explosive Epic Fantastic 2 Timer or On Demand Fantastic

Grenade Fantastic Superb 1 Timer (1 exchange) Good

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Vehicles Vehicles are vital tools for numerous people and

may be important to a story. Vehicles have three

attributes, their Type (Pedestrian, Mount, Car or

Aircraft), Speed (the top speed of the vehicle) and

Stress Capacity (the amount of damage the vehicle

can sustain before being Taken Out).

The Type of a vehicle is mostly relevant to

understand the value of its Speed. The Speed

value is not absolute, but rather indicative of how

fast the vehicle is for the Type of vehicle it is.

An Average Speed of a Car is much faster than an

Average Speed for a Pedestrian, but slower than

an Average Speed of an Aircraft.

Speed comes into play for simple contests of which

vehicle is faster (roll Speed vs. Speed, modified by

respective Drive or Pilot skills as appropriate) but

for anything more complex, the chase rules (see

page 29) may be more appropriate in which case

the Drive or Pilot Skill is modified by the Speed of

the vehicle. See Combining Skills on page 7 for

what it means to modify Skills.

Mixed Types Occasionally you may find that a chase involves

parties in different Types of vehicles, or where one

participant is on foot or riding a horse.

When this is the case, the normal rules for

resolving chases apply however the party using

the slower mode of transport suffers a penalty.

A character suffers a -2 penalty against a vehicle of

the next Type up, and a -4 penalty against an

opponent in a vehicle Type two steps up from him.

A Pedestrian automatically loses to an Aircraft.

In summary:

A Pedestrian suffers a -2 penalty against a

Mount and a -4 penalty against a Car. A

Pedestrian automatically loses to an Aircraft.

A Mount suffers a -2 penalty against a Car and

a -4 penalty against an Aircraft.

A Car suffers a -2 penalty against an Aircraft.

These modifiers allow chases to be performed with

mixed Types of vehicles, however the GM is free to

limit such chases even further, perhaps only

allowing mixed chases to occur for a limited

number of exchanges, for example five exchanges

if the difference in Type is only one step, and three

exchanges if the difference is two steps. If the

chase is not resolved within this time frame the

faster Type of vehicle simply out paces the slower

Type.

When taking off, an Aircraft is effectively

considered a Car Type, allowing Pedestrians a

chance to catch up to a fleeing plane.

Table - Vehicles

Vehicle Type Speed Stress

Capacity

Cost

Difficulty

On Foot Pedestrian Athletics Skill Rating As character NA

Bicycle Pedestrian Athletics Skill Rating +1 1 Average

Camel Mount Average 2 Fair

Elephant Mount Mediocre 4 Fair

Horse Mount Good 2 Fair

Motorcycle, Off road Car Good 1 Good

Motorcycle, Racing Car Great 1 Great

Car, Saloon Car Good 4 Good

Car, Sports Car Great 2 Great

Car, Limousine Car Fair 5 Superb

Van Car Fair 4 Good

Truck Car Average 6 Superb

Speedboat ‚Car‛ Great 4 Great

Yacht ‚Car‛ Fair 6 Fantastic

Cruise Ship ‚Car‛ Average 10 Epic

Helicopter Aircraft Fair 2 Fantastic

Propeller Plane Aircraft Good 2 Fantastic

Fighter Jet Aircraft Great 4 Epic

Passenger Aircraft Aircraft Good 6 Epic

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Workplaces In order to conduct research, experiments or to

repair something, people need workplaces and the

tools that go along with them. There are a number

of different types of workplace, depending upon

the Skill being used, as shown in the table below.

Table - Workplaces

Skill Work Workplace

Academics Academic

Research

Library

Science Lab Work Lab

Science Medical Aid Med Facility

Engineering Repairing Workshop

Mysteries Arcane Research Arcane Library

Mysteries Artificing Arcane

Workshop

Mysteries Alien Research Alien Archive

Each workplace has a Quality Rating that

determines its usefulness and also how much it

costs. The Cost Difficulty of a workplace is two

steps higher than its Quality Rating, e.g. a Good

Quality Laboratory has a Cost Difficulty of Superb.

Cost Difficulty = Quality +2

The rules for conducting Research, and the

required Quality Rating of a Library or Laboratory,

are detailed on page 12.

For repairs the Quality Rating of the workplace

must equal the Difficulty of the repair minus two,

so repairing a Saloon Car requires an Average (+1)

Workshop; the Difficulty for repairs being Good

(+3); based upon the higher of its Speed and Cost

Difficulty.

Creating Items For creating items using the Engineering Skill (or

the Mysteries Skill for arcane and magical items)

an appropriate workshop is needed.

Creating an item requires four things:

1. A workshop with a Quality Rating equal to the

item’s Cost Difficulty.

2. A successful Resources Skill Test with a

Difficulty of the item’s Cost Difficulty -2 in

order to purchase materials and pay for any

extra labour required.

3. A successful Engineering or Mysteries Skill

Test with a Difficulty of the item’s Cost

Difficulty.

4. Time (see below)

Creating an item takes a Base Time determined by

the Cost Difficulty of the item as shown on the

table below. As per page 8, extra shifts on the

Engineering or Mysteries Skill Test can reduce this

time.

Table - Workplaces

Cost Difficulty Base Time

Mediocre A week

Average A few weeks

Fair A month

Good A few months

Great A season

Superb Half a year

Fantastic A year

Epic A few years

Miscellaneous Equipment Table – Miscellaneous Equipment

Item Cost Difficulty

Camera Average

Mobile Phone Average

Desktop Computer Fair

Laptop Fair

PDA Fair

Audio Recorder Fair

Video Camera Fair

Caltrops* Average

Handcuffs Average

Lock Pick Gun** Good

Binoculars Average

Concealable Microphone Fair

Mini-Tracer Fair

Night Vision Goggles*** Fair

Parabolic Microphone Fair

Camouflage Clothing**** Average

Flashlight Mediocre

Gas Mask Fair

GPS Receiver Fair

SCUBA Gear Fair

*Caltrops provide a +1 bonus to Block Actions

related to preventing movement through an area.

**A Lock Pick Gun provides a +2 bonus to

Burglary Tests to pick mechanical locks.

***Night Vision Goggles negate darkness related

penalties to Alertness and Investigation Skill Tests.

****Camouflage Clothing provides a +1 bonus to

Stealth Skill Tests in appropriate environments.

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Character Development

Characters in a Free FATE game can change and

improve over time. The rules below indicate how

this development is reflected in game mechanics.

Some development occurs at the end of each

gaming session, whilst other more significant

improvements occur only at the end of a particular

story; which may involve several gaming sessions.

End of Session At the end of each session each player character is

awarded one Skill Point to add a new Skill or

improve an existing one. If everyone agrees, the

GM can award two Skill points to a player who did

something spectacular in the session.

Adding a New Skill

1 Skill Point allows a player to add a new Skill to

his character at a Rating of Average (+1).

Improving a Skill

1 Skill Point allows an existing Skill to be

improved by one step, for example a Fair (+2)

Alertness Skill can become Good (+3).

However, there is one stipulation; the player must

maintain the pyramid Skill structure; each Rating

tier must have at least one more Skill than the tier

above. E.g. to have 3 Good Skills, a character must

have at least 4 Fair Skills & 5 Average Skills.

Trevor Maples has the following skills:

Great (+4): Investigation

Good (+3): Contacting, Intimidation

Fair (+2): Alertness, Leadership, Resolve

Average (+1): Drive, Guns, Science, Stealth

Before he can increase Trevor’s Alertness from Fair (+2)

to Good (+3) David first needs to gain an extra two

Skills at Fair (+2) which in turn requires an extra two

Skills at Average (+1). Thus his Skill pyramid can

change as shown below when he improves Alertness.

Great (+4):

Good (+3):

Fair (+2):

Average (+1):

Other Session Development In addition to being awarded and spending Skill

Points, at the end of each session each player can

do one of the following as long as it does not result

in any Stunt prerequisites no longer being met.

Replace an Aspect

Players may change an Aspect, either because it is

not working out as envisioned, or because it makes

sense based upon the character’s experience in the

previous adventure.

David elects to change Trevor’s Aspect of ‚A

policeman’s notebook is his greatest weapon‛ because it

isn’t seeing much use and Sarah is finding it a difficult

Aspect to Compel. David chooses ‚Alison is always

there for me‛ as a replacement Aspect.

A few sessions later David has been playing through

Trevor’s fight against the demon drink, and thus

changes his ‚Always a hip flask of whiskey in his

pocket‛ Aspect to ‚Determined to stay on the wagon‛.

Swap adjacent Skills in the Skill Pyramid

A player can swap the Rating of a Skill with that of

a Skill with a Rating one tier higher or lower.

Trevor has been sneaking around a lot more than he has

leading a team of police investigators, so David elects to

swap his Fair (+2) Leadership Skill with his Average

(+1) Stealth Skill. Leadership thus gets downgraded to

Average (+1) and Stealth gets upgraded to Fair (+2).

A Skill with a Rating of Average (+1) can also be

dropped completely and replaced with a new Skill

at Average (+1). In this instance An Average Skill

is effectively being swapped with a Mediocre Skill.

Change one Stunt

A player can remove one Stunt and replace it with

another. The Stunt being added must have its

prerequisites met as normal.

Trevor has relocated to another city as part of the

ongoing story, so David decides to remove the

Concentration ‚Criminal Snitches‛ Stunt and choose

the Contact Stunt instead.

End of Story Add a Stunt

A character can gain a Stunt (prerequisites must be

met) at the expense of reducing his Fate Point

Refresh Rate by one; if this would reduce the

Refresh Rate to zero, a Stunt cannot be added.

Add an Aspect

A new Aspect can be added. The maximum

number of Aspects a character may have equals his

Fate Point Refresh Rate plus the number of Stunts

he has.

Increase Fate Point Refresh Rate

A character’s Fate Point Refresh Rate can be

increased by one. This provides more Fate Points

at the beginning of an adventure and increases the

limit on the number of Aspects and Stunts.

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37

Appendix A

Sample Benefit Stunts Below are listed a number of sample Benefit Stunts

that players may choose for their characters. These

Stunts usually relate to one particular Skill and

players should be encouraged to choose Stunts

that relate to their characters’ peak Skill to

emphasise the niches their characters fill.

Of course this isn’t obligatory and a player may

choose a Stunt relating to a Skill which his

character does not even have

The table below summarises the sample Stunts by

associated Skill.

Table – Sample Stunts by Skill

Skill Stunts

Academics Linguist

Photographic Memory

Walking Library

Alertness Danger Sense

I’m On Top Of It

Ready for Anything

Art Commissions

Do You Know Who I Am?

Virtuoso

Athletics Contortionist

Human Spider

Slippery

Burglary Lock Master

Contacting Close Contacts

Contact

Walk the Walk

Deceit Clever Disguise

Master of Disguise

Mimicry

Drive Custom Ride

Defensive Driving

One Hand on the Wheel

Empathy Cold Read

Ebb and Flow

Endurance Feel the Burn

One Hit to the Body

Engineering Mister Fix-It

Thump of Restoration

Fists Brawler

Dirty Fighter

Skill Stunts

Gambling Gambling Man

Winnings

Guns Long Shot

One Shot Left

Intimidation Nobody Moves!

Subtle Menace

Investigation Lip Reading

Scene of the Crime

Leadership Funding

Minions

Might Body Toss

Wrestler

Mysteries Psychic

Voices from Beyond

Words on the Wind

Pilot Flawless Navigation

Flying Jock

Personal Aircraft

Rapport Five Minute Friends

International

Resolve Smooth Recovery

Steel Determination

Resources Headquarters

Home Away From Home

Lair

Science Medic

Sleight of Hand Bump and Grab

Cool Hand

Stealth Hush

Quick Exit

Survival Creature Companion

Tracker

Weapons Catch

Good Arm

Body Toss

Requires Wrestler.

You know how to apply your strength in a fight to

take people off their feet. Whenever making a

Throw or a Push manoeuvre (page 20), you require

one less shift per zone than normal. Thus, to

Throw an average person one zone only 2 shifts

would be required (rather than 3) and only 5 shifts

would be required to throw them two zones (2

plus 3, rather than 3 plus 4)

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Brawler

You’re at home in any big old burly brawl, with

multiple opponents and ideally some beer in you.

Whenever you are personally outnumbered in a

fight (i.e., when someone gets to attack you at a

bonus due to a numerical advantage) your defence

rolls with Fists are at +1.

When fighting two or more minions, you deal one

additional Stress on a successful hit.

Bump and Grab

Your character is exceptionally skilled at taking

advantage of distractions in order to make a quick

grab. You may spend a Fate point to make a simple

Sleight of Hand attempt to do something – pick a

pocket, palm an object, etc. – as a Free action.

Catch

When defending against a thrown object, if you are

successful enough to generate Spin on your

defence, you may declare that you are catching the

item that was thrown at you, provided you have a

free hand and it’s something you could, practically

speaking, catch (so no catching, say, refrigerators,

unless you have something truly crazy going on in

the Might department).

Clever Disguise

Normally, a character cannot create a disguise that

will stand up to intense scrutiny, i.e. use of the

Investigation Skill (see page 12). With this Stunt,

he may defend against Investigation (anything

short of physically trying to remove the disguise)

with his full Deceit Skill.

Furthermore, he may assemble disguises of this

quality in a matter of minutes, provided he has a

well-equipped disguise kit on hand.

Close Contacts

Requires at least one Contact.

When you select this Stunt, you may spread three

additional advances out amongst your existing

contacts, creating unusually talented Companions.

You may take this Stunt multiple times, but can’t

ever apply more than six additional advances (for

a total of nine) to any one contact.

Cold Read

Normally, to use Empathy to get a read on

someone (an Assessment) it requires at least a few

minutes of conversation, if not more. Characters

with this Stunt may do so after much less time –

two or three steps faster on the Time Increments

table (see page 8).

Commissions

Requires Virtuoso.

Your works and performances are heavily sought

out, and there are those who will pay handsomely

for it. Once per session, you may use your Art Skill

instead of Resources, representing a successful

past commission.

Contact

At the time your character takes this Stunt, you

must define a specific contact, with a name, a brief

sentence about the contact’s personality, and her

relationship to your character.

This contact is a Companion as described on page

27, willing and able to accompany you on your

adventures, with three advances for you to spend

as you wish. For maximum effect, you may wish to

allocate one of your Aspects to this contact as well.

This Stunt may be taken multiple times, defining a

different contact each time.

Contortionist

You can fit into and through spaces and shapes

that no normal human readily can. Normally,

contorting tasks are impossible to attempt, or at

best default to a (non-existent) Contortion Skill

rated at Mediocre.

With this Stunt, you can use your full Athletics

score instead, and have rationale to attempt feats

of contortion that are simply unavailable to others.

Cool Hand

A steady hand can be critical when things get

hairy. This character’s hands never shake and

never waver. Your character may ignore any

Difficulty increases from the environment when

performing any fine manual work (even if that fine

manual work doesn’t involve the Sleight of Hand

Skill, such as Burglary for lock picking, or Science

for surgical work).

Further, his steadiness minimizes other

distractions and cuts down on mistakes. Once per

scene he may eliminate one single non-

environmental penalty that affects his Sleight of

Hand.

Creature Companion

Your character has cultivated a close companion

from the animal kingdom. This companion is

designed using the Companion rules (see page 27),

with a few changes and limitations.

Creature companions are designed using four

advances and can come from any country. This

companion operates only with a ‚physical‛ scope,

and must spend at least two of its advances on

‚Skilled‛ and / or ‚Quality‛.

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Any ‚Skilled‛ advances must be taken from a

short list: Athletics, Fists, Might, Stealth, and

Survival. You may take only one Skill outside of

that list, within reason, as based on the animal

type. A raccoon might have Sleight of Hand,

representing its ability to perform fine

manipulation; a lion might have Intimidation (this

is unsubtle, and not considered a violation of the

physical scope).

If the animal is of an appropriate size, this creature

may be ridden as a mount, at +1 to Survival. If the

companion is a mount, such as a horse, or a more

exotic beast that has been persuaded to allow you

to ride it, you may use that mount’s Athletics Skill

instead of Survival in order to ride it. Athletics

would also be used to pour on the speed when the

rider is too busy to ‚steer‛ the animal himself.

Custom Ride

You own a land vehicle (no Resources Test

necessary) that is special and handles particularly

well; providing a +1 bonus to any Drive Tests.

Additionally, your vehicle has a little something

extra, and you may, once per session, spend a Fate

Point and declare that the vehicle has some extra

device (such as an oil slick or caltrop dispenser)

that will allow you to perform manoeuvres to

impose appropriate Aspects on any pursuers, e.g.

‚Skidding Wildly‛ or ‚Shredded Tyres‛.

Danger Sense

The character maintains a quick and easy

awareness of ambushes and other nasty surprises –

perhaps preternaturally, perhaps simply due to

finely tuned mundane senses. Whenever

ambushed, the character is able to take a full

defensive action, gaining a +2 on his Defence roll,

regardless of whether or not he’s surprised (if he is

surprised, dropping his base Defence to Mediocre,

this Stunt takes his base Defence up to Fair).

Defensive Driving

You’re good at keeping your vehicle in one piece.

Whenever attempting a driving manoeuvre in a

chase (see page 29), you may treat the Difficulty as

if it were one lower. The Difficulty of the

manoeuvre itself is not affected, however, for any

vehicles that might be chasing you.

Dirty Fighter

Requires Brawler.

Your character has a talent for fighting dirty and is

experienced in pulling all manner of tricks in order

to get the upper hand on his opponents. By

exploiting an opponent’s weakness, you are able to

strike deep and true. Any time you tag an

opponent’s Aspect in a fight, or tag an Aspect of

the scene that affects your foe, you get an

additional +1 on the roll.

Do You Know Who I Am?

Requires Virtuoso.

Your widespread name and your art are

interlinked as one. When identifying yourself in

order to get your way in a social or other

applicable situation, you may complement

Rapport, Intimidation, Deceit and Contacting rolls

with your Art Skill.

Ebb and Flow

The character is so aware of the social currents in a

situation that he is able to see something of what’s

coming before it arrives.

At the beginning of any social exchange, before

proceeding with the usual initiative order, the

character may spend a Fate point and attempt a

quick read – looking for surface moods and other

social cues – on any one target of his choosing, as a

free action. He may then act normally on his turn

as usual.

Feel the Burn

The character can push through incredible pain in

order to reach his goal. The character can take one

extra Major Consequence (see page 21) to negate

Stress to his Physical Stress Track allowing him to

take a total of four Consequences in a physical

conflict.

Five Minute Friends

For a Fate point, you can make a steadfast friend in

a place you’ve never been, given a chance for five

minutes of conversation. This Stunt makes nearly

impossible opportunities to make friends merely

improbable, improbable opportunities probable,

and probable opportunities outright certain.

Flawless Navigation

The skies are an open map in the character’s mind.

Unless bizarre circumstances are afoot, he can

never get lost in flight. If something strange is

happening the Difficulties for his Pilot rolls are

never increased by more than 2.

Flying Jock

This pilot can squeeze his plane through places

where it has no business fitting. Normally, a pilot

can spend a Fate point for a coincidence or

declaration to assure that the plane has enough

clearance space to fly through.

Characters with this Stunt never need to spend a

Fate point: if it could fit, it can. What’s more, if

your character does spend a Fate point, he can fit

the plane in places it absolutely should not be able

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to. This Stunt is also useful for landing planes in

improbably tight quarters.

Funding

You head an organization that is profitable. Pay a

Fate point and your organization may temporarily

increase a Resources Skill up to the value of your

Leadership, regardless of whether or not you’re

present. When you personally make use of these

resources it may take some time to filter through

the power structure to reach you; the GM may

increase the time it takes to acquire something by

one step.

Gambling Man

Requires one or more compellable Aspects related to

gambling.

As a gambling man, the character is rarely able to

turn down a bet or an opportunity to take a risk.

Compels involving your gambling Aspects

automatically start out at a point of escalation –

you must either spend two Fate points to avoid

them, or gain two Fate points if you accept them,

right at the outset.

Good Arm

The character has an amazing throwing arm, and

can throw weapons with great force, allowing

them still to be effective at a much longer range

than usual. The character may make an attack

using a thrown weapon up to two zones away

instead of the usual one; if he does so, the attack is

made at a -1.

Headquarters

If a character has purchased a Workplace (see page

35) then with this Stunt it qualifies as a full blown

private headquarters, such as a mansion or a secret

cave.

In addition to the Workplace, the headquarters

may include one of the following extra elements:

Expert Staff: Your headquarters has a small

staff of competent individuals who are each

treated as a Companion (see page 27); two are

of Average Quality and one is of Fair Quality

(they have no other Advances).

Expert Staff are bound to the location of your

headquarters, and can’t ever leave it without

losing their Companion qualities (they

effectively drop to Mediocre outside of their

home environs).

Secondary Facility: Your base facility

normally serves one primary function –

Library, Lab, Workshop, Arcane Library,

Arcane Workshop or Alien Archive. This extra

allows you to define a second function that

operates at a Quality Rating one less than the

main Workspace.

Extensive Security: Security measures make

your headquarters difficult to compromise. All

Difficulties for bypassing your headquarters’

security are increased by one.

Utmost Secrecy: The location of your

headquarters is tantamount to a state secret.

Few know of it, and even those located nearby

may be unaware. The Difficulty of any

Investigation or Contacting roll to find the

location of your lair is equal to your Resources

Skill.

Communications Centre: Your headquarters

is the nerve centre of a number of vital

channels of communication. Any

communications routed to, from, or through

your base take one time increment less to get

to where they’re going, due to the efficiencies

offered.

Home Away From Home

If a character has purchased a Workplace (see page

35) this Stunt allows the character to have a second

such property in a different location (at the same

Quality rating). The player may specify the

location during play (at which point it becomes

locked in), or in advance.

Human Spider

The character can climb surfaces he should not be

able to. He receives a +2 bonus on any climb, and

by spending a Fate point, he may eliminate the

effects of all Difficulty modifiers resulting from the

environment or the characteristics of the thing he’s

climbing (so he can climb a slick, mostly flat

surface in a rainstorm at much less difficulty).

Hush

Your talent with stealth may be extended to others

who are with you close by, provided that you

travel as a group. As long as the whole group stays

with you and follows your hushed orders, you

may make a single Stealth roll for the whole group,

using your Skill alone. If someone breaks from the

group, they immediately lose this benefit, and may

risk revealing the rest of you if they don’t manage

to pull off a little stealth of their own.

You cannot apply the benefits of other Stunts

(besides Hush) to this roll, though you may bring

in your own Aspects (and possibly tag the Aspects

of those you are concealing) in order to improve

the result. The maximum number of additional

people in the group is equal to the numeric value

of the character’s Stealth score (so someone with

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Fair Stealth and this Stunt would be able to use his

Skill for himself and two others).

I’m On Top Of It

You may spend a Fate point to go first in an

exchange, regardless of your initiative. If multiple

people with this Stunt exercise this ability, they go

in turn of their normal initiative, before those who

don’t have the Stunt get a chance to act. If the

exchange has already started, and you have not yet

acted, you may instead spend a Fate point to act

next, out of the usual turn order.

This may only be done between character’s

actions, and cannot be done as an interruption of

any kind (so if you spend the Fate point to do this

while someone else is acting, you must wait until

they’re done). Your character must not have acted

yet in the exchange in order to use the ability in

this way.

International

The character’s mastery of etiquette leaves him

comfortable, and even glib, in any situation. The

character never suffers any penalties or increased

Difficulty from unfamiliarity with his setting,

making it easy to manoeuvre through local

customs he hasn’t encountered before, and to

cover up any gaffes with a laugh and a sparkle in

his eye.

Lair

Requires Headquarters.

The character’s headquarters has three elements

(rather than one).

Linguist

Normally, someone may only speak a number of

additional languages equal to the value of his

Academics Skill. With this Stunt, your character

may speak five additional languages.

Lip Reading

The character may use Investigation to eavesdrop

on conversations he can only see. If the GM would

normally allow someone to attempt to read lips,

the Difficulty is reduced by 2; otherwise, you may

simply roll Investigation when others may not.

Lock Master

The character’s skill with improvisation when

bypassing a lock or similar contrivance is

improved, so long as he has something that could

pass as a tool, such as a piece of wire. Characters

with this Stunt never suffer an increased Difficulty

for lacking proper tools on a Burglary roll, and

when given proper tools, can defeat locks at one

time increment faster than usual.

Long Shot

For whatever reason, you’re always able to take

shots at a greater distance than you should be able

to. You can use pistols up to three zones away

(instead of two); furthermore, rifles and other such

weaponry reach an additional zone (or two, if the

GM feels generous).

Master of Disguise

Requires Clever Disguise and Mimicry.

The character can convincingly pass himself off as

nearly anyone with a little time and preparation.

To use this ability, the player pays a Fate point and

temporarily stops playing. His character is

presumed to have donned a disguise and gone ‚off

camera‛.

At any subsequent point during play the player

may choose any nameless, filler character (a

villain’s minion, a steward on the cruiseship, a

police patrolman, etc.) in a scene and reveal that

that character is actually the Player Character in

disguise!

The character may remain in this state for as long

as the player chooses, but if anyone is tipped off

that he might be nearby, an investigator may

spend a Fate point and roll Investigate against the

disguised character’s Deceit. If the investigator

wins, the investigator’s player (which may be the

GM) gets to decide which filler character is

actually the disguised Player Character.

Medic

Requires a ‚Medicine‛ Specialisation Stunt for the

Science Skill

The character is talented at delivering medical care

in the field. Normally, someone providing first aid

can remove a checkmark for every two shifts

gained on the roll (see page 24). With this Stunt,

every shift removes a point of Stress. If the

character rolls well enough to remove more

physical Stress than the victim is suffering, he may

even remove a Minor, physical Consequence.

Mimicry

Requires Clever Disguise.

Deceit can be used to convince people you are

someone you aren’t – but usually only in a general

sense. You can seem to be a cop, an author, et

cetera, but you can’t seem to be a specific person

without a lot of work (and an elevated Difficulty).

With this Stunt, you can easily imitate the

mannerisms and voice of anyone you’ve had a

chance to study – removing another potential

cause to have a disguise examined, or perhaps

convincing someone who can’t see you that you’re

someone else even though you’re undisguised.

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Studying someone usually requires only an

investment of time and not a roll of the dice – at

least half an hour of constant exposure. This

timeframe can be reduced, but will require an

Empathy, Investigation, or Deceit roll against a

target of Mediocre, increased by one for each step

faster on the Time Increments table (page 8).

Minions

You have minions – lots of them. As a default, in a

scene, you may have the bare minimum of minions

easily on hand – three of Average quality (see

Minions on page 26).

You may make three upgrades to improve your

Minions, spent at the point you bring them into the

scene. Each upgrade either adds three more to

their number, or boosts the Quality of three of

them by one step (no Minion can be more than

Good quality). This stunt can therefore provide

any of the combinations listed below.

3 Good (+3) plus 3 Average (+1)

6 Fair (+2)

3 Fair (+2) plus 6 Average (+1)

12 Average (+1)

This Stunt may be taken multiple times to increase

the starting number of Minions (taking it twice

means you start out with six of Average Quality)

and the number of upgrades (taking it twice also

means you have six upgrades). You must spend all

of your upgrades at the start of the scene when

you bring in your Minions, but you needn’t bring

them all in right away.

Mister Fix-It

The character’s talented at getting things repaired

under time-critical circumstances. The time it takes

to get something fixed by the character is reduced

by two steps. If the situation is already operating

on the fastest possible amount of time the

Difficulty of the repair effort is reduced by one.

Nobody Moves!

Any character can use Intimidation to perform a

Block action (see page 20) to prevent foes in their

current zone from moving to another zone.

Normally the GM would impose penalties if the

character was attempting to block off more than

one route out of the zone, however a character

with this stunt reduces any such penalties by the

numerical rating of his Intimidation Skill (to a

minimum penalty of zero).

One Hand on the Wheel

Driving while doing some other action normally

results in a -1 penalty. With this Stunt, you don’t

suffer that penalty, regardless of whether you are

rolling Drive (driving is your primary action, and

the supplemental action is something minor), or

rolling some other Skill (you’re taking some other

primary action, but keeping the vehicle on the road

isn’t all that challenging, allowing driving to be the

supplemental action).

Your Drive Skill can never be used to restrict

another Skill, only complement it.

One Hit to the Body

The character can pay a Fate point and ignore the

effects of one attack per game session.

One Shot Left

That last bullet has a kind of magic to it. A

character with this Stunt may declare that he is on

his last shot, and may make any single Guns attack

at +3.

This is the character’s last shot – its use means that

there’s no more ammo, no holdout guns or the

like. The only way the character is going to be able

to use his Guns Skill in the scene is if he takes an

action acquiring a new weapon or ammunition,

which may not always be possible.

Personal Aircraft

You have a personal aircraft that you own or have

the exclusive right to fly. In all respects, this Stunt

functions like the Custom Ride Stunt (page 38).

Refer to that Stunt for details.

Photographic Memory

Requires Walking Library.

If you’ve read it, you remember it. If the answer

lies in something you’ve read before (this must be

reasonable), then any research effort takes an

additional two units less time – stacked on top of

the benefit of Walking Library, this means that a

half hour’s worth of research in books you’ve

already encountered can be resolved in a minute,

and a day’s worth covered in a mere hour.

Psychic

You are open to the strange and paranormal –

though sometimes that means letting in the

Unpleasant Things from the Darkness and other

such nuisances.

Normally, a character may be called upon by the

GM to roll Mysteries as a kind of paranormal

Alertness Skill, to pick up on the surface

strangeness in a place. With this Stunt, you may

deliberately use your Mysteries Skill to gain some

mystic or terrible insight into the occult ‚climate‛

of an area, as if it were Investigation – using a

similar time-frame and gaining a similar level of

(paranormal) detail.

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This also means that you may use Mysteries

instead of Alertness when surprised, if the origin

of the surprise is in some way supernatural, and

can even use Mysteries as your initiative Skill

when locked in a conflict with otherworldly forces.

Used with this Stunt, Mysteries can give you

access to information that would normally be

impossible to get – though the GM is under no

obligation to give you that information in any clear

fashion. Muddled riddles and vague intimations

are the mode of the day.

There is an additional catch: Using this ability may

open you up to an unpleasant psychic attack by

the presence or residue of Unnatural Creatures

that have touched the area < but at least you’ve

learned something.

Quick Exit

A momentary distraction is all you need to vanish

from the scene. Provided you are not in the midst

of a Conflict, you may make a Stealth Test with a

Difficulty of the highest Alertness in the room. If

you succeed, the next time someone turns to look

at or talk to you, you’re not there.

Ready for Anything

Requires I’m On Top Of It.

The character’s senses are so keyed into minute

changes that he is able to respond more quickly to

new details. The character’s Alertness Skill is

considered to be one higher for purposes of

determining initiative (allowing someone with

Superb Alertness to have Fantastic initiative). This

Stunt breaks ties whenever facing opponents with

the same initiative. This Stunt may be taken

multiple times, each time increasing the character’s

initiative one step.

Scene of the Crime

The character has a strong visual memory, and

whenever he revisits a place where he has used

Investigation before, he may make an immediate

use of Investigation in a matter of seconds in order

to determine what has changed since he was last

there, as if it were an unusually detailed Alertness

check.

Slippery

Requires at least one other Athletics Stunt.

You gain a +2 to all attempts to defend against

Pushing, Throw or Knockback manoeuvres, as

well as any attempts to escape from bonds.

Smooth Recovery

While most characters with Resolve can keep

things together under stress, for your character it is

second nature, allowing him to regain his footing

in the face of even the direst of outcomes outside

of physical conflict. This Stunt allows the character

to take one additional Major, social or mental

Consequence (see page 21) to negate Stress to his

Composure Stress Track allowing him to take a

total of four Consequences in a social or mental

conflict.

Steel Determination

It is apparent to all around you exactly how far

you are willing to go in order to get what you

want. You may, when you bluntly speak your true

intentions in a social interaction, trigger the effects

of this Stunt, immediately gaining a +1 bonus

which applies to all subsequent Intimidation or

Resolve rolls, as well as any social defence, in that

scene. However, if you do this, you may no longer

use Rapport with the same audience, as you have

peeled away the façade of civility.

Subtle Menace

The character exudes menace far in excess of his

capability to act. Even bound and behind prison

bars, the character is so ripe with the promise of

the awful things he could do that he’s still scary.

This character may use Intimidation no matter

what the power imbalance in the situation is, and

reduces any bonus his target may have been

awarded by the GM for acting from a superior

position by 2 (to a minimum of +0).

Thump of Restoration

Requires Mister Fix-It.

Sometimes a bunch of repairs can get short-handed

with a good swift thump. A character must spend

a Fate point to activate this ability, and roll

Engineering (with a Difficulty of Mediocre).

He then hits a device or other contraption that isn’t

working, and it starts working immediately,

regardless of the Difficulty rating to repair it under

time pressure.

It will continue work for a number of exchanges

equal to the shifts gained on the Engineering roll.

Once the time is up, the device stops working

again, and any efforts to repair it are at a one step

higher Difficulty (since, after all, you hit the thing).

If the character wishes to thump again, he may do

so for another Fate point, but the Difficulty for the

Engineering roll increases by one on each

subsequent attempt.

Tracker

Your character is Skilled at tracking, and can infer

a great deal of information from a trail. When

studying tracks, the character may roll Survival.

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Each shift from this roll spent thereafter gives the

character one piece of information about the

person or creature being tracked (such as weight,

how they were moving, and so on). Normally,

Survival can’t be used to track something, leaving

such attempts at a Mediocre default.

Virtuoso

The character is a master of some specific form of

art – painting, composition, singing, conducting or

playing music, or the like. The character is a

virtuoso in his field and recognized worldwide for

his Skill. Even if his actual Skill level is not high, he

is still on the list of the finest artists in the world,

just not necessarily at the top of it. The character

receives a +1 knowledge bonus when performing

his art form. He may also pick a specialty (such as

a specific instrument or a specific school of

painting) for which he receives a +1 specialty

bonus (stacking with the +1 knowledge bonus).

When applicable, the virtuoso may produce works

of art one time increment faster than would

normally take.

This stunt combines Concentration and

Specialisation stunts with a Benefit (reduction of

time to create works). This is a particular

concession that is made in response to how

infrequent Art performances are integral to the

plot of a scenario.

Voices from Beyond

Requires Psychic.

Given time to prepare and perform the ritual, the

character may perform a real, functioning séance

to try to call out to spirits dead or never living. A

Mysteries roll must be made against a Difficulty

set by the GM, in order to cause a particular spirit

to manifest.

Summoned spirits are not under any sort of

compulsion to be cooperative, and may have their

own agendas, but once summoned, they may

speak through the character with others in

attendance. At the GM’s option, especially if the

summoner gains Spin on her Mysteries roll, the

spirit may even manifest visibly.

Should the spirit be malicious in any fashion, or

wish to escape the summons, the character may

use Mysteries or Resolve as his Skill of choice

when struggling with the spirit.

Walk the Walk

The character’s travels have taken him to every

corner of the world. His familiarity with the streets

and peoples of the world allow him to function

easily, at home and abroad. The character never

suffers any additional Difficulty from unfamiliar

circumstances when using the Contacting Skill.

Walking Library

The character’s prodigious reading has paid off in

spades, and he is able to recall minute details from

even the most obscure literary works. The

character is always considered to have a library on

hand of a quality equal to his Academics skill,

enabling him to answer questions with a base

Difficulty less than or equal to his Academics skill,

using nothing other than his brain and some time

for contemplation. Additionally, any research

performed by this character in a real library

automatically takes one unit less time (see Time

Consuming Tasks on page 8), and any libraries

with a quality less than his Academics skill do not

limit the Difficulty of the question asked, as they

normally would.

Winnings

The character wins more than he loses, and is often

flush with cash. Once per session, he may use

Gambling instead of Resources to represent these

winnings, so long as he hasn’t recently experienced

a loss. The player must provide a quick one-

sentence explanation of what the resource is and

how he won it, when using this Stunt.

Words on the Wind

Requires Psychic.

There are patterns to things that are not always

obvious, even to the wise.

This character looks in the right places, and hears

the right things. Once per session, when he is not

otherwise occupied, he may request an omen from

the GM, and roll Mysteries against a target of

Mediocre. The GM will use the results to guide her

decision about how obscure the information

gained is. It may be as arcane as a snippet of a

riddle, or as mundane as news that a strange

shipment is coming into the docks at midnight.

Wrestler

Requires a ‚Lifting & Carrying‛ Specialisation Stunt

for the Might Skill

The character is a trained wrestler. The character

may use his Might Skill instead of Fists in combat.

This is effectively a Skill Switch Stunt but with no

reduced scope of effectiveness, instead a pre-

requisite is imposed in the form of another Stunt.

Page 45: Free FATE FATE/free-fate-v0.2.pdfFree FATE Open Game Content collated, modified and augmented by R Grant Erswell

45

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15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Fudge System 1995 version © 1992-1995 by Steffan O’Sullivan, ©

2005 by Grey Ghost Press, Inc.; Author Steffan O’Sullivan.

FATE (Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment) © 2003 by

Evil Hat Productions LLC; Authors Robert Donoghue and Fred Hicks.

Spirit of the Century © 2006, Evil Hat Productions LLC. Authors

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Starblazer Adventures © 2008, Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.

Free FATE © 2009 R Grant Erswell.

END OF LICENSE

Open Content The text of the Legal Information section of this document and the “Open Game License version 1.0a” itself are not Open Game Content.

Instructions on using the License are provided within the License

itself. All of the rest of the text in this document prior to the Legal Information, above, is Open Game Content as described in Section

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Product Identity This publication contains no Product Identity, as defined in Section 1(e) of the Open Game License Version 1.0a.

Amendment History The table below details the amendment history of

Free FATE.

Version Change

0.1 Initial Draft

0.2 Minor changes & corrections throughout.

Replaced remaining references to Mild and Moderate Consequences with Minor and Major.

Character Sheet updated with clearer image.

Replaced Guns with Athletics in Defence Skill column of

the Attack and Defence Skills table.

Issue for public feedback.

Page 46: Free FATE FATE/free-fate-v0.2.pdfFree FATE Open Game Content collated, modified and augmented by R Grant Erswell