Reign of Crows: A Fate Kingdom Hack (Part Two: Archetypes)

IN THE FAMILY

Last Thursday I posted material for Reign of Crows, my A Game of Thrones-inspired Fate hack. It’s one of three Fate games I’m running for the Gauntlet Hangouts. It’s the most experimental-- bringing together tools from other systems. We played our second session on Sunday, video here. This actually dug into scenes instead of world building. I’m puzzling out the game's rhythm amid the great play moments. We’ll discuss that at the start of next session, hunting ideas to tighten the play experience.

Reign of Crows: A Fate Kingdom Hack (Part One: Set-Up)

As I mentioned in the first post, the players all come from the same family. I had each of them pick an “archetype.” That comes with a unique resource, four boxes of that resource, and a set of unique stunts. These draw from _Core_, DFAE, and elsewhere. I went with 11 stunts for each archetype to ease my work. We’re only playing four sessions and they can start with up to seven stunts (if they give up Refresh).

FORCE & MILITARY

LOYAL TROOPS: This is your special resource. You start with four boxes. You restore one box between sessions. You may mark a box to add a bonus equal to your highest unmarked box to any larger-scale conflict you send your troops into.

DEATH TOUCHED: Once per session, you may designate as likely to die any character embroiled in violent conflict. During that conflict, any attacks against that character have +2 Weapon.

DUELIST: You are a warrior supreme. You can go toe-to-toe with forces of foes-- gangs and bands of enemies of one Tier higher. You operate +1 Tier personally against single enemies, allowing you to crush the unworthy.

FAMILY BLADE: Once per session when a member of your family would be involved in a physical conflict, you can arrive on scene to step in for them. This is a dramatic effect, ignoring logic.

HONORBOUND: Once per session, when you, your family, or an ally has been insulted you may challenge someone involved in the dishonor. If they are of your Tier or less, you kill them outright. Otherwise they must choose to accept or not. If they decline, you still attack and do damage to their faction. If they accept, make an attack against them. On a success, you wound or humiliate them. On a success with style you kill them.

MASTER TRAINING: Pick one of your approaches. When you attack using that approach roll +1.

RECRUITER: When you perform a Recruit action, your recruits are always one Tier higher. They come with an aspect with a free invoke as well.

SIEGE MASTER: When you campaign against a specific city, castle, or fortress, you gain +2 to your Overcome and Attack rolls.

TACTICAL TRAINING: You are a master strategist. When you use Wits to create an advantage related to formulating a battle plan, gain an extra invoke on the aspect.

UNRELENTING FURY: +2 to use Force to Overcome or Attack

WARDEN: You have the mandate and authority to track down and mete out lethal justice to those labeled an outlaw. Gain +1 to attacks of any kind against anyone so designated.

WOUNDED: Mark this condition to absorb four shifts from any attack. While this condition is marked, you have an additional aspect representing your injury. If you’re taken out while Wounded, death is on the list of potential outcomes, as with the Doomed condition. Begin recovery from this condition after you’ve received medical attention in a quiet environment (in other words, not in the field) and someone has succeeded at a recovery action against Great (+4) opposition on your behalf. You recover fully at the end of the next session.

COMMERCE & WEALTH

WEALTH: This is your special resource. You start with four boxes. You restore one box between sessions. In any situation where money can be a factor, you may mark a box to give yourself a bonus to a roll = to your unmarked boxes.

ADVENTURER: When you quest as a seasonal action, any treasure you uncover gains an extra free invoke and grants the bearer a +2 to a particular action against a chosen faction.

BRIBES: Choose a faction. You gain +2 to any actions against them.

COLLECTOR: Mark one or more boxes of Wealthy to declare ownership of something when its need arises. One box suffices for most goods. Two boxes permits ownership of a rare item, land, or a building.

CRAFTERS: You have access to skills craftpersons from across the Kingdom. When you Build something as a seasonal action, it happens absurdly fast.

ENTOURAGE: You have a personal staff member as a minor NPC with one aspect and +2 in one area of competence. At any time, you may mark a box of Wealth to declare their convenient arrival in a scene. They are completely loyal.

FAST AS GOLD: +2 to Defend and Discover with Speed

GOLDEN KEY: Mark a box of Wealth to declare that you have in some way eluded blame or the law: avoiding arrest, bailing yourself out of prison, et cetera. Mark two boxes if avoiding a Doomed-level consequence.

HOLDING: You have sway or a city, castle, or fortress. Name it and mark it on the map. Say what advantages it offers.

LENDER: When you create a "debt" advantage on someone, you always gain an additional free invoke.

PREPARATION: You have a +2 to "flashback" actions where you show how you set things up beforehand.

RIDE BY NIGHT: Your wealth enables rapid travel. Once per session, you may conveniently arrive in a scene in a manner and time of your choosing without consideration of time or distance.

MAGIC & SECRET KNOWLEDGE

POWER: This is your special resource. You start with four boxes. You restore one box between sessions. For each box you mark, you can increase the Tier of an effect by one. In a personal conflict, you can mark a box to do additional shifts of stress equal to your highest unmarked box.

AEGIS: You can protect a willing target from harm by hiding them away from the world. They cannot be tracked and tracked by offensive magic. In addition the enchantment makes it difficult for social manipulations to stick on them while they're in that state. They are apart from the world and cannot act. You may have a number of subjects in this state equal to your current Power.

ARCHMAGE: You have two additional boxes of Power.

BANE: By marking a box of power, you may add a Trouble Aspect to a Faction for a season. You may only target a faction with this once.

ILLUSIONIST: You may cast veils and seemings. With a moment of concentration, you may draw a veil over a person, group, or location hiding it from sight and other means of detection. Or you may cause a person or object to appear differently than it normally does. An observer may attempt to discern the illusion, but to do so, they must have some legitimate suspicion that they might be seeing a glamour. Use Caution to resist any disbelief attempt.

LOREMASTER: As a scholar of arcane lore and magical theory, once per session you may declare a new global fact about the world, magic, or The Threat.

ORACLE: Once per season you may roll to see three of the events for the next season. If you choose this at game start, we'll roll then. You may choose to reroll one of the events-- the description and/or the target.

PRACTITIONER: Describe your area of magical talent (Constructs, Fires, Portals). When you act using that kind of magic, you gain a bonus effect. Additionally, you may take the condition "Burned Out" to do a massive scale effect with your magic. While you're Burned Out you may not use other magics, including your Power talent. Burned Out clears at the end of the following session.

SECOND SIGHT: Understanding magic is what you do. Gain +2 when you use Create Advantage or Discover from studying a magical effect, spell, or creature of the supernatural.

SORCERER: +2 to Create Advantage and Attack with Wits

WARDINGS: Once per session, you may declare that you happen to have a countermeasure on hand that nullifies the effect of scale from a supernatural condition or stunt for the current scene. At the GM’s discretion, this stunt can also nullify other effects of supernatural powers.

WARMAGE: You specialize in fighting other wizards. Once per sene, when opposing another wizard, you may immediately inflict a 2-shift hit on any defense when your action succeeds with style.

FAITH & POPULISM

CENSURE: This is your special resource. You start with four boxes. You restore one box between sessions. By marking a box, you can hit a person or group with public hatred, accusations or heresy or whatever. If you target an individual they will have to undergo great hardships to restore themselves. If you target a group, they operate at -2 Strength for the Season until they do something about it. You can hit the same target multiple times.

BENEVOLENT: You have +2 to all seasonal actions dealing with relief from a negative seasonal event.

CRUSADE: Once per season, may make an Overcome action at +2 to send another faction against The Threat. This will eat of the action's attention, do damage to The Threat, and do damage to the faction.

FAITHFUL: Once per session, spend a Fate point to declare that a campaign NPC is a patron or ritually indebted to your faith. This NPC will grant one favor of significance, such as allowing access to something otherwise inaccessible or accomplishing an objective sans opposition. The GM is the final arbiter of whatever aid you receive.

FOLLOWERS: +2 to Use Charisma to Create Advantage or Defend

HEALER: Provided you are able to reach them, you may attempt to revive anyone taken out in a conflict due to physical injury. (If they conceded, you cannot use this stunt on them.) This stunt is a Challenge with the GM, who rolls (+2).

HIGH PRIEST: You have authority over a vast temple, beloved shrine, or major pilgrimage site. Name it and mark it on the map. Say what advantages it offers.

HOLY AURA: You have a +1 against any demons or forces of darkness. In a conflict with them you act as Weapon 2.

MARTYR: Once per session you may elect to suffer the outcome of any attack inflicted on any character in your immediate presence, preventing it from befalling them. This harm is taken at the same value as the original recipient and you may not roll a separate defense.

PUBLIC STATEMENT: Once per session, you may state that your community has publicly denounced or supported a certain character, gaining you an aspect with two free invokes related to the statement’s impact on the person’s reputation.

RIGHTEOUS BLADES: You have a force of loyal troops at your command-- paladins, fanatics, etc. You can invoke them for free once per session in a conflict situation. You can burn them out (requiring a seasonal action to recruit) for double effect if they have not already been invoked.

SANCTUARY: Once per session, you may declare that your followers have spirited you away to a secret location, away from any prying eyes. This allows you to immediately escape any pursuit or scrutiny without having to participate in a contest, and you get at least one scene before anyone can try to search for you. Some supernatural methods of detection may be immune to this at the GM’s discretion.

UNDERWORLD & SUBTERFUGE

SPIES: This is your special resource. You start with four boxes. You restore one box between sessions. By marking a box, you may ask a question about a faction. You may then ask a follow up, or Create Advantage based on that information with a +2. You can hit the same target multiple times.

ASSASSIN: +2 to Attack and Overcome with Subtlety

FRAME UP: Once per season, mark Spies to initiate flurry of scandal around a target of your choice. For the rest of the season, when asked, the GM must provide the location of the target unless they disappear into a supernaturally protected space. You also create an aspect for the frenzy, which you can invoke once for free in any scene in which you interact with people directly related to the frenzy.

INFORMANTS: When you gather information as a seasonal action, you always get an additional question on your Discover Action. If there's a cost involved, you always pay one less.

INSIDER: Mark a box of Spies or gain a Debt to gain access to a place or person otherwise inaccessible or to obtain secret/guarded information without having to roll. If you choose to roll and you fail, you may mark two boxes to ignore that result and succeed regardless. At the GM’s discretion, any information you acquire is an advantage with two free invokes.

LEGENDARY: You know and are known within criminal circles. Once per session, upon meeting an NPC involved in that world, you may mark a box of Spies to declare that you have met them before and create an aspect with one free invoke to represent your prior relationship.

MASTER OF DISGUISE. When you’re in a situation where you’re able to slip away unnoticed, you have the option to temporarily drop out of the game altogether. If you do, spend a fate point or mark a box of Spies to reappear disguised as a faceless NPC already in the scene

NETWORK: Add +2 boxes to your Spies Resource.

OF SHADOWS: You can see perfectly in the dark and are immune to any potential effect of normal or magical darkness. Additionally, once per session, you may declare that you automatically succeed at hiding from any non-magical attempt to spot you, provided you have a nearby shadow to hide in.

ON TIME: Once per session, you may announce your presence in the perfect place to "help" someone, ignoring usual limits of time, distance, or plausibility.

REPUTATION: People know your face and/or name and may even fear you, which can be used advantageously. Mark a box of Stress to take +2 to intimidate or coerce a non-criminal NPC into cooperating. The NPC will not, remain quiet about the coercion, unless additional steps are taken.

STREETWISE: You are in constant communication with informants. When you use Wits to create an advantage based on their reports, the aspect gains an extra invoke.

DIPLOMACY & SCHOLARSHIP

CONNECTIONS: This is your special resource. You start with four boxes. You restore one box between sessions. By marking a Box you can increase your family's Relation with a faction. If this moves your relation to +1 or to +4, you may create an Advantage with a free invoke.

CIRCLE OF FRIENDS: You have a collection of low-level talents and friends. Once per session, you may contact them to request assistance. The GM determines what aid they can provide- while they're individually minor, together they act at a larger scale of effect.

ENTRAPMENT: You have learned that that the best way to lure your foe is to pretend at vulnerability. You gain +2 to Create Advantage to lure your marked quarry into a false sense of security. If targeting a named individual, they will have an extremely difficult time resisting your gambit. Consider this a compel, usable against the GMC.

MASTERMIND: Your seasonal actions always have the Hidden bonus if you wish.

NEGOTIATOR: When you negotiate a surrender, of someone your family campaigned against or otherwise, you always extract an additional concession. In addition, if successful, you completely refresh your Connections.

NEMESIS: You share a mutual loathing with one faction. When you act against them, you ignore any Relation value and act as if they had a 0. If this faction's Relation ever becomes positive, you may choose to transfer your enmity elsewhere or continue your crusade.

PROFILER: You know how to study and learn about people. Once per session, you may ask the GM to tell you an aspect of any character you interact with in a scene without having to roll an action. If you choose to roll, you gain a +1.

RUMORMONGER: You are adept at planting rumors as well as ferreting them out. Once per session, you may plant an aspect with two free invokes on anyone you wish, representing something you want others to believe about them. The aspect lasts the rest of the session.

SCHOLARSHIP: You may mark Connections to leverage the information you have gathered on the workings of the world. Gain a +2 to Discover or Create Advantage for each box marked.

SHARP TONGUE: In social conflicts, you always do +2 shifts of damage on a successful attack.

TRAVELLER: Once per session you may add a permanent Aspect to a location (city, home, region) with a free invoke.

UTTER CALM: +2 to Use Caution to Overcome or Defend.

Reign of Crows: A Fate Kingdom Hack (Part One: Set-Up)

Reign of Crows: A Fate Kingdom Hack (Part One: Set-Up)

RULE OF ROOKS

Sunday we started the first of four sessions of Reign of Crows. That’s intended to be a “Game of Thrones” style Fate mini-campaign. Everyone plays members of a single noble family within a kingdom. Together they face threats and shifts in power. At the start of the game, the Queen has died, leaving behind a young heir and a regent. The players plot how to advance their agenda, enhance the family, and rise to the center of power.

I like many game systems, but in recent years Fate and PbtA have become my go to for hacking new settings (Hellboy/Atomic Robo, ChangelingPbtA). I’ve also been looking at retooling whatever you call the MYZ/TftL/Coriolis system. Fate and PbtA have different strengths in terms of what they do at the table. That’s a discussion I have had before (and will have again). But of the two, I find Fate easier and faster to hack. It doesn’t require as much time and I’ve learned the pieces to retool. PbtA’s a game with a more connected gears and moving parts. Fast hacks there often lose the essence and strengths of PbtA. 

So for my Fate month on the Gauntlet Hangouts I wanted to a least one game involving a deeper, or at least more extensive, hack. Hence this Reign of Crows game. We plan Gauntlet Hangouts sessions two months out. That means I can commit to doing or coming up with something and give myself a hard deadline rather than twiddling around. So thats how we got here.

While we’ve only played the first session, I want to post some of the material. I plan on coming back to look at all of this once we’ve done all four. If you like AP world-building, you can see the session video here. You can also see the spreadsheet we’re using for game notes here. I’ve split this post into two parts. Today I present the set-up information; next post I’ll present character archetypes and stunts. I borrow from Fate Core, Wrath of the Autarch, Dresden Files Accelerated, various Worlds of Adventure, Blood & Honor, and other sources. The material below what I presented to the players.

WELCOME TO THE REALM

On Sunday, we’ll be doing both character creation and some world building. For characters I will have archetypes for everyone to choose from. These represent your character’s focus and source of power.

• Force & Military
• Commerce & Wealth
• Magic & Secret Knowledge
• Faith & Populism
• Underworld & Subterfuge
• Diplomacy & Scholarship.

We will be using a modified version of Fate Accelerated. Characters will have Approaches, Aspects, and Stunts. To make things easy, I’ll have a set of stunts for each archetype. My plan to use FAE lightly, as a framework to resolve plots and moves. In a sense, the resolution may be closer to PbtA with you figuring out costs and complications to enact plans. Generally I keep my Fate light, so I wouldn’t worry about the rules too much. Basically I want to see what you’ll do with the tools provided.

If there’s any major mechanical difference, it will be that groups have Scale, called Tier here. Larger, more potent, and better organized groups are harder to affect. That’s pretty simple.

Play will (generally) follow this structure for a Season/Session—

1. Establish or Advance Threat(s).
2. Random Events in the Kingdom.
3. Individual Seasonal Actions for PCs.
4. The Plot—everyone works together to carry out a plot for the family, determined by the group. Usually this will be a military action, extended scheme, political campaign, maneuvers at a gathering, taking advantage of a moot, or something like that.
5. More individual scenes or Seasonal Actions if needed.

For Session One, we’ll also determine a few facts about your family as well as the Kingdom as a whole. To make sure we can get things done, I've set up some of the structures. I’ve broken things down into 20 major factions. You can see those on the spreadsheet below. Each of your will get a Row. You’ll assign two standard and one trouble aspect to each faction in that row. Each row also has a couple of factions with “???” in their description, meaning you’ll get to say what they’re like.

To make things easy, you’ll find a tab with example standard and trouble aspects. When we do this, you should feel free to use those. I’ve also added a tab with some random fantasy names as well as the random event list in case you want to look at that.

SEASONAL ACTIONS

What can you do as a seasonal action?

• Aggrandize yourself or someone else
• Broker a deal or marriage
• Build or enhance something like a town, castle, magical working
• Campaign for an office
• Contact strange new powers
• Deal with enemies
• Explore new or lost territories
• Face The Threat
• Find treasure
• Gather intelligence or uncover secrets
• Incite hostilities
• Lay claim to something
• Make an alliance
• Prosecute a war
• Quest for something ancient and awesome
• Recruit people, troops, agents
• Restore and recover lost strengths and resources
• Suppress rebellion
• Undermine confidence in another faction

…and anything else which sounds cool…

TESTS

If you’re doing a personal test—your character on a small scale, you’re just rolling your Approach (the first column). If you’re acting on or via a group or faction, you roll Approach + Influences.

You roll against a known difficulty (set or rolled). Know that targets of a higher tier are harder to affect; stronger targets have higher resistance; and the less a faction likes you, the harder it is to affect them negatively.

Anything that affects another faction has a cost. The GM will tell you that cost—one for something basic; two for something complex or longer lasting; three for something permanent. You can see the list of example costs below. If you succeed, you’ll pick your other cost. If you tie or fail, the GM picks your costs

BUT you never have to fail when you roll. The trick is how much you want to pay to succeed. Aspects most basic currency for this. Each aspect you invoke, by paying a fate point or using up a free one, gives you +2 to your result. But you can also pay with other resources:

• Altered Effect or Drawback
• Burning Debts
• Gain a Family Need
• Gaining a Negative Aspect
• Gaining Debts
• Gaining Ill-Will from a Faction
• Having it Take Extra Time
• Lose a Family Surplus
• Losing a Stunt
• Marking a Personal Condition
• Marking Personal Stress
• Public Censure
• Special Components or Circumstances
• Spending Special Resources
• Take Family Stress

Look at all those options! If you beat your difficulty—through good rolls, spending costs, or whatever—you succeed. You do what you want. If you do well, you can spend your extra shifts on things like…

ADDITIONAL EFFECTS

• Additional Aspects
• Fictional Change
• Greater Reach
• Hidden
• Higher Tier
• Longer Lasting
• More effective
• More invokes
• Secondary Effect

…and anything else you can sell me on

CREATION PROCESS

1. We first build our factions. Each of you will define one row. We’ll work column by column—but jump ahead if you want to. For your factions, you’ll define a Key and Trouble Aspect. If there’s a ??? on a faction, you’ll get to tell us who they are (name or summary).
2. Next, you set the “Relation” of the factions in your row--- that’s how much they like your family. The Royals are already set, so among the other four assign a -4, -2, 0, and +2.
3. Then we define your family, giving it a name. We’ll figure out how your Head of House leads, your Motto/Key Aspect, and your Trouble. We’ll also choose Surpluses and Wants.
4. Finally we'll create characters. You may have already discussed this, but now you make picks.
5. You have six Approaches. You always use these to roll. Assign +3, +2, +2, +1, +1, and 0 to these.
6. You have six Influences. You add these to your approaches when you’re using or acting against those groups (if split, you choose). Assign +2, +1, 0, 0, -1, -2 to these.
7. Define your Key Aspect-- the quick phrase that describes your character.
8. Define your Trouble Aspect. This should be something you want to play out.
9. You have room for three other aspects. You can define these on the fly. When you do define them, the GM will give you a Fate Point.
10. Choose your Archetype, your role in the family. Each gets a special ability & resource. They also have a list of Stunts. You may choose from another archetype’s lists, but only if a someone hasn’t already taken it.
11. You start with four Stunts. We assume in the fiction that you have the your archetype's abilities and resources—if military, you have troops; if magic, you can cast spells; if subterfuge, you have spies. That’s just baked into the fiction. Stunts enhance that.
12. Set your Refresh to four. That means at the start of each session your Fate Points go back up to 4. If you want more stunts, you can trade in Refresh for them on a 1 to 1 basis (to a minimum of 1 Refresh).

Next post, archetypes and stunts. 

RPGaDay 2017 Pt. 1: Wulin to House Fires to Stuffed Animals

Question for a Fictional FAQ: Lowell, is there a way to "cheat" at blogging? 

Dear Imaginary Questioner, 

Thanks for asking that so I can make a weak joke. Yes, there is. On the one hand you could revisit earlier posts with new commentary about how your tastes have or have not changed. On the other, you could bundle together all of your #RPGaDay 2017 responses from G+ for a 'round-up' post.

As my writing students would say, "Waa-Laa"

Day 1. Which published RPG do you wish you were playing right now?

If we’re talking about a game I’d like to play—not run, then I’m going to have to go with Weapons of the Gods. That’s an older Eos Press Wuxia game, using a strange Hong Kong comic books as its licensed source. Eos re-released it as Legends of Wulin, with the licensed setting stripped out. It features several designers, including Jenna Moran. It’s also opaque as f*ck.

It’s impenetrability is different than Nobilis or Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Machine. It simply has so many moving parts. Some of that’s really excellent. The Loresheet system is worth borrowing for any rpg setting. The core book provides brief write ups on hundreds of elements of the setting (individual religious philosophies, different clans, ghost stories, marriage, legends, etc). But these aren’t just static info dumps. You can buy your character into these things—tying them to those stories or themes. It monetizes the setting in a way few other games do. 13th Age’s Icon mechanics feel the closest to me.

The martial arts combat system’s involved. I mean seriously involved. To help players out they released an example of play featuring a duel between two characters. It was at least ten pages long. It sounded awesome, but beyond my skillset.

So I pick this one because I’d be playing—which assumes that someone who actually understands the game would be running. So maybe I could finally grok the rules.

I love wuxia stuff—I have many, many wuxia rpgs (like Dragon Lines, Qin, Kaigaku, Hong Kong Action Theater, Feng Shui, Swords of the Middle Kingdom, Tianxia, and even my own hack White Mountain, Black River). But I haven’t yet hit one that really clicks for me. I’ve worked on PbtA and Lady Blackbird hacks to simulate that feel but haven’t completed those. Tianxia’s my next closest runner-up, but there’s something about the sheer madness of Weapons of the Gods that grabs me.

Day 2: What is an RPG you would like to see published?

The easiest answer would be that I want to finally get my own game Action Cards, out there in some form. That has challenges—being card-based with unique decks used in odd ways means scripting that in Roll20’s a pain. So it isn’t as useful online, despite being a joy f2f. So let's leave that aside.

What I’d really like to see published are real rules-light alternatives for some of my favorite settings. I talked about this a little this week on the Gauntlet Podcast. I’ve run four sessions of my PbtA hack of Changeling the Lost. That’s the fourth system I’ve used to run CtL. I tried World/Chronicles of Darkness but couldn’t stand the density, how much the mechanics shaped play, and the granularity of rules. I wanted something lighter, but still tuned to the elements of the setting.

Storyteller Adventure System’s probably the closest to the kind of approach I want. Onyx Path uses a stripped down version of the house system, primarily for quickstarts and adventures. It isn’t bad. But it’s more generic than I’m looking for. I want a lighter system that takes into account the play and options of the original. We’ve also seen Savage Worlds and GURPS adaptations. But the former isn’t my bag and the latter’s too crunchy for me these days. (I know I’m being stupidly picky, but it’s my fantasy pick…).

That’s what I hoped Shadowrun: Anarchy would be. But it bolted a strangely lackadaisical resolution system to weirdly bland crunch. It had the additional problem of poor editing and presentation. I wanted to love SR:A, but it didn’t click.

So what I really want is this: parallel alt-system rpgs approved by the company itself, using Fate or Powered by the Apocalypse. Commission someone to do an adaptation or license it out to another group. These’ wouldn’t be fully parallel—we wouldn’t have new versions of every book. Instead it would focus on a core book with conversion notes. That sells another main book (with reused arts & assets) and gives new gamers a reason to pick up the existing books for background and ideas. Maybe you’d expand the line with a Player or GM supplement and a Foe book. But you wouldn’t go beyond that to cannibalize the original line.

If you’re delivering an interesting world, players of the original will buy it for the new mechanics and those of the new for the setting.

I want to professional quality, Fate or PbtA, licensed adaptations of the following settings: Changeling the Lost, Mage the Ascension, Iron Kingdoms, Fading Suns, Night’s Black Agents, Demon the Descent, Scion, Exalted, Shadowrun, and Legend of the Five Rings.

Is that possible? Oh god no. This will never happen. For one thing, I imagine the potential audience for this kind of thing would be small, even in an industry of tiny sales numbers. It would also require uncertain work—yes you could reuse art, but you’d still have to craft and playtest something from the ground up. You’d also have to pull the trigger on one lite system over the other, if we’re going with my choices.

But stripping down and simplifying these settings and mechanics presents the greatest barrier. As Alberto Muti smartly pointed out in his Day 1 answer, some of the awesome in these games comes from the sheer density of things. He mentioned Exalted in particular. A re-design using one of these systems makes major assumptions about where the “fun” is. One person’s thoughtful campaign of Mage as an examination of shared reality doesn’t necessarily operate in the same space as a fireball throwing battle against the Technocracy. Just picking Fate or PbtA dramatically shapes the game—are we competent or f*cked from the beginning?

So I suspect we’ll have to stick with fan-made conversions, like Tommy Rayburn and John Layton's World of Darkness conversion of various WoD elements to Urban Shadows. These are others offer awesome alternatives.

Day 3: How do you find out about new RPGs?

Since I rarely go into game shops these days, I have to rely on online sources. G+ does a pretty good job of providing me with heads up about new and interesting things—especially when folks spot sales or a new Kickstarter release. I appreciate G+ materials because folks will usually post either their impressions or an inquiry about it (which then generates comments with info). That’s how I found out about and picked up Mutant: Year Zero. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been on my radar. When Modiphius first released their new Star Trek pdf, they had a sale on it which someone shared. I bought it and I’m really glad I did.

The Gauntlet Community’s also been a solid source, particularly of new Kickstarters. Patrons get access to the Gauntlet Slack. There’s a KS channel and users will post interesting projects there. That’s usually accompanied by everyone drilling down to take a look at what the game offers, the art, and the sample pdf if any. That helps tell me if it’s something I want to follow up on. As well folks in the Gauntlet play a lot of games, so they’ll often post about their experiences. Again that usually tells me if it’s something I want to follow up on.

Publisher notices sometimes help—that’s what got me to pre-order most of the recent 13th Age products and put Cthulhu City on my radar. More importantly I have Drivethrurpg’s new releases in my RSS feeder. I check that every couple of days. Usually that’s a lot of stock art, maps, small releases, and things I’m not especially interested in. But other times I’ll spot something I would have missed otherwise (like with Legacy: Life among the Ruins).



Day 4: Why RPG have you played most since August 2016

Like +Donogh McCarthy I appreciate the tracking power of RPGGeek. Here's my top ten...

• Action Cards (32) No surprise there. This is our homebrew which I run for several face-to-face campaigns. I ran a Middle Earth campaign with it and I also have my ongoing Ocean City Interface multiversal game. That lets me try several different rules variants.
• Mutants & Masterminds (3rd Edition) (26) This is pretty much all our Wednesday online group campaign. This was the fourth M&M campaign arc in our DC/Marvel/Kitchen Sink setting setting and the first one with this edition. Didn’t care for it.
• Mutant: Year Zero (21) I love this system and setting. We did a full f2f campaign, ending with the Ark confronting their past. I expect that group will eventually play the sequel, Genlab Alpha. I also ran four sessions for the Gauntlet Hangouts.
• Fate (9) This is mostly my Dresden Files Accelerated gaming, three sessions online and five f2f.
• Godbound (8) Exciting to see this on the list. I have an ongoing fantasy hexcrawl f2f game of this. I also used this for an online reskin of Scion.
• Masks: A New Generation (8) +Richard Rogers ran a six session campaign of this which felt solid. I also used it for two sessions with a Zombie Apocalypse frame. That didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, but I’m going to try it again.
• World Wide Wrestling (8) That’s pretty much all of my Gauntlet League Wrestling campaign. I love this and need to run it more. I’m doing several sessions for GauntletCon in October.
• The Veil (7) Such a good game. It generates amazing world and character details. Easy to set things up and see how they play out. I ran two sessions online which taught me a lot about how to approach it. I did one session at Origins with some revised one-shot sheets I’d created. But the best experience has been running this for my niece and nephew. It’s completely unlike anything they’ve ever played. They like the internal struggles, the tough choices, and their impact on the setting.
• 13th Age (6) If I’m going to do trad or pseudo-trad fantasy, it’s probably going to be 13th Age. I love this game. I get some combat crunch without it feeling like a slog. Fun monsters and easy to get mechanics.
• The Sprawl (6) The polar opposite of The Veil. A mission-driven, mostly external exploration of characters. It is brutal and action packed without having to dwell on crunch. I’m amazed how well this plays once you get a handle on it. I’ve also come close to killing each PC at least once, many several times. 

Day 5: Which RPG cover best captures the spirit of the game?

Mutant: Year Zero-- Here’s a cover that’s striking and tells a story through visual details. These characters aren't exactly human—we get that from the title, but the image reinforces that. They’re slightly off—you might not notice their inhumanity immediately. The figures stand central and active-- these mutants aren’t the enemy; we’re playing the mutants. The cover shows that this isn’t exactly a Mad Max setting; there's some strangeness. But it isn't gonzo—these aren't the characters of Gamma World, Mutant Epoch, or MCC. That’s important as well.

We see them exploring the ruins, a key element of the game. One has a gun held out, but they’re not overly aggressive—they aren’t blasting things. They’ve had a hard walk and the world’s rough. These characters aren't covered with high tech equipment, instead we see repurposed objects (like the diving helmet). They also aren’t armed to the teeth—covered with bandoliers and bullets. We can see that weapons and ammo are scarce and important. (When you search for post-apocalyptic art it’s actually harder to find images without tons of bullets and guns).

MYZ tells a tale in color, positioning, and details. It works for me.

As an aside, Tales from the Loop (also from Fria Ligan) tempted me because it has such a striking image. But I don’t think the cover necessarily sells what the game’s actually going to be. I think it makes it look a lot more aggressive than it is.

Day 6: You can game every day for a week. Describe what you’d do!

I already do this. Here’s a week from July: Monday: Bloodshadows, Tuesday: Dresden Files Accelerated, Wednesday: The Sprawl, Thursday: Masks (TGIT Gauntlet), Friday: Blades in the Dark, Saturday: Action Cards, Sunday: Changeling PbtA in the morning and The Veil in the evening.

Day 7:  What was your most impactful RPG session?

Probably the first one on one session I played with Sherri. She’d been playing in my GURPS Fantasy campaign for a while, but she wanted to do some more stuff with her character. So I had her interact with some of the NPCs for an evening while we painted. She pushed one of them to try to make amends with his estranged sister. And freaked out a little when it didn’t go well, with the archmagus sister burning down a building on them out of spite. It was Sheri’s first real chance to really dig into the characters of the game world—and we both loved it.

Day 8: What is a good RPG to play for sessions of 2hrs or less?

I ran several sessions of the Threadbare Quickstart at Gen Con last year and it worked well. You could do character and concept creation in 30 minutes and then play out a hugely satisfying adventure. Every session worked—and went in wildly different directions. A great pick up and play rpg. 

Changeling the Lost PbtA: Playthrough Postscript

In July I ran four sessions of a PbtA hack I’d written for Changeling the Lost. I don’t know why I love that setting and concept so much. It works where many other World of Darkness games, old and new, don’t. It resonates more strongly than most settings, even outside modern fantastic.

We had four wonderful online sessions—really fun and interesting with a story that evolved naturally. IMHO PbtA fit perfectly: easy moves for strangeness, emotions as stress, action checks generating drama. I’d done serious work on the hack, but the players made it sing. You can see my original post on the adaptation here, along with our play materials. If you’re interested, I’ve also posted the session videos.

All that being said, it isn’t a perfect hack—not even close. At the end of session two & four we stopped off to discuss what worked and what didn’t. They gave good, actionable feedback. Some issues came from my fairly direct translation of Urban Shadows into this framework. Some came from my goofy rewording of moves. Importantly some feedback discussed mechanics the players had invested in. They noticed the absence of key features from their own Changeling the Lost campaigns. I’d written as hack not of Changeling the Lost, but of Changeling the Lost as I’d run it before. I knew that going in, but our discussion conformed it.

While it wasn’t a full and robust playtest, it generated ideas for changes. Some of these came out of the play and others emerge from gut feelings. The latter may or may not work. I suspect these changes will make this version even more reflective of my play, rather than broadening t. I’m not sure what to do on that score. Maybe when I get close to a finished version, I’ll consider include options to make some elements more specific than abstract. Anyway here are my thoughts:

EMOTIONAL IMPACTS

The biggest potential change occurred to me before we even played. It hit something that was already on my mind, so there’s confirmation bias here. One issue I’ve encountered when running PbtA has been remembering stat/moves combos. That’s especially true for versions with many moves and/or strange names for stats. During our play, I constantly rechecked moves to find the stat we needed to roll. As well, though I tried to spread out basic moves across the four stats, some saw much more use. OOH that might be a result of the chosen characters.

I’ve run The Veil about ten times now and I’m constantly surprised how smoothly it flows. There players roll based on a character’s emotional state. Each stat is a feeling, expressing your character’s relation to the moment. You can keep pinging a particular mood, but eventually you’ll spike that out which creates problems. The system has checks & balances. As important, when I say “make a roll” players face an interesting character choice. That’s not to say there aren’t sticking points—a couple playbooks have individual currencies or substitute stats.

There’s an ease of play gain and it fits with Changeling the Lost itself. CtL focuses on emotional reactions and experience. By making a character’s reaction central to their actions, it gives the player another tool of expression. In my version, I’d associate each of the six stats with an aspect of the Freehold: Joy (Spring), Anger (Summer), Fear (Autumn), Sorrow (Winter), Calm (Humanity), and Power (Keeper). To make this work I’d also change the conditions names. I’d make those adjectives (as opposed to the stat nouns): Angry/Enraged, Afraid/Instinctual, Guilty/Heartless, Hopeless/Alone, Insecure/Lost, Confused/Overwhelmed.

This offers several benefits: simplicity and focus on emotions as I mentioned above. It also means I can cut less interesting moves that simply changed which stat you rolled on. It could also cut eight stats down to six. Connecting the emotions to Courts means I can drop distinct Court stats. I’d probably also drop the Urban Shadows artifact of gaining XP when you’ve interacted with each of the Courts. If I wanted to keep that mechanic, I might make it a Seeming-specific XP trigger (like for the Fairest). But then I’d need to come up with others.

CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION

Right now I have the Call on Power and Invoke Contract split into two moves. We can cut that down to one. For that combined move, if the effect’s cosmetic, name the contract and it happens (building the fiction or rolling into another move). Everything else is major and functions as Call on Power, with the required naming and catch (minor or major). I would include an example list for each of these. Not having that created problems. In the original CtL someone’s done that creative work; it can be hard to do on the fly

For these example contract names and catches, I’d pull from existing materials. There’s a nice wiki out there with all these details. I’d add the ones I came up with for my Action Cards CtL version and brainstorm other cool and evocative ones. Catches are the trickier of the two. I’d rewrite and trim some, skipping others. I’d split catches into two types: those with a cost and those representing prep.

This hits against that difference between the games I’ve run and other GMs’ campaigns. A players mentioned the focus on catches in their play. If someone had a commonly occurring catch to a contract, they leaned into that in play. They’d activate contracts just because they were free in that circumstance. I’m not sure I can emulate that without building a concrete list and I don’t want to do that. One new option players should always have is marking a condition (representing glamour spent) rather than going through the catch process.

I also wondering if choosing the catch could be something done by either the player or GM, depending on the roll.

CLEARING

For my hack I’d divorced Clarity from its continuum. At least in the four sessions, that didn’t create a break in the game’s feel. I’d simply renamed Urban Shadow’s corruption system and tweaked that to fit. But Clarity has a drawback particular to running short-term games. In games with only a few sessions, marking Clarity isn’t a real cost. Since it builds up over time, you’ll never hit that tipping point. That leaves two choices for one-shots and short campaigns 1) excise the mechanic (which means removing some moves) or 2) adding an additional drawback when someone marks clarity (like they mark a condition as well).

But for longer games, if I wanted to make Clarity a spectrum again, that would be easy. I’d set a line or circle of boxes (an odd number, say 9, 11, or 13). Characters would start at the midpoint. One end of the spectrum marks going too far to the mundane and the other marks going too far to Wyrd. Each clarity mark trigger would specify a direction to shift your mark; some might allow a choice. When you hit one end of the spectrum, you take a Clarity move and reset to the center. But you also eliminate a box from the end you hit, making it easier for you to fall onto that side.

MOVING PICTURES

I chose to have a relatively large number of moves for each Seeming and Season. Between the two, characters have around 16 moves to choose from; more in some cases. One playtest comment noted that they saw all these cool moves, but only got to choose a few. That’s true because the game archetypes encompass huge categories. As well, some options are less sexy for certain kinds of characters; some have overlap.

We discussed about adding or cutting moves as solutions. The World of Darkness Urban Shadows reskin gets around this problem by giving more advances. That’s not a bad approach and I’m going to leave that on the table. But the first thing I want to do is cut all the ‘uninteresting’ moves. As I mentioned above, changing the stats lets me cut “Use X for Y” moves. I don’t like those in Fate, so it doesn’t make sense to have them here. Then I want to go through the CtL books to see what other moves could be adapted from Contracts with a Seeming affinity and add them to those playbooks..

I still want a large list when all is said and done. But I also want players to use those choices to help deepen the vision of their character’s Kith. Maybe when you pick a new move, you also have to pick one you cross out. It’s one that doesn’t fit for you and once you’ve marked it out you can never take it. That tightens things and forces two choices with a move advance.

HARMFUL CONDITIONS

Urban Shadows had relatively high harm numbers—it’s easier to pull together attacks with a substantial harm number from various moves. That makes sense in that game’s context—lethality combined with the scars system. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted with CtL, especially since each condition marked would have a roll penalty associated with it (ala Masks). So rather than tuning the harm numbers, I opted for a Fate-style damage mitigation. Each condition marked negates two harm; marking your key condition negates more. If you can’t or don’t want to mark, you’re taken out.

In practice I forgot that. It’s a mechanic that doesn’t have a parallel anywhere else. It’s also a clunky rule you have to remember. I’m going to eliminate that. Instead, I’ll go back and look at how much harm characters can deal. Base effect should be 1 Harm, 2 Harm if you select the “inflict terrible harm” option on the attack. Moves which increase harm will follow a set progression: +1 Harm, +1 Harm AP, +2 Harm, etc. Harm taken will directly correspond to conditions marked. I also need to look at how much armor factors into the system.

PCvPC in Ctl/US

I opted to remove the “vs. PC” options from Manipulation move. I’d told myself CtL didn’t have Urban Shadows’ PvP elements. That’s a mistake—it needs a player choice incentive. Not having it made a couple of moments awkward. I need to figure out how I want the Call in a Debt to fit with that. In particular, I think for non-Debt manipulation, characters need to have leverage: a fictional justification, money, relative position. Overall I need to consolidate and yank the Debt stuff forward. Right now it’s on the second reference page and gets forgotten easily. That requires a system or layout change.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s it off the top of my head. I want to especially thank everyone who played! Camilla the Sweet, Gleaming Zach, Morosa Scorned, and Thicket Flickerjacket.

Hellboy/Atomic Robo: BPRD Pre-Gens

This is Fate month for me with the Gauntlet Hangouts. I’m running three different Fate-based games: a hacked together Game of Thrones-style mini-series, an adaptation of the already-Fate Base Raiders to something more like Fate Core, and a Hellboy game using Atomic Robo. Here's the pitch for that last one:

It’s a rebuilding year for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Accrued vacation time, maternity leave, and a brush with the apocalypse have left the team understaffed. That where you come in, a new team dedicated to stopping supernatural threats, beating some sense into the otherworldly, and generally keeping people from knowing too much. We’ll build characters based on submitted concepts. This game will use Atomic Robo, with the supernatural and tech as equally valid options.

In terms of Hellboy/BPRD continuity, we're a little outside that (if you know the comics). The BPRD is out in the open and known, and there have been some earth-shaking events (like the Frog God invasion from the Black Flame). But the stuff from the Hell on Earth arc hasn't happened. So basically, if you know the second movie, you're golden. Even if you don't you should be fine.

I like Atomic Robo—it has some great concepts. But there’s something about its character creation presentation that breaks my brain. I’ve read the core book several times and still don’t know if I’ve completely got it. But I was determined to work through that this time. I won’t say I did—instead I cannibalized several examples to build six archetypes. I’ve you’re interested in Atomic Robo or doing BPRD with Fate, I present the pre-gens below. Skills listed in ALL CAPS are modes. Occult is simply an alternate version of Science mode.

You can see my Atomic Robo cheat sheet here. I'll be posting session videos during the month. 

Accidental Bearer of Supernatural Relic

Trouble: Of Two Minds

BACKGROUND

• Why did you swallow this supernatural relic?
• Does the item speak with you, control you, share consciousness of something else?
• What's the visible manifestation of the powers?
• Who is most after the relic?
• How did the BPRD find you?

SKILLS

• Superb (+5) Stealth, Provoke
• Great (+4) Deceive
• Good (+3) BANTER, Combat, Contacts, Empathy, Rapport, Will
• Fair (+2) DARKNESS
• Average (+1) ACTION, Athletics, Notice, Physique, Vehicles

WEIRD SKILL

You have swallowed an ancient relic connected to the power of shadow and darkness. Weird Skill: Darkness: Provoke, Deceive, Stealth, Combat

STUNTS

• Fade Away: You can choose to disappear—leave a scene—anytime. Spend a fate point to come back.
• From the Shadows: Use Stealth to attack in a physical conflict against a target who isn’t aware of you.
• I Know People: Even though you don’t have the Science mode, you can always participate in a brainstorm using Contacts.
• Questioner: You have a +2 to Discover actions when directly questioning a target face-to-face.
• Smooth-Talk: When you arrive in a new town, city, port, or other sizable population center, you may roll Deceive against a difficulty of Great (+4). On a tie or better, write down an aspect that represents a friendly contact you quickly make there. On a success, the aspect has one free invocation; on a success with style, two free invocations. You can invoke this aspect to have your friend take one risk on your behalf—fight for you, lie for you, and the like. When you spend a fate point to invoke this aspect, it goes away at the end of the scene, along with your friend.

BPRD Field Agent

Trouble: We Have Rules for a Reason

Sharp-Eyed Scout*

Been Through the Gauntlet

BACKGROUND

• What division(s) or agency(s) did you work for before the BPRD?
• Did you volunteer for this assignment-- why or why not?
• What's the worst thing you've fought?
• What gives you your iron will?
• What do you think of your "stranger" colleagues?

SKILLS

• Superb (+5) Notice
• Great (+4) Athletics, Will, Combat, Vehicles
• Good (+3) BPRD, Science 1, Occult 1, Physique
• Fair (+2) WEIRD
• Average (+1) ACTION

WEIRD SKILL

BPRD: Athletics, Notice, Physique, Will. Specialize one trained skill. Focus one trained skill

Weird: As Science and Occult, but picks one additional Science & Occult specialty.

STUNTS

• Dogged Persistence: After you invoke "Been Through the Gauntlet" to reroll, put a check mark next to the aspect, to a maximum of four check marks. When you invoke that aspect to reroll, add a number of additional Fate dice to your roll equal to the number of check marks next to it, and keep the best four Fate dice for your result. Erase these check marks when you refuse a compel or when the issue ends, whichever comes first.
• Guns Always Work: When using a weapon with a Weapon rating, increase that Weapon rating by 2.
• No, You Move: When you use Will to defend against fear or intimidation, on a success with style instead of getting a boost you can inflict a 2-shift mental hit on the attacker.
• Scout It Out: When you’re attempting to hide or move quietly without any allies nearby, you can use Athletics instead of Stealth.
• Signature Aspect: Sharp-Eyed Scout. Once per session, invoke for free.

Lucha Libre Master*

Trouble: No Weapons, I'm Not a Rudo

BACKGROUND

• What does your mask look like and represent?
• What's the tradition of luchador monster-fighters you hail from?
• How did you first encounter the BPRD?
• What happened to the last person who wore your mask?
• What's your finishing move called?

SKILLS

• Great (+4) Athletics, Notice, Will, Combat
• Good (+3) LUCHA, Physique, Contacts, Deceive
• Fair (+2) BANTER, Empathy, Provoke, Rapport
• Average (+1) INTRIGUE, Burglary, Stealth

WEIRD SKILL

Lucha: Includes Athletics, Notice, Will, Combat, Physique. Improve one.

STUNTS

• Back for Seconds: Armor:2
• Counter: When you use Combat to defend in melee and succeed with style, sacrifice your next action to immediately inflict an attack on your opponent at the shift value of your defense. For example, if you get four shifts on your defense, you’d deal a 4-shift hit to the attacker. You can’t do this again until you have another “next action” to spend (after your skipped turn goes by).
• Holy Fists: Your unarmed strikes act as magical weapons for hitting beings usually resistant to physical blows.
• Lightning Reflexes: In a physical conflict, you always act first. If someone else in the conflict has a stunt that gives them the same ability, make an Athletics roll to see who goes first.
• Signature Aspect: Lucha Libre Master*: Once per session, invoke this for free. 

Occult Field Analyst

Trouble: They Always Eat the Bookworm First, Right?

BACKGROUND

• How did you first come to study the Occult?
• How were you recruited by the BPRD?
• What went horribly wrong on your last mission?
• What's your personality style when you have to explain difficult things?
• How do you see the intersection of Science and the Occult?

SKILLS

• Great (+4) Occult 1, Occult 2
• Good (+3) OCCULT, Notice
• Fair (+2) ACTION, Athletics, Combat, Physique, Provoke, Vehicles, Science 1, Science 2
• Average (+1) SCIENCE

STUNTS

• Ancient Tomes: Pick an Occult skill specialty, like Demons. Once per issue, when you use that skill to overcome or create an advantage, you can add the BPRD's skill rating to your total (+4).
• Buddy System: Choose a fellow PC. Invoking an aspect belonging to or created by them gives you a +3 bonus instead of +2.
• Not A Newb: +1 to defend with Athletics or Combat against attacks made by supernatural beings of a type you’ve encountered before, like vampires. If a prior experience with these beings hasn’t already been established during play, explain to the GM how you’d previously encountered them and what happened when you did.
• Secrets Not Meant To Know: When you attempt to intimidate an Occultist by out-loremongering them, you can use Occult instead of Provoke.
• Strange Disciplines: When defending with Will, you may use Occult.

One-Armed Telekinetic

Trouble: Phantom Pains

BACKGROUND

• How did you lose your arm?
• How did you develop your telekinetic ability (spontaneous, training, gift, etc)?
• What does the arm feel like when it touches someone?
• How do you see your role on the team?
• What do your phantom pains feel like?

SKILLS

• Great (+4) Psychokinesis, Burglary, Will
• Good (+3) PSYCHOKINESIS, Contacts, Deceive
• Fair (+2) INTRIGUE, Athletics, Notice, Stealth
• Average (+1) BANTER, Empathy, Provoke, Rapport, Combat

WEIRD SKILL

Psychokinetic Arm: You lost your arm, but it still exists as an invisible psychokinetic construct. You can use it as Physique for actions, but with psychokinesis instead of muscles. Adds Psychokinesis, Will, Burglary.

You can also use it to attack, in place of Combat for melee. Your arm can reach into or through solid objects, but that's limited by your reach.

STUNTS

• Breaker Breaker: You have a +1 to Attacks, Overcome, and Create Advantage against machines at touch range.
• Death Touch: Your arm does Weapon 2 against living creatures in melee.
• Extend the Mind: Spend a Fate point to use your Psychokinetic Arm on anything within line of sight.
• Kinetic Shield: Use Psychokinesis to defend against physical attacks.
• Mind Over Matter: Once per scene, when you take a physical hit, you may check a mental stress box to absorb physical harm.

Reanimated Corpse Agent

Trouble: Frankenstein's the Doctor, You Idiots

Protect the Geeks*

BACKGROUND

• Who created you and why?
• How monstrous do you appear?
• How do you repair damage you've taken?
• How did you first encounter the BPRD?
• What do you see as your role in the field?

SKILLS

• Superb (+5) Notice
• Great (+4) Athletics
• Good (+3) ACTION, Combat, Physique, Provoke
• Fair (+2) INTRIGUE, Burglary, Contacts, Deceive, Stealth, Occult 1, Occult 2
• Average (+1) OCCULT, Will

STUNTS

• Get Behind Me: When a nearby ally is hit by a physical attack, you can check one of your own physical stress boxes to reduce the hit as if it had targeted you. If that doesn’t reduce the hit to zero, the ally has to deal with the rest on their own.
• Puny Humans: Bulletproof, but weak to fire; Armor:2 against everything else.
• Signature Aspect: Protect the Geeks: Once per session you may invoke this aspect for free.
• Unnatural Strength: Absolutely stronger than any human (Physique), but at a cost; Weapon:2 with hand-to-hand attacks; +2 to overcome with Athletics when jumping.
• Untapped Talents: Once per scene, spend a fate point and choose a skill. For the rest of the scene, you have a +1 bonus to that skill’s rating, to a maximum of Fantastic (+6).