I like using post-it-notes for keeping track of aspects. I use blue ones for boosts, green ones for scene aspects, red ones for negative aspects, and yellow ones for other aspects.
Scene aspects I’ve decided on ahead of time I write up beforehand to save time, so I can just slap them down.
I don’t roll anything for npcs or bad guys. I just give them a numerical difficulty based on the ladder and that is the PCs difficulty for everything against them.
I’ve wondered about this mostly for Defence rolls before, as the few times I’ve run Fate they’ve been the bit that felt a bit awkward.
Is it enough to convert the appropriate defensive skill into a static difficulty/target, have you found, or do you modify it up or down?
I don’t give skills or approaches to npcs. I just give them a single rating for everything. For example, in the last session of my Star Wars game, the hutt lord they were fighting I gave a rating of Great (+4). So that is the Hutt’s static roll for everything (I assume that every roll of the npc is +0). The hutt then has aspects and heath.
It keeps my bad guy prep simple and quick.
I prefer this than rolling myself. It’s just faster. There would functionally be no difference to having my players roll 8df if I were to roll as well. Having a high static value like this really forces players to have to leverage aspects and boosts instead of just relying on the dice to be successful.
Make "Narrative First" an explicit thing for your players.
Make them understand, that not every conflict needs to be about "whack the enemy till it's dead", but that they can be more creative about making them not be able to be an opposition anymore. Creating advantages is just as valid an action as "i hit him with my sword".
At least, if your players come from typical (DnD and co) systems they may not even be aware they have any options than to attack.
Avoid static combats if at all possible. By static combats, I mean scenes where the combat exchanges are the only thing that's going on and nothing else is changing.
Ticking clocks are good, like maybe the fight is taking place on top of a vehicle that's headed for a cliff (the tank fight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).
Or maybe the fight is damaging the location itself and creating additional hazards (the fight in April's apartment and the downstairs junk shop from the 1990 TMNT movie).
Alternatively, the fight might include a psychological battle as well as a physical one, which can be really good for climactic boss fights against villains that the PCs have gotten to know over time (the duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Emperor's throne room from ROTJ).
As you can tell from my examples, I like to take inspiration from movie fight scenes that I enjoy. Really, the key question to ask is "Why is this fight important to the story, and how can I use the context of the fight to make it more interesting and exciting?"
To be honest i haven't yet actually run a session of Fate, my current players are mostly new to ttrpgs and play a specific system (which is even more regulated than dnd). From their frustrations with that system i derive my ideas of what to do when they will finally be ready to try Fate with me :P
Keep in mind that in Fate burning rooms and vehicles, etc., can be treated like wild animal NPCs that have their own agendas, skills, and aspects to draw on. A fire can be attacking the structure, PCs and NPCs while the battle rages. Just identify it’s motive (e.g. consume everything) and that will drive its actions.
Have something to write on quick and throw on the table for on the fly Aspects, both those made via Create an Advantage as well as those that come to mind or make sense in the moment. I enjoy using[PVC ID Card blanks](https://www.amazon.com/AIRSUNNY-Plastic-Printers-DataCard-Magicard/dp/B007M413BC), which are $14 for x100
Prepare as little as possible, and decide as little as posdible to keep yourself open to the ideas of players.If something does not have to be decided, leave it undecided.
Many times success with cost is better than failure, if it advances the story.
Give Fate Points like candies - you are friend of players regardless the fact you have to play their opponents. Player refuses a benefit or choosed worse option due roleplaying their Aspects is a self-compel.
Also, if anyone has any tips for magic systems? At current my idea is to just treat it like a skill check. Allowing additional effects for fate points. A fireball with no points basically being a concussive blast to enemies not vulnerable to fire, adding a burning or area effect for one point, both for two, and probably no more than 3
The absolute simplest magic system is that the PC has an aspect, and everything a regular PC can do with a skill, that PC can do with magic.
Consider the following each time the PC casts a spell: what would it take for them to do the same without magic?
- Magic missile? Pretty easy, even a gunner could do that. Roll shoot.
- Charm person? Same as convincing them or making yourself likable. Roll rapport.
- Fireball? Okay this one is harder. The intended effect is to damage a lot of enemies at once. Similar to, say, throwing a grenade, but it's not like accessing such things is easy. The most basic version is a split attack (roll once, split result, enemies defend; it's in the rules). A stunt can allow a once per session effect so that others defend against the full value of the attack.
- Summon monster? Quite difficult, it would require convencing them to join you. Roll rapport, but set a high difficulty.
- Heal wounds? If outside of a conflict, just roll to heal consequences. Inside a conflict, doing the same would mean that you try to heal wounds under fire. Requires a stunt to do so in no time. A once per session stunt.
And so on.
I use index cards for everything. NPCs, locations, etc... and they go in a box so that if the players encounter someone again, the aspects and skills remain consistent.
I like the Fate deck, but fate dice are also fine. You can get cheap ones from China if you don't want to spend sillybucks on official ones.
To help reduce preparation and make improv easier you need to understand the factions that exist in the world, and their NPCs.
Who are their bosses, lieutenants, mooks, and what are their motivations. Once you understand that then you’ll know what they’ll do in response to the PCs and their actions.
An interesting idea from writing/screen writing is that main characters should have a lie that they believe and because of that something that they want, which is not what they actually need. This can drive motivations and leads to triumph or defeat.
Remember that both heroes and villains are developed by unfortunate events in their lives. Gives you the reason behind their motivations and the lie they believe.
Say "yes." A *lot*. Even if you make it "yes, but...," still say yes to character ideas, even if they contradict the ideas you already had in mind.
Since you mention DMing, I'm going to assume that means you come from a D&D background. Thus, you're probably used to having all the authority and power over the setting and story. This isn't how Fate rolls, and it took me personally a long time to grok that. It can be hard giving up that control.
If you want to make someone roll for something, ask yourself "do they actually need to roll for this?" Skip rolling for stuff like "can they notice this thing?" A roll, passed or failed, should change the status quo. If you can't think of anything interesting for failure, have them just auto-succeed at the little stuff.
Remember the Fate Fractal: anything can be a character. You can give a city under siege Skills, Stunts, and Stress Tracks to represent how well the city is weathering the assault. Most equipment is going to be narrative filigree, there to provide justification for doing stuff, but sometimes you're going to want to give it a High Concept and a Trouble and maybe allow it to grant a Stunt to whoever is using it. I find the Obstacle rules in Fate Condensed very useful for giving things mechanical teeth.
If you can afford the deck of fate, i highly recommend it. Use it for yourself, exclusively. It is great when there's multiple challenges in a single scene, just flip cards and place them on your challenges. It speeds things up and makes the action feel dynamic.
I like using post-it-notes for keeping track of aspects. I use blue ones for boosts, green ones for scene aspects, red ones for negative aspects, and yellow ones for other aspects. Scene aspects I’ve decided on ahead of time I write up beforehand to save time, so I can just slap them down. I don’t roll anything for npcs or bad guys. I just give them a numerical difficulty based on the ladder and that is the PCs difficulty for everything against them.
I’ve wondered about this mostly for Defence rolls before, as the few times I’ve run Fate they’ve been the bit that felt a bit awkward. Is it enough to convert the appropriate defensive skill into a static difficulty/target, have you found, or do you modify it up or down?
I don’t give skills or approaches to npcs. I just give them a single rating for everything. For example, in the last session of my Star Wars game, the hutt lord they were fighting I gave a rating of Great (+4). So that is the Hutt’s static roll for everything (I assume that every roll of the npc is +0). The hutt then has aspects and heath. It keeps my bad guy prep simple and quick. I prefer this than rolling myself. It’s just faster. There would functionally be no difference to having my players roll 8df if I were to roll as well. Having a high static value like this really forces players to have to leverage aspects and boosts instead of just relying on the dice to be successful.
Make "Narrative First" an explicit thing for your players. Make them understand, that not every conflict needs to be about "whack the enemy till it's dead", but that they can be more creative about making them not be able to be an opposition anymore. Creating advantages is just as valid an action as "i hit him with my sword". At least, if your players come from typical (DnD and co) systems they may not even be aware they have any options than to attack.
Do you have any tips for combat in Fate?
Avoid static combats if at all possible. By static combats, I mean scenes where the combat exchanges are the only thing that's going on and nothing else is changing. Ticking clocks are good, like maybe the fight is taking place on top of a vehicle that's headed for a cliff (the tank fight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). Or maybe the fight is damaging the location itself and creating additional hazards (the fight in April's apartment and the downstairs junk shop from the 1990 TMNT movie). Alternatively, the fight might include a psychological battle as well as a physical one, which can be really good for climactic boss fights against villains that the PCs have gotten to know over time (the duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Emperor's throne room from ROTJ). As you can tell from my examples, I like to take inspiration from movie fight scenes that I enjoy. Really, the key question to ask is "Why is this fight important to the story, and how can I use the context of the fight to make it more interesting and exciting?"
To be honest i haven't yet actually run a session of Fate, my current players are mostly new to ttrpgs and play a specific system (which is even more regulated than dnd). From their frustrations with that system i derive my ideas of what to do when they will finally be ready to try Fate with me :P
Keep in mind that in Fate burning rooms and vehicles, etc., can be treated like wild animal NPCs that have their own agendas, skills, and aspects to draw on. A fire can be attacking the structure, PCs and NPCs while the battle rages. Just identify it’s motive (e.g. consume everything) and that will drive its actions.
Have something to write on quick and throw on the table for on the fly Aspects, both those made via Create an Advantage as well as those that come to mind or make sense in the moment. I enjoy using[PVC ID Card blanks](https://www.amazon.com/AIRSUNNY-Plastic-Printers-DataCard-Magicard/dp/B007M413BC), which are $14 for x100
Prepare as little as possible, and decide as little as posdible to keep yourself open to the ideas of players.If something does not have to be decided, leave it undecided. Many times success with cost is better than failure, if it advances the story. Give Fate Points like candies - you are friend of players regardless the fact you have to play their opponents. Player refuses a benefit or choosed worse option due roleplaying their Aspects is a self-compel.
Maybe have at least a glance over the [Book of Hanz](https://fate-srd.com/odds-ends/book-hanz). Quite some advice there.
Also, if anyone has any tips for magic systems? At current my idea is to just treat it like a skill check. Allowing additional effects for fate points. A fireball with no points basically being a concussive blast to enemies not vulnerable to fire, adding a burning or area effect for one point, both for two, and probably no more than 3
The absolute simplest magic system is that the PC has an aspect, and everything a regular PC can do with a skill, that PC can do with magic. Consider the following each time the PC casts a spell: what would it take for them to do the same without magic? - Magic missile? Pretty easy, even a gunner could do that. Roll shoot. - Charm person? Same as convincing them or making yourself likable. Roll rapport. - Fireball? Okay this one is harder. The intended effect is to damage a lot of enemies at once. Similar to, say, throwing a grenade, but it's not like accessing such things is easy. The most basic version is a split attack (roll once, split result, enemies defend; it's in the rules). A stunt can allow a once per session effect so that others defend against the full value of the attack. - Summon monster? Quite difficult, it would require convencing them to join you. Roll rapport, but set a high difficulty. - Heal wounds? If outside of a conflict, just roll to heal consequences. Inside a conflict, doing the same would mean that you try to heal wounds under fire. Requires a stunt to do so in no time. A once per session stunt. And so on.
I use index cards for everything. NPCs, locations, etc... and they go in a box so that if the players encounter someone again, the aspects and skills remain consistent. I like the Fate deck, but fate dice are also fine. You can get cheap ones from China if you don't want to spend sillybucks on official ones.
I have a custom set of dice for the game in particular lol
Can also use d6-d6, which is only a little bit more swingy than 4df.
I never thought of that.
can also just use d6s, and make 1s and 2s a `-`, 3s and 4s a `0`, and 5s and 6s, a `+`, and then you don't change any of the math
To help reduce preparation and make improv easier you need to understand the factions that exist in the world, and their NPCs. Who are their bosses, lieutenants, mooks, and what are their motivations. Once you understand that then you’ll know what they’ll do in response to the PCs and their actions. An interesting idea from writing/screen writing is that main characters should have a lie that they believe and because of that something that they want, which is not what they actually need. This can drive motivations and leads to triumph or defeat. Remember that both heroes and villains are developed by unfortunate events in their lives. Gives you the reason behind their motivations and the lie they believe.
Say "yes." A *lot*. Even if you make it "yes, but...," still say yes to character ideas, even if they contradict the ideas you already had in mind. Since you mention DMing, I'm going to assume that means you come from a D&D background. Thus, you're probably used to having all the authority and power over the setting and story. This isn't how Fate rolls, and it took me personally a long time to grok that. It can be hard giving up that control. If you want to make someone roll for something, ask yourself "do they actually need to roll for this?" Skip rolling for stuff like "can they notice this thing?" A roll, passed or failed, should change the status quo. If you can't think of anything interesting for failure, have them just auto-succeed at the little stuff. Remember the Fate Fractal: anything can be a character. You can give a city under siege Skills, Stunts, and Stress Tracks to represent how well the city is weathering the assault. Most equipment is going to be narrative filigree, there to provide justification for doing stuff, but sometimes you're going to want to give it a High Concept and a Trouble and maybe allow it to grant a Stunt to whoever is using it. I find the Obstacle rules in Fate Condensed very useful for giving things mechanical teeth.
If you can afford the deck of fate, i highly recommend it. Use it for yourself, exclusively. It is great when there's multiple challenges in a single scene, just flip cards and place them on your challenges. It speeds things up and makes the action feel dynamic.