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[freeformschooler]

Sure you're not confusing Hicks with O'Sullivan?

(and why would Fred Hicks hate the idea of a game that he co-designed?)

Whoever it is runs the faterpg.com blog, then. Pretty sure it's Hicks, but he's very often been known to argue about the "spirit" of FATE and which extensions go against it in the comments section when their advantages are brought to the table.

EDIT: It's worth noting that I may have been confusing, however, the genericized version of SoTC with Strands.

[Sergius]

This is the only I could find:

http://www.faterpg.com/2011/fate-and-its-branches/

You're going to have to point me somewhere more specific so I can see some of this FATE-extensions-hatred or something...

SotC has hardcoded skills. FATE 3 is largely distilled from SoTC and Dresden. FATE 3 doesn't have "sample" skills like 2e had, which was a mess and only an example, it has a "Default" list and pretty much is the more generic part of SotC, that can be tweaked (for example, Spirit splits "fighting" into "Weapons" and "Fists", since unarmed fight is more thematic for these pulp heroes, and being a sword wielding ninja is its own thing). Each skills has its own mechanics.

[puke]

I think freeformsschooler and I might be talking about different things.

Let me be clear though, Hicks is a polished PR man and would never directly badmouth anybody publishing FATE material.  Having followed his blog, twitter, and G+ feeds though, I can say that he used to really try to distance himself and pointedly never said anything positive about McConnell, the SoF guy.  I the subtext was that he didnt like what he was doing with the brand, but thats all inference.

Also, he pretty loudly shutdown a few forum posts where people were talking about not needing Adjectives for skill ratings and just using numbers because they found it easier to play that way.  I cant find them now, but basically some dude was asking "are adjectives really needed in any fate game, and would it sometimes be easier to just use the numbers" and Fred came back with "whats not needed is you suggesting..." and really tore into the dude.

Lastly, he blathers a lot.  just a personal peeve, but I dont find his statements to be very content rich and have stopped following his stuff.

Is any of that a big deal?  Probably not.  But he does rub me the wrong way.  should it stop you from reading his stuff?  probably not.  should it influence your buying decision?  no.

The kickstarter is definitely worth a buck to get an early look at the PDF.  It's probably worth $10 bucks to get all of the content if youre a FATE GM, I know its worth it to me.  It might be worth more if you're the sort of person who still buys physical books, but I have too much clutter as it is.

But some people really get excited about backing this KS stuff and contributing to small companies, so really its worth whatever amount of money you feel good about having paid.

Sort of like Bay12Games, really.  Worth however much you feel good about paying.

[freeformschooler]

In the end it doesn't matter to me who's leading the project as long as the end result is good. And, judging by the playtest version, yes it will be.

[Sergius]

Well, I don't really care much since he's not my friend or anything. I was genuinely curious what the deal was about.

Anyway, reddit AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/166jkx/i_am_fred_hicks_from_evil_hat_productions_and_the/

(maybe you can ask him why does he poo poos on those other guys so much )

[puke]

I really dont mean to make that big of a thing out of it.

One thing I do want to clarify though, is that (and you'll read this from Fred a bunch) FATE Core is not really a "generic" or "universal" rule system.  I'd go so far as to say that it isnt really a rule system at all, but rather it is a set of guidelines -- a "style sheet" if you will -- for how to customize the basic FATE system into the setting-specific rule set of your choosing.

One of the ways "Strands of FATE" went wrong was in trying to turn fate into a generic rule set, and when Void Star finally started making their own setting specific RPG (Nova Praxis) they abandoned many of their SoF ideas in favor of traditional FATE 3.0 mechanics.

FATE does not do well genericized, it needs setting-specific skill lists.  Stunts can be made fairly generic in their mechanics, but they need local color splashed on top of them.   Decisions need to be made about how crunchy the combat and various sub-games are, if gear (trappings) have their own aspects and how armor works and how many stress tracks you have and what they mean.  You cant just pick up the FATE Core book and make a character that will be compatible with any FATE based game that someone decides to run, as it isnt a game system or a rule book in its own right.

But thats what this product is, its like an MLA Style Guide for how to make a FATE-Compatible RPG.  And it's pretty fucking awesome for what it is/does, despite all my badmouthing.

[Sergius]

AAAAND funded.

2 minutes before closing, I managed to get a slot on Fred's Stash, so for the first time ever I'll be able to roll proper fudge dice, lol.

Raised over $433 and pretty much every single stretch goal. The last one was like $80,000 and managed to do it in record time.

Pretty hyped. Yeah.

[Neonivek]

I love fate!

It is the game I love the most that I can't get anyone to play!

I really should create a game on here. I am sure people here are more responsive and forgiving of my ineptitude.

Wait... nevermind... I don't think either of those conditions means that it will happen.

[Sergius]

Well, one of the cool things about Fate is that if the session sucks, it isn't all the GM's fault

Something about how everything is collaborative (the players also "decide" what happens, not just react).

So everyone can be equally inept!

[Neonivek]

I LOOOOOVE games where players have some input.

Some people hate it but I think it is INGENIUS! I don't like the Dresdan RPG but I love the collective creation system.