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[Sergius]

Good day everyone!

I want to run a PbP game using Fate Core. As I want to play "by the book", instead of coming up with a setting by myself we're going to build it collaboratively. I want to go thru all the Game Creation steps and stuff.

Fate is a tabletop role-playing game centered about aspects, four actions, streamlined skill resolution and a system of Fate points (tokens) to make things more cinematic.

I'm looking for at least 4 active players, with a maximum of 6 or so. Anyone who's interested in signing up, please post here stating so and suggest what kind of game or genre you'd like to play. Others are welcome to suggest things, but signed players will have final say of what goes (hopefully without too much arguing ). Let's see if there's enough interest to get this ball rolling...

To try and keep this simple, we'll be avoiding any extraneous add-ons to the rules, like complicated Magic Systems(TM) or rules for mecha components or Wuxia Kung Pow Elemental Fist Disciplines or whatever. Just the basic Default Skills and making those fit any genre (Stunts also help).

Full disclosure: I'm not by any means an experienced Game Master (or even player). I've run a few games in my life, I GMed GURPS once face-to-face and also a PbP game several years ago, been in a Fate Core game in Google+ which unfortunately died off pretty early, played a bit in Hangouts but had to drop because of timezone differences. I'm currently running a Mecha Knights sorta game for some friends IRL but it's really hard to get them together lately. I play some D&D on and off but I'm not a big fan, so I mostly just play support pregens in ongoing campaigns.

Update: I've added a new OOC thread for character creation and stuff that's been done after the game started.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=143358.0

[Sergius]

You can find more about Fate Core here: http://fate-srd.com/
The entire thing is viewable online for free, and in PDF in a "pay what you want" model here: http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-core/
(the store page via "BUY" has a direct link to the PDF without having to pay)

Spoiler: Game Creation Worksheet (click to show/hide)

Game Name: (TBD)
Setting / Scale: Magitek Space Pirates

Issues

Faces and Places
Faces (draft)

• Royal Space Navy
• Captain Jodrick
• (the space whale? )
• Blue House Mafia
• Captain Brunswick
• The Queen
• (Brigg's friend)
• Scotland (space)Yard?
• Romulus?

Places (draft)

• Port Estia
• Meridian Gulf
• Rome
• Neo Barbossa
• New Lunar Republic
• Celestian Empire

Dials

• Number of aspects: 5
• Number of phases: 3
• Skill cap: Great (+4)
• Skill pyramid or columns: Pyramid
• Number of columns: NA
• Refresh rate: 3
• Number of initial stunts: 3
• Types of stress tracks: Physical and mental
• Default number of stress boxes: 2
• Default consequence slots: 2/4/6

Skills

Stunts and Extras

Players:
Jonathan Wade, "The Captain" (Kadzar)

Spoiler: Character Sheet (click to show/hide)

• High Concept: Captain with Strange Luck
• Trouble: Wants What He Can't Have
• Aspect: On Poor Terms with the Royal Space Navy
• Aspect: An Oath on My Master's Sword
• Aspect: This Plan is Insane
• Skills:
  • Great (+4): Fight
  • Good (+3): Rapport, Provoke
  • Fair (+2): Athletics, Deceive, Notice
  • Average (+1): Contacts, Lore, Shoot, Burglary
• Stunts:
  • (unnamed): +2 to Create Advantage using Burglary when planning a heist.
• Refresh: 3
• Physical Stress: 1, 2
• Mental Stress: 1, 2

Spoiler: Concept & Background (click to show/hide)

For High Concept, I can't think of anything else besides Captain Albatross. I guess if I made a statement about the character, I'd say he's a space pirate captain who mostly brings trouble to himself and his crew, while occasionally having some very good luck to make up for it.

For Trouble, he's a gambler, a drinker, and a Casanova, constantly engaging in risky schemes to make money for his habits and lovers. Not sure if maybe that should be split up and some of it should go elsewhere (possibly the High Concept).

As for backstory, as a young man my character was press-ganged into the Royal Space Navy, serving aboard the H.M.S. Arcturus under Captain Jodrick. There he frequently suffered cruel and unwarranted punishment from the Captain's sadistic Lieutenant, Mr. Riggs. Seeking relief from his endless torment, (oh, crap, I think I need a name for my character. Let's go with Jonathan Wade) Jonathan stabbed the lieutenant in the back when he thought no one was looking. As it turned out, someone was looking, and the next morning he faced summary execution. However, by some great stroke of luck, the execution was interrupted by space whale, and, in the ensuing confusion, Jonathon was able to jump aboard it's back and thereby escape certain death.

After that, he spent many days drifting on the back of the space whale before he was rescued by a gentleman by the name of Sir Vincent J. Kenwigs. By this time the young man was starving, thirsty, and a bit space mad, so the old man took him into his home to recover. Afterwards, he let Jonathan stay with him and tutored him in such gentlemanly subjects as literature and history, the romancing of ladies, and, especially, the art of swordplay. However, one night, while Jonathan was out on business for his master, Sir Kenwigs was attacked by the Blue House Mafia, whom he had been some conflict in the past. Jonathan managed to return to his master just as he was near death, and with his dying breath he told him who had killed him and bequeathed to Jonathan his most prize sword. On that day Jonathan Wade made an oath on his master's sword to take down the Blue House Mafia.

As he made his way out of his master's burning villa (I've decided the house was on fire at the time, since it makes the most dramatic sense), the only thing on Jonathan's mind was revenge. So he headed off to make those responsible pay, but when he got to the Blue House, he noticed they had a hell of a lot of guys hanging around the place. He just then realized he was rather tired. He spied a kind-looking young woman nearby and figured she might be able to offer him a place to sleep for the night, and maybe more than just sleep. The next morning the young woman was shouting at him to get up, since her husband, the governor, had arrived early from his most recent business trip. And so it came to pass that Jonathan found himself on the run from the Port Estia Guard wearing naught but his hat, coat, and his master's sword. Through some cunning trickery, he was able to make his way onto a ship and escape the port, and from there he set off on his life of piracy.

Crossing Paths

Well, for Sirus's story, I was simply captaining a ship when I rescued Gethron and Briggs. As for what Jonathan Wade was doing on Neo Barbarossa, that may be a story for another time, or, at the very least, it's not important to this story (i.e. I feel like if I added any more to this, like what my character was doing on Neo Barbarossa, it would just make it about my character when it's supposed to be about Sirus's). Oh, and I suppose Jonathan and Gethron probably remarked on how odd it was that they were seeing each other again.

For GentlemanRaptor's story, after the heist we headed to a hideout one of our guys had, a little hollow asteroid base out in the middle of nowhere where we could lay low in relative comfort. While we were there, the other guys talked in secret about how the haul would go a bit further split four ways rather than six. They all knew each other pretty well, while the two of us had only done one or two jobs with them each, so it was easy for them decide where they were going to pick up the extra shares. We only just managed to survive because I happened to overhear them the night they were planning to do the deed and was able to warn Briggs in time for us to make a fighting retreat to one of the ships.

Donovan Briggs, "The Helmsman-Mage" (GentlemanRaptor)

Spoiler: Character Sheet (click to show/hide)

• High Concept: Maniac Mage-Pilot
• Trouble: Running From The Ghosts Of His Past
• Aspect: Joyrider
• Aspect: Stuck-up Sumbitch
• Aspect: A Good Man At Heart
• Skills:
  • Great (+4): Pilot
  • Good (+3): Shoot, Provoke
  • Fair (+2): Lore, Fight, Contacts
  • Average (+1): Will, Deceive, Notice, Resources
• Stunts:
  • Evasive maneuvers! +2 to Pilot when attempting to evade enemy fire in a space battle.
• Refresh: 3
• Physical Stress: 1, 2
• Mental Stress: 1, 2

Spoiler: Concept & Background (click to show/hide)

For my High Concept, I'm gonna go with Maniac Pilot. He may not be the best helmsman this side of the Meridian Gulf, but damned if he isn't the craziest. His maneuvers usually leave crew hanging desperately on to bulkheads and the gunners cursing him for messing up their firing solutions.

For Trouble, he is a man on the run from his past. Exes, the Navy, those he's wronged, all are hell-bent on finding his ass and making him pay for what he's done.

For the Backstory: Briggs' parents always knew their boy was special. They learned exactly how special when he burned their house down with conjured witchfire. Following such a visible demonstration of his "abilities", the Navy contacted his parents and offered to take him out of their hands, as powerful mages are needed to help navigate the stars. Fearing the wrath of the Navy, his parents complied. The Navy soon found out that they had got more than they bargained for. Briggs cut a swath through flight school, irritating lesser classmates with his arrogant performances and sickening instructors with insane maneuvers during training exercises. Due to the number of demerits he received, he barely graduated, but graduate he did. He was assigned to the HMS Prosperity, serving under Captain Brunswick. Brunswick found him impossible to work with, and he soon found himself shunted from ship to ship, searching for a captain who could put up with him. During one of his many "extended leaves", he entered a regatta held at the Queen's pleasure after borrowing a racing ship from one of his few friends outside the Navy. During the race, he pulled some not-quite-legal moves. While nobody died, he managed to wreck two naval cutters and the Queen's private yacht. He then hightailed it out of there, earning the ire of the Navy, the Queen, and the friend whose ship he'd stolen. He ditched the ship on a dirtball in the Wastes, and set out looking for work. He ended up serving as the getaway pilot for one of the biggest bank robberies of the century, which got Scotland Yard after him as well. Now he's on the run, trying desperately to avoid prison and the consequences of his actions.

Crossing Paths

Briggs had "acquired" a very small, incredibly fast vessel from some Procurement blokes at a nearby naval shipyard. He was flying it solo, no easy feat when taking into account riggings and solar drift. While joyriding through Rome in an attempt to escape the same Procurement lads he'd borrowed it from, he ran into a wounded man, adrift and left for dead in the wreckage of a once-stately liner. Being the charitable sort (he REALLY needed somebody else to help him with the ship) he picked the man up. As it happened, the man was Romulus, founder and leader of Rome, and a very wanted man. Seeing as how they were both being pursued by those who wanted them dead, Briggs agreed to take Romulus far away from his would-be assassins in Rome and head for the (relative) safety of unpatrolled Royal space.

While hopping from world to world on the run from the law, Briggs ended up on Neo Barbossa. A barebones place, it wasn't much to look at. This made it perfect for Briggs to lay low. However, his seclusion was abruptly halted when slavers visited the world, looking for plunder. They had taken a young woman when a hideously disfigured man strode out from the shadows and demanded her return. The slavers looked a bit scared, but didn't seem as if they would back down. That was when Briggs, from his hiding spot, gave them a little demonstration of pyromancy. The combination of a terrifying mutant and witchfire lapping at their heels was too much, and all twelve of the slavers fled.

Gethron, "The Chief Gunner" (Sirus)

Spoiler: Character Sheet (click to show/hide)

• High Concept: Master Gunner
• Trouble: Magically Disfigured
• Aspect: A Graduate of the Academy
• Aspect: Loves to Show Off
• Aspect: Terrifying Appearance
• Skills:
  • Great (+4): Shoot
  • Good (+3): Fight, Physique
  • Fair (+2): Craft, Provoke, Athletics
  • Average (+1): Contacts, Notice, Will, Lore
• Stunts:
  • (Something involving cannons)
• Refresh: 3
• Physical Stress: 1, 2
• Mental Stress: 1, 2

Spoiler: Concept & Background (click to show/hide)

High Concept: Well, he's a gunner. A Master Gunner, you could say. The best damn gunner on the ship in fact, but he mostly just directs the gun crews and tells them when to fire.
Trouble: He's a walking example of why you don't play with magic powder. Half of his face is covered in scales, the eye on that half is reptilian-looking, a leg has been replaced with a shoddy prosthetic from the knee down, and he has a third arm growing out of his midsection. He is Magically Disfigured, and he cannot afford the hideously expensive treatments required to set him right.
Backstory: Gethron was a top graduate from the Royal School of Gunnery, serving on the H.M.S. Arcturus alongside Johnathan Wade. He was but a simple gunner then, though shortly after Wade's trial he began to rise in the ranks for helping to drive off the same space whale that Wade escaped on. A long and bright career was within his reach.
Unfortunately, Gethron could never resist showing off to the newbies, and one day he decided to juggle balloons filled with magic powder during a severe solar storm. The stray cosmic radiation ignited the powder in one of the balloons, killing two swabbies in the blast and giving Gethron his trademark features. A swift court-martial later, Gethron found himself unable to find employment on any tenth-way reputable ship...which is why he now serves with Jonathan Wade.

Gethron recently discovered a couple of advantages to his disfigurement. On the frontier moon colony known as Neo Barbossa, he managed to thwart a group of slavers from kidnapping a young woman. His hideous visage half-terrified the slavers even before he begun attacking, and having an extra hand to wield weapons with meant that he killed or drove off the half-dozen slavers all by himself. This of course made him a target, so he signed on with the first ship leaving that would take him.

Crossing Paths
(Jonathan Wade: see above)

Romulus, "The Quartermaster" (Xeron)

Spoiler: Character Sheet (click to show/hide)

• High Concept:
• Trouble:
• Aspect:
• Aspect:
• Aspect:
• Skills:
• Stunts:
• Refresh: 3
• Physical Stress: 1, 2
• Mental Stress: 1, 2

Spoiler: Concept & Background (click to show/hide)

For High Concept ..Masterful Politician ? He has a way to coerce people into doing what he wants, even if they are unaware of it.
My character's Trouble Greed, megalomania
The backstory, as a young assistant of a powerful ambassador, working for the New Lunar Republic, Romulus has studied much of the human psychology, steadily learning how to manipulate others to his desire. Of course, nothing good lasts forever and Romulus almost died, when said embassy exploded, a bomb having being set by an unknown organization.

While the young man was recuperating in the hospital, he discovered that he can use his gained influence to obtain certain special treatments, which he next traded to other pacients for hefty sums of credits. Not being one to waste time, he further gathered political and intelligence connections. Romulus was set on carving his own nation, and was preparing for the opportune moment to strike.

As he grew older, Romulus began initiating his plan. Several colonies under the control of the Celestian Empire suddenly rebelled, and a new nation was declared. Rome, as people would learn to call it. Initially, all the other empires thought that it was merely a revolt, with no army to back it up with, and as such each attempted to invade the various systems, only to be met by a huge number of paid mercenaries. Having failed militarily, the other empires attempted diplomacy. It was all for naught, though because Romulus was betrayed by his second-in-command and almost assassinated. Currently powerless and probably known by the entire galaxy by now, he decided to join a pirate ship.

Crossing Paths

(pending)

Player Extras:
Neptune's Damnation, "The Ship"

Spoiler: Extra Sheet (click to show/hide)

• Permissions: Being a mighty pirate!
• Costs: Party's pool of "asset" slots and skill ranks.
• Aspects:
• Skills:
  • Average (+1): Pilot, Shoot
• Stunts:
• Stress?:

[RexMundi]

ptw for when i get back in a week

[Kadzar]

I'd be willing to join in.

And as for setting, my vote would be low fantasy (like in the examples of play) or pirates. But I'd also be agreeable to anything else someone suggests.

[Sergius]

Ok, sounds good

[GentlemanRaptor]

I'm interested. I'm definitely down for pirates, but I've always been partial to sci-fi. Either of the two, really.

[Kadzar]

Oh, yeah, sci-fi is good too. Those were just the two ideas that most readily came to mind.

[Sergius]

We can pick one, or mix and match elements from different genres I think.

[Sirus]

Clearly the best solution is space pirates.

Might be interested in playing; I picked up the Fate books a while back in some sort of humble sale.

[Sergius]

Magical Space Pirates

Well, 3 people interested in playing, and 1 person interested in being interested, I think that's good enough to start brainstorming for the game.

[GentlemanRaptor]

Alright! How should we start?

[Sergius]

Well, for starters, I've added the Game Creation Worksheet to my post, and I'll be filling it as we decide on things or change dials or, like, whatevs.

"The first step in setting up your Fate game is to decide what sort of people the protagonists are and what sort of world surrounds them."

So, the setting. I think there's more or less consensus about Pirates, and nobody seems averse to scifi, so either (or both). Low fantasy is on the table too so it would depends on the agreement we reach.

Then, scale:

"In a small-scale game, characters deal with problems in a city or region, they don’t travel a great deal, and the problems are local. A large-scale game involves dealing with problems that affect a world, a civilization, or even a galaxy if the genre you’re playing in can handle that kind of thing."

So basically: Help the Town vs. Save the World (or if evil, I guess, Burninate the Villagers vs. Conquer the Galaxy). I think this is on a per-adventure basis.

From there, we'll get to Issues and Faces/Places, and more or less simultaneously creating the PCs.

[Kadzar]

Well, I do say that, if we're pirates, space or otherwise, I feel at some point there should be opportunity to have duels with rivals/nemeses. Preferably with cutlasses. Not sure where that fits in, but I feel like it's an idea worth having in mind.

Also, the mention of magical space pirates made me wonder if we want to do a Spelljammer sort of thing with this. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I thought I'd mention it just in case people did happen to be agreeable to it.

[Sirus]

I have heard of the Spelljammer setting before, and it sounds like a lot of fun. Magic Space Pirates (who can be good or evil, let's not limit ourselves) gets all my votes.

[Xeron]

May i join ?