I've never played or read a FATE game despite hearing about it for years. The idea of aspects is somewhat opaque to me. They seem so subjective...I mean, on rpg.net you hear of aspects like "I BRINGZ TEH AWSUM!!!" or "perpetually furrowed brow" or whatever. It doesn't help that the implementations seem to be huge 400 page tomes.

So does it really work? Or is it only for the jaded gamer who wants something different for difference's sake?

Most people on rpg.net don't game, and are merely making shit up without any knowledge of how what they say would work around the table.

FATE's OK. I like Diaspora, but I tried to run it online and it didn't work as well as I hoped due to the back and forth required. It's the lowest powered of the various 3.0 versions. Aspects are generally looser and more vague than I've seen them presented at RPG.net.

It's pretty cool but it's not a world changer or a super revolution.  It's a fudge derivative with a few things thrown in.  The only full version that I have is Spirit of the Century - I was initially enthused about it but it's cluttered, not that clearly written and altogether too crunchy and has too many rules for what presents itself as a freewheeling game.
 
Try the SOTC SRD and the free version of Fate 2.0 from here:
http://www.faterpg.com/resources/

Fate's good. Aspects are subjective, but they are not the only thing going on.

I ran it once, Starblazer Adventures to be precise.

My players loved it; I wasn't exactly crazy about it. I guess I don't dig the level of abstraction necessary to work with the system.

I don't know, I might give it another try some day; right now I have too much on my gaming plate as is.

I own Dresden Files.  It looks like a decent system, but I have yet to play it.  Perhaps I'll get my players to try it out sometime, but until then I can only give my impressions from reading it.

From what I can tell, FATE is a rather crunchy fudge system tied to an abstract system wherein certain words or phrases can be used for bennies.  I think it looks neat.

Hmmmm FATE. I have run and played it (both SoTC) and I have a love hate relationship with it. The basic aspect mechanics and dice rolling seem to work well enough. However the sheer volume of stunts make it very hard work for the GM. The stunt information is very crunchy and potentially a bit powerful in places.

We found during the session that we were very quickly running out of fate points to keep up with fights with the opposition.

FATE is probably the only system I'm close to hating - and outright hating something as inconsequential as RPGs is normally not my thing...

Mostly, it's because FATE is constantly shilled on RPGnet. No matter what kind of system advice you're actually asking for, sooner or later some clown will come out of the woodwork and starts suggesting FATE. It sometimes makes me want to ram the Starblazer Adventures hardcover down that clown's throat!

Also, FATE just doesn't fit my group's usual style of play. We prefer rule systems that fade into the background and don't get in the way of our fun. FATE is like an extremely annoying pet that constantly jumps up and down in front of you to grab your attention. It wants to be engaged and interacted with, it just doesn't know its place (out of sight).

Yeah - for low-Fate-point implementations (Dresden, Spirit of the Century), you really have to kick the shit out of the players via their Aspects first, then they'll have a nice store ready to go after the bad guys.

Strands of Fate is a version with a much higher number of Fate points in a session.

I just finished running a campaign with Dresden and it was really good. My players had no problems with aspects and how you drive play with them, but then most of my players are relatively new to RPGing, so they don't have a lot of baggage.

I like its influence in ICONS, but I'm not sure it will work in other genres for me.

I"ve been playing Dresden, and would love to have some clues as to what's going on.

Combat seems bizarro, mostly it's the whole party beating on a monster until it randomly dies...past that, haven't seen much (only been 3 sessions). Maybe we could wander off to another thread and you could tell me more about it, how it's supposed to play, stuff like that?

I have no opinion on FATE, for lack of experience with it.

Quote from: Doom;458900I"ve been playing Dresden, and would love to have some clues as to what's going on.

Combat seems bizarro, mostly it's the whole party beating on a monster until it randomly dies...past that, haven't seen much (only been 3 sessions). Maybe we could wander off to another thread and you could tell me more about it, how it's supposed to play, stuff like that?

Can you give an example of how combat seems bizarro?

It plays pretty normal?

I really like FATE. In fact, my experience with it actually refreshed me on the hobby and kept me playing when I thought I was going to quit for good.

There are two key factors in accepting and enjoying FATE-based games.

1-You have to accept some abstractions in your rules set.

2-You have to be willing to allow player's to bring something extra into the game other than just making the in-game choices for their PC.

The core of FATE is very simple and easy to use. Stunts do complicate things, but there are options to make some Aspects actionable "as Stunts" then ditching the complexity of stunts entirely. Much of the thickness in FATE books is filled with examples of play and elaboration on how the game's mechanics can be used to do X.

My experience with FATE is with GMing and playing Spirit of the Century and complete reads of Starblazer Adventures and Diaspora. I happen to think Aspects, as long as they are well described, are some of the coolest game mechanics to come along in the 21st century.