Fate RPG

The book in this case is Fate Core, Fate Accelerated, or Fate Condensed, the book which literally contains the game we're talking about here.

It is with mounting horror and depression that I watch post after post after post after post after post over on Reddit ask "How do I do <x> in game?" or "Can I run a game set in <setting>?" as if there isn't a chapter in each book (well, maybe not Accelerated) explaining in detail how to implement pretty much any damn concept you need for whichever game you want to run. The best place to look for that stuff is Chapter 11 in Fate Core, "Extras." Have they not read that far?

Hearing someone else complain about Fate's magic system, I came up with the "Terry's Hardware Store" Analogy.

Imagine a hardware store. The lumber yard in back has pretty much any kind of wood you might want for your project, and the team on the saws can cut it into whatever shape you need to make that project happen. There's an incredibly wide assortment of paints, pigments, stains, lacquers, and finishes you can pick up to transform the wood into any smooth dreamy surface you could imagine.

Toward the front, there's hardware of every sort. Hinges, pulls, rings, slides, hammers, saws, nails, screws, drill bits... anything you might want or need to connect those pieces of wood together in whatever way you see fit. In short, if you have a woodworking project, you can make anything with the parts here. Anyone could be satisfied, right?

Then Terry walks in.

He goes from aisle to aisle, tut-tutting and clicking his tongue, and finally when he reaches the last shelves, he turns to someone and says, "I've looked all over this store, and there isn't a single table to buy. This is the worst furniture store I've ever been in." Then he gives it a one-star review on Yelp and walks out without any further interactions with anyone.

That's how I see some people approaching Fate, as if it's supposed to have exactly the thing they need without having to assemble anything. And if they can't find the thing they need, just these leftover character parts that don't seem to do anything on their own, they claim it's the game's fault, that it should have known what they wanted and actually catered to them.

Someone, please tell me I'm being unreasonable here, and that the evidence of my own eyes has read something wrong. Because it looks like there are a whole lot of people who expect a specific experience from Fate without putting a single iota of think-work into leveraging its various systems (all four of them) to pull off that experience.

Back in 2017 I stumbled over this on the Chinese crowdfunding site Modian. They were asking for 50,000RMB (~US$7000 today) to translate the FATE Core rulebook into Chinese.

They got over 215,000RMB (~US$30,000).

As a result of this almost all of the then-extent supplements for FATE were translated and published in China. FATE, as a result, is now actually quite a popular game in China: about #3, from eyeballing Taobao. (#1 is Call of Cthulhu, of all games, and #2 is D&D/Pathfinder.)

This is exciting all by itself already, as far as I'm concerned, but even more exciting to me is this:

! ! !

There is a native ecosystem of FATE world books and adventures that seems to be popping up. (I'm assuming these aren't translations because "Bilibili" isn't a thing outside of China as far as I know, and the other two are about a very Chinese semi-mythical figure that most people outside of China won't have heard of.)

Here the automatic English translation of the post with deepl. Further down the original post in Italian.

ENG

Impressions on Fate Space Toolkit

I am reading the Fate Space Toolkit. More for pleasure than for actual usefulness, since when I play I prefer to use FAE and so a lot of that stuff that contains the manual is not very useful from the mechanical point of view, even if it is as inspiration.

Let's talk first about the usual and "mechanical" part (the one that concerns the rules that involve the use of numbers). There are many stunts, many tips on skills. They seem interesting to me but, being in general not very interested in this part, I'm not a good judge of it either.

Then there is the content one would usually expect to find in a space manual. Information on microgravity, space travel, interplanetary distances, and so on. I have read only one other such manual (gurps space). But in short I think that in general it is the classic information that you can find in this kind of text.

We come instead to the aspect that left me the most positive impression. Each topic in the manual is explained in such a way as to understand how to play the different fictions of reference. Now this in some ways did gurps space (and I've seen it done to other manuals in other areas: noir, pulp, fantasy, etc.. ) but always declined as a variation on the description of how the mimicry of physics works. In this manual, on the other hand, we almost always refer first to narrative structure. That is, how to structure the narrative and how to modify the rules, from the "narrative" point of view (pass me the very generic term, I'm not here to make a treatise) to reproduce a certain type of fiction. And then all dropped into the context of having N people who are playing and narrating at a table. In short, it treasures all the lessons of techniques and teachings of indie games and Fate rpg in particular.

ITA

Impressioni su Fate Space Toolkit

Mi sto leggendo il Fate Space Toolkit. Più per piacere che per effettiva utilità, visto che quando gioco preferisco usare FAE e quindi tanta di quella roba che contiene il manuale non è utilissima dal punto di vista meccanico, anche se lo è come ispirazione.

Parliamo prima della parte usuale e "meccanica" (quella insomma che riguarda le regole che implicano l'uso dei numeri). Ci sono tanti stunt, tanti consigli sulle skill. Mi sembrano interessanti ma, non essendo in generale molto interessato a questa parte, non ne sono neanche in buon giudice.

C'è poi il contenuto che ci si aspetta di trovare usualmente in un manuale sullo spazio. Informazioni sulla microgravità, sui viaggi nello spazio, sulle distanze interplanetarie e così via. Ho letto solo un altro manuale di questo tipo (gurps space). Ma insomma penso che in generale siano le classiche informazioni che si trovano in questo genere di testo.

Veniamo invece all'aspetto che mi ha lasciato l'impressione più positiva. Ogni argomento del manuale è spiegato in modo tale da far capire come riprodurre le diverse fiction di riferimento. Ora questo in qualche maniera lo faceva anche gurps space (e l'ho visto fare ad altri manuali in altri ambiti: noir, pulp, fantasy, ecc. ) ma sempre declinato come variazione sulla descrizione di come funziona la mimica della fisica. In questo manuale invece si fa, quasi sempre, riferimento prima alla struttura narrativa. Cioè a come strutturare la narrazione e a come modificare le regole, dal punto di vista "narrativo" (passatemi il termine molto generico, non sono qua a fare un trattato) per riprodurre proprio un certo tipo di fiction. E poi il tutto calato nel contesto di avere N persone che stanno giocando e narrando ad un tavolo. Insomma fa tesoro di tutta la lezione delle tecniche e degli insegnamenti dei giochi indie e di Fate rpg in particolare. !