I just want to get the temperature in the room to see if there is any interest in running a FATE game in Freeport.
We would be using the Fate Freeport Companion which is a nice compromise between FATE Core, FATE Accelerated and D20. Of course, I wouldn't obligate anyone buying this product, and would be willing to help anyone with character creation.
The game uses the classic D&D attributes for skills: STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA. Players would assign the Standard skill spread: (+0, +1, +1, +2, +2, +3)
We would build NPCs, places, and characters together. And we would also agree on what kind of campaign we want to play.
So who's with me? Who wants to to hoist the colors in the City of Adventure?
I am interested and have all of the needed books if you are willing to give me a chance.
Sure. Sounds great. Any initial thoughts on what kind of game you want to play in Freeport? High seas, local, etc.?
I would prefer to stick to the city itself. A would like a balance of intrigue, mystery, and combat. BTW, do you know if the information on the city itself has changed much for the newest print book?
I'm currently reading through the Pirate's Guide to Freeport, which I think is the most recent history. Granted, I'm not an expert in the setting. Also I plan on allowing the party to retcon what they do or don't want for the setting anyway.
(Hi Ray!)
I would be pretty interested in reviving a certain Mallory Lewis as somewhat less Desperado and more Pirate, but I know very little about Fate or Freeport.
Hey, Yorick.
FATE Freeport is a bit of a FATE hack. But the system is built from the ground up to be hacked, anyway. In this case they reduced the skill system to work with the classic D&D attributes: STR, DEX, etc.
That means if you have a knowledge of D20 it's relatively easy to glom onto how things work.
How do I spot something? Wisdom check.
How do I attack with a rapier? Dexterity check.
The rest of the character creation involves things called Aspects. You'll have 5. One aspect is called your High Concept. This is basically the elevator pitch for your character. For example, the original Mallory might have been described as something along the lines of “Toughest Gunslinger in the West” or maybe “Fiddler Playing Desperado”. Think of her as a character on a TV show rather than a Class and Race.
Your second aspect is called your Trouble. This will tell us want complicates your character’s existence. It should be something that could come into play in the game. Like “Wanted for Murder I didn’t commit”, or ”The Bottle Calls to Me”.
Your other three aspects are known as the Phase Trio. I won’t get into the specifics of that, but basically these three aspects are drawn from your personal background, and how you know the other characters in the party.
This link is good free resource.
Of course, FATE Core is also pay-what-you-want on Drive-Thru RPG.
Oh, and Freeport is basically the city of Tortuga from Pirates of the Caribbean. That's a vast over-simplification, but, yeah, basically that.
It's a swashbuckling, dark fantasy setting, sprinkled with a touch of Cthulu Mythos. And, frankly, it looks like a lot of fun. There's cutlasses, flintlocks, magic, etc.
So, yeah, again, basically, Pirates of the Caribbean.
The "limited stats / no skills / everything is a +0 to +5" feels kind of Dungeon World, which I'm totally into. I definitely have trouble coming up with the Aspects and Stunts, though, so your example totally helps. I'll see if I can put something interesting together.
Dungeon World is on my bucket list of games to play.
Another part of FATE is that we'll design some of the core elements of the campaign world together. In fact, you're not even supposed to build a character until you've agreed on some ground rules. It allows for a lot of narrative freedom.
FATE's pretty cool like that.
I've heard of FATE but never tried it, but I'm interested.
My first ever game of DnD 3.0 was an adventure in Freeport that was by Green Ronin I think? We all played hard-nosed gnomes/halflings and there was one dwarf, so there were plenty of awful jokes regarding height made.
All in all it was a good time and I'm interested in maybe recreating that little scoundrel, but again, It would be my first time with the system
With the thought of playing an intrigue and combat heavy game. What does everyone think of starting a "legitamate business venture" in Scurvy Town.
My first thought, a priestess of Calistria wants to start a clean brothel/ temple of the Sacred Sting and gets some pushback from the local guilds.
You can start off small and grow with time.
Unless we go with a ship based game, I like the idea of a Kobold Trap Master. Do we want firearms to be particularly powerful?
I think firearms are a big part of this setting. So personally, I would love for them to be in the game.
As for power, well, in FATE any ability or weapon is really only as powerful as a character's skill to use it. Also, firearms are pretty balanced here. To quote the text:
"They do have their drawbacks, though. All black powder weapons require an action to reload, which requires both hands free. They all have the aspect Loud and Unreliable, which might get you in trouble. They hold a single shot and require an action to reload."
What firearms actually do is make a mockery of most armor. Which, I'm okay with for this kind of a setting.
The following players so far have shown an interest in playing.
- Moon Papa
- Nohwear
- PirateDevon
- YoricksRequiem
Four is a pretty good party. Is everyone here good?
I know that I am! I should also mention that I will be leaving for vacation on Thursday and returning Sunday. I will have little to no ability to post during this time.
Certainly! I suppose we'll be "building the game" together to some degree?
Yeah, we have a setting - which is Freeport. But there are still plenty of decisions for us to make. And realistically just making characters will take a little while since we have a lot of new people here to the system and it requires collaboration anyway.
That being said the first decision to be made is will the campaign be High Seas or City-based.
Right now we have 1 vote for city-based from Nohwear.
Tough one, but I think I'll cast my vote in favor of High Seas
I'm definitely good. I could go for either High Seas or City-Based. They both offer very different things and will dramatically affect what kind of character I make. But honestly I like both. I mean, if we do go High Seas, we always have the option to spend some time in town, I suppose, yeah?
High seas hijinks it is then. I'll try to bring us back into Freeport regularly.
Freeporter citizens havr a rage boner for slavery. So what do you guys say to being Privateer Abolitionists? Robbing from slavers, rescuing people, possible government intrigue, raiding slave trade islands, etc.?
Sounds good to me. I am currently thinking of an Alchemist. How do you want to handle my bombs? I was thinking of using spell stats, but the question is which ones?
I think it should give you access to the "healing" and "trickster" keyword spells. And "Alchemical Bomb" can just be a stunt that's separate from your "Alchemist" aspect. It can deal your Intelligence +1 damage and go through armor.
But be forewarned that having exploding stuff on you can be super dangerous.
Yeah the anti-slaver privateers sounds fun. I too will have to dig into the Fate stuff and figure out exactly where I wanna go with this. Thinking maybe Halfling knife-thrower of some sort as an homage to an old Freeport character.
I have a character in mind from another game that died out which may or may not work / fit / be a good idea. Basically she'd have grown up here - been a thief / scoundrel in her teens. After a close brush with death, she straightened up a bit and left Freeport. With a combination of studying / hard work / lying, she managed to convince a university that she was someone else, enough at least to get a job teaching there. She stuck it out there for a good 5 years - but now that she's entered her 30's, an old itch is begging to be scratched again.
I imagine she's brought back to town because an old friend has some kind of problem (possibly their child is kidnapped / sold to slavery?). At any rate, I'd play her as something of a recovering drug addict, whose vice is adrenaline. An intelligent and clever, but reckless and rusty swashbuckler / scholar is kind of what I have in mind.
Probably something like: +3 Dex, +2 Cha/Int, +1 Con/Str, +0 Wis.
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So I had a pirate game character once that was a "salt mage" who basically was a sea wizard who was sort of a walk between druid and wizard, was super attached to the ocean and functioned around making the ship run better, messing with weather and generally being a weird pirate mage....I only got to play like two games with him but I think I will try to hammer him out for this if I can...
So an alchemist, a halfling, a swashbuckling scholar, and a salt mage!
Should we move this to a discussion thread some time?
I'll make a campaign thread tonight so you guys can dot it.
Everyone's ideas sounds awesome. Most of it should be doable without much tinkering. And we can homebrew whatever else we need to.
@Blanton-The attribute variant ignores the ladder.
I feel that I should also point out that your race only affects your character as much as you let it. That is anywhere from it simply being a word written on your sheet, part of an aspect, to actually being the source of a number of your stunts.
Free warning, FATE is considered "medium crunch" on the level of BRP stuff while something like DW is super light weight (the rules can be fit on like 2-3 pages). I love both systems, but FATE is one of the heavier narrative games.
It might be a heavier narrative game, but I'd be hard pressed to call Fate "medium" crunch - especially the Freeport version, which boils skills down to 6 attributes.
But then, my scale has been skewed ever since I discovered "Burning Wheel". Almost everything else moved to be considered one step lighter, haha.
Alright, hiiamtom. You're in, too. Let me just get a campaign thread up and running.