The whole village sat still. Tall trees hung over all present, heavy with the ripened fruit that was the source of the sweet yet vaguely savoury smell that permeated the village and the whole region known as the Embrace.
People looked nervously at the parriarch, waiting for the village leader's pronouncement. The genderless, veiled figure stared at the crystal pit – a bottomless hole filled with a shiny viscous pink liquid. With transfixed eyes, they muttered incomprehensible, half-formed words and their veil was illuminated by the pit's purple-tinted light. In reply to the parriarch whispers, it emitted a buzzing not unlike a swarm of glass mosquitoes whose beating wings were words which always barely escaped intelligibility.
Suddenly, drums broke out in a frenetic rhythm.
"I have heard the Heart!" The parriarch's thin voice echoed. "It told me a new Beast is arisen." Cries and lamentations broke out immediately.
"But the Heart has a soft soul full of kindness and wisdom! It has asked for three hunters to enter it tonight, seek its centre and purify the Beast they find within; if these brave souls accomplish their task, we shall be forgiven. Yes, we shall be forgiven and saved, my children!" Shouts and ululations of joy ensued; once they faded away, the parriarch continued. "The Heart said only these three people are allowed to enter it tonight. It will be a dangerous and unfair task, but the law of the Heart is our law and our law is holy."
The parriarch's helpers lit pieces of fruit on fire and began walking around the villagers, who all hummed the same melody and marked the rhythm by shuffling their feet on the humid dirt. The robed figure walked amongst the people and then stopped and bowed in front of the first hunter chosen by the Embrace.
------------------------------------------------
Hello all,
This is the opening pitch for the Fate Core one-shot I have mentioned in an interest check thread. I am a fairly experienced GM who wants to try his hand at Fate Core for the first time after years of D&D/Pathfinder.
The game will last 30 days.
Extremely important: since we will be on a fixed-time game, everyone needs to commit to at least one post per day.
I'll leave this recruitment up for at least a week, possibly two. If you need more time, let me know, I won't be too strict on this before we start the actual gameplay.
After that, we'll have about a week to finalise everything and decide on game aspects.
* Game is set in a circular valley known as the Embrace;
* People who live there mainly eat the fruit that grows on the strange trees that exist only within the Embrace;
* At the centre of the valley lies the region known as the Heart;
* Villagers are concerned with the news a Beast is in the Heart;
* The nature of this Beast is completely unknown;
* The leader of those who live in the valley is a veiled and robed figure known as the parriarch, who has never been seen uncovered by anyone;
* Though people are at a fairly primitive point of technological development, they are surrounded by remains of countless and much more advanced civilisations;
* The relationship with these remains is a mix between awe and fear;
* Is this shiny pebble going to disintegrate every human being in a 20km radius if we handle it the wrong way? Who knows! Should we call it a god, put it on the central square and pray to it? Absolutely.
These are pretty much set in stone. Everything else is yours to define: have there been other beasts in the past, what the village/trees/people look like, how many inhabitants, society, what people believe the Beast is/will do to them, etc.
Mechanically speaking, we will focus on overcome and create advantage skill rolls, plus challenges, turning contests and conflicts into simple overcome rolls.
Stress is out, but we will keep consequences as a damage indicator (say, if you fall off a chasm or something).
At the beginning of each scene I will post generic difficulty levels for possible actions. For example, in a scene with a dragon and a cliff, I might list the dragon as +5 and the cliff as a +2; thus charming, attacking or getting information from the dragon are all difficult +5 actions. The same procedure would count for the cliff, though charming it might be a bit harder to explain. This way, when you roll you already have what's necessary to resolve the action, whether you failed, succeeded with minor/major consequences, etc.
Not many limitations here, but you do need to be able to pass as a human in public situations (disguises, shapeshifting, etc are all valid).
For first-timers, the Fate SRD is here: https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/character-creation
### Aspects
1. the main idea behind your character (aka the high concept). Examples: the village sage, the visitor from the desert;
2. something that your character struggles with (aka the trouble). Examples: hearing voices, being covered in sores;
3. the logic behind the Embrace's decision is unfathomable, but your characters believe they know why they were chosen (similar to phase trio #1). Examples: I am an amoeboid being disguised as a human, I have literally just arrived and these people want to kill the foreigner, I have dreams about the future;
4. a piece of unique equipment your character has. Equipment here can be understood in a fairly general sense. Examples: a collar with 153 gods/ancient devices, a collection of alchemical vials, a mutating arm;
5. free aspect to further compose your character. You can delay taking it until we're further into the story.
### Skills/Stunts
* 1 +4 skill;
* 2 +3 skills;
* 2 stunts.
For the sake of simplicity let's just start with +4 and +3 skills, plus one or two stunts. We can fill the remaining slots as we go, when and if necessary.
I am perfectly fine with taking very liberal interpretations of skills. Say, using rapport to convince a machine/animal/plant/particularly intelligent stone to do something, contacts to go all disney princess on something, etc.
### Background
Also a paragraph or two describing the character and relevant background bits.
Due to unpleasant past experiences I also want to emphasise that I do require people to be polite and respectful towards each other at all times (when OOC, of course) and will be very strict about it. You'd think this would go without saying, but, alas.
Dot!
Dotting. Will try to get character posted in next day or two.
I haven't had time to start up a character due to work/life stuff...anyone else interested? :)
Well, I am of course still here, but cannot speak for the others. As it is often the case, not everyone who displays interest on an interest check thread goes on to actually submit a character, due to plenty of legitimate reasons.
I'll leave the recruitment open for an additional week to see if we can get at least three submissions.
Hmmm…well, it's been two weeks and no submissions. I'm marking this as inactive. Thanks for the interest, Axolotl and Tareth.