Planning my first ever Fate session

Hello folks, I heard about the Fate system maybe 3 - 4 years ago and have been slightly interested ever since on trying it but never got around to it. Yesterday I was informed that the rules can be downloaded for free so I did that, read them and felt that I must at least try them. So I'm now planning on my first Fate session ever in any way so I thought I should ask for hints and tips from the massive (congrats on surpassing 1 M users) Roll20 community. I read the Wiki page and it didn't really have anything ground breaking since I have been using Token Abilities and tracker-command ever since they were added to Roll20. I'm interesed on hearing all and any hints and tips on how to "roll" a Fate campaign but especially about how to: 1. handle the first session where the characters are created;  - How "ok" would it be to create the characters "normally" by just letting the players do it on their own? I won't be creating the world with the players anyway (because half of the point of the campaign is that the PCs don't really have a clue about what's going). 2. handle "grid" movement and maps in general;  - Since the system doesn't really have a grid but 'zones', how do you incorporate this on Roll20?  - I havent used an actual grid in my campaign for quite some time. Tokens are free to move any direction, areas affected by spells etc. are templates, and so on, because I have never liked the restrictions grids create. So I'm feeling a bit insecure about the use of zones which seem to be even more restricting than the normal grid mechanism. 3. handle Aspects.  - Do you make them into cards, just write them on the map...? Thanks in advance to everyone for your help! Edit. Also should we use Accelarated or Core rules? To my knowledge none of the players have used any Fate system.

Hello Maetco. I've looked over fate many times but never ran it (I use Risus which is similar) but the first point is mostly like in my game. I just set the theme and an over feeling for the game. I would maybe put some descriptive text out for the players to work with if you have a specific idea (west meets east - western samurai, survive the alien onslaught in LA - almost any modern sci fi movie, etc) as this will point the players to what you want while giving them lots of leeway to work with. The second point you mention is the fact that there is no grid movement in fate as you pointed out. It is pure zones so if you have decide on the zones of the scene. Say it is happening in a house. Living room, kitchen, backyard is the zones. Now a player says they are going from the living room to the kitchen, they do it. simple as that. Now if that player said they were going from the living to the backyard, there is check (I think) and if it all goes right they are in the backyard. No counting grids, inches, yards, or anything else. It is very simple and easy. Range combat runs similar as it can be melee, pointblank, close, far away, etc... It is how ever you want to describe and set it up. The third point I don't know. The one time I played in a fate game, the gm wrote aspect notes on the map itself. Forest fire in one location, he type aspects into token names such as Lionheart (broken arm)(energized) and left it at that. I wish I could help you more but there are other fate players and gm's around so good luck and hope you have fun. FAE is simpler than core so maybe start with that first.

Pat S. said: Hello Maetco. I've looked over fate many times but never ran it (I use Risus which is similar) but the first point is mostly like in my game. I just set the theme and an over feeling for the game. I would maybe put some descriptive text out for the players to work with if you have a specific idea (west meets east - western samurai, survive the alien onslaught in LA - almost any modern sci fi movie, etc) as this will point the players to what you want while giving them lots of leeway to work with. The second point you mention is the fact that there is no grid movement in fate as you pointed out. It is pure zones so if you have decide on the zones of the scene. Say it is happening in a house. Living room, kitchen, backyard is the zones. Now a player says they are going from the living room to the kitchen, they do it. simple as that. Now if that player said they were going from the living to the backyard, there is check (I think) and if it all goes right they are in the backyard. No counting grids, inches, yards, or anything else. It is very simple and easy. Range combat runs similar as it can be melee, pointblank, close, far away, etc... It is how ever you want to describe and set it up. The third point I don't know. The one time I played in a fate game, the gm wrote aspect notes on the map itself. Forest fire in one location, he type aspects into token names such as Lionheart (broken arm)(energized) and left it at that. I wish I could help you more but there are other fate players and gm's around so good luck and hope you have fun. FAE is simpler than core so maybe start with that first. Thanks for your reply. Like I almost said every little helps. About the world and the description. Basically we're talking about our normal world today in a modern western country. The PCs will be ordinary people with ordinary jobs and will be operating in very restricted and confined area (basically the whole campaign is set on one "dungeon". The best way I can think of explaining the campaign is think of Saw2 meets Memento. So do you feel I should pretty much say this to the players before they start making their characters?

Maetco said: 1. handle the first session where the characters are created;  - How "ok" would it be to create the characters "normally" by just letting the players do it on their own? I won't be creating the world with the players anyway (because half of the point of the campaign is that the PCs don't really have a clue about what's going). I don't recommend building the world without the players. Communicate your desires (characters are lost & confused), but FATE works better with everyone contributing. Trust your players to understand the difference between player knowledge and character knowledge. Maetco said: 2. handle "grid" movement and maps in general;  - Since the system doesn't really have a grid but 'zones', how do you incorporate this on Roll20?  - I havent used an actual grid in my campaign for quite some time. Tokens are free to move any direction, areas affected by spells etc. are templates, and so on, because I have never liked the restrictions grids create. So I'm feeling a bit insecure about the use of zones which seem to be even more restricting than the normal grid mechanism. Just draw your map on the page. It can be simple. Labeling the zones may be useful. Here's an example map from the Conflicts section of Your Story (DFRPG's equivalent to the Player's Handbook; DFRPG is a FATE game): So that's four zones: a parking lot and a warehouse, each large enough to count as two zones. The parking lot has the aspect "Cars", the warehouse has the aspects "Dark & Cramped" and "Crates". The parking lot also has the aspect "Gas Main", but the example setup suggests keeping that one hidden for a player to discover. Don't use Roll20's grid, just make your drawing large enough to put the players' tokens in the zones. Maetco said: 3. handle Aspects.  - Do you make them into cards, just write them on the map...? For zone aspects which are immediately obvious, I'd say write them on the map. It makes them easy to remember. For zone aspects which aren't immediately obvious, that a character has to discover, I'd write them on the GM layer so you  don't forget! A character's aspects should be on his or her character sheet. For immediately obvious ones on your NPCs, either write them on the Bio page and make the character visible to the players, or post them in the chat and be willing to repeat them if a player asks. Maetco said: So do you feel I should pretty much say this to the players before they start making their characters? FATE works better when it's a collaborative story. That depends on the players being able to separate player and character knowledge, of course, but I like to be optimistic and assume players jumping into a story-driven system are capable of things like that.

Brian said: I don't recommend building the world without the players. Communicate your desires (characters are lost & confused), but FATE works better with everyone contributing. Trust your players to understand the difference between player knowledge and character knowledge. ... FATE works better when it's a collaborative story. That depends on the players being able to separate player and character knowledge, of course, but I like to be optimistic and assume players jumping into a story-driven system are capable of things like that. Thanks for your help! I read (browsed, whatever) the Accelarated rules. So I have a bit better understanding of the system. This idea of creating the world with the players feels to be connected to the book kind of assuming that the campaign will be a generic fictional hollywood story filled with black and white decision making and the good guys defeating the bad guys. This is an exaggeration so don't take literally. What I'm plannin on doing is something totally different. I'm still thinking in my funny little mind that a story telling driven / oriented system would be great at a campaign that is all about the story, not the good guys defeating the bad guys. My goal is that the players will tell at least half of the story but I choose and tell the plot. In order to this to work, I can't have the players changing things that are crucial to the plot (otherwise the plot would pretty much seize to exist) and the players can't know the plot in advance (in order for the plot to have any effect). The location is one "dungeon" (a building of some sorts) and it is crucial to the plot. I'm feeling that if the players get to participate in the creation of the world, the whole point of the campaign is endangered.