Hey all, Rob here. Have been playing RPGs since 1977, even before the 1st edition AD&D GM's Guide came out. (That was exciting when it did!) Have played a number of different things, but most time has been (from most to least) Pathfinder, AD&D/1e, D&D/4e, GURPS, Fudge. Pathfinder is most of my gaming in the last 8 years or so, with some other things on the side. AD&D/1e was nearly all of my gaming from 1977 to 1997 (when I discovered GURPS). D&D 4e was a phase. (Not terribly fond of the system, but had a good group and had a lot of fun playing it.) I've played a fair amount of Fudge (the system on which Fate is based, although the basing isn't as strong as it originally was). Indeed, for a time around 1999, I was the volunteer webmaster for Grey Ghost Games. I've only played Fate a few times. One was an in person game that was really only Fate in name -- our character sheets were Fate sheets, and we would occasionally roll 4dF against an attribute, but I don't know that we ever mechanically used an aspect in play, meaning I don't know that we were "really" playing Fate, rather than using it as an excuse for a more free-form game. I ran a "Secrets of Cats" game at a convention, and I ran a short "Ghost Planets" campaign. I've come to the conclusion that while it's "rules lite", playing Fate requires more system mastery than playing Pathfinder (!). If you don't really know how to play Pathfinder, you can say what you try, and the GM or other players can coach you on the mechanics. You can sort of learn as you go. Eventually, you might think mechanics first, which maybe is a little sad. If you don't, you think about how to model stuff yourself with the mechanics, but if you're not strong on that, others can just coach you. In Pathfinder, you do need one person at the table, ideally a few, including the GM who are quite strong with the mechanics -- at least the core mechanics, not the fiddly stupid new-system-each-time details of the overwhelming and excessive number of classes they have nowadays -- but players can sit down and play. Fate, in contrast, is deceptive. It looks rules-light, like Fudge is. (Fudge is probably the *easiest* for a new player to read a character sheet and pick up the mechanics.) But, to really play it right, you need a group where most of the people grok the core idea of a story-driven game, where they really *get* what aspects are and how they're the core of the mechanics, where you call out things for your character that aren't just attempts to Overcome or Attack, but that might alter the story or create a hindrance for your character. You have to get the whole Fate point economy, and what aspects are for. I think it's less natural to most RPGers out there than sitting down to play D&D or a derivative. Myself, I am not sure *I* fully get it, even though I've run several Fate games. I'd love to play in a group that at least wants to try to do the whole Fate game creation and aspect economy thing, to really try *playing* (or GMing) Fate rather than having Fate as the rules set for a game that would have been better off as Fudge; indeed, I'd like to play it to find out if I actually like it. (I think I do, based on reading it! But I haven't really played it yet, I don't think, only Fudge with aspects sitting around as an excuse to spend Fudge points.) In terms of availability, my life is kind of complicated. I'm an academic who will be needing to try to move next year. This means that I have time over the summer, less during the year, so I don't want to commit to any long-term campaigns. But, I'd love to try playing some short few- or several-session minicampaigns. I'm in the east coast of the USA.
