Ben said: First off, make sure you know what happens at the three different types of Milestones . If you understand Milestones, you understand what characters “get” when they advance within the game. I have watched Sword Art Online. The problem is that, unless there is some source book detailing the how the game works within the anime/manga, it will be up to you to detail/determine what leveling means. I’d that is too daunting then, then you could do a setting similar to Sword Art that operates the way you want it. Having said that, he would be my idea for how to accomplish it: I wouldn’t try to plan out/micromanage every special skill or ability (I.e. Original Sword Skills) that is shown in the anime/manga. I would leave it up to the players to determine these things using their stunts etc. You wouldn’t need to eliminate any skills, since FATE doesn’t come with a built in magic system. In SAO, there are characters that choose not to focus on combat, but rather Crafts, and since the players are embodying their avatars there is still reason to have all the other “social” skills. Players will naturally increase their skills that their character uses a lot, so you wouldn’t have to trawl each time a character uses his Athletics skill or whatever. At minor milestones, players will swap skills and stunts as needed. As for levels, I wouldn’t worry so much about character levels (perhaps you could say that for every Significant milestone your character “gains a level” which gives them an extra skill point). I would however focus on the fact that the world has Levels/Floors and that each time one of these is cleared by defeating a Boss Monster, it is increasing not only the “level” of the characters but also the level/difficulty of the world going forward. Clearing a Floor would definitely by a Major Milestone as it slows them to do things like increase their skill cap and get more refresh. That’s what I’ve got for now. I think SAO (or AElfheim Online or Gun Gale Online) would be a good FATE setting, and I don’t think you need to over complicate it be adding too many rules/subsystems. As long as the GM undstands how FATE works and knows how to flavor it to the genre you are trying to emulate, it should go pretty easily. As someone who has never played Skyrim or Fallout, I can’t comment on those, but I know that there are people on here who do (or are already working on worlds in those games) that might have some insight for you. Postscript: As far as the different weapons go in SAO... I don’t think you’d have add anything except May rare/magic items could be there own thing. You would gain them from beating bosses, and the sword/armor/item would have its own aspect and some sort of special ability akin to a stunt, perhaps. You’d have to look at the ones in the show as examples... Post-postscript: If you wanted your players to “grind” from level 1 and “level” game skills, you could make them start out with only “real world” skills (Deceive, Empathy, Investigate, Lore, Notice, Provoke, Rapport, Will, and maybe Contacts [since these don’t fill all 10 skill slots, the remaining ones could be filled in with “game skills” that best reflect a class they took]) and with each sidequest (ie killing wild boars) they would complete a minor milestone, allowing them to trade up one of the “game skills” (Athletics, Burglary, Crafts, Drive, Fight, Physique, Resources, Shoot, and Stealth) for one of their real world skills. Thanks! Those are awesome suggestions! I was also thinking of applying at least one of the Weapons and Armor Alternatives rules from the Fate System Toolkit. Although, I still need more experience with the system (as both player/GM) in order to apply all of these things, as well as, balance it out enough so that it makes sense. I know that story and roleplaying comes first but I don't want it to completely overshadow the combat aspect, due to it being a very important part. I really like your suggestions though, so I will think about this long and hard before I come up with something to play with. Thanks again, really interesting!
