[Torg] Fate & Aspects in Torg (was: TORG Discussion on FATE RPG Yahoo Group)

[Jasyn Jones]

On Feb 22, 2010, at 7:55 PM, Kansas Jim wrote:

> On 2/22/2010 7:29 AM, Jeffrey Hosmer wrote:
> 
> [I mentioned the idea of importing Aspects and Stunts from FATE into Torg]
> 
>> Aspects are, IMHO, a wonderfully elegant mechanic for figuring out what
>> your players want out of a game.  If I tried to port them into TORG...
>> well, using possibilities for FATE points could work, but invoking an
>> aspect for a +2 might be either too weak or two strong in TORG.
>> Probably would have to playtest that.
> 
> My initial idea was to have them be worth a +3 bonus, the same as an Action and similar cards from the Drama Deck. I was pondering a split similar to Masterbook where you'd have both Possibility Points and Skill Points with the P-Points being used to invoke Aspects. As with FATE I was thinking that instead of earning P-Points as experience you'd just have a pool that refreshed every adventure. That's about as far as I've thought about it.

I like the idea of Aspects.  No, I love the idea of Aspects. Explicit roleplaying notes that GM's can call upon and that players get immediate benefits for. Rewarding players for complicating their own lives, instead of complications being the GM screwing or hampering the players? Me likey.

What if Torg's Fate Points were cards from the Drama Deck? "Pool that refreshes every adventure"- isn't that a description of the Cards? 

Jeffrey: "You can spend a point to invoke it and get a bonus" - i.e. use a card.

"The GM offers a compel" = do it, gain a card.

Tagging, I'm not sure about because I don't know how it exactly works.

Anyway, a pool of points that give you benefits, that you refresh automatically at the start of the module is a good fit for the Deck.

What I mean is, these could be alternate rules for gaining/losing cards. Instead of (or in addition to) "refill hand every act."

And, having the mechanics of the DD tied into character Aspects - explicit roleplaying notes - would be cool.

Obviously, I don't know Fate well enough to say how this could work.

Radical Alternative

Separate from the above, and more radical.

What if we use the "Fate point is a DD card" and "Fate point is a PE" together.  That is, what if PE points and DD cards were the same thing? What if the effect of a card was really the effect of spending a PE?

1. You don't use PE to buy adds, but you get a pool ("hand") of PE cards at beginning of the adventure.
2. Fate mechanics to spend/gain PE cards.

Optional:

A. "Spend a PE on an action" means using a card, maybe a Hero card or maybe just "discard any card to get a reroll." (Or maybe no rerolls, just card effects.)
B. Buying off damage could be "discard any card to buy off damage" (if the Fate mechanics already have a "spend a Fate point to buy off damage", it would be cool.)

Instead of PE just being being "reroll with minimum +10", they'd represent any one of a number of options. PE = Action, Supporter, Subplot. This has metaphysical implications. It'd represent the character actually influencing the future in some way.

Metaphysically, people keep wanting to represent PE as the character "choosing" a future. "Roll a random dice" doesn't match this at all, but "get this specific benefit" would.

Again, metaphysically, this would unify cards and PE. It'd let us know what PE actually are, what DD cards actually are in-game (something very fuzzy right now).

It seems like this option would require a retuning of the Deck, to make sure each card were "worth" it.

I'm just spitballin' here, I need to look at Fate to really know.

(As an aside, I support the whole skill point/PE split. It worked well for my last Torg game.)
--
Jasyn Jones
jasynj (at) gmail (dot) com

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson

Check out my Torg webpage, Storm Knights:
web.me.com/stormknights/