Design Notes

1. Five Aspects gets characters into the danger zone more quickly in terms of the number of Fate Points they have and is still enough to allow for character differentiation. It's also easier for me to track. Whether they're called Hero Points, Bennies or Conviction, most rule sets seem to put the currency for this kind of mechanic number in the 3-6 range.

The Refresh Rate is similarly decreased for like reasons, though I intend to grant characters more opportunities to gain Fate Points either through Compels or other means. There will also likely be more scene Aspects that allow free tags than might be standard as well as the possibility of finding items which might allow free tags of their Aspects before being depleted.

2. I wanted each of the characters to have a peak skill of something other than a combat skill, so I took away that option. I wanted non-combat focused characters to be closer to combat-focused characters in martial skill simply to make designing combat scenes a bit easier to balance. I also didn't want anyone to be have Superb Resources so as to keep the group "hungry." There's probably a cleaner method to achieve both of these goals than what I chose.

3. Choosing to use the 1st and 3rd options at the "faster-conflicts" link seems to be the popular consensus choice in the FATE community for keeping conflict resolution brisk.

4. The Consequence recovery time for Spirit of the Century is genre-appropriate. I wanted Consequences to sting a bit longer, making Severe Consequences particularly unpalatable.

5. Ties are dull. Characters with a lot of checked Stress boxes probably won't take advantage of Heroic Efforts to break them, but fresh or desperate characters might.

6. The intent of this rule is that no conflict is without potential risk no matter the caliber of one's opposition, particularly in a long conflict against many opponents. Someone maintained that "criticals" with no recourse by the defender to the entire Aspect/Fate Point economy is antithetical to the core of FATE. I can't necessarily argue against that point except to say that my play group is accustomed to criticals and seems to like them. This hack introduces some additional fortune into the conflict resolution.

7. The intent here is to keep other players engaged when their character is not on stage and to reward them for being actively engaged in the scene with their narrative contributions.

8. This is a potent ability. Typically, unless there are unusual environmental factors a character can only Maneuver against a foe that is in the same zone, and usually only with some kind of attack that is opposed by Athletics, Weapons, or Fists. This ability gives both range and the possibility to attack a defensive Skill that will more often be lower than the standard defenses.

9. This dynamic function of Sorcery is similar to Invoking an Aspect for effect with the addition of risk of failure. However the character still only pays the Fate Point if the spell (Invocation) is successful.

10. This Stunt really provides a mobility advantage relative to the other characters on the “battle map,” but when I compare it to a mid to high-level monk in D&D, it seems to fit that mold.

11. Modeled after the “Doctor” and “Medic” Stunts. Allows “healing” of Stress during combat without the target needing to forfeit their next action, but cannot be applied for long-term care and cannot be used to remove a minor consequences, physical or mental . These Stunts assume Leadership now has the Trapping of being able to “heal” Stress.

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