Thursday, January 31, 2013

Fate Core and Tribe 8

I've been doing a lot of thinking about various implementations I've tried for adapting Tribe 8 to Fate. My first was using Spirit of the Century as a starting point, but I ran into roadblocks I wasn't able to work around. I backed off for a while, until I discovered Strands of Fate. I thought, "Yes, this one is what I'm looking for!" and was able to bust through a lot of those roadblocks. The result, which I've made available here, is something that I stand behind. I think it's a damn fine adaptation and brings a lot to the table in terms of capturing the tone and feel of Tribe 8 (or, at least, how I interpret it).

I love the Fate fractal, I think it's one of the most elegant, simple concepts since the first war gamer decided to name a character. Anything can be a character. Anything can have Aspects. The different ideas I've had for stress tracks, most of which I've written up here in support of Strands of Flesh and Spirit, are pretty awesome. They're not things I would use all the time, but it's great the capability is there. But there's still a bit of...heaviness...about the conversion. There's a lot of Aspects, multiple stress tracks, powers modeled after the framework provided in Strands of Power. I want it to be leaner, and that's certainly something that Strands can handle, but this has never been about being beholden to one implementation of Fate or another. It's about trying to capture the ephemeral feeling I have about how Tribe 8 should be. I'm like a bear standing on a rock in the middle of the rapids, looking for exactly the right salmon to pluck out.

Fate Core has brought together such an energetic, creative group of people with great ideas. Hunter Gatherer Games has a great post on tribes for their Apocalithic setting. Michael Moceri has come up with some absolutely genius ideas for his Exalted hack. I want my Tribe 8 conversion to be leaner, lighter and capable of supporting the vision I have for my Tribe 8 games. Fate Core, from the settings I've read as part of the Kickstarter, gives me ideas to see that vision through. It doesn't mean I'm done with Strands of Fate - the end result will have elements of both. Plus, I still really want to create a Mekton-worthy Fate hack and I think Strands of Fate is the perfect fit for the job. I'm also very much looking forward to Nova Praxis. But I want to take a step back, toward the type of game I conceptualized when I first read Spirit of the Century. In some ways, that means my Tribe 8 adaptation is coming home again.

I'm not going to remove or change any of the things I've already done. The Strands of Fate version of Dreams of Flesh and Spirit is pretty complete, and anyone who has really liked it and found utility in it can continue to do so. It's just personally, I'm going to move on toward catching that perfect salmon.  

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