Play-Test Episode: "Ariel's Fate"

[Legendary Sidekick]

I just updated my PhotoShop file so I can use ONE text field to type everything. With a 10 pt. Arial font @ 9 pt. spacing, everything lines up with the boxes, and PhotoShops tabs even line up text with the right side column. The catch is that I can only use a 3-line description and 7 lines of text for stunts.

Oh, and if you refresh the page, you'll note that Lily's active stress boxes are in black instead of just having a number typed over them. The inactive stress boxes were easy to gray out since there's a grayed out number 2. (Making the black 3 took a bit of effort.)

So you may have guessed the reason for that effort is that I plan to make character sheets for everyone (in addition to drawing the characters).

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Here's Furtano! Devor, I can rename your stunt and make other updates. The best part: if I update the image, you simply refresh your browser to see the updated character sheet. In other words, I can post them in a thread, and you always go back to the same post to reference your character sheet.

 

[Devor]

I like it.

I'm already noting a few minor changes, but nothing that can't wait until after the playtest. I'd rather post it all at once than have you update it fifteen times. But in particular, I'm adding details to the background, I want to tone down the greatest burglar" thing, and I think "terrified of being discovered" should be a "mental stress consequence" in favor of a troubled aspect that reflects his natural personality.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The consequences are interesting. They absorb part of the "hit," so if the enemy attack is greater than your defense by 7 "shifts" you take a severe consequence and X out the #1 stress box. You can also opt to suffer both a mild and moderate consequence to absorb 6 "shifts."

Basically, you can suffer multiple consequences, but you can only X out one stress box in a single turn. I may have to display the stress boxes on the game screen the way I had those "Zelda hearts" near the character names before.

Spoiler: what a Zelda heart is

Aspects are tricky in the way you want them to be able to work for you or against. For Lily's "understands beasts more than men," my thinking is that there's a socially awkward side to her. If just her and other huntresses, she does okay. In mixed company, or even with women who are not so outdoorsy, she's not very comfortable. And of course her strength in this aspect could mean tracking, taming, or sizing up a beast. She may even know if the beast deserves to be shot, while people could deceive her into thinking they're the good guys. But then, maybe she WOULDN'T trust them just because they're people.

So I thought I did good with that aspect, but notice I stopped at two! I think once the game's been played, we'll have a better feel for what aspects make sense to feature on the sheet. Even then, I won't object to players having blank aspects until they feel like spending a fate point.

 

[Devor]

What's a good symbol for stress?

*Okay . . . okay . . . be a good daddy and try not to say baby crying . . . . . try not to say . . .*

How about a baby screaming?

*damnit*

 

[Noma Galway]

I would love to play-test with you guys

 

[Devor]

Awesome, I look forward to meeting everyone in game.

 

[Ireth]

Here's what I've got for Ariel:

Name: Ariel Hawk
Description: A novice Huntress, Ariel is determined to live up to her name, “Lion of God” (or “Lioness”, as she prefers). Though committed to her training, she refuses to fully relinquish her civilized upbringing.

Aspects:
High Concept: Daddy’s Girl
Trouble: Mile-wide Stubborn Streak

Skills:
Great (+4): Notice
Good (+3): Shoot, Will
Fair (+2): Physique, Athletics, Deceive
Average (+1): Stealth, Empathy, Rapport, Lore

Stunts: To be decided

Appearance: Ariel is decently strong, in a sinewy kind of way. She’s fairly tall for her age, not very muscular, and already bears the scars of a battle or two. Her fair skin freckles more than it tans, and her blonde hair is a mane of curls. Recently she’s ditched more “civilized” garb in favor of handmade animal-hide outfits.

If you need more by way of biography, I'd be happy to give it.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Lore can include some herbal knowledge from Diana (who should probably also have Lore).

Also, if your character can make ANYTHING (even food), Craft is a good skill for that.

 

[Noma Galway]

This is what I've come up with for Mariya:

Name: Mariya
Description: She has been sent to help her Princess through her life. She likes to think of herself as a companion or friend to the princess (regardless of what the princess may think), and she will do basically anything Fenella asks of her.

Aspects: Friends in High Places
Dependent on Others

Skills: Great-Magic
Good-Empathy, Will
Fair-Athletics, Notice, Contacts
Average-Physique, Lore, Stealth, Resources

Stunts: Not totally sure

Appearance: Mariya is small (she is a pixie), and she typically will wear a blue or green dress. Her hair is straight and white. She has a aqua-colored marking on her face which matches the marking on Fenella's sword.


I was unsure of the aspects...so if I did that wrong let me know.

 

[Devor]

Aspects . . . the Boss of Legend can correct me on this, but I'm pretty sure:

The "High-Concept Aspect" is supposed to be the big aspect that defines your character's identity. It's like your class, but a little more descriptive. "Novice Huntress" is okay. "Pursuing Training as a Huntress" is better because it tells you more about your character's motivation.

The "trouble" aspect is basically your character's big flaw. It focuses more on the personal conflicts that you have and why you have them. "Dependent on Others" is okay. "Relies on others to distract her from her own personal scars" is better.

A good aspect should help in the game mechanics. You can use a Fate Point to call on your aspects to help with a die roll. "Because I want to be a skilled huntress, this shot means a lot to me, it's a chance to prove myself, so I'm using a Fate point to take a bonus on this roll...." Or, "Nope, because I'm a stubborn daddy's girl, I'm not going to budge trying to negotiate with this merchant. I'm using a Fate point to take a bonus on this roll." Or, "Because I'm dependant on others, I want to make sure that Fultano understands how important this is. I'm using a fate point to give him a bonus to this roll."

You can also gain a Fate point if an aspect is used to give you a penalty to a roll. "As a Novice Huntress, that shot seems pretty tough...."

So you want to create aspects that develop your character as best you can.

And I'm reworking my aspects too.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Image test: does this display work for you?

The 3 = # of fate points (which will change often) and the circle numbers are stress boxes, which turn red when X'd.

It's not as cute as the hearts, but the Wingding font has the closest thing to numbered boxes. Consequences will be typed in plain English. It'll take getting used to because you need to manage HOW you get hurt… but I figure if you know how many stress boxes remain, that'll help a little. Physical before mental, and of course characters with physique/will get extra. Once we have level 4 characters, it's possible for a great physique or will to be promoted to superb, and that will add an additional mild consequence, which is cool.

PS- if consequence boxes marked 2-4-6 will help, that's easy to do. I could also add the letters F, PS, MS, C* before the numbers rather than have you have to remember which is which.

*(Fate, Physical Stress, Mental Stress, Consequence)

 

[Ireth]

Ariel is cute! ^^ If I may nitpick about the design, her eyes are browny-hazel, not blue (she takes after her mom, not her dad), and her hair is down past her shoulders, like Beatrice's. Sorry, should've mentioned that in her sheet!

Also, I could've sworn Lily was dark-haired, not a redhead. Your call on that one, though!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Oh, she might've been describes as Asian-looking… my first drawing of them had different hair colors. No matter. I want to hand-draw the characters, so I'll make those changes. Looking at my sig, the hand-drawn characters scan better. Lines are thick enough to see after shrinking images, but no so thick that part of the arm is black. If I draw with the tablet, I have to zoom in a lot, which makes it hard for characters to have compatible sizes.

I was really asking if the circled numbers work. I'll also add circle numbers for consequences, so you know which consequence slots are free. That's really the purpose of the display—to show what you really need to know. I think Fate points, stress/consequence slots… oh, and if you have any once-per-encounter stunts, that too.

Consequences are best explained when a player actually gets hit. Maybe I'll have Lily get surprise-attacked just for the sake of demonstration. Hopefully, she won't get one-hit-KO'd, but the dice will decide that too. (Not possible with a single attack, actually. She'd need to be out rolled by 17 to get one-hit-KO'd.)

 

[Devor]

In case it wasn't clear, Furtano's description is being left to the artist formerly known as Legendary.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

That's fine.

Also, now that I know how to type Wingding circle numbers #7-10, I'll use those as FATE tokens too. FATE points that get refreshed will turn red when used. If you have more than 3, those points simply get erased when you used them.

Using Wingdings limits you to 10 FATE points, but if you play on paper there's a finite amount of tokens. Well… the idea is to use them, so I don't think the limit will impede gameplay. If I'm wrong, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

This is not the real game map, by the way… just a quick thing I threw together to show how the character sheet displays fit on a map/game-screen. (It's really not a map.)

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I'm heading out now, but hopefully, I'll find time to whip up some pen-and-paper drawings (then color them later). So Lily, Furtano, and Ariel need art… Mariya has art already in case I run out of time. Also, we might have a new player or two. Oh! And bad guys! We need them too.

When your characters decide to confront the gods-on-Earth with the question of why good gods allow bad people to exist, the answer will be: "Without them, there wouldn't be a game. Doi."

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Using a crappy pen and some index cards (blank side), I drew 3 images for each new character (calm, fighting, and fallen) and I have some villains. Once everything's colored, I'll get some images up and we can start bringing in characters.

As for anyone else who wants in, just design a character as best you can (leaving blank aspects, blank stunts and even blank skills if you're unsure) and I'll draw him or her. Even the Fate PDF says it's okay to build your character as you play.

 

[Devor]

Whatever you've drawn for Furtano, I'm sorry, but it will need to be about 20% more awesome. As your friends we have to set the bar high to keep you improving your art.

 

[Ireth]

I keep misreading "Furtano" as "Fortuna" for some reason. XD