Free FATE

v0.4
Open Game Content collated, modified and augmented by R Grant Erswell

Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................. 3 What is Roleplaying? .............................................. 3 Character Creation ...................................................... 4 Create a Concept ..................................................... 4 Choose Aspects ....................................................... 4 Choose Skills............................................................ 4 Choose Stunts .......................................................... 5 Finishing Things Off ............................................... 5 Rules ............................................................................. 6 Making a Test .......................................................... 6 Contests .................................................................... 7 Time Consuming Tasks.......................................... 8 Fate Points ................................................................ 8 Aspects ......................................................................... 9 Invoking Aspects .................................................... 9 Tagging Aspects ...................................................... 9 Introducing Aspects ............................................. 10 Compelling Aspects.............................................. 10 What is a Good Aspect? ....................................... 11 Skills............................................................................ 12 Skill List .................................................................. 12 Assessments ........................................................... 12 Declarations ........................................................... 12 Knowledge Tests ................................................... 13 Research ................................................................. 13 Skill Descriptions .................................................. 13 Stunts .......................................................................... 17 Stunt Templates .................................................... 17 Conflicts ..................................................................... 19 Running Conflicts ................................................. 19 Attacks .................................................................... 19 Manoeuvres ........................................................... 20 Other Actions ........................................................ 21 Stress and Consequences ..................................... 22 Other Sources of Injury ........................................ 25 Supporting Characters ............................................. 27 Extras ...................................................................... 27 Minions .................................................................. 27 Companions .......................................................... 28 Advances ............................................................... 29 Named Characters ................................................ 29 Aspects and Fate Points ....................................... 30 Sample Minions .................................................... 30 Sample Companions ............................................ 30 Chases ........................................................................ 31 Chase Conflicts...................................................... 31 Chase Scenes.......................................................... 31 Passengers.............................................................. 33 Chase Example ...................................................... 33 Equipment ................................................................. 34 Melee Weapons ..................................................... 34 Ranged Weapons .................................................. 34 Armour................................................................... 35 Explosives .............................................................. 35 Vehicles .................................................................. 36 Workplaces ............................................................ 37 Miscellaneous Equipment ................................... 37 Damaging Equipment .......................................... 37 Character Development ........................................... 38 End of Session ....................................................... 38 End of Story ........................................................... 38 Appendix A ............................................................... 39 Sample Benefit Stunts .......................................... 39 Legal Information ..................................................... 47 Whats Changed? .................................................. 47

Introduction
Free FATE is your gateway to exciting adventures, suspenseful tales and thrilling action! This guide helps you and your friends to tell interactive stories, otherwise known as a roleplaying game. The Free FATE rules are a cut down & condensed version of the FATE System (Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment), and are intended to appeal to gamers who prefer uncomplicated rules and to act as an introduction to the full system. The FATE system was developed by Robert Donoghue and Fred Hicks of Evil Hat Productions, and based upon the Fudge System of Grey Ghost Press. The FATE system is, and will be, used in a number of great games such as: Spirit of the Century (Evil Hat Productions) The Dresden Files (Evil Hat Productions) Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7) Legends of Anglerre (Cubicle 7) Diaspora (VSCA Publishing) Bulldogs! (Galileo Games) To learn more about FATE visit the website:

Scene 1 Alison and Trevor are visiting Carolines grave when they hear a commotion within the church. If they investigate (and Sarah expects them to!) they find that the interior of the church is a mess yet no one is present. Written in the wax of some spilt candles is a message Help Adam. Scene 2 The characters will likely want to investigate who Adam is and his connection with the church. Until recently Adam was an altar boy, he ceased attending church after the death of his brother Mark, now buried in the graveyard. Scene 3 The characters can visit Adams home but will be told by his parents that he has run away. An investigation of his room and computer will point to his involvement with a gang. Scene 4 The characters are likely to want to track Adam down, when they do they realise he has taken to drugs to escape his grief over his brothers death. The characters must try to convince Adam to leave with them and return to his parents. They must also deal with the aggressive gang members. Epilogue The next time the characters visit Carolines grave, they will see words being drawn in the dirt by an unseen hand Thank you. The example set up and plot above illustrate a few storytelling techniques. Firstly the player characters have a reason for knowing each other. The GM has also given a motive for the player characters wanting to help; in this case it was Alisons professional interest in the supernatural and both characters empathy with Adam over the loss of a loved one. Quite how obvious an incentive needs to be will depend upon both the players and their characters. Despite a fairly straightforward plot, quite how this story plays out depends upon the choices of the players. For example, how will the player characters find out who Adam is? They could ask the vicar, speak with members of the congregation or search through the churchs records. The Games Master will need to determine how successful the characters are in these endeavours, using the Rules, common sense, and judgement of the players roleplaying and choice of approach. More importantly the Games Master cannot be sure that the players will follow the plot line at all. As such she should plan some ways to get things back on track, or expect to improvise and let the story evolve into something unexpected. The important thing to remember is to have fun, being a Games Master and playing a character are things that improve with practice. Encourage each other and provide constructive criticism to help each other tell better and better stories.

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Free FATE requires the use of two six-sided dice (D6s) of different colours.

What is Roleplaying?
A roleplaying game is a means by which a group of friends can tell a story, a story in which all but one of them take on the mantle of the protagonists. The other player acts as Games Master, or GM; she creates the outline of the plot, describes the scenery, plays the supporting characters, and arbitrates over the success or failure of the characters actions. The GM has a lot to do, but it can be a very rewarding experience! The players declare how their characters react to the scenes presented by the GM and the story progresses through a verbal interaction between players and Games Master. Sarah is a Games Master and she has decided to run a modern day supernatural thriller. She has constructed a simple plot outline, below, for her two players: David, portraying a brusque, recently widowed, police detective called Trevor Maples. Maria; who is playing Alison Havers, a university lecturer in the field of parapsychology. Maria and David previously agreed that Alison was a close friend of Trevors late wife, Caroline, and that Trevor and Alison helped each other through their grief.

Character Creation
Characters in Free FATE are composed of four main traits, Concept, Aspects, Skills and Stunts. However, a character only becomes more than a set of words and numbers when a player roleplays his personality.

Let the younguns do the running Trained by Commander Morse Davidson. Haunted by wifes death in a hit & run accident. A policemans notebook is his greatest weapon David asks his GM, Sarah, to choose his last Aspect once the game has begun. Sarah agrees.

Create a Concept
The first step in creating a character is to come up with a concept, a few words or phrases that describe the characters personality and role. Some examples of concepts could be hard nosed detective, inquisitive, yet cowardly, con artist, or even a reclusive scientist with an alcohol problem. The concept should provide the player with an idea of the characters motives, values and behaviour. It should also help the player when choosing Aspects, Skills and Stunts.

Choose Skills
The next step in creating a character is to choose a number of Skills and assign them a rating. Skills can represent both learned ability and also natural aptitudes and abilities. Skills are given a descriptive and numeric rating according to the following chart, known as the Ladder. Table The Ladder Description Legendary Epic Fantastic Superb Great Good Fair Average Mediocre Poor Terrible Abysmal Rating +8 +7 +6 +5 +4 +3 +2 +1 +0 -1 -2 -3

Choose Aspects
Aspects are an extension of the character concept that together paint a picture of who the character is, what hes connected to, and whats important to him (in contrast to the what can he do of Skills). Aspects are purely descriptive in nature and have no numerical rating. They can describe relationships, beliefs, catchphrases, aptitudes, life events, items or pretty much anything else. Some example Aspects are shown below Always in the thick of it The death of his partner still haunts his dreams Never without his trusty .45 Aspects should reflect both positive and negative features of a character, as they can be used to help a character accomplish tasks, and also to limit a characters behaviour to his detriment (though the player gets a Fate Point as compensation, see Compelling Aspects on page 10). At character creation a player should select up to 8 Aspects to describe his character. If the GM agrees the player may elect to define some of his Aspects during the game as personality quirks and relationships get fleshed out. For example, David is creating a character for a modern day supernatural campaign. His concept is a brusque, domineering, out of shape, detective who has been recently widowed and has turned to drink. David chooses the following Aspects: Police Detective Inspector I want results! Slave to the demon drink

A full list of Skills is provided in the Skills chapter along with an explanation of what each does. Skills should adhere to a pyramid type structure; during character creation this means a player should select 1 Great, 2 Good, 3 Fair, and 4 Average skills. All other Skills that a player does not select for his character are assumed to be at the default rating of Mediocre (+0). David now turns his attention to Skills for his detective, who he has decided to call Trevor Maples. David knows that he wants his character to have some good investigation related Skills and a smattering of supporting Skills that would cover such things as forensic knowledge and combat abilities. David chooses the following Skills and assigns the ratings appropriately. Great (+4): Good (+3): Fair (+2): Average (+1): Investigation Contacting, Intimidation Alertness, Leadership, Resolve Drive, Guns, Science, Stealth

Choose Stunts
Stunts are benefits, special abilities, specialisations or different ways to apply skills that characters without the Stunt are unable to do. Stunts are described in more detail within the Stunts chapter. During character creation a player should choose four stunts that relate to his chosen skills. The GM may allow a player to postpone the selection of one or two Stunts until after the game has begun. David looks through the list of Stunts and selects the following to reflect his characters status within the police and the abilities he has built up over his career: Concentration Criminal Snitches: Gain a +1 bonus to Contacting when gathering information about criminal activity in the city. Specialisation Police Interrogation: Gain a +2 bonus to Intimidation when interrogating a suspect in an official police interview. Skill Switch Surroundings Read: Roll Investigation instead of Empathy to get a read on someone when speaking with them in their home, workplace, car or favourite hangout. Ally Police Backup: Can call on police officers to provide physical backup. Backup will consist of six Fair (+2) Minions with police authority.

The Composure Stress Track has 5 boxes which is increased if the character has a Resolve Skill above Mediocre (+0). David notes that as he did not choose the Endurance Skill for his character his Physical Stress Track has 5 boxes. Trevor Maples does however have a Fair (+2) Resolve skill and thus his Composure Track has 6 boxes.

Fate Points Refresh Rate

Fate points give players the ability to take a little bit of control over the game, either by giving their characters bonuses, or by taking over a small part of the story. Fate points are described more fully in the Rules and Aspects chapters. A character begins each adventure with a number of Fate Points equal to his Refresh Rate which is calculated at character creation as 10 minus the number of Stunts the character has (so if all four stunts are selected at character creation, the Refresh Rate would be 6). If a character finishes a scenario with more Fate Points than their Refresh Rate, they keep these excess points to use in the next adventure.

Equipment
A player can choose a number of items of equipment with a cost (the purchase Difficulty) of Mediocre for every defined Aspect and Stunt his character has. In addition, a player can choose one item with a cost equal to his Resources skill rating, two items at a cost of one less, three items at a cost of two less and so forth down to items with an Average cost. Trevor Maples does not have the Resources Skill and so David can only select 11 Mediocre cost items; for his 7 Aspects (one Aspect remains undefined) and 4 Stunts. Maria defined all 8 Aspects and 4 Stunts for her character Alison Havers, and also gave her a Good (+3) Resources skill. Maria therefore can choose 12 Mediocre cost items and an additional one item with a cost of Good (+3), two items at a cost of Fair (+2) and three items with a cost of Average (+1).

Finishing Things Off

Stress Tracks
A character has two Stress Tracks that measure how much physical and social injury he can suffer before being taken out in a conflict. The Physical Stress Track reflects the amount of physical punishment a character can suffer, whether inflicted by punches, kicks, gun shots, a fall or burns from a fire. The Physical Stress Track has 5 boxes which is increased if the character has an Endurance Skill above Mediocre (+0). Table - Stress Track Boxes Skill Rating (Endurance or Resolve) Mediocre (+0) Average (+1) or Fair (+2) Good (+3) or Great (+4) Superb (+5) or Fantastic (+6) Boxes 5 6 7 8

Character Creation Summary

1. 2. 3. 4. Create a character concept Choose 8 Aspects Choose 10 skills (1 Great, 2 Good, 3 Fair, and 4 Average) Choose 4 Stunts Calculate Stress Tracks (5 boxes, more if Endurance and / or Resolve Skills are chosen) Calculate Fate Point Refresh Rate (10 less number of Stunts chosen) Choose Equipment based upon Resources.

The Composure Stress Track reflects the amount of insults, embarrassment, temptation and self-doubt a character can suffer before they lose a social conflict, be it a debate, a negotiation, or a seduction attempt.

5. 6. 7.

Rules
Making a Test
Whenever a player wants his character to perform an action where the outcome is in doubt a Test is made pitting a characters Skill against a Difficulty chosen by the Games Master. A Test is resolved in the following manner: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Determine the Skill to use Determine a Difficulty Roll the dice & modify the Skill Rating Determine Success or Failure If successful, determine Effect

e.g. haggling may use the supporting characters Resolve Skill rating as a Difficulty. If the thug had been aware of Trevor the starting Difficulty would have been the thugs Athletics skill.

Roll the dice & modify the Skill

Once the Skill and the Difficulty have been determined the player should roll two six-sided dice (abbreviated as D6s) to reflect the role of random chance. One die should be designated as the Plus Die, the other designated as the Minus Die. When the dice are rolled the player need only pay attention to the die that rolled the lowest number. If the lowest die result was on the Plus Die, that number is added to the Skill Rating. If the lowest die result was on the Minus Die, that number is subtracted from the Skill. If the two dice results are the same, there is no lowest die, and the Skill goes unmodified. The modified Skill rating is known as the Effort. Effort = Skill +/- Lowest Die Result David rolls two D6s and gains a 4 on the Plus Die and a 5 on the Minus Die. The lowest result is on the Plus Die, so that is added to his Guns Skill of Average (+1) for a final Effort of +5; a Superb result on the Ladder.

Determine the Skill to use

The GM should determine what Skill is appropriate to the task at hand, for example, Athletics to climb a wall, Rapport to charm someone, and Fists to swing a punch. David is trying to shoot a thug who is assaulting his friend Alison. The Games Master Sarah determines that this is a test using the Guns Skill.

Determine a Difficulty
The Games Master should gauge how difficult she believes the task to be. Difficulties, like Skill ratings, are based upon the Ladder. Table The Ladder Description Legendary Epic Fantastic Superb Great Good Fair Average Mediocre Poor Terrible Abysmal Rating +8 +7 +6 +5 +4 +3 +2 +1 +0 -1 -2 -3

Determine Success or Failure

The Effort should now be compared to the Difficulty; if it equals or exceeds the Difficulty the character has succeeded, otherwise he has failed. David compares Trevors Effort of Superb (+5) to the Difficulty of Fair (+2); Trevor has succeeded.

If successful, determine Effect

Sometimes it is not enough just to know that a character has succeeded; it can be important to know how well that character has succeeded. The amount by which a characters Effort exceeds the Difficulty is known as the Effect and is measured in Shifts. The greater the Effect the more successful the character has been. Effect = Effort Difficulty An Effect of zero shifts is barely a success; the character has accomplished most of what was hoped for, but not all. This usually means further action is required to complete the task. Previously in the adventure, Trevor was forced to leap from one rooftop to another to escape a fire. David made an Athletics test and achieved a success with an Effect of zero shifts. Sarah declared that Trevor barely jumped the gap and is left hanging on by his fingertips. A further Might Skill test was called for in order for Trevor to pull himself up and out of danger.

Sarah, judges that shooting the thug would normally be a Mediocre task as he is unaware of Trevor and thus unable to seek cover. However as the conflict takes place in a dark alley and Trevor does not want to accidentally shoot Alison, Sarah deems this a Fair (+2) Difficulty. For many tasks, the GM may use another characters Skill rating as the Difficulty Number,

Using Shifts
Shifts may be spent to affect the outcome of a roll. Often, the GM will implicitly spend shifts in accordance with the players description of his characters actions. Sometimes, players may explicitly spend shifts as well. Basic uses for one shift include: Reduce time required: Move the time required by one shift along the Time Increments table. Increase quality of outcome: Improve the quality of the job by one step. Increase subtlety: Make the job harder to detect by one. Inflict Stress: In a conflict, each shift on a successful attack inflicts one point of Stress. Gain Spin (requires 3 shifts): See Spin below. David determines the Effect of his characters Guns test. Trevors Effort was Superb (+5) and the Difficulty was Fair (+2), therefore the Effect is 3 shifts; as this was an attack roll a base of 3 Stress is inflicted on the thug.

Secondary Skill > Primary Skill = +1 Secondary Skill < Primary Skill = -1 When the second Skill can only help the first, which is to say it can only provide a bonus, it complements the Skill. A complementing Skill never applies a -1, even if its lower than the primary Skill. This usually happens when the character has the option of using the secondary Skill, but doesnt have to bring it to bear. If the secondary Skill comes into play only to hold the primary Skill back, it restricts the Skill, meaning it can only provide a penalty or nothing at all. A restricting Skill never applies a +1, even if its higher than the primary Skill. Often Skills like Endurance or Resolve are restrictive Skills as you get more tired, you wont get better, but if youre resolute, you may not get worse. Modifies Can provide a bonus or a penalty Complements Can only provide a bonus Restricts Can only impose a penalty

Spin
Spin is a special effect that occurs when a character achieves an Effect of 3 shifts on a Test and doesnt use those shifts for any other purpose (e.g. reducing the time taken, inflicting Stress etc). Normally Spin simply indicates that the character performed extremely well, perhaps gaining admiring glances or special recognition. However, in some cases, gaining Spin can result in an actual game effect. Specific effects are detailed elsewhere in these rules.

Contests
As mentioned previously, sometimes the Difficulty of a task is based upon another characters Skill rating. When one skill opposes another in this manner it is known as a Contest. When a Contest occurs only one party should actually roll the dice and modify his characters Skill rating, the opposing Skill is left unmodified and acts as the Difficulty. If the Skill Test result only equals the Difficulty, then the Contest is actually a tie; the guard hears a noise but doesnt spot the sneaking character, the characters come to a stalemate in negotiations, or both characters grab the gun at the same time. Further tests or action may be necessary to determine ultimate success or failure, e.g. the guard may investigate the source of the noise, new offerings may be made in the negotiations, or a tug of war begins over the gun. If the Test fails the opponent has won with an Effect equal to the number of shifts by which the Test failed. If a Contest is between a player character and a supporting character, in nearly all circumstances it should be the player who rolls the dice. This allows the players to feel more in control of the fate of their characters, and also frees up the GM from having to grab dice and roll them. Occasionally however it may be more appropriate for the GM to make the test for the supporting characters, using the player characters Skill rating as a Difficulty.

Modifiers
Modifiers reflect circumstances that make a task easier or more difficult to perform. Modifiers impact the test by adding to, or subtracting from, the Difficulty. For each complicating factor increase the Difficulty by one shift up the Ladder, so a Fair (+2) task which is complicated by 3 factors becomes a Superb (+5) tasks to perform. In the example above, the darkness in the alley was one complicating factor and Trevors wish to avoid hitting Alison was another factor.

Combining Skills
Occasionally a secondary Skill will have an impact on the task at hand, for example trying to shoot a gun (Guns Skill) whilst maintaining balance on a precipice (Athletics Skill). If the second Skill is of greater value than the first, it grants a +1 bonus to the roll; if the second Skill is of a lesser value, it applies a -1 penalty to the roll.

This may be useful when the act of asking for a dice roll may tip off the player that something is up; for example asking for an Empathy test may clue the player into the fact that the supporting character is deceiving him in some way. Secretly rolling a Deceit test with a Difficulty of the player characters Empathy may be a better option. Equally, it may be quicker to roll a single Stealth test for a supporting character and compare it to all the player characters Alertness Skill ratings, than have four or five players all rolling dice.

Actual Time
When the Test is made to determine the success or failure of the task, the player can elect to spend any shifts of Effect to reduce the time. Each shift used in such a manner reduces the time taken by one increment on the table. Trevor Maples is conducting a police interview with a suspect. The GM, Sarah, has stated that such an interview has a base time of an hour. David rolls Trevors Intimidation skill to perform the interrogation and succeeds with an Effect of 2 shifts. David elects to use both shifts to reduce the base time from an hour to 15 minutes, but his Effect is now effectively zero; he gets enough of a confession to follow a new lead, but not enough to charge the suspect. Alternatively, if a character fails the test, the GM may allow him to spend more time to complete the task. The time taken is increased by one increment for every shift by which the character failed. This cannot be used to increase the Effect.

Time Consuming Tasks

Certain tasks require an extended period of time to perform; it can take minutes to crack open a safe and weeks to write a computer program.

Base Time
If a Games Master feels a task requires longer than a few instances to complete then she should assign the task a base time period in which it can be accomplished. The table below lists appropriate base times to assign to a particular task. Table Time Increments Time Period Instant A few moments Half a minute A minute A few minutes 15 minutes Half an hour An hour A few hours An afternoon A day A few days A week A few weeks A month A few months A season Half a year A year A few years A decade A lifetime Generations Centuries

Fate Points
Fate Points allow a player to nudge fortune in his characters favour. Spending a Fate Point can provide one of the following benefits: add +1 to the total of any Skill Test Effort, or to the Skill rating if being used as a Difficulty in a contest. to power a Stunt if it is particularly powerful. to make a minor narrative declaration, for example introducing an item into the scene that wasnt described as previously being there, e.g. a fire extinguisher. The Games Master has veto power over this. Fate Points however can be used to achieve more potent effects when used in combination with Aspects; see the Aspects chapter, below, for more information.

Aspects
Invoking Aspects
As described previously, Aspects are descriptive qualities of a character; however they can have a mechanical impact on a game as well. Whenever a player states that his character is performing some action that is very much in line with an Aspect, he may invoke that Aspect. The player should ask the GM whether he can invoke the Aspect, explaining why he feels the Aspect will have an impact on the situation. If the GM agrees, the player spends a Fate Point and can: add +2 to the Effort (or to the Skill rating if being used as a Difficulty in a contest), ...or... have the dice re-rolled, taking the new result. Davids character Trevor Maples is speaking with a pathologist in the hopes of getting some leads from the corpse he and Alison discovered earlier, however the pathologist is being far from co-operative. David elects to have Trevor use his Good (+3) Intimidation Skill to convince the pathologist that he should give his corpse priority and work into the night if needed. Sarah the GM set the Difficulty at Average (+1), the pathologists Resolve Skill rating. David rolls the dice and gets a 6 on the Plus Die, and a 4 on the Minus Die; as the Minus Die shows the lower of the two results David reduces the Skill Rating of Good (+3) by 4 shifts to Poor (-1). Seeing the result, David knows he will fail, so he looks to his characters Aspects to see if any are applicable. David turns to Sarah and asks whether he can invoke his I want results! Aspect, explaining that Trevor will have gained a reputation for making a persons life a misery if they dont produce the goods. Sarah is convinced and David hands over a Fate Point, stating that he will play it safe and take the +2 bonus, turning his Poor (-1) Effect into an Average (+1) Effect and just scrape a success!

Aspect. When an Aspect is part of a declaration, it can make the less plausible more plausible, thus allowing the player to get away with more. Trevor is following up a rumour that a local journalist managed to take some photos of a crime in progress, but gets the brush off when making enquiries at the newspapers office; it seems someone has threatened the journalist and she is refusing to talk to anyone. David asks Sarah to invoke his Haunted by wifes death in a hit & run accident Aspect to state that the journalist was the one who covered the death of his wife, and that she had been sympathetic to him back then. Despite this not being part of Sarahs original notes for the scenario, she thinks it will be a nice tie-in to the characters back story and allows it, asking David to spend the Fate point. In return, Sarah role plays the journalist as recognising the police inspector and opening up a little because of their past relationship.

Tagging Aspects
It is not just player characters who have Aspects, supporting characters, items, locations and even the scene itself can have Aspects too. These Aspects can be invoked by a player just like his own characters Aspects; this is known as tagging the Aspect. Trevor has just interrupted a back room poker game at a pub known to be the hangout of a suspect. Sarah describes how the poker players, all local neer-do-wells including the suspect look up worriedly, an atmosphere of nervous tension settling over the proceedings. David asks Sarah whether atmosphere of nervous tension is an Aspect of the scene; thinking about it, she says it is. David then asks whether he can spend a Fate Point to tag that Aspect for a Bonus when using Investigation to get a read on the suspect, Sarah agrees. David plays out the use of his Skill Switch Surroundings Read Stunt Thats quite a sum of money in the pot there Jimmy, and single malt Scotch, not the blended stuff you usually drink? Come into some money recently? David rolls his Investigation Skill against a Difficulty of Jimmys Deceit; with the bonus from tagging the scene aspect, he succeeds and Sarah reveals that Jimmy has the Guilty conscience Aspect. Instead of one of the usual benefits for invoking an Aspect the GM may allow a player to Tag an Aspect to use a different Skill to accomplish a task than he normally would. E.g. tagging a scene Aspect of Fear & Trepidation may allow Intimidation to be used in a negotiation rather than Rapport; rather than a charming negotiation it becomes a set of bullying demands and threats!

Invoking for Effect

A player can also invoke an Aspect for effect, using it for a benefit that is not related to a dice roll or Skill use at all. This costs a Fate point like any other invocation does. For example, a player could invoke an Aspect that describes a secret organisation to declare that the group has a chapter in town. This is subject to the same sort of restrictions as spending Fate points for minor declarations (see page 8) but is more potent due to the focus of the

Tagging for Effect

Similar to the way in which a player may invoke his characters Aspects for effect, so may he tag Aspects not belonging to the character for effect. As normal, the GM has the power to veto any suggestion. A tag for effect can be used to compel the way in which a supporting character will act; though only in general terms (it cannot dictate specific actions). The victim of a tag for effect receives a Fate Point if the effect is to their detriment. Having learnt that Jimmy has the Guilty conscience Aspect, David asks the GM to tag that Aspect and compel Jimmy to try to get away when his character Trevor asks him to accompany him to the station. David knows that Trevor has already called in backup and so Jimmy is unlikely to actually escape, but he hopes that an attempt to flee will give him the excuse to arrest Jimmy and help prove his guilt. Sarah agrees to the tag, however she informs David that it is entirely up to her just how Jimmy tries to get away will he charge past Trevor to the door, try to crash through a window, or up end the table with the cash on it hoping the confusion provides cover? The specifics are Sarahs call.

Compelling Aspects
Just as players can tag a supporting characters Aspects to dictate the way in which he should behave, so the GM can tag the Aspects of a player character to compel him to act in a certain manner, usually to the characters detriment. This is known as Compelling an Aspect. Alternatively the GM may Compel a characters Aspects to add a complication to the task at hand, force an automatic failure of an action, or even introduce difficulties off-screen such as have a loved one mentioned in an Aspect kidnapped! Though this may seem like a bad thing for a player, a Compel can lead to interesting and exciting situations, but more immediately a player who accepts a Compel receives a Fate Point. Accepting a Compel is the primary way for a player to gain Fate Points, and as such it is wise to make sure a character has a number of Aspects that can easily be Compelled by the GM. Just as David requested, Sarah has the suspect Jimmy make a break for it, pushing over the table of cash and barging past Trevor. Knowing that he requested the police constables cover the back of the pub, David states that Trevor will give chase. Sarah states she is Compelling Trevors Let the younguns do the running Aspect, stating that Trevor will only have two exchanges to catch Jimmy before having to give up wheezing and out of breath. David accepts the Compel and receives a Fate Point.

Introducing Aspects
Players can, through their characters actions, discover Aspects that were previously hidden or even create new Aspects for a scene, location or person via a declaration or a manoeuvre in a conflict. When this occurs the player should be awarded a free tag of that Aspect, i.e. he does not have to pay a Fate Point to tag it for the first time (if used to tag for effect to the detriment of a character, that character still gets a Fate Point). Such a free tag is subject to one key limitation; it must occur immediately or very soon after the Aspect has been brought into play. This usually means that the free tag must be taken within the same scene that the Aspect was introduced. In the example above, David discovered a previously hidden Aspect of Jimmy; Guilty Conscience. When David attempted to tag it for effect Sarah allowed this to occur without requiring David to spend a Fate Point. The player may pass his free tag to another character if he so wishes. This can allow for one character to set up an ally who is better positioned to take advantage of the newly revealed Aspect. For further information on exactly how Assessments & Declarations work see the Skills chapter. Manoeuvres are explained in the Conflicts chapter on page 20.

Voluntary Compels
Sometimes it is the player, rather than the GM, who identifies a situation where his characters Aspects may be compelled. In such cases the player may bring this to the attention of the GM. The GM can either agree and hand over a Fate point, or defer, offering a brief explanation.

Refusing a Compel & Escalation

If a player really does not want to accept the Compel, they can refuse it but doing so costs a Fate Point rather than earning one. Rarely, in moments of high tension or drama, the Games Master can choose to escalate a Compel. This is an optional rule, and should really only be used when the character getting compelled is having a defining moment in his story. When a player refuses a Compel, the GM can elect to offer two Fate Points instead of one. If the player accepts he spends no Fate Points and instead receives two. However if the player really does not want to accept he can still refuse, but now it will cost him two Fate Points.

10

What is a Good Aspect?

Thinking of Aspects that describe a character, can be easy, however creating Aspects that lend themselves well to the mechanics of invocation, tagging and compels is quite a bit trickier! Aspects serve a number of purposes in a Free FATE game and a good Aspect is one that fulfils most if not all of these needs.

resulting from accepting the compel would make for a more interesting and exciting story. Trevors I want results! Aspect could be Compelled to encourage David to have Trevor accept a suspects statement as true if it could lead to a quick arrest, even though David knows it is likely a red herring and will lead to trouble with a local crime boss if acted upon. Alternatively, the GM may agree with Davids self compel to have Trevor plant evidence to get a conviction, on the understanding that it will come to light at some point and Trevor will suffer because of it. If youre struggling, to come up with Aspects that can both be invoked and compelled then try to make sure that a character has at least some Aspects that can be invoked and some that can be compelled; providing a balance overall.

Is it a Hook?
Aspects should say something about how the character fits into the larger world. Such an Aspect can provide story hooks, be they supporting characters, organisations or past events. David wants an Aspect that indicates that Trevor Maples is well trained in deductive reasoning and investigation. Rather than simply have an Aspect of Investigator, or even Trained investigator, he chooses Trained by Commander Morse Davidson. The commanders nickname is a reference to the fictional Oxford detective and suggests that Trevor was mentored by the best and is a clever, observant and intuitive investigator. But better still, it introduces a supporting character that the GM can use to pull Trevor into a story, or that David can call upon by invoking his Aspect.

Make it Snappy & then Discuss

Aspects should be short, catchy phrases, not paragraphs of text. However, the brevity of an Aspects name means some things are left unspoken, so a player should discuss what they feel an Aspect means with his GM. As Sarah was not familiar with the Morse novels and TV series, David needed to explain what he meant by Trained by Commander Morse Davidson. Aspects are also a way that a player can explicitly inform his GM of what he wants to see happen in the game; if the player picks an Aspect like DeathDefying then he is telling the GM to put his character into death defying situations. The GM should pay close attention to the Aspects of his players characters, as they will inform her of the type of adventure she should be creating.

Can it be Invoked?
In order to see whether an Aspect will likely see use in a Free FATE game, you should try to think of at least two or three different ways it could be invoked to provide a benefit to the character? If you are struggling to come up with more than one, the Aspect may be too narrowly focused. Slave to the demon drink would seem to be largely a weakness, but David could invoke it to explain Trevor having a bottle of whisky in his pocket to use as a bribe, or to create a Molotov cocktail. It could also be invoked to enhance a Contacting Test stating that Trevor knows all the pubs and bars in the area, and which miscreants frequent each one. Equally, this Aspect could enhance a Stealth Test to remain undetected when observing an illicit meet in a bar.

Sample Aspects
Always in a rush But it works for me! Curiosity killed the cat Dont I know you from somewhere? First on the scene Girl in every port Heart of Gold Lying comes easy Never trusts a man who wont look him in the eye Odd coincidences Paparazzi dog my every step Quiet as a mouse Reckless Fun Lover Something to prove We need more! Much more...and bigger!

Can it be Compelled?
A good Aspect is often a double edged sword; a benefit in some circumstances, and a hindrance in others. This allows Fate Points to be earned as well as providing the opportunity to spend them. Like invocations you should be able to think of a few different ways in which the Aspect could be compelled in such a way that the consequences

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Skills
Skills reflect both natural aptitudes and learned abilities. Skills are rated on the Ladder as described in the Rules chapter, above.

Assessments as Declarations
If the GM is amenable, an Assessment may also allow a player character to discover an element that the GM hadnt even thought of previously. In this manner the Assessment works like a Declaration (see below) with the player stating that his character has identified a weakness, Aspect or other feature. The GM sets a Difficulty for the Skill roll to see if the character was correct in his Assessment, or whether he was mistaken. If the roll fails, the GM may wish to impose a temporary Aspect on the assessing character to reflect this, for example Mistakenly believes the security cameras to have a blind spot.

Skill List
Academics Alertness Art Athletics Burglary Contacting Deceit Drive Empathy Endurance Engineering Fists Gambling Guns Intimidation Investigation Leadership Might Mysteries Pilot Rapport Resolve Resources Science Sleight of Hand Stealth Survival Weapons

Declarations
A Declaration allows a player to use his characters Skills to introduce entirely new facts and Aspects into play by making a statement and testing to see whether it is true. Declarations are often, but not exclusively, the domain of knowledge Skills such as Academics, Art, Mysteries and Science. Unlike Assessments, a Declaration takes no ingame time to perform as they represent a character recalling previously learnt knowledge. Marias character Alison Havers is helping Trevor Maples investigate the death of noted psychic and artist Ray Bremmond. When reviewing the crime scene Trevor inspects the deceaseds latest painting and asks Alison whether there is anything special about his work. Maria asks the GM to make a Declaration using her Average (+1) Art skill stating that Ray Bremmond always included Veronese green somewhere in the lower left corner of his paintings as a secondary signature. The Difficulty for a declaration should be based on how interesting the proposed fact or Aspect is. Ideas which would disrupt the game or are just unreasonable should simply be vetoed. For reasonable suggestions, these are the questions to ask when determining Difficulty: 1. 2. 3. Is the declaration interesting or funny? Will the declaration have interesting consequences if its acted upon but is wrong? Does the declaration propose a specific and interesting or heroic course of action?

Assessments
Certain Skills allow characters to observe, study and interact with people and locations in order to discover useful information about them. Using a Skill in this manner is known as an Assessment and usually requires anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. Assessments can even be used to uncover previously hidden Aspects of a character or locale. Trevors ex-con associate Mickey is helping him investigate a factory from which a number of people have disappeared. Mickeys player Joe asks the GM to use his Burglary Skill to case the factory. Sarah the GM sets a Difficulty and Joe makes the Burglary Test, succeeding. Sarah reveals that the factory has an Aspect of Poorly maintained fencing, an Aspect that could be tagged (free of charge) in the immediately following scene to aid an Athletics Skill test to enter the factory grounds. The Difficulty for the Skill roll to determine whether an Assessment is successful is set by the GM. For locations and items, a default Good (+3) Difficulty will allow characters to successfully make an Assessment, though this may be increased if special efforts have been taken to conceal the Aspects, features and flaws. For Assessments that focus on other characters, the Difficulty will often be set by that characters appropriate Skill rating, e.g. Deceit or Resolve.

Each no adds 2 to a base difficulty of Mediocre. Sarah the GM thinks this is a reasonable declaration and asks herself the three questions. The idea of a secondary signature is interesting, and if the declaration is wrong but believed to be true, Alison and Trevor may declare a number of Bremmonds paintings to be forgeries potentially embarrassing and also creating some red herrings!

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However the declaration would not prompt a particular course of action and so Sarah sets the Difficulty at Fair (+2) for a no to question three. Maria succeeds at the test and her Declaration is now a fact within the game; something that can be used to help authenticate Bremmonds paintings. Often a Declaration can be used to assign a new Aspect to an item or scene, when this occurs the declaring character gets one free tag of the Aspect. Maria asks Sarah whether Signed with Veronese green can be an Aspect of all of Bremmonds paintings and Sarah agrees.

Alison has the Mysteries Skill at Great (+4), but unfortunately Maria rolls a 5 on the Plus Die and a 2 on the Minus Die, meaning her Effort is only Fair (+2). Sarah tells Maria that Alison is unable to identify the symbol. Maria therefore elects to return to her university Arcane Library (which luckily is of a Superb quality) to search for the answer. As Maria failed the Test by 3 shifts Superb (+5) Difficulty less the Fair (+2) Effort it will take Alison an hour to find the answer.

Skill Descriptions
Academics
Academics measures a characters book learning; any knowledge that would not explicitly fall under Science, Mysteries, or Art. Academics is often used to make Assessments and perform Declarations (see page 12). In addition, Academics covers knowledge of other languages; each step above Mediocre gives the character knowledge of one extra language.

Knowledge Tests
When a player wants to see if his character knows about a certain topic or area of study then a test can be made using an appropriate skill e.g. Academics to recall details of an historical battle, whilst Guns might be used to identify a particular firearm and who manufactures it. The Knowledge Difficulty table can be used as a guide to assign a Difficulty to the task. The greater the Effect, the more detailed the knowledge the character has about the subject. Table - Knowledge Difficult Obscurity Common knowledge Expert knowledge Leading expert knowledge Known only to one or two people in the world Lost knowledge Difficulty Average (+1) to Good (+3) Great (+4) Superb (+5) Fantastic (+6) Epic (+7)

Alertness
Alertness is a measure of the characters passive awareness, his ability to stay on his toes and react to sudden changes in his environment. Alertness is also the basis for initiative in a physical conflict. Active searching falls under the Investigation Skill.

Art
Art measures the characters overall artistic ability, covering the gamut of endeavours, from painting to dance to music. This includes knowledge, composition, and performance. Art can also be used to perform Declarations (see page 12).

Athletics

Research
If a character fails a Knowledge Test, he can spend time researching or experimenting to find the answer as long as he has access to a good library or laboratory in some form. The amount by which the knowledge Skill Test failed is the length of time in time periods (page 8) required to find the answer, beginning at 15 minutes for failing by 1 shift. The Quality of the library or laboratory determines the hardest possible question that can be answered within it; so if the Knowledge Skill Test had a Difficulty of Good (+3) then a Good library or better is required. Alison Havers is attempting to identify an occult symbol left on the body of a murder victim. Sarah the GM asks Maria to make a Mysteries Skill Test for her character, setting the Difficulty at Superb (+5).

Athletics measures the characters general physical capability, excepting raw power, (which is Might) and long term endurance (which is Endurance). Athletics covers running, jumping, climbing and swimming. It determines movement and acts as a defensive Skill in physical conflicts.

Burglary
Burglary represents the ability to overcome security systems, from alarms to locks. Burglary also includes knowledge of those systems and the ability to assess them (see Assessments, page 12).

Contacting
Contacting is the ability to find things out from people. A character may know a guy, who knows a guy, or maybe he just knows the right questions to ask. Whatever his methods, he can gather information by asking around.

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Deceit
Deceit is the ability to hide the truth and convey falsehoods convincingly. Deceit can be used to fast talk a security guard, carry out elaborate confidence schemes or create simple disguises that can withstand casual inspection (but not close scrutiny, i.e. any use of the Investigation Skill). Deceit is often opposed by Empathy, Alertness or Investigation. Deceit (modified by Rapport) can itself be used to oppose the use of Empathy to get a read on a character (in place of straight Rapport).

require a Workshop (see page 37) with a Quality Rating equal to the Difficulty of the repair minus 2. Rules for creating items can be found on page 37.

Fists
Fists represents a characters ability to fight and defend himself whilst unarmed. Despite the name, this Skill can be used for kicks, headbutts and bites as well as the use of bare hands. Fists is used in Physical Conflicts (see page 19).

Gambling
Gambling is the knowledge of how to gamble and moreover, how to win when gambling. It also includes knowledge of secondary things like bookmaking and risk taking. Finding a game to sit in on can simply be a matter of going to a casino; private games require a Contacting Test to find. The stakes of a game are assigned a rating on the Ladder, this is the Difficulty for the Gambling Test. If the Gambling Test is successful, and the stake is cash or easily liquidated assets, the gambler gets to make a single Resources Test using the rating of the stake rather than his own Resources Skill. If the Gambling Test fails, the gambler must make a Resources Test with a Difficulty of the stakes. If this succeeds, the gambler can pay his dues, otherwise he is in debt preventing him from gambling any more until he can make payment.

Drive
Drive is the ability to operate a ground or water based vehicle, be it a car, hovercraft, boat or submersible. It is often used in chases (page 31).

Empathy
This is the ability to understand what other people are thinking and feeling. It can be used to spot a liar or help tell someone what they want to hear. Empathy is usable as a defense against Deceit, and is the basis for initiative in a social conflict. Finally, Empathy can be used to get a read on someone by performing an Assessment (see above) using a target characters Rapport as the Difficulty.

Endurance
Endurance is the ability to keep performing physical activity despite fatigue or injury. Its a measure of the bodys resistance to shock and effort. In addition to fatigue, Endurance measures how well a character shrugs off poisons and disease. Finally, Endurance determines the number of boxes on a characters Physical Stress track (see Stress Tracks, in Character Creation).

Guns
The Guns Skill is used to shoot any type of personal weapon that fires at range from bows to pistols to automatic rifles. The Guns Skill is used in Physical Conflicts (see page 19).

Engineering
Engineering is the understanding of how machinery works, for purposes of building, repairing and even sabotaging it. Engineering is often complemented by the Science Skill (see Combining Skills, page 7). Table Repair Times Repair Undertaken Remove all Stress Remove a Minor Consequence Remove a Major Consequence Remove a Severe Consequence Remove an Extreme Consequence Time Period A few hours A few hours A day A week A month

Intimidation
Intimidation is the Skill of unsettling and sometimes outright scaring another person through physical threats of violence or more subtle psychological means. This is also the Skill to use for interrogation. Using Intimidation is often a blatant social attack, which someone can defend against with their Resolve.

Investigation
Investigation is the ability to look for things and, hopefully, find them. This is the Skill used when the character is actively looking for something, such as searching a crime scene or trying to spot a hidden enemy. It is also useful for eavesdropping or any other activity where someone is trying to observe something over a period of time. When looking for deep patterns and hidden flaws, Investigation may be used to make Assessments.

Engineering can be used to repair devices, given the right tools and enough time (see the table above). The GM should set the Difficulty for the Engineering roll, if in doubt use the highest value of the device, or its Resources cost. Repairs also

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Leadership
Leadership is a multi-faceted Skill. A good leader knows how to direct and inspire people, but he also understands how to run an organization. As such, the Leadership Skill covers acts of both types, from inspiring comrades to make one last push on a battlefield, to navigating the maze of bureaucracy of a corporation. The GM may allow Leadership to Complement other characters Skills if organisation is an important factor (see Combining Skills on page 7).

Might may be used indirectly as well, to modify, complement, or restrict some Skill uses, for example in combat, Might may complement Fists and Weapons if force is a very significant element. Furthermore, a successful manoeuvre may allow a character to begin grappling with his foe, allowing Might to be used instead of Fists.

Mysteries
Mysteries is knowledge of the supernatural, the occult and psychic phenomena. It covers everything from experience with hypnosis techniques to a sense that there is something else beyond the material world. Mysteries is often used to perform Declarations (see page 12). In certain circumstances the GM may allow Mysteries to be used to make Assessments (page 12) to discover hidden Aspects of a locale or person (by reading an aura for example). A GM may allow a Mysteries Test as she would an Alertness Test, to notice strange and mysterious things, in effect it is a sixth sense. A Mysteries Test with a Difficulty of a willing participants Resolve Skill will allow the character to put the participant into a hypnotic trance. This can be used to help the participant recall memories or calm them down. If appropriate, Mysteries may be used like the Engineering Skill to create and repair arcane and magical items. Rules for creating items can be found on page 37.

Might
This is a measure of pure physical power, be it raw strength or simply the knowledge of how to use the strength one has. Table Breaking Things Difficulty Mediocre (+0) Average (+1) Fair (+2) Good (+3) Great (+4) Superb (+5) Fantastic (+6) Epic (+7) Legendary (+8) Description Paper or glass. Flimsy wood. Cheap wood, bamboo, some light plastics. Non-reinforced wooden board, an interior door. Strong wood, hardwood boards, exterior door. Reinforced wood, heavy door Security door Bending prison bars Safe of bank vault door

Pilot
Pilot is the ability to fly aircraft, whether they be propeller fighter planes, helicopters, or commercial jet airliners. It is most often used in chases (see Chases on page 31).

A character can carry a default amount of weight as shown on the table below. If carrying more than this, for each step heavier the character takes a -1 penalty on all other physical action up to a maximum of a -4 penalty (up to four steps higher). A Might Skill Test with a Difficulty of his own Might will allow a character to push himself into a category five steps higher for a total -5 penalty. Table Lifting Might Mediocre (+0) Average (+1) Fair (+2) Good (+3) Great (+4) Superb (+5) Fantastic (+6) Epic (+7) Legendary (+8) Carry (lbs) 15 25 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Rapport
Rapport is the ability to talk with people in a friendly fashion and make a good impression, and perhaps convince them to see ones side of things. Any time a character wants to communicate without an implicit threat, this is the Skill to use, which makes it appropriate for interviewing. Rapport is the fallback social Skill. While Empathy, Deceit, and Intimidation are fairly specific in their applications, Rapport is the catchall that covers everything else.

Resolve
Resolve is a measure of a characters self-mastery, his courage and willpower. Its an indicator of coolness under fire and also represents the drive not to quit. It can play a key part in efforts to resist torture or strange powers.

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Resolve is almost always rolled in response to something, rather than on its own. Its primary role is as defence against most kinds of social manipulation or distraction. Finally, Resolve determines the number of boxes on a characters Composure Stress track (see Stress Tracks, in Character Creation).

Stealth
This is the ability to remain unseen and unheard. Directly opposed by Alertness or Investigation, this ability covers everything from skulking in the shadows to hiding behind a door. Environmental conditions can greatly affect the ability to use Stealth, the table below suggests some modifiers to apply to the Stealth Skill roll. Table Stealth Skill Modifiers Modifier +4 +2 0 -2 -4 Environment Pitch black, no visibility Dark, smoke, thick fog, no clear line of sight, greatly diminished visibility Dim lighting, cluttered line of sight. Good Lighting, clear line of sight Bright lighting, clear area

Resources
Resources is a measure of available wealth, the specific form this takes, from a family trust fund to a well invested portfolio, can vary from character to character (and may be indicated and enhanced by their Aspects). Resources is used to determine starting equipment (page 5) and can be used to purchase items. The cost of items is measured as a purchase Difficulty on the ladder and many items are detailed in the Equipment chapter. A character can buy reasonable quantities of anything of a value less than his Resources without worrying about it. For items greater than or equal to his Resources, the player needs to roll against the cost of the item. If successful, the character can afford the item; if not, he cant. Characters can only make one Resources roll per scene. When a character is in a place where he cant draw upon his usual resources, the GM may increase the Difficulty of making a purchase anywhere from +1 for a modest amount of red tape, to a +4 if the character is limited solely to the already-converted local currency he happens to have in his pockets.

Survival
Survival is a very broad Skill covering virtually every sort of outdoor activity from wilderness survival to animal handling and riding. For determining whether a character is able to survive in an environment, the GM should set a Difficulty appropriate to the harshness of the environment; success allows the character to survive. If required the character can also help a number of other characters equal to the Effect to survive as well. When handling animals Survival is often used in a Contest against the animals Resolve. A successful Survival Test against a Mediocre (+0) Difficulty allows for a hide to be built that allows Survival to complement Stealth whilst in it. The hide lasts for one day, plus a number of extra days equal to the Effect.

Science
Science holds the promise of revealing all of natures secrets. This Skill represents a broad knowledge of scientific method, and includes the field of computers (including hacking) and medicine. Science is often used to make Declarations (see page 12). In certain circumstances the GM may allow Science to be used to make Assessments (page 12).

Weapons
This is the Skill for fighting with weapons, including swords, knives, axes, clubs and whips. The Weapons Skill also covers the ability to throw small handheld weapons up to one zone away, or to use weapons (like a whip) with unusually long reach to attack adjacent zones, so a character would use this Skill to be a good knife fighter and knife thrower. As a combat Skill, Weapons inherently carries the ability to defend oneself in a fight and as such, may be rolled for defence.

Sleight of Hand
This Skill covers fine, dexterous activities like stage magic, pick pocketing, and replacing an idol with a bag of sand without tripping a trap. While Athletics is appropriate for gross physical activities, most things requiring manual speed and precision fall under this Skill (that said, if youre picking a lock, use Burglary). Using Sleight of Hand is usually a contest against a targets Alertness Skill, if the target is on guard they gain a +2 bonus, however a distraction can negate this.

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Stunts
Stunts exist to provide guaranteed situational benefits, special abilities and even minor powers, under particular circumstances. A Stunt may grant a character the ability to use a Skill under unusual circumstances, such as using it in a broader array of situations, substituting it for another Skill, or using it in a complementary fashion to another Skill. A Stunt might allow a character to gain an effect roughly equal to two shifts, when used in a specific way, or otherwise grant other small effects. Put more simply, Stunts allow the usual rules about Skills to be broken or at least bent. Games Masters, and players under GM supervision, are encouraged to create their own Stunts to fit their game. To help with this process Free FATE suggests five templates for Stunts. These templates provide guidelines on how to create distinct and balanced Stunts. Players and GMs are encouraged to give a name to a particular implementation of a template for ease of reference. By doing this, it is possible to build up an extensive list of different Stunts.

wielding a particular type of sword, for example a katana. If the character also has a concentration stunt that overlaps with this specialisation, only apply the +2 bonus from the specialisation. David also created a specialisation stunt for his character called Police Interrogation. Trevor gains a +2 bonus to the Intimidation Skill when interrogating a suspect in an official police interview. David and Sarah agree that this means an interview in a police station interview room, with another police officer present and the interview being recorded.

Skill Switch
A skill switch stunt allows a character to use one Skill in place of another when performing a particular task. The scope of such use is similar to that of a concentration stunt. For example, a skill switch stunt may allow the Athletics Skill to be used instead of Survival to ride horses and other mounts. David and Sarah devised the skill switch stunt Surroundings Read, which allows the Investigation Skill to be used instead of Empathy to get a read on someone when speaking with them in their home, workplace, car or favourite hangout. If trying to assess someone away from those environments David will need to use Trevors Empathy Skill; which defaults to Mediocre (+0).

Stunt Templates
Concentration
A concentration stunt provides a character with a +1 bonus to a particular Skill when using that Skill in a particular manner. The scope of this use is quite broad (but does not cover all uses of the skill). For example, a concentration stunt for the Weapons skill could be when wielding bladed weapons be they swords, knives or axes. A character would gain a +1 bonus to Weapons Skill Tests when using such a weapon, but not when using clubs, staffs or whips. When David was creating his character Trevor Maples he and Sarah his GM created a Concentration Stunt that they called Criminal Snitches; Trevor gains a +1 bonus to the Contacting Skill when gathering information about criminal activity in the city. This bonus is not gained when using Contacting to learn about any other subjects (e.g. political funding sources, which actor is secretly seeing that new pop star etc).

Ally
An ally stunt provides the character with an ally; another character who can help in specific types of conflicts and who may also have the ability to provide assistance outside of conflicts too. The ally is by default a Companion character which the player can improve with four advances (see Companions on page 28 of the Supporting Characters chapter). If the player chooses the Strength in Numbers advance the ally is instead a group of three Minions (more if the Strength in Numbers advance is chosen more than once). If desired a second and third ally stunt can, rather than provide more allies, provide an additional three advances each to spend on an existing ally (for a maximum of 10 advances).

Benefit
A benefit stunt is the catchall category for any other stunt that doesnt conform to the previous four templates. Benefit stunts can provide a character with access to resources, equipment, special abilities and other qualities. When creating benefit stunts some will appear more powerful than others, if the GM and players

Specialisation
A specialisation stunt provides a character with a +2 bonus when using a Skill in a very specific way. For example, a specialisation stunt for the Weapons skill could apply when a character is

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are happy to have such stunts available, then they should feel free to incorporate them into their game. However, if such imbalance is not desired, there are a few methods to limit the power such benefit stunts may have, so that they are in line with other stunts.

but one that Sarah feels provides an additional benefit in that these Minions will have official authority to enforce the law. Sarah states that such an ally stunt requires the character to have an Aspect that identifies him as an active member of the police (or other security service). This will allow her as GM to compel the Aspect to sometimes make the backup unavailable, and also to ensure the character has some motivation to use the backup responsibly. David agrees to the pre-requisite and names the ally stunt Police Backup.

Fate Point Expenditure

One simple manner to limit any possible abuse of a powerful stunt is to require the player spend a Fate Point in order to gain access to the stunts benefit. Joe wants to create a Stunt that lets his ex-con character Mickey act first in every exchange of a conflict. Sarah finds this too overpowering, however requiring a Fate Point to be spent each exchange provides a more balanced stunt, one which Joe calls Im on Top of it!

Uses per Session

A third way of limiting the power of a benefit stunt is to impose a restriction on the number of times it can be used per game session. Joes character Mickey is also a gambler, and Joe suggests a stunt that will allow him to use Mickeys Gambling Skill instead of Resources to make purchases. Joe argues that this represents the winnings his character accumulates in games of chance off screen. This initially sounds like a skill switch stunt to Sarah, except for the fact that Joe hasnt suggested a reduced scope in which the switch can occur; Joe wants to be able to use Gambling all the time instead of Resources. Knowing Joe has already assigned Mickey a Great (+4) Gambling Skill and has a number of gambling related Aspects he could invoke to gain further bonuses, Sarah is reluctant to allow this stunt without a severe restriction. She states Joe can have the stunt but it can only be used once per game session, explaining that even with this limit Mickey will likely be able to buy something with a cost of Great every session. Joe accepts and names the stunt simply Winnings.

Pre-requisites
Some Stunts may have prerequisites in the form of other Stunts that have to be gained before the benefit stunt can be used. This makes the more powerful stunt more difficult to obtain, and any character who does meet the pre-requisites has shown a particular degree of focus on one concept that may leave weaknesses in other areas. Thus, the powerful stunt is more balanced against stunts that any character can take. Joe is really focused on making his character Mickey able to act first in a conflict and suggests another stunt that provides a +1 bonus to his Alertness Skill Rating when determining initiative in a physical conflict. Sarah thinks this is reasonable as it is effectively just a Concentration stunt. However, Joe wants to be able to take the stunt multiple times with the bonuses stacking with one another. Sarah thinks that this may be too powerful, but not wanting to say no, she allows it but enforces a prerequisite. In order to take this new stunt (which Joe calls Ready for Anything) a character will need the Im on Top of it! stunt. Sarah reasons that at least this means a character will have one less stunt available to use to take Ready for Anything. Joe happily agrees and uses up three of his characters stunts to take Im on Top of it! and two instances of Ready for Anything. It is also possible to have pre-requisites in the form of Aspects rather than other stunts. This ensures there is always a particular aspect to compel in exchange for taking the stunt. David suggests to Sarah a stunt that will allow his character to call upon a number of police officers six Fair (+2) Minions to act as backup. This is actually an ally stunt (with the Quality, Strength in Numbers x2 and Summonable advances),

Combined Limits
Some especially powerful stunts may still seem too imbalanced even with one of the above restrictions. In these instances more than one type of restriction may be needed in order to balance the stunt. In a previous FATE game Maria played a burly soldier, able to suffer a lot of punishment. In addition to having a high Endurance Skill, Maria created the One Hit to the Body stunt that allowed her character to pay a Fate point and ignore the effects of one attack per game session. Maria found this stunt extremely useful despite the two restrictions and saved it to avoid attacks where an enemy got an especially lucky shot in with a powerful weapon.

Sample Benefit Stunts

A number of sample Benefit Stunts are provided in Appendix A; these can be used by players and GMs when creating characters.

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Conflicts
The stories often include moments of intense action and social interaction, times when the insults and lead starts flying or swords start swinging whilst wits are challenged.

Begin Exchanges
An exchange is a variable period of time during which all characters involved in the conflict get to act. Actions occur in order of initiative as determined in the previous step. In turn, each player (or the GM for supporting characters) announces the action his character is going to take. This action is usually either an: Attack an attempt to directly inflict Stress and / or Consequence onto an opponent, or Manoeuvre an attempt to change the situation in some way, affecting the environment or other people, but not in a way that directly harms them Once the action is declared, the GM and player resolve the action according to the rules described previously and guidance given below. Once the action has been resolved the next character gets to act. Once all actions have been taken a new exchange is started.

Running Conflicts
Once a conflict begins, the GM should regulate the flow of the action using the following pattern. 1. 2. 3. Frame the scene Establish initiative Begin exchange a. b. c. Take actions Resolve actions Begin a new exchange

Framing the Scene

The GM briefly describes the location in which the conflict occurs, declaring any obvious Aspects of the scene. If the scene takes place in a broad area, the GM declares the zones the scene will cover, and in which zone each character begins. The GM should also determine whether any participants begin the conflict surprised (e.g. failing an Alertness Test to spot an ambusher). A surprised characters first Defence is considered to be only Mediocre (+0).

Attacks
An attack is an attempt to force the attackers agenda on a target, by attempting to injure them, by bullying them, or by some other means. An attack is resolved as a contest, with the player rolling his characters attack Skill against a Difficulty equal to the supporting characters Skill used in defence, or the player rolling his characters defence Skill against a Difficulty equal to the opponents attack Skill, depending upon whether the player character is attacking or being attacked. If for some reason a player character is attacking a player character, only the attacking characters Skill is rolled. Not all attacks are necessarily violent. An attempt to persuade or distract someone is also a sort of attack. When determining whether or not the attack rules apply, simply look for two characters in conflict, an agenda (or want) pushed by the acting character, and the target or obstacle to that agenda; the defending (or responding) character. The Skills used to attack and defend depend on the nature of the attackers agenda. Table Attack and Defence Skills Purpose Wound or kill Deceive Scare Charm Attack Skill Fists, Guns, or Weapons Deceit Intimidation Rapport Defence Skill Fists, Athletics, or Weapons Resolve or Empathy Resolve Resolve or Deceit

Zones
Zones are loosely defined areas that help adjudicate which characters may interact with each other. Generally, people in the same zone can touch each other; people one zone apart can throw things at each other, and people two (and sometimes three) zones apart can shoot each other. Moving from one zone to another may be relatively simple; however sometimes there are barriers to moving between zones walls, staircases, chasms, doorways etc that require a character use a bit more effort to move zones.

Establish Initiative
The order of characters actions is determined at the beginning of the conflict, with characters acting from highest to lowest Alertness Skill (for physical conflicts) or Empathy (for social conflicts). Ties in initiative are resolved in favour of characters with a higher Resolve. Any remaining ties are in favour of the player characters (if a tie is between a player character and a supporting character), or the player closest to the GMs right (if the tie is between player characters). The initiative order is used for the entire conflict.

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A successful attack inflicts an amount of Stress on its target equal to the number of Shifts on the attack (the amount by which the attack skill exceeded the Difficulty, or the amount by which the Defense skill failed by) plus any weapon Stress bonus and less any Stress reduction due to armour. As described on page 7, Davids character Trevor shot a thug and achieved 3 shifts on the attack roll. The thug suffers a base of 3 points of Stress plus the bonus from the weapon (+2 for a handgun) for a total of 5 Stress points. As this was a physical attack this Stress is marked off against the thugs Physical Stress Track.

A manoeuvre can also target an opponent, and, if successful, place a temporary Aspect on him. The opponent can either accept the temporary Aspect, or spend a Fate point to avoid accepting it. Introducing an Aspect by performing a manoeuvre provides one free tag of that Aspect as described in Introducing Aspects, page 10. Maria asks Sarah the GM whether there is anything within reach that Alison can throw into the thugs eyes, Sarahs reply is You tell me! Taking the hint, Maria spends a Fate Point to make a minor narrative declaration (see Fate Points, page 8) and states that a half empty pot of paint sits on the wall directly behind where Alison is standing. Maria states that Alison grabs the pot and throws the contents at the thug. Sarah believes that this is a manoeuvre rather than a direct attack even though Maria will be rolling her Mediocre (+0) Weapons Skill against the Thugs Average (+1) Athletics Skill. Sarah further states that grabbing the paint pot is a supplemental action (see below) and therefore Marias Test suffers a -1 penalty, however this is cancelled out by the Spin bonus gained previously. Maria rolls well for an Effort of Fair (+2), a success! Maria declares that the thug now has the temporary Aspect of Blinded.

Defence and Spin

If a character who is defending against an attack achieves an Effect of 3 or more shifts he gains Spin. Spin provides a +1 bonus or -1 penalty to the very next test made by anyone in the conflict. The only qualifier for using Spin is that the player must explain how his character was able to help or hinder, even if its just as simple as shouting some encouragement or providing a distraction. A player might not always be able to justify using Spin. Spin that isnt used on the next action simply goes away. Carrying on from the example above, Sarah the GM has the thug try to grab Marias character Alison to use as a shield against any further attacks by Trevor. Sarah states that this will be an attack using the thugs Fair (+2) Fists Skill. Maria elects to have Alison try to duck out of the reach of the thug by using her Average (+1) Athletics Skill. Maria rolls the dice, resulting in a 4 on the Plus Die and a 5 on the Minus Die. Maria applies the Plus Die result to increase her Average (+1) Skill Rating for a Superb (+5) Effort. This exceeds the thugs Fists Skill by 3 shifts and so Alison dodges the thugs grasp and gains Spin. As it is Alisons action next Maria elects to take the +1 bonus to Alisons action.

Temporary Aspects
Temporary Aspects that result from manoeuvres are usually fragile. A fragile Aspect exists for only a single tag and / or may be cleared away by a simple change of circumstances. Consider someone who uses a manoeuvre to take aim at a target, placing an In My Sights Aspect on the target. Once the shots taken, the aim goes away this is clearly fragile. But it could get lost even before the first shot, if the character who (likely unwittingly) has the Aspect on him manages to break line of sight or move significantly. Some Aspects that result from manoeuvres can be sticky. Sticky Aspects dont go away after they are first tagged, allowing people to spend Fate points to continue to tag them. The GM is encouraged to be much more picky about whether or not to allow a sticky Aspect to result from a manoeuvre. In many cases, the GM may require that the manoeuvring character gain Spin (see page 7) in order to succeed at placing a sticky Aspect. Sarah states that the Blinded Aspect will exist until the thug spends a supplemental action (see below) wiping the paint from his eyes. Luckily, Trevor is the next character to act and Maria passes the free tag to him to use. Even if Trevor fails to

Manoeuvres
When a character tries to jump to grab a rope, throw dust in an enemys eyes, draw eyes upon himself in a ballroom, or take a debate down a tangential path thats a manoeuvre. A manoeuvre is either a simple action or a contest, with the Difficulty determined by the nature of the manoeuvre. A manoeuvre that doesnt target an opponent is resolved as a simple action. Most simple manoeuvres like this result in a character rolling against a GM set Difficulty and doing something with the resulting shifts, potentially adding a temporary Aspect to the scene (such as Barn on Fire!).

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subdue the thug in that exchange, the thug will suffer a penalty on his action for taking the time to wipe away the paint.

Throw or Knockback
Its possible for a character to knock something or someone away from himself, without moving. Knockback covers any manoeuvre that can accomplish this, including throws. To knock something back one zone requires the manoeuvre succeed with 1 shift plus 1 per 100 lbs or part thereof (so an average person would require 3 shifts to knockback one zone, the same as a Push). However, each additional zone costs as much as the previous zone did, plus one, so that the cost increases dramatically over distance (so an average person would require 7 shifts to knockback two zones, 3 for the first zone and 4 for the second).

Sample Manoeuvres
Blinding
Whether its throwing sand in someones eyes, spraying someone with a harsh chemical or tossing a can of paint in his face, the goal is the same: keep him from being able to see. This likely involves the attacker rolling Weapons and the defender rolling Athletics, with the manoeuvre succeeding if the attacker gets at least one shift. A successful manoeuvre puts the Aspect Blinded on the target, which may be tagged to add to the defence of his target, or compelled to cause him to change the subject or direction of an action. It cant force a character to take an action he doesnt want to (so a blinded character cant be compelled to walk off a cliff if the character refuses to move).

Other Actions
Free Actions
Some kinds of actions are free; they dont count as the characters action during an exchange, whether or not a roll of the dice is involved. Rolling for defence against an attack is a free action, so are minor actions like casting a quick glance at a doorway, flipping a switch right next to the character, or shouting a short warning. There is no hard limit on the number of free actions a character may take during an exchange; however the GM should impose a limit if a player is taking excessive advantage of this rule.

Disarming
A successful disarm manoeuvre forces the target to drop his weapon or otherwise renders the weapon temporarily useless. The target must either spend an action to become re-armed, or pick up the weapon as a supplemental action. A supplemental action is normally a -1 penalty to the main action, but when a disarm manoeuvre is used, the shifts on the manoeuvre increase the penalty. For example, if the disarm attempt succeeds with three shifts, when the target tries to recover his weapon, he will suffer a -4 penalty (-1 for the usual penalty, plus an additional -3) to his action that exchange. His defensive rolls are not directly affected by this penalty, but they are indirectly affected; without a weapon in hand, he cant use the Weapons Skill to defend (Athletics and Fists are still options).

Full Defence
A character can opt to do nothing but protect himself for an exchange. By foregoing his normal action, he gains a +2 on all reactions and defences for that exchange. Characters who are defending may declare it at the beginning of the exchange rather than waiting for their turn to come around. Similarly, if they have not acted in the exchange at the time when they are first attacked, they may declare a full defence at that point, again foregoing their normal action for the exchange.

Pushing
Pushing a target requires a successful attack (usually Fists or Might) and must generate a number of shifts equal to 1 per 100 lbs or part thereof (2 shifts for most people) +1 for each zone the target will be pushed (the +1 is basically the usual cost for moving one zone). So pushing a target one zone would require 3 shifts, two zones would require 4 shifts etc. A push moves both the target and the acting character into the destination zone. Any applicable border conditions affect the roll to push.

Hold Your Action

A character can opt not to act when his turn comes around. When a character takes a hold action, he has the option of taking his turn any time later in the exchange. He must explicitly take his turn after someone else has finished their turn and before the next person begins. He cannot wait until someone declares what theyre trying to do, then interrupt them by taking his turn (although as an optional rule, the GM may allow this if the player spends a Fate point).

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Block Actions
When the characters action is preventative trying to keep something from happening, rather than taking direct action to make something happen he is performing a block action. He declares what hes trying to prevent and what Skill hes using to do it. Players may declare a block against any sort of action or actions and may theoretically use any Skill, but unless the block is simple and clear, the GM may assess penalties based upon how hard it would be, or how much of a stretch it would be. Players should never be able to cover all bases with a single block. A blocking character can declare that he is protecting another character. He makes this declaration on his turn, and rolls the Skill hes using to block; the result is the block strength. When, later that exchange, any enemy tries to attack the protected character, the protected character gets the benefit of either the block strength or his own defence, whichever is better. For other types of blocks, the blocking character declares the block on his turn, and rolls the Skill hes using to block, subject to any penalties imposed by the GM. The result is the block strength. Later that exchange, every time another character tries to perform the blocked action, he enters into a contest with the blocker. The character trying to get past the block rolls the Skill hes using for the action (not a Skill specifically appropriate to the block), and compares it to the block strength. If the attacker gets at least one shift, he successfully overcomes the block. Trying to get past a block always takes an action, though the GM may grant some latitude in deciding what Skill is being used to get past it. Even if the action is normally free, getting past the block takes additional effort, and thus the GM can declare that it takes up the players action for the exchange.

Sometimes the GM may decide a supplemental action is particularly complicated or difficult, and may increase the penalty appropriately.

Movement
Movement is one of the most common supplemental actions. When it is reasonably easy to move from one zone to the next, a character may move one zone as a supplemental action. If a player wants his character to move further than that, he must perform a primary (not supplemental) sprint action, which entails rolling Athletics and allowing the character to move a number of zones equal to the shifts generated. Sometimes, it is more difficult to move from one zone to the next, such as when there is some sort of barrier (like a fence or some debris) or there is some other difficulty (like getting from a rooftop to the street below and vice versa). This movement complication is called a border. The numeric value of that border increases the penalty for a supplemental move action and subtracts shifts from a sprint action.

Stress and Consequences

Stress
Stress represents non-specific difficulties character can encounter in a conflict. a Stress received from a physical attack is marked off against the Physical Stress Track (mark off a number of boxes equal to the Stress inflicted). This represents bruising, minor cuts, and fatigue. Stress suffered from a social attack is marked off against the Composure Stress Track and represents getting flustered, embarrassed or losing control of the situation. When a characters suffers Stress that equals or exceeds his Stress track he is Taken Out, losing the conflict, unless the Stress can be absorbed by taking Consequences (see below). At the end of a scene, unless the GM says otherwise, a characters Stress tracks clear out; minor scrapes and bruises, trivial gaffes and embarrassments, and momentary fears pass away.

Supplemental Actions
Sometimes a player wants his character to perform a simple action in addition to his main action. Examples range from drawing a weapon and attacking, to firing off a signal flare whilst intimidating the wolves at the edge of the firelight. Such supplemental actions impose a -1 penalty on the characters primary action roll (effectively spending one shift of Effect in advance). When in doubt about which is the primary action and which is the supplemental one, the supplemental action is the one which would normally require no dice roll.

Consequences
Stress is transitory, but sometimes conflicts have lasting consequences, injuries, embarrassments, phobias, and the like. These are collectively called Consequences and are a special kind of Aspect. Consequences reduce the amount of Stress taken from a particular blow but in turn can be tagged, compelled (and even invoked) like any other Aspect and can have lasting effects.

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Just like any other Aspect that a player introduces to a scene, the player of the attacking character who inflicted the Consequence gets the first tag of that Consequence for free. Consequences fall into four levels of severity, Minor, Major, Severe and Extreme. A character can only carry three Consequences at a time (barring Stunts which may allow more) and only one Consequence of each severity level (i.e. a character cannot carry three Minor Consequences, but could have a Minor, Severe and an Extreme Consequence. Whenever the character is hit for Stress, he may use up one or more of these Consequence slots to reduce the hit, describing each Consequence as a particular kind of wound or setback that is not easy to shake off. Minor Consequences negate 2 Stress points Major Consequences negate 4 Stress points Severe Consequences negate 6 Stress points Extreme Consequences negate 8 Stress points The exact nature of the Consequence should depend upon the conflict an injury might be appropriate for a physical struggle, an emotional state might be apt for a social one. Unlike the temporary Aspects resulting from manoeuvres, Consequences tend to hang around for a while and take time to fade. Following a short scuffle, during which Trevor suffers 1 point of Stress, Trevor finally handcuffs the blinded thug. However, in all the excitement Trevor fails to notice the thugs friend sneaking up behind with a knife. A failed defence test results in Trevor taking another 4 Stress! Added to the 1 point of Stress he has already suffered this would equal his Physical Stress Track of 5 boxes. This means Trevor will be Taken Out unless he takes a Consequence. David elects for Trevor to take a Minor Consequence which he describes as a Nasty cut on his leg. This negates 2 Stress meaning the attack only deals 2 Stress points. David marks off the 2 Stress on Trevors Physical Stress Track taking the total to 3; he also writes down the Minor Consequence. Despite help from Alison, Trevor is unable to subdue this second attacker and again is struck, this time for 3 Stress points. Trevor needs to suffer another Consequence or be Taken Out. As he has already taken a Minor Consequence David elects for Trevor to suffer a Major Consequence Stabbed in the hand. A Major Consequence can negate up to 4 points of Stress, however the attack would only have inflicted 3 points. No Stress is suffered and David writes down the new Consequence.

Normally, the person taking the Consequence gets to describe what it is, so long as its compatible with the nature of the attack that inflicted the harm; as always the GM is the final arbiter on what is reasonable for the circumstances and severity.

Taken Out
If a character suffers Stress that equals or exceeds his Stress track and has already taken three Consequences then the character is Taken Out. The character has decisively lost the conflict, and unlike the other levels of Consequence, his fate is in the hands of his opponent, who may decide how the character loses. The outcome must remain within the realm of reason very few people truly die from shame, so having someone die as a result of a duel of wits is unlikely, but having them embarrass themselves and flee in disgrace is not unreasonable. Being able to determine how a character loses is a very powerful ability, but there are a few limits: First, the effect is limited to the character who has been Taken Out. The victor may declare that the loser has made a fool of himself in front of the admiral, but he cannot decide how the admiral will respond (or even if the admiral was particularly bothered). Second, the manner of the Taken Out result must be limited to the scope of the conflict. After the victor wins a debate with someone, he cannot decide that the loser concedes his point and the loser gives him all the money in his pockets money was never part of the conflict, so its not an appropriate part of the resolution. Third, the effect must be reasonable for the target. People do not (normally) explode when killed, so that cannot be a part of taking someone out. Similarly, a diplomat at the negotiating table is not going to give the victor the keys to the empire thats probably beyond the scope of his authority, and even if its not, its unlikely something he would give away under any circumstances. What he will do is make a deal that is very much in the victors favour and possibly even thank him for it. Lastly, players are not always comfortable with being on the receiving end of this and may, if they wish, spend all the Fate points they have left (minimum of one) and demand a different outcome, and the GM (or winning character) should then make every effort to allow them to lose in a fashion more to their liking. That said, if this is a real concern, the loser may want to concede somewhere before things reach this point (see Concessions, below).

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Concessions
Any time a character takes a Consequence, he also has the option of offering a Concession. A Concession is essentially equivalent to surrendering, and is the best way to end a fight before someone is Taken Out (short of moving away and ending the conflict). The character inflicting the damage can always opt to not take the Concession, but doing so is a clear indication that the fight will be a bloody one (literally or metaphorically). If the GM declares that the Concession was a reasonable offer, then the character who offered it gains one Fate point, and the character who refused it loses one. The Concession is an offer of the terms under which the character is Taken Out. If the Concession is accepted, the conceding character is immediately Taken Out, but rather than letting the victor determine the manner of his defeat, he is defeated according to the terms of his Concession. Many conflicts end with a Concession when one party or the other simply does not want to risk taking Major or Severe Consequences as a result of the conflict, or when neither party wants to risk a Taken Out result that might come at too high a price. David, realising that Trevor is only another couple of Stress points away from suffering a third Consequence (which must be either Severe or Extreme) decides to offer a Concession to the second thug. He suggests to Sarah, the GM, that Trevor painfully retrieves the keys to the handcuffs from his pocket and throws them to the thug shouting Take your damn friend! before collapsing against a dumpster holding his bloody hand. Sarah considers the suggestion losing their handcuffed suspect is a significant setback to Trevor and Alison. Sarah clarifies that Trevor wont be able to try to stop the thugs escaping if he accepts the Concession as, although not unconscious or dead, Trevor will still be considered Taken Out. David agrees. Of course, Marias character Alison has not been Taken Out, and she may still attempt to confront the thugs but any such attempt will be without Trevors help.

Recovering from Minor Consequences

Minor Consequences are removed any time the character has the opportunity to sit down and take a breather for a few minutes. These Consequences will last until the end of the current scene, and will usually be removed after that. The only exception is if there is no break between scenes if the character doesnt get a chance to take five, the Consequence will remain in place.

Recovering from Major Consequences

Major Consequences require the character get a little more time and distance. Depending on the type of Major Consequence they remain in place until the character has had the opportunity to take anything from a few hours of downtime up to a few days. This may mean getting treatment for an injury, sleeping in a comfortable bed, spending time with a charming member of the opposite sex, or sitting on a beach to forget about it all or anything else so long as its appropriate to the Consequence. An afternoon of hiking might be a great way to get past a Heartbreak Consequence, but its not a great choice for a Bad Ankle.

Recovering from Severe Consequences

Severe Consequences require substantial downtime, measured in a week to a few weeks. Generally this means that such a Consequence will linger for the duration of a session, but could be cleared up before the next adventure begins or at least reduced one level.

Recovering from Extreme Consequences

Extreme Consequences generally put characters in accident and emergency, in jail, in the nearest rehab, perhaps on their deathbed or fried within an inch of his life. Its likely that the character will be left with lasting effects in the form of an Aspect (such as Prosthetic Leg or Branded a traitor). These could require sophisticated medical treatment usually only found in major cities, or trained counsellors on hand 24 hours a day to stop you going over the edge. Healing or recovery will take a few months. Needless to say the experience should have a profound effect on the character and result in the change of some of their Skills and Aspects.

Recovery
As stated previously, unless the GM says otherwise, a characters Stress tracks clear out after the scene has resolved. Consequences however can take longer to recover from. Minor Consequence A few minutes Major Consequence A few hours to A few days Severe Consequence A week to A few weeks Extreme Consequence A few months

No Time to Recover
If the character is in back-to-back sessions with no in-game time between them, such as in a multipart adventure, he gets a break; any Consequences he begins the session with are treated as one level lower for how quickly theyre removed.

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Medical Attention
A character trained in the Science Skill can attempt to provide first aid to an injured ally during a conflict and also provide long term care afterwards.

Other Sources of Injury

Falling
If a character jumps or falls from a height he may suffer damage in the form of Consequences. The severity of the Consequence is determined by the height of the fall per the table below. When a character falls, an Athletics test should be made. If the Effort is less than Mediocre (+0), the fall is treated as one category worse than it is. If the Effort equals or beats a Difficulty based on the height of the fall, treat the fall as one step shorter Table - Falling Fall Short Medium Long Extreme Height 20 feet 40 feet 100 feet 100+ ft. Difficulty Fair (+2) Great (+4) Fantastic (+6) Not possible Consequence Minor Major Severe Taken Out

First Aid
When using the Science Skill to perform first aid in the middle of a conflict, the character must take a full action with a target whos not trying to do anything else (i.e., forfeiting his next action). Make a Science Skill test against a Difficulty of Mediocre (+0); if it succeeds with at least one shift, the subject may remove one point of Stress from his physical Stress track. Every two shifts beyond the first improves this effect by one; for example, with five shifts, a character can remove three Stress. Success can also be used to stabilise someone who has taken a Severe or lesser Consequence that would appear to be life-threatening (e.g., a Bleeding to Death Aspect) in game terms, this has the effect of limiting the extent to which the Aspect can be compelled. A given person cant be the target of more than one first aid action in an exchange.

Fire
Fire is rated by its intensity. At the beginning of an exchange, a fire inflicts its intensity in physical Stress on every person in the scene. Intensity works as follows. Table Fire Intensity Intensity 0 1 2 3 Description The building is on fire, but the fire can be avoided. Almost everything is on fire, and the heat is pressing in on you in waves. Everything is on fire, and the flames lick up near you. Inferno! There may well be nowhere to run; you have only moments to live.

Long Term Care

When using Science to address someones longterm injuries, the character will need some kind of medical kit or equipment and must spend a scene providing proper medical attention. This is a use of Science to directly address someones physical, long-term Consequences. If the roll is successful, then the time it takes the subject to recover from the Consequence is reduced by one step on the time table. At the GMs discretion, when the doctor in question gains Spin on the test, the time to recover may be reduced by two steps instead of one. Multiple such attempts may not be made. The Difficulty of the roll depends on the severity of the Consequence per the table below. Table Medical Care Difficulties Consequence Minor Major Severe Extreme Difficulty to Reduce Time Mediocre (+0) Fair (+2) Great (+4) requires Great level medical equipment or facility Fantastic (+6) requires Fantastic level Medical facility

Explosions
Explosions and other area attacks have the potential to do damage against everyone within their radius. They are deadly and can end a fight or alter a scenario significantly once used. Explosives have three ratings: Complexity, Area, and Force. Complexity is the Difficulty to disarm the bomb once the device has been primed. The Area of an explosion determines how many zones the explosion will cover. An area of 1 means the explosion affects only one zone. An area of 2 means it affects one zone and every zone adjacent to it, and an Area of 3 expands it out to all zones adjacent to that.

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The Force of an explosion is a measure of how dangerous it is once it finally detonates. When an explosive detonates in a zone that a character is in, the Force value is the Difficulty of the free action Athletics test to take cover behind something solid enough to take some of the brunt of the blast. If successful, the character takes a Major Consequence (unless he generates Spin, in which case he makes a miraculous escape). If he fails, he is Taken Out immediately and suffers an Extreme Consequence. People unaware that a detonation is impending automatically fail this roll. The Force of an explosion drops by one for each zone it crosses, so characters in an adjacent zone have to deal with a Force level thats one lower. If there is a border between the zones that would provide some cover (like a wall) it also reduces the Force by the value of the border. The Force of an explosion drops to zero once it reaches its maximum radius indicated by the area.

Poisons
Poisons have a Potency and a Subtlety Rating. Potency determines how hard it is to resist and treat, whilst Subtlety is the Difficulty to detect or analyze it (using Alertness, Investigation or Science) either to prevent exposure or determine the cause of someones ailment. Poisons also need a means of application, e.g. contact, ingestion, inhaled or injected.

Fast Acting Poisons

Fast Acting poisons inflict Stress on a target, which may reflect lethal damage, or knockout drugs. Such poisons are often found on the blades of enemies and tips of blowgun darts. When such a poison is introduced into the system, the victim must make an Endurance Skill Test with a Difficulty of the poisons Potency. If the Test fails the victim suffers a point of Stress for each shift by which the Test failed. The poison continues to act, with the victim making further Endurance Tests before the first initiative of each exchange. This repeats every exchange until the end of the scene (at which point the poison has run its course) or until the character somehow stops the poison, such as with medical treatment (or even inducing vomiting). Many such poisons may stop if the player acquires Spin on his Endurance Test (beating the Potency by 3 shifts or more).

Throwing Explosives
Throwing an explosive as an attack works in two stages. When a character throws an explosive, its an attack using Weapons against a Difficulty of Mediocre. If successful, the explosive lands in an appropriate zone (thrown weapons have a range of one zone), and if not, it lands in the throwers zone. When the explosive lands, everyone within a zone covered by its Area rolls Athletics against the attackers Weapons result (from above). If they gain Spin on this defense roll, they may move one zone away from the zone the explosive is in by diving clear as a free action. The thrower has the option to reduce everyones Difficulty to dive clear (he may not want to make it too difficult for his allies to dive away), as long as that Difficulty is not reduced below Mediocre. Anything short of Spin has no effect theyll have to hope that they get a turn before it goes off to move away, otherwise they will have to deal with a detonation scenario as described above. If the thrower makes a bad throw missing the Mediocre target entirely then as noted, the explosive lands in the throwers zone, with the Difficulty for the thrower to dive free increased by one for each step he missed the target. The thrower does not have the option to reduce it, though in such a circumstance everyone else merely faces a Mediocre Difficulty to dive clear.

Slow Acting Poisons

Slow Acting Poisons inflict Consequences on the victim over a prolonged period of time. Once per scene the victim makes an Endurance Skill Test with a Difficulty of the poisons Potency. If the Test fails by 3 shifts or more (the Poison effectively gains Spin) the victim suffers a Consequence (beginning with a Minor Consequence if one is not already being suffered). Regardless of severity, these Consequences do not disappear until after the poison is cured. This process repeats until the poison is cured or, if the GM allows, the Victim gains Spin on an Endurance Test.

Exotic Poisons
Rather than damaging their target, exotic poisons put one or more additional Aspects directly on them (as with a manoeuvre rather than an attack). A victim must make an Endurance Test Skill Test with a Difficulty of the poisons Potency. If successful the symptoms are passing, but if the Test fails the victim immediately gains the Aspects as described in the poison. The duration of these effects depends upon the poison.

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Supporting Characters
Supporting characters are all the people portrayed in the game by the Games Master, rather than the characters of the other players, it is for this reason that they are sometimes referred to as Non-Player Characters (NPCs). Supporting characters include both the friends and foes of the players characters, ranging from the cheerful bartender at the characters local pub, to the corporate CEO who is behind the villainous acts the player characters are investigating. There are four different types of supporting characters that are used in a game of Free FATE. Extras Minions Companions Named Characters

Quality
The Quality of a set of Minions denotes their base effectiveness in one sort of conflict (physical, social or mental), as well as their capacity for Stress. Minions only have a single Stress Track against which both Physical and Composure Stress is marked. Average (+1) Minions can take one box of Stress, Fair (+2) can take two, Good (+3) can take three and so on. Minions cannot take Consequences, nor can their Armour (see page 35).

Quantity
The quantity of Minions is simply the number of Minions present. Together, Minions act in one or more groups, each of which is treated as a single character in the conflict. This allows the GM to minimize the number of dice rolls being made, even when the player characters are facing off against a group of twenty frothing cultists. Minions who act together as a group are much more effective than individual Minions, gaining a bonus to their effective Quality for purposes of Tests in conflicts. Table Minion Quantity Bonuses Number of Minions 2 to 3 4 to 6 7 to 9 10+ Bonus +1 +2 +3 +4

Extras
Extras are those supporting characters who dont often take up much screen time in the adventure; they are the cast of people on the fringe of the story, people met along the way. Examples of Extras include the storekeeper who sells you that roll of duct tape and happens to mention the rough looking characters who were in his store earlier, the border guard who reviews your forged papers for a tension filled moment before waving you through, and the politicians aide who stymies your attempts to get an interview with his boss. Often, an encounter with an extra is purely social in nature and no Skill Tests are involved. However, if the story may require an Extra to make a Skill Test then the GM should refrain from creating them as fully blown characters, but rather define their three highest rated Skills (rarely rated above Good) and maybe an Aspect or two.

As a rule of thumb, when a GM has a large number of Minions, she should split them up into several smaller groups preferably one group for each player character they face. These groups dont necessarily need to be equal in number; sometimes it makes sense to pit the largest group of Minions against the most capable opponent. Also, grouping Minions together makes it a little easier for the characters to eliminate several Minions in a single action. When Minions take Stress damage, any overflow of damage is applied to the next Minion in their group. This means a solid enough effort can take out an entire swath of Minions. The attacking characters Stress bonus from a weapon is only counted once, but then any Stress reduction from armour the Minions are wearing is equally only applied once. Trevor Maples is continuing his investigation when he is ambushed by a group of three hoodies wielding knives. They attack as a single group. Sarah the GM asks David to make a defence roll using his default Mediocre (+0) Fists Skill against a Difficulty

Minions
The term Minions is used to refer to the large number of faceless followers of important, named characters, often the villains of the piece. Minions are the bodies of the faithful that the heroes must climb over to take on that villain. The GM may build a villains mob using an Ally stunt (page 17) using one or more Strength in Numbers advances (see below) but should feel free to assign minions on an as needed basis. Minions have two important statistics, Quality and Quantity.

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of Fair (+2). This Difficulty is based on the hoodies Average (+1) Quality with a Quantity bonus of +1. David succeeds in his defence roll and actually manages to gain spin! David elects to have Trevor attempt to intimidate the hoodies into running off (a social attack). David uses his Good (+3) Intimidation skill with a +1 bonus for Spin against the Difficulty of Fair (+2) although this is a social attack Sarah believes the Minions Quality should still apply as it is in the midst of a physical conflict; the Quantity bonus also applies. David rolls the dice and gets a 5 on both dice, meaning his Skill goes unmodified; this results in a final Effort of Great (+4); an Effect of 2 shifts, and 2 Stress applied. As the minions are only Average Quality the first Stress point takes out one Minion, and the overflow (another Stress point) takes out a second Minion. Sarah describes two of the hoodies shouting Run! Hes a cop and then fleeing. She notes that now that only a single Minion remains no Quantity bonus applies.

Companions
Companions are characters who are a little more important than Minions but are not quite fully fledged named characters in their own right. Companions are either granted as a short-term story element by the GM, or are established through the purchase and use of an Ally stunt. Like Minions, by default, a Companion can assist in one type of conflict (though the Scope Advance can expand this). The type of conflict that the Companion can assist with determines her type. Table Companion Types Type Sidekick Aide Assistant Conflict Physical Social Mental / Knowledge

Mixed Groups
One of the main uses for Minions, be they ninjas or yes-men, is to improve the effectiveness of their leader. Whenever a named character and a group of Minions are attacking the same target, they are considered to be attached. This has two benefits for the leader: he receives a bonus based on the group size (including him so even a single minion will result in a +1 bonus), and Stress suffered is applied to Minions before its applied to him (overflow damage is never applied against the leader). It has no benefits for the Minions, who give up their ability to act independently, but thats more or less their job. Leaving or attaching to a group is a free action, and a character may detach from a group automatically by moving away from it. David asks Sarah whether he can spend a Fate Point and summon his Police Backup Stunt minions immediately to help with his conflict with the hoodies, explaining that he called for reinforcements off screen. Sarah agrees and allows David to narrate how six uniformed police officers round the corner to join Trevor as he stares at the last remaining hoodie. Trevor now gains a +3 Quantity bonus for having a group of seven (himself and six Minions). Give it up son, youre nicked! growls Trevor. Alternatively, a character with the Leadership Skill attached to a group of Minions may use his Leadership Skill to Complement the Minions Quality (plus Quantity bonus) in Tests (see Combining Skills on page 7). This allows villains without much combat Skill to still help out their minions in a fight.

Also like Minions, Companions have a Quality rating. This Quality Rating is used for all tests during a conflict of the appropriate type. They can attach to named characters in the same way Minion groups can, and thus grant a +1 bonus in appropriate conflicts due to group size (a Quantity of two including the named character). Companions also get a single Skill column (instead of a pyramid) with a number of Skills equal to their Quality. For example a Good quality Companion has one Good, one Fair and one Average Skill. These Skills allow the Companion to be of use outside of conflicts (unlike Minions), and also to have some measure of ability in tasks outside of their normal scope. If desired, a named character to whom a Companion is attached may substitute the Companions Skill level in place of his own if its higher. The Quantity bonus still applies if the named character has at least an Average rating in the Skill in question; in effect he is providing the Quantity bonus to his Companion. Like Minions, Companions only have a single Stress Track (though see the Scope Advance for exceptions). Companions have one Stress box per level of Quality plus one, for example a Good (+3) quality Companion has 4 Stress boxes. Sidekicks with the Endurance Skill and Aides & Assistants with the Resolve Skill get extra Stress boxes just as a character would. Normally Companions cannot take Consequences (but their Armour can), however if attached they allow the named character the ability to withstand an additional Consequence specifically, the Consequence that the Companion is knocked out,

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kidnapped, or otherwise removed from the conflict (the severity of the Consequence would indicate how long the Companion is Taken Out for). Unless she has the Independent Advance, in order for a Companion to act in a scene without their named character a Fate Point must be spent.

adventure unless the player spends a Fate Point to reallocate the advances again. This variability makes the ally more like a range of Companions and Minions the player can call upon one at a time.

Companion Only Advances

Consequence
The companion can take a Consequence of their own to reduce stress. This may be taken twice.

Advances
Advances are traits that can be applied to a Companion or group of Minions to differentiate them from the baseline Average (+1) ally.

Independent
The Companion can act independently without the named character needing to spend a Fate Point, in addition the Companion can access the named characters Fate Points and up to two of his Aspects that would also apply to the Companion.

Companion & Minion Advances

Communication
The ally has some means of communicating with her patron in even the strangest of circumstances (a psychic link, a dedicated radio transceiver in a wrist watch etc).

Scope
Improve the scope of a Companion, allowing them to assist in an additional type of conflict. This may be taken twice, allowing the Companion to be effective in all three scopes. A Companion able to assist in Physical & Mental, Physical & Social, or all three scopes of conflict has both a Physical and Composure Stress Track and may gain extra Stress Boxes from both the Endurance and Resolve Skills.

Keeping up
If the allys patron has a means of locomotion or stealth that makes it hard for the ally to keep up with him, then the ally with this advance has a similar ability. This ability is useful only for keeping up with her patron when attached, and for no other purpose.

Quality
Improve the Quality of an ally by one step (from the default Average to Fair, Fair to Good, and so on). This Advance may be taken several times up to a maximum Quality one step below the patrons peak skill for a Companion, and two steps below for Minions.

Skilled
Each time this advance is taken the Companion gets an additional column of Skills. However each new column is one rank lower than the last. For example a Good quality Companion with the Skilled advance would have one Good, two Fair and two Average Skills. Another Skilled advance would add only one Average Skill.

Strength in Numbers
This stunt increases the number of allies you have. One application effectively turns a Companion into three Minions of the same Quality. Second and further applications of this advance increase the number of Minions by a further three.

Stunt
This advance allows the Companion to take a single Stunt and may be taken a maximum of two times. This does not allow the Companion to take an ally stunt themselves.

Summonable
No matter where you are you can summon your ally to you. This normally takes at least one minute but you may spend a Fate point to accomplish it in a single round. A summoned ally vanishes or leaves if the summoning character is Taken Out, and will not last more than one scene either way. They may be summoned again in a later scene if needed again.

Named Characters
Named characters are the major characters in the story who have a name, as opposed to Guard #3. They might be a player characters boss, a major ally or enemy. They could be an arch nemesis, her main henchman, an evil alien or a mad scientist. Named characters are defined just like player characters, with a pyramid of Skills, a set of Aspects and Fate Points. If desired a GM can set the apex of the Skill pyramid (i.e. the top rated Skill) at a higher or lower rating than Great (+4) the apex Skill rating for a starting player character.

Variable Summons (requires Summonable)

Usually the same ally is summoned each time but this advance allows the player to allocate the allys other advances when they are summoned. Once chosen the advances are locked in place for the

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Aspects and Fate Points

Named Characters have Aspects and Fate Points like player characters do. Extras, Minions and Companions may have one or two Aspects if the GM desires (e.g. Obedient to a fault, Skittish), however they do not have Fate Points of their own; their Aspects exist solely to be tagged by others (if tagged for effect they do not gain a Fate Point).

even another member of the entourage. Luckily they can be Taken Out with a witty put down, or a menacing glare. In an historical game, the same sort of Minions could represent a Kings courtiers (minus the cameras!)

Sample Companions
Bodyguard (Sidekick)
Scope: Quality: Skills: Stunts: Stress: Advances Gear: Physical Good (+3) Good (+3) Endurance, Fair (+2) Intimidation, Average (+1) Drive Brawler (two extra boxes for Endurance Skill) Consequence, Quality x2, Stunt Hand gun, Kevlar Vest

Sample Minions
Security Guards
Scope: Quality: Quantity: Stress: Advances: Gear: Physical Average (+1) 4 groups of 3 (+1 bonus per group) (1 box per Minion) Strength in Numbers x4 Club, Hand gun

These are the stereotypical low level guards providing security to a bank, science facility or casino. The hand gun may not be appropriate in some countries (e.g. the United Kingdom).

This companion is a surly bodyguard, who can fight off multiple attackers, take a bullet, glare menacingly at the shooter and still drive his charge away from danger.

Helicopter Pilot (Sidekick)

Scope: Quality: Skills: Stunts: Physical Average (+1) Average (+1) Pilot Flying Jock, Skill Concentration Helicopters, Personal Aircraft Stunt x3, Summonable Hand gun

Faceless Scientists
Scope: Quality: Quantity: Stress: Advances: Gear: Mental Fair (+2) One group of 6 (+2 bonus) (2 boxes per Minion)

Stress: Advances Gear:

Communication, Quality, Strength in Numbers x2 PDA, clip board, white lab coat

These Minions represent the lab coat wearing scientists who the villain can coerce into brute force hacking nuclear missile launch codes and military satellites, or who a hero can call on for aid in thwarting such attempts.

A personal helicopter pilot for the villain; who can arrive in a minute and whisk his patron away even faster. Pilot Skill Tests are made with a +3 bonus (+1 for Pilot Skill, +1 for Skill Concentration, and +1 when using his Personal Aircraft).

Personal Advisor (Aide / Assistant)

Scope: Quality: Skills: Stunts: Stress: Advances Gear: Mental and Social Fair (+2) Fair (+2) Empathy, Average (+1) Rapport None Independent, Keeping up, Quality, Scope Mobile Phone, PDA, Laptop

Celebrity Hanger-ons
Scope: Quality: Quantity: Stress: Advances: Gear: Social Average (+1) One group of 6 (+2 bonus) (1 box per Minion) Keeping up, Strength in Numbers x2, Summonable Cameras

These are the entourage and ever present fans who follow in the wake of a media celebrity and who also have the back stage passes and VIP tickets to keep up. They can be a potent force in thwarting attempts to engage socially with the celebrity, or

This is a smart and socially savvy advisor who can assess his patrons verbal sparring partners and provide general assistance. He is always at his patrons side, unless instructed to undertake tasks independently.

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Chases
Chases are the staple of many thrillers, be they on foot, riding an animal, car chases or dogfights in the sky. The key to enjoyable chases is that they arent all about speed. In a straight race the faster person, animal or vehicle will win but that sort of situation should almost never happen.

Pursuer Performs a Manoeuvre

Alternately, if the pursuer is not looking to damage the fleeing character or his ride / mount, he may roll for a Manoeuvre (see Manoeuvres on page 20). If successful the Manoeuvre succeeds. If he fails, the character, his vehicle or his mount takes Stress as if failing a Defense roll; overzealousness or poor driving has had him collide with a nurses trolley, sideswipe a vegetable stand, or rip up his tires on a tight turn.

Chase Conflicts
Chases play out like any other conflict, with one or two small differences.

Ending the Chase

The above sequence of events repeats for each exchange until eventually one party or the other will be Taken Out, and at that point the chase concludes. If the pursuer is Taken Out, the fleeing character escapes, if the pursuer is the one left standing he has captured his prey.

Declare Difficulty for Exchange

At the beginning of each exchange in a chase (regardless of initiative) the chased characters player declares a Difficulty of his choice, and describes what complicated and dangerous manoeuvre hes performing that this Difficulty matches.

Multiple Vehicle Chases

The above chase conflict rules work well when one character is chasing another, however often chases are a lot more crazy than that its a lucky hero who is only pursued by only one vehicle! Multiple vehicle chases usually use the Minions rules (see page 27), with each car equating to a minion, and all of the pursuers acting as a single unit making a single roll. If theres a named pursuer with a handful of unnamed companions, the minion vehicles attach to the named leader normally. However, if there are a lot of cars say you have a named pursuer who has 10 minions its a little hard (and anticlimactic) to have all of the vehicles on the field at once. When you look at movies and the like, the usual pattern is that a few cars show up in pursuit, they crash, and new cars come in to take their place, and this process repeats until there are no more reinforcements. With that in mind, when you want to play out a more extended chase that has this kind of pacing, the Chase Scenes rules become appropriate.

Chased Character Makes Test

The player of the character being chased then makes an appropriate Skill roll against the declared Difficulty. The Skill used is dependent upon the means of locomotion: Athletics for a chase on foot Drive for a car chase or in watercraft Pilot for a chase in aircraft Survival for chases on horses or similar mounts. This Skill is modified by the Speed of the vehicle or mount if appropriate (see page 7). If the Skill Test succeeds, the character pulls it off, but if he fails, it goes less well than planned the character, vehicle or animal gets injured or slips out of control and suffers Stress equal to the number of shifts the player rolled below the Difficulty (as if the character had failed a Defence roll in a physical conflict).

Pursuer Makes Test to Attack

Next, the player of the pursuing character (see below if there is more than one pursuer) rolls against the same Difficulty. If successful, he takes no Stress and inflicts Stress to the fleeing characters person, vehicle or animal according to the shifts on the roll, just as if making an attack. This represents getting close and grabbing at the fleeing character, slamming bumpers, firing some shots, forcing the prey into difficult terrain or otherwise making trouble. If the pursuer fails the test, he suffers Stress just like the chased character would.

Chase Scenes
Chase scenes occur when the players are being pursued by a large enemy force that appears in waves. A chase scene is made up of a number of Chase Conflicts, with the main villain or henchman (a named character) staying out of the chase usually until the last conflict. Over the course of the chase, the pursuing minions come at the player sequentially, with a new minion coming in as a prior one is Taken Out. This continues for the duration of the chase until the

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named pursuer is out of minions, at which point, she enters the fray and the chase is then resolved as a final Chase Conflict. Because for much of the chase scene the named pursuer is not on the field, the minions never attach, so they use their own Quality, which is often to the fleeing characters benefit. In return for this, the pursuing villain is given a few tricks to balance the scales. Players, being heroes, dont usually use these rules, since they are potent individuals of action, however if any PC has Minions it might be suitable to have him be the named pursuer.

Tricks
The GM may spend 1 point per exchange for any of the following effects:

Reinforcements
This trick allows the pursuing character to add multiple Minions at once. By spending one point, the GM is allowed to spend additional points (up to half the remaining total) on purchasing additional Minions, which are immediately added to the field. These vehicles must all be of the same Quality.

Road Hazard
The pursuers have managed to get someone ahead of the fleeing character who launches an attack! The attack uses the named characters Leadership Skill as the attack value; reflecting how well planned and co-ordinated the effort is. Other pursuing vehicles do not need to defend against this attack, since in theory, at least, theyre aware that the hazard is forthcoming. This is one of the main tools the villain may use to offset the loss of not involving herself directly.

Assign Pursuers Chase Points

At the beginning of a scene, the GM controlled named pursuer is given a certain number of points, which represent the total value of the pursuit. Table Chase Points Points 5 10 20 Type of Chase Scene A short chase A major feature of the adventure A climactic marathon of a chase

Shotgun!
The baseline use of this value is to determine how many minions the pursuing character has. Each minion costs a number of points based on its value. One of the pursuing Minions is able to make a ranged attack at the fleeing character in addition to simply pursuing. For example a vehicle has someone with a gun in the passenger seat. Any time the fleeing character takes Stress, it is increased by one as long as this Minion is still on the field and able to shoot.

Purchase Minions
At the start of the chase, the GM can spend as many points as she wants (up to the total value of the pursuit) in order to buy Minions for the named pursuer. Higher Quality Minions cost more points. Table Minion Chase Point Cost Points per Minion 1 2 3 Minion Quality Average (+1) Fair (+2) Good (+3)

The Last Pursuer

If the pursuing villain is not going to join the fight herself, she can try to end the chase with one last, tougher-than-usual Minion. This is the last ability the pursuer can use, and costs all remaining chase points (minimum of 1). If the Last Pursuer trick is used, the villain herself cannot subsequently join the chase. The last pursuer is always more impressive than the previous minions. Perhaps the car is big and armoured, sleek and black, or maybe its something completely unexpected, like a biplane. The Last Pursuer is treated as a Good Minion, but with one extra box of Stress capacity for each point spent beyond the minimum. It also has one other benefit from this list: +3 Stress Boxes +1 to Athletics, Drive, Pilot or Survival Rolls Armed (the Last Pursuer is always treated as having the Shotgun! Effect). 1 point of armour (reducing Stress taken by 1)

She can choose to have all of these minions go after the characters from the start or she can hold some of them in reserve (in which case the reserve vehicles enter the chase one by one, replacing individual minions that have been Taken Out). Also, at any time there are no pursuing vehicles (i.e. all the minions on the field of play have been Taken Out), the GM can spend points to add a single additional pursuing vehicle, which immediately enters the chase. The GM may not wish to spend all these points on Minions though, some may be kept back to pay for Tricks (see below).

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Alternate Movement the pursuer can move in a way the fleeing character cannot (such as flying) enabling him to avoid most hazards. The pursuer may elect to automatically succeed at a chase Skill roll, at the expense of inflicting no Stress on the fleeing character. The pursuer must only roll if a hazard is described that forces him to respond.

Dramatic Entrance
This is the moment when the named pursuer reveals herself, and begins the end of the chase. If the GM has used The Last Pursuer trick already, this option is off the table. This costs all the pursuers remaining points (minimum 1) and triggers a Road Hazard trick for the fleeing vehicle, as the pursuer appears in a colourful and hopefully hazardous way. The stats of the pursuers vehicle or mount (if appropriate) depend on the pursuer, and if she does not have a signature vehicle or mount, she may use the same rules as The Last Pursuer, above, replacing the minion Quality with her own Skill. Once the pursuer is out of points and there are no pursuers left, the fleeing vehicle finally escapes.

Furthermore, theres nothing saying that characters along for the ride cant be doing other things that dont contribute directly to the chase. While they can only act against the pursuers by partnering with the driver as described above, theres nothing to say that your car chase cant feature the Academics guy in the back seat furiously trying to read through the book the heroes just stole from the villains lair< just in case the guys minions catch up with them and the book returns to its owner. These rules allow chases to be resolved quickly and also focus the chase experience around the person in the drivers seat, the characters shtick of being good at driving gets backed up.

Chase Example
Back on page 10 we saw the suspect Jimmy make a break for it when confronted by Trevor Maples in a pubs backroom. Due to a Compel Trevor only has two exchanges to finish the chase. Jimmy is a named character with Fair (+2) Athletics and a Physical Stress Track of 5 boxes. Sarah (playing the fleeing Jimmy) declares the Difficulty for the first exchange at Fair (+2) describing how Jimmy bursts into the bar and attempts to push his way through the crowd of drinkers. Sarah makes an Athletics Skill Test and succeeds with a Good result. David then gets to roll for Trevor; defaulting to a Medicore (+0) Athletics Rating. Unfortunately even with a roll of +1 he fails with only an Average result. Trevor suffers a point of Stress for failing the Test by 1 shift; David describes how he stumbles over a stool and crashes into a customer carrying a tray of drinks. Sarah declares a Difficulty of Good (+3) for the next exchange as she describes Jimmy trying to shake off pursuit by dodging between traffic and cross the busy road outside. She rolls badly; a Poor (-1) result meaning Jimmy suffers 4 Stress Points, one short of being Taken Out! A taxi screeches to a halt too late, hitting Jimmy hard and sending him reeling into the gutter. David sees his chance and invokes his Haunted by wifes death in a hit & run accident Aspect to have had the foresight to station traffic officers outside with orders to stop traffic if the suspect fled, fearful of innocents being hurt. Confident his men will have done this, Trevor pursues Jimmy into the road. David rolls a +2, increased to a Great (+4) result from the Aspect Invocation, succeeding with 1 shift, inflicting 1 Stress on Jimmy leaving him Taken Out. Trevor trots across the street and drops his weight onto the bloodied Jimmy as he struggles to his feet. Between gasps and wheezes Trevor announces Youre nicked!

Passengers
Whether in a simple Chase Conflict or in a fully fleshed out Chase Scene, player characters not directly involved in the chase (e.g. who are passengers in a car) may still be able to help out. Each exchange, one passenger may assist the driver, provided he has the means to do so. This allows him to contribute to the chase, as long as he finds a way to describe it, be it shooting at the pursuers (Guns), pushing a crate out the back (Might), or just shouting look out! when dramatically appropriate (Alertness). The passenger rolls his Skill while the driver rolls his Drive as usual, and the driver may use the higher of the two results. There is a limit though! The same passenger may not help two exchanges in a row. Note that the Skill Test only aids the driver, it does not have any other effect for instance, a passenger who is shooting does not get normal attack results, just the ability to let the driver choose between the two Test results. This said, by dint of being passengers in the same vehicle, all characters even those not able to roll in that exchange may offer to spend Fate points out of their own pool on behalf of the driver, so long as they supply a bit of colour dialogue, e.g., Alleyway ahead!

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Equipment
Melee Weapons
The table below specifies the Stress Bonus and Cost Difficulty for several melee weapons. The Stress Bonus adds to the shifts of a successful attack to determine the amount of Stress inflicted upon the target. Table - Melee Weapons Weapon Fists Knife* Sword Hand Axe Battle Axe Club or staff Whip** Stun Baton*** Stress Bonus +0 +1 +2 +2 +3 +2 +1 +0 Cost Difficulty Not Applicable Mediocre Fair Mediocre Good Mediocre Fair Good

Table - Ranged Weapons Weapon Bow Crossbow* Musket* Hand gun SMG** Sniper Rifle Assault Rifle** Shotgun Taser*** Energy Pistol Energy Rifle Shuriken Stress Bonus +1 +2 +4 +2 +3 +4 +3 +4 +0 +4 +5 +0 Range (Zones) 2 2 2 1 2 4 3 2 1 1 4 1 Cost Difficulty Average Great Fantastic Good Great Superb Great Good Good Superb Fantastic Average

*These weapons have an aspect of Slow to load that can be tagged by targets to their benefit. **These weapons are capable of automatic fire, see above. ***If a foe is struck by a Taser any Stress inflicted applies to both his Physical & Composure Stress Tracks. Stress Bonus is for targets in the same zone, the bonus drops by 1 point for each zone of range after that. Shotguns may fire solid slugs at a +2 Stress Bonus with no reduction for range.

*A knife may also be thrown at a target 1 Zone away. **Whips may be used to attack foes in an adjacent zone at the expense of a -1 penalty to the Weapons Test. **If a foe is struck by a Stun Baton any Stress inflicted applies to both his Physical & Composure Stress Tracks.

Ranged Weapons
A number of ranged weapons are summarised in the Ranged Weapons table, the Stress Bonus, Range in Zones and Cost Difficulty are shown.

Ranged Weapon Accessories

Accessories are represented by Aspects of the weapon that can be invoked, compelled and tagged just like any other Aspect. Some sample ways to use these Aspects are provided.

Ammunition
Generally, ammunition limits are not given much concern in a Free FATE game, it is assumed characters carry extra ammunition and reload appropriately. However, running out of ammunition can occasionally add drama to a scene. Running out of ammunition is a legitimate Compel for a character with gun-related Aspects, but even more, its an excellent first Consequence (or even a Concession if the Conflict is primarily being fought with guns). Having a foe run out of ammunition could also be a result of a manoeuvre; for example using Athletics to run all over the place, drawing fire and getting the bad guys to expend their ammunition.

Laser Sight
Cost Difficulty: Good Invoke to gain a +2 bonus on a Guns Test. Tag to roll your Alertness instead of Athletics for a Defence roll (you see the red dot on you and dive for cover). Compel to cause a hidden sniper be spotted.

Silencer
Cost Difficulty: Fair Invoke to be able to use a gun whilst using Stealth. Tag to gain a +2 bonus on a Fists Test to perform the Disarm Manoeuvre on the silenced-gun toting foe (youve got something to grab). Compel to cause the weapon to get caught in clothing when being drawn.

Automatic Fire
Ranged weapons capable of automatic fire are particularly useful for performing suppression and covering fire. Such weapons gain a +1 bonus to perform Block Actions (see page 21) using the Guns Skill.

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Armour
Armour can absorb a certain amount of Stress inflicted as part of an attack, sparing the wearer from having to suffer that Stress. If an attacker gets a successful hit then the shield or armour value is deducted from the total Stress inflicted (including any weapon Stress Bonus). To absorb additional Stress, armour and shields can take one or more Consequences reflecting damage to the actual worn armour. Consequences taken on armour can, of course, be tagged for bonuses or for effect by attackers. For example a Major Consequence for Plate Armour may be Badly dented, which could be tagged to help land a blow against the armoured opponent (the dent funnelling the blow, rather than deflecting it) or compelled to impede the armoured person from sprinting. Once a piece of armour has suffered its maximum number of Consequences it is also considered Taken Out, and no longer absorbs Stress. Consequences can be repaired by qualified Engineers. Trevor Maples is taking part in a police raid on an illegal drugs factory and is wearing a Stab Vest. Unexpectedly he gets attacked by a worker wielding a syringe (+1 Stress Bonus). Davids defence roll for Trevor fails by 2 shifts meaning Trevor would suffer 3 Physical Stress (2 shifts + 1 Stress Bonus). However the Stab Vest will absorb 1 point of Stress leaving Trevor to only suffer 2 points. However, knowing that Trevor is being attacked with a syringe (which contains goodness knows what) David elects to take a Minor Consequence to the Stab Vest, meaning it absorbs all of the Stress (1 for its inherent armour bonus and 2 for the Minor Consequence). This leaves the stab vest Taken Out and indeed a hindrance with David selecting the Consequence of Torn and twisted. David still thinks it is worth it though!

Table - Armour Armour Leather Chain Mail Plate Mail Stab Vest Kevlar Vest Assault Vest Assault Suit Stress Absorbed 0 1* 2* Consequences 1 x Minor 1 x Minor 1 x Major 1 x Minor 1 x Major 1 x Severe 1 2 3 1 x Minor 1 x Minor 1 x Major 1 x Minor 1 x Major 1 x Severe 3 1 x Minor 1 x Major 1 x Severe 1 x Extreme *Also acts as a penalty to Athletics & Stealth Tests. Epic Fantastic Great Superb Fantastic Cost Difficulty Great Superb

Explosives
The table below lists a few example explosives along with ratings for Complexity, Area, Force, the type of Fuse and Cost Difficulty. Rules for using explosives are provided on page 25.

Fuses
The fuse determines when an explosive goes off. Timer The explosive detonates after a predefined time. A crude timer (e.g. fuse wire) may not be 100% accurate; the number of exchanges is modified by a dice roll (i.e. it may detonate up to 5 exchanges early or late). Grenades detonate after 1 exchange. On Demand The explosive detonates on demand, either by use of a remote switch or radio trigger. Area 2 1 1 2 1 Fuse Timer or On Demand Timer (crude) Timer or On Demand Timer or On Demand Timer (1 exchange) Cost Difficulty Epic Great Superb Fantastic Good

Table - Explosives Type Military Grade Home Made Mining Explosive Plastic Explosive Grenade Force Legendary Superb Fantastic Epic Fantastic Complexity Epic Superb Fantastic Fantastic Superb

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Vehicles
Vehicles are vital tools for numerous people and may be important to a story. Vehicles have three attributes, their Type (Pedestrian, Mount, Car or Aircraft), Speed (the top speed of the vehicle) and Stress Capacity (the amount of damage the vehicle can sustain before being Taken Out). Vehicles of Named Characters and Companions may also take up to three Consequences. The Type of a vehicle is mostly relevant to understand the value of its Speed. The Speed value is not absolute, but rather indicative of how fast the vehicle is for the Type of vehicle it is. An Average Speed of a Car is much faster than an Average Speed for a Pedestrian, but slower than an Average Speed of an Aircraft. Speed comes into play for simple contests of which vehicle is faster (roll Speed vs. Speed, modified by respective Drive or Pilot skills as appropriate) but for anything more complex, the chase rules (see page 31) may be more appropriate in which case the Drive or Pilot Skill is modified by the Speed of the vehicle.

When this is the case, the normal rules for resolving chases apply however the party using the slower mode of transport suffers a penalty. A character suffers a -2 penalty against a vehicle of the next Type up, and a -4 penalty against an opponent in a vehicle Type two steps up from him. A Pedestrian automatically loses to an Aircraft. In summary: A Pedestrian suffers a -2 penalty against a Mount and a -4 penalty against a Car. A Pedestrian automatically loses to an Aircraft. A Mount suffers a -2 penalty against a Car and a -4 penalty against an Aircraft. A Car suffers a -2 penalty against an Aircraft. These modifiers allow chases to be performed with mixed Types of vehicles, however the GM is free to limit such chases even further, perhaps only allowing mixed chases to occur for a limited number of exchanges, for example five exchanges if the difference in Type is only one step, and three exchanges if the difference is two steps. If the chase is not resolved within this time frame the faster Type of vehicle simply out paces the slower Type. When taking off, an Aircraft is effectively considered a Car Type, allowing Pedestrians a chance to catch up to a fleeing plane.

Mixed Types
Occasionally you may find that a chase involves parties in different Types of vehicles, or where one participant is on foot or riding a horse. Vehicle On Foot Bicycle Camel Elephant Horse Motorcycle, Off road Motorcycle, Racing Car, Saloon Car, Sports Car, Limousine Van Truck Speedboat Yacht Cruise Ship Helicopter Propeller Plane Fighter Jet Passenger Aircraft Type Pedestrian Pedestrian Mount Mount Mount Car Car Car Car Car Car Car Car Car Car Aircraft Aircraft Aircraft Aircraft

Table - Vehicles Speed Athletics Skill Rating Athletics Skill Rating +1 Average Mediocre Good Good Great Good Great Fair Fair Average Great Fair Average Fair Good Great Good Stress Capacity As character 1 2 4 2 1 1 4 2 5 4 6 4 6 10 2 2 4 6 Cost Difficulty NA Average Fair Fair Fair Good Great Good Great Superb Good Superb Great Fantastic Epic Fantastic Fantastic Epic Epic

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Table - Workplaces

Workplaces
In order to conduct research, experiments or to repair something, people need workplaces and the tools that go along with them. There are a number of different types of workplace, depending upon the Skill being used, as shown in the table below. Table - Workplaces Skill Academics Science Science Engineering Mysteries Mysteries Mysteries Work Academic Research Lab Work Medical Aid Repairing Arcane Research Artificing Alien Research Workplace Library Lab Med Facility Workshop Arcane Library Arcane Workshop Alien Archive

Cost Difficulty Mediocre Average Fair Good Great Superb Fantastic Epic

Base Time A week A few weeks A month A few months A season Half a year A year A few years

Miscellaneous Equipment
Table Miscellaneous Equipment Item Mobile Phone Computer, Laptop or PDA Camera Audio Transceiver (Radio) Video Camera Caltrops* Handcuffs Lock Pick Gun** Binoculars Concealable Microphone Parabolic Microphone Mini-Tracer GPS Receiver Flashlight Night Vision Goggles*** Camouflage Clothing**** Gas Mask SCUBA Gear Cost Difficulty Average Fair Average Fair Fair Average Average Good Average Fair Fair Fair Fair Mediocre Fair Average Fair Fair

Each workplace has a Quality Rating that determines its usefulness and also how much it costs. The Cost Difficulty of a workplace is two steps higher than its Quality Rating, e.g. a Good Quality Laboratory has a Cost Difficulty of Superb. Workplace Cost Difficulty = Quality +2 The rules for conducting Research, and the required Quality Rating of a Library or Laboratory, are detailed on page 13. For repairs the Quality Rating of the workplace must equal the Difficulty of the repair minus two, so repairing a Saloon Car requires an Average (+1) Workshop; the Difficulty for repairs being Good (+3); based upon the higher of its Speed and Cost Difficulty (see the Engineering Skill on page 14).

Creating Items
For creating items using the Engineering Skill (or the Mysteries Skill for arcane and magical items) an appropriate workshop is needed. Creating an item requires four things: 1. 2. A workshop with a Quality Rating equal to the items Cost Difficulty. A successful Resources Skill Test with a Difficulty of the items Cost Difficulty -2 in order to purchase materials and pay for any extra labour required. A successful Engineering or Mysteries Skill Test with a Difficulty of the items Cost Difficulty. A Base Time determined by the Cost Difficulty of the item as shown on the table below.

* +1 to Block Actions preventing movement. ** +2 to Burglary Tests to pick mechanical locks. ***Negate darkness related penalties. **** +1 bonus to Stealth Tests if appropriate.

Damaging Equipment
Normally items have no Stress Capacity; any damage inflicts a Consequence. The number of Consequences an item can suffer is determined by the GMs estimation of the durability of the item. Once all of an items Consequences have been suffered it is considered unusable. Fragile Items can suffer 1 Consequence Durable Items can suffer 2 Consequences Toughened Items can suffer 3 Consequences

3.

4.

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Character Development
Characters in a Free FATE game can change and improve over time. The rules below indicate how this development is reflected in game mechanics. Some development occurs at the end of each gaming session, whilst other more significant improvements occur only at the end of a particular story; which may involve several gaming sessions.

Replace an Aspect
Players may change an Aspect, either because it is not working out as envisioned, or because it makes sense based upon the characters experience in the previous adventure. David elects to change Trevors Aspect of A policemans notebook is his greatest weapon because it isnt seeing much use and Sarah is finding it a difficult Aspect to Compel. David chooses Alison is always there for me as a replacement Aspect. A few sessions later David has been playing through Trevors fight against the demon drink, and thus changes his Slave to the demon drink Aspect to Determined to stay on the wagon.

End of Session
At the end of each session each player character is awarded one Skill Point to add a new Skill or improve an existing one. If everyone agrees, the GM can award two Skill points to a player who did something spectacular in the session.

Swap adjacent Skills in the Skill Pyramid

A player can swap the Rating of a Skill with that of a Skill with a Rating one tier higher or lower. Trevor has been sneaking around a lot more than he has leading a team of police investigators, so David elects to swap his Fair (+2) Leadership Skill with his Average (+1) Stealth Skill. Leadership thus gets downgraded to Average (+1) and Stealth gets upgraded to Fair (+2). A Skill with a Rating of Average (+1) can also be dropped completely and replaced with a new Skill at Average (+1). In this instance An Average Skill is effectively being swapped with a Mediocre Skill.

Adding a New Skill

1 Skill Point allows a player to add a new Skill to his character at a Rating of Average (+1).

Improving a Skill
1 Skill Point allows an existing Skill to be improved by one step, for example a Fair (+2) Alertness Skill can become Good (+3). However, there is one stipulation; the player must maintain the pyramid Skill structure; each Rating tier must have at least one more Skill than the tier above. E.g. to have 3 Good Skills, a character must have at least 4 Fair Skills & 5 Average Skills. Trevor Maples has the following skills: Great (+4): Good (+3): Fair (+2): Average (+1): Investigation Contacting, Intimidation Alertness, Leadership, Resolve Drive, Guns, Science, Stealth

Change one Stunt

A player can remove one Stunt and replace it with another, subject to any prerequisites. Trevor has relocated to another city as part of the ongoing story, so David decides to remove the Concentration Criminal Snitches Stunt and chooses to create a new Ally Stunt for Trevor instead.

End of Story
Choose one of the following options:

Before he can increase Trevors Alertness from Fair (+2) to Good (+3) David first needs to gain an extra two Skills at Fair (+2) which in turn requires an extra two Skills at Average (+1). Thus his Skill pyramid can change as shown below when he improves Alertness. Great (+4): Good (+3): Fair (+2): Average (+1):

Add a Stunt
A character can gain a Stunt (prerequisites must be met) at the expense of reducing his Fate Point Refresh Rate by one; if this would reduce the Refresh Rate to zero, a Stunt cannot be added.

Add an Aspect
A new Aspect can be added. The maximum number of Aspects a character may have equals his Fate Point Refresh Rate plus the number of Stunts he has.

Other Session Development

In addition to being awarded and spending Skill Points, at the end of each session each player can do one of the following as long as it does not result in any Stunt prerequisites no longer being met.

Increase Fate Point Refresh Rate

A characters Fate Point Refresh Rate can be increased by one. This provides more Fate Points at the beginning of an adventure and increases the limit on the number of Aspects and Stunts.

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Appendix A
Sample Benefit Stunts
Below are listed a number of sample Benefit Stunts that players may choose for their characters. These Stunts usually relate to one particular Skill and players should be encouraged to choose Stunts that relate to their characters peak Skill to emphasise the niches their characters fill. Of course this isnt obligatory and a player may choose a Stunt relating to a Skill which his character does not even have. The table below summarises the sample Stunts by associated Skill. Table Sample Stunts by Skill Skill Academics Stunts Linguist Photographic Memory Walking Library Alertness Danger Sense Im On Top Of It Ready for Anything Art Commissions Do You Know Who I Am? Virtuoso Athletics Contortionist Human Spider Slippery Burglary Contacting Deceit Lock Master Walk the Walk Clever Disguise Master of Disguise Mimicry Drive Custom Ride Defensive Driving One Hand on the Wheel Empathy Endurance Engineering Cold Read Ebb and Flow Feel the Burn One Hit to the Body Gadget Mister Fix-It Thump of Restoration Universal Gadget Fists Brawler Dirty Fighter

Skill Gambling Guns Intimidation Investigation Leadership Might Mysteries

Stunts Gambling Man Winnings Long Shot One Shot Left Nobody Moves! Subtle Menace Lip Reading Scene of the Crime Funding Body Toss Wrestler Psychic Voices from Beyond Words on the Wind

Pilot

Flawless Navigation Flying Jock Personal Aircraft

Rapport Resolve Resources

Five Minute Friends International Smooth Recovery Steel Determination Headquarters Home Away From Home Lair

Science Sleight of Hand Stealth Survival Weapons

Medic Bump and Grab Cool Hand Hush Quick Exit Creature Companion Tracker Catch Good Arm

Body Toss
Requires Wrestler. You know how to apply your strength in a fight to take people off their feet. Whenever making a Throw or a Push manoeuvre (page 21), you require one less shift per zone than normal. Thus, to Throw an average person one zone only 2 shifts would be required (rather than 3) and only 5 shifts would be required to throw them two zones (2 plus 3, rather than 3 plus 4)

Brawler
Youre at home in any big old burly brawl, with multiple opponents and ideally some beer in you.

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Whenever you are personally outnumbered in a fight (i.e., when someone gets to attack you at a bonus due to a numerical advantage) your defence rolls with Fists are at +1. When fighting two or more minions, you deal one additional Stress on a successful hit.

With this Stunt, you can use your full Athletics score instead, and have rationale to attempt feats of contortion that are simply unavailable to others.

Cool Hand
A steady hand can be critical when things get hairy. This characters hands never shake and never waver. Your character may ignore any Difficulty increases from the environment when performing any fine manual work (even if that fine manual work doesnt involve the Sleight of Hand Skill, such as Burglary for lock picking, or Science for surgical work). Further, his steadiness minimizes other distractions and cuts down on mistakes. Once per scene he may eliminate one single nonenvironmental penalty that affects his Sleight of Hand.

Bump and Grab

Your character is exceptionally skilled at taking advantage of distractions in order to make a quick grab. You may spend a Fate point to make a simple Sleight of Hand attempt to do something pick a pocket, palm an object, etc. as a free action.

Catch
When defending against a thrown object, if you are successful enough to generate Spin on your defence, you may declare that you are catching the item that was thrown at you, provided you have a free hand and its something you could, practically speaking, catch (so no catching, say, refrigerators, unless you have something truly crazy going on in the Might department).

Creature Companion
Your character has cultivated a close companion from the animal kingdom. This is an Ally stunt, with a few changes and limitations. Creature companions only operate within a Physical scope (i.e. are sidekicks), and at least two of its advances must be Quality and / or Skilled. Any Skilled advances must be taken from a short list: Athletics, Fists, Might, Stealth, and Survival. You may take only one Skill outside of that list, within reason, as based on the animal type. A raccoon might have Sleight of Hand, representing its ability to perform fine manipulation; a lion might have Intimidation (this is unsubtle, and not considered a violation of the physical scope). If the animal is of an appropriate size, this creature may be ridden as a mount, at +1 to Survival. If the companion is a mount, such as a horse, or a more exotic beast that has been persuaded to allow you to ride it, you may use that mounts Athletics Skill instead of Survival in order to ride it. Athletics would also be used to pour on the speed when the rider is too busy to steer the animal himself.

Clever Disguise
Normally, a character cannot create a disguise that will stand up to intense scrutiny, i.e. use of the Investigation Skill (see page 14). With this Stunt, he may defend against Investigation (anything short of physically trying to remove the disguise) with his full Deceit Skill. Furthermore, he may assemble disguises of this quality in a matter of minutes, provided he has a well-equipped disguise kit on hand.

Cold Read
Normally, to use Empathy to get a read on someone (an Assessment) it requires at least a few minutes of conversation, if not more. Characters with this Stunt may do so after much less time two or three steps faster on the Time Increments table (see page 8).

Commissions
Requires Virtuoso. Your works and performances are heavily sought out, and there are those who will pay handsomely for it. Once per session, you may use your Art Skill instead of Resources, representing a successful past commission.

Custom Ride
You own a land vehicle (no Resources Test necessary) that is special and handles particularly well; providing a +1 bonus to any Drive Tests. Additionally, your vehicle has a little something extra, and you may, once per session, spend a Fate Point and declare that the vehicle has some extra device (such as an oil slick or caltrop dispenser) that will allow you to perform manoeuvres to impose appropriate Aspects on any pursuers, e.g. Skidding Wildly or Shredded Tyres.

Contortionist
You can fit into and through spaces and shapes that no normal human readily can. Normally, contorting tasks are impossible to attempt, or at best default to a (non-existent) Contortion Skill rated at Mediocre.

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Danger Sense
The character maintains a quick and easy awareness of ambushes and other nasty surprises perhaps preternaturally, perhaps simply due to finely tuned mundane senses. Whenever ambushed, the character is able to take a full defensive action, gaining a +2 on his Defence roll, regardless of whether or not hes surprised (if he is surprised, dropping his base Defence to Mediocre, this Stunt takes his base Defence up to Fair).

Five Minute Friends

For a Fate point, you can make a steadfast friend in a place youve never been, given a chance for five minutes of conversation. This Stunt makes nearly impossible opportunities to make friends merely improbable, improbable opportunities probable, and probable opportunities outright certain.

Flawless Navigation
The skies are an open map in the characters mind. Unless bizarre circumstances are afoot, he can never get lost in flight. If something strange is happening the Difficulties for his Pilot rolls are never increased by more than 2.

Defensive Driving
Youre good at keeping your vehicle in one piece. Whenever driving in a chase (see page 31), you may treat that exchanges Difficulty as if it were one lower. The Difficulty itself is not affected, however, for any other vehicles in the chase.

Flying Jock
This pilot can squeeze his plane through places where it has no business fitting. Normally, a pilot can spend a Fate point for a coincidence or declaration to assure that the plane has enough clearance space to fly through. Characters with this Stunt never need to spend a Fate point: if it could fit, it can. Whats more, if your character does spend a Fate point, he can fit the plane in places it absolutely should not be able to. This Stunt is also useful for landing planes in improbably tight quarters.

Dirty Fighter
Requires Brawler. Your character has a talent for fighting dirty and is experienced in pulling all manner of tricks in order to get the upper hand on his opponents. By exploiting an opponents weakness, you are able to strike deep and true. Any time you tag an opponents Aspect in a fight, or tag an Aspect of the scene that affects your foe, you get an additional +1 on the roll.

Funding
You head an organization that is profitable. Pay a Fate point and your organization may temporarily increase a Resources Skill up to the value of your Leadership, regardless of whether or not youre present. When you personally make use of these resources it may take some time to filter through the power structure to reach you; the GM may increase the time it takes to acquire something by one step.

Do You Know Who I Am?

Requires Virtuoso. Your widespread name and your art are interlinked as one. When identifying yourself in order to get your way in a social or other applicable situation, you may complement Rapport, Intimidation, Deceit and Contacting rolls with your Art Skill.

Ebb and Flow

The character is so aware of the social currents in a situation that he is able to see something of whats coming before it arrives. At the beginning of any social exchange, before proceeding with the usual initiative order, the character may spend a Fate point and attempt a quick read looking for surface moods and other social cues on any one target of his choosing, as a free action.

Gadget
You have a personal gadget based on an existing (or potentially existing) piece of technology, with three improvements (see below). You may take this Stunt several times, either for several gadgets, or to provide additional improvements to the same gadget. Additional Capability: The device can now do something else of roughly the same scale. A car might also be able to be a boat, for example, or a gun might be able to shoot a grappling hook. Advanced Technology: The device uses technology beyond what is currently possible. Alternate Usage: The device allows skills to be used differently. For example, a ghost detector

Feel the Burn

The character can push through incredible pain in order to reach his goal. The character can take one extra Major Consequence (see page 22) to negate Stress to his Physical Stress Track allowing him to take a total of four Consequences in a physical conflict.

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might allow a Scientist to use Science rather than Mysteries for the sixth sense effect. Armed: Adds guns or blades to a device allowing its use with the Guns or Weapons skill. Each Armed improvement adds +1 to stress damage on a successful hit. Armoured: A device may be given a point of armour, meaning that any time it is hit the armour reduces stress taken by one point per improvement. This can be taken up to 3 times. Autopilot: The device is able to operate by itself in a limited manner; a car could follow a simple pre-programmed route, a sentry gun could fire at targets moving into range. Conscious (requires Autopilot): The device is sentient. The Gadget can be combined with an Ally stunt to reflect this. Craftsmanship: The device gives a +1 bonus to any effort using it (usually only to one skill, if the device supports the use of multiple skills). This improvement may not be taken more than once per affected skill. Magic Tech (requires Advanced Technology): The device does something so advanced it appears like magic. Maximisation: This improvement is used to allow an item to act is if it was much larger; a pistol could potentially damage a tank, and a car could hold a large number of passengers. Miniaturisation: Something thats not normally portable can now fit in a large set of luggage, while something merely large can now fit in a wristwatch. Rugged: The device has 2 stress boxes in addition to any the item would normally have. May be taken multiple times. Upgrade: A specific improvement, granting a +2 bonus to some fairly specific use. A vehicle, for example, might get a +2 to manoeuvre actions in a swamp or a +2 on a highway.

than usual. The character may make an attack using a thrown weapon up to two zones away instead of the usual one; if he does so, the attack is made at a -1.

Headquarters
If a character has purchased a Workplace (see page 37) then this Stunt turns it into a full blown private headquarters, such as a mansion or a secret cave. In addition to the Workplace, the headquarters may include one of the following extra elements: Expert Staff: Your headquarters has a small staff of competent individuals who are each treated as a Companion (see page 28); two are of Average Quality and one is of Fair Quality (they have no other Advances). Expert Staff are bound to the location of your headquarters, and cant ever leave it without losing their Companion qualities (they drop to Mediocre outside of their home environs). Secondary Facility: Your base facility normally serves one primary function Library, Lab, Workshop, Arcane Library, Arcane Workshop or Alien Archive. This extra allows you to define a second function that operates at a Quality Rating one less than the main Workspace. Extensive Security: Security measures make your headquarters difficult to compromise. All Difficulties for bypassing your headquarters security are increased by one. Utmost Secrecy: The location of your headquarters is top secret. Few know of it, and even those located nearby may be unaware. The Difficulty of any Investigation or Contacting roll to find the location of your lair is equal to your Resources Skill. Communications Centre: Your headquarters is the nerve centre of a number of vital channels of communication. Any communications routed to, from, or through your base take one time increment less to get to where theyre going, due to the efficiencies offered.

Gambling Man
Requires compellable Aspects related to gambling. As a gambling man, the character is rarely able to turn down a bet or an opportunity to take a risk. Compels involving your gambling Aspects automatically start out at a point of escalation you must either spend two Fate points to avoid them, or gain two Fate points if you accept them, right at the outset.

Home Away From Home

If a character has purchased a Workplace (see page 37) this Stunt allows the character to have a second such property in a different location (at the same Quality rating). The player may specify the location during play (at which point it becomes locked in), or in advance.

Good Arm
The character has an amazing throwing arm, and can throw weapons with great force, allowing them still to be effective at a much longer range

Human Spider
The character can climb surfaces he should not be able to. He receives a +2 bonus on any climb, and

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by spending a Fate point, he may eliminate the effects of all Difficulty modifiers resulting from the environment or the characteristics of the thing hes climbing (so he can climb a slick, mostly flat surface in a rainstorm at much less difficulty).

Linguist
Normally, someone may only speak a number of additional languages equal to the value of his Academics Skill. With this Stunt, your character may speak five additional languages.

Hush
Your talent with stealth may be extended to others who are with you close by, provided that you travel as a group. As long as the whole group stays with you and follows your hushed orders, you may make a single Stealth roll for the whole group, using your Skill alone. If someone breaks from the group, they immediately lose this benefit, and may risk revealing the rest of you if they dont manage to pull off a little stealth of their own. You cannot apply the benefits of other Stunts (besides Hush) to this roll, though you may bring in your own Aspects (and possibly tag the Aspects of those you are concealing) in order to improve the result. The maximum number of additional people in the group is equal to the numeric value of the characters Stealth score (so someone with Fair (+2) Stealth and this Stunt would be able to use his Skill for himself and two others).

Lip Reading
The character may use Investigation to eavesdrop on conversations he can only see. If the GM would normally allow someone to attempt to read lips, the Difficulty is reduced by 2; otherwise, you may simply roll Investigation when others may not.

Lock Master
The characters skill with improvisation when bypassing a lock or similar contrivance is improved, so long as he has something that could pass as a tool, such as a piece of wire. Characters with this Stunt never suffer an increased Difficulty for lacking proper tools on a Burglary roll, and when given proper tools, can defeat locks at one time increment faster than usual.

Long Shot
For whatever reason, youre always able to take shots at a greater distance than you should be able to. In your hands pistols, rifles and other such weaponry reach an additional zone (or two, if the GM feels generous).

Im On Top Of It
You may spend a Fate point to go first in an exchange, regardless of your initiative. If multiple people with this Stunt exercise this ability, they go in turn of their normal initiative, before those who dont have the Stunt get a chance to act. If the exchange has already started, and you have not yet acted, you may instead spend a Fate point to act next, out of the usual turn order. This may only be done between characters actions, and cannot be done as an interruption of any kind (so if you spend the Fate point to do this while someone else is acting, you must wait until theyre done). Your character must not have acted yet in the exchange in order to use the ability in this way.

Master of Disguise
Requires Clever Disguise and Mimicry. The character can convincingly pass himself off as nearly anyone with a little time and preparation. To use this ability, the player pays a Fate point and temporarily stops playing. His character is presumed to have donned a disguise and gone off camera. At any subsequent point during play the player may choose any nameless, filler character (a villains minion, a steward on the cruiseship, a police patrolman, etc.) in a scene and reveal that that character is actually the Player Character in disguise! The character may remain in this state for as long as the player chooses, but if anyone is tipped off that he might be nearby, an investigator may spend a Fate point and roll Investigate against the disguised characters Deceit. If the investigator wins, the investigators player (which may be the GM) gets to decide which filler character is actually the disguised Player Character.

International
The characters mastery of etiquette leaves him comfortable, and even glib, in any situation. The character never suffers any penalties or increased Difficulty from unfamiliarity with his setting, making it easy to manoeuvre through local customs he hasnt encountered before, and to cover up any gaffes with a laugh and a sparkle in his eye.

Lair
Requires Headquarters. The characters headquarters has three elements (rather than one).

Medic
Requires a Medicine Specialisation Stunt for the Science Skill

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The character is talented at delivering medical care in the field. Normally, someone providing first aid can remove a checkmark for every two shifts gained on the roll (see page 25). With this Stunt, every shift removes a point of Stress. If the character rolls well enough to remove more physical Stress than the victim is suffering, he may even remove a Minor physical Consequence.

isnt all that challenging, allowing driving to be the supplemental action). Your Drive Skill can never be used to restrict another Skill, only complement it.

One Hit to the Body

The character can pay a Fate point and ignore the effects of one attack per game session.

Mimicry
Requires Clever Disguise. Deceit can be used to convince people you are someone you arent but usually only in a general sense. You can seem to be a cop, an author, et cetera, but you cant seem to be a specific person without a lot of work (and an elevated Difficulty). With this Stunt, you can easily imitate the mannerisms and voice of anyone youve had a chance to study removing another potential cause to have a disguise examined, or perhaps convincing someone who cant see you that youre someone else even though youre undisguised. Studying someone usually requires only an investment of time and not a roll of the dice at least half an hour of constant exposure. This timeframe can be reduced, but will require an Empathy, Investigation, or Deceit roll against a target of Mediocre, increased by one for each step faster on the Time Increments table (page 8).

One Shot Left

That last bullet has a kind of magic to it. A character with this Stunt may declare that he is on his last shot, and may make any single Guns attack at +3. This is the characters last shot its use means that theres no more ammo, no holdout guns or the like. The only way the character is going to be able to use his Guns Skill in the scene is if he takes an action acquiring a new weapon or ammunition, which may not always be possible.

Personal Aircraft
You have a personal aircraft that you own or have the exclusive right to fly. In all respects, this Stunt functions like the Custom Ride Stunt (page 40). Refer to that Stunt for details.

Photographic Memory
Requires Walking Library. If youve read it, you remember it. If the answer lies in something youve read before (this must be reasonable), then any research effort takes an additional two units less time stacked on top of the benefit of Walking Library, this means that a half hours worth of research in books youve already encountered can be resolved in a minute, and a days worth covered in a mere hour.

Mister Fix-It
The character is talented at getting things repaired under time-critical circumstances. The time it takes to get something fixed by the character is reduced by two steps. If the situation is already operating on the fastest possible amount of time the Difficulty of the repair effort is reduced by one.

Psychic
You are open to the strange and paranormal though sometimes that means letting in the Unpleasant Things from the Darkness and other such nuisances. Normally, a character may be called upon by the GM to roll Mysteries as a kind of paranormal Alertness Skill, to pick up on the surface strangeness in a place. With this Stunt, you may deliberately use your Mysteries Skill to gain some mystic or terrible insight into the occult climate of an area, as if it were Investigation using a similar time-frame and gaining a similar level of (paranormal) detail. This also means that you may use Mysteries instead of Alertness when surprised, if the origin of the surprise is in some way supernatural, and can even use Mysteries as your initiative Skill when locked in a conflict with otherworldly forces.

Nobody Moves!
Any character can use Intimidation to perform a Block action (see page 21) to prevent foes in their current zone from moving to another zone. Normally the GM would impose penalties if the character was attempting to block off more than one route out of the zone, however a character with this stunt reduces any such penalties by the numerical rating of his Intimidation Skill (to a minimum penalty of zero).

One Hand on the Wheel

Driving while doing some other action normally results in a -1 penalty. With this Stunt, you dont suffer that penalty, regardless of whether you are rolling Drive (driving is your primary action, and the supplemental action is something minor), or rolling some other Skill (youre taking some other primary action, but keeping the vehicle on the road

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Used with this Stunt, Mysteries can give you access to information that would normally be impossible to get though the GM is under no obligation to give you that information in any clear fashion. Muddled riddles and vague intimations are the mode of the day. There is an additional catch: Using this ability may open you up to an unpleasant psychic attack by the presence or residue of Unnatural Creatures that have touched the area < but at least youve learned something.

total of four Consequences in a social or mental conflict.

Steel Determination
It is apparent to all around you exactly how far you are willing to go in order to get what you want. You may, when you bluntly speak your true intentions in a social interaction, trigger the effects of this Stunt, immediately gaining a +1 bonus which applies to all subsequent Intimidation or Resolve rolls, as well as any social defence, in that scene. However, if you do this, you may no longer use Rapport with the same audience, as you have peeled away the faade of civility.

Quick Exit
A momentary distraction is all you need to vanish from the scene. Provided you are not in the midst of a Conflict, you may make a Stealth Test with a Difficulty of the highest Alertness in the room. If you succeed, the next time someone turns to look at or talk to you, youre not there.

Subtle Menace
The character exudes menace far in excess of his capability to act. Even bound and behind prison bars, the character is so ripe with the promise of the awful things he could do that hes still scary. This character may use Intimidation no matter what the power imbalance in the situation is, and reduces any bonus his target may have been awarded by the GM for acting from a superior position by 2 (to a minimum of +0).

Ready for Anything

Requires Im On Top Of It. The characters senses are so keyed into minute changes that he is able to respond more quickly to new details. The characters Alertness Skill is considered to be one higher for purposes of determining initiative (allowing someone with Superb Alertness to have Fantastic initiative). This Stunt breaks ties whenever facing opponents with the same initiative. This Stunt may be taken multiple times, each time increasing the characters initiative one step.

Thump of Restoration
Requires Mister Fix-It. Sometimes a bunch of repairs can get short-handed with a good swift thump. A character must spend a Fate point to activate this ability, and roll Engineering (with a Difficulty of Mediocre). He then hits a device or other contraption that isnt working, and it starts working immediately, regardless of the Difficulty rating to repair it under time pressure. It will continue work for a number of exchanges equal to the shifts gained on the Engineering roll. Once the time is up, the device stops working again, and any efforts to repair it are at a one step higher Difficulty (since, after all, you hit the thing). If the character wishes to thump again, he may do so for another Fate point, but the Difficulty for the Engineering roll increases by one on each subsequent attempt.

Scene of the Crime

The character has a strong visual memory, and whenever he revisits a place where he has used Investigation before, he may make an immediate use of Investigation in a matter of seconds in order to determine what has changed since he was last there, as if it were an unusually detailed Alertness check.

Slippery
Requires at least one other Athletics Stunt. You gain a +2 to all attempts to defend against Pushing, Throw or Knockback manoeuvres, as well as any attempts to escape from bonds.

Tracker
Your character is Skilled at tracking, and can infer a great deal of information from a trail. When studying tracks, the character may roll Survival. Each shift from this roll spent thereafter gives the character one piece of information about the person or creature being tracked (such as weight, how they were moving, and so on). Normally, Survival cant be used to track something, leaving such attempts at a Mediocre default.

Smooth Recovery
While most characters with Resolve can keep things together under stress, for your character it is second nature, allowing him to regain his footing in the face of even the direst of outcomes outside of physical conflict. This Stunt allows the character to take one additional Major, social or mental Consequence (see page 22) to negate Stress to his Composure Stress Track allowing him to take a

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Universal Gadget
A universal gadget is, essentially, a Gadget that you may design on the fly, as if your character happened to have just the thing in his bag. This gadget follows the same design rules as the Gadget stunt, but is only allowed two improvements, not three. Once defined, the gadget is locked in for the remainder of the session. The benefit is that you can define the gadget on the fly. As with Gadget, you may take this Stunt multiple times giving a larger pool of improvements to assign to items on the fly.

Walk the Walk

The characters travels have taken him to every corner of the world. His familiarity with the streets and peoples of the world allow him to function easily, at home and abroad. The character never suffers any additional Difficulty from unfamiliar circumstances when using the Contacting Skill.

Walking Library
The characters prodigious reading has paid off in spades, and he is able to recall minute details from even the most obscure literary works. The character is always considered to have a library on hand of a quality equal to his Academics skill, enabling him to answer questions with a base Difficulty less than or equal to his Academics skill, using nothing other than his brain and some time for contemplation. Additionally, any research performed by this character in a real library automatically takes one unit less time (see Time Consuming Tasks on page 8), and any libraries with a quality less than his Academics skill do not limit the Difficulty of the question asked, as they normally would.

Virtuoso
The character is a master of some specific form of art painting, composition, singing, conducting or playing music, or the like. The character is a virtuoso in his field and recognized worldwide for his Skill. Even if his actual Skill level is not high, he is still on the list of the finest artists in the world, just not necessarily at the top of it. The character receives a +1 knowledge bonus when performing his art form. He may also pick a specialty (such as a specific instrument or a specific school of painting) for which he receives a +1 specialty bonus (stacking with the +1 knowledge bonus). When applicable, the virtuoso may produce works of art one time increment faster than would normally take. This stunt combines Concentration and Specialisation stunts with a Benefit (reduction of time to create works). This is a particular concession that is made in response to how infrequent Art performances are integral to the plot of a scenario.

Winnings
The character wins more than he loses, and is often flush with cash. Once per session, he may use Gambling instead of Resources to represent these winnings, so long as he hasnt recently experienced a loss. The player must provide a quick onesentence explanation of what the resource is and how he won it, when using this Stunt.

Words on the Wind

Requires Psychic. There are patterns to things that are not always obvious, even to the wise. This character looks in the right places, and hears the right things. Once per session, when he is not otherwise occupied, he may request an omen from the GM, and roll Mysteries against a target of Mediocre. The GM will use the results to guide her decision about how obscure the information gained is. It may be as arcane as a snippet of a riddle, or as mundane as news that a strange shipment is coming into the docks at midnight.

Voices from Beyond

Requires Psychic. Given time to prepare and perform the ritual, the character may perform a real, functioning sance to try to call out to spirits dead or never living. A Mysteries roll must be made against a Difficulty set by the GM, in order to cause a particular spirit to manifest. Summoned spirits are not under any sort of compulsion to be cooperative, and may have their own agendas, but once summoned, they may speak through the character with others in attendance. At the GMs option, especially if the summoner gains Spin on her Mysteries roll, the spirit may even manifest visibly. Should the spirit be malicious in any fashion, or wish to escape the summons, the character may use Mysteries or Resolve as his Skill of choice when struggling with the spirit.

Wrestler
Requires a Lifting & Carrying Specialisation Stunt for the Might Skill The character is a trained wrestler. The character may use his Might Skill instead of Fists in combat. This is effectively a Skill Switch Stunt but with no reduced scope of effectiveness, instead a prerequisite is imposed in the form of another Stunt.

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Legal Information
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Whats Changed?
Amended Mediocre (+0) & Average (+1) Lifting values. Added an Extreme Consequence entry to the Engineering skill repair table. Added the Ally stunt template and updated affected sections including removal of some now redundant sample stunts (Contact, Close Contacts, Minions). Clarified that Minions cannot take Consequences and normally neither can Companions. Update and additions to Advances section, now for Minions as well as Companions. Updated the Sample Minions & Sample Companions. Added Damaging Equipment section. Added the Gadget & Universal Gadget sample stunts. Amendment History changed to Whats Changed? General formatting and structure changes plus minor text edits to allow page count to remain at 48.

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