The GWO Blog has Moved. Also, a New Website!

Hey folks! Just wanted to let those who have read this blog in the past that I'm planning on getting back to it, just not with Blogger.

I just moved geekworldonline.com to a new host with their own Blog app that works better than trying to integrate Blogger. So, if you're interested in keeping up with the blog (there is an RSS Feed available for it) on RPGs, GWO, game design, etc., feel free to come check out the new site!

New GeekWorld Online Site

Dread: Horror Role Playing with Built-in Atmosphere

In my Iron Reviewer entries, I am going to focus on what I consider the key concepts that I apply when

looking at the playability of any RPG. Rules will be talked about, but not rated on any kind of standalone basis. At the end of each section I will include a "TL; DR" summary for those who just want to get the gist of it.

The Idea

Dread is a game that attempt to capture the feeling of the American horror film. From Alien to Friday the 13th, Dread wants to be able to invoke both the creeping fear of a slow reveal as well as the jump in your seat startle when the monster leaps out from behind a door.

The question to ask is “does it succeed”?

Mechanic System:Atmosphere

The first of my key concepts is the one that I consider to quite possibly be the most important. Do the mechanics of the game successfully capture the atmosphere the game is trying to create? Below I will discuss various aspects of the mechanics in relation to the atmosphere of the game.

Mechanics
There is exactly one REAL mechanic in Dread. Everything else is based around the story telling. The mechanic in the game is a Jenga tower. This is where the statement I made in my subject line comes in. Jenga is a game that creates a tension all in its own. The designers felt like combining that tension with a tale of horror would go a long way towards capturing the seat-gripping suspense of a horror film. In my opinion, they succeeded.

In Dread, the GM does nothing mechanically. He merely weaves the tale and guides the players down the dark and depraved path to their ultimate rewards. Basically, when someone wants to perform an action where something is actually risked, the game master will call for a pull from the tower. If the player successfully pulls from the tower without toppling it, she succeeds. If the tower falls over, she fails. If the task is one in which a particular character can accomplish it easily (for example, a situation that requires an action that she has clearly listed on her character sheet that she's capable of), there is no pull required.

Failing in Dread is not good. If you take out the tower while making a pull, your character doesn't just fail at her action. She gets written out of the story entirely. Oftentimes, she dies, but it is possible that the character gets written out by the GM another way.

Players can also choose to make pulls on their own. If you want your character to succeed at something exceptionally, you can choose to pull more than once from the tower. Should you succeed at your pulls, she succeeds above and beyond. You can also choose your own actions to pull for should the desire arise.

The state of the tower also helps the GM to pace the game. If it's early on and there are a lot of pulls, it might be a good time for the GM to decide to slow the action up a bit and build suspense. If there haven't been any pulls for some time, he may decide to get the action going more quickly and cause several pulls in a row.

Character Creation
Character creation in Dread is the only other real "mechanic," and it really isn't even one. There are no statistics, no abilities, and no rolls of the dice. So how does one create a character? Simple. You answer questions.

When a game master creates a story to run in Dread, he will create a questionnaire for each character. Each sheet has different questions on it. At the beginning of the session the GM will hand the sheets out to each of the players and they spend time answering each of the questions.

This process is almost a game in and of itself. Players will try and answer the questions in such a way that they might actually be able to accomplish a task without making a pull. This situation can also pit some of the character against each other.

Most importantly (I feel), creating the characters via questionnaire helps the player grow attached to it. This helps drive the suspense even more as they grow attached to them. Lastly, as there are no numbers of any kinds to worry about, this frees everyone up to focus on personality.

TL; DR Summary - Mechanic System:Atmosphere
The Jenga tower mechanic is meant to create an atmosphere of tension that bleeds into the game itself. As characters "die" when failing at any pull from the tower, it succeeds at raising the stress levels around the table.

Character creation also helps build the atmosphere. In a genre where characters actual abilities often come to not, Dread removes them completely. Characters are created by answering questions. The answers to those questions are the character.

Mechanics:Atmosphere Rating - 5/5

Complexity

Complexity of a system can not only have effect on general playability, but also to how newbie-friendly it is. Because of this, the complexity of a game is the second of my key concepts as it applies to the Basic System, Players and GMs.
Basic System
There is nothing really complex about the base system. If you don't automatically succeed at something, pull from the tower. That's it.

Player
Really the most complex thing for a character in a game of Dread is character creation. I've found that, with characters who like to get into their characters, the creation portion of a session can take some time.

The other part of the game that might come across as more complex to some is how narrative it is. There are no rolls determining success or failure, so the storytelling is all in the description of how a character succeeds or fails.

GM
The job of the GM can go either way when it comes to complexity. If a GM is running a prewritten adventure, there isn't much more to it than keeping things on track and keeping the storytelling interesting.

The hardest part of a GM's job in Dread is probably keeping the pacing up. A GM has to make sure that pulls aren't called for too frequently or two infrequently. He also wants to keep things interesting, include lulls and frantic action in moderation as well. This will also come into play when a GM is designing his own stories.

TL; DR Summary - Complexity
The basic mechanics of Dread are very easy to pick up. There isn't much complexity to "try something risky, pull from the tower." Players do need to put some thought into character creation, so that can take some effort. Lastly, GMs have to work at keeping the pacing appropriate, which is probably the hardest part of being a GM for this game.

Complexity Rating - 5/5

GM Section

I am primarily a GM when I play, so the third of my key concepts is how useful the GM section of a book is for potential GMs. Some are extremely in depth and some are basically useless.

How to Host a Dread Game
This chapter first touches on the basics of running a game of Dread. After that, it moves into what NOT to do (stay away from the tower, don't monopolize the story, etc.). After the don'ts, the chapter moves on to advice on keeping the pacing appropriate to the story and the timing of pulls from the tower. The last part of the chapter talks about how to address potential problems in a game, from players who refuse to perform actions requiring pulls to characters dropping dead early on in a game.

How to Create a Dread Game
This chapter helps a GM understand how a Dread story is built. It discusses how to develop the story and create events not directly related to the plot. It also gives advice on how to keep the characters feeling isolated and in danger and how to put everything together in a game designed to build suspense and danger while still being fun.

The" ________ Game" chapters
The final GM chapters are six chapters devoted to genres. This entire section of the book is broken up into advice on different styles of games. What kind of questionnaires to design for different genres, pulling from the tower, how to weave the story. For those creating their own Dread stories, these chapters are quite the gold mine.

TL; DR Summary - GM Section
There are multiple chapters devoted to running Dread. One is specific to running the game itself and a second is devoted to creating a game in general. The last group of chapters breaks running/designing stories down by genre.

GM Section Rating - 5/5

Included Adventure

The fourth and last key concept for any core book is the sample adventure included. Ideally, this should give GMs an idea of what a general adventure in the system should look like while keeping it easy to reference.

Number of included adventures: 3
Dread introduces three complete stories for a GM to run. Beneath the Full Moon, Beneath a Metal Sky and Beneath the Mask. Each story embodies a different genre of horror.

Beneath the Full Moon
Beneath the Full Moon is a supernatural suspense horror story. A group of students camping in the woods. The guide is mauled and the students are lost, being stalked by something, and the full moon is in the sky.

Beneath a Metal Sky
Beneath a Metal Sky is a science fiction horror story in the styling of Alien or Pitch Black. A salvage crew comes across an abandoned space hulk and investigates, only to find it isn't really abandoned. It's then they discover their own ship is gone and there are noises in the walls.

Beneath the Mask
Teenagers at a camp on a lake. People being murdered in their bunks. The only people present are the campers. Which of them did it? Yes, the last story in the Dread core rulebook is a slasher/mystery story. One of the characters has gone off the deep end and it’s up to the rest to figure out who and why.

Each of the stories presented here in the book give questionnaires to hand out to players. They include side scenes that can help flesh out a plot or keep things interesting. Lastly, each gives advice on specific scenes that should be present in one way or another to keep things running smoothly.

TL; DR Summary - Included Adventure
Dread includes three stories to be run, each in a different genre (Supernatural Suspense, Sci-Fi and Slasher Mystery). Each gives character questionnaires, potential side stories and suggested mandatory scenes to keep the plot moving. The stories do a good job of laying out what a story should look like as well as providing a good jumping off point for new GMs and players alike.

Included Adventure Rating - 5/5

Potential Concerns

This section isn't only devoted to things I don't like about a game, but also potential problems that don't bother me but might also bother others. This section isn't rated as it is even more subjective than the rest of my review.

There are a couple of areas I need to touch on in this review regarding potential concerns. The first is the Jenga tower. Jenga isn't for everyone. The biggest complaint about this game is that the mechanics rely on manual dexterity and not character skill. This is a valid complaint and might turn some people of completely. I know at least one of my players has refused to even try the game for this very reason.

The second area of concern is the narrative storytelling. Dread doesn't leave as much in the players’ hands as some other narrative games, but it still leaves plenty up to the player. If they succeed at a pull, they need to decide what they did to succeed and narrate it. Like other narrative games, if a player is a major simulationist, this game might not be for them.

To finish this review off, I just want to say that this is one of a few new games I've tried in the past year that have helped me to fall in love with a more collaborative and narrative play style. The mechanic of pulling from a Jenga tower is completely unique and very much in line with a tension and suspense created by horror films. In the first game of this I ran (with a group of strangers at a FLGS), in the last scene one player actually dropped to his knees next to the table shaking after making the final pull to escape on a helicopter. THAT is how players should feel during a horror RPG, as far as I'm concerned.

Extreme Vengeance: A GWO Video Review

As I mentioned earlier, I did a review of Extreme Vengeance for the 2013 Iron Reviewer contest on RPGG.com. Today I did a video adaptation of the review for my GWO YouTube channel. If you read the review, there isn't anything new here. If you prefer to watch reviews, give it a look!

As I review games for the Irong Reviewer contest, I will continue to adapt them to video and put them up in my channel. I'm debating on doing a "TL;DW' video review that takes the TL;DR section of the reviews and puts them into their own 2-3 minute video review.

New PLOT episode released, Session Five of Changeling: Lost Vegas

Play on Target Episode Three: What makes Call of Cthulhu, Fiasco, Apocalypse World, and Deadlands worthy of a top 10 spot?

Our third episode went live today. In this episode, we discuss the top ten list (at the time of recording) of RPGGeek.com. We then each choose a game on the top ten list (or in my case #11) and discuss why we feel it belongs where it is. Lastly we all take a moment to mention a game we think deserves to be in the top ten but is not.

This is a great episode overall, although I am not overly pleased with my contribution when it came time to discuss Deadlands. It's a game I love with a lot of unique mechanics (especially for the time in which it came out) that is still popular today. 

Unfortunately, I was having an off day during the day we recorded and some of my not feeling hot carried itself over into the recording. Thus, there was a bit more stumbling over words on my part then you generally catch on the other episodes. Minus that though, I feel we have released another quality episode and I recommend people give it a listen!

Changeling Lost Vegas Session Five: Bookie's Odds

Last night, +Lowell Francis ran the fifth session of his Changeling: the Lost campaign. During this session, my character (John W. Smith, aka. Nameless; a Wizened Smith) discovers a letter in a hollow made of glass and a second tarot card. The motley has more fun at Teodoro's expense (poor creepy guy), our ogress companion shatters a glass boa constrictor and the group negotiates (poorly, according to John Smith) to gain use of the Hollow for ourselves. Oh, and John gets to use his handy-dandy stabby poison-removal device on Andi.  In addition, he gives an extremely helpful narrative GM hint that I am planning on stealing for my own games. If you want to follow along, it's been recorded! 

Lowell is the GM. The players are myself, +Shoe Skogen, +Stacy Dellorfano and +Sherri Stewart.

GeekWorld Online Video Review: Fate Core (Kickstarter Draft)

I make my return to video reviews with my review of Fate Core (Kickstarter). If you have read the review on my blog previously, this won't hold any new information for you. I just thought I would share it for those who prefer to watch reviews than read them.

And hey, if you decide to subscribe to my channel, who am I to complain!

I'm thinking about starting up a Game Master-based video series with tips and tricks I've learned along the way, maybe on some world design. When I start doing it it will be separate from my blog here, although I'm sure it will touch on similar subjects from time to time. This is the same with Play on Target. While I may touch on some topics we cover on the podcast, I'm hoping to run this slightly differently. I can't promise it's going to come to anything, but I can say the video reviews will keep happening on a regular basis. For now I'm thinking of trying to do one a week.

Narrative? Check. Fast-paced combat? Check. Easily adaptable for design purposes? Triple check! (A Fate Core Review)

I thought it appropriate that as my blog posts up until this point have been revolving around adapting Time Heroes to the Fate system that I post a review of the Fate Core book that I've been using in this project. I am going to focus on what I consider the key concepts that I apply when looking at the playability of any RPG. Rules will be talked about, but not rated on any kind of standalone basis. At the end of each section I will include a "TL; DR" summary for those who just want to get the gist of it.

The Idea

"Fate doesn't come with a default setting, but it works best with any premise where the characters are proactive, capable people leading dramatic lives."

The above quote from the beginning of the Fate Core book is probably the best way to capture what the game is all about. Fate Core is also a designer-friendly system in that the minds behind the game were open about how they created the game, thus making it easy to adapt other games/settings to. I say this from first-hand experience as I have just finished my design journal in which I adapt my Time Heroes RPG to the (I think) much more appropriate system of Fate Core.

If you're interested in learning more about a fast-paced narrative game or about a system that can be applied to most anything, keep reading!

Mechanic System:Atmosphere

The first of my key concepts is the one that I consider to quite possibly be the most important. Do the mechanics of the game successfully capture the atmosphere the game is trying to create? Below I will discuss various aspects of the mechanics in relation to the atmosphere of the game.
Before I get into the specifics of this topic for Fate Core, I'm going to address a probable question: How do you discuss the atmosphere of a game in which there is no default setting? I think the best way to do this is by use the idea the game is meant to be narrative, fast-paced and accessible to most anyone as the "atmosphere" intended in the design of the game. Of course, I can't say this is 100 percent the intent, but it is what I took away from the game.

Mechanics
The best way to talk about the mechanics of Fate Core is (for me at least) simply to describe them. First, the game doesn't revolve around dice rolls. If an action doesn't do anything interesting or potentially complicate things, don't bother rolling.

Rolling Dice
If an action does require a roll, Fate uses a set of four [thing=44946][/thing]. Each die is broken up into three symbols. Two sides have minus sides, two have plus sides and two are blank.

The basic rolling mechanic is this: Roll four dice, add them up and reach a number that ranges from -4 to +4. If there is a skill that applies to the situation, that number is added to the roll. That number is then applied to the Fate Ladder to determine success.

Fate Ladder
+8 - Legendary
+7 - Epic
+6 - Fantastic
+5 - Superb
+4 - Great
+3 - Good
+2 - Fair
+1 - Average
0 - Mediocre
-1 - Poor
-2 - Terrible

How does the Fate Ladder come into play? The two types of opposition in Fate Core are active and passive opposition. Active opposition is when two people are directly rolling against each other. When the rolls are made, the person who rolled higher wins the contest.

Passive opposition is when the GM chooses a level on the ladder and sets that as the difficulty for the action. If the total from the player is higher than that level, the action generally succeeds. If the total equals the difficulty number, it might succeed but not to the extent the player wishes. If the total is under the difficulty number, the action could fail or succeed at a cost or with other complications involved.

Aspects
The biggy of Fate Core for me is the concept of the Aspect.  Aspects are phrases that can have both positive and negative connotations (Ex: Tempted by Shiny Things). These aspects can be invoked by spending a fate point in order to allow a reroll or add +2 to a roll (With Tempted by Shiny Things the player might spend a fate point in order to use this Aspect to assist with determining how much a jewel is worth). The GM can also compel the player to use the negative side of the Aspect (again, with Tempted by Shiny Things the character might be distracted from their goal by the sight of some kind of treasure and then need to go acquire it at the expense of the others).

Fate Points
Fate points can be used to do a few things. First, they are spent to invoke the positive side of an Aspect. This allows the player to reroll the dice or add +2 to the total of a roll.

They can be used to create a scene aspect if a character aspect doesn't apply. If a player wants to invoke an Aspect but doesn't have an appropriate one on their character, a Fate Point can be spent to create a scene aspect (Ex: a wizard decides to charge a thug head-on. They only roll a total of +1 for their Fighting skill. Wanting to ensure success, the player pays a Fate Point to state that he telekinetically yanks a Rug out from under the thug, granting him a +2 to the roll for a total of +3). After that the Scene Aspect remains, able to be used by others for the extent of the scene.

Third, Fate Points can be used to declare a story detail. This is basically the "what a coincidence" use for Fate Points. For example, a character could need to get a safe screwed into a wall. The player could spend a Fate Point and say they happen to find (or have brought with them) a power drill with which to remove the safe.

Lastly, Fate Points are spent to use certain higher-powered Stunts.

A player gains Fate Points by accepting Compels of the negative side of an Aspect from the GM.

Skills
A character's skills are rated from +0(Mediocre) to +4(Great), at least to start. When a roll is made, if a skill applies to the situation, the player can add the skill level to the roll.

Skills are used for four different things:
Overcome - Skills are used to defeat challenges (your basic roll and beat the difficulty number and you succeed)
Create Advantage - A skill can be used to discover something that already exists about an opponent or create a situation that helps you succeed. It lets you discover and create aspects as well as granting a free invocation of them.
Attack - What you expect it to be, except in Fate, depending on what the player declares, an attack can be physical, mental, emotional or social.
Defend - The same as Attack from the other side.

Stunts
Stunts are special effects that can change the way a skill works.  They can add a new action to a skill (Backstab lets the player use Stealth to make physical attacks if the target doesn't know the character is there), add a bonus to an action (Arcane Expert gives a +2 bonus to create an advantage using Lore if the situation has to do with the supernatural or occult) or create a rules exception (normally a skill can only be used once in a challenge but Ritualist allows a player to use Lore in place of another skill, allowing the player to use it twice in one challenge).

Combat
Very briefly, combat is an opposed roll. The winner deals damage in the amount of how much they beat the defender by. The damage must then be absorbed via stress or give a consequence (a negative Aspect that is longer-lasting than simple stress, such as a broken leg). If neither of these is able to be done, the character is out of the fight. Stress goes away after a fight with a few minutes of a breather, but Consequences are longer lasting.

Being taken out of a conflict is not the same as dying. The rules are pretty clear that generally in Fate Core, the only time a character should die is when it is narratively appropriate (and the GM and player should agree on this).

Those are the basics of the mechanics and probably more than I needed to get into for a simple review, but I wanted to be sure and convey how the game works. Something I particularly like is that the rules are clearly laid out in an easy-to-understand format. Granted, this book isn't the final version, so there are some errors here and there. However, as a whole it's not a difficult read.

Character Creation/"Leveling Up"
Character creation in Fate Core is extremely collaborative and is also tied in with setting creation. Both occur immediately after each other (or simultaneously) and should involve everyone intending to play in the game. Some aspects (lower-case 'a') of the setting may already be determined, but a good portion of it should be decided upon by everyone together.

There are no "character classes" in Fate Core. The closest the game comes to this would probably be the "High Concept," or primary Aspect of a character. This might be something like "Knight of the Round," "Low level Thug" or "Wizard Private Eye."

Character creation itself breaks down into several steps. I won't go into great detail on them here, but these are the steps:

1. Aspects - Choose your character's high concept and trouble aspects. A trouble aspect would be the equivalent of a flaw, although like any other aspect it can be invoked in a positive manner when desired.
2. Name - Pretty self-explanatory.
3. First Phase - Discuss the first adventure your character was a part of.
4. Second and Third Phases - In each of these two phases, discuss how your character crossed the path of another character.
5. Aspects - Pick an aspect for each of the three phases to give your character.
6. Skills - Pick your skills and rate them. During character creation a player has ten levels of skills to distribute amongst the skill list: 1 +4(Great), 2 +3(Good), 3 +2(Fair) and 4 +1(Average). Every other skill is rated at +0 (Mediocre).
7. Stunts - Design or choose stunts for your character.
8. Refresh - How many Fate Points will you start with?
9. Stress and Consequences - Figure out how many of each of these boxes your character has.

I think the most important parts of character creation to touch on in this review would be steps 3 and 4. In these steps, not only do you get to flesh out your character's history, you also get to determine how you know other characters, affect the world in a concrete manner and indicate what kind of a game you're looking forward to playing.

Leveling up occurs during Milestones. The type of Milestone (Minor, Significant or Major) determines how exactly you're allowed to change your character (from switching out aspects to gaining new stunts or improving skills). These generally occur at the end of a session and the GM determines by where they are in the story what kind of a Milestone it's going to be.

TL; DR Summary - Mechanic System:Atmosphere

The use of Aspects in Fate Core has illustrated to me that it is just about the perfect medium for story-telling. The dice mechanics are unique and uncomplicated. Simply roll, add appropriate skills and apply to the ladder. Combat is fast-paced, has lasting story-effects and is only deadly when narratively appropriate.

Character creation and setting creation occur simultaneously and both are collaborative, involving everyone around the table. A portion of character creation is determining your character's first adventure as well as how he met two of the other characters. He then chooses aspects based on each of these three events that will have a long term effect on him.

Character advancement happens during a Milestone, the type of which (Minor, Significant or Major) is determined by the GM. Each type of Milestone has a list of advancements a character is able to make.

In short, in a game that is intended to be fast-paced, engaging and extremely narrative, I'm not sure if I could come up with a better system to accomplish all of this than Fate.

Mechanics:Atmosphere Rating -  5/5

Complexity

Complexity of a system can not only have effect on general playability, but also to how newbie-friendly it is. Because of this, the complexity of a game is the second of my key concepts as it applies to the Basic System, Players and GMs.

Basic System
I think this is one of those things that depend on the player. In general I would say that it might seem confusing on the first read through, but once you've had a chance to play it for even one session, things will pretty quickly click into place. It boils down to roll four dice, total them, add appropriate skill bonuses/aspects and apply to the ladder. If you beat the difficulty/opposition, you succeed. If not, you fail or succeed at a price.

Player
This is a game where if you don't want to go into detail on what you're doing or have a say in what's going on in the world, it might be too complex for you.  Fate Core is very much a collaborative storytelling game in every sense of the word. While the game may not be too complex rules-wise for players used to saying "I attack the orc," I think it might be description-wise. Fate is very much a game of thinking on your feet and creating advantages where there aren't any immediately apparent.

GM
This, I would say, is kind of a tough one to gauge. Some of the storytelling is taken out of the GMs hands, making life a bit easier. On the flip side of that coin, some of the storytelling is taken out of the GM's hands. In addition to normal duties, a GM of Fate must really be able to fly by the seat of his pants when it comes to dealing with new aspects/situations/places created by the players during the course of a game.

Fate has no default setting, which means that the GM has a bit more to do prep wise. However, as mentioned earlier, much of the setting creation is done collaboratively during character creation so it may not be quite as involved as in other generic role playing systems.

TL; DR Summary - Complexity

After diving into a game of Fate, the basic rules should come along fairly quickly, unless you are uncomfortable having more say in the creation/evolution of the story than you are used to as a player.

GMs don't have a base setting to work off of, but much of that is handled during character creation anyway so as generic rules systems go it's a bit ahead of the curve.

Complexity Rating - 4/5

GM Section

I am primarily a GM when I play, so the third of my key concepts is how useful the GM section of a book is for potential GMs. Some are extremely in depth and some are basically useless.

The Fate Core book is a bit more interwoven regarding player and GM sections. I expected this; given how much of everything that happens is a collaborative effort. That being said, when the book gets to the GM-specific areas of running the game, designing scenarios, etc., it does a good job of getting the point across.

Running the Game
This portion the book is more of an extended overview of exactly what it is a GM does. It also differentiates between the tasks of a GM in other games and the tasks of a GM in Fate.  Throughout this area (as with the rest of the book), there are sidebars giving hints and tips for GMs to help them get the feel of the game and run things smoothly.

This section covers such topics as how to start and end scenes, playing the world and NPCs, judging the use of rules and when (or if) they should be used and creating scenarios and games (campaigns). It goes into more detail on how to make failure awesome and gives suggestions on ways to fail the roll but still succeed at the task (at a cost or with complications).

It also covers most things the players read about from the GMs angle as well as touching on odd situations that might crop up and different ways to resolve them quickly and to the benefit of the group as a whole.

Creating Campaigns
The Fate Core book goes into great detail about how to create memorable villains, designing games that your players will like, how to determine difficulties of actions in a given adventure and balancing the game. The portions of the book covering adventure/campaign creation are extremely in depth and make a great read in general even if you don't intend to use the Fate system itself.

TL; DR Summary - GM Section

The GM section of the Fate Core book covers everything previously in the book but from the GM's perspective. It also is a great resource for adventure/campaign building, even for those who might not be interested in using the Fate system itself.

GM Section Rating - 5/5

Included Adventure
The fourth and last key concept for any core book is the sample adventure included. Ideally, this should give GMs an idea of what a general adventure in the system should look like while keeping it easy to reference.

Number of included adventures: 0

I am not going to rate this section for Fate Core. The reason being that those who have pledged the Kickstarter campaign for this will be receiving at least one adventure (in PDF format at least) that will work with the system. However, I do not have access to it currently.

I understand why the book itself does not have an adventure in it. Fate is a generic system and I can see why the designers wouldn't want to put an adventure in that might imply the system was meant for one genre or another.

Potential Concerns

This section isn't only devoted to things I don't like about a game, but also potential problems that don't bother me but might also bother others. This section isn't rated as it is even more subjective than the rest of my review.

Fate is a collaborative game. For players of D&D, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, etc., it could take some getting used to and may not be everyone's cup of tea. Everyone has to be willing to have input in regards to the world and can't be afraid to think outside the box. And role play.

My other potential concern is that this isn't the finished product. I don't expect too much to change drastically from what is in this book, but until the final version is released, that possibility will exist.

In Closing

I am preparing to run my first Fate game with a few members of the geek and have been working on adapting Time Heroes to the system. I think Fate is a fantastic generic system and the fact that the designers are so open about how everything works makes it a joy to tinker with. Lastly I think the fact that this game is going to be OGL makes the system even better. The Kickstarter still has some time left as of this writing and if you pledge even a dollar to it, you have full access to the PDF that I have just completed reviewing.

*This was my second entry in RPGGs 2013 Iron Reviewer Contest