Work continues on Our Terrible Fate.  Here’s an overview of what I’ve been working on lately.

Sanity

I’ve got an outline of a sanity system.  That might sound like a small thing, but with the way it will integrate into the system, it doesn’t require a lot of additional detailed rules.  I think it will yield gameplay results similar to CoC, with characters occasionally going mad and turning on their compatriots or waking up in strange places covered in blood and strange markings.  At the same time, it should be less complicated – don’t need to make three rolls because you saw a monster and hopefully no flow charts required – by leaning into Fate a bit.

Underlying insanity is easily handled with consequences.  The Keeper can use these to justify certain events, like hallucinations or dreams, and can compel them when they really create problems.  And of course, players are encouraged to roleplay things like phobias, which can easily be used for self-compels to get some fate points.

Certain situations will automatically trigger a bout of madness, and the Keeper can offer a compel to trigger a bout as well.  One thing I’m considering is possible ways to incentivize players to really play into a bout when doing so would cause them to take action against the other investigators.  This is a common idea in CoC that produces some especially memorable moments in play, but it’s not really driven by the system.

Character Progression

Another area I’m tinkering with is character advancement and progression.  I’ve never been a big fan of the default character advancement in Fate.  It’s a little too removed from the fiction and gameplay, with progression essentially happening based on the end of a session or scenario.  It’s also easy for players to get into the habit of making choices in advancing their character that aren’t necessarily based on what their character has done to this point.

I’ve long been a fan of skill progression being tied to actual skill use, but that can sometimes involve a LOT of bookkeeping that bogs down play.  I also like the character advancement approach taken in Invisible Sun.  Basically, it lets the player choose a type of goal from among several categories, flesh it out with specifics, and then gradually complete steps in support of that goal  As they complete steps, they are able to make small advancements, with more significant advancement upon completion of the goal.  This also works well for goals outside of strict character advancement, such as gaining membership in a group, advancing in rank within an organization, developing relationships, etc.

I’d like to incorporate something like this along with guidelines for Keepers to integrate steps for these goals into existing scenarios.  I’m hoping this will not only provide a character advancement system that’s driven by the investigators’ actions, but also make it easy for Keepers to better tie scenarios into investigator backstories.

Scenario Rewrite

And the other major thing I’ve been working on is a draft of a scenario to use with the system.  Applying the system to actual situations while writing a scenario is a useful way to identify things that need more work prior to actual playtesting.  Plus I am putting a lot of effort into how scenarios are written and presented to the Keeper.  One key element of the game is the ability to play out any given situation using different methods, depending on the needs of the scenario and your table at that time.  This isn’t just about giving the Keeper a couple of different options and saying “pick one,” but also about explaining why one option might be preferable over another.

I’m also including a lot of guidance for building and maintaining tension and fear over the course of the scenario.  First at the beginning to give the Keeper an idea of where the climax is and how tension should (or can) flow during the game, and then with additional guidance in each scene.  More than once I’ve seen Keepers complain that their games like any real sense of fear, while they also spend 30+ minutes with their players acting out detailed conversations with a completely irrelevant NPC.

Rather than expend energy to develop a new scenario from scratch, I’m just re-writing a classic CoC scenario.  The NPCs and overall structure of the scenario is unchanged, but it’s being rewritten to use Our Terrible Fate and provide lots of additional guidance for the Keeper.  It’s also being setup with an eye towards making it easier to use at the table.  Layout that’s easy to follow, layers to support printing with less ink/toner, and space on the page the Keeper can use for note.

A New Tenant

Finally, a tackled one other project over the past few days.  It’s not directly tied to developing OTF, but I hope to use it as a prop in a future game.  But that’s a separate post…