Being bed-bound hath its privileges: today I got to read through “Fate Condensed“, the most recent abbreviation of Fate Core which was recommended to me way back when John Large from The Red Dice Diaries had a chat with me about the system.

I backed Fate Core way back when (2012?) it launched on Kickstarter and have long admired the whole adaptation of FUDGE, itself a favourite toolkit since I discovered it around 1998-99. The problem was that I never managed to bring it to the table for two big reasons:

1. My group was resistant to the much looser and apparently more narrativist approach.
2. I didn’t really grok the system enough to insist… so I chickened out.

Fate Condensed has proven to be a much better portal for me, despite its brevity and the assumption that you know quite a bit about this type of game. Perhaps it’s also a credit to a couple of the Roleplay Rescue Patrons who have been encouraging me to revisit Fate in recent weeks.

By far the biggest catalyst, however, has been the recent realisation that I don’t want to play in quite the same way as most people choose to play. When re-reading Fate today I could see the germ of possibility for creating an infinite game with the potential to cross worlds and realities, ignoring genre conventions, and do so with enough wiggle-room to not have to worry about building the details of that multiverse up front.

What appeals is the suggestion that we can create-as-we-go by leveraging the fundamental assertion that, “Aspects are true”. As long as we can keep track of the Truth revealed by the accumulation of Aspects in the game, I think that Fate might well be a robust enough central engine to provide a satisfying game.

Of course, I could be wrong. That is inherent in all attempts of creativity – what we create might not work. But I am going to wrestle all my doubts and fears as best as I can and give the system an outing. I’ll try to remember to let you know how I get on.

Game on!