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Enfors@lemm.ee

I want to make a pre-rolled Fate game based on Terminator 2 (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 days ago by conditional_soup@lemm.ee to c/rpgdesign@lemm.ee

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My intent here is to introduce new people to Fate with something kind of familiar. I think T2 works because it has a tight, well-characterized, and competent cast. So, I've set up a campaign that starts at the psych ward, with the scene of rescuing Sarah from the T-1000.

I've got Sarah set up with:

High concept

Freedom fighter for the future

Trouble

Haunted by knowledge of future past

Aspects

Trusting Technology is a dangerous mistake
John is the future
You can't save everyone. I know.

John Connor:

High Concept

Destined to be the leader of the resistance

Trouble

Everyone's got it out for me

Aspects

The Terminator is more than just a machine to me
No Fate but what we make (Sarah's relationship aspect)
I know I can save everyone

The Terminator:

High Concept

Killing machine sent back in time to protect

Trouble

Human calculations are not part of my programming

Aspects

I must protect and obey John, always.
Sarah is more dangerous than she thinks
I know what Skynet knows

I still need to build out stunts and stay blocks and stuff, but I've got some other scenes and aspects for those scenes set up. I'd really appreciate any feedback anyone could offer me at this stage.

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[–] Scallops@ttrpg.network 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Will you be using the default skill list or will you tweak it?

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So, follow up, I think the default list is pretty good, actually. Lore is a little weird because Terminator is pretty low-magic besides the terminators themselves. I'm considering turning Lore towards "scifi techno bullshit" rolls (i.e. "hacking in") to keep it from being debuffed by the lack of magic.

[–] Scallops@ttrpg.network 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I was looking into the skill list of Bulldogs, one of my favorite sci-fi Fate creations. Things I like about the changes they made:

no Lore, not setting appropriate.
no Notice: players will use any skill related to what's being noticed. A good burglar is better at detecting plain clothes cops and break in weaknesses, for instance.
Academics is broken down into setting appropriate skills (they used science, and systems).
replaced Resources by Haggle, with a simpler mechanic. You may want to ditch this entirely since buying and selling doesn't mesh that well with T2.
no Investigate: it's an action RPG, Science can be used for general deductive reasoning, otherwise another specific applicable skill (i.e. Systems to investigate a hack, Larceny to investigate how the safe was broken into, etc.)

Notes:

if you fragment skills, you make it harder for someone to progress along that field (needs more advancements to raise it all), which may be what you want.
The opposite for coalescing skills.
A skill list smaller than 18 will make your characters stronger, bigger than 20, weaker (they start with 10 trained skills out of 19 existing on the default list).
keep in mind characters have only 6 starting skills at +2 or above.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

This is awesome advice! I don't think I have anything to push back on here, and dropping some skills will probably make things smoother and easier all around. Thank you!

[–] Scallops@ttrpg.network 2 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Anytime! And let us know how it went. !scifi@ttrpg.network would be interested in this too.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

Good question. I had planned on just using the default list, but that was mostly because I hadn't really given the skill list much consideration. Any suggestions?