The Fudge System

[Gilesth]

Alright, so I know DFRPG is using Fudge, and from what I've read of the Fate rules, it seems to me to be very similar to the Cortex system that Battlestar Galactica and Serenity use.  Am I the only who got this impression, and am I the only person who will at least toy around with changing some of the system rules to use Cortex rather than Fudge?

[TheMouse]

From what I've seen, Cortex is an Attribute + Skill type system which uses a dice step type system. It uses some form of luck point thing to help you get bonuses on dice or do narrative control type things.

There's a fair degree of difference between FATE and Cortex, as far as I can tell. FATE doesn't do an Attribute/Skill divide. The dice you roll don't change. The difference between levels of capability have bigger grains; likewise the meta-game points of FATE are larger grained. FATE uses player defined Aspects to allow you to lock in certain portions of the character's narrative importance.

Based on reading quickstart rules for a Cortex system and chatting with one of the guys who wrote it, it doesn't sound like it's as good a fit for me as FATE. Based on some very fun game play I've had with FATE, I highly suggest at least giving it a try before making up your mind.

That said, if FATE's not your thing, then Cortex looks like a perfectly workable system. You'd be a bit stuck for a magic system as far as I can tell.

[Gilesth]

Oh I'm definitely going to take a crack at FATE, in fact I'm looking forward to it.  I just don't know as much about that system as I do Cortex, so I thought I'd throw this question out to hear other perspectives

[TheMouse]

Oh I'm definitely going to take a crack at FATE, in fact I'm looking forward to it.  I just don't know as much about that system as I do Cortex, so I thought I'd throw this question out to hear other perspectives

If you've got any questions about FATE, feel free to ask them. You could also go over to rpg.net and post questions on table top open, because the system gets a pretty solid amount of love there. As I type this, there are currently a couple of FATE threads on the front page, including one on doing Aspects right and one on someone's Star Wars FATE game.

Oh, and if you haven't seen it, there's the Spirit of the Century SRD. SotC is the first implementation of FATE 3rd edition. You can check out the whole thing here:

http://zork.net/~nick/loyhargil/fate3/fate3.html

[finarvyn]

There's a fair degree of difference between FATE and Cortex, as far as I can tell. FATE doesn't do an Attribute/Skill divide. The dice you roll don't change. The difference between levels of capability have bigger grains; likewise the meta-game points of FATE are larger grained. FATE uses player defined Aspects to allow you to lock in certain portions of the character's narrative importance.

I think that your analysis is spot on, Mouse. The games have very little in common, but of course you could use either to run a DF style setting if you wanted.

Cortex is very Stat+Skill based and tends to be more dice driven than decision driven in mature. FATE is (like FUDGE) more decision oriented. Your descriptions and actions tend to modify outcomes more in FATE than they would in Cortex. Not to say either is a bad system, but both tend to achieve different effects because of the way they get there.

My experience with Cortex is that selection of the numbers for attributes and skills tends to be critically important to later play, but FATE has some "wiggle room" where you can interpret and evolve the character more as play occurs.

Just my experience, of course. Your games may have been different than mine.

[TheMouse]

FATE has some "wiggle room" where you can interpret and evolve the character more as play occurs.

This  here is exactly what I find to be  one of the real strengths of FATE, specifically in how it implements Aspects.

During normal, daily play, Aspects act as flexible narrative conceits which both add to a player's ability to spend fate points for bonuses, and which highlight weaknesses and character flaws. Interpretation of Aspects informs how narratively important parts of characters come to life.

In terms of evolution of a character, Aspects take on an interesting role. Changes to Aspects allow you to highlight changes in the narrative. Even small changes like from "proud father" to "protective father" can signal some real differences in how a character behaves and what is important to that character.

I've also seen some quite clever things done with story Aspects. One simple variant is that everyone takes an Aspect for their character that ties them to the current story, and the Aspect changes when a new story begins. This gives all characters a tie in with whatever story is going on at the moment. There are some variants of this, but that's the basic version.