Training Wheels rules FATE:
1.) Every roll in the game is 4dF
2.) If your character wants to try a task that the GM thinks needs a roll, then pick a skill that covers the situation you are rolling for, and add its value to a 4dF roll.
* The GM will only ask you6 to roll if failure is possible, AND if failure and success are both interesting
3.) Give your character a certain number of Aspects. These aspects are short phrases that describe the character or something important to the character
4.) Determine one type of action that an aspect would help a character do better at. Write that down. Do this for every aspect. Every time the aspect is used this way, the character gets a +2 to that action.
5.) Determine one way that an aspect would make life more difficult or complicated for that character. Write it down. Do this for every aspect
6.) Give all characters a certain number of FATE points to start with. Every time a player want to use an aspect to help their character, they give up a FATE point. Every time the player has an aspect used against his character, he gets a FATE point.
7.) Combat and the equivalent type of conflict for social situations boils down to 3 basic things: Attacking, Maneuvering, Defending.
a.) To deal direct damage you attack. Pick an appropriate skill for the situation, and roll.
b.) To set up a situational bonus for a future attack, maneuver. Pick an appropriate skill for the maneuver, and roll.
c.) If a maneuver or an attack is being made against your character, pick an appropriate defensive skill and roll.
d.) To resolve an attack, compare the defense roll to the attack roll. If the attack roll is higher, damage is dealt to the defender equal to the difference between the results of the defense and attack rolls.
e.) To resolve a maneuver that did not have a defender, compare maneuver roll to a static difficulty set by GM. If the roll is higher, then the maneuver creates a temporary aspect. To resolve a defended maneuver, compare the defense roll to the maneuver roll. If the maneuver roll is higher, the maneuver creates a temporary aspect. All temporary aspects created by maneuvers can be used once by the person who made them without that person paying a FATE point.
f.) After any participant takes a certain amount of damage, he is out of the fight. He can put negative aspects on himself during the fight to reduce the damage taken by a single attack. He has a limited number of these negative aspects, which are called consequences. Any participant can get out of the fight when he chooses to by offering a concession. A concession is something that gives the opponent some of what they want, while letting the character making it get out without losing everything he could have lost from the fight.
And, I think thats about it for the basics. There is a lot more to it of course, but use this for the training wheels before moving on to the more complicated details. Once you get comfortable with the FATE point economy and aspects, you can open that part of the system up and start letting aspects be interpreted more open-endedly, so they aren't restricted to just one use. Once you get used to skills, you can add stunts to the system, which provide situational bonuses to skills. Then you can add powers, which are more powerful types of bonuses to skills.
Once you get a handle on how combats will flow, you can start dealing with all the other combat options, like supplemental actions and blocks.
Save magic for last, as it is the most complicated subsystem. No point worrying about it until everything else makes sense.
