Anyone simplify the DFRPG?

[Richard_Chilton]

If you read about the development of FATE you'll find that it started as an offshoot for Amber.  That Fred Hicks and Jim Butcher met each other on an Amber Mush years ago (before either had been published) and that the game more or less grew from those roots.

Speaking of Amber, Rite Publishing is coming out with a new Amber Diceless Role Playing book.  The reason Amber is crossed out? They don't want to have to reopen discussions with the estate and they aren't buying the license so they are licensing the system and not the setting.  The new setting will be compatible with the old one but not based around Amber, Chaos, etc.  It should be interesting to see when it comes out.

Richard

[Chris_Fougere]

Dude.  The best way I've found to explain Aspects to D&D gamers is "Aspects are like your D&D character class".

Your character has the aspect "Barbarian".  He can spend a FP and get bonuses for doing things barbarians do.  He gets FP when his Barbarian...ness makes life hard for him.  When he can't read the warning sign on the rickety bridge.  When he's expected to be civilized.  When people won't sell items to him because he's a filthy barbarian.

I've done the same.  It helps immensely to put things in terms the players can easily grasp.  FATE, like ORE isn't a difficult system but it is one with lots of little fiddly bits and depth.  We had the bonus of moving to DFRPG after a True Blood game using the Smallville system so the players were already kind of used to abstract things.

What I do with any new game is gradually introduce new rules.  Do a quick adventure with the basics, Aspects, Fate Points, Stress Tracks, die rolling and then the next adventure add in something else and then something else etc.  Maybe even do a one shot D&D-esque game using the FATE system (I'd suggest even converting the essence of their characters over) so there's enough familiarity the players don't get overwhelmed.

[sinker]

Jumping off of the last post (thanks chris), you should run Night Fears. It's very setting light and has a lot of potential for exploring the intricacies of the system in a very easy paced way. Also it's free. Go look it over.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=90998

[finarvyn]

Thanks for all of the helpful replies, particularly devonapple's bullet points. FATE is such a different game philosophically from many others that folks who haven't tried it often rebel when asked to give it a shot.

Players with a particular mindset sometimes have a tough time getting that fresh perspective and seem to want to default to their comfort zone, which is always that old game they've played a lot before. Hopefully I can emphasize the Amber part and de-emphasize the D&D part. See if that helps.

I'll continue to work on them, maybe start out simple and add in later. The problem that I can see with starting simple is that sometimes players will want to re-do their characters once they discover new options which weren't open to them at the start of the campaign.

I guess I'll have to ponder this further.

[admiralducksauce]

The problem that I can see with starting simple is that sometimes players will want to re-do their characters once they discover new options which weren't open to them at the start of the campaign.

The best fix for this is to let them redo their characters if they want.  A player who's disappointed with their character build can be poison to a group's experience with a new game system.  Take that curiosity about new powers and their urge to explore the system and turn them into a better advocate for your game.

Finally, remember that once you strip out everything, if you ignore Aspects and Fate Points and all the metagame junk about narrativism and social contracts and player agency, FATE is simply a skill roll vs. a DC, just like D&D. 

[Richard_Chilton]

For our first three games we went by the house rule "We didn't know what we doing when we made these characters so if their stats have to change then they'll change - but we keep the backgrounds".  Then we noticed that minor milestones - which happen practically ever session, allow you to redo aspects and switch around skills.  The only thing the "we can fix things" house rule did was allow the changes to happen a bit faster and to change powers - in theory.  In practice no one changed their powers and the skills were the major thing that got switched around.

Richard

[Unicorm]

I would suggest running a couple of sessions with a generic High Fantasy setting using FATE 2.0 (simpler, whereas DFRPG is 3.0), then when they understand the basic principles (skill pyramid, 3 corners of a character, etc.) start on DFRPG. This method has worked twice with a special needs group, so I'm hoping it can work for your group.

Also, explosions help. I'm only half joking.

FATE 2.0 can be found at http://www.faterpg.com/resources/.

[finarvyn]

Jumping off of the last post (thanks chris), you should run Night Fears. It's very setting light and has a lot of potential for exploring the intricacies of the system in a very easy paced way. Also it's free. Go look it over.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=90998

Ah, Sinker somehow I missed this post in my other read-through of the thread.  Thanks for the tip, and I'm downloading the adventure right now!