Equipment and Fate

[KeyMasterOfGozer]

I love the Dresden universe, so I am practically salivating waiting for this RPG to come out.  It interested me so much that I decided to check out Fate and Spirit of the Century to get a jump start on the Mechanics.  I LOVE the Fate system.  It seems to move away from metagaming and focus almost solely on story telling and fun.  It doesn't get you bogged down in the minutia.  Great stuff, no counting bullets, or specifying equipment lists.

That said, I was thinking about Dresden, and I realized one of my favorite parts of the Dresden universe is that Harry creates devices to help his magic.

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his Rings to collect kenetic engergy, his enchanted leather Duster, the Shield Bracelet, and of course other things like his staff and blasting Rod, and Little Chicago.

I really like that concept, and to me it seems a large part of Dresden's world, but having looked at Fate a lot, I feel that it may be exactly the wrong kind of system for this concept.

Don't get me wrong, I think Fate is a great system, and I am really just posting to see if anyone has played Fate, or how would one resolve this in Fate, or would this just be a lost aspect in this RPG?

[iago]

Spirit of the Century handles *special* items just fine -- look at the Gadget rules.

By the same token we're working out the details on magical items for the DFRPG.  No worries, man.

[finarvyn]

Have you read Spirit of the Century? It's a pulp system based on the same FATE rules that will power DFRPG. It deals with people and events that are "bigger than life" and in many repects is handled in a way similar to Dresden's modern magic.

Philosophically, FATE is a somewhat loose and freestyle type of RPG system. What that means is that it is actually able to handle almost any situation, and special items are no exception.

With a "tight" rules system special items often fall outside of the parameters defined by the rules, so exceptions become hard to handle. FATE is a more "loose" system designed to allow for a Game Master to improvise as needed, so dealing with (spoiler) items such as what you have listed shouldn't be a problem.

[KeyMasterOfGozer]

Ok, I see the Gadget Rules in SotC.  Thanks.   I guess, never having played SotC personally, I am having difficulty with... I don't know, it seems it will be difficult to keep game balance.  I don't know, maybe playing the system might help, perhaps game balance isn't an issue without metagaming?

[iago]

Ok, I see the Gadget Rules in SotC.  Thanks.   I guess, never having played SotC personally, I am having difficulty with... I don't know, it seems it will be difficult to keep game balance.

Difficult, sure.  Impossible?  No.  And it's the game's job to make the difficult easy.  So relax; we're going to beat on that particular problem until a solution presents itself that makes certain your concerns are addressed.

[finarvyn]

That's a great question, by the way, because it leads to a discussion of the philosophy of playing in Harry's world and how FATE will tie it all together.

The notion of "game balance" is more important for number crunchy systems and less important when the story is the focus of the campaign. FATE is loose enough so that the story drives the adventure.

For example, think of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien makes no attempt to write with game balance, and the most important characters are often those with the LEAST power. The Hobbits get to be the focus of the story instead of being the blasters of the enemy.

FATE is a lot like that. The hero isn't always the one who can control the biggest fireball, but (since the rules system is flexible to emphasize the story). In Harry's world, he often finds himself battling enemies with overwhelming power or werewolves with supernatural strength. Harry doesn't think it's fair, either, but he manages to be clever and use his talents to the maximum advantage at just the right time to save the day at just the right time.

[KeyMasterOfGozer]

The notion of "game balance" is more important for number crunchy systems and less important when the story is the focus of the campaign. FATE is loose enough so that the story drives the adventure.

Yes, I see what you mean.  I actually came to the same conclusion after I last posted.  I am probably thinking in a different paradigm, because I don't have any real experience with FATE.  I will say that the game I have played most in the last 10 years is Shadowrun, because it has been the most flexible system for creating characters that I have come across, but it is not without it's problems.  I really like that system, but FATE excites me a lot, because it is flexible to the extreme. 

When I posted originally, I was thinking about designing these Items/Gadgets.  I remember a few weeks ago in  a Master Plan podcast, they were talking about the difficulties of putting together a shield bracelet to work in  the game.  I don't know how much I can write here for fear of spoilers and such, but it seems hard not to talk about specifics from the books to discuss how one might create rules in a game to cover them.

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In Shield Bracelet v2.0 that Harry made, he added in charms to represent the elements, so that he was now shielding against the elements as well.

I can see how the Gadget Rules from SotC can apply to that.  You can raise the difficulty for the creation by a level for each additional protection.

However, once created, this item is also more difficult to use.

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Harry notes that tires him more to use it.

I realize you guys are already thinking about that aspect, because you said as much in podcast.  My reason for the original post was because since the podcast I have been thinking about those same things, then when I began going over FATE and SotC... well, you get the idea.

Maybe the other problem I am having is the infrequency of my game sessions, I spend a lot of time in between session metagaming(designing characters or concepts for characters) because I can't actually play.  FATE kind of makes that obsolete, in that really stats and items become inconsequential next to the art of story-telling.  Whereas I can see how that will make playing the game more fun and less dice, it may make for dull in between times.   I might need to find another hobby.

Ok, after re-looking through SotC Rules after you guys have pointed me in some good directions...
I see that it looks like one might have a magic items as a Stunt, which if I am reading correctly, is essentially used instead of/with a skill.

So I see the Rules for Advancement in SotC, and I like some things.  I like the idea of Some Stunts having prerequisites.  That could help from having people picking the Uber Shield Bracelet as a Stunt without it costing them a little more to get it.

So would

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creating a summoning circle like Harry did to summon the Erlking.  or even the circle that butters drew around himself in Dead Beat.

be like improvising a Gadget in SotC?  I guess that's really just a skill of some sort, though.