Spend a Fate Point to emulate a Stunt?

[Ghsdkgb]

 What do you guys think? Has this already been discussed? I know it's not part of the rulebook, but I think it'd make a valid house rule.

It seems like a reasonable use to me. The fate points  can already give you +1 without an Aspect, which is one thing Stunts do, so would it be  viable to spend a Fate to use one skill in place of another?

The stunt would have to be agreed upon by the GM, of course, and powers are out of the question. Thoughts?

[Haru]

I'm pretty open to letting the temporary powers rule include stunts, so yeah, it should be possible.

We had a discussion about being able to spend a free tag on a temporary power, especially in thaumaturgy. It should be doable here as well, for example by buying a laser scope (resources declaration) for a +1 on guns for one scene. I would, however, only let a player do so once. If he wanted to use such a stunt more than once, I would require him to actually take it, because the way he uses it makes it a vital part of the character.

[Wordmaker]

I'd allow it, too, depending on the stunt in question. I like to think that anything not explicitly addressed in the rules can be governed by the spending or awarding of Fate Points.

[Bjornaer]

I wouldn't. There's the +1 you can always get.
Allowing more devalues the character creation.

[wyvern]

I'd allow this, but only with an appropriate aspect, and only for stunts that can't be represented as a numerical bonus.  For example, a character who is "Crazy Prepared", might invoke that to be allowed to use sleight-of-hand, ala the pickpocket stunt - for one specific feat of pickpocketing that she'd practiced beforehand.  If she wanted to use prestidigitation a second time - even in the same scene - she'd need another fate point.

If you're considering wider access to stunts, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1: Don't allow skill swap stunts.  You shouldn't be able to spend a fate point to make a jump-kick using your athletics skill of 5, when your normal fists skill is 2 or less.

2: Be careful of stunts with large bonuses, like the "Listening" stunt Harry uses.  That stunt grants a (if I remember right) +4, at a penalty to other forms of perception - in the case where someone wants to buy that stunt with a fate point, I'd tell the player up front, "Yes, you can do this, but I'm going to treat it as spending a fate point to declare a 'listening very intently' aspect, invoking that aspect for a +2, accepting a compel against that aspect, and using the fate point from the compel for another +2.  In other words, you can have your +4 bonus, but you will be paying for it by immediately not noticing something else important."

3: Be very very careful of any temporary stunt purchasing that's going to last for a scene instead of a single action; most stunts are equivalent to spending a fate point each time the stunt's conditions come up; if I have a choice between spending a fate point to get +2 to this roll, and spending a fate point to get +2 to this roll and all similar rolls in the scene... that second option is pretty clearly out of line with the base game rules.

[JDK002]

At first my reaction was "sure why not?  You can do that with powers."

As I started to think about it more it seems either A. Redundant or B. A way to try and weasel multiple +2 bonuses from a single fate point.

In situation A, why bother going through the trouble of making a Stunt on the fly when you could just invoke an aspect for the same +2?

In situation B, why would you EVER just invoke with a fate point for a one-time +2 when you could spend the same FP to make a stunt that lasts the entire scene?

[Taran]

I would allow it on occasion as long as the stunt makes sense for the character.  If it started to happen more often, I'd let the player know that he should just buy it permanently.  I don't think it's something that should come up too often

[Tsunami]

[...] so would it be  viable to spend a Fate to use one skill in place of another? [...]

I would almost certainly not allow that.
The Skill-Transference that stunts offer hinges on the fact that you need to limit the circumstances in which it works.
If you choose the stunt depending on the situation, then that limitation is meaningless.

Also: Stunts usually offer at most a +2 Bonus. If you were able to acquire stunts at will, then you would no longer need aspects to invoke for bonuses.
Some very few stunts can offer more than +2 in a very limited circumstance... the aforementioned limitation concern comes into play once more.

So, acquiring stunts situationally is either a way to get around not having an aspect to invoke for +2, or it is very much unbalanced in terms of what a fate point should be able to do.

There may be some few situations where creating a temporary stunt may be viable, but i'm honestly having trouble to think of one where a declared aspect wouldn't basically accomplish the same thing.

[Wordmaker]

These are really good points, actually. And I certainly wouldn't let a player simply spend a Fate Point to roll one skill instead of another, since limited skill-substitution is already an effect handled by Stunts.