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.
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.
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
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.