However, every now and then, a game comes out that sets a new bar, a game that wouldn’t be the same if it came out all glossy four-color and mass-media marketing. In fact, once in a blue moon a free game hits the Web that is not only worth money, it redefines gaming and opens up possibilities that have not been explored by any games before.

When I first read about Fate at the Indie Game Awards, I was unimpressed. The game was described as a generic, free, indie RPG. Any one of those words would turn me off, but happily, as a voter for the awards, I was supposed to know something about it. So I downloaded the free version of Fate, and have never been more pleasantly surprised by a game.

Fate: The Fudge Edition is possibly the most well-considered, ingenious set of rules I have ever read. I have always enjoyed a good mechanic, and have been somewhat impressed by several of them. But this is the first time that I have felt a system was truly revolutionary.

Character Generation

Fate uses a fascinating form of character generation. More than any other game I have played, Fate allows you to create a character whose back story isn’t just an afterthought – it’s the character.

Creating a character is done in phases. Each phase represents a specific period during the character’s life. This phase can be different for each game – in a game of child monster collectors, each phase might be a school year, while in a game of ancient vampires, each phase might be 100 years.

In each phase, a character decides what he wants to do during that time. When the GM and player agree, the player chooses four skills and an aspect. It is important to note that this aspect can be anything at all that describes the character, and the skills should relate somehow to this aspect.

The aspect is the key to this whole thing. There are no character stats, no set of baseline numbers in which every character has a score. Character are generally considered to be about average, unless an aspect says otherwise. Aspects don’t replace stats – the game simply does not need stats. If you want a ridiculously strong character, just tell the GM that your character is strong, and record ‘Strong’ as an aspect.

Aspects don’t have to relate to the character’s physique, either. Aspects can be literally anything. A character can have a family name, a favorite musical instrument, or a friend as an aspect. A character could choose ‘Compassionate’ as an aspect, and not only is this a definition of the character, but it is a concrete, playable mechanic. It’s not just fluff, or something that must be role-played to matter – it is an integral part of the character that can improve his chances of success or force him to perform according to his nature.

Of course, when aspects can be anything at all, they can be negative. A character might be ‘Weak,’ ‘Greedy,’ or ‘Kleptomaniacal.’ When the GM feels that one of a character’s aspects could come into play, he invokes the aspect and the player must act in accordance to his character. The upside to this is that having a GM invoke your aspects gives you the opportunity to earn fate points.

Fate points are used to save your bacon, steal the limelight, or just have that flashlight you need when you need it. They are a powerful plot device, and the option to improve your rolls or force the narrative is a strong lure. In fact, fate points are so valuable that negative aspects are just as ‘expensive’ as positive ones.

After several phases, during which the character and GM discuss what happened in the character’s life a phase at a time, the character is completed. A finished hitman character, for example, might have the following aspects:

Urbane (1)
Marsellus (2)
Scripture Passage (1)
Bad M**** F**** (2)

The Mechanic

While the genius of Fate is in the character generation, the resolution mechanic incorporates the genius perfectly. The current version of Fate is the Fudge Edition, which uses that Esperanto of RPGs as its core mechanic, but nearly any system could be used. In fact, the back of the book provides several options for those who prefer not to have their fates decided by three-sided dice.

The crux of the Fate mechanic is not so much ‘roll these dice, compare to a total.’ That’s legitimate, but unimportant. The real beauty of the game comes when aspects, skills, and fate points are employed.

A basic roll simply uses the skills written on a character sheet. These are usually representative of the campaign, and provide a relative base from which any character can build. Simply check your skill level and roll the dice; if your finished die roll is higher than you needed, you succeed.

As I mentioned before, however, that’s not all there is. In fact, that’s just the start. The mechanic gets interesting when players need to do better. After a roll, a player may decide that he would rather see a superior success, or less of a failure. There are two options available to a player at this point – aspect or fate point.

By checking off a box of an aspect, a character may improve his roll. The exact specifics are not important, but the circumstances in which an aspect may be invoked are crucial. An aspect can be used any time a player can justify to the GM that the aspect is related to the task. For example, when threatening another person, our example hitman might check off a box of ‘Scripture Passage’ to improve his chances of intimidating the poor sap. He might invoke ‘Bad M**** F****’ to increase his chances of getting the drop on some limey stick-up man. And when he’s really up against it and he’s out of options, he could possibly invoke ‘Marsellus’ to improve his odds of finding reinforcements.

Aspects can work both ways, however. A GM might invoke ‘Marsellus’ to compel our hitman to perform an execution. A GM could even invoke ‘Scripture Passage’ to force a character to do a little soul-searching, and possibly change occupations.

If the character would rather not invoke an aspect, or if he simply doesn’t have one that covers the situation, he can spend a fate point. This allows the character to exert control over the direction of the game, either by improving a roll, stealing the spotlight for a monologue, or redirecting the narrative.

Task Resolution

Outside of the aspects and fate points, Fate provides several methods for determining whether a character – or group of characters – is successful at any given task. A simple ‘roll and compare’ is the most basic method, but a GM can decide that a job takes time or is very complex. Fate provides a quantifiable way to track these larger jobs and make success happen a little bit at a time.

This flexible task system may not seem like a big deal at first, and it might even seem a little cumbersome. But upon further examination, this system can emulate any task from a single gunshot to a game of chess to a car chase, and anything in between. By setting up a quick list of payoffs and consequences, the GM can allow the group to play through an hour of rumor-gathering – and make it fun.

Combat

Fate continues to reveal its elegance with the combat system. As with many other games, combat is really just a series of tests, but with a little more at stake. However, Fate provides three different way to resolve combat, and allows a GM to choose between them on the fly.

The three methods of combat are scene-based, exchange-based, and turn-based. None of these is the ‘right’ way to do a fight, and none is the ‘wrong’ way. During any given fight, a GM could choose any of the three methods.

The first combat resolution method is scene-based. The entire combat is composed of single die rolls from each participating player, and the GM interprets the results. This is perfect for those nuisance fights – the mugger in the alley, the goons guarding the docks, or the unskilled duelist looking for a rematch. The action is quick and the game moves on without being bogged down in a lengthy and thoroughly unimportant exchange of blows.

The second method is exchange-based, and is the default for Fate. Each character declares their intent for an exchange and then rolls appropriate skills. These exchanges could be as long or short as needed – a call-out in a dusty street might involve several exchanges of two-minute-long stare-downs and end in a split-second flurry of gunfire.

The third method is turn-based, and is the tactician’s preference. If you’re looking for a blow-by-blow battle, this is it. You can take into account anything from position to armament to numbers, and play as detailed a battle as you prefer.

The beautiful thing about these three mechanics is that you can use whichever one suits you for one fight, and change for the next one. The action moves at the pace you decide, not the pace decided by the mechanic.

Magic and Supernatural Abilities

In addition to providing a fantastic mechanic and far superior character generation, Fate provides a multitude of ways to use magic. The section on magic provides several different options for a magic system, from spellbooks to skill levels to descriptive invocations.

GM’s Tools

If you are a GM who is tired of generating endless stat blocks for minor threats, Fate has you covered. One of my favorite things about Fate is how easy it is to create a non-player character. Take, for example, the ubiquitous orc.

Orcs are generally the same creature in any given game. They may have various personality or skill differences, but basically, they’re mean, tough, and disposable. An orc can be statted simply by describing what it is about him that makes him an orc, assigning those descriptors as aspects, and deciding on the value of those aspects. Those aspects can be used in place of skills for tasks at which an orc should be skilled (like menacing innocents and attacking intruders), and the orc can default to no skill in areas where orcs are traditionally lacking (such as social graces or performance arts).

NPC allies can be generated the same way, provided they are relatively unimportant. A simple lackey who carries the bags could have four aspect levels and look like this:

Whiny (1)
Irritating (1)
Pack Mule (2)

On the other hand, a casual love interest might look like this:

Great Body (2)
Witty (1)
Disloyal (1)

The GM’s toolbox also contains several pages of sample aspects, with examples describing how they could be used. If the reader has not managed to understand the system by this part of the book, or if he or she is having trouble coming up with interesting aspects, this portion of the book is excellent.

Another worthwhile addition to the GM’s bag of tricks is the skill list. Rather than a lengthy list of skills that can be applied to every game, the skill list continues to demonstrate Fate’s flexibility. A GM developing a game can quickly select those skills that will be most relevant and interesting. For example, a game of court intrigue will need skills for ‘Fashion,’ ‘Etiquette,’ and ‘Dancing,’ with ‘Melee’ covering the sum total of armed fighting skills. On the other hand, a game primarily focused on dungeon crawls might have a wide range of combat skills, and offer ‘Social Skills’ as the only way to determine a character’s ability at court.

Combat skills are discussed in even more depth. Combat skills can be associated with weapon type, fighting style, or career. The GM can decide to make players choose from ‘Ranger,’ ‘Buccaneer,’ or ‘Knight’ for combat skills; the players would determine their proficiencies in a given weapon based on its relevance to the job title. On the other hand, a GM could decide to offer ‘Street-Fighting,’ ‘Dueling,’ or ‘Assassinations,’ and combat skills would be related to their use. Of course, the GM can always provide the bog-standard ‘Blunt Weapons,’ ‘Sharp Weapons,’ and ‘Ranged Weapons,’ but when you’re provided with the choice between two gourmet ice creams and vanilla ice milk, why would you go with option three?

Production

After all this raving about Fate’s mechanics and system, it is about time I discussed the presentation. After all, a revolutionary game is still useless if it’s unreadable. Fortunately, Fate continues to deliver.

Fate is extraordinarily well-edited, as game books go, especially for a free game. The writers are clear and concise, and typographical errors are few and far between. This shows a level of professionalism that is almost unheard-of in free games.

The layout in Fate is great. An attractive but simple border lines the pages, and you will find yourself pleased if you print the game duplex and put it in a binder. The very wide margins allow a reader to find just what he needs, right when he needs it, and the large, attractive font makes it easy to read.

The art in Fate is also well-chosen. It is fairly obvious that all the interior art is stock images, but considering what you’re paying for the game, that is thoroughly acceptable. The writers selected excellent images to accompany the text. Not only are the images high quality, but most are accompanied with stats. The art in Fate not only accents the game, it continues to educate and provide useful samples.

Finally, Fate uses extensive examples. The very fat margins are mostly taken up by these excellent examples, and any vagaries about the rules are more than explained in the entertaining stories and characters that populate nearly every page.

Summary

I realize that I failed to discuss Fate’s negatives. Many people believe that a review is not complete until you find something to complain about. Unfortunately, Fate does not provide me that opportunity. I must content myself with saying that Fate is my new favorite mechanic, and the system that I will use whenever I make my own games. I may even convert some of my existing games to Fate.

I said at the beginning of this review that I’m not a huge indie fan, I dislike generic games, and I usually abhor free games. In this case, I’m wrong three times in a row. Fate is without a doubt the best free game I have ever seen, a thoroughly stunning one-size-really-does-fit-all generic mechanic, and a shining example to indie designers.

But don’t take my word for it. I did mention it’s free, right? Go to www.faterpg.com and see for yourself.

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