One Day Left For Latest ACKS Crowdfund

 

Being the sort of person who usually prefers fighters and thieves to spellcasters in D&D-type games, I had initially not paid much attention to the latest Adventurer, Conqueror, King System* supplement to be crowdfunded by Autarch. I'm glad I finally did, though, because the magic of the Almanac of Unusual Magic is very unusual indeed.

The 56-page book covers four new ACKS classes, three of which - gnomish alchemists, dwarven geomancers, and warlords - slot in well to a fantasy milieu. The fourth, however, is the Terran Engineer - apparently riffing on a character option in Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu* for lost spacemen who, if the illustrations are any guide, basically hail from Starfleet. The Engineer class, then, reflavors magic to be the "jury-rigging" ability of an engineer like Scotty to create fantastic devices, albeit not necessarily temporary ones. Of course, being an ACKS product, this new class (as well as the others) is broken down into its component parts for further customization, in a very Engineer-like manner now that I think of it.

Still needing about $450 to fund at the time of this writing, the GameOnTabletop campaign for the Almanac also offers an opportunity to add on ACKS rulebooks at a discounted price. I've backed an Autarch project on this platform before, and for not being Kickstarter or IndieGoGo it worked very smoothly. I highly recommend giving the pitch a look if it tweaks your interest at all.

Questing for OSR News

Ever since G+ went offline, the Old School RPG scene has been somewhat fragmentary, with different subgroups congregating at different places on the web. Ben Milton, author of Maze Rats* and Knave* as well as the Questing Beast YouTube channel, has announced his intention to try to alleviate this with a free newsletter:

To be named The Glatisant (top marks for consistent branding), the first issue has yet to be released, but can be signed up for here.

Hey, Wait A Minute . . .

From Reaper Miniatures' 2017 Bones IV Kickstarter Campaign:

From Reaper Miniatures' current Bones V Kickstarter campaign:

Nine for the Mortal Men, doomed to die . . . 

Anyway, said current Reaper Bones Kickstarter ends in about 21 hours, and there's way more cool stuff than just finally bringing their number of not-Ringwraiths up to code. Check it out!

And Now For A Word From Our Sponsor

So, I'm sure if you're at all interested in RPGs in the 21st century, you've heard of DriveThruRPG*. It's basically the Amazon of digital gaming, both in its retail dominance, self-publishing empowerment, and affiliate program, in which participants can get a small percentage of the price of any purchase made through a particular link, for example the one above. This percentage does not increase the price of a purchase, rather it comes out of DTRPG's take.

I've been using DTRPG affiliate links for some time now, usually marking them with an asterisk that leads to a footnote summarizing the above for transparency purposes. Instead of that, I've decided to make a page with that information.

And now for a demonstration: earlier this week, Lamentations of the Flame Princess* announced a sale reducing all their PDFs sold through DTRPG for just $2.00 each, or $1.50 each for their LotFP Everything Bundle* (this works out to about $82.50). This includes the full (NSFW) art version of the core rules*, Ken Hite's excellent Vietnam-War-inspired setting Qelong*, award winners like A Red and Pleasant Land* and Broodmother Skyfortress*, basically every weird, fantastic, and downright horrific book the company has ever produced - right up to their most recent Gen-Con releases*. Believe me, $2.00 is practically a steal for some of these, but the sale only lasts until the end of the month. Once it's October in Finland, it's back to full price.

Heroes of Terra Kickstarter Up

Well, I have to admit I doubted this day would ever come, but on this occasion I'm happy to be proven wrong - Jeremy Puckett and Blackwing Productions* have posted the Kickstarter for Heroes of Terra: The Mushroom War. I've mentioned this Super Mario-inspired Savage Worlds setting a time or two before, as previous versions of it were released. Most are still available at the DriveThru link posted above, and the newest is the Heroes of Terra Jumpstart*, which like the full book brings the setting in line with the newest edition of Savage Worlds (If you were a backer of the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, you should already have the Jumpstart wherever you're keeping the rewards from that campaign).

This Kickstarter is fairly straightforward, with PDF and POD options as well as some premium content-creation tiers. The stretch goals are all additional content, but I would say the target date is far enough out to not make the campaign too successful. Nothing that would require additional shipping is also a good sign.

Anyway, I'm eager to see what this version of the Mushroom Kingdom ends up looking like, and maybe even put a game there someday. I note with particular interest that the premise explicitly mentions the possibility of visitors from the "real" world, which would make the material easily integrated into a game of, say, international monster hunters . . .

Not your typical Yoshi.

*All DriveThruRPG links are, as always, affiliate links that earn me a little money if you use them.

GUMTHEWS Cover Reveal

A couple of days ago, Pelgrane Press revealed the cover art for Swords of the Serpentine, their upcoming Swords-and-Sorcery GUMSHOE hack.

While I wish they'd kept the "GUMTHEWS" pun for the name, I have not yet been disappointed by a Pelgrane product and, from the looks of this article on the genre guidelines the authors used, I don't think that's going to change:

• Adventures are episodic. Months or years may pass between when adventures are set, and a Hero’s fortunes may rise or fall from one adventure to the next. Adventures may occur out of chronological order.
• The actions of Heroes change the world around them in fundamentally important ways.
• A Hero’s own abilities are far more important than their gear. Gear gets lost, abandoned, and stolen, but when you’re shipwrecked or taken captive, you can always rely on yourself.

While there is as yet no release date, nor indication of whether the release will be crowdfunded or direct, I'd say this is coming along quite well.

Kickstarters Coming and Going

With the advent of Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms, it seems there's always a neat gaming-related project running. To illustrate this point, I'm going to highlight a couple that I'm currently backing, one that's just started and one that's almost out of time.

First off, Secrets of the Nethercity by Autarch is ending in just a couple of days. This project is actually two books, a city guide and a "kilodungeon"* filled with the remnants of a necromancy-fueled elf culture, both obviously intended for use with Autarch's Adventurer, Conquerer, King System** but easily adapted to the OSR system of your choice. While it's reached its funding goal, there are several stretch goals to go that will add details to the city setting, many of which will be unlocked in just a few thousand more dollars.

While I'm a bit behind in reading it all, I've been a big fan of Autarch's output thus far. I can also vouch for their customer service, having had a small problem during the fulfillment of their last Kickstarter, which was remedied within a day. So if you want to uncover the Secrets of the Nethercity, I certainly encourage backing it.

As for the new one, what it lacks in direct RPG content it more than makes up for in style and good ideas. I'm speaking of Cirsova Heroic Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, which is currently in the process of funding its 9th and 10th issues.

 Or rather, it's funding Volume II, since the editor of Cirsova, P. Alexander, has said that even if the Kickstarter fails to fund, these two issues will be released on Amazon. Still, the Kickstarter price for these two magazines starts at just $1 for digital copies of both, so there's incentive to back now instead of later.

So what do you get for your $1? For the past few years, Cirsova has been publishing some of the best short fiction available in a pulpy/Appendix N/Weird Tales mode. While it tends towards Burroughsesque Planetary Romance, strict genre lines take a backseat to action and plot - the latest released issue includes cyberpunk, urban fantasy, and space pirates, while the first three issues available for free on the website include swashbucklers, Lovecraftian sword-and-sorcery, and weird Colonial-era yarns. No matter your taste in fiction, there's probably something here for you.

And as for gaming utility, there are a few stat blocks and one-page dungeons scattered throughout the magazine's run, but the real utility is giving a GM a wide variety of incidents, characters, and details to work into their own games - much as the original Appendix N did, and continues to do.

Like with Autarch, I'm a happy previous backer of Cirsova magazine. Neither of these fine publishers have any idea I'm writing this, my only benefit is that more backers means more and better content for everyone. So if either of these interests you, by all means help them out!

*Because it's big, but smaller than a megadungeon, you see.

**DriveThru affiliate link - generates a small percentage paid to me at no additional cost to you. Thanks in advance!

Monster Hunter International Gets Savage!

Are you a fan of Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International series, but not of the HERO system* used in the 2012 RPG? Well, fret no more, because there's a new MHI RPG in town:

Currently just over 200% funded after just twelve house on Kickstarter, this version is being published by Gallant Knight Games* and will be using the Savage Worlds* rules.

But there's a lot more of interest here besides a less crunchy ruleset. For one thing, there's about twice as many books in the Monster Hunter International novel series as there were five years ago - which means lots of new characters and critters to get statted up, though admittedly some of these are from the 1980s-set trilogy Larry is co-writing with John Ringo, and the sub-setting for that era is one of the upcoming stretch goals.

Speaking of stretch goals, one of them has already been hit - an Old West sub-setting starring MHI founder Bubba Shackleford and his Professional Monster Killers, whom Larry wrote a short story about for a Weird West anthology last summer.

Other stretch goals add more content, including the aforementioned Monster Hunter Memoirs sub-setting, a Larry-written adventure, and non-human character options; plus there's some fun stuff like a challenge coin and coloring book.

Amusingly, the new MHI dice will have the logo on the six.

Notably absent from the stretch goal list is custom dice, although they won't be absent from the project as a whole - they're already part of the reward structure, with every physical backer getting at least one (as well as a deck of MHI playing cards), which with the "single softcover" price point at $30 strikes me as quite the bargain.

Interested? The Kickstarter's right here.

* Remember, folks, DriveThru links pay me if you use them, and it doesn't cost you a thing!

What a Lovely Day!

Via The Watch House comes word of a new miniature skirmish game with an . . . unusual premise.

Emerging from the heat shimmer they come in a roar of sound and fury, the nomad brigands and road pilots. Chrome, dust and rust in your rearview mirror are the first harbingers of impending doom. Then the incessant chatter of twin Vickers fills your ears and your auto begins to disentegrate around you.

It's the Dirty Thirties and you're having a bad day...

Pray Maximillian is out there somewhere!

The product of two (naturally) Australian companies - Eureka Miniatures and Mana Press - the cover art alone is evocative enough for an entire RPG campaign. I'm reminded quite a bit of Crimson Skies, that early-2000s computer/board game franchise with a similar pulp-era apocalypse feeling, only with an aviation focus. I expect certain conceptual similarities with Car Wars as well, although the alt-1930s setting should serve to differentiate it quite well.

Interested parties can get a digital copy of the rules from DriveThru, with the usual caveat about affiliate links.

When White Stars Are Right

Over at Tenkar's Tavern, the latest entry on the rumors table is that White Star* and White Star Companion*, the Swords & Wizardry-derived Space Opera RPG from James Spahn and Barrel Rider Games, are now priced on DriveThruRPG as Pay-What-You-Want. If you haven't already, I can highly recommend checking them out, as I think that White Star is my favorite entry in the admittedly well-trodden "Space Opera OSR" sub-genre. Certainly it's the one that has taken off (heh) the hardest, with a variety of other supplements available from both Barrel Rider Games* and others*, not to mention all the fan-made content in the OSR Blog community (a self-referential example). Much of this is designed with an eye towards tailoring your campaign to a specific sub-genre, or even recreating a specific franchise.

In a way, that gets at the heart of what I find so endearing about the system, or rather the implied setting. While most RPG settings, I suspect, have at their base the attempted emulation of a favorite genre or piece of entertainment, the implied setting of White Star is a glorious mash-up of influences, with only the tiniest effort made towards disguising their origins. I mean, you want "Star Knights" and their evil counterparts "Void Knights"? Check. "Qinlons" and "Assimilants", or alternatively Assimilants and "Cannicks"? Check. Something more classic, like "Thronks" or "Wellsians"? Check. All of these together? Go for it! And toss in anything else you can think of - heck, there are even two different versions of Ewoks, "Fluffs" for random encounters and "Yabnabs" for a PC option (capped at Level 4).

If you have even the slightest interest in the genre, there's really no reason not to check these out. It's even got me pondering some new ideas for a mashup setting based on not filing off those serial numbers . . .

*Remember, folks, that any DTRPG links on this blog are affiliate links that pay me a small fee when you use them. Relax, it doesn't cost you a thing.

On the Ghostly Horizon

File this one under "Things to keep an eye out for" - at the end of last year, The Renaissance Troll previewed an upcoming project from Osprey Publishing* called Frostgrave: The Ghost Archipelago. Now, I'm not much of a wargamer, but the setting description (via Amazon) sounds like it's right up my alley:

A vast island chain, covered in the ruins of ancient and otherworldly civilizations, the Archipelago appears every few centuries, far out in the southern ocean. At such times, pirates, adventurers, wizards, and legendary heroes all descend upon the islands in the hopes of finding lost treasures and powerful artefacts. A few, drawn by the blood of their ancestors, search for the fabled Crystal Pool, whose waters grant abilities far beyond those of normal men. It is only the bravest, however, who venture into the islands, for they are filled with numerous deadly threats. Cannibal tribes, sorcerous serpent-men, and poisonous water-beasts all inhabit the island ruins, guarding their treasure hordes and setting traps for the unwary.

If nothing else, it sounds like it could be a great addition to the vaguely-imagined World of Pirating setting I'd like to run someday. I'm not so sure about this whole pool-granted superpowers thing, but I suppose it parallels the setup from the original Frostgrave game** (which this announcement has got me vastly more interested in) of the party being basically an adventuring wizard and his hired help. Time will tell if the Ghost Archipelago has the staying power of the Frozen City, but given the genres involved I think it's quite promising.

* Which, in the past few years, seems to have gone from "Research materials for historical wargamers" to "Research materials for historical, fantasy, and High Weirdness** wargamers" to "You know what? We're just going to cut out the middleman here and publish the wargames themselves".

**All Drive-Thru links go through their affiliate program, which means that if you use them I get paid, and it costs you nothing extra! Such a deal.

Fate Core 2: Electric Boogaloo

Following up on their amazingly successful Fate Core Kickstarter from a couple years back, on Monday the folks at Evil Hat debuted Fate More Part One: From Bits to Books. But don't let the title scare you - while the focus is indeed on printing paper editions of material already available digitally, like last time there's a $10 all-digital buy-in - and it's already worth it, as in less than two days not only has the original goal funded, but the first stretch goal as well:

Yep, a Majestic-12 sourcebook for the Atomic Robo RPG, based on the now-webcomic of the same name. Now, while MJ-12 are, in the comic, presented as the enemies of our favorite wise-cracking robot, this book sounds like it will present them from their own perspective, which should be pretty interesting, and useful. For example, I bet you could easily match it with the fluff from the Monster Hunter International game to do Fate of the Monster Control Bureau.

This revelation also goes to show that there'll be new material available through this Kickstarter in addition to the new printings, and indications are that, like the previous outing, the final results of this are going to be incredible. And of course, if you're new to the system the Fate Core book, as well as a bunch of others (including Spirit of the Century now, I see), are all PWYW on DriveThru.

BREAKING: As I typed this up, the next stretch goal for the Kickstarter was announced - a hardback version of Young Centurions, the nearly-released YA prequel to Spirit of the Century.

What did I tell you? Incredible.

Good News, Bad News

Bad news first: the Savage Mushroom Kingdom netbook I mentioned a couple years ago has gone dark. The good news is the reason for this, namely that the author - Jeremy Puckett of Blackwing Productions - has secured the necessary permissions to make his Land of Terra an official Savage Setting. There is, I understand, a Kickstarter planned for later this year, but in the meanwhile the rough draft of the Heroes of Terra Player's Guide - very similar to the old netbook - is now on DriveThru. It's even the Deal of the Day for the next few hours, but I'd say it's worth buying even at full price (a mere $5).

Also available are two short adventures, The Plumber's Dilemma and Down the Tubes, both priced as PWYW. They're well worth a look to see how the occasionally goofy Mushroom Kingdom setting elements - the second one alludes to Karting! - get translated. With all the elements thus presented, the full setting book is shaping up to be quite good indeed.

This New Conan Game Looks Promising

Earlier this morning, news broke from Modiphius that later this summer they will be releasing an officially licensed Conan RPG. Details are sparse, though it is described as using a "2D20" system, which I am not particularly familiar with (apparently it's the system Modiphius uses for another of  their games, Mutant Chronicles). However, it sounds like the writers are making an effort to hew as closely as possible to the original Robert E. Howard stories, which is good. The Hyborian setting has always struck me as an excellent one for roleplaying in - one almost suspects that Howard himself would have been an enthusiastic player, had such games existed during his life - and while there are any number of good games for playing in the genre, it's been a while since there's been an official Conan product. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on this game's further developments.

Yo-ho, Yo-ho . . .

Ah, pirates. In a way, the sword-and-cannon genre is even more appropriate for Dungeons & Dragons-type games than your more traditional fantasies, what with the ready-made adventuring parties/ship crews and the chests of treasure buried under X-shaped palm trees which may or may not be cursed. Long John Silver has, after all, been part of the popular consciousness much longer than Gandalf, and even Conan, you might recall, was a pirate a time or two.

It's no wonder, then that one of the recently-announced 2014 Ennie Award winners is Frog God Games' Razor Coast: Heart of the Razor, an adventure series for their swashbuckling-fantasy mash-up setting.

It's a setting I've been intrigued with for quite some time, and there's no better time dive in, as FGG is giving away the Razor Coast Freebooter's Guide in PDF in celebration of the win (A tip of the tricorn to Peter at Dungeon Fantastic for passing the news along). It;s available for either the Pathfinder or Swords & Wizardry rule-sets - I'm looking at it in the later, but at first glance the setting is cool enough that I'd be interested even if it was only the former.

(Almost) d12 Reasons to Buy Dungeon Dozen: The Book

1) It's now Pay What You Want at Drive-Thru.

2) . . . Because it's good? I mean, Jason Sholtis' blog, The Dungeon Dozen, is page after page of inspirationally quirky and system-neutral* charts, whether for treasure, encounters, or world-building. The announcement says that the book will only by PWYW for a limited time, however - I wouldn't expect it to last much past Christmas in July. So, if you're a fan of Jason's work, this weekend looks like the time to take the plunge. And if not, let me whet your appetite with some of the subjects this book covers:

3) "Apocalyptic Visions in the Crystal Ball"

4) "Those Blood-Curdling Screams off in the Distance are Actually . . ."

5) "Dungeon Conspiracy Theories"

6) "Semi-Unknown Were-Things"

7) . . . OK, that's probably enough. Although many if not all of these tables are also found on the blog, the book adds some terrific art and the convenience of having them in one place. Plus, they're just fun to read, even if you don't need really need to roll for "Items of Moderate Interest in the Ogre-King’s Hoard."


*Albeit obviously designed with old-school D&D games in mind.

Halftime Report

Well, not exactly half - of the two RPG Kickstarters I've been following lately, one of them is just over half finished, while the other will hit the halfway point later this week.

You thought this was going to be about football, didn't you? (Art by Aerion-the-Faithful)

Anyway, both of them have already hit their initial funding and are working on stretch goals, and both have initial $1 pledges that give access to playtest drafts, which I think bodes well for their future prospects.

Ending two weeks from today, Iron Edda: War of Metal and Bone is, briefly, a Norse Myth-themed mecha game, with Vikings in magically-animated Giant skeletons fighting Dwarves in more traditional giant fighting machines.

The interesting thing about this project is that, while the initial book is for Fate Core, the stretch goals are all adaptations of the general idea for different systems. The first one of these is Dungeon World, which at the time of this writing is only about $1500 away. At the current pace it's unlikely that any more will be unlocked, but the list is fairly ambitious, and props have to be given to the author for that.

The other project I'm currently looking at is TimeWatch, a GUMSHOE-based time travel game. Saying it like that makes it seem fairly pedestrian, but really in looking over the rules so far it's probably the most successful I've ever seem about making time-travel be integral to play, rather than just a premise explanation allowing for various settings to be used in conjunction with each other.

It does this, ironically enough, by abstracting some of the more mind-bending aspects of time-travel, giving each character a "Chronal Stability" stat that comes into play whenever something paradoxical happens. There's already some adventures and examples of play available giving a good overview of how this all works - those blogged by etheruk1 deserve a particular mention.

Potential TimeWatch PC.

And hey, part of the TimeWatch setting involves psychic velociraptors from a parallel timeline - Dr. Dinosaur would approve.

FATE of the Empire

Well, I promised to let you know when the non-Kickstarter versions of Fate Core and FAE* were available, and it seems that "when" is "now".

No gorillas, but that creature on the punk-witch's shoulder could be a tiny monkey.
Or a ferret, it's a bit hard to tell.

As promised, the PDFs are priced at "whatever you want" - the link above has links to download ZIP files of both games (in addition to various character sheets and other miscellany), free and clear. After that, this page explains how to use Paypal to donate your chosen price directly to Evil Hat. Or, if you prefer, the games are also listed at DriveThru - also pay-what-you-want, with suggested prices of $5 for Fate Core and $2.50 for FAE.

Coincidentally, I recently came across another Kickstarter project that uses Fate Core as the ruleset for a particular setting - in this case, the steampunk world of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novels by Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine. In particular, the novels follow the adventures of two agents of the titular Ministry, which protects the British Empire from the strange and bizarre - which, refreshingly, has here more of a mad science/conspiratorial slant to it than a supernatural one.

Unusually, The Ministry Initiative project is working on funding both an RPG and a fiction anthology, each available separately at different pledge levels (there are of course levels that combine the two). Time will tell if this approach was a good idea - with just over a week left, the project is only about half funded. Still, I thought the two two novels written thus far were pretty good, and the X-Files/Warehouse 13 type setup lends itself particularly well to tabletop gaming.

*That's short for Fate Accelerated Edition, folks!

The Cheap, The Free, and The Winnable

In a confluence of a few different events, it looks like a pretty good week for OSR fans in general, and Swords & Wizardry fans in particular.

First off, DriveThruRPG is spotlighting the OSR all this week, and is offering 15% off the dozen best-selling titles with the use of the following coupon code: OSRF711F2 . The available titles range from the classic D&D Basic rulebook to recent interpretations such as Adventures Dark & Deep, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperboria, and yes, Swords & Wizardry Complete and its Sword-&-Sorcery spinoff, Crypts and Things. There's also a smattering of non-D&D-derived products, such as Classic Fantasy for BRP (for all your Lovecraft/Tolkien mashup needs!).

Not to be outdone, Frog God Games has put their entire Swords & Wizardry line on a similar 15% off sale - most interestingly including their recently released Razor Coast setting books. Swords & Wizardry Complete is, of course, on their list, too - no word on whether the two discounts stack, but if they did Complete would come out to just a hair over $7. A real bargain, if you need that book, but both sales end next Sunday.

While I was reading up on the various retro-clones affected by the above, I happened across the website for North Wind Adventures, the publishers of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperboria. On it, they offer a number of free downloads to support the game, and while some seem to be specific to the Hyperborian setting, others - particularly the "Random Sword & Sorcery Adventure Generator" - look useful for any game in the genre.

Finally, for the next couple of days Tenkar's Tavern is hosting a "Favorite Character Death" contest, with various OSR-compatible publications from Neoplastic Press up for grabs. Not only that, but the company's most well-known product, Teratic Tome, will be put on a bigger and bigger sale the more people enter - and if enough people enter it, too, could become free.

FATE of the A-Team

So, the FATE Core Kickstarter ended late last month, easily hitting the last stretch goal and ensuring that the Fate Accelerated Edition of The Dresden Files will be added to Evil Hat's already crowded development queue. With nearly 14500% of the initial funding goal to play with, the only thing they need now is time.

While we're waiting, then, here's the rest of the A-Team, built using the Fate Core Preview. First off, it seems in my last post I left off Hannibal's Physical ([] []) and Mental ([] [] [] []) stress tracks, so there's that. Next, the rest of the team:

Lieutenant Templeton "Faceman" Peck

High Concept: Scrounges Anything Anywhere from Anyone
Trouble: Weary of the Mercenary Life
Aspects: Ladies' Man, Keeper of the Checkbook, You Just Hired The A-Team
Skills:
- Great (+4) Deceit
- Good (+3) Burglary, Rapport
- Fair (+2) Contacts, Resources, Shooting
- Average (+1) Athletics, Fighting, Investigation, Will
Stunts: Lies Upon Lies (Deceit), Best Foot Forward (Rapport),
Physical Stress [] []
Mental Stress [] [] []
Refresh: 2

Captain H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock

High Concept: The Best Chopper Pilot In Vietnam
Trouble: Home is the V.A. Pysch Ward.
Aspects:  Zany Fantasy Life, Improbable Linguistic Skills, You Just Hired The A-Team

Skills:

- Great (+4) Drive

- Good (+3) Will, Athletics

- Fair (+2) Deceit, Fighting, Shooting

- Average (+1) Burglary, Investigation, Physique, Stealth

Stunts: If It Has Wings I Can Fly It* (Drive)

Physical Stress [] [] [] 

Mental Stress [] [] [] [] 

Refresh: 3

The "Grappler" stunt in action.

Sergeant Bosco "B.A." Baracus

High Concept: Bare-Knuckled Mechanic

Trouble: Named for his Bad Attitude
Aspects: Hot Rod Panel Van, Scared to Fly, You Just Hired The A-Team
Skills:
- Great (+4) Physique
- Good (+3) Drive, Fighting
- Fair (+2) Crafts, Shooting, Intimidation
- Average (+1) Athletics, Notice, Rapport, Will,
Stunts: Pedal to the Metal (Drive), Grappler (Physique), Take the Blow (Physique)
Physical Stress [] [] [] []
Mental Stress [] [] []
Refresh: 1

One thing I hope you'll notice right away is that all four Team-mates share an Aspect, a trick I borrowed from The Dresden Files RPG to provide coherence mechanically. I'm pretty sure it was tagged several times during the run of the show itself, usually to convince reluctant team-mates to take a particular job. Another thing that all four team members have in common is that their "Shooting" skill is only at Fair - this, too, was intended to simulate the show.

Something that surprised me during the process was how non-restrictive the limited number of Aspects and Refresh was. Coming from Dresden and Spirit of the Century, five Aspects and three Refresh - even with one free stunt!- doesn't sound like a lot, but it turned out to be plenty. I suspect that genre has something to do with this - one of the reasons Dresden has such high Refresh rates is that all those nifty mystic powers are paid for with them. Something relatively lower-key, like The A-Team, can work with the lower rate.

Anyway, this was a fun exercise for trying out FATE Core. For an actual game I would expect the skill list and stunts to be more heavily customized (the most recent addition to my blogroll, Fate of the Drowning Woods by Murder of Crows, has been playing with this quite heavily recently - go check it out!), but keeping the A-Team (mostly) within the draft rules was an interesting challenge, nonetheless. And hey, even if you didn't get in on the Kickstarter, word is that the Fate Core book will be coming out as a pay-what-you-want-including-nothing PDF - I'll be sure and mention that when it gets released!

*New Drive Stunt, If It Has Wings I Can Fly It: +2 to Drive whenever the vehicle in question is capable of flight.