Fate Accelerated Edition

+Scott Acker ran a demo of FAE (Fate Accelerated Edition) on sunday at my usual gaming haunt. We've played in several different games together and he knows the various incarnations of FATE inside out, so I asked him if he could set up a demo as I'd yet to play any FATE games. Like all too many people in this hobby,I have shelves of games that I've never played or run.

The demo was called "The Gothelrealm University of Esoteric and Arcane Arts‏".The setting was a Harry Potter Hogwarts-style university where the students are all supernatural beings. The classics were all well represented, vampires,ghosts,werewolves, fae,wizards and dragons all on the roll call.

I chose to play a werewolf. Scott gave us blank character sheets and some previously prepared "Aspects" (descriptions of the character that can be directly applied to the setting) and "Stunts" (special things we can do) to choose from. We also prioritized our "Approaches" (how we do things), such as "Quick","Careful" etc.

I haven't used Aspects before and it made a lot of sense to me in play. In some ways I found it reminiscent of "Unknown Armies" with its list of Passions. I liked having a "High Concept", a nice one-liner summing up who and what the character is in the game. Most of all, I liked have a "Trouble" Aspect. By choosing to use this Aspect in the game, you can be rewarded with a "FATE point", which you can then use later in the game to reroll dice, add +2 to a result or to add a detail to the game. I think this is probably the part that I enjoyed the most in that it encourages the players to make the story more interesting by making dangerous or difficult choices rather than focusing purely on winning.

The game flowed really well. I won't give details of the session itself as I know Scott runs this at conventions too. It had a strong gothic feel and I could see how a "Sleepy Hollow" game would work well with this. The characters were also very distinct archetypes, something else that I personally enjoy in games,especially as a player.

So having played this demo, I feel I've had a good taste of FAE. It's remarkably easy to play.I'd like to try it's more complex brother, "Fate Core", and some of the established settings too. If you haven't tried this and fancy a light, fast-paced game I strongly recommend giving it a look.