LEONARD BRIAN JEREMY RYAN MIKE BALSERA ENGARD KELLER MACKLIN OLSON CHARACTERS LIVE AT THE CORE OF FATE A High Priestess of the barbarian hordes, an undead Wild West gunslinger, and a Second Lieutenant of the Intergalactic Security Forces are about as dif erent as they come, but they’ve got one thing in common: they need a strong engine to drive their stories. Fate Core is that engine. Fate Core is the latest evolution of the award-winning Fate roleplaying game system from Evil Hat Productions. We’ve streamlined and clarifi ed the rules while maintaining the system’s trademark fl exibility. Name your game; Fate Core can make it happen. Inside, you’ll discover: Easy-to-follow rules for character and world creation. Rock-solid storytelling advice for players and GMs to produce the best play experience. Clearly-defi ned systems to guide players both new and old. New and improved approaches to character actions, aspects, compels… and more! TELL YOUR TALE. ROLL THE DICE. EMBRACE YOUR FATE! EHP0001 • ISBN 978-1-61317-029-8 • $25.00 US www.evilhat.com • @EvilHatOf cial facebook.com/EvilHatProductions CORE SYSTEM LEONARD BALSERA LEAD SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT BRIAN ENGARD ASSISTANT DEVELOPMENT MIKE OLSON ASSISTANT DEVELOPMENT RYAN MACKLIN ASSISTANT DEVELOPMENT • EDITING JEREMY KELLER EDITING • LAYOUT • INTERIOR GRAPHIC DESIGN FRED HICKS ART DIRECTION • COVER DESIGN • PRINT PRODUCTION KURT KOMODA COVER ART • INTERIOR ART SEAN NITTNER PROJECT MANAGEMENT CHRIS HANRAHAN BRAND MARKETING FATE WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED BY ROB DONOGHUE AND FRED HICKS An Evil Hat Productions Publication www.evilhat.com • [email protected] @EvilHatOfcial on Twitter facebook.com/EvilHatProductions Fate Core System Copyright © 2013 Evil Hat Productions, LLC. All rights reserved. Te text of Fate Core System will be available under the Open Gaming License and a Creative Commons Attribution license. For more details about the terms and requirements of these licenses, please visit www.evilhat.com or www.faterpg.com. First published in 2013 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. 10125 Colesville Rd #318, Silver Spring, MD 20901. Evil Hat Productions and the Evil Hat and Fate logos are trademarks owned by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. All rights reserved. Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-61317-029-8 Kindle ISBN: 978-1-61317-058-8 ePub ISBN: 978-1-61317-057-1 Printed in the USA. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior express permission of the publisher. Tat said, if you’re doing it for personal use, knock yourself out. Tat’s not only allowed, we encourage you to do it. For those working at a copy shop and not at all sure if this means the person standing at your counter can make copies of this thing, they can. Tis is “express permission.” Carry on. Tis is a game where people make up stories about wonderful, terrible, impossible, glorious things. All the characters and events portrayed in this work are fctional. Any resemblance to real people, fantasy adventurers, wizards of the arcane, supernatural cops in a China-colonized Hong Kong/America that never was, cybernetic super-intelligent apes, or squirrel mechanics is purely coincidental, but kinda hilarious. FEEDBACK HEROES 3Jane, John A, Scott Acker, Jordan Adams, Ryan Aech, Dan Alexander, Danny Alexander, Jens Alfke, Carl Anderson, Alexandre Antonov, Devon Apple, Mark Arndt, Arrghus, Michael Atlin, Wille Backman, Kevin Bates, J B Bell, Richard Bellingham, Garrison Benson, Michael R. Bernstein, Billchuck, Don Bisdorf, Peter Blake, Ron Blessing, Adam Blinkinsop, bodhranist, McKay Bonham, Jérémie “Blacky” Bouillon, Brett Bowen, Michael Bowman, Guy Bowring, Ezra Bradford, Mick Bradley, Fabrice Breau, Jean-Baptiste Breton, Bill Burdick, Francisco Bustos, Jason Campbell, Sean Carroll, Nick Carter, Richard Chilton, Krzysztof Chyla, Coboney, Bill Collins, Cameron Corniuk, Danni Coy, Creature, cthos, Josh Culbertson, Patrick Curtin, Carsten Damm, Darryl, James Dawsey, Tomas Deeny, Martin Dickson, Rob Donoghue, Droqen, Lukasz Dziubczyk, Eärdil, Manuel Echevarria, Jason Eley, Johan Elmquist, James English, Epimetreus, Tomas Erskine, Ian Evans, Dustin Evermore, John Faludi, Keith Fannin, Jarrod Farquhar-Nicol, Christian Fasy, Olman Feelyus, Antaeus Feldspar, Fenikso, Chris Flipse, Ben Flood, Brook Freeman, Emlyn Freeman, Josh French, Gauth, GhostBob, D Gilbert, Ed Gonzalez, Mikhail L. Gordin, Oliver Graf, Tim Graham, Tim Gray, Michael Guerra, Jack Gulick, Gwathdring, Roland Gyarmati, Dan Hall, Rob Hanz, Craig Hargraves, Seán Harnett, George Harnish, John Harper, Jon Harrison, Julien Harroch, Christopher Hazell, M. Herzog, Magnus Lie Hetland, Bruce Hill, Rob Hipskind, Jonathon Hodges, Brian Hofmann, Troy Holaday, Stephen C. Holland, Jef Hoskinson, Robert M. S. Huether, Link Hughes, Casey Hunten, Blake Hutchins, Hypersmurf, Justin D. Jacobson, Kent J. Johansen, johnoghue, Stephen “SDJTorin” Johnson, Andrew Kampen, Jack Kelly, Dave Klempa, Jeremy Kostiew, Darth Krzysztof, Steve Kunec, Mark Kung, Steve Kyer, Jonathan Lang, Alec Lanter, Shai Laric, Gee Lawrence, LDK, David Leaman, Josh Leavitt, PK Levine, Adam Longley, Eliot Lyon, EK Lytle, Edward MacGregor, Joshua Madore, Ergodic Mage, Ville Makkonen, James Malaspino, Erin McBride, Jon T. McCarty II, Robin McCollum, Robert McCowen, Shawn McDaniel, Colin McMillen, Dylan Mikus, Earl Miles, Agustin Miranda, Tom Miskey, Jim Montgomery, Jacob Mooney, Sean Mulhern, Mysterious and Pedantic Stranger, Peter Netzer, Sarah Newton, Brian K. Nielsen, Koji Nishiuchi, Iain M Norman, Selene O’Rourke, Daniel Paarmann, Lisa Padol, Addramyr Palinor, Andrea “Lord Lance” Parducci, Johnny Peng, Ryan Perrin, Jonathan Pierson, Nick Pilon, Alexander Puterbaugh, Scott Pyle, Rob Rendell, James Ritter, Brian Rock, Mike Roddewig, RolHypnos, Roman, Garrett Rooney, Rosque, RPG Geek, Christopher Ruthenbeck, Carrie S., Norman Sager, Ryan Sands, Philippe Saner, Christoph Sapinsky, John Savage, Ernie Sawyer, Evan Sayre, SC, Torge Schmidt, Jason Schneiderman, Adam Schwaninger, Tim Seiger, Alfredo Sendín, Mike Sergio, Andrew Shore, shosuko, Josh Simmons, Scott Slater, Robert Slaughter, Jon Smejkal, Ruben Smith-Zempel, Tess Snider, Paul Snow, Soren, SQLCowboy, Jan Stals, starwed, Sterling, David L. Stewart, Jaap Stoel, Lane Stroud, Joe Stroup, SwiftOne, Ricardo Tavares, David Tackaberry, John Tobin, Tom X. Tobin, Alan Tsang, Joshua Turton, Carrie Ulrich, Shea Lafayette Valentine, Leroy Van Camp III, Kevin Veale, Paul Vermeren, Nathan W., Ralf Wagner, Josh Ward, John Weber, Greg Weir, Marko Wenzel, Beat Wieland, Mitch A. Williams, Jan Willms, Gordon Wincott, Xavon Wrentaile, wusemajor, Savage Yinn, Kris Zaragoza, Jacob Z-Dawg Zimmerman, zombiecalypse CONTENTS The Basics ...........................................................................................1 Welcome to Fate! ....................................................................................2 What You Need to Play ........................................................................3 Players and Gamemasters .................................................................. 4 The Character Sheet ..............................................................................6 Taking Action ............................................................................................8 Fate Points ............................................................................................... 12 Start Playing! .......................................................................................... 15 Game Creation .................................................................................17 What Makes a Good Fate Game? ................................................... 18 Setting Up Your Game .......................................................................20 Making the Setting Work in Fate ...................................................20 A Game’s Scale ...................................................................................... 21 The Setting’s Big Issues ..................................................................... 22 Faces and Places ..................................................................................26 Make Characters ................................................................................... 27 Character Creation .........................................................................29 Character Creation Is Play ................................................................30 Your Character Idea ............................................................................. 31 The Phase Trio ....................................................................................... 38 Skills ..........................................................................................................46 Stunts and Refresh ..............................................................................48 Stress and Consequences .................................................................50 You’re All Set! ........................................................................................ 52 Quick Character Creation ................................................................. 52 Aspects and Fate Points ................................................................ 55 Defining Aspects ..................................................................................56 Defining Fate Points ...........................................................................56