One of the things that drew me to Fate was Diaspora‘s collaborative world building and character creation. I quickly picked up Dresden Files and Legends of Anglerre to see other takes on this collaborative world creation.
Then today, in the Fate Core Community of Google+, Jason Pitre posted a link to his free A Spark in Fate Core (CC BY 3.0). It takes the previous iterations of Fate games, pulls the collaborative process up to the Genre level and then quite simply crushes it!
First, Jason enumerates what makes a good Fate game: Characters are Proactive, Competent, and lead Dramatic Lives. If that sounds like the type of characters you will be creating and playing, then A Spark in Fate Core is definitely for you.
Once he establishes the types of characters he moves on to the steps of collaborative world building. It is simple straightforward advice with a focus on making sure everyone is on the same page regarding the game they are about to play.
When Creating Your Game
- You start by listing your favourite Media.
- Explain the Inspirations from your media.
- Use those inspirations to Describe the Genre.
- Decide how epic or personal in Scale your story will be.
- Establish Facts about the Setting.
- Create a Title to focus your vision.
- Create a list of Sparks (potential Issues) for the setting.
- Select the Issues, picking three of them from the list of Sparks.
- Create two Faces for each Issue.
- Create a Place for each unused Spark.
While the process need not be specific to Fate Core, it does highlight an advantage of Fate; You can rather easily mold the rules to reflect the style of game. The various questions for creating your game will ultimately determine the types of conflicts and the approaches to conflict resolution.
So say thank you to Jason by downloading a copy of A Spark in Fate Core and taking a look at Spark Roleplaying Game; a game about “examining your characters’ motivations, convictions, and perspectives.”
