Father and Son

Well, beginning of 2016 seems to be rather quiet for solo gaming community.
And somehow, I was caught into that wind, so instead of playing alone, I spent lots of time playing with my five and a half years old son.

While he loves playing My First Carcassonne (and probably would love it even more if his 2 years old sister would not insist on playing it also), he has become a true expert in Dixit, and uses every possibility to lure me and at least one other adult (be it his mother or some of his grandparents) into the game. He even presented Dixit in his kindergarten as part of the "my favorite toy" project.

Another thing he likes very much are storytelling RPGs. I adjusted Fate Accelerated for that purpose, leaving only Main concept and trouble aspects, and  4 approaches (Cleaver, Forceful, Quick and Sneaky).

Fate Accelerated for kids character sheet

Inspired by TMNT 1987, he plays Boy ninja master who is unfortunately Too young to be able to read (he selected both aspects himself).

Our first game started as earthquake hit the town while Boy Ninja was going to the kindergarten. He tried to find the reason of the earthquake at the same time escaping falling debris, and soon he found huge sauropod dinosaur stomping through town and making earth shake.

Boy ninja stepped under the dinosaur belly, to try to detect if this is real animal or maybe a robot. Indeed there was a plate under dinosaurs belly, and on that plate it was written if this is real sauropod or not, but unfortunately he was unable to read it.

I decided not to go easy on him, so we ended the first session there.

It took my boy several hours of thoughts cooking within his brain, until the moment he run to me all thrilled with discovery - he finally understood that it must be a robot since the real dinosaurs do not have plates on their bellies. 

So we continued the game. Boy Ninja found the batteries containment on the sauropod and removed his power source, saving the city.

Next, he went to the Natural History Museum (we visited it recently, so he knew where to look), and noticed that sauropod model is missing. So he decided to make an ambush, expecting that thieves will come for a new toy, after he deactivated the previous one. He located himself near the T-Rex model, the logic of which I could not dispute. 

At midnight, an evil scientist and one of his muscle man appeared and tried to steal the Tyrannosaurus. Boy ninja approached them and used his ninja skills (and one fate point) to beat them in honorable combat.
He then waited for the morning and police to appear.
At the end, police officer thanked Boy Ninja for catching evil scientist, but had to fine him for trespassing  through Natural History Museum at night.

It was a good game, and my kid is constantly asking for more. The second adventure (featuring mad ice cream man turning people to ice) also went rather well, but then I had to postpone next session until I  think of some good adventure hook for 5 years old super hero. Suggestions are welcome :)

Thoughts on Fate Solo

Fate as solo engine has been already discussed on several blogs, like Solo Roleplayer, No one to play with or Solo RPG voyages.

Following them, I just wanted to add my own 5 cents.

When I first started with Fate, I planed to use driver like 9Qs to run my game, but it turned out there is no need for that.
As Roryb from No one to play with correctly noticed - Aspects is really where it’s at.
To achieve something in Fate, player needs Fate points, and the pool is running empty fast. In order to fill it back, player needs to compel to one of the aspects and include complication, and that is usually enough to drive the story forward.

Of course, spicing things up is always good.

Solo roleplayer offers this through Fate oracle, a way to answer yes/no questions with a twist. The problem with this is the fact that oracle is already incorporated into Fate game, and there is no need to remember another one.
Binary questions in Fate are answered through Create advantage action using in-game mechanic. Simply, instead of asking a question "Is the door locked?" and assigning probability,  player can try to create "Unlocked" aspect on the same door, by assigning difficulty for the task. If he fails, door is locked, and then the player can use Overcome action to try to unlock them. On the other hand, this approach offers no twist in AND/BUT range.

Solo RPG voyages introduces twists through random events triggered when all marked sides of the dice show only + or only - signs. The idea is further extended on the blog.

Following this idea, I tried to incorporate it into Fate to add AND/BUT twist to the built in oracle.
Here it is:

Every time the player rolls dice against fixed difficulty (usually to make Create advantage or Overcome action) look at the symbols on the dice. 
If two or more blank sides are visible, result is success of failure as per rules with added AND.
If at least one combination of + and - is visible, result is success of failure as per rules with added BUT.
In case of the dice combination + - _ _ BUT and AND result can either cancel each other, or you may select special case of success/failure with both AND and BUT.
In case of the re-roll use the second set of dice.
The issue that AND or BUT relate to can be selected by the player or invoked using some sort of Random idea generator.

Chances table if AND and BUT cancel each other: 
AND ------21/81 or 26%
BUT-------37/81 or 46%
No result-23/81 or 28%


Examples of this system in action can be seen here.

First stalker missions (Diaspora/FATE solo session)

Continued from here.

Once The Sting emerged in The Zone polar space, F-Mouse prepared for her first mission. Near the location Sting selected to dock she could see (D6=)6 shuttle slipstreams ready to take her to the surface. She decided to test them in order they are, so she selected first from her left.

Shuttle slipstream 1

What I see: Fingerprint, Well, Horned helmet (RSC).

After shuttle landed, F-Mouse noticed a garden labyrinth,  with well in the middle. Labyrinth walls were not at all high, and she could jump over them, but they were made from some really thorny plant.

Create situation aspect - Path through labyrinth. Create advantage action with difficulty 2, using Recon (1). Roll -1 (+ - - _), fail BUT: Building + Fight (RSC).

F-Mouse could not detect a pattern through the maze, but she noticed that thorns react to insects that come close to them, and even fight each others if they start growing too close. Seems that plants will attack any intruder who enters the labyrinth, and F-Mouse was not happy about this. She wanted to investigate that well. So, she decided to risk pulling through that maze.

For this I used contest rules, where F-Mouse used overcome action (Agile 1) and thorns tried attack action (Profession: thorn plant 2). F-Mouse rolled 0, plant -1, resulting in tie. Plant gets a boost - blocked passage. Also, according to contest rules, something strange happens: Alarm clock waking up somebody, Monster from the bushes (RSC).

Thorn wall moved, and blocked the entrance into the maze. F-Mouse looked across the plants and noticed a human figure standing up by the well, stretching as just awakened from long sleep.
It seems that F-Mouse waked up one of the ancient inhabitants of the system!

In this moment I decided to compel to the system aspect "We are still here" to make a complication and take a fate point (pool rises to 6). What will the newly awaken men do? Whip, Knock-knock (RSC).

Zone immortal took his whip to chase away the trespasser.

Locals in the zone all have skill Profession: Zone immortal 7. Since he is using a whip across two combat zones, so out of the normal range, he gets -2 accuracy penalty, bringing him to 5. F-Mouse uses Agility 1 to evade, adding armor from skin vest (defense 3) to a total of 4. Zoner rolls -1, F-Mouse +1. F-mouse wins ans rolls away to safety.

Even though men was rather far, whip crack was dangerously close. Close enough for F-Mouse to get  the message. She turned and made a running start towards the shuttle. She may be returning from her first mission empty handed, but she met Zone immortal and lived to tell the tail - more than many stalkers could say.

Back on the Sting.

I made a maintenance roll to see if I can afford a space in a ship after coming empty-handed. Zone is a R4 system, so I need to roll against difficulty of 4 using wealth 0. I rolled 0 (+ - _ _), and tagged "Hitchhiking through galaxy" (one Fate point used, 5 left) aspect for -2 shifts as final result. I marked second box on wealth stress track.

Returning empty handed made  F-Mouse worry about her financials. If she does not bring something to captain, he might throw her out from the ship. Of course, she could always offer him to maintain the ship drive during the return trip, but she still felt uneasy about her first result.


Shuttle slipstream 2

What I see: Volcano, Cactus, Dwarf miner (RSC).

After good night sleep, F-Mouse took second slipstream shuttle. It landed at the feet of heat radiating mountain. Some thorny plants she knew from the day before grew here and there on the mountain sides, so she made a mental note to avoid that areas if possible. Mountain seemed to be hollow, and holes that resembled mine entrances were scattered everywhere on the slopes.

Create situation aspect - safe corridor. Create advantage action with difficulty 2, using Recon (1). Roll +2 (+ + _ _), success AND this is the corridor that leads to some kind of treasure.

Create situation aspect - unopposed road to the tool-room. Create advantage action with difficulty 4, using Operator: mechanical (5). Roll +1 (+ + - _), success BUT: Pill, Footprint (RSC).

F-Mouse selected one mine entrance where the heat was not so distinctive, and descended into the mountain. She felt better immediately,  leaving open spaces for the safety of the corridors. This place reminded her of her beloved ship tunnels. She knew spaces like this, such corridors usually ended with the tool-room or storehouse. There should be no dangers this way, she thought. Tool-rooms are never locked or protected. Nobody likes to work, so if you took the trouble to come here and take a tool, you probably need it and you are also authorized to do it.
She was right. Corridor took her to the mining tools storage. Unfortunately, it was not in good condition. Earthquake or some similar event moved all tools from their places and piled them in one big iron mountain. F-Mouse tried to pull some good looking peaces of equipment, but she disturbed equilibrium and everything collapsed on her.

F-Mouse is under attack from falling tools, accuracy 4, penetration 2, damage 2. She defends with her alertness 2 helped by snakeskin vest 3-2=1  for total of 3. F-Mouse rolls -4, debris rolls +3 for a total of 8 shifts! I decided to use Snakeskin vest aspect (4 Fate points left) to make a re-roll. Second roll is +2 so better. Total result is 2 shifts victory for debris. I mark first two stress boxes on both Health and Composure.

Our hero was alert, she have seen falling parts and tried to react and step back from the main impact of the falling metal but failed, and the mountain fell directly on her back. All she could do is to haggle and hope that her elastic snakeskin vest will deflect the metal parts.
Dust settled. broken equipment was laying all around our hero. She could feel the bruisers all over her body, but nothing was broken. Snake's skin did it's job.
F-Mouse took a short rest and then started looking around for some still functional peace of equipment.

Overcome action with difficulty 5 using Operator: mechanical (5). Roll +1 (+ _ _ _), success AND she finds two good tools. 

Soon F-Mouse detected not one, but two operational peaces of mining equipment. One was automatic drill worth 3 cost shifts and another one a precise hand drill used to remove precious stones from their rock beads, 2 cost shifts worth. She put the small drill into pocket, but the big one looked cumbersome.

Overcome action with difficulty 1 using Strength (0). Roll +2 (+ + _ _), success AND she didn't even get tired doing this.

But it only looked that way. It was superior peace of technology made by advanced race of humans - and it was actually rather easy to carry.

Back on the Sting.

F-Mouse give the big drill to the ship captain. This eased her mind, for it was enough to pay her stay on the Sting for the moment. Captain also informed F-Mouse that the Sting will stay in Zone for 4 more days, before moving to Outpost. This was good, she had time to run one or two more surface missions and maybe find something that can be used in one of her homelands.

Big drill was sold for 2 wealth shifts, enough to clear wealth stress track. Since captain got something, I will not perform maintenance check for next 4 days, but I will see if the captain will have some request once they return to Outpost - probably through social mini game.

To be continued....

Freedom-Mouse (Diaspora character creation)

In Fate RPG, and therefore in Diaspora also, character creation is a storytelling process, with some limitations.
First thing I needed to do is to see from what system my character originates. I rolled d6 and got 5 - New Hope.

Now I have two phases to create a character and generate 4 aspects, based on the place of origin.

1. Growing up: 
Freedom-Mouse (F-Mouse for short), belongs to the family of initial settlers. She was third generation in her family line born on New Hope.
When all your ancestors lived in the tight corridors and tiny locked areas of the colony, one gets used to move in claustrophobic surroundings and starts feeling uneasy when confronted with the open space.
The New Hope colony is a place for all kind of people. New settlers, each with its own story, arrive on daily bases, so F-Mouse learned to respect this diversity.
Aspects: Agoraphobia, Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2. Starting up:
F-mouse trained as drive engineer, and with her ability to work in tight places she was drafted by the Outpost fleet as a maintenance technician on slipstream ship called Wrench. While serving there, she learned to fix ship's equipment sometimes even when there were no tools, materials and spare parts available. She got enough knowledge about the Zone technology that she become able to jump start some ancient artifact without any knowledge what it is and what is its purpose.
Aspects: It works when I am around, Fixing in a makeshift way.

Next two phases should be interaction with other players. Since there are no other characters, interaction medium will be Rory's story cubes.

3. Moment of crisis: Bombardment (destroyed space ship?), Snake
Upon her travels, Wrench was unfortunate enough to be attacked by a pirate ship from Nest. Battle was short, and Wrench crash landed in flames on the Desert planet in Nest system. The part of the ship where F-Mouse was separated from the main part of the hull earlier, and that is how she survived. She was still in bed situation as her agoraphobia started kicking in the desert.
By luck of the fate, she crossed path with a giant desert snake. F-Mouse killed the snake, and survived by eating it's raw meat.
Furthermore, she battled her fears by squeezing herself inside the snake's skin - there it was tight and dark just like inside her beloved slipstream ship corridors.
After several days, F-Mouse was discovered by the members of the Serpent warrior tribe. After encountering a women who performed ancient rite of killing desert snake barehanded, they accepted her into the tribe as a battle sister.
With a help of local smiths, F-Mouse converted snake's skin into a bulletproof vest - her lucky charm.
Aspects: Snakeskin vest, Serpent tribe battle sister.

4. Sidetracked: Judge hammer, Lens
Coming from different culture, F-Mouse found it difficult to live all the time by tribe rules. In order to prevent being judged by the elders of the tribe, she volunteered for stalker training - as stalker she will be useful to the tribe,  and will be able to return to her beloved space. F-Mouse passed the test thanks to her incredible eyes for details, ability rare among the desert tribes.
Aspects: Not made to follow rules, Not seeing the forest for the trees.

Final phase is free-form again.

5. On her own: 
So, F-mouse found herself aboard the ship called Sting, as it emerged in The Zone space. She was ready for her first descent as a stalker, hoping to bring back at least two artifacts from her first mission - one for the Serpent tribe and one for her family on New Hope.
Aspects: Woman with two homelands, Hitchhiking through galaxy

Skills:
5. Operator: mechanical
4. Survival, Drive enginering
3. Health, Profession: stalker, Operator: electronics
2. Resolve, Alertness, Intimidation, Zero-G
1. Agility, Brawling, Recon, Operator: animal handler, Culture/Tech: New Hope/Nest///Zone (with aspect Woman with two homelands)

Stunts:
Have a thing - a glue or similar to connect two things or fix a hole
Swamp a skill - Profession: stalker can be used instead of Brawling but only in the zone
Military grade Drive engineering - to be defined

Stress:
Health 5, Composture 4, Wealth 3.

Fate points: 5 + 5 at the beginning of first combat encounter.

She is now ready for her first adventure.

DIaspora cluster building

I wanted to spice up my solo RPG life, and to take a break from 5th edition adventure, so I decided to try to play with Fate RPG.

I decided to start with a game called Diaspora, since it has very nice world building mini game. As it is always the case, world building needs 3 players, so I decided to emulate two of them, Mr. Good and Mr. Bed using Rory's story cubes. Therefore, first two systems are mine, systems 3 and 5 are owned by Mr. Good and systems 4 and 6 by Mr. Bed. I picked up characteristics for my systems, while characteristics of other 4 are rolled using fudge dice as described in Diaspora.

In Diaspora, all space travel occurs by the predefined trajectories called slipstreams, and it all happens within a group of star systems connected into clusters.

To start, I made a 6 systems cluster that looks like this:

Lines that connect systems are slipstreams. Basically, from system 5, you can directly and instantly reach systems 3, 4 and 6. To reach system 2 from system 5 at least two jumps are needed. Slipstream configuration is rolled using Fudge dice as described in Diaspora book.
Below are descriptions of systems, after all in-game adaptations were made.

1. The Zone. Technology (T)+4, Habitat (H)+4, Resources (R)+4
Aspects: We are still here, One may return - two or more will not.

Story: In the old time, The Zone was known by some other, now forgotten name. At that time, it hosted a civilization so advanced, that humans who lived there were immortal.
System was so terraformed that on every place - even between planets, there was air, perfect temperature and optimal pressure. Nano technology took care of all things, humans were safe and supported wherever they are.
Nano technology was so advanced that there was nothing people needed to do. So one day civilization collapsed due to the pure boredom of  its inhabitants. From that moment until today natives of the Zone are just laying in their beds doing nothing - some say they are meditating meaning of life, others say they are just sleeping to shorten the boredom of their immortality.
Now, millions of years later, old name for system is forgotten and it is known just as The Zone. Some of its immortal citizens are still there, living and dreaming their impossible dreams. Their ancient technology is scattered all around them.
So, The Zone became a paradise for Stalkers, brave people ready to enter the system and return with the artifacts that will be richly paid in other systems of the cluster. This is dangerous profession, for many stalkers enter the Zone, and only few of them return. Some become victims of the nature that is taking back the system - dangerous life forms roam free through the Zone. At some places nano technology stopped working, creating holes without air, gravity or pressure - places that only experienced stalkers can recognize. Some stalkers become victims of misuse of strange technology. Some are even destroyed by ancient sleeping beings, as punishment for disturbing their eternal rest.
Another thing that makes the profession so dangerous is a fact that every stalker must go into the Zone by himself. Slipstream ship can emerge near one of the system poles, from where special small slipstreams can take smaller shuttles instantly to the desired place in the Zone. If the shuttles are crewed with one lone stalker, they will occasionally return to the mother ship with the loot. But each time two or more stalkers tried to enter the Zone as a team, they dissapeared never to be heard of again.This occurrence become known as "One man rule - go alone or do not go at all".
One of the mini streams can take a stalker trained as a pilot to the mother ships graveyard. If a lone pilot can take a slipstream ship on trust drive from there to the jump area, crew is added and it becomes part of the cluster fleet. The biggest part of slipstream technology in the cluster is acquired this way.
Food of perfect quality is available everywhere, but since every transport is limited to what one man can carry, organized export is not possible.

2. Outpost, T+1, H-2, R0
Aspects: It goes through us, Armed to the teeth

Story: Outpost is a gateway to The Zone since it is the only system that has slipstream connection to it. They use this fact to prevent free trading of the artifacts. Every ship coming from The Zone must go through customs, where Outpost government takes percentage of the estimated value of each artifact. Outpost government also preserves for themselves right of first buy, and they are purchasing all artifacts they do not want to be distributed through the system - mostly food replicators and heavy weapons.
Outpost protects these rights with strongest and best equipped mobile military force in the cluster. People living on the Outpost are either stalkers, traders or solders, or some mix of the 3.
Long time ago Outpost was a H0 system, but overpopulation, extreme use of resources and pollution made living outside of artificial created environments impossible. Food is acquired from food replicators - it is not tasty but no one is hungry. Replicated food is exported to the Destination. Real grown organic food from Nest or New Hope or special food from the Zone or Glory are considered delicacy and luxury.

3. Destination, T-2, H+1, R-3. Rory's story cubes: Camera, Evergreen forest
Aspects: Holiday paradise, I work to buy the ticket out

Story: Destination's only habitable planet may seem like a perfect holiday destination - half of the planet is covered wit clear shallow oceans, while other half is covered with wast evergreen forests.
But things are not so perfect under the surface.
The evergreen trees that grow anywhere are the only native living beings on the planet. No other vegetation can grow on Destination soil. Furthermore, no part of this tree is eatable in any way for any known being - not even for bacteria.
Considering the fact that Outpost forbids food replicators to be used in any other system except their own,  Destination is forced to import already replicated food, so in this system eating is very expensive habit.
Big chunks of land on Destination are owned by rich artifact merchants or high ranked soldiers from Outpost or tribe lords from Nest. There they have they holiday villas.
Sea shores are filled with hotels where less rich but still well suited citizens of these two systems go for they annual vacations.
People born on Destination are always poor.  They work for small wages as servants, bartenders and entertainers and collect what food remains after guests finish their feasts in order to feed their families.
If a family of locals ever manage to collect some savings, they buy a place on a first slipstream ship to Outpost or New Hope.

4. Nest. T+1, H-1, R+1. Rory's story cubes: Knock, Fear face
Aspects: We can survive anything, If no one claims it - it's mine.

Story: The only habitable planet in a system is a hot desert. Tough conditions made rough people - locals belong to the tribal culture that glorifies war. Thanks to the aggressive approach and sometimes even insane bravery,  Nest has second best known army in the cluster. They are not annoyed by the fact that most other systems do not call it an army, but a pirate fleet.
If unprotected ship happens to meet Nest ship in neutral space, or even worse within Nest's territory, it will certainly be attacked and robbed. So if one goes into Nest, one goes heavily armed. Only then the brave merchant can hope to gain a good profit by exchanging artifacts from the zone for the rare delicious food in the cluster: meet and eggs of the desert lizards whom Nest tribes grow as a cattle.

5. New Hope. T-1, H-2, R0. Rory's story cubes: Present, Space suit
Aspects: Building our place under the sun, All are welcome

Story: Up to recent, this was uninhabited system. Only few hundreds of years ago, Outpost and Nest agreed that this may become a place that willing and unwilling refugees and unwanted persons from the cluster can call home. They were given limited terraforming tools and an empty system, and were allowed to build the community for themselves. Experiment is still in the early phase, but it shows results better than expected - colony grows, and they are managing even to produce some eatable plants in quantities enough to satisfy their own needs, and even to export some to Outpost.
Some important persons from Outpost are suggesting that this is a proof of Glory spreading their interest zone by helping New Hope colonists in secret, but so far no one was able to prove this claims.

6. Glory. T+3, H0, R+1.  Rory's story cubes: Safe-box , Ball falling behind man's back
Aspects: No entry! This could be heaven or this could be hell


Glory is a closed system, and in the rest of the cluster very little is known about it. Slipstreams to the system are blocked, and can be used only by ships from Glory itself. These ships are of different design than the ones taken from the Zone, and thus it is supposed that Glory developed it's own slipstream technology.
Still, slipstream ships from Glory are not seen very often. They appear only when Glory thinks that it needs to secure it's interests in the cluster, mostly messing with the plans created on Outpost or Nest - either by demonstrating military might or by delivering organic food and advanced technology to strategic places like poor villages of Destination or colonies of New Hope.
Sometimes, refugees manage to hide themselves between food or equipment crates. They plead for protection from the local government, describing Glory as the nightmarish place, where people are constantly oppressed by iron boot of the regime.
But it also happens that the most talented artist of the cluster are sometimes invited to board on the Glory slipstream ships in order to study and perform in the closed system. When they return, they describe Glory as a paradise, place where science and art create miracles unseen in other systems of the cluster.


I really like the way it turned out. 
Since food is a rare thing in the cluster, it seems to be the most important resource. 
The Zone is a great starting point for the campaign, and once I create a character I plan to start there by playing a stalker straight out of Strugacki brothers books. 
Later, there is a plenty of politics to explore, with 3 super-powers in the cluster, each with its own goals and techniques.

So, I hope to continue this game soon, using mix of Diaspora and Fate Accelerated. I will keep you informed about the progress.