This sample ability is based off of @scoobandshagtalk, a wonderful comic with a mix of horror, comedy and shonen tropes.
I Forgot to fill out the type chart, but this is probably the last ability I'm going to do on the version 5 ability cards, soon I'm hoping to have version 6 done before long. I want to clean up the type chart so its easier to read.
The idea behind ballyhoo is that the affection people feel for cartoon characters gives them powers. That's why the user has to be a beloved public figure to use this ability.
And now for something a bit different: the character i'll be playing as part of @dmgonerogue 's FATE game at our school! Their name is Sifr, they're basically just a fun moth alien who likes to fix stuff and eat fruits! Left is by me, on the right is some art of them by my good pal @nioice !!
So earlier today I was chatting about characters in tabletop games, and specifically about converting characters from one system to another. This cropped up when I said I'd be willing to run an AU session for a tabletop I'm in, but my preferred system is FATE. So I'd either have to learn to GM in a system I still don't understand at all, or convert the PCs to my favorite system. And that should have been the end of the idea, right?
...naturally, 2 hours later, I'd gone ahead and written up Aspects for my PC…
I'm going to share my aspects for Erianthe Teral, because I'm really proud of how I wrote them and what they say about her.
Because I know most of my fellows in the campaign aren't versed in FATE, below the cut is the live explanation of FATE Aspects and my personal philosophy behind them that I was giving as I wrote them up.
First, the Aspects, in case this is all you want to read:
High Concept: The Seeking Artisan
Career: Technological Virtuoso
Specialization: Computers Sing to Me
Free: Scion of House Teral
Explanation Time:
So the a core mechanic of FATE is your Aspects, which are prettily-worded things about your character that Are True. They can be personality traits, character beliefs, a description of their profession, what their relationship with other people or groups are, etc. Basically, if it's something that you'd put in a bio or description for them, it would likely fit as an Aspect.
People are encouraged to know Aspects of their own and other PCs, because if you know an Aspect, you can "Tag" or "Compel" it. They can give you mechanical bonuses ; they can be used to justify rerolls ; they can compel you into doing something and then you get a treat in exchange! Because these Aspects are important to your character and the narrative, they can affect the narrative. An example of using an Aspect would be if I flub a Computers roll really bad, I could say, “Hold on, Erianthe has “Computers Sing To Me”, and justify spending a FATE point to either add +2 to my result or reroll it.
There are rarely advantages in players keeping Aspects secret from each other, and a lot of joy in knowing other people's, so you can help them with compels and invokes, and help make the narrative you're all telling at the table better. So say I had made that bad roll, someone else could say, “Wait, Erianthe has “Computers Sing To Me”, so she can do better” and give me the option to tag that.
Some FATE games, you can just have any 5 things as Aspects. I said that if I was converting our FFG sheets to FATE, I'd structure your Aspects a bit. For our campaign, I'd say "look, one aspect is your High Concept - the one-sentence summary of Who You Are as a person. One is your Career - what you do as a profession. One should be your Specialization, or something else that you're most talented at or renowned for. And two are Free - they're anything that's key to your char".
So with that in mind, here's what I picked out for Erianthe at first:
High Concept: Alderaanian Skilled Mechanic
Career: Mechanical Expert
Specialization: Talented Slicer
Free: University-Educated Noble Scion
You'll notice these are a lot plainer than the ones I put above. They're all functional Aspects. They're certainly servicable for FATE uses like revealing the character's background and talking about her skillsets. I could easily use “Talented Slicer” to justify a reroll.
So, why did I change them?
Because two characters might have the same level of skill but express it very differently. Two characters may be Very Strong People, or Very Skilled With Machines, and thus get the same +2 or reroll mechanical bonus. But don't “I Can Jury-Rig Anything” and “Droidcrafting Artisan” sound completely different?
And so, keeping in mind my conception of Erianthe as someone who comes from a high-end background (with the relationships that implies), a very skilled technician, and someone who seems to work with machines with intuition and instinct, I started rephrasing each of those concepts.
High Concept: Alderaanian Skilled Mechanic → The Seeking Artisan
I changed Mechanic to Artisan to reflect a better aesthetic, and dropped the mention of her planet in exchange for revealing a personality trait – Erianthe is in search of something. Note that what she's seeking isn't spelled out. Is it that she doesn't know, or is it a mystery on purpose? It would be good for GM and player to converse about this.
This is a wording change that takes this from plainly descriptive to poetic. I actually wasn't intending to have a musical theme going here, but this one and the next one both have it. Funny, 'cause that's a hobby of hers. (I considered Prodigy instead of Virtuoso, but the second one just felt more right.)
Specialization: Talented Slicer → Computers Sing To Me
This one, even more than career, really reflect Erianthe's approach to what she does. From her perspective, when she's slicing, she's not imposing her will on the code so much as flowing along with what it's telling her to do next. In the end, I don't really have a justification other than, “it feels right for the character”, and it's my favorite.
Free: University-Educated Noble Scion → Scion of House Teral
This Aspect was intended to represent her background and relationships. As written it conveys that she's highly educated and that she's from a noble background. The rewording drops the part about her ties to the University in favor of emphasizing exactly who she's tied to by name.
Looking at final results of this pass, now that I've gone ahead and reworded them, I'm much happier with what they say about my PC. I have also hopefully given my GM some hooks to deal with, ways they can help me become more awesome on rolls, or obligate myself into taking actions that are IC ones that would happen even if they're not the smartest thing to do at the time. Basically, I'm trying to create a narrative toolbox for both myself and the GM, and I think the descriptive set has succeeded the most.
This is the conclusion of cat's example-laden Aspects discussion! If you have any FATE questions, or want to ask me more about Erianthe, please message me here / on Discord!
