[Diaspora] Fate Points a la Chronica Feudalis

[Brad Murray]

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 7:49 AM, Buzz <buzz at buzzmo.com> wrote:

> The reason I'm amenable to the CF hack is that I've found my NPCs run out
> of Fate Points pretty quickly, and combats
> are a cakewalk. I've only run three sessions so far, but I don't think any
> PC has had to take a Consequence yet. But,
> we could just be doing it wrong...
>

Every group is going to play a little differently and find they need to tune
things accordingly. Increasing NPC skill caps, changing fate point
distribution, and simply increasing opposition numbers are all good ways to
do this. If you want an even fight, make the NPCs equal to the PCs -- you
know that's balanced! :D

I don't think we can really guide anyone on this because it will vary by
table -- a group of tactically minded and Fate-experienced players running
military characters are going to demolish 3-cap NPCs in droves unless the
NPCs are extremely well coordinated (lots of maneuvers setting up free tags
on individuals) and have some advantage. As the referee you also want to
resist going easy on the PCs -- they can always escape (and lose!) by
concession and that, more often than not, creates a story twist that's great
fun. So push hard.

Going in to a fight I usually explain how I will manage NPC fate to get
agreement so no one feels they've had a trap sprung on them. Often I use a
single pool of fate points (like they were a platoon) rather than keep track
of fate points per NPC (1 per typically). This is simpler and avoids the
fact that PCs have a pool each but have to make it last through multiple
encounters, where NPCs are usually only in one scene.

Bottom line is, go with your gut and test it and tell us how it went!

-- 
Brad Murray (halfjack)
VSCA Publishing
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