Game design bug bites agan
Why am I compelled to combine Fate with D&D4e? I suppose there are a few similarities. Neither system is what you would call "rules light," and both have a refreshing disdain for "realism." But the way two games use that crunch could not be further apart. D&D revels in its wargame roots more than ever before. Fate is cutting edge in the way it actively encourages role playing.
Now I have two pet projects I'm playing with, and both of them use Fate. One is my ongoing, ever-changing D&D tribute. I called it Evil Empire, then Orc Power for a while, and now Cursed World. (Not sure I like the name "cursed world.") I'm taking bits and pieces from any edition of D&D I can lay hands on. Like I said in my review, there are some excellent innovations there.
My other project is The Gift, a superhero game, with an original setting. I had this one mostly on the back burner, until Fred Hicks (Fate co-designer; drivingblind) made a blog post about supers RPGs. He suggested that supers need crunchier combat, more like D&D4's rocking, wargamish combat system. This makes all kind of sense, re-ignited my interest in The Gift.
There are bits of D&D4 that can be transfered directly to a supers game. The at-will, encounter, daily division would work nicely in a super milieu. More importantly, nearly all 4e powers have a side effect in addition to dealing damage. This would work nicely nicely with the damage system I was pondering for Gift. The system didn't distinguish much between big hits and little ones, so the idea of varying side effects would make combat more interesting.
I don't need these distractions. I have a web page to design, and I promised to run Ironclaw for some of my furry friends. But the game design bug will not be ignored.
Now I have two pet projects I'm playing with, and both of them use Fate. One is my ongoing, ever-changing D&D tribute. I called it Evil Empire, then Orc Power for a while, and now Cursed World. (Not sure I like the name "cursed world.") I'm taking bits and pieces from any edition of D&D I can lay hands on. Like I said in my review, there are some excellent innovations there.
My other project is The Gift, a superhero game, with an original setting. I had this one mostly on the back burner, until Fred Hicks (Fate co-designer; drivingblind) made a blog post about supers RPGs. He suggested that supers need crunchier combat, more like D&D4's rocking, wargamish combat system. This makes all kind of sense, re-ignited my interest in The Gift.
There are bits of D&D4 that can be transfered directly to a supers game. The at-will, encounter, daily division would work nicely in a super milieu. More importantly, nearly all 4e powers have a side effect in addition to dealing damage. This would work nicely nicely with the damage system I was pondering for Gift. The system didn't distinguish much between big hits and little ones, so the idea of varying side effects would make combat more interesting.
I don't need these distractions. I have a web page to design, and I promised to run Ironclaw for some of my furry friends. But the game design bug will not be ignored.