FATEKit Rules Summary

The Ladder

Each effect is measured on the Ladder. Use it as a guideline for the description of what your character accomplishes.

Table 1: The Ladder

Tests and Rolls

Add 4dF, a Skill and bonuses from Stunts or Gear. The result is your Roll. You may adjust your Roll during a Test by Invoking Aspects, Taking Consequences, or Burning Gear.

Usually the Gamemaster will not use any dice. He is assumed to have rolled +0 in any case.

There are five types of Tests. Each test is used to determine the your effect by subtracting a value from your roll. Effect is measured in Shifts. If you come up with an Effect of +3 or more, you generate Spin: Take a Spin marker and use it for an +1 to a roll you have to make until the end of your next turn. Alternately, give it to another player to boost his roll by +1.

Optional rule (Fan Mail) There is always a pool of Spin markers on the table. Players may award them at any time to any player as they see fit.

Engage: Your Roll – Opposition's Roll/+0

Spend shifts to:

• Reduce time:         Each shift will reduce the amount of time necessary to complete your         task by one increment
• Increase or decrease quality: If you create something new, the number of shifts equals the quality and is measured on the ladder. For something existing, you may use the shifts to change the quality of something up to the number of shifts you generated.
• Take out an enemy: If an enemy fails to reduce your attack to +0, he is taken out. He can no longer participate in the running conflict and you describe what happens to him afterwards,

Defend: Your         Roll – Enemy's attack on yourself, or someone or something in your zone.

Shifts may generate Spin, but are otherwise of no use on a defensive test.

Create or remove an Aspect: Your Roll – Opposition's Roll/+0

You create or remove a transitional Aspect on a zone, a scene or a character. A new aspect can be invoked freely once. If you come up with at least three Shifts, you not only generate Spin, but the Aspect you created is also Sticky.

Block an action: Your Roll

Choose an action. Everyone performing this action up to your next turn most overcome at least your number of shifts to succeed.

Aspects and FATE points

There are four ways to bring Aspects and FATE points into play:

1. You may spend a FATE point to declare a fact. This must be motivated through one of the Aspects of your character and any other player may veto this.
2. You may spend a FATE point to compel an Aspect. Outside conflict, this limits the choice of actions of another character. In conflict, this means the compelled character         has to skip his/her next turn.
3. If you are being compelled, you may hand the compelling player a FATE point to resist the compel.
4. You may spend a FATE point to invoke an Aspect. You either re-roll your Fudge dice or gain a +2 bonus to your Roll. If the Aspect used was created by a an Create an Aspect         roll and was neither invoked nor compelled before, you don't need to spend a FATE point to do so. This is called a free invoke.

On each turn, you may use any aspect only once. If a player compels another player character, this player receives the FATE point immediately. If a player invokes an Aspect in a test vs. another player character, the latter one receives the FATE point at the end of the conflict.

Each player starts the game with a number of FATE points equal to his character's refresh. The Gamemaster has an unlimited supply of FATE points.

Aspects come in three different flavors. Permanent Aspect (like the aspects on your character sheet) are always available. Sticky Aspects are available for one scene or conflict. Transitional aspects may only be invoked or compelled once and go away afterwards.

Time

The Gamemaster will decide how long an arbitrary task will take. You may choose to use shifts generated in a test to decrease this the time. Failed rolls will increase the time in the same manner.

Table 2: Time increments

Skills

The number and type of Skills available to the characters depends on the game played. Each Skill provides a number of Trappings describing the most common (but not the only) tasks possible to perform with a skill.

Some skills also have special effects:

• Attack: This skill may be used for a         direct way of attacking an opponent.
• Defend: This skill may be used to defend against a certain type of attack.
• Initiative: This skill is used for initiative rolls in a specific type of conflict.
• Additional consequences: This skill will provide the character with additional consequences which may be used to defend against attacks of a specific type.         
• Resource: Some skills represent resources you may use to buy gear.

Stunts may provide the character's Skills with additional Trappings.

Stunts

Stunts are used to provide the character with additional Skill Trappings, roll bonuses that apply in highly specific circumstances.

Stunts are paid by spending your character's Refresh. Usually each point of Refresh provides you with one of the following stunt bonuses:

• Provide a Skill with an additional Trapping. Often, you also get a +1 bonus on rolls involving this Trapping under specific circumstances.
• An additional mild consequence.
• A +1 bonus to specific attack or defense tests.
• A +1 bonus to a wider range of Trappings of a single Skill or to some specific Trappings of two different Skills.
• A +2 bonus to a specific use of a Skill's Trapping.
• Allow you to spend a FATE point for a special effect.

Some stunts are also used to represent magic or psychic potential, anatomical anomalies and other things that don't provide a game-mechanical effect. These stunts primarily depend on the specific type of game played.

Some stunts may also provide your character with additional Aspects that may be invoked or compelled in the usual way.

Conflict

Each conflict has type (physical, mental, social, magical/astral, virtual reality,...). Actions are concentrated on the type of the conflict, but are not limited to them. Also, the type of a conflict may change during its course (e.g. often a social conflict may turn into a physical one).

At the beginning of a conflict, each participant determines his Initiative with an Engage test vs. +0. The Skill used for this depends on the type of the conflict.

Conflict is always played on a map subdivided into zones. Between zones, Barriers may exist or be erected which hinder movement and other actions crossing zone borders.

Conflict is resolved in Turns. Characters will act in order of their Initiative. In each turn, a character may perform one of the following actions. As long as you do not perform a move action, you may also move a single zone, but not across Barriers.

1. Move:         Make an Engage test vs. +0. The number of shifts is the number of zones you may move. Reduce the number of shifts by any barriers you have to cross during this movement.
2. Move another: Make an Engage test vs. +2/opponent you try to move. Shifts may be used         the same way as in the move action, but will effect the person you are moving. You may decide to accompany the person you're moving as part of this action.
3. Attack: Make an Engage test vs. an enemy in attempt to take him out.
4. Extended Defense: You may not only make Defense tests to defend yourself, but also to defend someone or something in your zone.         
5. Erect or destroy a Barrier:         Make an Engage test vs. Barrier strength/+0. Shifts can be used to increase or decrease the Barrier's value.
6. Maneuver: Make a Create an Aspect test.
7. Block: Make a Block test.

Before performing an action, any other player may decide to compel you. If you accept the FATE point for the compel, your action won't take place and you are forced to skip this turn.

Attacks and being taken out

Each attack action is countered by a defense roll. If you fail to defend against an attack (which means the attack generates at least one shift), you are taken out. You may no longer take part in the conflict and the attacker decides what is happening to you after the conflict.

You have several ways to boost your defense to avoid such a fate.

• Invoke an aspect. This allows you to re-roll         or gain a +2 bonus.
• Burn a         piece of equipment. This also provides you with a +2 bonus and will destroy that piece of gear. Some gear comes with special burn stunts that will increase this bonus significantly under certain circumstances.
• Take a consequence. You may take a consequence which may give you a +2, +4, +6, or even a +8 bonus. The attacker will choose an aspect you'll have to take as a         consequence. This aspect may be free-invoked once.

Consequences

Each character has at least three consequences that can be used in any defense roll. One Mild consequence providing a +2 bonus, one Moderate (+4), and one Severe (+6) consequence. Player characters also get a n Extreme consequence for a +8 bonus.

Certain Skills may provide you with additional consequences that can only be used against certain attacks. Stunts may also give you additional consequences.

Giving in

Instead of making a defense roll, you may decide to give in. This also removes your character from the conflict, but on your terms (which nevertheless need to be accepted by the attacker).

Healing

Consequences may be engaged with an appropriate Skill and be removed that way. If you succeed with at least one shift, you'll successfully remove the consequence. The Gamemaster will decide the amount of time that is necessary to remove a consequence.

Often, these rolls may represent long-term healing performed between scenarios. In such a case, it is at the players discretion whether a roll is necessary or can be just assumed to have been successful.

If you fail to engage a consequence, it's value is bumped up to the next severity. So a Mild consequence becomes Moderate, and so on.

During a conflict, you may only attempt to heal Mild consequences.

Extreme consequences cannot be removed by conventional means. In addition, each extreme consequence will remove an existing Aspect of your character and exchange it for another one, depending on the nature of the consequence.

Gear

Only exceptional gear (which equals gear with mechanical effects) is noted for characters. They are otherwise assumed to be in possession of everything else they need for their jobs.

Like characters, each piece of gear may have stunts and aspects. The gear stunts define the cost of an individual piece of equipment which is relevant when acquiring gear.

To build a piece of equipment, first provide it with one or more stunts. In addition to the stunt types available to characters, gear may also gain stunts with the following effects:

• Range: Normally a piece of equipment has a range of 0 or 1 zones. With a range stunt, the range may be increased by two zones.        
• Burn stunt: Normally burning a piece of gear will provide you with a one-time +2 bonus. With a burn stunt, this is increased to +4 under specific circumstances.
• Area effect: A test involving this piece of gear will take effect on every target in zone. This usually costs a FATE point to activate.
• Special effects which are normally triggered by spending a FATE point may also be triggered by burning the piece of equipment.

Add up the number of stunts to determine the Cost of your equipment. Each piece of gear may also come with an Aspect. Expensive gear (Cost +3) may get a second Aspect, very expensive pieces (Cost +5) may even get a third one.

Acquiring gear

After creating a character, you are allowed to buy some gear. Add up the Skill levels of all your resource skills. You will gain equipment with an overall cost equal to that.

In game, you need actually need to acquire gear. Decide what you want to buy and determine its cost. Afterwards defend yourself using an appropriate resource skill against an attack performed by the cost of your gear. After deciding to get something valuable, you can't back down. If your defense is too low, you may need to burn other gear (selling it) or take social or economical consequences (getting into someones debt).

If you try to regain some piece of equipment you burned before (s.d.), you may also try to repair it. This is mechanically equivalent to the above, but instead of a resource Skill you are allowed to use a suitable repair Trapping.

Burning gear

On any roll, you may burn a piece of equipment. This provides you with +2 bonus and effectively renders this particular piece of equipment useless. It was either destroyed or spend. You need to buy it again or repair it to use it's benefits again.

Experience

After each session, you may either

• change on of your aspects         
• exchange two skills on neighboring levels.         

After the end of each scenario, choose one of the following:

• Increase your Refresh by 1
• Gain a new Skill on +1         
• Increase an existing Skill by +1