Fatestream

These rules are more or less a customized version of Spirit of the Century (http://www.faterpg.com/dl/sotc-srd.html). You shouldn't need to refer to the full rules, but they could be a useful source of ideas if you have some extra time.

Joining the Game

 * 1) Read this guide in full.
 * 2) Get a copy of Mumble. Even if you don't have a microphone (and thus can't speak), Mumble is required so you can hear what everyone else says, without the Livestream delay.
 * 3) Enter the Mumble on egg.narc.ro.
 * 4) Put Mumble on push-to-talk.
 * 5) Enter the Fatestream room. If you can't join the room, you haven't finished step 1.

World Creation
A world is defined by its position on three dichotomies, combined with a thematic description that ties them together. Each dichotomy here has been described by the two extremes and the middle, but any position is possible.

Dichotomy 1: Magic vs Mundane A fully-Magic world is filled with people who light their homes with glowing spheres, fight wars primarily with fireballs, and summon food instead of growing it. A fully-Mundane world has no magic at all. An equal balance gives everyone ready access to magic, provided they can afford it.

Dichotomy 2: Science vs Nature A fully-Science world is filled with people who light their homes with electricity, spend their free time in virtual reality, fight wars with remotely-controlled machines, have no idea where their food comes from, and are thinking about taking a vacation on a paradise planet a few light-years away. A fully-Nature world thinks that "fire" is a gimmicky new invention that probably won't catch on. An equal balance yields a society in the midst of the industrial revolution, with lots of steam power.

Dichotomy 3: Silly vs Straight In a fully-Silly world, the proper greeting for meeting the King of Bananapeel is to slip a whoopee cushion onto his chair while he isn't looking. In a fully-Straight world, saying the wrong thing to His Royal Eminence James III will probably get your head cut off. An equal balance means that straight role-play and outright silliness are both perfectly acceptable.

Character Creation
The first thing you need is a character idea. Who are you, why are you interesting, and what can you do? SotC has a good list of archetypes to get you started, but feel free to come up with your own idea from scratch.

Next, give your character a name. If you need help, ask.

Third, give your character a few defining traits (10 or less; 3+ is recommended). These should be (fairly) short, pithy, and very descriptive. Examples include: Five-fingered Discount Shopper, "And if anybody asks, I was never here.", Master Yaku's Prize Student, and "He had a face even a mother couldn't love." (SotC calls these "Aspects"; they will be very important.)

Fourth, give yourself a few skills. You can have up to 1 skill at Superb, 2 at Great, 3 at Good, 4 at Fair, and 5 at Average. You'll be Mediocre at everything else. There are no limits to your choice of skills, though you should pick ones relevant to your character and the world. The more specifically a skill applies to the situation, the easier it is to use. If you're trying to tune a guitar, Musician is okay, Guitarist is good, Guitar Tuning is perfect, and you could stretch Piano Tuning to be okay as well. I strongly suggest that you have at least one skill listed at each level.

Basic Play
Your main objective is not to win, nor even to survive. This is roleplaying, so your main goal in playing is to play your role. Don't try to find the perfect action for a situation, look for the one that your character would do. That one is always the best choice.

Plot Points
You can affect the world by using your Plot points. (SotC calls them "Fate points") You start with as many Plot points as you have character traits. You may spend a Plot point to provide some detail that has not been specified yet. If your detail is rejected, you get the point back. If your detail is related to one of your character traits, you have more freedom in the detail you choose.

For instance, with no matching trait, you might spend a point to say that "The police officer on the corner is someone I've met." If, however, you have Friends in the Force, you might say that the policeman is "Jeff, who plays cards with me on Saturdays." Or if you have an Extended Family, the policeman might be "My third cousin on my mother's side... I think his name is Steve."

If one of your character traits will harm you in a situation, you will be awarded a Plot point. You may resist the harmful effect, but it will cost you a Plot point instead. In rare situations, two or even three Plot points may be given as counteroffers, requiring a second/third Plot point to be spent if they are rejected.

If you've made it this far, congratulations! You can now join us in Mumble by adding "I made it!" to your access tokens. You should still read the rest, though, because it's important.

Skill Checks
Sometimes, your choice of action is not guaranteed to succeed. In this situation, a skill check will be called. You have two options: Pick another action (if possible), or pick a relevant skill (you may permanently add a new one to your skill list, if you feel you should have it). If you pick a skill, two six-sided dice will be rolled, and the number on the second subtracted from the first. This will give you a number between 5 and -5.

If you're not happy with the result and you have at least one relevant character trait, you may spend a Plot point to reroll it entirely. (Generally, it's only worth rerolling -2 or worse.) You may repeat this for each relevant character trait. Before the roll, you can choose to spend one or more Plot points to add a +1 (each) to the resulting roll.

The final dice roll will be added to your skill using SotC's ladder. If the final result is at least the difficulty level of the action (after considering the skill's relevancy), your action succeeds.

Combat
At the start of combat, you must pick two relevant skills: one for attacking, and one for defending. Each character attacks in turn, and the attacker rolls a skill check against [defender's skill - 2]. If the defender matches or beats the attacker, nothing happens. If the attacker beats the defender, however, a wound is inflicted. The difference between their results is the severity of the wound.

Each character can take up to 5 wounds safely, but the five "slots" are not equal. The first slot can only take a wound with severity 1. The second slot can take a wound of severity 1 or 2, and so on. Thus, if a character has a health bar that looks like this:

_ X _ _ X

They have taken two wounds, with severities 2 and 5. If they take a severity 1 wound, it will look like this:

X X _ _ X

A severity 2 wound would "roll up" and take the severity 3 slot:

_ X X _ X

And a severity 5 wound would roll all the way off the end, knocking the character out of combat.

Rest
When a character has a chance to rest, they heal all of their wounds and regain Plot points, up to their number of character traits. If they already have at least that many Plot points, they gain no extra, but get to keep any that they already have.

Current Setting

 * Fatestream/Kingdom of Yvonne
 * Fatestream/Yvonne-a-railway