INTRODUCTION
Fate Of Heroes is an hack of Fate Accelerated,
suited to play the role of adventurers forced to
become heroes to fight some dark evil threat.
The game is built on the foundation of Fate
Accelerated (an Evil Hat product), with several
influences also from Apocalypse World (by
Vincent Baker).
You play to:
* Do amazing things, live incredible
adventures
* See the characters struggle, together, for a
greater good
* Explore and discover within the Eternal City
and the wild outer regions
CONTENT
Fate Of Heroes contains:
1- A brief introduction to the setting
2- A set of short rules for players and GM
3- Additional instructions for the GM to run
the game
4- A series of playbooks for the players -
basically predefined characters templates
SETUP
To play, you will need a group of 3 or 4
players taking characters and one additional
player acting as the GM for the game.
As game-prep you should print:
* Reasonably, this introduction as reference
for the setting
* A copy of every playbook, including the
rules summary
* Print or have available all the GMing Guide,
and print the Session Sheet
* A pair of D6 of different colors (i.e. one
black and one white) for every player and for
the GM
* Enough tokens to track fate points
CREDITS
This work is based on Fate Core System and
Fate Accelerated Edition (found at
http://www.faterpg.com/), products of
Evil Hat Productions, LLC, developed,
authored, and edited by Leonard Balsera,
Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin,
Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda
Valentine, Fred Hicks, and Rob Donoghue,
and licensed for our use under the Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Additional credits is due to:
* AW (Apocalypse World) by Vincent Baker
* Dungeon World by LaTorra and Koebel
* Adventure World by Colter Hanna
* Heartbreaker AW (AW hack)
* Stonetop (DW hack)
Additional credit, for their interesting
conversations about design, goes to:
* Raminghi (an Italian RPG community)
* The Story-Games forum
ARTWORK
The Artwork is by Dwayne Scott, who was so
kind to let me use his sketches here. You can
see more of his work on DeviantArt here:
http://ruecalintz.deviantart.com/
VERSION
This is version 0.1.
AUTHOR: DAIMON GAMES
website: www.daimongames.com
email: davide.pignedoli@gmail.com
Art: an Inquisitor of the Church of the Circle
HOW TO USE THESE DOCUMENTS: both the
GM and the players should read the first
document (this one).
It provides the basic information with regard
to the setting and it helps to set the tone for
the game, which is somehow a dark fantasy,
with a touch of epic in it.
Besides this introductory document, the game
contains:
* RULES: a rather complete set of light rules,
necessary to resolve actions and conflicts.
These are based on Fate Accelerated and both
GM and players should read these pages
* GMING GUIDE: a series of advice, rules and
mechanics for the GM to run the game at its
full potential. Some of it is just (hopefully)
good advice, some of it is prescriptive rules, so
this is not optional for the GM to read (no “I
know how to GM already” is allowed)
* A SERIES OF PLAYBOOKS: these are
basically the characters sheets, but more
importantly, each one represents an archetype.
You should have only one in play for each type.
Each playbook contains a page (front and rear)
with the character creation instructions
(they’re slightly different for each playbook),
and then the character sheet itself to be filled
by the player at the start and maintained
during the game
THE AVAILABLE PLAYBOOKS are the
following:
* The Hero
* The Sage
* The Guardian
* The Rogue
* The Ranger
Before discussing the playbooks, consider this:
This game is about FIGHTING SOME EVIL
that threatens the characters, or who they love,
or the place they live in, or the Eternal City or
the Seven Nations and so on. This game is the
story of some dark, obscure threat, and of the
heroes that have set on a journey, on a mission
to defeat it.
This will be the focus of the first adventures,
which can last only a few sessions, or an entire
campaign if you feel like it. Once the dark
threat will be defeated, or somehow
neutralized - for good or maybe just for a
while - you can spin the game in other
directions.
But start with this, with a dark threat.
THE HERO is the core playbook. It is not the
main character, all characters are somehow
equal, but this is the one that contains the
sparkle of the adventures of your first sessions.
The hero, in fact, is called to a great destiny -
or a terrible death - as they will face the dark
threat that has put your story in motion.
THE WISE is the first, natural companion for
the hero. They are about reaching and finding
the hero, and drawing them out of their
natural place, to aim them to a greater good.
The wise knows more than others about the
dark threat, and will be there to guide, support
and sustain others of the group.
THE GUARDIAN is the one in charge of the
safety of the hero. Willing or not, knowingly or
not, the guardian is the last, most solid shield
between the hero and a horrible death. This
role might require some spirit of sacrifice, but
as long as the hero is safe, there’s little in this
world that can oppose the guardian with the
sword in hand.
booklet 1
THE ROGUE definitely had other plans, rather
than embark on this adventure, but here they
are nevertheless. Pushed by necessity, by bad
luck or by an unwise curiosity and perhaps a
well hidden sense of friendship, the rogue is
part of the group as anyone else. Although
they seem to care more of their own well being
than the salvation of the world.
THE RANGER is the guide of the group in the
Wild and in any unknown territory; they are a
seasoned veteran of traveling and exploring,
and can provide useful connections and advice
in any territory outside the Eternal City.
LICENSE
Released under the Creative Commons license:
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
PRINT
TO PRINT THIS MANUAL, you will need paper
in A4 size, and as you will notice, every single
chapter is laid out to be printed front and rear,
on a single sheet of paper.
You can then fold along the lines, and every
chapter will present as a handy booklet.
Fate™ is a trademark of Evil Hat Productions,
LLC. The Powered by Fate logo is © Evil Hat
Productions, LLC and is used with permission.
Fate Of Heroes provides the GM and players
with a basic setup for the setting. A lot is
going to be left to the imagination of the GM
and players, but there are a few basic points
that are assumed to remain fixed in this game.
THE ETERNAL CITY is an immense ring of
buildings, of incredible size, spanning the
length of nations, across the continent, and
surrounded by a tall and solid wall. It’s a
magical and dark place; a place of power and
mystery, of sorcery, death and treasures.
Within the ring of the Eternal City is the vast
INNER SEA, and in the middle, the SILVER
DRAGON ISLANDS; the unpopulated areas of
the City and the Islands are the favorite
destination for adventurers and looters seeking
treasures. A few, very few portions of the
Eternal City have been colonized by humans.
Life in these small areas is relatively safe and
comfortable compared to other places.
But TO BECOME A CITIZEN, one must pay a
very high admission fee and then pay regular
taxes to the local rulers. For this reason, most
of the common folks living in the Eternal City
are sponsored by someone rich, and repay with
labor. A small, affordable tax gives the right to
enter such areas, and reside for a short time,
for example for travel or business. The few
ports connecting the mainland with the Silver
Dragon Islands for example require the
payment of such taxes, except for the Free Port
of the Northern Gate. The Eternal City is built
of solid stone and its roots are lost in the
legends of the ancient times.
Its most precious treasure is TRUE GOLD: a
precious and magic material, which can be
charged by sunlight or heat, and release its
power controlled by wizards, fueling sorcery. It
exists apparently only in the Eternal City.
Art: a guard of the Inquisition, of the Church of the Cross
THE SEVEN NATIONS are the seven groups of
humans with enough culture, identity,
resources, organization and power to be
recognized as more than simple settlements.
All seven of them are distributed to the EAST
of the Eternal City; some have their capital or
an important city within the Eternal City itself,
some have no access to the Eternal City unless
through wild land or another nation’s land.
Tales and legends of what lies north, south and
west of the Eternal City are countless; people
who really visited those far lands, none - which
we know of.
Each of the Seven Nations is organized in a
different way, but some factions reach beyond
the borders of the single nation, thus their
machinations for power extend all through the
eastern territories. The most powerful of such
powers are, of course, religions and noble
families.
THE CHURCH OF THE CIRCLE maintains
the most common religion among the
regular folks; its faith is based on a rather
simple preaching of concepts such as
silence, acceptance of the status quo,
and deference to power. The Circle
recognizes several minor deities - such
as for Birth, Arts, Family, - the cult of
the ancestors, and a nameless,
fundamentally kind, ancient Creator.
THE CHURCH OF THE CROSS on the
other hand is more common among
nobles and wizards and people of
power. It preaches of the supremacy of
the single exceptional individuals seeking
power to glorify their gods. The Cross also
venerates several different deities - such as for
War, Wisdom, Death, and so on. There is no
single creator, but a pantheon of gods in
struggle for power - although the Creator of
the Circle is considered one among other gods.
THE INQUISITION is a body of both the
Church of the Circle and the Cross. It serves as
religious arbiter among disputes between
different bodies of the clergy, and as such it
should be as neutral, in principle. The fact is,
the Inquisition is rules by secular powers,
greed and personal goals more than any other
religious order.
It is composed by clerics - usually with leading
ranks - and many soldiers and guards and even
mercenaries, assigned to more mundane or
violent tasks.
Clerics of the Inquisition often - and soldiers
always - wear a metal mask ornate with
colorful feathers. Feathers are useful to
distinguish the rank within the Inquisition.
By tradition, the Inquisition is the only military
force allowed within the Eternal City, although
violations of this principle are countless, but
usually kept of a low profile.
SEVERAL NOBLE FAMILIES have gathered a
great deal of power, through the centuries. In
some of the Seven Nations these families rule
directly through monarchy or noble councils,
in other nations they maybe just control
enough wealth to strongly influence whatever
the local power is.
Their main occupation is to plot, scheme and
struggle to gather more and more power, be it
economical, military, or else. While the power
balance swings in favor of the Inquisition
within the Eternal City and close to it, in more
remote regions these noble families are the
only recognizable power.
All the families extend their family branches
beyond the borders of a single nation, and the
most ancient, most powerful of them, can
count on having some member in a position of
power basically in every single important
palace of each one of the Seven Nations.
THE WILD is technically any territory outside
of the ring of the Eternal City. In practice, the
civilization brought by the work of the Seven
Nations, establishing new villages and cities,
building roads and bridges, has pushed the
limit of the Wild further far.
The Wild is dangerous and unwelcoming to
humans, although there are rare settlements of
those who are unwelcome in the Seven Nations
or simply live out there because that’s all they
know. Some might even know nothing of the
Eternal City, of religion, and so on.
The Wild is the land for outlaws, and for those
who are desperate, or seeking a shortcut to
glory, wealth - or death.
Out in the Wild life is hard, but not less
interesting than within the great wall of the
Eternal City or in the Seven Nations. In The
Wild, though, humans are not alone.
THERE ARE DWARFS - shorter and tougher
than humans, living in caves or villages in the
mountain or sometimes in the ancient ruins of
abandoned cities. They are great engineers and
workers, but their avidity is legendary and
rivalry between various clans is ferocious.
They are often at war against humans: they
love True Gold and will not miss the
opportunity to put their hands on it.
Occasionally, they will even raid the Eternal
City to loot True Gold, although they make
sure to do it far from where the Inquisition
stands guard. Both the Circle and the Cross in
fact consider dwarfs somehow less than
humans, and sometimes even mount crusades
to go fight them in their territories.
When they capture humans they often keep
them as slaves, and interspecies breeding with
humans is possible. Half-dwarfs look almost
like dwarfs and are rejected by humans, so
they usually remain within the dwarfs ranks.
booklet 2
THEN THERE ARE ELFS - slender and with
feline eyes, of merciless spirit and hot
temperament. Elfs were in the past the
greatest wizards and possibly among the
founders of the Eternal City.
Now they live in the Wild, in savage tribes, and
they commune with the spirit of the Wild, with
animals and monsters. With shadows. They
worship the furious elements and the great
beasts of the Wild, but without a real religious
sentiment; more as a symbol of their
acceptance of their place in the ranks of the
creatures of the Wild.
They still use magic, but usually refuse to use
True Gold. Instead, they fear not to use
BLOOD MAGIC, and WICKED SILVER.
Their lives are longer than those of the
humans, and even of the dwarfs - which often
can last a couple of centuries. But they are
mortal, indeed, and an angry lot and most of
them die in battle before the time.
THEY CANNOT PROCREATE, so they need to
steal human babies and turn them into Elfs
with their magic, to keep their race growing in
numbers.
MONSTERS and other wild creatures are not
rare once you travel far enough from the
Eternal City or the Seven Nations. The farther
you travel, the more you can expect to witness
terrible prodigies. The wizards, the Inquisition
and the nobles all fight to keep the Seven
Nations and the Eternal City safe, but once
you’re out there, you better have weapons.
Traveling in the night is especially dangerous,
because of the SHADOWS: they are dark
spirits - perhaps the spirits of those who died
serving the Wild, of those cursed by Wicked
Silver, that hunt for human flesh, and souls.
Even Dwarfs and Elfs fear the wild monsters,
and monsters fear the Shadows.