Initial game discussion and expectations

Your high concept is a phrase that sums up what your character is about—who he is and what he does. It’s an aspect, one of the first and most important ones for your character.

Think of this aspect like your job, your role in life, or your calling—it’s what you’re good at, but it’s also a duty you have to deal with, and it’s constantly filled with problems of its own. That is to say, it comes with some good and some bad. There are a few different directions you can take this:

You could take the idea of "like your job" literally: Lead Detective, Knight of the Round, Low-level Thug.

You could throw on an adjective or other descriptor to further define the idea: Despicable Regent of Riverton, Reluctant Lead Detective, Ambitious Low-level Thug.

You could mash two jobs or roles together that most people would find odd: Wizard Private Eye, Singing Knight of the Round Table, Monster-slaying Accountant.

You could play off of an important relationship to your family or an organization you’re deeply involved with (especially if the family or organization are well-connected or well-known): Black Sheep of the Thompson Family, Low-level Thug for the Syndicate, Scar Triad’s Patsy in Riverton.

These aren’t the only ways to play with your high concept, but they’ll get you started. But don’t stress out over it—the worst thing you can do is make it into too big of a deal. You’ll come up with four other aspects after this one—you don’t have to get it all nailed right now.

In addition to a high concept, every character has some sort of trouble aspect that’s a part of his life and story. If your high concept is what or who your character is, your trouble is the answer to a simple question: what complicates your character’s existence?

Trouble brings chaos into a character’s life and drives him into interesting situations. Trouble aspects are broken up into two types: personal struggles and problematic relationships.

Personal struggles are about your darker side or impulses that are hard to control. If it’s something that your character might be tempted to do or unconsciously do at the worst possible moment, it’s this sort of trouble. Examples: Anger Management Issues, Sucker for a Pretty Face,The Bottle Calls to Me.

Problematic relationships are about people or organizations that make your life hard. It could be a group of people who hate your guts and want you to suffer, folks you work for that don’t make your job easy, or even your family or friends that too often get caught in the crossfire. Examples: Family Man, Debt to the Mob, The Scar Triad Wants Me Dead.

Your trouble shouldn’t be easy to solve. If it was, your character would have done that already, and that’s not interesting. But nor should it paralyze the character completely. If the trouble is constantly interfering with the character’s day-to-day life, he’s going to spend all his time dealing with it rather than other matters at hand. You shouldn’t have to deal with your trouble at every turn—unless that’s the core of one particular adventure in the story (and even then, that’s just one adventure).

Troubles also shouldn’t be directly related to your high concept—if you have Lead Detective, saying your trouble is The Criminal Underworld Hates Me is a dull trouble, because it is already assumed with your high concept. (Of course, you can turn that up a notch to make it personal, like Don Giovanni Personally Hates Me, to make it work.)

Before you go any further, talk with the GM about your character’s trouble. Make sure you’re both on the same page in terms of what it means. Both of you may want to find one way this aspect might be invoked or compelled to make sure you’re both seeing the same things—or to give each other ideas. The GM should come away from this conversation knowing what you want out of your trouble.

Fate Core

Default Skill List
Here is a basic list of example skills for you to use in your Fate games along with example stunts tied to each. They’re the ones being used for all the examples in this book, and should give you a good foundation from which to tweak your own lists, adding and subtracting skills as best fits your setting. For more on creating your own skills, see the Extras section.

Each skill description contains a list of game actions that you can use the skill for. This list is not necessarily exhaustive—see our guidelines for what to do with edge cases.

Skill Overcome Create an Advantage Attack Defend
Athletics X X X
Burglary X X
Contacts X X X
Crafts X X
Deceive X X X
Drive X X X
Empathy X X X
Fight X X X X
Investigate X X
Lore X X
Notice X X X
Physique X X X
Provoke X X X
Rapport X X X
Resources X X
Shoot X X X
Stealth X X X
Will X X X
Creating Setting With Skills
Skills are one of your primary mechanical ways to reinforce the setting you’re using or creating for your game. The skills provided in this list are deliberately generic so that they can be used in a variety of settings, and the stunts provided continue this trend by not being tied to any particular setting.

When you’re creating your own setting for use with Fate, you should also create your own skill list. The default list provided is a good starting point, but creating skills specific to your world can help make it seem richer by reinforcing the story with mechanics. Stunts, too, should reflect the kinds of abilities available in your world.

Fate Condensed

Academics: Mundane, everyday human knowledge and education, including history, sciences, and medicine. Academics stunts often refer to specialized areas of knowledge and medical skills.
Athletics: A measurement of physical potential. Athletics stunts focus on movement—running, jumping, parkour—and dodging attacks.
Burglary: Knowledge of and ability to bypass security systems, pick pockets, and generally commit crimes. Burglary stunts give bonuses to the various stages of committing a crime, from the planning to the execution and escape.
Contacts: Knowledge of the right people and connections that can help you. Contacts stunts give you ready allies and an information network wherever you go in the world.
Crafts: Ability to make or break machinery, build contraptions, and pull off MacGyver-esque feats of ingenuity. Crafts stunts let you have the gizmo on hand, give bonuses to building and breaking things, and provide justification for using Crafts in place of skills like Burglary or Academics under certain circumstances.
Deceive: Ability to lie and cheat convincingly and with aplomb. Deceive stunts might improve your ability to tell a particular breed of lie or help invent false identities.
Drive: Controlling vehicles under the most grueling circumstances, pulling wicked maneuvers, and simply getting the most out of your ride. Drive stunts can be signature maneuvers, a special vehicle of your own, or the ability to use Drive in place of a skill like Burglary or Academics under certain circumstances.
Empathy: Ability to accurately judge someone’s mood and intentions.
Empathy stunts can be about judging a crowd, picking up on lies, or helping others recover from mental consequences.
Fight: Ability to excel at hand-to-hand combat, whether with weapons or fists. Fight stunts include signature weapons and special techniques.
Investigate: Deliberate, careful study and puzzling out mysteries. Use this
to piece together clues or reconstruct a crime scene. Investigate stunts help
you form brilliant deductions or piece together information more quickly.
Lore: Specialized, arcane knowledge that falls outside of the scope of
Academics, including supernatural topics of one sort or another. This is
where the weird stuff happens. Lore stunts often support practical applications of your arcane knowledge, such as casting spells. Some settings may
remove Lore, replace it with a different skill, or combine it with Academics.
Notice: Ability to pick up details in the moment, spot trouble before it
happens, and generally be perceptive. It contrasts Investigate, which is for
slow, deliberate observation. Notice stunts sharpen your senses, improve
your reaction time, or make you harder to sneak up on.
Physique: Raw power and durability. Physique stunts let you perform super-human feats of strength, throw your weight around while wrestling, and
shrug off physical consequences. In addition, a high Physique rating gives
you more physical stress or consequence slots (page 12).
Provoke: Ability to push people to act the way you want them to. It’s coarse
and manipulative, not a positive interaction. Provoke stunts let you push
opponents into foolhardy action, draw aggression toward you, or scare
enemies (assuming they can feel fear).
Rapport: Building connections with others and working together. Where
Provoke is manipulation, Rapport is sincerity, trust, and goodwill. Rapport
stunts let you sway the crowd, improve relationships, or build contacts.
Resources: Access to material things, not just money or direct ownership. It
might reflect your ability to borrow from friends or dip into an organization’s armory. Resources stunts let you use Resources in place of Rapport
or Contacts or give you extra free invokes when you pay for the best.
Shoot: All forms of ranged combat, whether guns, throwing knives, or bow
and arrow. Shoot stunts let you make called shots, quickdraw, or always
have a gun handy.
Stealth: Staying unseen or unheard and escaping when you need to hide.
Stealth stunts let you vanish in plain sight, blend into crowds, or advance
through shadows unseen.
Will: Mental fortitude, the ability to overcome temptation and to withstand
trauma. Will stunts let you ignore mental consequences, withstand the
mental agony of strange powers, and hold steady against enemies who
provoke you. In addition, a high Will rating gives you more mental stress
or consequence slots.

ALTERNATIVE SKILL LISTS
The skill list above is an example of how skills can work in Fate, and is not
intended to be an "official" skill list that must be used every time you play.
It’s perfectly fine if you do want to use it, and it’s perfectly fine if you don’t.
Any given skill might cover different scopes of activity from one setting to
another. Customization is the point; fit your list to the story you want to see.
So with that in mind as you build your own implementation of Fate, the
first thing to think about is whether or not you’ll keep the same skill list.
Often you can work with the one given, combining, changing, or splitting
apart a few of the skills given. But it’s possible that the granularity of the
default example skill list we’ve given above isn’t to your liking.
.