Interest Check- FATE Arabian Nights

A FATE-based game of adventure set in a small Arabian city. We'd use FATE core with a few amendments:

-skills pyramid topping out at 4, 5 aspects and just 3 stunts at start
-limited advancement between adventures
-invocation of aspects limited to one, perhaps two each turn to prevent bonus bloat
-some other house rules relating to weapon damage and such

Premise
The City of Spires is a small but lovely city perched on a bay of the Azure Gulf. After a long period of upheaval, the city's rule has been restored to a legitimate young prince who seeks to govern wisely and fairly. The new ruler also seeks to rid the city of of the evils that have come to afflict it during its period of misrule. To assist him, he has assembled a semi-secret band of companions to hunt the sorcerers , vagabonds and monsters that afflict the prince's subjects. The band might include (as suggestions only--new ideas welcome!):
--the idealistic prince himself, perhaps in disguise
--a courageous exiled princess
--an awesome acrobat or juggler
--a street magician
--a man of might, a giant wrestler or such
--a (reformed) thief
--an agile dancer
--a physician
--a bedouin
--a master of weapons (falchions, scimitars and such)
--a humble but intrepid goatherd

There might also be one exotic member. Perhaps a :
--a Mongol/ Turkic steppe rider
--a sorcerer
--a fakir/yogi
--a transformed ape/ cat/ lion/ leopard (human changed into animal form by sorcery)
--a genie

Some expectations for the game would be:
-posting every other day, regularly and including weekends
-easy going application of FATE rules, not sweating the technicalities so much
-rounded character design, so everyone can fight, interact, solve puzzles
-shared responsibility for decision making, even (or especially) when decisions are hard or less exciting

If you are interested please let me know below --please include a character concept as well as an indication of interest. I still haven't mastered creating custom sheets (!) so if there are any recommendations for a template that'd be welcome.

When you mention Arabian Nights, does that mean the campaign is set in the place and times of the Achaemenid Empire (or a simplified expy thereof)?

Regarding the exotics, what are the jinn and sorcerers like in your vision of the setting, or rather, what are the boundaries of ideas within which players considering such concepts should put those concepts, in terms of unusual features (whether innate traits or learned sorcerous abilities)?

Always wanted to try FATE but never got a chance to do so and the idea of some Arabian Nights themed game has been living rent free in my head for a while now. But I do have the same questions as vicky.

I understand the AN tales to be a mash up of periods, probably harking mostly back to the Golden Age Abbasid period but with plenty of anachronisms. Including pre-Islamic folklore and a few items— coffee shops, gunpowder—that were introduced closer to the period of their translation. Like the Tales we can refer to major cities like Cairo, Baghdad, etc. but deliberately handwave the current Caliph’s name. Having said that, in a previous game I had some Turks , wild bowman steppe riders, as exotic mercenaries of the Caliph. So we can at least fix it as before the Ottoman period.

As for genies and sorcerers, I’m open to different presentations of their appearance (I imagine a genie to appear as an unusually handsome man or maid). But the key thing is not to make them overpowered in relation to the core, normie cast. A suggestion would be to use stunts for powers like changing form, brief invisibility or flight. A sorcerer might have greater flexibility in that they could learn new spells and do minor tricks at will, perhaps keyed to their Will skill. A genie would be immortal in that they would vanish , rather than die when grievously hurt. I’ll likely nerf powers in review that look too scary!

I hope the response above answers some of your questions. I do want a party balance that favours non-exotic characters, so that a genie or sorcerer appear genuinely magical. Also so we get more core tropes to centre the setting. But I guess we could stretch to a genie and a sorcerer, say…

I'm trying to understand the blend (or lack) of anachronisms in the cultural department. Is it more like the more multicultural-leaning Achaemenid-era mosaic, where there's a bunch of different peoples and religions coexisting with relatively little tension locally, and thus none of them is too exotic? Or is it closer to the Golden Age, and being, for example, a non-reverted Bedoiun, or fire-worshipper, or the like, is a valid social Trouble Aspect, and might make such concepts count as exotic?
Ah, Stunt-based powers. That's elegant and simple to understand. (I'm not quite sure how the Will-based spell-learning is meant to work, but Stunt-based gets more interest due to the clearity of what one gets.)

So i’d answer this by saying that the setting is not a specific period of history , but the fantastic milieu of the Tales of the Arabian Nights. The Tales do refer to other faiths, iirc one is called the Christian’s Tale or similar. Using the Tales as a test, a Persian zoroastrian magus might definitely exist as a character. Feared for a reputation of sorcery rather than their faith. But probably also admired for their Persian sophistication and such. Just keeping things light— religious friction isn’t a thing in the Tales cos Islam is ultimately just true, in the same way that Christianity is true in the (also highly anachronistic) Arthurian Tales.

I'm happy to see FATE getting some love, but this not a game for me

Huh? Why post in an interest thread that you are not interested?

Have you misunderstood something in my post about the game setting and think I'm promoting a religion? I'm actually trying to take religion out of the picture so we don't end up making it a feature of the game. It's just a great (the greatest of all fiction?) fantasy setting!

I am interested. I do not have a character idea yet, but she would be a "normie"

Great, thanks for the show of interest. No rush with the concept.

Hey, I have 0 knowledge of Fate, but am currently reading the Arabian Nights, so I'd certainly be interested. At first thought, I'd like to play a sage: a polymath that mostly studies astrology, medicine and philosophy; I'm torn between he being a local Arabian (maybe a court astrologer?) or either Persian/Greco-Roman.

It’s a great idea. I’d prefer the guy to be Arabian or Persian to stay close to the core of the setting. They can anyway have extensive knowledge of Greco-Roman and other scholarship and perhaps have studied in Athens or such.

Ok, here is my first base idea

High Concept: Illegitimate Princess raised in the shadows, as a rooftop runner

Trouble: The palace wants me forgotten — permanently

Sounds good obviously. Referring to the brief setting notes in the first post, the present city ruler is a good ‘un and potentially even a member of the party. So it would have to be a foreign ruler that wants rid of her. Perhaps a pretender in a nearby city who supplanted the princess’ family there.

I applaud you for setting up a FATE game. They are far and few between. :)

Why I'm not interested: I am game capacity, and the Arabian Nights theme has never really caught my interest. But I wish you a great game

Ok, thanks. The intention of the post was hard to read, but I appreciate the clarification and good wishes.

Here's an early idea/draft. What do you think of it?

----

A Harranian mercenary who gradually rose to become a leader of his own company, infamous for an uncanny quality: a trend of often being unaffected by horoscopes, prophecies, or events that are deemed to be destined, for good and ill. Ended up joining the prince's service because this offered a more comfortable life than going on another campaign.

ASPECTS:
HC: Destiny-Defying Mercenary Commander
T: For Frill and Fortune!
A3: Lightning Bruiser
A4: Master of Hearts and Minds
A5: ???

SKILLS:
+4: Athletics
+3: Fight, Rapport
+2: Empathy, Resources, ???
+1: Will, Physique, Stealth, Crafts

STUNTS:
Good Show!: When you show approval of a job well done, you encourage your allies to achieve greater success. Once per scene, if an ally successfully creates an advantage, you can grant another free invoke on the same aspect if you are close enough to issue encouragement or congratulations. This does not require an action.
Lie Whisperer: +2 to all Empathy rolls made to discern or discover lies, whether they’re directed at you or someone else.
???: ???

@vicky-moloch
Looks fun. I like the high concept and the distribution of skills. Looks like a swashbuckler character so that’s highly appropriate.

We just need the high concept and the trouble aspect to start with, as we’ll generate 3,4 and 5 using the core cooperative rules. I’m not sure what ‘for frill and fortune ‘ means exactly.

A strength is that he has some social skills alongside martial prowess.

I’ve no idea about Harranians as a group— do they have a distinctive look or style that makes them especially dashing?

Well not a swashbuckler - I have a swashbuckler already in another campaign, so this one will be different, less graceful, more brutish/crude than the swashbuckler archetype. Also, the Commander part of the HC is there to imply being part of the merc company, presumably working for the prince together.

Ah, so we're using Core edition. I wasn't entirely sure if it was Core or Condensed. I guess I might need to be ready for the Aspects to end up being not quite what I wanted initially.

Frill and Fortune means comfort/luxury and money, as a motivation.

I see, I think.

Maybe move Physique up to the +2 rank to convey hulkiness if he’s a bruiser?

If you ever played (or watched) Warrior Within or Tomb Raider, it gives a pretty good idea of the build: neither a brick nor an elf, but rather athletic, and also with a respectable upper body strength and especially good strength-to-weight ratio. With a combat style closer to the Prince from Warrior Within and rather unlike Adalia from En Garde.
Perhaps. Though IME Physique often ends up sitting there on the sheet gathering dust, so a lot of the time just taking an Aspect for it is enough.

To a degree, I was wondering whether to put Lore at +2 to represent being knowledgeable in such things as tactics, logistics, intelligence analysis, wilderness survival, and other military/mercenary knowledge.

----
Harranians are one of the groups that have retained followers of the old ways during the Abbasid Caliphate, even some among scholars in high places.

Ok so that’s looking good for now. We can finalise things if we get a large enough group of players to make the game viable.

Would you consider making this game public? I unfortunately don't have the time to join this, but since I dabbled in playing/GMing FATE myself I'm very interested in seeing how you handle it mechanically.

If not, then so be it. Either way I wish you all a fun game!

Sure, I’ll definitely think about it although I tend to play FATE pretty informally—I don’t claim to be an exemplary rules user. I used to play Spirit of the Century quite a bit when that the main FATE system. It had a few issues that required GMs to fudge strict application of the rules. That attitude has probably stuck!

I'd be interested if you have room for someone who is only passingly familiar with FATE. I have very much enjoyed other games you have run and I'm keen on the whole Arabian Nights theme. I'd like to play a swashbuckling master of the scimitar. As stated, I am only passingly familiar with FATE (I've read through the rules).

The discussion of rules does remind me:
This seems like a very significant change, with a singificant change on what character actions are incentivised, and it's a case where the exact wording, depending on certain details, produces very different effects/incentives. Is it limited to one Aspect or limited to one Invocation? And where do Boosts stand, since the system was always ambiguous/contradictory about whether Boosts are 'second-class Aspects' or their own thing, so it's unclear if they would be affected by the limitation?

I'll keep that in mind. I'm not looking for a perfect example anyway. Just curious to see another GM's take on it :)

I’m not sure about the wording of the question— what else might be invoked apart from aspects? The point of the limit is make sure that the invocation is really meaningful to the story or character and well described in the player post. Justifying an invoke is a key feature of the rules in every version of FATe, but it is hard to query a tenuous invoke in PbP without halting the game. A soft limit also helps less experienced players get started.

It’s not a hard rule. I wouldn’t stop a player making multiple invokes for a critical roll. Or when the action ramps up. But I want to start out with the expectation that player posts link invokes to really obviously relevant scene or character aspects.

I’ve no objection to additional use of boosts , since they are part of the core mechanic.

Aspects get Invoked. But the ambiguity is whether there would be a limitation of one Invocation used per roll, or one Aspect used per roll, as those produce different situations regarding the bonuses, and encourage not quite the same Stunt selection.
Ah, so Boosts are unaffected. Cool.

I'm interested in both Fate and the Arabian Nights mood, is there still a spot for a player?

Yes, definitely. we’re just getting started. Do you have a concept in mind? So far we potentially have an exiled princess roofrunner and a mercenary leader.

A dancer with two slender scimitars, and a tendency to hide and sneak when not dancing.

Sounds cool! So we are a bit closer to getting a game together. Ideally we’d have five to make safe start.

Sounds cool! So we are a bit closer to getting a game together. Ideally we’d have five to make safe start.

There's also the polymath and a master of the scimitar.

Actually, I'm wondering if given this party composition, I should reconsider my chosen concept, as we seem to be heavy on mêlée combatants.

Maybe it would be good to have a role call. Who’s still interested? We can spend a bit more time working up concepts, but it would be good to know who’s partly or fully on board.

I'm still interested in playing the swashbuckling scimitar master.

Yay! WhtKnt! It would be great to have you in the game.


(Oh, didn’t see your earlier post!)

Also still interested. I don't really have a character in mind yet, but I tend to gravitate towards scholarly or magical characters.

Great. That’s enough at this stage.

Actually, in light of this consideration, would it be reasonable for me to express curiosity about what trios of top Skills others are expecting to grab (based on ideas so far), and do we have the supernatural slot filled? Asking this because the answers are likely to influence whether I would like to stick to the previously posted concept, or shift to something different (and to what).

I just want the head count for now and folks haven’t even settled on their concepts yet. In the meantime, I’ve no objection to you keeping your options open as to an alternative character.

Maybe don’t sweat the technical stuff so much? It’s not going to be a game that requires optimisation in every area, just a bit of variety. It looks like most players will be new to FATE, so I just want players to pick ideas that just seem Arabian Nightsy and exciting.

This is indeed more about variety than optimisation. If there's three of us waving scimitars, that's probably less interesting than if there is a more varied distribution of who does what when in the spotlight.

That's the reason I'm considering other options, e.g. sorcerors, jinn, inventors, alchemists, viziers. I was indecisive between a tough warrior and a multidisciplinary sorceror, but ended up veering towards the former since Moyreau mention wanting a polymath, but at this point it seems swordfighters are the ones that ended up being overrepresented among candidate-concepts.

So yeah, keeping options open, and scouting out what others are likely to pick.

There are lots of options to fit the theme. I did have a first idea but am open to anything else.

Ok, just sent out some invitations. If you haven't been invited it's only because I haven't heard back from you recently. there is still a slot left!

I'm still interested, and my character idea is just that: an idea.

Sorry V, we couldn’t get the game together. I’ll close admissions.