Is Icons considered a FATE game and if not why not? Does it fall under the FATE licensing purview?

Quote from: Biscuitician;989242Is Icons considered a FATE game and if not why not? Does it fall under the FATE licensing purview?

This is their section 15

QuoteOpen Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Fudge System Reference Document Copyright 2005, Grey Ghost Press, Inc.; Authors Steffan O'Sullivan and Ann Dupuis, with additional material by Peter Bonney, Deird'Re Brooks, Reimer Behrends, Shawn Garbett, Steven Hammond, Ed Heil, Barnard Hsiung, Sedge Lewis, Gordon McCormick, Kent Matthewson, Peter Mikelsons, Anthony Roberson, Andy Skinner, Stephan Szabo, John Ughrin, Dmitri Zagiduin.
FATE (Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment), Copyright 2003 by Evil Hat Productions, LCC; Authors Robert Donoghue and Fred Hicks.
Spirit of the Century, Copyright 2006, Evil Hat Productions, LLC. Authors Robert Donoghue, Fred Hicks, and Leonard Balsera.
Icons, Copyright 2010, Steve Kenson, published by Adamant Entertainment in partnership with Cubicle Seven Entertainment, Ltd.
Icons Team-Up, Copyright 2013, Adamant Entertainment, Authors Steve Kenson, G.M. Skarka, and Morgan Davie.
Icons: The Assembled Edition, Copyright 2014, Ad Infinitum Adventures; Author: Steve Kenson.

Looks like it based on the 2003 version of Fate, the 2005 version of Fudge, and the 2006 version of Spirit of the Century as far as use of Open Content.

As for being considered a Fate Game unless they opt to use the compatibility license it not a consideration for them.

Company that release open content have two components, one is the system reference document of open content you can use. The other is a separate trademark license with its own conditions. The use of the SRD is not dependent on use of the Trademark. However by using the OGL you agree not claim compatibility with any trademarks for your products. I don't see any mention of Fate in Icons marketing so they are good on that.

The author only ever describes ICONS as "Fate inspired" and the books does not refer to itself as a version of Fate. So technically I guess the answer is no.

Then again who really cares about "technically"?

What is perhaps more significant is the consolidation in the Fate-sphere. If you go back 6-7 years or so there was a virtual explosion of Fate variants mostly by third parties many of which push the system in very different directions, Strands of Fate being probably one of the most radically different Fate variants. In that sort of environment ICONS could have justifiably been thought of a another Fate variant.

Since then Evil Hat have manged to get regain control of the brand so to speak, and when talking about Fate it generally assumed it is either Core or Accelerated.

The main area where ICONS draws inspiration from Fate is in how it treats Qualities/Determination Points (its version of Aspects/Fate Points). It varies from vanilla Fate in a variety of ways: the stats and specialties used are quite different from Fate's skills, there is an HP-like system rather than stress and Aspects, and the 2d6 resolution mechanic is a bit different from that used with Fudge dice.

So, Fate certainly provided ideas for ICONS but it was only one source. There's just as much or even more FASERIP in there than Fate, for example.

It's not just a FATE game, it's the best FATE game.

One of the only modern Superhero games that I actually like...

The Assembled edition isn't very FATE like.

It's not Fate at all really - fixed attributes, random generators etc - but Fate may still have been an influence in parts.

It's a shame about the art direction though.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;989922It's not Fate at all really - fixed attributes, random generators etc - but Fate may still have been an influence in parts.

I'll believe influence.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;989922It's a shame about the art direction though.

Honestly, I've seen worse.  It's consistent at least, which is more than I can say for some other games.

Admittedly, the art direction (if it can be even called that) in Champions Complete is awful. They did at least have a good layout in 6th edition though.

The thing is that the supers genre is so obviously tied to the comic industry that the visual representation of the game is really important to get right I think.

The art could be worse.  It could be the art from Blood of Heroes.

I don't really mind the art. It's consistent, and it's perfectly fine for something like The Tick. If you want to do something darker or more mature, then there's plenty of other sources of inspiration out there.

Quote from: Celestial;989949The art could be worse.  It could be the art from Blood of Heroes.

Or the setting itself...yeah, that was like they deliberately attempted to outdo everything bad about 1990s super hero comics and then dialed it up to 11...

Quote from: TrippyHippy;989922It's not Fate at all really - fixed attributes, random generators etc - but Fate may still have been an influence in parts.

It's a shame about the art direction though.

The mechanics are directly the basic FATE mechanic. There's even a Fate Point mechanic. What it does is add more structure and form to the otherwise flimsy FATE rules.

Quote from: RPGPundit;990776The mechanics are directly the basic FATE mechanic. There's even a Fate Point mechanic. What it does is add more structure and form to the otherwise flimsy FATE rules.

Now, I'm not denying you're right, I'm saying that I don't see it in the new version.  It's too structured for FATE.  And a lot of games have Plot Points now.