I'm surprised not to see some threads about it. I've been interested in FATE for a while, but Spirit of the Century as well as The Dresden Files RPG weren't my cup of tea. Then came SoF and my friend and I were hooked.

We're currently playing a game in the Serenity setting and loving it. I'm always up for learning what others are doing with it and how they're using the system. Who knows? Maybe I'll see something that strikes my fancy.

We're huge WH40KRP fans, but aren't too fond of he system and SoF handles it very well, so we're excited about that, too.

What have any of you done with it, if anything?

I was in a group that loved FATE and we did Planescape with it. I only played because of the setting because tapping aspects FOR ME kills immersion. The other players enjoyed it and went on to do a Fate Mage and Fate Espionage game.

I have to admit I have very little knowledge of this game at all.

RPGPundit

I bought the pdf when it first came out but I can't say I care for it.  It's been a while so I'll struggle to be specific but it seems very rulesy, a further step away from Fate 2.0. I did not like the approach of going from a Skill based system to an Attribute based system especially as conceptually Aspects were first intended as replacement for Attributes (it works in Icons but that's because superheroes are meant to be good at everything). As a result of ditching Skills, Aspects took a whole new roles, with new things like Speciality Aspects (or something) introduced to fill in the gap.  

The bottom line is while it might be a good game in its own right, it wasn't the sort of generic implementation of Fate I was looking for and, to draw a parallel, it about as far away from Fate 2.0 as basic D&D is to D&D4e.

I'm not a fan of clunky crunch and was excited at just how smoothly SoF plays, despite all of the rules, many of which are optional and extremely easy to "plug n' play". As far as attributes, I love them. The skill pyramid wasn't my thing at all, so this way works for me. If you're not into it, that's totally cool to me, but I'd hate to see somebody who'd love it miss out.

Dont buy games from lulu(i prefer drivethrurpg's POD system) and the rabbid fanboyism over on the big purple has killed any real interest i may have had in it.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;469814Dont buy games from lulu(i prefer drivethrurpg's POD system) and the rabbid fanboyism over on the big purple has killed any real interest i may have had in it.

It's good and worth a look. Don't let the "rabid fanboyism" ruin it. I'm happy it does as much as it does for us.

So this is basically a "generic" FATE game?

RPGpundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;469892So this is basically a "generic" FATE game?

RPGpundit

Yes. You can do WoD (they have a power called "Control" that screams Awakened magic, as well as the Shadow), Eberron (The "War Born" template, anyone?), supers, sci-fi (we've had amazing success with WH40KRP), etc. Like I mentioned, I'm not a huge fan of crunch because I find much of it to be clunky as well, but SoF...while having a lot of rules (which are easy to use as desired)...runs very smoothly.

I've been extremely impressed with the Unit and Organizational rules, which allow for larger-scale conflicts, up to and including handling warring empires (or megacorporations, etc). And it's easy to "zoom" in and out between Personal to Organizational conflicts, as well as anything in between.

Mechalus (the game's creator) is very supportive of his product and while it has some warts (what game doesn't, right?), they're very easy to remove/ignore, IMO.

If you're at all interested in FATE, but have found games like Spirit of the Century or The Dresden Files RPG to be too obtuse, I recommend SoF.

Oh, and the book's small and thick, but very solid, which I like.

Strands of Fate is a generic version of Fate 3.0 in the sense that it has no setting or implied genre. At the same time it deviates substantially from the core rules (no Skills, no pyramid, Aspects work very differently) to the extent that it's not strictly compatible with other Fate 3.0 games.

For a generic implementation of Fate 3.0 I'd recommend Free Fate http://www.ukroleplayers.com/downloads/free-fate/

I would think that doing a "generic" FATE or FUDGE would be completely contrary to the purpose of the system.  The whole point of that system is that it is highly malleable and should be adapted to fit the specific kind of genre you are trying to emulate.  

Of course, maybe this book is for doing just that, I don't know.  But if that were the case it wouldn't really be a game system in and of itself, but a series of guidelines and a toolkit for how to modify FATE into all kinds of genres.

RPGPundit

Like I mentioned, we've done so many different things with it and it's a wonderful toolkit. It's so well-received because it does what it was made to do very well.

Pundit (or anyone else interested), if you want to take a look at it, there's a big (113 pages!) preview on Void Star's site (here's a direct-link click).

Not sure if it's my cup of tea, although i have to admit i never played it, only read it. I think i love the skill-version of FATE better.

Anyway, hopefully this helps in deciding if it is your cup of tea

Quote from: Anglachel;470571I think i love the skill-version of FATE better.

Learned FATE with the attributes, so it's always worked for me.

If the creator would just offer it via drivethrurpg's POD system then i'd buy a copy straight away, the fact they havent stops me from being bothered enough to use the inferior(imo) lulu service...you'd think in this day and age where availability of niche products is scarce it'd be available via as many different alternatives as possible(im guessing they didnt like the way stuff is done with drivethru's POD or something).