FATEd Heroes

Game Creation
The Game
Its the 20-teens, and while comic book heroes are more popular than ever, none of them exist in the real world. Very
few people have even tried, even though there are people who have displayed amazing, near-superhuman levels of
athleticism.
What have you been waiting for? You have the desire to see justice done, you have the ability to protect victims, you
have the ability to punish criminals, you even have a costume and a name. The time never seemed right but you
may not have a choice anymore.

Threats and pressures in the setting.

Current Issues: There are no superheroes. Some people dont even believe in regular heroes. Crime is escalating, but
no one is stepping up to make a stand.
Impending Issues: What if there were superheroes? Good Samaritans get sued, the justice system favors the wealthy
and theres no money in being a superhero. How WOULD people react to vigilantes and villains battling it out on their
streets? What if people dont WANT superheroes

Decide who the important people and locations are.

Group work: Name the city, and generate a list of Important Places and People that the players may interact with at
some point in the game.

Character Creation
Choose a Character Image and a High Concept
Visually, the character image presents how you appear to the public. This is how they see you. If youre a patriotic dogooder, but your costume is black and menacing, nobody will shake your hand. Youre armor may be high-tech, but if
its got bunny ears nobody will take you seriously. Youre high concept is similar in that its a one line description that
sums up who your character. This is an aspect, the first and most important one for your character.

Think of this aspect like your job, your role in life, or your calling. Its what youre good at, but its also a duty you have
to deal with, and its constantly filled with problems of its own. That is to say, it comes with some good and some bad.
Examples:
You could go with your job: Lead Detective, Knight of the Realm, Low-level Thug.
Even better, add an adjective or descriptor to define the idea: Reluctant Lead Detective, Virtuous Knight of the Realm,
Ambitious Low-level Thug.
Mash two jobs or roles together: Wizard Detective, Gnome Knight, Thug Florist.
You could use an important family relationship or an organization youre deeply involved with (especially if those are
well-connected or well-known): A Gotti Became a Detective?, Knight of Arthurs Round Table, Low-level Thug for the
Gold Dragon Triad.
These suggestions are to get you thinking. Dont stress out, the worst thing you can do is make it a big deal. You can
refine your high concept as you continue.
Individual Work: Choose a High Concept

Choose a Trouble
Every character has some sort of trouble aspect thats a part of his life and story. If your high concept defines your
character, your trouble defines the major complication in your characters existence.
Trouble brings chaos, but more importantly it drives him into interesting situations. Without trouble, the character is
boring and stale, and no fun to play.
Trouble aspects basically fall into two types: personal struggles and problem relationships.

Personal struggles are about your darker side or impulses that are hard to control. If its something that your
character might be tempted to do or unconsciously do at the worst possible moment, its this sort of trouble.

Examples: Im Not Angry Youre Pissing Me Off!, Looking for a Fling Not a Ring, Cant Pass a Bar
or a Bottle.

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 dont make your job easy, or even your
family or friends that too often get caught in the crossfire.

Examples: Ive Got a Family at Home, The Mob Wants Its Money, Ive Got the Death Sentence
in Twelve Systems.
Your trouble shouldnt be easy to solve. If it was, your character would have done that, and thats not interesting. But it
shouldnt cripple the character either. If the trouble is constantly interfering with your daily life, you dont have time for
anything else.
Troubles also shouldnt be relate to your high concept. If you are a Lead Detective, saying your trouble is The Criminal
Underworld Hates Me is dull, because its already assumed with your high concept. (You can try making it personal, like
Don Gotti Hates Me)
Before you go any further, talk with the GM about your characters trouble. Make sure youre both on the same page in
terms of what it means. Come up with a way this aspect might be invoked or compelled to make sure youre on the
same page.
Individual Work: Choose a Trouble

Name

If you havent already, its time to give your character a name!

Individual Work: Choose a name

Phase One: Your Adventure

The first phase is to create an aspect from your characters first true adventure.
You need to think up and write down some basic details of this story. The story doesnt need a lot of detailin fact, a
pair of sentences works well because your fellow players will add their own details to this past adventure in the next
two phases (as you will to theirs.)
Ask yourself these questions. If you have trouble answering, look to the other players and the GM for help.
Something bad happened. What was it? Did it happen to you, to someone you cared about, or to someone that you
were coerced into helping?
What did you decide to do about the problem? What goal did you pursue?
Who stood against you? Did you expect opposition or did it come out of nowhere?
Did you win? Did you lose? Either way, what consequences arose from the outcome?
Once you have that story, write an aspect that relates to some part of what happened.
Individual Work: Jot down your adventure and choose an aspect for it.
A Good aspect should have at least two ways of Invoking and Compelling!

Phase Two: Crossing Paths

In the next phases, well tie the group together by having other characters contribute a minor, supporting role in your
adventure, and vice versa. Once everyone has their adventure and first aspect, pick another player to cross paths
with. Your character will have a small role in their story, and that will help you choose your next aspect.

Briefly discuss with the other player and add a sentence or phrase to the adventure to reflect your characters
supporting role. Supporting roles come in three forms: they complicate the adventure, solve a situation, or both.
Complicating the adventure: Your character made part of the adventure uncertain (possibly because of an issue or
trouble aspect). Of course, since that happened in the past, everyone is all right (or mostly all right, depending on the
aspect you take). Dont worry about how the situation is resolvedleave that for someone else, or leave it open.
Descriptions like Landon starts trouble when Cynere needs him quiet or Zird gets captured by mysterious brigands
are enough to get ideas flowing.
Solving a situation: Your character solves a complication or aids the main character in the central conflict (which is an
opportunity to involve your high concept aspect). You dont have to mention how the situation was created, just how
your character takes care of it. Descriptions like Cynere holds off foes to give Landon time to escape or Zird uses his
arcane knowledge to ask the ghosts for information are enough to give us an idea of what happens.
Complicating and solving: Here, your character either solves one situation but creates another, or creates a situation
but later solves a different one. Mash up the two ideas, using the word later in between them, such as: Landon
starts a fight with the Scar Triad while Zird is trying to lay low. Later, he helps Zird by fighting off undead while Zirds
casting a spell.
Collaborative Work: Tell how your character fits in anothers story and create an aspect for your character.

Phase Three: Crossing Paths Again

Once everyones done with phase two, youll trade adventures again, so long as everyone has an adventure that isnt
theirs or the one they just contributed to. Then youre ready for phase three, where youll contribute to this second
adventure and determine your next aspect. Follow the directions from phase two.
Collaborative Work: Work out how your character is going to fit into anothers story and write down an aspect for
your character.

Skills
Once you have mapped out your characters phases and chosen aspects, its time to pick skills.
Your skills form a pyramid, with a single skill rated at Great, which is referred to as the peak skilland more skills at
each lower rating on the ladder going down to Average:
One Great (+4) skill

Two Good (+3) skills

Three Fair (+2) skills
Four Average (+1) skills
Individual Work: Select your skills

Stunts/Powers
Pick or invent stunts and/or powers. Stunts change how skills work for your character.
The most basic option for a stunt is to allow a skill to do something that it normally cant do. Example:

Backstab. You can use Stealth to make attacks if your target isnt already aware of your presence.
The Fight in the Dog. You can use Provoke to enter contests that youd normally need Physique for, whenever
your ability to psych out your opponent would be a factor.
Youre Never Safe. You can use Burglary to make mental attacks and create advantages against a target, by
staging a heist in such a way as to shatter their confidence in their security.

Another use for a stunt is to give a skill an automatic bonus under a particular, very narrow circumstance, effectively
letting a character specialize in something.

Lead in the Air. You really like emptying magazines. Any time youre using a fully automatic weapon and you
succeed at a Shoot attack, you automatically create a Fair (+2) opposition against movement in that zone until
your next turn, because of all the lead in the air. (Normally, youd need to take a separate action to set up this
kind of interference, but with the stunt, its free.)

Child of the Court. Gain a +2 bonus to any attempt to overcome obstacles with Charm when youre at an
aristocratic function, such as a royal ball.
Finally, a stunt can allow a skill to make a single exception, in a narrow circumstance, for any other game rule that
doesnt precisely fit into the category of an action.

Ritualist. Replace another skill in a challenge with Occult (can also use it twice in the challenge)

Riposte. If you succeed with style on a Fight defense, you can choose to inflict a 2-shift hit rather than take a
boost.
You want them to be limited enough in scope that it feels special when you use them, but not so narrow that you never
see them come up after you take them.
Powers
Most characters have a single power. Some might have two, but thats where it tops off. Powers are big and complex
enough that more than two would be a bit unwieldy.
Figure out what you want your power to do in general terms. Maybe youre inhumanly fast, or super strong, or you can
fly, or you shoot energy blasts from your hands.
You might have a power useful for doing many things. Telekinesis, for example, suggests you can push people around
and attack them with force blasts, lift objects with your mind, create a shield of force, and fly or levitate. These are
related abilities, so theyre one power.
If youre telekinetic and you can heal with a touch, though, those might be two different powers.
Break each power down into its abilities. Boil these down into mechanical effects and phrase them like you would
stunts. Each stunt-like ability costs you a stunt. You can spend multiple stunts on a single ability, making it more
powerful. Also, if youre crafting a superpower, you can do things that stunt might not otherwise let you do, like fly
using Athletics, or fire eye-beams with Shoot.

Add Special Effects

A special effect is an extra-special thing you can pull off when you succeed with style on a roll that utilizes one of your
powers. You can choose to add one of your special effects instead of the normal benefits of succeeding with style. You
can also spend a fate point to add a special effect to any successful roll, even if youve already got a special effect
attached to that action. Special effects always happen in addition to the normal effects of success. Your power starts

with two special effects, each stunt or refresh you spend gets you two more special effects. If you need special effects,
use the following list or create your own using this list as a guideline.

Forced Movement: You move your target up to two zones.

Area Attack: Attack everyone else (foes and friends) in the same zone as your target using the attack value
minus two (so if you hit your target at +6, everyone else would defend against +4). Attacking everyone in a
zone at full strength is a collateral damage effect (page 25).

Inflict a Condition: You add an aspect to the target, which you can invoke once for free.

Extra Movement: You can move up to two zones for free.

Physical Recovery: You recover from all physical stress.

Mental Recovery: You recover from all mental stress.

Extra Action: You can remove shifts from your action and apply them to a different, related action as if youd
(performed and) succeeded on both. You can never succeed with style on the second action, and its opposition
(i.e., difficulty) cant be higher than that of the original action.
Add a Drawback
All powers come at a cost, and all superheroes have a weakness. Decide yours, and phrase it as an aspect, though you
should phrase it so its easier to compel than to invoke. Each power gets a drawback, not each individual stunt within
a power.
Add a Collateral Damage Effect
Super-beings throw a lot of power around, often with unintended consequences. Sometimes city blocks get leveled;
sometimes bystanders get hurt. Your collateral damage effect is something super-potent you can do with your power.
This isnt strictly numerical; pick a powerful narrative thing you can do, like affecting everyone in a scene or ignoring
all the damage that comes your way in a round. You can choose to use this effect at any time, but using it comes at a
cost: you inflict a situation aspect on the area around you that represents the collateral damage youve caused. The
GM gets to determine the exact nature of that aspect each time you use it.
You get six stunts for free, and you can take up to two more stunts at the cost of lowering your refresh by one each.
(The gist is this: the more cool tricks you can do, the more youll need to accept compels to get fate points.) Figuring
out stunts can take a while, so you may want to pick one for now and determine the rest of them during play.
Determine how many fate points you start play with.
Individual Work: Create your stunts

Adjusting Refresh
A player character in Fate starts with a refresh of 3. That means hell start each session off with at least 3 fate points.
If you use seven stunts, your refresh is 2. If you use eight stunts, your refresh is 1.
Individual Work: Write down how much Refresh you have

Adding Tracks and Slots

Certain skills and some stunts can add to these defaults.
Physique helps with physical stress, and Will helps with mental stress. Either skill grants one more stress box of the
respective type (physical or mental) at Average (+1) or Fair (+2), two more boxes if Good (+3) or higher. At Superb
(+5) or higher, they also grant an additional mild consequence slot. Unlike the standard slots, this specifically
restricted to physical harm (Physique) or mental harm (Will).
Individual Work: Add additional Stress tracks and consequences as stated above.

Skill

Overcome

Create Advantage

Attack

Defend

Athletics

Charm

Contacts

Crime

Deceive

Empathy

Engineering

Fight

Investigate

Notice

Occult

Physique

Provoke

Resources

Science

Shoot

Stealth

Vehicles

Will