Fate and D&D: Interoperable?

Inspired by a small discussion on how to make combat more fun. I don't really run Fate anymore (the last few times I've tried ended in tragedy), but I still love to steal ideas from it occasionally.

A lot of time, fantasy d20 combat tends to turn into "I attack the guy and pass my turn.", at least in my experience. Fights take place in a 40' by 40' room with a few obstacles plopped down, the monsters on one and and the characters on another. Initiative is rolled and then characters start moving into place to start the dance of "17, does that hit? Alright, gonna roll damage.". Characters rarely move, except to get in range of another enemy. Once one side has been slaughtered, the game continues.

It's kind of boring.

In books, movies, and even a few videogames, fights rarely take place in a static environment. They move from place to place, characters duck and weave around different obstacles, and things get grabbed to use as impromptu weapons or improvised distractions. In a life or death situation, it's more than just moving until you're five feet from your enemy then rolling greatsword attacks.

With the chaff out of the way, let's get into the wheat of things. I like a lot of the ideas presented in Fate, but when I ran the game they never really came together for me. However, a lot of those ideas can be ported to other systems, sometimes seamlessly, due to the narrative nature of Fate. For example, let's take a look at a fight scene. How about a bar brawl? The rogue is cheating at cards, the barbarian is being obnoxious, and the bard may have told the wrong joke to the wrong person. Now weapons are being drawn and characters are going to come out swinging.

Before we roll initiative, let's take a look at the scene. Identify three things about it. For the purposes of this example, let's say there are empty tables where people were previously sitting, mugs of ale left unattended, and someone passed out drunk on the floor. Grab an index card or whatever you use to take notes and jot those down, let the players know about them. These are your primary scene aspects.

Let players use these scene aspects how they wish, and adjudicate them how you want. If the rogue wants to splash ale in someone's face before going in with their dagger, you could rule that (in 5e rulings at least) as an object interaction, allow the thug a saving throw against a DC (10 is generally a good guideline, or use some other way of adjudicating it), and confer advantage to the rogue if the thug fails. Tick that aspect off. If the rogue wants to keep using their drink-tossing trick some more, either give advantage to the thug's save or just tell the player they'll have to look for another way to trick the thug. That's where creating/discovering an aspect comes in.

To create or discover an aspect, just use the same toolset the game you're playing gives you to resolve ability checks. If the player wants to discover, create, or modify an aspect, just have them roll an appropriate ability. The bard's player, for instance, could ask if there was anything nearby he could grab to use on the thug cornering him. A perception check could have him discover a pie that was recently set to cool, just within arm's reach. An aspect has been created, and the player now has ideas to utilize it. One improvised attack roll and a scalding hot fate for the thug later, the bard is ready to join the fray.

Now that was a lot of words for what is basically just writing down short scene descriptors on an index card and letting players use them! Granted, they could already be doing this, or they could just ignore it all and keep moving and attacking. As always, you have to see what works for your table.

Dungeon Crawls in 13th Age

Another stream of consciousness post written at 5 in the morning, thinking about dungeon crawls and a more story-light campaign approach for 13th Age.

Dungeon crawls in 13th Age, could it work?
Dungeon crawling would work, but it would be very loose. No counting five foot squares or tapping every tile with a ten foot pole. Each dungeon 'room' serves to hold all the interesting interactables, so few or no completely empty rooms should be in the dungeon. Wandering monsters should be in effect, but they should also serve to exemplify the nature and story of the dungeon itself- A good example would be to use a dungeon escalation die that adds itself to the wandering monster & events table. With good or neutral npcs on the lower end of a wandering monster table and things like guard patrols, search parties, big monsters, and officers on the higher end, you can create a more dynamic experience rather than rolling on a static table.


How do icons, treasure, and xp factor in?
While the importance of treasure and xp are vastly downplayed (or in the case of xp, nonexistent), icons should be a key supporting role. If you're going for a sandboxy dungeon crawl, you should have four or five icons with differing and oftentimes conflicting goals. Getting closer to the goals of the dungeon will result in incremental advances while completing the goal is worth a full level up.
As an example, a rampaging demon bear might be lurking in the tangled roots of the trillionage redwood. While the Crusader may reward you for killing it, the Archdruid would wish for you to cure it of demonic possession, or the Diabolist may want it for her ranks.


How do campaign losses factor in?
Campaign losses generally change the world for the worse. The impact may be lessened in a sandboxy dungeon crawl, but they should still occur- A party that has to retreat after barely any time in the dungeon may find traps and extra defenses waiting for them. You may also start the dungeon escalation die at 1 or 2 instead of 0, and have monsters with nastier specials patrolling around.

Resource Management, or, Got a Light?
Most groups find managing torches, water, and food tedious. Others love that kind of resource management. Depending on the overall mood you're going for in the dungeon, you may or may not want the added tracking of mundane items. A good option would be not to worry about it and assume the party has proper lighting and sustenance- Then when you want to be mean, include the possibility of an animal making off with the food packs, or lanterns and torches becoming useless when someone fails a check and slips, falling into an underground lake. This removes the detailed tracking of mundane resources, but still keeps that element of risk and creates interesting situations when something happens to them.

5e Roll All the Dice Character Generator

Do you want to completely and randomly determine your next 5e character? I got you. I took the Approaches from Fate Accelerated as I felt they were broad enough categories to apply to most any personality type.

Grab it here.

Cantrip-Like Effects for Dragonborn Breath Weapons

There's one thing that bothers me and probably nobody else about dragonborn in 5e, and that's their almost direct porting of their racial statblock from 4e. Looking at the elf, dwarf, and halfling, they get ribbon abilities with a lot of out of combat utility. The dragonborn is pretty much entirely geared for combat, and it's considered one of the weaker races for it. You get resistance to a damage type (which is very nice) and you get to breathe fire and act like a dragon once every short rest (a little less nice).

So let's give 'em some small effects they can do with their breath weapons at-will. Of course, the DM can always adjudicate for this themselves and allow such effects without the need of me telling them what they can or cannot do, these are just a few ideas.

All dragonborn can take an action to do the following effect associated with their draconic ancestry.
Acid. Black and Copper dragonborn have acid that mixes in with their saliva. While they can't burn someone with this acid, it can burn through soft materials like rope fibers and paper.
Cold. Silver and White dragonborn are able to use their innate coldness to chill objects and make certain kinds of objects quite brittle (if going by the object hardness rules, you could make those objects vulnerable to bludgeoning damage). You can also freeze liquids inside a 1 foot cube.
Fire. Red, Gold, and Brass dragonborn can use their internal flame as a firestarter, able to light torches and other small flammable objects. Not only that, you can use it to boil liquids inside a 1 foot cube.
Lightning. Blue and Bronze dragonborn can raise their voice to booming levels, up to three times louder. Also in campaigns with objects that run on electricity, they make a pretty handy emergency battery!
Poison. Green dragonborn are able to exhale some pretty putrid stuff, stuff that can irritate eyes and nostrils.