This page is for players and Fates to write in with their questions. All questions and answers will be compiled to be used for a FAQ at a later date.
Q: Why has it taken you ten years to make this game?
A: The game has largely been the efforts of one person, the art, design, writing and organisation of publishing. As such it has been a long time in the making as other career and life considerations have taken their fair share of time commitment.
Also, the ideas developed in FateStorm and the mechanics of the system weren’t designed merely to enable one particular setting to be published or to facilitate a single design goal. There were many design goals in setting out to make FateStorm and many settings and genres that it needed to support. As such great time, effort and consideration was placed into ensuring that all the design goals were met and that the system functioned across settings and genre.
This is FateStorm’s greatest strength. The use of Avatars, which embody universal archetypes, means that not only can the system work across a multiverse but that Avatars can move across settings or genre if that is what the players and the Fate desire. Not only that but the use of the FateSphere, the HeroCycle and Leyline bias means that these are not merely mechanical vehicles within the system but actual built in story generation devices that can be employed (or ignored) to give even greater detail to any adventure.
Q: Why VRS?
A: Well you could say we were just trying to be different but that isn’t the case. The reason that we chose Virtual Reality System (VRS) as a description rather than the usual RPG acronym is simple.
For a start FateStorm is an RPG, but it is also more. One of the driving design goals in developing FateStorm was to make the mechanics more realistic, within the realms of the fantastic. While other RPGs, understanding that they are dealing with the fantastical, are happy to provide mechanics that do no more than provide order in which the game can take place without a brawl breaking out at every session, we wanted FateStorm to bring the mechanics into the world/setting. In FateStorm, the multiverse which makes up the FateStorm games informs the system and visa-versa; they are not exclusive but intertwined.
It is clear that this is not a wholly immersive experience. There are rules and structure. But we have tried to reach a merging of system and setting which creates a fusion of the fantastical and the real, and hopefully provides you with a more refined roleplaying experience, focusing on the Avatars and their influence on the game, as the game influences them.
Q: Sometimes you describe FateStorm as intended for sophisticated players, what does that mean?
A: FateStorm isn’t for everyone. While it is suitable for newbies there is a lot of indepth character mechanics and player enabled story development which may feel overwhelming to new RPGers. Others may get dice withdrawl or even feel threatened by the fact that they are now in control of their Avatar’s life or death struggles.
So when we refer to sophisticated players we are talking about those players who like to be immersed in their Avatar and the setting of the story. Players who are looking for more of a challenge than just rolling dice and totalling up xp. There are plenty of Avatar rewards and benefits to be found within FateStorm, but they are more ‘telling’ in the development of both the player’s Avatar and the unfolding story in which the Avatar’s find themselves.
Q: Why change common game terms?
A: Fatestorm is in no way is the first system to do this, and it was not done as a mere flamboyance. While there was a desire to ensure that FateStorm had a strong identity of its’ own and stood apart from other systems many of the common terms didn’t really fit in with the design goals of the game.
The use of the term Avatar instead of player character is a good example. In FateStorm the player’s take on the roles of Avatars of the Solüus, the FateStorm multiverse. They are not normal people, they are exceptional people, who have access to threads of fate that attract the influences of the multiverse and as such thrust them into the centre of unfolding circumstances. Player Character just didn’t suit.
Other terms such as Experience Points or Hit Points don’t fit in with the game mechanics and as such were not used.
In the end though you can call these things what you like, all we have tried to do is create a particular flavour to the FateStorm game.