I doubt I will ever stop noodling on FAE. I was thinking this morning about what I would do if I wanted to write a self-contained adventure for FAE, something in the vein of a classic low level D&D module. That specifically got into the realm of character differentiation. Setting aside magic stuff for the moment, I still kind of like the idea of differentiating the fighter from the rogue from the bard and so on. So here’s a quick thought on how to throw that in.
- A “class” is added adjacent to the list of approaches. When the character does something within the scope of the class (fighting for a fighter, fast talking for the bard and so on) they receive a +2 bonus.
- While there need not be a fixed list of classes, the classes and style of classes are something to discuss and think about. Fighter, Rogue, Bard, Paladin and so on are a valid list, but so is Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief & Mastermind.
- If something loosely fall under the auspices of a class, instead of arguing, take a +1 bonus instead of +2. So, rogues might get a +1 to fight instead of +2. These will often be situational – if the “fight” is stabbing someone in the back, that’s absolutely a +2 for the rogue.
- If you settle on a magic system, then the +2/+1 becomes a potential hook for “semi” magical characters. What the cleric does at +2, the Paladin might do at +1.
- You can keep using stunts as written, in which case they stack on top of classes, and that is cool and badass, but classes give a different possible approach. Stunts could become a way to broaden the scope of a class. That si, for a stunt, add a category of activity to the +1 level, or raise a category of activities to the +2 level. So might fighter might take the “Scholar of war” stunt to treat academics as something that loosely falls under my fighter class (so I get a +1)
- If you need “true” advancement, then it might even be possible for the class to start at +0 or +1 and increase as high as +4. In those cases, loosely associated activities are at –1 from the class level.
Anyway, just a wacky idea, but it appeals to me a bit because I could pretty easily express it in a page or two for a self-contained product.
I just did something similar this past weekend with some 11-year olds and the Haunted Keep dungeon in the old D&D Red Book. It was fantastic. We followed more of the pattern of Freeport’s standard six “stats”, but we had so much fun. During a break I asked the kids how it was going and one said, “I like how it makes you play your character.” They absolutely grokked the fate point economy as well (something I still have to work at as Rob knows from my Metatopia game). I wonder how many OSR players would try such a product? If the spirit of OSR is “Rulings not Rules”, I think that fits into that mode well, not to mention can be played rules blind.
I’d probably eliminate the free stunt slots in this set-up: you can still buy stunts for refresh, but the mechanism you describe for the class feels a lot like a loosely defined suite of several class-establishing stunts, so “that costs you your free stunt slots” feels like the right price on it, to me.
I think a good additional rule would be to add +1 when doing something that would normally be done by a class that isn’t represented at the table. So, if your buddy playing the Rogue is there, he gets +2 to sneak into the treasure room and you get +0, but if he didn’t show up because of his daughter’s preschool pageant, you get +1 to sneak into the treasure room.