And we’re on to Week 3 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge with an open genre RPG known at Fate – specifically Fate Core.

Doctor Fleck is a veterinarian – and a monster hunter.

So many pets with behavioral problems have a much bigger issue – there’s an otherworldly monster inside trying to get out!

No, it isn’t the drugs saying that. Those pharmaceuticals are purely for dealing with the horrors that come with extracting an alien presence from Madam Fluffikins or de-tentacle-izing poor Bun-Bun McFlopkins.

Fleck got into veterinary medicine, not because he loves animals (though he does), but because he just doesn’t like people. And pet owners are the worst!

He started out his career working a game reserve in Africa, where he developed some skill with tranquilizer guns and escape velocity driving. It was there he had his first encounter with the truly bizarre. And he thought he could escape that by returning to the States.

Fate Core

I got interested in Fate a couple years ago as boredom with D&D began setting in. I watched this Actual Play video with Wil Wheaton to see how it worked. I still haven’t gotten it to the table.

Character creation is easily described but hard to enact, mostly because it’s so wide open. This is a strength of the system, but it varies considerably from many others.

You start with some high-level concept to describe who your character is, and then add some trouble – a flaw or problem – that can be used during game play to make things interesting.

Yes, Fate seems much more fun when you’re not playing a super hero. Unless, of course, that super hero is deeply flawed and not assured of victory. Sorry, exposure to an extremely rare element no one on the planet ever heard of hardly counts as a serious weakness.

You also have to create aspects that describe your background in ways that can also be used in game to add both benefits and complications. This requires working with the other players and, for this character creation exercise, there are no other players. Therefore I only created one for Dr Fleck’s own history and left the other two to be developed if he ever gets played.

Skill selection is similar to other RPGs and the Stunt selection just helps refine things. Of course, you can customize these to your heart’s content, with the GM’s blessing, of course.

The neat thing about this system is that it’s pretty much about a few characters and some challenge resolution mechanisms and doesn’t require you to use a specific genre. As long as the story you want to tell involves conflict, the various flavors of Fate can handle it.

The Fate Core SRD is available for free, so you can get started with no financial outlay. You can, of course, support the authors and pay for the product. My hardcopy should be here Friday 🙂