Cribbing Pt 1: Cheating FATE

It's not the 70s anymore, so there are hundreds of different rulesets out there governing the fine art of pretending to be someone else while sitting around a table rolling dice. Since my table is a D&D table most of these games are relegated to One-shots or merely bookshelf decor. But just because you can't play them all doesn't mean you can't strip em down and take them for all that they're worth!  Cribbing is about stealing mechanics or storytelling tools from other systems (RPGs, Video Games, even Board Games) and using them in your regular game.

Now this isn't about copy/pasting rule elements from other games, although that could be fun too ("I tap my Glitterboy's celerity to jump-jet above the guy and Alpha strike, granting me Combat Advantage"). This is about using the ideas that other games are built on to improve your own game in some way.  Starting with my personal favorite, the FATE system.

FATE is the chassis that the Spirit of the Century and Dresden Files RPGs are built on. Here's a link to the SotC SRD in case you want to familiarize yourself with the system. I haven't played Dresden Files yet, but the two short games of SotC I was in were Fun Pulpy Goodness.  FATE does a really great job of tying game mechanics directly to the Hero's personal story and the shared created world.  What I'm Cribbing here is the way FATE creates Fleshed-out, connected PC groups and the world they inhabit in a few steps during character generation: The Five Phases.

Now FATE uses the Phases to create PC game elements called Aspects, which are like feats that tell a story at the same time.  Imagine if you had a feat called "Stubborn as a Mule" that you could use whenever an NPC tried to mind-control you AND to avoid being overwhelmed by an opposing ogre, but that the DM could also use to force you to open a door you showed interest in, even if the other PCs told you it was a bad idea(For story reasons, of course).  That's a FATE Aspect.

I've used the Aspects in 4E D&D before, and they added a lot of cool story bits to the game, but it's a lot of technical stuff added to an already chunky game so I'll be skipping Aspect Implementation today. What this piece is about is using the Five Phases to make a party with a connection much deeper than "Drink at Same Tavern".

Redefined for D&D, the five Phases are:

1. Early Life 
2. The Crucible A.K.A Why you are not a Farmer
3. Your First Adventure
4. 1st Guest Star
5. 2nd Guest Star

Hand out a bunch of index cards to each player and get them to give you a paragraph for each phase (Be aware, some players can't stop at just one paragraph! This is fine, as it provides more fodder for later). A few guidelines:

• Complete each Phase as a group.
• Have the players share what they have so the rest of the group can keep it in mind for connections later.
• Each step should introduce a story element (Place, item, person, event, etc...).
• Don't tie up all the loose ends (No killing your nemesis during character creation unless his ghost now haunts you)
• Collaborate with other PCs and the DM to tell the best story possible.

Phase 1: Early Life

This phase sets the groundwork for your character, but is the phase with the fewest possible connections to the story. You may get a few place-names or possibly a mentor figure, but this is mostly backdrop.


Eberk's family moved from the Mountainhome to Ringing Forge when he was young. As a youth he rode with the caravans and heard songs and tales in dozens of taverns across the lands.

125's birthname lies forgotten in the past, but he dimly remembers his parents smuggling him out of the Drow city of his birth to live among the surface-worlders.

Phase 2: The Crucible


This phase describes the event that determines why your character is an adventurer instead of doing whatever it is that normal people do.  Traumatic events abound. Last time I had players do this, 3 out of 4 hometowns were sacked, raided, or burned, sometimes more than once!  Expect Nemeses, enemy organizations, mysterious benefactors, and the like.


When he was old enough to properly swing a craghammer Eberk earned his keep as a caravan guard. His skill in the art of story and song kept spirits high on the trail. But one day the caravan returned to Ringing Forge to find it's gates unmanned, yawning open and silent save for the moans of the restless dead within.  Eberk and his fellow warriors entered to find a Necromantic Plague had taken all inside. Eberk sang Battle-Songs to inspire his fellows and Mournful Dirges as they buried the honored dead, but when all was done Eberk had no songs left in his heart for Ringing Forge. Though his fellow dwarves were determined to rebuild, Eberk could not face his former home, once so full of life, now empty. He left with nothing but his hammer, his songs, and the only clue as to the perpetrator, a scorched book of spells bearing the symbol of a flaming skull.

125 remembers a great fire consuming the city. He remembers being trapped under rubble, smoke scorching his lungs, unable to even scream.  As he died, a voice spoke to him, offering power and life in exchange for a few favors to be called in later.  He accepted, and awoke in a massive makeshift morgue full of victims of the fire. Unable to remember his own name, Burn Victim #125 escaped the house of death with a mind blazing with unfamiliar arcane power.

Phase 3: First Adventure

This Phase describes the first time the PC sets out on his own to accomplish something big. The first adventure can be a continuation of the Crucible, or a completely different story. Leave a lot of open space here though (story-wise, not literally), because the cool story interactions are about to start.  Note that the SotC setting has players write this phase like the Back Cover Copy on a Pulp Novel, but here I'm using the more familiar D&D narrative style.


Eberk's wandering soon took him to The Rafters, a slum on the edge of a quarry town. People in The Rafters had been disappearing, and some talked of seeing a strange figure with a flaming skull for a head travelling the swamps at night near the old abandoned keep.  Eberk gathered some bravos to investigate and discovered the keep to be crawling with Undead. Cut off from escape, Eberk led his companions deep into the keep where they discovered a vile necromancer performing rituals to animate the dead.  Eberk roared when he saw the focus for the necromantic power was the Mirror of True Thoughts, an artifact from his home made of perfect crystal-glass. The Necromancer had perverted it to channel dark energies from the shadowfell. Enraged at this mockery of beauty, Eberk forgot his magical lore and charged the crystal, smashing it to shards with one blow.  Unable to control such dark powers on his own, the necromancer withered away to a skeleton just before completing his dark ritual. But the terrible energies unleashed threatened to drain the life from Eberk and his Companions.  As they fled the writhing shadows, Eberk had only enough time to snatch a scrap of scroll bearing the seal of the Order of the Flaming Skull...

125's unique talents soon had him fall in with The Fangs, a criminal gang in a larger city. Acting as an enforcer, he was ordered by his boss to steal a powerful Cloak of Shadows from a rival gang Blackwater. When he got there the rival gang had been slaughtered, and the cloak was missing.  Returning to report, he was accused of lying and stealing the cloak for himself, set upon by his former allies, he fought them off and fled the city.


Phase 4: 1st Guest Star

This is where things get interesting. So far we've done little more than write half-decent backstory for a couple of D&D PCs, but now we get to connect the dots! On this phase, shuffle up a small stack of cards with each PCs name on one, and deal them out (trade or reshuffle if a PC gets his own name).  Each player then gets to Guest Star in the First Adventure of the Player whose name they drew. Collaboration is key, because this is where PCs get connected to each other in a meaningful way. This is a chance for characters to contribute to another character's story and for Players to add complications or other details.  These don't necessarily have to be directly concerned with the First Adventure (Although that is the most Action-Pulpy way to do it), but should connectsolidly to the story.

Brother Graeme the was among those who joined Eberk that night at the abandoned keep.  And it was the Holy Light of Pelor that kept them from being torn apart by undead as they ventured deeper in. After they escaped, Brother Graeme told Eberk about a time long ago when members of his order banded together to destroy a faction of Necromancers that controlled an entire city in the western mountains. At the time they thought that Pelor's Light had destroyed all trace of the Order of the Flaming Skull, but Catacomb City may yet have new secrets to uncover.

After arriving at The Rafters Eberk met a mysterious Drow with terrible scars. The Drow had many questions, particularly concerning legends of Archfey. Eberk was no expert, but told him all he knew. The Drow was especially interested in the Burning Aurora, a Fey Queen who manifested cold flames in strange hues. Her reputation for dangerously toying with mortal affairs was well known, even to a Worldly dwarf such as Eberk.

Phase Five: 2nd Guest Star

Repeat phase 4 again, reshuffling cards and redrawing in case of duplicates.  Add more details, wrinkles, plot twists, and complications.  Go Nuts!

By the time you're done your whole party should have no more than 2 degrees of separation from any other character.  Time to start adventuring! Now you have a treasure trove of locations, villianous groups, NPCs, mentors, and all other sorts of plot hooks to work with.  If you already had a plot in mind you can just change names and details to fit what the PCs are looking for.  I guarantee that no matter how cheesy "The Order of the Burning Skull" sounds when you say it out loud, nothing will get the PCs more fired up than seeing that dire symbol carved into a dungeon wall.

Of course, since you now have a whole party of complicated, three-dimensional characters with a wide range of backstories, motivations, and quirks, you may have to just have them meet in a tavern after all.  At least it's not for the first time...


Have you tried this idea?  What do you crib from other systems for your game?  Does Eberk need to get over himself? Let me know in the comments! Collaborate!