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[FATE/Homebrew] Mars: Colonial Unification
Captain Carrot
Alexandria, VARegistered User regular
Alexandria, VARegistered User regular
It has been centuries since humanity first left Earth to colonize other worlds. The home planet is now somewhere between the Earth of Elijah Bailey and that of the early timeline of Firefly: a crowded, polluted mess whose residents are constantly emigrating to Luna, Mars, and the more far-flung outposts carved out from the inhospitable rocks of the solar system. The ten billion on Earth still dwarf the two hundred and fifty million elsewhere, but the ratio will only decrease in coming years.
The Martian colonies have been independent for around thirty years now, a process that everyone recognized as inevitable, given the difficulties of governing settlements with whom communication is difficult and travel is extremely lengthy. While that independence has granted them tremendous latitude in international and interplanetary relations, it has also reduced their clout by the same amount, and with much less ability to deal with the problems they face, tensions are rising. Many politicians are proposing a union, to present a single front to the peoples of the solar system and approach the challenges Mars still presents with collective action. The concept draws opposition from some quarters, however, since many remember the days of protectorate status, and fear a conglomeration that would swallow the smaller colonies and remove most Martians from any sense of power in their own governance. Which side will you join?
Bucking my usual trend, this is a campaign not based on a video game setting, inspired heavily by The West Wing -- lots of talking, no direct action. As the title indicates, we'll be using a modified version of FATE. The basic game remains the same, so I won't rehash that. The major changes are with skills.
Cut: Athletics, Burglary, Drive, Fight, Shoot, Physique. Dubious use: Stealth, Crafts. Any skill primarily dealing with physical abilities isn't really going to come up in a game about politics.
Minor tweaks:
Lore becomes Scholarship, unsurprisingly. Law, History, and Parliamentary Procedure are useful specializations here.
Intimidate is more about using the powers of your office against the opponent: the Assistant White House Counsel might muse about a pending lawsuit against a major employer in a recalcitrant Congressman's district, and the effect an amicus brief might have. Looming over someone and cracking your knuckles isn't going to accomplish much here.
Rapport is used for the Social stress track: it's hard to do much if nobody likes or trusts you. This is not to say that you couldn't have an effective sneaky, disliked character, but s/he would be vulnerable to Rapport attacks.
Major changes:
Contacts. Any mover/shaker is going to know a lot of people, so if this skill remained the same practically everyone would max it out, which wouldn't be interesting. In addition, there are a few major different categories of people a character might know, with very different effects available for a successful check. Therefore, Contacts cannot be taken alone, but is split into Press, Corporate/Industry, and Legislative.
That's it for skills, and the last change is with the aspects. The base is five: High Concept, Trouble, First Adventure, and the two Crossing Paths. Before the First Adventure, here, comes the First Campaign: how did your character get into politics? This is taken directly from the Rising Conflict aspect in Dresden Files.
The Martian colonies have been independent for around thirty years now, a process that everyone recognized as inevitable, given the difficulties of governing settlements with whom communication is difficult and travel is extremely lengthy. While that independence has granted them tremendous latitude in international and interplanetary relations, it has also reduced their clout by the same amount, and with much less ability to deal with the problems they face, tensions are rising. Many politicians are proposing a union, to present a single front to the peoples of the solar system and approach the challenges Mars still presents with collective action. The concept draws opposition from some quarters, however, since many remember the days of protectorate status, and fear a conglomeration that would swallow the smaller colonies and remove most Martians from any sense of power in their own governance. Which side will you join?
Bucking my usual trend, this is a campaign not based on a video game setting, inspired heavily by The West Wing -- lots of talking, no direct action. As the title indicates, we'll be using a modified version of FATE. The basic game remains the same, so I won't rehash that. The major changes are with skills.
Cut: Athletics, Burglary, Drive, Fight, Shoot, Physique. Dubious use: Stealth, Crafts. Any skill primarily dealing with physical abilities isn't really going to come up in a game about politics.
Minor tweaks:
Lore becomes Scholarship, unsurprisingly. Law, History, and Parliamentary Procedure are useful specializations here.
Intimidate is more about using the powers of your office against the opponent: the Assistant White House Counsel might muse about a pending lawsuit against a major employer in a recalcitrant Congressman's district, and the effect an amicus brief might have. Looming over someone and cracking your knuckles isn't going to accomplish much here.
Rapport is used for the Social stress track: it's hard to do much if nobody likes or trusts you. This is not to say that you couldn't have an effective sneaky, disliked character, but s/he would be vulnerable to Rapport attacks.
Major changes:
Contacts. Any mover/shaker is going to know a lot of people, so if this skill remained the same practically everyone would max it out, which wouldn't be interesting. In addition, there are a few major different categories of people a character might know, with very different effects available for a successful check. Therefore, Contacts cannot be taken alone, but is split into Press, Corporate/Industry, and Legislative.
That's it for skills, and the last change is with the aspects. The base is five: High Concept, Trouble, First Adventure, and the two Crossing Paths. Before the First Adventure, here, comes the First Campaign: how did your character get into politics? This is taken directly from the Rising Conflict aspect in Dresden Files.
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