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Fate Accelerated
With only a few minutes of prep, you could be exploring the universe with your favorite sci-fi characters,fighting the forces of evil with a party of talking chimps, or setting up shop as a modern day sorceress specializing in love potions. Maybe you’re looking for the ideal pickup roleplaying game. Or you’re a first-time gamer looking to try something new without investing hours of your time. Regardless, Fate Accelerated Edition will bring something special to your table.
Fate Accelerated, or FAE, is a condensed version of the popular Fate Core roleplaying game that brings all the flexibility and power of Fate in a shorter format. Inside, you’ll find a method for making fast, fun characters and simple systems to support whatever story you can dream up on the fly. With FAE, you can be playing in minutes.
3… 2… 1… GAME ON!
Fate Accelerated, or FAE, is a condensed version of the popular Fate Core roleplaying game that brings all the flexibility and power of Fate in a shorter format. Inside, you’ll find a method for making fast, fun characters and simple systems to support whatever story you can dream up on the fly. With FAE, you can be playing in minutes.
3… 2… 1… GAME ON!
43 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
6 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
December 29, 2014
This is a condensed version of the Fate Core role playing game system.
It's a short book - 50 pages - that serves as a good introduction to Fate gaming concepts. I've read both this and (most of) the full Fate Core rules and I'm intrigued. Fate is a very loose and story-oriented system, in contrast to what this Old School Gamer is used to, but I think it would make for fast, fun play. This book itself is a little too short - I'd like more examples of the concepts at work, but then that's what the full Fate Core RPG manual is for.
Also, I really like Evil Hat's aesthetic. The product has a fun, pulp adventure, cinematic vibe to it that seems open and inviting and welcoming of newbies. I like that maybe as much or more than the promise of the system itself. But Fate is certainly a fresh approach to RPGs and worth checking out.
And with a lot of their products Pay What You Want on drivethrurpg.com, that's pretty easy to do.
It's a short book - 50 pages - that serves as a good introduction to Fate gaming concepts. I've read both this and (most of) the full Fate Core rules and I'm intrigued. Fate is a very loose and story-oriented system, in contrast to what this Old School Gamer is used to, but I think it would make for fast, fun play. This book itself is a little too short - I'd like more examples of the concepts at work, but then that's what the full Fate Core RPG manual is for.
Also, I really like Evil Hat's aesthetic. The product has a fun, pulp adventure, cinematic vibe to it that seems open and inviting and welcoming of newbies. I like that maybe as much or more than the promise of the system itself. But Fate is certainly a fresh approach to RPGs and worth checking out.
And with a lot of their products Pay What You Want on drivethrurpg.com, that's pretty easy to do.
March 11, 2018
Fate Accelerated is probably the definitive minimally viable universal RPG system. Roll 4dF (special d6s marked with -,0,+), add a bonus from one of six approaches that are basically the classic six stats with more evocative names, and play fate points to invoke aspects, from the high concept of your character to situational bonuses. The true clever part is how aspects cover almost every possibility in play, providing mechanical weight to describing how things happen without weighing down the game with a ton of rules. Fate points provide a nice way to limit character power, and compels, where a negative aspect is invoked against the character by the GM, create drama in the moment and fuel the fate point economy.
I can't say that I want to run Fate, but like a set of hex keys ever game collection should have it.
I can't say that I want to run Fate, but like a set of hex keys ever game collection should have it.
August 12, 2022
Cool framework, need to play more to really test it.
August 26, 2017
Fate Accelerated Edition (FAE) is the perfect mix of simplicity and complexity that I want out of a game at this point in my life. The game is completely laid out in these 40+ pages, written in such a way that anyone can pick it up and be playing in a short amount of time, making it a perfect game to introduce new players to RPGs. FAE also can handle pretty much any genre you throw at it with just the basic rules provided, whether it's an original setting, or a pop-culture one. Add to that the extremely low cost, and you have an all-around winner.
May 5, 2015
Fate is something of a polarising system at the moment, evoking strong emotions - some love it, some hate it. After seeing a recommendation online, I decided to look into Fate's little brother, Fate Accelerated, as a possibility for playing with my children who are getting old enough to be introduced to RPGs.
As for fit to purpose, i'm not sure that Fate Accelerated is the one I will be using for the kids. It is certainly aimed, in some ways, at a younger set, with lots of recommendations that you play as your favourite characters - such as a young wizard at a school for wizardry, along with other less-than-subtle-but-not-completely-spelled-out pop culture references. That's why I thought it might be a good choice.
Generic roleplaying systems aren't a new thing; there have been many attempts to create a roleplaying system that allows you to play any setting, any type of game with one set of rules. Generally they haven't been hugely successful, though some have been successful enough to set up in niches of their own. (GURPS springs to mind here, whose simulationist approach and high standards of research have resulted in some amazing material that even people who don't like GURPS itself buy as reference material.)
FATE's approach to this, particularly fate accelerated, is to slim down the rules entirely to a rather intriguing idea of "aspects" and "approaches". Rather than a character sheet full of skills and attributes seeking to simulate the world, a character is made up of statements and properties such as "The fastest draw in the west" and "Captain of the starship excelsior", which can be brought into play to give a bonus to any roll where they might be argued to apply. FATE is a narrative game taken far over to the narrative side of the rpg fence, where the storygamers live, with all the shared worldbuilding, consensus gameplay and improvised stories that are part of that 'style' of roleplaying. To be honest, it is an intriguing system that I will like to put to the test some day.
What it lacks, however, is structure. Whilst some games (GURPS springs to mind again, as well as Pathfinder and D&D 3.5) built up so much structure, rules and exceptions that the game could easily topple under the weight of them, with GM's and player's alike lost trying to remember the rules to the game they were playing, Fate accelerated throws most of that out of the window in storygame fashion, giving a simple couple of mechanical rules and challenging the players and particularly the GMs to handle the heavy lifting and exceptions in narrative, with creative use of aspects.
It sounds fun, however for a first game with my little ones, I'm looking for something with a bit more structure to it.
Still, definitely worth a good look if you want something mechanically simple but capable of serving as a base for complex stories, or if you want something that you can use to run a game on very short notice, with little preparation.
As for fit to purpose, i'm not sure that Fate Accelerated is the one I will be using for the kids. It is certainly aimed, in some ways, at a younger set, with lots of recommendations that you play as your favourite characters - such as a young wizard at a school for wizardry, along with other less-than-subtle-but-not-completely-spelled-out pop culture references. That's why I thought it might be a good choice.
Generic roleplaying systems aren't a new thing; there have been many attempts to create a roleplaying system that allows you to play any setting, any type of game with one set of rules. Generally they haven't been hugely successful, though some have been successful enough to set up in niches of their own. (GURPS springs to mind here, whose simulationist approach and high standards of research have resulted in some amazing material that even people who don't like GURPS itself buy as reference material.)
FATE's approach to this, particularly fate accelerated, is to slim down the rules entirely to a rather intriguing idea of "aspects" and "approaches". Rather than a character sheet full of skills and attributes seeking to simulate the world, a character is made up of statements and properties such as "The fastest draw in the west" and "Captain of the starship excelsior", which can be brought into play to give a bonus to any roll where they might be argued to apply. FATE is a narrative game taken far over to the narrative side of the rpg fence, where the storygamers live, with all the shared worldbuilding, consensus gameplay and improvised stories that are part of that 'style' of roleplaying. To be honest, it is an intriguing system that I will like to put to the test some day.
What it lacks, however, is structure. Whilst some games (GURPS springs to mind again, as well as Pathfinder and D&D 3.5) built up so much structure, rules and exceptions that the game could easily topple under the weight of them, with GM's and player's alike lost trying to remember the rules to the game they were playing, Fate accelerated throws most of that out of the window in storygame fashion, giving a simple couple of mechanical rules and challenging the players and particularly the GMs to handle the heavy lifting and exceptions in narrative, with creative use of aspects.
It sounds fun, however for a first game with my little ones, I'm looking for something with a bit more structure to it.
Still, definitely worth a good look if you want something mechanically simple but capable of serving as a base for complex stories, or if you want something that you can use to run a game on very short notice, with little preparation.
Read
November 15, 2021Another Bundle of Holding — and folks, I am excited to inform you that I only have 8 more digital bundles to read/skim and review (and then I have all my physical copies and then the copies I borrow from the library*, and oy vey, I’ll never be done**!)
This was from a bundle called “Fate Worlds and Toolkits” and it included so much stuff (text copied and lightly edited from the Bundle of Holding blog):
Rulebooks and rule accessories
* All the rulebooks: Fate Core, Accelerated, and Condensed
* All the Fate Toolkit rules expansions: System, Adversary, Horror, Space, and the complete Fate Accessibility Toolkit
Several big campaigns, including
* Fate of Cthulhu,
* Shadow of the Century,
* Young Centurions,
* Kaiju Incorporated, and
* Tachyon Squadron (including the Tachyon Squadron corebook, Starfighter Academy, Those Who Were Here Before, Inside the Dominion of Unity, the Spaceship Construction Toolkit, and the Print and Play Spaceship Minis)
Several smaller campaigns/adventures, including:
* The setting collections Worlds on Fire (Tower of the Serpents, White Picket Witches, Fight Fire, Kriegszeppelin Valkyrie, Burn Shift, Wild Blue)
* and Worlds in Shadow (CrimeWorld, Timeworks, The Ellis Affair, No Exit, Court/Ship, Camelot Trigger)
* Fate Core - Worlds & Adventures 2014: Aether Sea, Romance in the Air, Save Game, The Secrets of Cats, Venture City.
* Worlds & Adventures 2015: The 3 Rocketeers, Behind the Walls, Eagle Eyes, Frontier Spirit, Gods and Monsters, House of Bards, Masters of Umdaar, Nest, Psychedemia, Sails Full of Stars, SLIP.
* Worlds & Adventures 2016: Blood on the Trail, Deep Dark Blue, Ghost Planets, Good Neighbors, Knights of Invasion, Loose Threads, Morts, Nitrate City, Red Planet, Under the Table.
* Worlds & Adventures 2017: Andromeda, On the Wall, Prism, So the Story Goes, Straw Boss, Uranium Chef.
* Worlds & Adventures 2018: The Agency, Arecibo, Crisp Line, Grimoire, The Ministry, The Way of the Pukona, Weird World News.
* Worlds & Adventures 2019: Almbrecht After Dark, The Clockwinders, Iron Street Combat, Ngen Mapu, Til Dawn, Wolf's Head.
That’s a lot of stuff to process and also, honestly, a lot of stuff I wouldn’t probably have bought otherwise. (I asked Rob Donoghue, Evil Hat co-founder, which Fate World he thought was the best-seller out of so many and he said “The Secrets of Cats”, which is a “magical kitties save the world” sort of game — which, like Garfield***, would be an instant buy for a certain type of cat fancier, of which I am not.)
So rather than go beat by beat through each book, let’s start with what I might want to play and what I take away from this experience as inspiration.
First, I really dig Fate Core, I also dig how they’ve broken it up into Fate Condensed (a shorter, less granular playbook, but still essentially the same game) and Fate Accelerated (a very similar game, with one key difference being that they drop out skills (what you can do) for an idea of “approaches” (how you do a thing, like “sneaky”, “clever”, “forceful”). That lets people choose how they want to play.
(The rule accessories and expansions likewise take a very toolkit approach, giving you some information on, for example, how to run horror in Fate in particular, and discussing different types of horror you might want to explore.)
Second, the Fate Worlds set is a great way to take an abstract system and pump out a few examples of how to put it into play and what sort of changes you might want to make. For instance, Fate is very much about “aspects” — short phrases that might define the character. Usually you have a high concept aspect, a trouble aspect, etc.; the steampunk romance “Romance in the Air” keeps those, but asks you to make some aspect (s)directly related to your desires and rejections.
The multiplicity of Fate Worlds also gives the space for some to be full-fleshed campaign worlds or some to be just adventures or some (looking at John Rogers’s “CrimeWorld” to just be toolkits for a certain type of story).
The downside to this approach is that each product is now also competing with all the other Fate Worlds for attention, whether purchase or play. This war for eyeballs might be one reason for why so many of these campaigns feel warmed over from an RPG or nerd-media perspective: like, there’s a fantasy in space which might as well be SpellJammer from D&D; and there’s superheroes; and there’s He-Man/She-Ra; and there’s King Arthur but in Space!; and Three Musketeers but in Space!!, etc. Another reason for this efflorescence of stuff that’s been done is due to something that I’ll call the “new coding language cul-de-sac”: in programming, when a new coding language starts taking off, a lot of people suddenly want to code their old, working stuff in this new hotness, to no great advantage other than resume padding. So here, now that Fate Core is out, let’s do all the settings in Fate Core! At least, that’s what it sometimes feels like.
That said, there are some standout products and crazy ideas, like the full-contact sci-fi cooking show of “Uranium Chef”; or the “we all play the same character, a super-powered nobody who has been dragooned into spy work” of “The Agency” (and yes, that’s the concept behind the TV show Chuck, and yes, the “we all play the same character” has been done before in RPGs — and is called out as inspiration — but not quite like this); or the mash-up of French court politics with an alien invasion of “Court/Ship”; or the Roman Empire noir of “Eagle Eyes”; or the “you investigate dead planets and try to figure out what killed the aliens” of “Ghost Worlds”.
(I am still somewhat amused but confused that there are two separate works that are inspired by the Mapuche people and mythology. Also two involve characters known as “Frankenstein’s Mobster.”)
That said, which of these am I dying to play? Uh, well, I mean, I would be open to many of them, I would be hesitate to play a few, but there’s none that stands out as the thing to play right now. Maybe this is just an effect of binging them all in so short a time, but I didn’t feel a strong connection to any.
One last note about Fate of Cthulhu: it has a fascinating premise, but is up front that this is more Terminator than Innsmouth: someone from a monster-dominated future comes back to warn people and has some idea about what caused Cthulhu (or Dagon or the King in Yellow, etc.) to rise to power, so you now have a set series of adventures to run to stop them before you all fall into monstrous corruption. It’s a fun framework, not very Lovecraftian except maybe for that notion of doom that’s coming for you, both personally and impersonally.
*Library update: I wrote the APL to ask what was up with the RPG selection and a nice librarian wrote back to say: (a) up to a few years ago, they only had D&D and some old odds and ends like Hardwired, but he’s a gamer so tried to broaden the collection; (b) but they are limited to what books their distributor has.
**Though also, Goodreads tells me that I've reviewed Fate Core, Fate Accelerated, and the Adversary Toolkit before and I have no distinct memory of that, so maybe one reason this project will never end is because I'll keep picking up the same few books until I figure out that I've read them. (Or maybe each time I will skim different parts.)
***You know the story of how Jim Davis saw how popular Snoopy was for dog lovers and saw there was no comparable cat in the market?
This was from a bundle called “Fate Worlds and Toolkits” and it included so much stuff (text copied and lightly edited from the Bundle of Holding blog):
Rulebooks and rule accessories
* All the rulebooks: Fate Core, Accelerated, and Condensed
* All the Fate Toolkit rules expansions: System, Adversary, Horror, Space, and the complete Fate Accessibility Toolkit
Several big campaigns, including
* Fate of Cthulhu,
* Shadow of the Century,
* Young Centurions,
* Kaiju Incorporated, and
* Tachyon Squadron (including the Tachyon Squadron corebook, Starfighter Academy, Those Who Were Here Before, Inside the Dominion of Unity, the Spaceship Construction Toolkit, and the Print and Play Spaceship Minis)
Several smaller campaigns/adventures, including:
* The setting collections Worlds on Fire (Tower of the Serpents, White Picket Witches, Fight Fire, Kriegszeppelin Valkyrie, Burn Shift, Wild Blue)
* and Worlds in Shadow (CrimeWorld, Timeworks, The Ellis Affair, No Exit, Court/Ship, Camelot Trigger)
* Fate Core - Worlds & Adventures 2014: Aether Sea, Romance in the Air, Save Game, The Secrets of Cats, Venture City.
* Worlds & Adventures 2015: The 3 Rocketeers, Behind the Walls, Eagle Eyes, Frontier Spirit, Gods and Monsters, House of Bards, Masters of Umdaar, Nest, Psychedemia, Sails Full of Stars, SLIP.
* Worlds & Adventures 2016: Blood on the Trail, Deep Dark Blue, Ghost Planets, Good Neighbors, Knights of Invasion, Loose Threads, Morts, Nitrate City, Red Planet, Under the Table.
* Worlds & Adventures 2017: Andromeda, On the Wall, Prism, So the Story Goes, Straw Boss, Uranium Chef.
* Worlds & Adventures 2018: The Agency, Arecibo, Crisp Line, Grimoire, The Ministry, The Way of the Pukona, Weird World News.
* Worlds & Adventures 2019: Almbrecht After Dark, The Clockwinders, Iron Street Combat, Ngen Mapu, Til Dawn, Wolf's Head.
That’s a lot of stuff to process and also, honestly, a lot of stuff I wouldn’t probably have bought otherwise. (I asked Rob Donoghue, Evil Hat co-founder, which Fate World he thought was the best-seller out of so many and he said “The Secrets of Cats”, which is a “magical kitties save the world” sort of game — which, like Garfield***, would be an instant buy for a certain type of cat fancier, of which I am not.)
So rather than go beat by beat through each book, let’s start with what I might want to play and what I take away from this experience as inspiration.
First, I really dig Fate Core, I also dig how they’ve broken it up into Fate Condensed (a shorter, less granular playbook, but still essentially the same game) and Fate Accelerated (a very similar game, with one key difference being that they drop out skills (what you can do) for an idea of “approaches” (how you do a thing, like “sneaky”, “clever”, “forceful”). That lets people choose how they want to play.
(The rule accessories and expansions likewise take a very toolkit approach, giving you some information on, for example, how to run horror in Fate in particular, and discussing different types of horror you might want to explore.)
Second, the Fate Worlds set is a great way to take an abstract system and pump out a few examples of how to put it into play and what sort of changes you might want to make. For instance, Fate is very much about “aspects” — short phrases that might define the character. Usually you have a high concept aspect, a trouble aspect, etc.; the steampunk romance “Romance in the Air” keeps those, but asks you to make some aspect (s)directly related to your desires and rejections.
The multiplicity of Fate Worlds also gives the space for some to be full-fleshed campaign worlds or some to be just adventures or some (looking at John Rogers’s “CrimeWorld” to just be toolkits for a certain type of story).
The downside to this approach is that each product is now also competing with all the other Fate Worlds for attention, whether purchase or play. This war for eyeballs might be one reason for why so many of these campaigns feel warmed over from an RPG or nerd-media perspective: like, there’s a fantasy in space which might as well be SpellJammer from D&D; and there’s superheroes; and there’s He-Man/She-Ra; and there’s King Arthur but in Space!; and Three Musketeers but in Space!!, etc. Another reason for this efflorescence of stuff that’s been done is due to something that I’ll call the “new coding language cul-de-sac”: in programming, when a new coding language starts taking off, a lot of people suddenly want to code their old, working stuff in this new hotness, to no great advantage other than resume padding. So here, now that Fate Core is out, let’s do all the settings in Fate Core! At least, that’s what it sometimes feels like.
That said, there are some standout products and crazy ideas, like the full-contact sci-fi cooking show of “Uranium Chef”; or the “we all play the same character, a super-powered nobody who has been dragooned into spy work” of “The Agency” (and yes, that’s the concept behind the TV show Chuck, and yes, the “we all play the same character” has been done before in RPGs — and is called out as inspiration — but not quite like this); or the mash-up of French court politics with an alien invasion of “Court/Ship”; or the Roman Empire noir of “Eagle Eyes”; or the “you investigate dead planets and try to figure out what killed the aliens” of “Ghost Worlds”.
(I am still somewhat amused but confused that there are two separate works that are inspired by the Mapuche people and mythology. Also two involve characters known as “Frankenstein’s Mobster.”)
That said, which of these am I dying to play? Uh, well, I mean, I would be open to many of them, I would be hesitate to play a few, but there’s none that stands out as the thing to play right now. Maybe this is just an effect of binging them all in so short a time, but I didn’t feel a strong connection to any.
One last note about Fate of Cthulhu: it has a fascinating premise, but is up front that this is more Terminator than Innsmouth: someone from a monster-dominated future comes back to warn people and has some idea about what caused Cthulhu (or Dagon or the King in Yellow, etc.) to rise to power, so you now have a set series of adventures to run to stop them before you all fall into monstrous corruption. It’s a fun framework, not very Lovecraftian except maybe for that notion of doom that’s coming for you, both personally and impersonally.
*Library update: I wrote the APL to ask what was up with the RPG selection and a nice librarian wrote back to say: (a) up to a few years ago, they only had D&D and some old odds and ends like Hardwired, but he’s a gamer so tried to broaden the collection; (b) but they are limited to what books their distributor has.
**Though also, Goodreads tells me that I've reviewed Fate Core, Fate Accelerated, and the Adversary Toolkit before and I have no distinct memory of that, so maybe one reason this project will never end is because I'll keep picking up the same few books until I figure out that I've read them. (Or maybe each time I will skim different parts.)
***You know the story of how Jim Davis saw how popular Snoopy was for dog lovers and saw there was no comparable cat in the market?
December 3, 2015
I read through the Fate Core rulebook about two years ago and I remember it being a fun informative read into the system, filled with useful examples. My Husband got a recent spike of inspiration and wanted to run a game but didn't feel like going though the Fate Core book again so he got Fate Accelerated instead (great for me as well since I didn't feel like going though the core book again...although now I sort of want too)
Fate Accelerated (or FAE for short) condenses the Fate Core (FC) rulebook's 310 pages into a crisp 50, making it for a quick read (I finished in less than 2 days) allowing for quick and easy play. Mechanically the differences between FAE and FC are few and their main purpose seems to be simplifying an already accessible system. There are also fewer detailed examples but there are still helpful examples and since access to both of these books can be obtained for the price of free if more examples are needed they are readily available (along with tons of other resources).
If you have any interest in role playing games but the complexity of D&D or other big name systems (I'm looking at you Pathfinder) intimidates you FAE might just be the system to ease you into table top gaming.
Fate Accelerated (or FAE for short) condenses the Fate Core (FC) rulebook's 310 pages into a crisp 50, making it for a quick read (I finished in less than 2 days) allowing for quick and easy play. Mechanically the differences between FAE and FC are few and their main purpose seems to be simplifying an already accessible system. There are also fewer detailed examples but there are still helpful examples and since access to both of these books can be obtained for the price of free if more examples are needed they are readily available (along with tons of other resources).
If you have any interest in role playing games but the complexity of D&D or other big name systems (I'm looking at you Pathfinder) intimidates you FAE might just be the system to ease you into table top gaming.
September 22, 2013
While I prefer the Fate Core rules for their extra detail, these rules appear to be excellent for quickly developing one-shot games using the Fate system.
April 2, 2014
Finished this in one sitting. What a fantastic system. Really itching to give this a go, as well as check out the full Fate Core system.
December 19, 2015
A powerful, flexible system that emphasizes roleplaying over mechanics. And it's quick to read, and available for free. No real bad points come to mind.
June 23, 2025
I read this before, but I wanted to re-evaluate it in the face of reading ”Starblazer Adventures”.
It seems that these rules are the minimum amount of rules for FATE and ”Starblazer Adventures” represents the maximum amount of rules for it.
Fate Dice are used as normal. These are six-sided dice with 1-2=-, 3-4=(blank), 5-6=+.
Characters are created with 3 Aspects (a high concept and a trouble and something else). These are simply descriptive statements.
So far the only unusual thing (from other Fudge/Fate rules) in these rules is the “Approaches” rules. You basically have to give yourself a score in Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick and Sneaky.
You also have a Refresh number. The number of Fate points you start each game with. This is 3. You also start with one Stunt.
All dice rolls result in Fail, Tie, Succeed or Succeed with Style. I find this a little limiting actually. I can think of much more interesting variations.
There are also only four different kinds of dice rolls in the game. Create an Advantage, Overcome, Attack and Defend. Your Approach will modify this depending on the circumstances.
Contests are Overcome rolls with the highest result winning.
I can’t believe there’s not a character sheet in this book!
Stress is sort of like damage. You can take one hit per stress box. You have 3. You can also take Consequences. You have 3. These are Aspects (the only example given is Sprained Ankle) when you are hurt. If you get hurt more than 6 you are Taken Out. The winner gets to describe what that means.
The Consequences you take from being taken out get better over either a scene, a session or a scenario. Which sounds pretty sketchy, depending on what the Consequences are but that’s all on the GM to design. Once again making FATE a design-your-own-roleplaying-game game.
The artwork is fine and there’s plenty of it. Nothing overly impressive.
Defining Aspects exposes the major weakness of this game.
”I’ll Get You, von Stendahl!” and ”Hair Trigger Nerves”
These are the two examples. And they are already causing me a headache.
Stunts are also player defined and have the same issues. Note that none of the issues have to do with players intending the abuse the rules. It’s just that without rules, making stuff up requires a helluva lot arbitration (or arguing) and a lot of it won’t matter until time comes in the game to try to adjudicate the ability. At least they give you a ‘Mad Libs’ for Stunts!
Character Advancement is called ‘Milestone’ but Minor Milestones can happen every session and with that you can make some pretty significant changes to a character. The Significant and Major milestones are also generous. The Significant milestone suggests every two or three sessions!
One thing about this game is that it makes it pretty clear that if you really want to play it, you need to get Fate Core instead. :/
Setting Difficulty Levels contains the same flaw most games do. There is not percentage probabilities given for the difficulty levels. Also, as written the Approach taken is completely insignificant. It mentions that it might be, but then just leaves it to arguing it out.
There are also rules for Mooks and Gangs of Mooks. Weak, low-level henchmen the PCs can mow down in droves, but the GM treats as one person. I’m still not sure how these will work in play - I’ve never seen it be tried.
Example Characters seem fine, but I have the same questions that any player would have.
”Suncaller of the Andral Desert”
Are we playing in a desert? What’s a Suncaller? Is this useful outside of a desert?
”I Can Learn from Serio’s Experience”
Who is Serio? Is he another player? What does that mean? Can he teach me?
The cat person poses similar. The only thing in her abilities is the High Concept of Feline and the description that says she nods off at odd moments. You can guess the other questions.
ALL of the sample characters have a Stunt that lets them take 1 or 2 more stunts without reducing refresh! This sounds like it’s something every character should take!
”My Inventions Almost Always Work. Almost.”
Why wouldn’t you take ‘My Inventions Always Work.’ You’d be stupid not to.
I get why the GM wouldn’t want you to, but I don’t know any player that would want to.
Well, at the end of the day this $5 Fate Accelerated game seems like the type of ‘teaser’ game offered on Free RPG Day!
I’d love to see someone run this game based on this book alone, but I sincerely doubt that this has ever happened.
I’ll give it 3 for being interesting, but subtract 1 from being a bait-and-switch. 2 stars.
June 9, 2023
[Read]
The system looks very interesting to me and I'd like to try it out. I like the idea of "approaches" to put a mechanical spin on *how* you carry out an action. I'm intrigued by the very collaborative nature. I'm a little intimidated by the idea of coming up with all loosely-defined improvisatory approaches, action outcomes, and for that matter a whole setting and genre to play in.
The system is packed into a neat little 50-page softcover, but unfortunately, it accelerates a little too much and veers off the road at times. Crucial explanations are missing or cut short, like how the game modes work (especially Challenge), and which actions you can take when, and whether they use your turn ("exchange") or not.
I was flipping back and forth over and over getting half-mad trying to understand who pays fate points to whom when doing what with which aspects, until I looked in the Fate Core SRD, where it was made a lot clearer. You'd think the economy of the game's most important resource would be a little more clearly stated.
While the system seems cool, I would recommend even a newcomer to read the full Fate Core book, unless reading 300 pages is truly impossible to fit in their schedule. The Core book explains all the concepts more clearly and has loads of examples. *Then* read Accelerated, to see if you prefer approaches instead of skills. All of Fate is available online for free (as SRD or as pay-what-you-want PDFs), so that's very nice.
The system looks very interesting to me and I'd like to try it out. I like the idea of "approaches" to put a mechanical spin on *how* you carry out an action. I'm intrigued by the very collaborative nature. I'm a little intimidated by the idea of coming up with all loosely-defined improvisatory approaches, action outcomes, and for that matter a whole setting and genre to play in.
The system is packed into a neat little 50-page softcover, but unfortunately, it accelerates a little too much and veers off the road at times. Crucial explanations are missing or cut short, like how the game modes work (especially Challenge), and which actions you can take when, and whether they use your turn ("exchange") or not.
I was flipping back and forth over and over getting half-mad trying to understand who pays fate points to whom when doing what with which aspects, until I looked in the Fate Core SRD, where it was made a lot clearer. You'd think the economy of the game's most important resource would be a little more clearly stated.
While the system seems cool, I would recommend even a newcomer to read the full Fate Core book, unless reading 300 pages is truly impossible to fit in their schedule. The Core book explains all the concepts more clearly and has loads of examples. *Then* read Accelerated, to see if you prefer approaches instead of skills. All of Fate is available online for free (as SRD or as pay-what-you-want PDFs), so that's very nice.
April 22, 2022
Re-reading after not playing or running Fate for a couple of years, in preparation for a one shot I'd be running this weekend. Made me again appreciate how good the system is for one shots or small campaigns.
There is a lot to love about the system, such as a strong central mechanic, rules lightness and of course how the system pushes you to run/play the game in a certain fashion (pulp, high octane, action).
The negatives are that it does require a high player buy in. This is not really suitable for players who sit quietly and roll a dice now and again letting the gm run the story, which you can get away with doing in DnD. Players and not just characters have to be proactively working together with a GM to tell a communal story. As players are exposed to mechanics of the storytelling more here than in a more traditional rpg.
In saying that for a book that is just short of 50 pages, it definitely packs a punch and has a potential to get you through years of enjoyment and playing.
If I could only keep and play one roleplaying game for the rest of my life Fate and its variants (Fate Accelerated is a more streamlined, basic version of it) would be it. Thankfully I do not need to make this choice.
There is a lot to love about the system, such as a strong central mechanic, rules lightness and of course how the system pushes you to run/play the game in a certain fashion (pulp, high octane, action).
The negatives are that it does require a high player buy in. This is not really suitable for players who sit quietly and roll a dice now and again letting the gm run the story, which you can get away with doing in DnD. Players and not just characters have to be proactively working together with a GM to tell a communal story. As players are exposed to mechanics of the storytelling more here than in a more traditional rpg.
In saying that for a book that is just short of 50 pages, it definitely packs a punch and has a potential to get you through years of enjoyment and playing.
If I could only keep and play one roleplaying game for the rest of my life Fate and its variants (Fate Accelerated is a more streamlined, basic version of it) would be it. Thankfully I do not need to make this choice.
July 16, 2018
I have ran this system, incorrectly I realized now that I have finished reading this book. Quick stand alone introduction to the Fate System. The layout is done well and the few times the system has to refer to a concept that you haven’t been introduced to yet is pointed out. As well as referenced in the margins.
The system lends itself to over the top pulp action games from the initial read through and the few experiences that I have ran.
As far as the price you can’t go wrong purchasing 4 or 5 copies from your FLGS and handing out to your group when introducing the game to them. Otherwise keep in mind from www.evilhat.com you can get the game in PDF for no cost and the Fate SRD is a handy reference guide when you are out and about.
Happy adventures.
The system lends itself to over the top pulp action games from the initial read through and the few experiences that I have ran.
As far as the price you can’t go wrong purchasing 4 or 5 copies from your FLGS and handing out to your group when introducing the game to them. Otherwise keep in mind from www.evilhat.com you can get the game in PDF for no cost and the Fate SRD is a handy reference guide when you are out and about.
Happy adventures.
April 30, 2020
La verdad es que al ser un manual super reducido le pueden faltar algunos ejemplos para entender alguna mecánica. Es Casi más un libro para los jugadores que para el máster.
El sistema Fate me encanta, esta versión acelerada está muy bien para cuando no quieres complicarte la vida al crear personajes ya que con "los estilos" cubres todas las necesidades, pero quizás es más complejo de entender eso que entender unas habilidades propias.
El sistema Fate me encanta, esta versión acelerada está muy bien para cuando no quieres complicarte la vida al crear personajes ya que con "los estilos" cubres todas las necesidades, pero quizás es más complejo de entender eso que entender unas habilidades propias.
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May 3, 2023I want to have a tinker with this, mess around with it a bit, because at the moment I'm in two minds about it: I love the flexibility and the briefness of it all (a rulebook you can read in one sitting!) but I'm getting sick of systems claiming they're fast and easy and then describing a basic action resolution system that has five steps and multiple fiddly little bits of maths. Still, I think there might be something here I can use.
August 2, 2017
Es el mismo libro que Fate Core System pero condensado en 50 páginas. Se han reducido las acciones y las características y permite definir un poco menos el personaje. Se elimina la creación de la partida, muchos ejemplos y explicaciones, pero por precio y calidad, vale la pena tenerlo regalarlo.
November 20, 2018
I need to give this a test drive, but they actually make a solid generic system more compact. This is a very very basic system in a very very simple pamphlet edition. Don't expect anything more than that.
October 3, 2023
This is not my favorite RPG (free/pay what you want at DriveThruTPG) . It is very flexible. I paired this with TRICK OR TREAT A Fate Accelerated adventure by Michael Goldrich (28 pages, at DriveThruRPG, $1).
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January 11, 2026Решил-таки ознакомиться с единственной НРИ-системой, рулбук которой стоит на моей полке. Решил начать с FAE.
Хорошее описание, но все еще есть вопросы по трактовкам. Точно нужно после прочтения прийти к шарящему человеку и уточнить отдельные моменты.
Хорошее описание, но все еще есть вопросы по трактовкам. Точно нужно после прочтения прийти к шарящему человеку и уточнить отдельные моменты.
February 6, 2017
A good, quick guide to a system that is simple in concept but complex (at least in terms of creativity required) in execution.
March 22, 2021
Besides the fact that I consider that Fate lacks modularity and more generic mechanics to actually be an adaptable system, the book lacks clarity. The flow of the book doesn't follow the game flow, and some rules are ambiguous.
August 1, 2021
A great tabletop role-playing game for pulp action in any setting you choose.
January 15, 2023
Una revisión simplificada del sistema FATE. Si no buscas algo muy complicado está bastante bien, y es de esos juegos que puedes leer en una tarde y jugar en una noche.
March 23, 2024
Just enough crunch to turn pure improv into a game!
October 1, 2014
When we moved overseas, I packed up my mammoth collection of roleplaying game rulebooks, with one exception. Fate Accelerated is a complete roleplaying system that weighs in at under 50 pages, and allows for running a game in any setting that the GM wants to think up. It was the perfect "I can only fit one rpg book into the suitcase" book.
I read this cover-to-cover as part of a "Read An RPG Book In Public Week" that I discovered over on Facebook, and so I've spent the past few days pulling it out during my morning commute on the Ho Chi Minh City bus system.
Obviously, a game really needs to be played to be truly experienced, and I have only run the game on one occasion, and that was with me playing pretty fast-and-loose with the rules.
I did find that reading the whole book gave me a much better sense of the total system than I gained by just trying to dive right in an run a session. That being said, I felt like the book could have been better organized in its presentation. There is a lot of mention of rules "which will be explained in a future chapter", which felt like the kind of thing that could be minimized with better organization.
The game is highly cooperative, with players having a much bigger role in determining the course of the story than they do in something like Dungeons & Dragons. There is heavy emphasis on storytelling, and the gameplay is minimized. This suits my style of GMing very well, and I love the fact that I don't have to learn huge amounts of rules to run a game.
People who love characters with very detailed powers and lots of game-mechanic-based strategy are not going to find this as enjoyable.
But as mentioned, it fits my style of play, and it allows me to very quickly adapt ideas for worlds into playable settings. It's free as an ebook and $5 for the hard copy. Compare that to the well over $100 investment you'd have to make for the new D&D edition (which, to be fair, does have a free "basic set" ebook available).
I haven't played enough to really see what this system can do, but it has loads of potential in a small, easily transportable package.
I read this cover-to-cover as part of a "Read An RPG Book In Public Week" that I discovered over on Facebook, and so I've spent the past few days pulling it out during my morning commute on the Ho Chi Minh City bus system.
Obviously, a game really needs to be played to be truly experienced, and I have only run the game on one occasion, and that was with me playing pretty fast-and-loose with the rules.
I did find that reading the whole book gave me a much better sense of the total system than I gained by just trying to dive right in an run a session. That being said, I felt like the book could have been better organized in its presentation. There is a lot of mention of rules "which will be explained in a future chapter", which felt like the kind of thing that could be minimized with better organization.
The game is highly cooperative, with players having a much bigger role in determining the course of the story than they do in something like Dungeons & Dragons. There is heavy emphasis on storytelling, and the gameplay is minimized. This suits my style of GMing very well, and I love the fact that I don't have to learn huge amounts of rules to run a game.
People who love characters with very detailed powers and lots of game-mechanic-based strategy are not going to find this as enjoyable.
But as mentioned, it fits my style of play, and it allows me to very quickly adapt ideas for worlds into playable settings. It's free as an ebook and $5 for the hard copy. Compare that to the well over $100 investment you'd have to make for the new D&D edition (which, to be fair, does have a free "basic set" ebook available).
I haven't played enough to really see what this system can do, but it has loads of potential in a small, easily transportable package.
October 6, 2013
I supported the kickstarter because FATE has always seemed a popular game and I wanted to actually dig into the system in a tangible way.
I sprang for the physical copy of the Accelerated rules because a) I'm poor and b) FATE core is many, many pages long and I have limited time to read about games at the moment.
However, FATE core is now on my to-read list, albeit in the middle of the stack.
The rules are very much abstracted and for me at least required almost a second entire readthrough. I can't really imagine explaining the rules to someone so that we could play the game. That said, I could see actually drawing out the relationships between the rules to explain to someone why the parts of entirely unrelated game systems worked or didn't work, so that's cool.
My biggest beef might be with the abbreviated (or rather, accelerated) nature of the rules--being so abstract they really do require gameplay examples. Of course, this is meant to quick-start a FATE one-shot, so it's like complaining that your lite beer is unfilling. The character sheets in the back are very useful and I like the way that the rules are compressed into an informative index and then that the rule sections themselves actually contain "thirty seconds" sidebars that allow for quick comprehension. I think indie game designers should use this book as a primer for how to explain their own convoluted systems--I know I'm taking a few things away from this to make my own indie game rulebook a better experience.
Worth playing? eh. Worth $5? Certainly (if you're interested in reading about game systems/game theory/collaborative narration theory at all).
I sprang for the physical copy of the Accelerated rules because a) I'm poor and b) FATE core is many, many pages long and I have limited time to read about games at the moment.
However, FATE core is now on my to-read list, albeit in the middle of the stack.
The rules are very much abstracted and for me at least required almost a second entire readthrough. I can't really imagine explaining the rules to someone so that we could play the game. That said, I could see actually drawing out the relationships between the rules to explain to someone why the parts of entirely unrelated game systems worked or didn't work, so that's cool.
My biggest beef might be with the abbreviated (or rather, accelerated) nature of the rules--being so abstract they really do require gameplay examples. Of course, this is meant to quick-start a FATE one-shot, so it's like complaining that your lite beer is unfilling. The character sheets in the back are very useful and I like the way that the rules are compressed into an informative index and then that the rule sections themselves actually contain "thirty seconds" sidebars that allow for quick comprehension. I think indie game designers should use this book as a primer for how to explain their own convoluted systems--I know I'm taking a few things away from this to make my own indie game rulebook a better experience.
Worth playing? eh. Worth $5? Certainly (if you're interested in reading about game systems/game theory/collaborative narration theory at all).
August 29, 2015
A very different sort of role-playing system, which demands creativity from the players as much as the GM. It's not mechanically complicated, but it has the potential to be very complicated in play, since everyone is basically rewriting the story on the fly. I'm not sure it's right for me and my group, but we're going to give it a try... I admire the book, in any case, as it's efficient and brief. It's one of the best presentations of a rule system I've ever seen. I also appreciate that, in terms of design, it's clearly intended to appeal to teens - a very sensible move many RPGs fail to make nowadays.
I only have two major complaints. One, the GM section is very light, and doesn't provide much assistance in designing settings (which appears to be critical to getting the game right). Two, connected to that, they don't have as many examples as I'd like. They outright expect you to seek out Fate Core for both, which I suppose is fair (that's the primary product, this is the lighter version), but I still see that as a minus. Still, I don't think those drawbacks prevent you from understanding the rules - I think I got the gist, even if it took me a reread. But I'm an experienced GM, so it might be a different story for novice gamers. (A-)
I only have two major complaints. One, the GM section is very light, and doesn't provide much assistance in designing settings (which appears to be critical to getting the game right). Two, connected to that, they don't have as many examples as I'd like. They outright expect you to seek out Fate Core for both, which I suppose is fair (that's the primary product, this is the lighter version), but I still see that as a minus. Still, I don't think those drawbacks prevent you from understanding the rules - I think I got the gist, even if it took me a reread. But I'm an experienced GM, so it might be a different story for novice gamers. (A-)
November 20, 2016
Short and to the point introduction to FATE system rules. A lot like Anima Prime (or perhaps vice versa? Don't know).
Your character consists of high concept (lone gunman with a past) trouble (I will protect all Jenkins brothers), few other aspects (snakes are my pets, quick on the draw, my gun has seven bullets), name, appearance, approaches' ratings (how you like handling things, from most to least, you order: Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Careful, Sneaky, Clever) and a stunt - special thing you can use in some circumstances (because "I like fanning" I get +2 to Forceful attack when I'm outnumbered) or somewhat more powerful once per game session (because "I still live despite being a gunman", once per game I can ignore a hit that would've taken me out otherwise).
The book gives you character sheet, example characters, conflict rules, few pages for GM to set a campaign, few pages about growing your character and good explanation for aspects, fate points, actions, consequences, damage and how to use them.
Upon reading I'll definitely lead few sessions like that, then we shall see if my impressions will change. Most of the "tricky questions" I had upon first reading were answered, so despite the brevity, the contents seems well-chosen.
Your character consists of high concept (lone gunman with a past) trouble (I will protect all Jenkins brothers), few other aspects (snakes are my pets, quick on the draw, my gun has seven bullets), name, appearance, approaches' ratings (how you like handling things, from most to least, you order: Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Careful, Sneaky, Clever) and a stunt - special thing you can use in some circumstances (because "I like fanning" I get +2 to Forceful attack when I'm outnumbered) or somewhat more powerful once per game session (because "I still live despite being a gunman", once per game I can ignore a hit that would've taken me out otherwise).
The book gives you character sheet, example characters, conflict rules, few pages for GM to set a campaign, few pages about growing your character and good explanation for aspects, fate points, actions, consequences, damage and how to use them.
Upon reading I'll definitely lead few sessions like that, then we shall see if my impressions will change. Most of the "tricky questions" I had upon first reading were answered, so despite the brevity, the contents seems well-chosen.
July 28, 2013
This is a fairly quick read and seems like a good introduction to Fate. It's certainly gotten me interested in checking out the full length core book. I like the heavy focus on the narrative over the mechanics, though I like what mechanics there are, especially the way aspects work. It's especially nice to see advice about ensuring that everyone has fun and that each hero doesn't have to be the best all the time. I like that it's clear it's okay for characters to screw up as long as it makes the plot more interesting. I feel like this book contains enough to run a game, but just barely. I think this would work quite well for a new player, but I'm not sure there's enough concrete advice here for a new GM. Overall, though, five bucks is well worth it to finally check out Fate, and I could imagine having a lot of fun with just this book, even if I'd probably want to branch out to the full book after a little while.
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