FATE Numenera/Introduction

It's a billion years in the future, and humanity is once again spreading across the Earth.

In the intervening years, eight great civilizations (some human; some not) have risen, accomplished amazing things, and spread across time and space before each eventually died, scattered, disappeared, or transcended.

You live in the remnants of their world, as you struggle to make it your own. This is the Ninth World: the world of Numenera.

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In the world of Numenera, what some call 'magic' is actually poorly-understood ancient technology, unearthed and cobbled together by people who are trying to survive and thrive. Unseen nanites blanket everything, and those who have found ways to harness them are known as Nanos--the techno-mages of the Ninth World.

Beside them stand those who have learned to fight--to defend their peoples; to attack their enemies. Some take up arms left them by those who have gone before, and others prefer less-flashy but more reliable basic human technologies like swords and armor. Collectively, they are known as Glaives.

In between are those who forge their own way in the world, deciding for themselves how to best deal with the threats that assail them and their communities, and accomplish the tasks that stand between them and their dreams. They are jack-of-all-trades, or, more generally, Jacks.

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When we start our game, we'll create our immediate setting and our characters in the first session. If you already have an idea for a character, great! If not, you should get an idea of the possibilities during our setting creation. Don't worry--you can always modify your character (or even develop a new one) if your first attempt doesn't end up working the way you had hoped. The basic 'classes' are listed above: Nano (specialist techno-mage), Glaive (specialist fighter), and Jack (generalist). Your choice will influence the suite of skills you end up with, as well as the class-related special abilities you can choose.

(I should also mention: our setting is Numenera, which comes with a world and its own set of rules. However, we'll be using the core rules of the FATE system, since I have a pretty good handle on how to make that work, and the veterans in our group do as well. So if you're reading the Numenera book, mostly pay attention to the style and setting, and don't worry about the rules so much--we'll be importing a lot of the concepts and abilities, but the mechanics will be translated to FATE's system of Skills and Stunts.)

We'll go over this in our first session, but the basic outline is:

• Decide on the scope of the adventure
• Pick a couple broad 'issues' that you and the world are dealing with
• Create a few 'faces and places'--people you'll be interacting with, and nearby places of note.

From there, we move to character creation. The basic overview is:

• Come up with a 'high concept'.
• Come up with a 'trouble'--something that plagues you
• Come up with a brief recap of an adventure you were on before.
• Add yourself to someone else's adventure (Also, see 'Character Descriptors' and 'Character Focus', below)
• Add yourself to a different person's adventure (Also, see 'Character Descriptors' and 'Character Focus', below)
• Decide your Skills
• Pick some 'stunts':
  • One stunt from the 'Character Focus' list (or make up one of your own along those lines) *Note: the Character Descriptor list includes 'ways you interact with/have interacted with other members of the party'. You might want to keep this in mind when adding yourself to someone's adventure.
  • Two stunts from the 'Esoteries' list for your character class (or make up your own along those lines)
  • One stunt from the 'Character Descriptors' list (or make up your own along those lines, or pick from the optional 'mutant' list). *Note: the Character Descriptor list includes 'ways you met the other members of the party'. You might want to keep this in mind when adding yourself to someone's adventure.
  • Note: We will have to adjust the above stunts to fit the FATE rules--pick something that sounds cool based on the description, and we'll work out what that means mechanically in the new FATE setting. Some common forms that Stunts take:
    • Use [skill] to accomplish something otherwise impossible: Example: 'Exists Partially Out of Phase': Use 'Will' to phase through a wall; 'Rides the Lightning': use Lore(Numenera) to inflict electrical damage once per encounter; 'Controls Beasts': may use any social skill on animals as well as humans.
    • Get a +2 bonus in [situation]. Example: 'Hunts with Great Skill': +2 to Stealth or Investigate rolls when hunting; 'Explores Dark Places': +2 to Investigate or Craft rolls when exploring ancient ruins.
    • Ignore the rules in [situation]. Example: 'Carries a Quiver': Can use the 'Shoot' skill even when melee fighting.
  • Note 2: You may forgo choosing any of the above stunts in favor of upgrading one of your other stunts.