FATE Numenera/Introduction

Summary

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.

Characters

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.

Creating the World

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 (local, regional, national, global, or alternating between any of those levels).
• Pick a couple broad 'issues' that you and the world are dealing with, either existing or imminent (storms here vs. storms on the horizon, or one of each).
• Create a few 'faces and places'--people you'll be interacting with, and nearby places of note.

Creating our Characters

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

1. Come up with a 'high concept': how could you describe your character in a single phrase? Should include or imply your Class (Nano/Glaive/Jack).
2. Come up with a 'trouble'--something that plagues you, either due to your actions ('addicted to gambling') or due to the actions of others ('family of moochers'). This could also be a mutation that you have that causes you grief.
3. Come up with a history for yourself and a connection to your fellow players. May be done before or after skills/stunts:
   • Come up with a brief summary of an adventure you were on once. (One possibility: choose from or roll on the 'Origin of Special Powers' table in the 'Character Focus' chapter.)
   • 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)
4. Decide your skills and stunts. May be done before or after history/connections:
   • Decide your Skills. Everything your character does is covered by a skill; you choose which ones you want to be great at, good at, etc. The number and level of the skill slots you have available is determined by your Character class
   • Pick four 'stunts'. There are three places to get stunts from; by default, get one Focus Stunt, one Descriptor Stunt, and two Class Stunts. Alternatively, you can choose one fewer stunt from any of those categories, and upgrade a stunt or get an additional stunt from another category:
     • One stunt from the 'Character Focus' list in the Numenera book (or make up one of your own along those lines) *Note: the Character Focus 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 'class stunts' from your character class in the Numenera book (Glaive/Fighting Moves; Nano/Esoteries; Jack/Tricks of the Trade) (or make up your own along those lines)
     • One stunt from the 'Character Descriptors' list in the Numenera book (or make up your own along those lines, or pick from the optional 'Mutants and Races' 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; 'Controls Beasts': may use any social skill on animals as well as humans; 'Fights With Panache': a successful attack gives a +1 to allies.
       • 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.
       • Use [skill1] instead of [skill2] in [situation]. Example: 'Talks to Machines': Use any social skill instead of Lore(Tech) when interacting with a functioning machine; 'Rides the Lightning': use a Lore skill instead of Fight for a melee attack that inflicts electrical damage once per encounter (Lore(Tech) if the ability is technological in origin; Lore(Biology) if biological).
     • Note 2: You may forgo choosing any of the above stunts in favor of upgrading one of your other stunts.
     • Note 3: You may also choose a stunt from FATE core itself.
     • Note 4: I strongly recommend that you choose at least one stunt that lets you do something that would normally literally be impossible. A +2 bonus or two is OK, but doing cool stuff that nobody else can do is particularly satisfying.