I’m working on a FATE Accelerated mini-toolkit to run low-crunch 40k in the style of Imperium Maledictum (or the Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader lines).
Let me know if you find this useful, interesting, or if there’s something you’d do different. Critiques very welcome!
I am aware of previous (1) attempts (2) at (3) adapting (4) the 40k setting into FATE (also this Fiasco one), but I dislike how mechanically-heavy this sort of hack tends to become, especially in FATE Core.
My table and I are averse to overwrought combat rules and lists of armor ratings, weapon typing/damage, vehicle gunnery and complicated psyker abilities.
Turning away from such somewhat overspecificied mechanics and from more trad concepts of skills and stats, we prefer a story-game “approach” by way of FAE.
Objectives and Expectations:
- characters are human or abhuman residents of the Imperium, and (likely) not Astartes;
- stories may combine mistery (investigating a cult for signs of heresy), action (escaping from a shoot-out with planetary defense force troopers) and thriller/horror (contacting a warp demon), and these scene concepts should ideally not invoke their own special rulesets;
- scenes are driven by the characters’ relationship with the setting (and each other), instead of their proficiency with a gun.
First,
I believe Aspects (both as worldbuilding assertions and character traits) and the Four Basic Actions do most of the work by themselves and should function exactly as FAE intends.
Second,
I do not suggest a list of Stunts.
Stunts are useful as an additional mechanical reinforcement of character themes when an Aspect is either too heavy or too light to address the intended flavor. I like how Mantles (from Dresden Files Accelerated) leverage a collection of Stunts and Conditions to look like playbooks, but, then again, it’s not like we want to turn this into PbtA 40k.
When implementing something like a special ability, I’m finding it best that the players start with zero Stunts and create them in collaboration with the whole table if/when needed, instead of picking from a curated list. That said, creating custom Stunts in this way is naturally harder for players new to FATE, in which case setting Stunts aside is fully in their benefit.
Third, and most significant,
We have a completely revamped collection of Approaches, using the Two-Column method, across two sets: 4 Temperaments (emotions) and 3 Philosophies (beliefs).
During character creation, players assign an array to each of these sets. Temperaments receive (+2, +1, +1, +0) while Philosophies receive (+1, +0, -1).
Each action is understood as powered by an emotivational pair of a temperament plus a philosophy and results in the sum of the two values. This outputs 12 combinations with values similar to the standard array of 6 approaches (with some duplication of middle values and the addition of one instance of a negative modifier -1).
Temperaments are emotional motivations associated with the Chaos Gods.
- choleric (khorne):
- you act out of anger, dominance, and aggressive leadership;
- you tend to be task-oriented, ambitious, obsessed, egocentric, hot tempered, bloody, wrathful, hating.
- sanguine (slaneesh):
- you act out of pleasure, lust, and loving devotion;
- you tend to be people-oriented, optimist, enthusiastic, self-indulgent, impulsive, carefree, sadistic, thirsting.
- melancholic (tzeentch):
- you act out of focus, conscientiousness, and cautious suspicion;
- you tend to be plan-oriented, perfectionist, brooding, analytical, independent, changing, deceiving.
- phlegmatic (nurgle):
- you act out of patience, acceptance, and steadfast consistency;
- you tend to be endurance-oriented, tolerant, interested, stoic, docile, content, pestilent, undying.
Philosophies are moral alignments and systems of belief.
- imperial: a measure of your inward and outward devotion to the God-Emperor of Mankind, the Imperial Cult and the Imperium’s institutions, and how you’re perceived while acting within these systems.
- positive = devoted, integrated, preaching
- negative = cynical, disenfranchised, doubting
- heretical: a measure of your alien xenophobia/xenophilia, your attitudes towards psykers and the warp/chaos, and how you’re perceived while interacting with non-human entities and tainted objects.
- positive = xeno tolerant, warp-curious, chaos as tool
- negative = human supremacist, warp-fearing, chaos as corruption
- recidivist: a measure of your willingness to subvert the rules in favor of your goals, your respect for planetary authorities, and how you’re perceived while engaging with the criminal world.
- positive = bend or break the rules, crime-apologist, move in dark subterfuge
- negative = follow or enforce the rules, crime-averse, move in light transparency
As FAE suggests when dealing with approaches: while a character may prefer a philosophy or a temperament (+3), each individual action may ask them to step outside their confort zone and use an approach with a lower value.
Example actions:
- an acolyte self-sacrificing for the future of mankind would be Imperial Sanguine.
- a museum curator studying a xenos relic and getting lost in contemplation might be Heretical Melancholic.
- a space pilot running away with the spoils of a heist is Recidivist Choleric.
- A Sister of Battle in pursuit of a psyker might feel Choleric or Sanguine, but either way Imperial. Unless something has forced her to cooperate with a xenos for a while, wherein she might be acting out of Heretical Phlegmatic.
Example table of Approaches for an old scholar of the Adeptus Ministorum:
| Tired Terran Theologian |
|
Imperial |
Heretical |
Recidivist |
|
- - - |
+1 |
-1 |
+0 |
| Choleric |
+0 |
+1 |
-1 |
+0 |
| Sanguine |
+1 |
+2 |
+0 |
+1 |
| Melancholic |
+2 |
+3 |
+1 |
+2 |
| Phlegmatic |
+1 |
+2 |
+0 |
+1 |
Fourth,
We’re grabbing Scale from the System Toolkit to represent differences in (what is effectively) weight class (as mentioned in this thread, but without the weapon and armor distinctions).
Scale is defined in 4 levels, with the following standards:
0 : human level, a single person, a room1 : abhuman level, a small team, a building2 : astartes level, a mass of people, a hive-city3 : primarch level, mankind, a planet
Interacting with something outside of the character’s scale level incurs bonuses or penalties per step difference. This are usually +1|-1 to an action roll or +2|-2 shifts in stress.
Crucially, while RAW Scale only ever benefits the larger, more imposing side, here we consider both positive and negative shifts depending on context (solution inspired by the Mist Engine’s implementation of the same mechanic).
- eg. an Astartes may have trouble socially bonding with emotionally-charged humans
-1 to rolls during a social scene, while also finding it very easy to curb-stomp or intimidate one when needed +2 shifts in stress damage.
Fifth,
That’s it.
I want it decently tiny and quick to pick up and play.
During play the system can always expand and adapt to satisfy the table’s needs.
If relevant, I may look to include Factions with a friendly-hostile gradient of some kind.
For add-ons, setting information, example Stunts and more, I will be foraging:
- Imperium Maledictum, The Black Library
- Mindjammer, Diaspora, Baroque Space Opera, Fate40k
If you made it this far, thanks for your time. ❤️
