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Beginner Fatemaster Questions


Purzel

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Hi,

I am starting an online TtB Campaign with a few old mates who are like me bored because of the CoViD partial lockdown. I've ran quite a few campaigns in the past using other systems like Shadowrun, Earthdawn, DnD. I used combat sparsely when possible, so I am familiar with the narrative approach.

I am going to include a couple of the Penny Dreadful One-Shots into my story and the first thing I am wondering is for how many Fated the adventures are balanced?

Balancing this game is the biggest issue for me, I haven't got a feeling for the odds yet:

Starting characters have only a few Wounds and some attacks even by lowly minions can one shot (is that pun intended?) them, let alone enforcers or higher. With wound severity not being cheatable (?) this sounds like the chances of survival are very slim.

Even later on, you can get more Wounds only every 2 sessions when wasting a Talent on them. Very harsh, looks like you can grow to be a glass cannon or a slightly beefier eternal newbie.

Is it intended that characters are getting downed, crippled, killed even more easily than in Call of C'thulhu?

Also, Twist Cards (3 ususally): If you use them during Narrative Time, they don't get replenished except for On the Pursuit failures and reshuffles? So if the Fated cheat fate to further the story they might get caught with their trousers down when Combat (or any Dramatic Time) starts?

Thanks for bearing with me, I might have missed some things in the Books again.

Kind regards

Purzel

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Hey there! Welcome to Through the Breach!

Penny Dreadfuls and One Shots are a great way to introduce players into a campaign. While most of them involve combat to some extent, I think the following ones are great starting points, especially if you're still getting a feel for balancing and playing the game. They also focus more heavily on narrative, non-combative skills, and mystery:

-Til Death Do Us Part

-The Iktomi Shuffle

-Jurassic Faux

-Heart of Darkness

Alternatively, if you and your group want some practice going through an adventure with the option of using included pre-generated characters, the following One Shots are great choices too:

-The Show Must Go On

-Sixteen Tons

-Earthly Desires

You can find all of those on our DriveThruRPG page, RIGHT HERE

 

The Penny Dreadfuls and One Shots are usually written for about 3-4 Fated characters, but scale in a number of different ways. As the Fatemaster, you can change an enemy's Rank Value by a few points to make them weaker and easier to take on. This will reduce how hard and effectively they hit, and how many Fate Points they receive (pgs. 312-313 in the Core Rules).  Otherwise, the adventures scale fairly well. They will dictate what enemies the Fated will fight, and generally add more based on how many are playing (for example, a group might consist of 3 enemies, plus 1 per every Fated character). 

Wounds might seem a bit low, but Fated are tough and can keep fighting even if they hit 0 Wounds; check pg. 302 of the Core Rules for more info on Unconsciousness and dealing with being reduced to 0.

Control Hands also get replenished a bit more often than you think: pg. 283 of the Core Rules lists the four different ways Fated can refill their Control Hands. 

Hope this helps, and we'll see you when you go Through the Breach!

 

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