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Back in the time of yore, when one must colour his own D20 and Elf is a class in D&D, the assumed motivation for entering a dungeon is gold, treasure and magical power. More than 20 years later, this assumption has changed slightly, but it is still mostly centred on gold, magical items and experience points. Why not add something to this mix? Social status and recognition.

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Whenever I read through the rules for most role-playing games, I find it interesting when some mention “combat is just a kind of opposed roll, but it usually takes a number of rolls to determine the outcome”. The reason is simple – combat is usually the main conflict of most games, the point in time when your builds, equipment, strategy and cunning all come into play. (Strangely, though, it’s hard to find formal rules for skill checks which could doom a character if he fails just one roll, like falling down into a bottomless pit). Yet I have GMed games which combat take an hour to go through, and I have known D&D combats which went for 2 to 3 hours. Is there a faster way to resolve combat while keeping it fun, and allow players to employ tactics?

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For those who have been looking at the magical weapons section of the site,  you may notice a rather curious heading: Altered Fate. Well, that’s my rule mods for Fate 3.0, in an attempt to expand it in terms of fleshing out Aspects. If possible, I would like all things to be presented as Aspects. However, earlier attempts did not work out well. If you have looked at how the items are defined, the Altered Fate section is changing all the time. The truth is that I am still struggling to come up with a “syntax” or format to express my intentions.

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In Fate 3.0, characters tend to be on the level of heroes – they start with 5 boxes of wounds, and get 1 more for each level of Toughness they get. This may make them nigh undefeatable. The following set of rules is actually inspired by Unknown Armies‘ combat rules and changes combat by introducing less wound boxes, higher damage from combat and use of armour.

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IMHO, combat in Fate 3.0 (or Spirit of the Century) should orient around the use of Aspects; discovering them, placing them and using them to the maximum instead of hoping for the +4 rolls to get you a whooping hit. However, placing Aspects in Spirit of the Century is a risky move – why blow a chance on the dice when you can just hit the guy instead and do damage? And why set yourself up for a groaner when you tag an aspect, you may get a -4 which make the whole process wasted time?

This article discusses ways in which aspects can be easily placed in Fate 3.0 during a conflict, making them the central theme of combat and fierce debates instead of high skills and good dice rolls.
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