This is a mash-up of Fate Accelerated (aka FAE), Castle Falkenstein, and the Malifaux resolution system. Because I wanted to.
Characters should have a High Concept and a Trouble (as per FAE), which are for narrative flavor.
Characters should choose three positive and one negative ADVERBs (e.g. “swiftly”, “cunningly”, “clumsily”). These adverbs can be used to modify actions (“I *swiftly* attack an opponent”); doing so may create an Advantage (see below).
Players and GMs should agree on interestingly specific adverbs (e.g.: “winningly” is probably not a good adverb). They should reflect the character's personality and approach to life.
Characters should choose one (Great 8), three (Good 6), and one (Poor 2) skills. These represent the character's experience and training. Players are considered (Competent 4) at all skills not chosen above.
Skills have a natural Suit affinity, which affects outcomes as described below.
Clubs:
Diamonds:
Hearts:
Spades:
Ability grants a base level according to the following table:
E.g., if you have Great (8) ♠ Exchequer, you will be adding 7 to the results of your flip stack (see below).
The campaign is split into sessions, due to real-world constraints. Generally, things like spending experience and Token refresh happen between sessions.
Sessions are divided into scenes at natural narrative breaks (the end of a combat; arrival at a dinner party; etc.). Usually, players will get to rest and refresh between scenes, but sometimes scenes start _en courant_, robbing them of downtime.
Characters start with a Card Refresh of 5, which will be modified by events and experience. This is the number of cards a player may have in their hand at any time. If for any reason players have more than this number, they must discard down to their refresh limit IMMEDIATELY, choosing which cards to discard.
At the end of every scene, characters may discard any or all of their cards, and then draw until they are at their Card Refresh.
Characters also start with 3 Fate Tokens. The fate pool is only replenished rarely, e.g., at the start of a session, after a significant rest, or in the case of resounding victory. The GM may also award a Fate Token for exceptional characterization or role-playing.
Characters may be afflicted or blessed with various effects and conditions during a campaign. For example, a serious injury may temporarily give [- -] to Athletics, or local reknown may provide (+3) to Connections in a particular town.
These conditions may or may not fade over time, depending on their cause.
If a character is no longer in control of their actions (e.g. they are unconscious or possessed), their entire hand is discarded. A fresh hand should be drawn when they resume control.
When NOT flipping, i.e., not during a contested situation, you may do the following:
The heart of a RP system is handling contested outcomes. FalkeFateiFaux handles this via flipping over cards and seeing the result. It is recommended to have at least 2 decks of cards shuffled together, or (number of players / 2) for larger groups.
Cards are flipped from the top of the Deck Of Fate, with the exception of magic, which uses the Deck Of Magic. Additionally, players have a hand of cards which can be used to Guide Fate (see below). Hands are always dealt from the Deck of Fate.
Once a stack is resolved, it goes into the discard. When the Deck Of Fate is empty, the discard pile is shuffled and used as the new deck.
To achieve an outcome, the player must meet or exceed a target number set by the GM, or their opponent's total. This is done by flipping one or more cards in a “stack”; one of the cards in the stack will determine the outcome.
In the case of a contested action, the opponent is doing likewise, and the stacks are compared.
When used to perform actions with matching affinity, cards count as a value equal to their location within their suit:
Out-of-suit cards are much less valuable for an action. 2-5 count as 0, and other cards as 5 less than they would otherwise (e.g. a K is only an 8).
Some situations will make things slightly easier or harder. This is represented by a positive or negative modifier, written e.g. as +2 or -3. These modifiers are added to the outcome number before comparing with the target.
Rare objects and circumstances will grant a SUIT to a stack. These powerful circumstances allow cards of any suit to count either as their native suit or as the given suit.
Situations, qualities, and conditions may put you at an advantage [+] or disadvantage [-].
Some conditions are persistent, e.g., wearing Armor Of Shining that gives all melee opponents a [-]. Some are situational: standing in lava gives Fire Elementals a [+ +] to Fisticuffs and Resistance.
Choose one card in the stack as follows:
Example:
You have Good (6) fisticuffs and are using your Gloves of Boxing [+], but your opponent has distracted you [-] and you are exhausted [-].
You are at [-]: you will flip 2 cards, and your opponent will choose.
You flip 4H 8C, and your opponent chooses 4H. Your total is 7 (4H counts as '1' offsuit, plus 6 for your skill).
Positive adverbs used as part of an action grant a [+] advantage.
Negative adverbs can be used to grant a [-] disadvantage to the player, but the player also gets to immediately draw two cards (this may trigger a discard).
With rare exception, only a single adverb can be used in an action.
Prior to flipping, you may do any or all of the following:
After flipping, if you are NOT at a disadvantage, you may play one card from your hand. This card joins your current stack, and goes to the discard when the stack is resolved.
If this in contest, both players may choose to guide fate, but the currently-losing side must choose whether or not to play a card first.
You may play cards to influence the outcome in either direction. Sometimes it's good to fail!
Degree of success is given by the difference between the outcome and the target:
The details of such outcomes are left to the GM and players to decide, or may have quantifiable results.
Some abilities may list a set of quantitative results. For example, Armor of Ithan's duration is based on the degree of success:
This means:
Over time, players may gain new adverbs and skills, modify old ones, or even lose old ones. Exceptional events may increase or decrease both Token and Card pools.
As characters take mental or physical injury, they may gain negatives to, or disadvantages to, various stats, and in serious conditions their hand size goes down. Injury does not affect Fake Tokens.