MicroFATE Character creation
tract -1 from result, or -2 if it’s their High Concept. If
an even more minimalist Fate
+ Original text, translation, revision and layout +
Lu Cavalheiro
https://lucavalheiro.itch.io/
+ License +
CC-BY-SA 4.0 Internacional
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
+ Synopsis +
MicroFATE is a simplification of Fate RPG rules whose purpose is to
provide to players a fast and quick game without, however, leaving
two of rules distinctive elements out: Aspects and Fate Points.
+ ISBN +
978-65-00-48482-3
This work is based on Fate Core System and Fate Accelerated
Edition (found at http://www.faterpg.com/), products of Evil
Hat Productions, LLC, developed, authored, and edited by Leonard
Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson,
Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks, and Rob Donoghue,
and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution
3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.
0/). Fate™ is a trademark of Evil Hat Productions, LLC. The Powered
by Fate logo is © Evil Hat Productions, LLC and is used with permis-
sion. The Fate Core font is © Evil Hat Productions, LLC and is used
with permission. The Four Actions icons were designed by Jeremy
Keller.
MicroFATE was published and supported by RPGWorld – http
s://rpgworldsite.wordpress.com/.
ä If the Aspect can hind the character in a dice roll, sub-
To create a character in MicroFATE, you must de-
fine three Aspects and one Stunt. Also, a character has
their Refresh and Fate Points and Stress and Conditions
too.
Refresh and Fate Points
Character Refresh says how many Fate Points they
will start game session, no matter how many they had
when last one finished. Default Refresh value is 3.
Aspects
An Aspect is a short phrase describing something
unique or remarkable about the character. Aspects are
always true, and their trueness must may help and mud-
dle them. A character has three Aspects:
ä High Concept: says who the character is. Examples: Ad-
venturer archaeologist, Cosa Nostra Boss;
ä Trouble: says what brings some complications to char-
acter’s life. Examples: Paralysing fear of snakes, Unre-
strictedly good;
ä Free Aspect: says an additional character trait. Exam-
ples: Friends in high society, Will do anything to protect
their wife.
Aside characters, every thing in MicroFATE that
matters for the narrative has at least one Aspect related
to it. Characters can use those Aspects like theirs, as
long as they know said Aspect existence.
In MicroFATE, Aspects can be used for:
ä If the Aspect can help the character in a dice roll, add +1
to result. If the player spends 1 Fate Point, add +3 in-
stead. Once per game session, a character can use their
High Concept this way for free;
ä If the Aspect can help the character in a dice roll, the
player can spend 1 Fate Point and reroll the dice and
keeping the new result, even if it’s worse than original
dice roll. Once per session, a character can use their
High Concept this way for free;
an Aspect is hindering the character in a dice roll, the
player can choose an automatic fail and earn 1 Fate
Point instead rolling the dice.
A character can spend only 1 Fate Point per Aspect
in a given dice roll. They can spend more Fate Points in
other Aspects. Fate Points can be spent after dice being
rolled.
Aside those uses, a player can spend 1 Fate Point
to declare a fact in a scene they are, like an item or a
person existence in a given place, as long as they can
relate their declaration to one of their Aspects.
To check if and how an Aspect is affecting a dice
roll, use the narrative common sense. Often, if it’s hard
to see how an Aspect is affecting a dice roll, most of
times it isn’t affecting.
Stunt
A Stunt is a special ability a character can use on a
specific situation. It may come from special equipment,
super or alien powers, magic, psionics, whatever. Un-
less a Stunt description says otherwise, using it doesn’t
require spending Fate Points.
Each character starts with one Stunt that Player
must create and GM should approve. If a player wants
more Stunts, they may reduce their Refresh by one to
purchase a Stunt. However, no Player can reduce their
Refresh to less than 1 this way.
Every Stunt should follow one of two templates be-
low:
ä Stunt Name: Character can add +2 on dice rolls in a kind
of action under specific circumstances;
ä Stunt Name: Character can do an action they normally
just couldn’t do it.
Where kind of action should be one of Fate Four
Actions, and specific circumstances says in what circum-
stance the Stunt can be used. Do an action they nor-
mally just couldn’t do it means an action that narrative
logic determines be impossible to be done by that char-
acter. GM may add elements to better explain a Stunt
benefice in rules terms.
If a Stunt looks like too much powerful, GM may
rule it costs 1 or more Fate Points per use. A too much
powerful Stunt, by definition, does more than a Stunt
can do, like using twice or more the same Stunt tem-
plate or using both templates at same time.
Stress and Conditions
Each character has four Stress boxes. Each box
can mitigate one point of harm, and a player can mark
as many as they want and feel right to do, as long as
those boxes are unmarked. Besides Stress boxes, each
character has three Conditions: Affected whose value
is 2; Incapacitated, valued at 4; and Disabled, valued at
6. Each one of those Conditions can mitigate as much
points of harm as their value or less. A player can mark
as many Conditions they want and feel right to do, as
long as they are unmarked.
Stress and Conditions represent how much harm
a character has suffered. Stresses are superficial harm,
and these boxes are automatically cleared at the end
of a Conflict. Conditions are special Aspects represent-
ing lasting, hard to recover harm. When a character
spend a Minor Milestone, they can start the recover
process, choosing one of those: unmark Affected Con-
dition; reduce Incapacitated Condition to Affected if it
is unmarked; or reduce Disabled Condition to Incapaci-
tated if it is unmarked.
Dice Rolls
When there is doubt if a character can do their in-
tended action or not, GM can call a Dice Roll. The player
will roll 4dF and add all modifiers from character’s As-
pects and spent Fate Points. If there is no one opposing
to their action, they will roll against a Difficult, a GM dic-
tated target number. If there is some one opposing to
their action, they will roll against an Opposition, a dice
roll made by the one opposing to their action.
The Four Actions and the Four Outcomes
In MicroFATE, it’s possible to do four kind of ac-
tions, the Four Actions:
ä O Overcome: overcome, solve or bypass a given situ-
ation;
ä C Create an Advantage: create or find something that
can be used as an advantage, creating in the game an
Aspect describing said advantage with one Free invoke,
that is, a right to use this Aspect once for free;
ä A Attack: cause any kind of harm to other character;
ä D Defend: defend yourself or prevent any action
against the character.
It doesn’t matter which action was done, there are
only four possible results, the Four Outcomes:
ä Fail: your result is less than Difficult or Opposition. Or
you simply don’t did what you wanted to do, or you did
it at a major cost, determined by GM;
ä Tie: your result is equal than Difficult or Opposition.
Or you get a Boost, a temporary Aspect you can use
once for free and then it vanishes, or you did what you
wanted to do at a minor cost, determined by GM;
ä Success: your result beats Difficult or Opposition by 1
or 2. You did what you wanted to do, no costs or boons
here;
ä Success with Style: your result beats Difficult or Oppo-
sition by 3 or more. You did more than you wanted to
do. More than your objective, earn a Boost related to
intended action, or an additional Free Invoke if you are
trying to do a C Create an Advantage action.
Conflict
In a Conflict, characters and their opponents want
to harm each other. In MicroFATE, Conflicts are mea-
sured in turns, and in each turn each one of involved
ones in the Conflict may have one action. Define the
first one to act in the Conflict using the narrative. Once
they resolve their action, they choose the next one to
act, and so on until everyone have acted in this turn.
Turn is over, and the last one to act in the past turn will
choose who will start the next turn.
If one of involved ones in Conflict want to harm
other, the attacker should do an A Attack action op-
posed by a D Defend action from attacked. If the at-
tacker achieve Success or Success with Style, they in-
flict on the attacked one the difference between attack
roll and defense roll as points of harm, and the attacked
one must mitigate this harm using their Stress and Con-
ditions. If by some reason the attacked can’t mitigate
all harm they suffered, they will be knocked out.
Once the Conflict ends, the winner side should de-
cide what to do with the knocked out ones.
Character evolution
In MicroFATE, characters earn Milestones repre-
senting their learning and growing. Milestones only can
be spent at game session end.
Minor Milestone
A character earns a Minor Milestone at game ses-
sion end. When spending one Minor Milestone, start
the recovering process as described on Stress and Con-
ditions, and choose one from:
ä Rewrite your Trouble or Free Aspects;
ä Change one of your Stunts by another;
ä Reduce your Refresh by 1 and add a new Stunt, as long
as it doesn’t reduce your Refresh for less than 1.
Major Milestone
A character earns a Major Milestone when con-
cluding an adventure. When spending one Major Mile-
stone, the character receives all the benefits from a Mi-
nor Milestone, and must choose one from:
ä Rewrite their High Concept Aspect;
ä Add a new Stunt without reducing your Refresh;
ä Add 1 to your Refresh.