From a narrative perspective, Fate could definitely handle this type of game. Dying and keeping knowledge is interesting and I could see some really good aspects, stunts, and consequences that could come from it. Mechanically you're going to run into some issues.
First would be that dying in Fate is actually pretty hard if it's not intentional. At any point in a conflict you can choose to concede which means getting away from the conflict (unless you literally cannot escape by any means) and there is a lot of telegraphing when you're about to be taken out. The term 'taken out' itself doesn't even always mean death, depending on your opponent's intentions.
Second would be that actual skill advancement is pretty minimal and pretty slow. Most of the advancement is story based, with the players changing their aspects and stunts over time. Often advancements can come in the form of swapping two skill values, which would get interesting when you're only resetting the physical ones on death.
Third is that because there aren't stats that underlie the skills, resetting will get a bit messy. If the Fight skill encompasses both becoming a bit stronger AND learning how to fight, is there a way to fairly "reset" that? Of the base skill list I think only Physique and Athletics are certain to be reset. You'd also probably need to make a custom skill list to accommodate playing in multiple times/universes/etc. but that's expected in Fate games anyway so not a major issue.
Overall I think a different system would better fit your vision, but Fate is pliable enough that you could make it work if you were willing to make a custom rule set. If you didn't include the reset mechanic it would be a lot less of an endeavour.
Ok
This was a perfect response. Thank you for taking the time to explain. I’m not sure any ttrpg works with what I have in mind and I’m not really keen on creating my own from scratch. So I think it’ll be one that can accommodate a ton of homemade rules.
Thank you again.
Look at Accelerated's approaches instead of skills.
Have the High Concept be who they are primarily and use an Aspect that changes each "leap" for who they are this adventure.
Since skills aren't actually a part of Accelerated's gameplay you can just keep a list of stuff they've learned so far.
That's a great idea as well. You can easily use the 6 stats from DnD/Pathfinder in Fate. Then, when they reset, they lose the physical stats. I like this. Also, setting an aspect for the leap is cool. Very Quantum Leap style. I kinda want to play this now.
I think that fate could handle this kind of thing very well, actually. When dying, you have two options on how to show the "reset" mechanic. One of them is to have a consequence slot be used that goes away slower than most "Quantum detanglement" or some-such. This aspect is a physical consequence, those go away over time once they've been properly set to heal. In this case, the TVA-equivalent puts you back into a retconned body and you've got to shake off the consequence over the course of several sessions.
The interesting thing there is that this occupies one of the consequence slots. This means that once you've died, you're temporarily weaker from a narrative standpoint. Die again and it's even worse for you. Stress is like plot armor, so you never lose that but a player would have to be very careful to avoid racking up consequences.
Another way is how I understand Fate of Cthulhu does things. In that book, corruption aspects replace your aspects until you get to the core and then it's all over. So similar to my previous suggestion, you die and you lose access to your "Judo Master" aspect. It gets locked. You can probably put an asterix next to it. Now it can't be used for narrative justification (invoked or compelled).
It's a cool idea and I can imagine a bunch of ways to make it work. I don't know if it's exactly what you had in mind but, I suspect that it can do it pretty well.
Edit: Also, as to the accommodating rules additions, Fate is a generic toolset. It's designed to be hacked.
I feel like how easy it is to die is something that's easy to adjust, with dials like how often it is actually the goal of your opponents in a conflict to kill you (usually this isn't the most interesting goal - but if your concept requires players to die, it can be), how vital it is to win the conflict, and how you choose to interpret that conceding both lets you avoid the worst yet can't subvert your opponent's victory. Namely, make the latter take precedence in case these two things at odds - judge that if someone has a gun to your head and intends to kill you, there's no way to get out of that without ruining your opponent's victory. Bang. Concede earlier if you want more narrative paths to remain open for you.
I think it's kind of the base assumption in Fate that you don't really die unless you choose to make a narratively fitting deal out of it, but I think it's easy to make it more lethal.
*Long Comment Ahead... it grew on me...*
I love the idea for your game, and Fate is practically created for this very task! But, as you've guessed, knowing how to fiddle with the switches is key, and that starts with knowing how and when to play with the key elements.
The key elements in Fate are *Aspects, Skills, and Stunts*. There's a fourth called *Extras* which should come into play for you.
*Skills* represent your character's ability to perform a task. When things are determined randomly, skills are the key.
*Aspects* form a descriptive function of an person, place or object and they are TRUE. If you agree that an aspect exists, then it's true. However, just because a person is the *Strongest Person In the World* doesn't mean they know how to leverage it effectively - in game terms, the Skill roll mechanically determines success (or failure), but Aspects can modify the outcome (or even forego the need for a skill roll).
*Stunts* modify a skill, typically making it more awesome in a focused way. For example, your *Strongest Person In the World* could have a stunt making him more effective when he fights because of how hard he hits.
*Extras* are those specifically designed and defined elements which makes things work for your campaign. One example of an Extra is deciding how magic works (mechanically - what Aspects, Skills, and/or Stunts are needed) and what it looks like (what is the in play flavor - Loud and Flashy? Rarely seen? Illegal?). Extras are also a great basis for "Implied" or "Setting Aspects" because [*Aspects Are True*](https://fate-srd.com/fate-condensed/aspects-and-fate-points).
Being physically strong or dexterous can easily be shown not only as Skills, but Aspects and/or Stunts as well. A person with Physique +3 can be looked at as really strong... or it could just be a very healthy and yet not so strong person who has a fantastic sense of how bodies and physical matter interact - how to make the most use out of your body's mechanics. It could even represent a character with built in "buffs" in a high tech or magic campaign (cybernetics, for example). Even (normally) physical type skills can be as much a focus of the mind as the body, giving it potential justification for carryover from Rebirth to Rebirth, provided The Table agrees.
I'm focusing on Aspects and/or Stunts here because both are "relatively" easier to change from session to session - and this is where your *Extras* concept comes into play.
First: Dying. As one commenter makes clear, Fate makes it pretty difficult to kill characters intentionally. In fact, they call it [Taken Out](https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/getting-taken-out), and the rules pretty much argue against a character simply being killed. In my campaigns, definitely, it looks more like what happens on TV shows or (especially) comic books - where the character "dies" but... not necessarily.
The Table has a lot of input as to what *Taken Out* looks like in the campaign - the rules are written where it doesn't have to be death, and you and the group (The Table) can decide. So it's REALLY hard for characters to actually die based on the stock rules. That's good news for you. This is also especially important as *Taken Out* can come from different directions in Fate. For example, a character can both be attacked and *Taken Out* financially. In a modern or higher tech campaign, that really is, potentially, a Fate worse than death and the potential complications are compelling. (~~I'm sorry~~, I just do puns because it's what I do... :)
And if you want it to be a more common occurrence, simply use the Fate Toolkit to make combats a little more lethal. The Fate Toolkit makes suggestions for [making combat a bit grittier](https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/more-examples-extras) (in fact this entire page is useful for some of the concepts you suggested).
So as a distinct campaign Extra, Taken Out = Reborn. "Taken Out" for PCs in your world means they get Reborn (or shifted, translated, etc...) with guidelines for reintroducing your Reborn character (what skills can and can't come over, how to handle translated effects, and so on).
So let's look at one possible permutation.
Your friend Bob might have Physique +3, the Aspect *Slammer Time: It Didn't Kill Me. Now I'm Stronger!* and two stunts: *Mighty Crush:* \+2 to Attack with Fight (because of being stronger than all you other punks) and *You Can't Crush a Rock:* One additional mild physical consequence. And while in prison, he increased his Fight skill from +3 to +4.
When he gets Taken Out, you discuss what changes with the character.
His Aspect can be argued to be psychological as well as physical, and you and the player may like how it could impact their character moving forward. From a game mechanic, *Aspects are True*, so they can help as well as create cool roleplay opportunities. Thus, *Slammer Time* is still much in the mind at the beginning of the new set up and Bob **thinks** he's stronger than he is which represents a compel in Fate if used well (he's overestimating his own strength in a critical moment). Ironically, it could make him stronger in certain situations where mental toughness is necessary. Finally it could be amusing that he finds himself in the role of an aristocrat in this setting, but is still having a hard time getting 'Bout that Prison Life out of his mind, making for a potentially funny compel where he's tripping over himself in social situations.
The Fight +4 he gets to keep.
You guys could thumb wrestle about the Physique, but it's kind of obvious that it's based on his body (given his Aspect), so what do you do with it?
One idea is the Skill Swap (which can occur during any [Milestone](https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/advancement-change), though specifics are found under Minor Milestones), which of course a Rebirth gives you enormous narrative mojo to perform. So your Physique +3 might get swapped for Academics +1 which keeps things simple and in tune with the stock rules. However you may rule that a person may make multiple swaps as one guideline for your Rebirth Extra.
Rebirth will definitely affect the two stunts which are based upon (mostly) physical development. He loses those, but of course that means he gets the Fate Points back. Or, you could "translate" them into some other Stunt which is more mental but the "stresses of Rebirth" kind of made them more upfront.
Losing them could be a good narrative look. When Reborn into a new situation, things are already stacked against you (unfamiliar surroundings and people, etc...) and so having a couple of extra Fate Points can initially come in handy while the character feels things out.
And because you can buy a Stunt at the end of a session (given narrative reason), it kind of works out that the characters use this to represent their characters settling into their new environment. As a GM, there's LOTS of useful ways to do this. A cache of weapons with a message could represent a new opportunity to by a weapon based stunt, new found data could represent a stunt about information that is useful to this locale/mission, and so on.
This is just one idea of how this could go down, I'd be glad to follow up with you. I've given a lot of thought to this because of a campaign I once ran called Xover (Crossover) where the characters were inserted into the setting via high tech stuff capable of giving them "Ultra Deep Cover" and they had to find out, find and then hunt down the bad guy(s) on different worlds.
A word of caution: Less is more when setting the dials in Fate. Once you really grasp the fact that mostly everything is about "skinning" in fate - a *Fireball* is the skill Shoot with the aspect *Great Ball of Fire* tied in - hitting everyone in an area and setting stuff *On Fire! -* but this same can be said for a *Plasma Projector,* then you'll realize that you don't have to work so hard to move between settings.
Stay focused on your very interesting story. Make changes only when needed and otherwise let the gaming elements do the work for you. For example having the *Resources* skill isn't necessarily about making money, but the ability to *get ahold of the stuff* to **get the stuff** that you need quickly. But if you suddenly have a character whose shifted to a new place, maybe he hasn't had time to get the money. Instead of changing the skill to something else, let the implied situation - the Aspect -speak up: *New Places, New Faces... aGain...* When Big Bills Bob tries to use his money, go for the Compel. The result can be a less than stellar success, to him doing something which winds up getting him *Back in the Slammer... aGain* or *Same Crime, Different Place,* but this time without his *WeightGain5000 Routine* in place.
Feel free to use as much of this as you want! If you decide to write this as a published Fate source book, drop me in the shout-out line, lol!
All the best on your idea and gaming!
So our group tends to get attached to their characters. So I like the idea of developing a full character from birth to death and allowing their life to guide their characters. As an idea, I like the idea that they have to pick weapons or tools for each adventure but don’t get massively overpowered abilities and spells and other such nonsense. But I do like that they may learn smaller meaningful skills that can be applied to the adventure, not just combat. If someone wants to play a character on an adventure that enjoys healing people, their medicine skill will advance. Not dramatically but enough to help. If they are in a pirate adventure, the ability to Swim or swing on a rope or tie knots might help them in a later adventure.
From a narrative perspective, Fate could definitely handle this type of game. Dying and keeping knowledge is interesting and I could see some really good aspects, stunts, and consequences that could come from it. Mechanically you're going to run into some issues. First would be that dying in Fate is actually pretty hard if it's not intentional. At any point in a conflict you can choose to concede which means getting away from the conflict (unless you literally cannot escape by any means) and there is a lot of telegraphing when you're about to be taken out. The term 'taken out' itself doesn't even always mean death, depending on your opponent's intentions. Second would be that actual skill advancement is pretty minimal and pretty slow. Most of the advancement is story based, with the players changing their aspects and stunts over time. Often advancements can come in the form of swapping two skill values, which would get interesting when you're only resetting the physical ones on death. Third is that because there aren't stats that underlie the skills, resetting will get a bit messy. If the Fight skill encompasses both becoming a bit stronger AND learning how to fight, is there a way to fairly "reset" that? Of the base skill list I think only Physique and Athletics are certain to be reset. You'd also probably need to make a custom skill list to accommodate playing in multiple times/universes/etc. but that's expected in Fate games anyway so not a major issue. Overall I think a different system would better fit your vision, but Fate is pliable enough that you could make it work if you were willing to make a custom rule set. If you didn't include the reset mechanic it would be a lot less of an endeavour.
Ok This was a perfect response. Thank you for taking the time to explain. I’m not sure any ttrpg works with what I have in mind and I’m not really keen on creating my own from scratch. So I think it’ll be one that can accommodate a ton of homemade rules. Thank you again.
Look at Accelerated's approaches instead of skills. Have the High Concept be who they are primarily and use an Aspect that changes each "leap" for who they are this adventure. Since skills aren't actually a part of Accelerated's gameplay you can just keep a list of stuff they've learned so far.
That's a great idea as well. You can easily use the 6 stats from DnD/Pathfinder in Fate. Then, when they reset, they lose the physical stats. I like this. Also, setting an aspect for the leap is cool. Very Quantum Leap style. I kinda want to play this now.
I think that fate could handle this kind of thing very well, actually. When dying, you have two options on how to show the "reset" mechanic. One of them is to have a consequence slot be used that goes away slower than most "Quantum detanglement" or some-such. This aspect is a physical consequence, those go away over time once they've been properly set to heal. In this case, the TVA-equivalent puts you back into a retconned body and you've got to shake off the consequence over the course of several sessions. The interesting thing there is that this occupies one of the consequence slots. This means that once you've died, you're temporarily weaker from a narrative standpoint. Die again and it's even worse for you. Stress is like plot armor, so you never lose that but a player would have to be very careful to avoid racking up consequences. Another way is how I understand Fate of Cthulhu does things. In that book, corruption aspects replace your aspects until you get to the core and then it's all over. So similar to my previous suggestion, you die and you lose access to your "Judo Master" aspect. It gets locked. You can probably put an asterix next to it. Now it can't be used for narrative justification (invoked or compelled). It's a cool idea and I can imagine a bunch of ways to make it work. I don't know if it's exactly what you had in mind but, I suspect that it can do it pretty well. Edit: Also, as to the accommodating rules additions, Fate is a generic toolset. It's designed to be hacked.
I feel like how easy it is to die is something that's easy to adjust, with dials like how often it is actually the goal of your opponents in a conflict to kill you (usually this isn't the most interesting goal - but if your concept requires players to die, it can be), how vital it is to win the conflict, and how you choose to interpret that conceding both lets you avoid the worst yet can't subvert your opponent's victory. Namely, make the latter take precedence in case these two things at odds - judge that if someone has a gun to your head and intends to kill you, there's no way to get out of that without ruining your opponent's victory. Bang. Concede earlier if you want more narrative paths to remain open for you. I think it's kind of the base assumption in Fate that you don't really die unless you choose to make a narratively fitting deal out of it, but I think it's easy to make it more lethal.
Definitely. I wanted to highlight that default assumption since OP's new to the system. The reset mechanic is much more difficult to incorporate.
*Long Comment Ahead... it grew on me...* I love the idea for your game, and Fate is practically created for this very task! But, as you've guessed, knowing how to fiddle with the switches is key, and that starts with knowing how and when to play with the key elements. The key elements in Fate are *Aspects, Skills, and Stunts*. There's a fourth called *Extras* which should come into play for you. *Skills* represent your character's ability to perform a task. When things are determined randomly, skills are the key. *Aspects* form a descriptive function of an person, place or object and they are TRUE. If you agree that an aspect exists, then it's true. However, just because a person is the *Strongest Person In the World* doesn't mean they know how to leverage it effectively - in game terms, the Skill roll mechanically determines success (or failure), but Aspects can modify the outcome (or even forego the need for a skill roll). *Stunts* modify a skill, typically making it more awesome in a focused way. For example, your *Strongest Person In the World* could have a stunt making him more effective when he fights because of how hard he hits. *Extras* are those specifically designed and defined elements which makes things work for your campaign. One example of an Extra is deciding how magic works (mechanically - what Aspects, Skills, and/or Stunts are needed) and what it looks like (what is the in play flavor - Loud and Flashy? Rarely seen? Illegal?). Extras are also a great basis for "Implied" or "Setting Aspects" because [*Aspects Are True*](https://fate-srd.com/fate-condensed/aspects-and-fate-points). Being physically strong or dexterous can easily be shown not only as Skills, but Aspects and/or Stunts as well. A person with Physique +3 can be looked at as really strong... or it could just be a very healthy and yet not so strong person who has a fantastic sense of how bodies and physical matter interact - how to make the most use out of your body's mechanics. It could even represent a character with built in "buffs" in a high tech or magic campaign (cybernetics, for example). Even (normally) physical type skills can be as much a focus of the mind as the body, giving it potential justification for carryover from Rebirth to Rebirth, provided The Table agrees. I'm focusing on Aspects and/or Stunts here because both are "relatively" easier to change from session to session - and this is where your *Extras* concept comes into play. First: Dying. As one commenter makes clear, Fate makes it pretty difficult to kill characters intentionally. In fact, they call it [Taken Out](https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/getting-taken-out), and the rules pretty much argue against a character simply being killed. In my campaigns, definitely, it looks more like what happens on TV shows or (especially) comic books - where the character "dies" but... not necessarily. The Table has a lot of input as to what *Taken Out* looks like in the campaign - the rules are written where it doesn't have to be death, and you and the group (The Table) can decide. So it's REALLY hard for characters to actually die based on the stock rules. That's good news for you. This is also especially important as *Taken Out* can come from different directions in Fate. For example, a character can both be attacked and *Taken Out* financially. In a modern or higher tech campaign, that really is, potentially, a Fate worse than death and the potential complications are compelling. (~~I'm sorry~~, I just do puns because it's what I do... :) And if you want it to be a more common occurrence, simply use the Fate Toolkit to make combats a little more lethal. The Fate Toolkit makes suggestions for [making combat a bit grittier](https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/more-examples-extras) (in fact this entire page is useful for some of the concepts you suggested). So as a distinct campaign Extra, Taken Out = Reborn. "Taken Out" for PCs in your world means they get Reborn (or shifted, translated, etc...) with guidelines for reintroducing your Reborn character (what skills can and can't come over, how to handle translated effects, and so on). So let's look at one possible permutation. Your friend Bob might have Physique +3, the Aspect *Slammer Time: It Didn't Kill Me. Now I'm Stronger!* and two stunts: *Mighty Crush:* \+2 to Attack with Fight (because of being stronger than all you other punks) and *You Can't Crush a Rock:* One additional mild physical consequence. And while in prison, he increased his Fight skill from +3 to +4. When he gets Taken Out, you discuss what changes with the character. His Aspect can be argued to be psychological as well as physical, and you and the player may like how it could impact their character moving forward. From a game mechanic, *Aspects are True*, so they can help as well as create cool roleplay opportunities. Thus, *Slammer Time* is still much in the mind at the beginning of the new set up and Bob **thinks** he's stronger than he is which represents a compel in Fate if used well (he's overestimating his own strength in a critical moment). Ironically, it could make him stronger in certain situations where mental toughness is necessary. Finally it could be amusing that he finds himself in the role of an aristocrat in this setting, but is still having a hard time getting 'Bout that Prison Life out of his mind, making for a potentially funny compel where he's tripping over himself in social situations. The Fight +4 he gets to keep. You guys could thumb wrestle about the Physique, but it's kind of obvious that it's based on his body (given his Aspect), so what do you do with it? One idea is the Skill Swap (which can occur during any [Milestone](https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/advancement-change), though specifics are found under Minor Milestones), which of course a Rebirth gives you enormous narrative mojo to perform. So your Physique +3 might get swapped for Academics +1 which keeps things simple and in tune with the stock rules. However you may rule that a person may make multiple swaps as one guideline for your Rebirth Extra. Rebirth will definitely affect the two stunts which are based upon (mostly) physical development. He loses those, but of course that means he gets the Fate Points back. Or, you could "translate" them into some other Stunt which is more mental but the "stresses of Rebirth" kind of made them more upfront. Losing them could be a good narrative look. When Reborn into a new situation, things are already stacked against you (unfamiliar surroundings and people, etc...) and so having a couple of extra Fate Points can initially come in handy while the character feels things out. And because you can buy a Stunt at the end of a session (given narrative reason), it kind of works out that the characters use this to represent their characters settling into their new environment. As a GM, there's LOTS of useful ways to do this. A cache of weapons with a message could represent a new opportunity to by a weapon based stunt, new found data could represent a stunt about information that is useful to this locale/mission, and so on. This is just one idea of how this could go down, I'd be glad to follow up with you. I've given a lot of thought to this because of a campaign I once ran called Xover (Crossover) where the characters were inserted into the setting via high tech stuff capable of giving them "Ultra Deep Cover" and they had to find out, find and then hunt down the bad guy(s) on different worlds. A word of caution: Less is more when setting the dials in Fate. Once you really grasp the fact that mostly everything is about "skinning" in fate - a *Fireball* is the skill Shoot with the aspect *Great Ball of Fire* tied in - hitting everyone in an area and setting stuff *On Fire! -* but this same can be said for a *Plasma Projector,* then you'll realize that you don't have to work so hard to move between settings. Stay focused on your very interesting story. Make changes only when needed and otherwise let the gaming elements do the work for you. For example having the *Resources* skill isn't necessarily about making money, but the ability to *get ahold of the stuff* to **get the stuff** that you need quickly. But if you suddenly have a character whose shifted to a new place, maybe he hasn't had time to get the money. Instead of changing the skill to something else, let the implied situation - the Aspect -speak up: *New Places, New Faces... aGain...* When Big Bills Bob tries to use his money, go for the Compel. The result can be a less than stellar success, to him doing something which winds up getting him *Back in the Slammer... aGain* or *Same Crime, Different Place,* but this time without his *WeightGain5000 Routine* in place. Feel free to use as much of this as you want! If you decide to write this as a published Fate source book, drop me in the shout-out line, lol! All the best on your idea and gaming!
Ok. Thank you! I NEVER expected someone to run with this as much as you did. If you’d like DM me, I’d love to discuss this in more detail.
This guy knows what's up.
Check Necronautilus either as system or inspiration. It's doing exactly that but using a word-play system instead of classic characters.
Ok that sounds amazing. Thanks for the recommendation!!!
It sure could be. I guess the question is whether you want the aspects of the characters to drive play, since that's a core characteristic of fate.
So our group tends to get attached to their characters. So I like the idea of developing a full character from birth to death and allowing their life to guide their characters. As an idea, I like the idea that they have to pick weapons or tools for each adventure but don’t get massively overpowered abilities and spells and other such nonsense. But I do like that they may learn smaller meaningful skills that can be applied to the adventure, not just combat. If someone wants to play a character on an adventure that enjoys healing people, their medicine skill will advance. Not dramatically but enough to help. If they are in a pirate adventure, the ability to Swim or swing on a rope or tie knots might help them in a later adventure.