Locations, Fate Core Style: Part II

In my last post I went over some of the guidelines I use when creating a location for a game. Today I'm going to step through the process with an actual location that fits in with Fate of Vimary: the desecrated Shrine of C'nawa.

Updated Fate Of Vimary Character Sheet

Just got done redesigning the character sheet for Fate of Vimary. There are four versions:

Latest Round Of Updates to Fate of Vimary

For all practical purposes, I'm calling Fate of Vimary done. There may still be some minor tweaks to various stunts depending on how things turn out in actual play, but I've made all of the major revisions I can think of. The largest is the use of conditions instead consequences, followed by some tightening up of how each of the magic systems work. Finally I've rearranged and prettied some things up. A revised character sheet is going to follow soonish, because I need to do some playtesting!

In case anyone doesn't have the link, here's the document in Google Drive:

Fate of Vimary

Conditions in Fate of Vimary

Conditions are an alternate way of handling stress, introduced in the Fate System Toolkit.

Each condition can be thought of as a pre-defined consequence. Players can choose to soak stress by taking a condition, and the GM can impose a condition if it would make sense from a narrative standpoint. The GM may call for a roll to resist the condition when appropriate. Conditions are treated like aspects and can be invoked and compelled normally.

Conditions are either fleeting, sticky or lasting. Fleeting conditions last until you get a spare chance to recover from them - typically not longer than a scene. Sticky conditions require that an action or event take place to clear them. For example, if your character is dehydrated they need water, or if they are exhausted they need sleep. Lasting conditions require an overcome roll of Great(+4) passive opposition to begin to recover from them.

When you take a condition, you check off the box next to it. Once the box is checked, you can no longer take that condition. For lasting conditions, there are two check marks next to it. When you take a lasting condition as a result of the GM saying you have that condition, you check off both boxes. When someone makes the recovery roll for the lasting condition, you erase the first check box. At the end of the next full session, you can erase the second check box. Characters may have stunts that add additional boxes or even new conditions. High skill levels, such as Physique, do not add more boxes for conditions - instead, they simply mean the character has a better chance of actively resisting a condition if the GM calls for it.

You can take conditions in order to “soak” stress. Fleeting conditions are worth 1 stress and sticky conditions or each box of a lasting condition are worth 2. Note that if you check off one box of a lasting condition to soak stress, that box still will not clear until the end of the next session.

There is one last level of conditions: permanent. Permanent conditions are like extreme consequences in Fate Core. You can soak up to 6 stress when you choose to take a permanent condition. When you check off the box, you must replace one aspect (with the exception of your High Concept) with an aspect that represents the permanent condition. There is no recovery roll for a permanent condition, although at your next major milestone you can rename the aspect to represent some recovery from the condition. At that point you can erase the check box next to the permanent condition.

Here are the conditions that I have settled on for Fate of Vimary:

Winded [Fleeting] ☐
Bruised [Fleeting] ☐
Disoriented [Fleeting] ☐
Frightened [Fleeting] ☐
Exhausted [Sticky] ☐
Famished [Sticky] ☐
Dehydrated [Sticky] ☐
Injured [Lasting] ☐ ☐

Crippled [Permanent] ☐

The Circle of the Chosen

The Circle of the Chosen is a large clearing in the Discard Lands, just beyond the Seven Fingers. It is the place where, each new moon, sacrifices to the Z'bri are secretly brought by Tribal representations as part of the Pact of the Dome. Aside from the Watch tasked with bringing the prisoners there and a handful within the Sisterhoods, very few know of this practice - the tributes are almost always newly Banished, or sometimes Fallen that have been captured in Tribal Lands. No one keeps tabs on the Fallen after they have been cast out.

Because of the sacrifice and horror the Circle has seen, it has become a Gully - a place where the veil between the River of Dream and the realm of flesh has become thin. Spirits of past sacrifices haunt the Circle. Even before the inevitable coming of the Z'bri, these spirits will try to assail or possess anyone within the central circle of posts at the center of the clearing.

Beyond the immediate threat of the spirits, the looming danger is wild animals and the impending arrival of the Z'bri to take their tributes. The blood and scent of prey brings the predators, who often maim or even kill the prisoners before the Z'bri arrive. Often grisly remnants of sacrifices who did not survive being taken byt he Z'bri remain in the Circle or attached to the posts.

The Circle of the Chosen is a good in media res starting point for a Tribe 8 campaign. The Mild Consequence and aspects at the beginning are reflective of what has happened prior to the start of the scene - basically it shows the end results of being Taken Out or Conceding. The situation also lends itself well to "filling in the blanks" as far as character aspects and skills go. The players will need to make the most out of what they have in order to escape their bonds, possibly fight off predators, and flee before the Z'bri arrive.

Any sacrifices brought to the Circle of the Chosen have likely been abused, mistreated, tortured, drugged and dragged through the brambles. They automatically have a Mild Consequence reflecting those injuries. In addition, each character has two additional aspects: Bound to a Post and Disconnected From the River of Dream. The former must be overcome before the character can do anything physically, while the latter must be overcome before the character can use Synthesis or Technosmithing. For their trouble, each PC in a scenario starting at the Circle of the Chosen gets 3 free Fate Points.

The Circle also has one hidden aspect: Unexpected Help. This aspect is the result of an Evan matron (actually a Marian) named Lalani. She knows of the Tribes' use of the Circle and does what she can to sabotage it or otherwise help out. This includes weakening posts, loosening the metal rings the characters are bound to, hiding sharp pieces of metal or glass within cracks in the post or on the ground covered with dirt, rocks or leaves, and hiding bundles of food, rough clothing and simple weapons in the brambles. The guards who bring the tributes never pay attention to the Circle as they are intent on getting away from it as soon as possible, but PCs looking for a way out are sure to uncover the aspect and make use of it. While the Circle and its environs are too dangerous for Lalani to enter at night, either her or her son often keep an eye out around the homestead for any stragglers or escapees. When they find them, they covertly take them in until they are ready to travel and then send them on their way with additional provisions and clothing.

The goal of the scenario is to escape before the Z'bri arrive, so they aren't considered to be a part of the scenario (given the PCs' condition, it's likely they would survive). However, depending on the PCs and their abilities it's unlikely that predators will come into play. Typically these will be a small pack of wolf, a pair of Ontos, or if the GM really wants to make them fight a Skuller Bear. While not Gek'roh, even normal animals in the woods are often Tainted in some way, and can also be diseased. How the predators are handled depends on the group, the situation, how the GM wants to handle that kind of tension and pacing, etc. Suggestions can include a timer, a stress track to represent the danger getting closer, etc.

Aspects 

• Haunted By Sacrifices Past
• The River of Dream Is Closer
• Unexpected Help (Hidden)

The area is divided into three zones.

• The Inner Circle which is comprised of a number of posts surrounding a patch of barren dirt. The Inner circle defines the boundaries of the Gully.
• The Outer Circle, between the Inner Circle and the Brambles, comprised of patchy grass and a few stunted, dead trees.
• The Brambles, a barrier of thick vines and thorns that surrounds the Circle and acts as a barrier that must to be overcome to exit the Circle into the dense forest beyond. Every time the Brambles are cut through when sacrifices are brought, they grow back at an almost impossible rate.

Skills

Great(+4) Spiritual Blitz

Spirits within the area of the Circle of the Chosen will mob anyone left there, resulting in apparitions, hauntings, spiritual assaults and possibly even possessions. The Circle can exercise use of this skill on any character that is still within the Inner Circle.

• Overcome: Spiritual Blitz is not normally used to overcome obstacles.
• Create an Advantage: The spirits of the Circle can use Spiritual Blitz haunt, harass, and discover information about those that are in the Circle. Most characters can defend against having these advantages placed with Will or (if they have overcome the Disconnected From the River of Dream aspect) Synthesis.
• Attack: Spiritual Blitz can be used to mentally attack targets. These attacks can be defended against using any appropriate skill for defending against mental attacks.  
• Defend: Spiritual Blitz cannot be used to defend.

Faces

Wolf Pack (Fair NPC Mob)

Aspects: Pack Hunters, Unsettling Howl, Tainted (optional)

Skills: Fair(+2) Fight, Average(+1) Athletics, Average(+1) Notice

Stress: O

Stunts

Go For The Throat: Gain a +2 bonus to Fight on a target that has taken a Moderate Consequence.

Remember that the wolves use teamwork to attack their prey, gaining a +1 bonus to Fight for each additional wolf.

Onto (Good NPC)

Aspects: Ambush Predator, Great Cat, Tainted (optional)

Skills: Good (+3) Fight, Fair(+2) Athletics, Average(+1) Notice, Average(+1) Stealth

Stress: OO

Stunts

Tremendous Leap: Once per exchange, the Onto can move into an adjacent zone and attack. Alternately, the Onto can move two zones with one action.

Skuller Bear (Good NPC)

Aspects: Large Bear, Mad With Disease, Rotting Away 

Skills: Great(+4) Fight, Good(+3) Physique, Fair(+2) Athletics, Average(+1) Provoke

Stress: OOO

Stunts

Bear Hug: +2 to physique rolls when creating an advantage to grapple or hold on to an opponent.

The Zetetics

zetetic [zəˈtɛtɪk]
adj
proceeding by inquiry; investigating
[from New Latin, from Greek zētētikos, from zēteō to seek]

"Despite our failures to date, I still cannot believe that the River of Dream is completely unexplainable in scientific terms. It is a part of the universe, falls under the same laws as everything else in the universe, and I will unravel its secrets and its power..."
From the journals of Hanna, rogue Keeper

The Zetetics

Aspects: We Will Create A New World, Our Next Experiment Will Work!, They Fear What They Don't Understand

The Zetetics are one of two groups of Keepers within The Institute, the other being Clarice Chalk's Keepers. They mostly keep to themselves, inhabiting a section known as the Workshop. They have no interest in and actively avoid the medical wings were Chalk's Keepers are active, and through SlaveBeta Z'vatis has kept the Z'bri presence a secret. Their latest project is a massive device that is intended to redirect the flow of the River of Dream through Hanna, allowing her to merge Synthesis and Technosmithing into something she is calling Syncresis.

Hanna

Source: DeviantArt

Aspects:
Rogue Keeper, Obsessed With The River of Dream, Collective Memories of the Past, Well Known In Talon Nexus, No One Understands My Genius

Hanna is around 30 summers old, with brown hair and eyes. Woven throughout her hair are glass beads and disks, and she has a tattoo of a magnifying glass on her right hand. She is never without her trademark magnifying goggles (not unlike those that modelers or electricians once used), and also will have several pocket magnifying glasses on her at any time.

Skills:

• Great(+4) Crafts
• Good(+3) Lore and Investigation
• Fair(+2) Technosmithing, Resources, Will
• Average(+1) Contacts, Dreaming, Shooting, Survival

Stunts:
Ignite, Jury Rig

SlaveBeta

Aspects:
Deranged Machine Monk, Z'vatis Is My True Master, Metal > Meat

SlaveBeta is a Machine Monk who is under the control of a Melanis Z'bri named Z'vatis. Very little of his body is still flesh and blood - he owes his tortured existence to both Dr. Chalk's experiuments and Z'vatis' implants

Source: Flickr

Skills:

• Fantastic(+6) Fight
• Superb(+5) Physique
• Great(+4) Shooting
• Good(+3) Crafts
• Fair(+2) Provoke
• Average(+1) Will

Stunts:
Modular: Because SlaveBeta is more machine than human, he can quickly reconfigure himself for nearly any task. Once per session, he can swap the ranks of any two skills when making an Overcome roll or Create Advantage roll. The ranks remained swapped for the remainder of the session, but only for the purposes of Overcome or Create Advantage.

The Workshop (Location)

Source: TravelPod

Aspects: Atmosphere of Spiritual Despair, "Do You Hear Voices?", Poisoned Dreams

The Workshop is an area within the labyrinth of rooms and corridors inside The Institute. It contains a machine shop, a work area where the machine is being constructed. The Workshop manifests its own dedicated entrance to the physical orb through a series of tunnels in the Discarded Lands and, because of this, is also accessible from the River of Dream even when the Institute is not materialized. Even so, the interface between the Workshop and the outside world changes and corrupts the flow of the River. Z'vatis knows this, which is why he had SlaveBeta bring Hanna to the workshop.

Background

Hanna was a rising star and highly regarded as one of the most brilliant minds in Olympus. Over time, she began to take an interest in the River of Dream and Synthesis. Her studies turned toward less conventional areas such as the paranormal, ESP, psychedelics, etc. Hanna began sneaking into Tribal lands to secretly observe Synthesis use, as well as associate with Synthesis-using Fallen. The Elders in Olympus became concerned because of her trespasses into Tribal lands and warned her she needed to change the direction of her inquiries. Hanna continued her research anyway, often in secret. Her first real experiment in trying to harness the River of Dream through technology ended in tragedy. A second Keeper was reduced to a mindless husk and Hanna was badly injured. After a several week stay in the infirmary, Hanna was imprisoned to be tried for endangering the security of Olympus.

While awaiting her trial, she met another prisoner named SlaveBeta. SlaveBeta was a Machine Monk. Worse, SlaveBeta was under the influence of Z'vatis, A Melanis Z'bri working out of The Institute. Z'vatis became convinced Hanna's research held the key to opening the Fold, and through SlaveBeta arranged for the two of them to escape. Once free of Olympus, SlaveBeta led her to The Workshop where they began reconstructing her research and performing experiments.

Over time, a few other exiled Keepers joined the group, which Hanna named the Zetetics. Her obsession has continued to grow, fed by both Z'vatis' direct influence as well as the overall effect of being within The Institute. The other Keepers in the Zetetics are likewise becoming somewhat unhinged. Hanna's experiments have become more dangerous and grisly, and it's only a matter of time before her activities get noticed.

The Zetetics are growing from a very slow trickle of disaffected Keepers and even a few Fallen. Hanna was known around Talon Nexus and even Hom prior to her imprisonment, and occasionally people still seek her out for help. Some come to the group because they have nowhere else to go, others because they have heard about the experiments, and others because they have had visions or dreams leading them there. This latter group are often fodder for Hanna's experiments. The remainder guard The Workshop, gather needed supplies, or assist with the experiments. The machine shop is capable of producing reasonably complex parts, so the Zetetics tend to be rather well equipped - even for Olympian Keepers. If the Zetetics continues to attract new members, at some point they will be a bigger threat than the Machine Monks. Fortunately there are multiple groups who would try to stop her, provided it's not too late - specifically the Fatimas, other Keepers, the Guides and key Fallen such as Veruka the Wraith.

Metaplot

As I start to wind down writing the rules for Fate of Vimary and begin to turn my eye toward actually playing, I'm going to have to confront the elephant in the room for any Tribe 8 game: the metaplot.

Now to make sure this discussion gets off on the proper foot: I'm for metaplot. Not all metaplots everywhere - while I've not played through, for example, the metaplots in the Old World of Darkness, or Torg, or 7th Sea, I understand they had quite a few problems. Heavy Gear's metaplot I am familiar with and I thought it was remarkably well done. Tribe 8's metaplot I have always liked in principle and in the direction the story took, but not always in execution. Children of Lilith is one of the best of the Tribe 8 metaplot books - it starts it off with a bang and overall has some great sections - but it still had some warts (particularly in the railroady category).

Of course, there's no need for a Tribe 8 game to follow the metaplot. The setting is rich enough in story opportunities to touch nary a portion of the metaplot if the group so desires. Aside from any number of ideas I have for non-metaplot campaigns (one of them can be seen in Saturday's blog post, Fate of L'san), it's always been my desire to see the entire thing through.

Luckily the metaplot itself isn't as large of a problem as it might seem. Fate Core has the perfect advice for how to handle it:

You don’t need to have everything planned out (in fact,  you probably shouldn’t  given that no meticulously planned story ever survives contact with the players), but you need to have an idea of where things begin and end, and what might happen in the middle.

Without giving away too many spoilers (at least I would hope, it's the name of the book) the first chapter in Children of Lilith involves the player characters finding Lilith. There are some bits in the middle that could happen, but they're not as important. The beginning...I see as one way that the metaplot could begin, but honestly this needs to be the most flexible part, dependant on the PC's motivations and goals. That much should be child's play for virtually any GM.

The bigger thing to deal with, especially in a game like Fate Core where the players have much more authorial power than other games, is NPCs and what can be done to them without totally hosing everything. Most metaplots have NPCs that are intended to be important to the story as a whole. It shouldn't be  in terms of how important the PCs are (although poor metaplots sometimes fall into this trap), but because they've been worked into various levels of the plot. Some of the best I've seen weave these NPCs in early on, often with little or no indication of their ultimate importance. If the players establish the wrong detail about one of these characters (including their death) can cause the GM to scramble more than the players generally frakking around with the plot. "You decided you didn't want to do anything that I had set up...fine, I can handle that. But then you killed Marisol McSue! What the hell am I supposed to do now?"

Or just get fed up and end the whole thing.

There are a number of ways to mitigate the impact of player action when it comes to NPCs. First the NPC roles in the metaplot need to be as vaguely defined as possible. If an NPC's role is too specific, something is guaranteed not to go as planned. Second, there should be at least one or other NPC that takes a similar enough position to be able to step in. Now this can become complicated if one of the main drivers of the metaplot is like the King of Gondor or something, but that's why you have a Steward to back him up (and perhaps a way to shift gears in how things develop from point A to point C). These are things that a GM can do in any game, pretty much regardless of whether or not the players have the ability to modify parts of the setting or change the course of the plot.

Heavy Gear had a "chess piece" system that designated how significant the NPC was to the metaplot. Tribe 8 never had it, but it's not hard (now) to figure out which NPCs are important or not. Aligning these characters to the classifications of NPCs in Fate Core is the first step in figuring out whether the players should be able to muddle around with an NPC. If the NPC is important, the GM can simply veto anything the players try to establish that doesn't fit. This is something that GMs do anyway, so it's not a huge stretch. It will be a dead giveaway that the NPC is essential to the plot as a whole, but I see this a feature and not a bug. An NPC's importance shouldn't be a mystery to the players anyway - it's what that NPC is going to do that should be the surprise.

Of course, NPCs can easily be the subject of an entire post on their own - which is exactly what I have planned for tomorrow.

Giving the Keepers Some Love

Cross posted from Aggregate Cognizance


For the most part, the portrayal of Keepers in Tribe 8 has skewed toward a few archetypes: the hard boiled survivalist, the over curious yet-open-to-that-hippy-crap youth, the doddering wizard-stand in, or the tech-obsessed lunatic (as in the Machine Monks). Many times they are depicted as reluctant allies - often relegated to the role of firearm and ammunition dispensers. When they act as antagonists, often they're more of the gun-toting, "Get off my lawn!" type and not nearly as multi-faceted as, for example, Tribal antagonists.

Given that Tribe 8 is about the Fallen and their plight, this is  somewhat understandable. Keepers just aren't the heart of the game. It's still a damned shame.

At one point,  there was a Keeper supplement in the works called Word of the Keepers, which fell by the wayside and was never released. It was pitched as:

TRIBE 8: WORD OF THE KEEPERS
Enigmatic and reclusive, the Keepers are those who hid themselves away during the Fall of the World Before, and now devote themselves to the preservation and recreation of ancient technology. Word of the Keepers is both a sourcebook and player's handbook for incorporating members of this group into your Tribe 8 campaign.

Opining about the relative incompleteness of the Tribe 8 core books is especially poignant considering how many books were released - surely something like the Keepers could have been slotted into the line a lot earlier. While Tribe 8 2nd Edition featured Keepers more prominently than other books, they still amounted to a couple of decent factions (the Sanjon Keepers) and a motley assortment of groups that are just downright xenophobic, isolationist, hostile, weird, or most often some combination of all four.

Yet there are some fascinating tidbits and unexplored facets to the Keepers. The first is that Keepers are, without a doubt, the only ones who know exactly how much time passed while the bulk of humanity was in The Camps. At least one group of Keepers, mentioned in the Tribe 8 Companion, has only recently emerged from their high-tech bunker. While I'm hesitant to drag realism into it, I can't see how they could have stayed down there for too horribly long.  I've seen estimates for the time between The Camps and the Liberation ranging up to 300 years, on account of the amount of knowledge the Tribals lost. Given the overall amount of decay and ruin seen around Vimary, that figure seems way too long - I'd put it at less than 100 years. The Keepers surely know, but in the published books they aren't telling.

As a side note, for those wondering how the humans in the camps could have lost everything in the span of only a decades, it's simply because of the Z'bri. For those in the Camps, hundreds of generations could have passed, as the Z'bri used Sundering to accelerate their lives and resurrect them again (there are descriptions of Z'bri doing this in various books). Also, the opposite is true of the Keepers - while the wholesale destruction of modern civilization naturally led to a loss of a tremendouds amount of knowledge, given the Keepers' persistence at trying to uncover the past after a couple of centuries they would be much further advanced. Their loss of knowledge, if it has been less than a century, is still difficult to explain - but it can be fudged or chalked up to supernatural reasons a lot easier than explaining two centuries or more of very little progress.

Another piece of information apparently lost in the plethora of setting material is the Ancient One. While later books, and especially Tribe 8 Second Edition, mention "The Ancients" in Olympus, Tribe 8 First Edition says "the Ancient One." The implication here is that there was a single person, entity, or something else at the heart of Olympus. Does he predate the Camps? Is he the equivalent of a Keeper Fatima? A Keeper mech? We don't know because that little blurb was never explored.

I think "never explored" pretty much sums up the state of canon Keepers in Tribe 8. The Olympus Keepers are pretty much our template for what a "Keeper" is. Yet they turned out to be just one group among dozens, each of them a following a cookie-cutter pattern of "Find an industrial-looking location, insert Keepers with goggles and gas masks, make them not trust people." As antagonists or protagonists they are little more than cardboard stand-ups with remarkably little to flesh out the things that could make them truly stand out. While I appreciate that the Sanjon in Tribe 8 Second Edition got their own city and have a write-up, I kind of only got out of it that they dress like the Morton's Fish guy and make people drink alcohol out of dead cod. The closest we get to some kind of non-superficial variety are the Novohuron, who are described as "like Keepers."

For my part, I've tried to battle the two-dimensional nature of the Keepers with a Keeper antagonist, Hanna. She was actually involved in my game with meta plot, dealing with the Institute, Abonom and Agnes. Basically, she is the head of a Keeper group called the Zetetics who are dedicated to discovering a way to harness and control the River of Dream. Hanna isn't a horrible person beyond being highly motivated to seeing her theories and experiments through. In many ways, she is a pawn being played by other groups, including her own kind.

While obviously not every Keeper character or group has to be unique, as it stands they are entirely too homogeneous. They're behind the curve, especially given their story potential. In my fantasy world where Word of the Keepers was actually published, the Keepers would have unquestionably been on the forefront of the curve instead of hiding out in the tunnels underneath it. For now, I'll just have to take solace in my personal reconstruction of Tribe 8 using Fate Core, where I'm able to inject a little bit of variety to the Keepers.

Revised Technosmithing

Cross-posted from Aggregate Cognizance.

In keeping with the Keeper theme for today (har har), I've also finished with my revised Technosmithing write-up for Fate Core. It has some interesting features that set it apart from Synthesis and I think gives Technosmithing more character. You can grab it from Google Docs at the link below.

Fate of Vimary Technosmithing Draft

Revised Technosmithing Draft

In keeping with the Keeper theme for today (har har), I've also finished with my revised Technosmithing write-up for Fate Core. It has some interesting features that set it apart from Synthesis and I think gives Technosmithing more character. You can grab it from Google Docs at the link below.

Fate of Vimary Technosmithing Draft

Giving Keepers Some Love

For the most part, the portrayal of Keepers in Tribe 8 has skewed toward a few archetypes: the hard boiled survivalist, the over curious yet-open-to-that-hippy-crap youth, the doddering wizard-stand in, or the tech-obsessed lunatic (as in the Machine Monks). Many times they are depicted as reluctant allies - often relegated to the role of firearm and ammunition dispensers. When they act as antagonists, often they're more of the gun-toting, "Get off my lawn!" type and not nearly as multi-faceted as, for example, Tribal antagonists.

Given that Tribe 8 is about the Fallen and their plight, this is  somewhat understandable. Keepers just aren't the heart of the game. It's still a damned shame.

At one point,  there was a Keeper supplement in the works called Word of the Keepers, which fell by the wayside and was never released. It was pitched as:

TRIBE 8: WORD OF THE KEEPERS
Enigmatic and reclusive, the Keepers are those who hid themselves away during the Fall of the World Before, and now devote themselves to the preservation and recreation of ancient technology. Word of the Keepers is both a sourcebook and player's handbook for incorporating members of this group into your Tribe 8 campaign.

Opining about the relative incompleteness of the Tribe 8 core books is especially poignant considering how many books were released - surely something like the Keepers could have been slotted into the line a lot earlier. While Tribe 8 2nd Edition featured Keepers more prominently than other books, they still amounted to a couple of decent factions (the Sanjon Keepers) and a motley assortment of groups that are just downright xenophobic, isolationist, hostile, weird, or most often some combination of all four.

Yet there are some fascinating tidbits and unexplored facets to the Keepers. The first is that Keepers are, without a doubt, the only ones who know exactly how much time passed while the bulk of humanity was in The Camps. At least one group of Keepers, mentioned in the Tribe 8 Companion, has only recently emerged from their high-tech bunker. While I'm hesitant to drag realism into it, I can't see how they could have stayed down there for too horribly long.  I've seen estimates for the time between The Camps and the Liberation ranging up to 300 years, on account of the amount of knowledge the Tribals lost. Given the overall amount of decay and ruin seen around Vimary, that figure seems way too long - I'd put it at less than 100 years. The Keepers surely know, but in the published books they aren't telling.

As a side note, for those wondering how the humans in the camps could have lost everything in the span of only a decades, it's simply because of the Z'bri. For those in the Camps, hundreds of generations could have passed, as the Z'bri used Sundering to accelerate their lives and resurrect them again (there are descriptions of Z'bri doing this in various books). Also, the opposite is true of the Keepers - while the wholesale destruction of modern civilization naturally led to a loss of a tremendouds amount of knowledge, given the Keepers' persistence at trying to uncover the past after a couple of centuries they would be much further advanced. Their loss of knowledge, if it has been less than a century, is still difficult to explain - but it can be fudged or chalked up to supernatural reasons a lot easier than explaining two centuries or more of very little progress.

Another piece of information apparently lost in the plethora of setting material is the Ancient One. While later books, and especially Tribe 8 Second Edition, mention "The Ancients" in Olympus, Tribe 8 First Edition says "the Ancient One." The implication here is that there was a single person, entity, or something else at the heart of Olympus. Does he predate the Camps? Is he the equivalent of a Keeper Fatima? A Keeper mech? We don't know because that little blurb was never explored.

I think "never explored" pretty much sums up the state of canon Keepers in Tribe 8. The Olympus Keepers are pretty much our template for what a "Keeper" is. Yet they turned out to be just one group among dozens, each of them a following a cookie-cutter pattern of "Find an industrial-looking location, insert Keepers with goggles and gas masks, make them not trust people." As antagonists or protagonists they are little more than cardboard stand-ups with remarkably little to flesh out the things that could make them truly stand out. While I appreciate that the Sanjon in Tribe 8 Second Edition got their own city and have a write-up, I kind of only got out of it that they dress like the Morton's Fish guy and make people drink alcohol out of dead cod. The closest we get to some kind of non-superficial variety are the Novohuron, who are described as "like Keepers."

For my part, I've tried to battle the two-dimensional nature of the Keepers with a Keeper antagonist, Hanna. She was actually involved in my game with meta plot, dealing with the Institute, Abonom and Agnes. Basically, she is the head of a Keeper group called the Zetetics who are dedicated to discovering a way to harness and control the River of Dream. Hanna isn't a horrible person beyond being highly motivated to seeing her theories and experiments through. In many ways, she is a pawn being played by other groups, including her own kind.

While obviously not every Keeper character or group has to be unique, as it stands they are entirely too homogeneous. They're behind the curve, especially given their story potential. In my fantasy world where Word of the Keepers was actually published, the Keepers would have unquestionably been on the forefront of the curve instead of hiding out in the tunnels underneath it. For now, I'll just have to take solace in my personal reconstruction of Tribe 8 using Fate Core, where I'm able to inject a little bit of variety to the Keepers.

Jingle Eyeballs

Rummaging through your mind

With a tentacle down your throat,

What secrets will I find?

Oh I really love to gloat!

Eyes on ivory bone rings

Force you to watch your plight.

My how your flesh truly sings

As I receive my gift tonight!

S'klas (Major NPC)

Image source: Kerem Beyit

S'klas is a Z'bri Joh'an living in the Skyrealms near Bazaar. Once a Melanis Lord, it was driven out of Hl'Kar because his experiments and penchant for abducting Tribal children threatened the Pact of the Dome. S'klas is convinced because of the innocence children have, and their closeness to the River of Dream, that they hold the secret to opening the Fold. These experiments led it to uncovering a long lost collective memory of a mythical figure who visited children on a certain night of the year, passing out gifts to those who behaved themselves and leaving an item showing his displeasure for those who hadn't. S'klas has taken on the role of this figure, of course corrupting it in a fashion only a Z'bri could.

S'klas is tall and broad for a Melanis, wrapped in a glistening red robe of exposed muscle and sinew. Tentacles often emerge from the folds and openings in the robe of their own accord. Its features are often concealed within a deep cowl, but its visage is disturbingly jovial, with plump features and a mouth forever frozen in a grinning rictus within a "beard" of writhing tentacles. S'klas surrounds himself with diminutive, twisted Serfs who assist him in luring children back to his lair. When he travels it is on a living sled of bone and tissue, pulled by eight nightmarish beasts fashioned into mockeries of the Fatimas.

While S'klas often ventures forth to find new subjects for his experiments, on the longest night of the year is when it truly visits terror upon Vimary. On that night, S'klas fills its sled with horrifying living "toys" and delivers them to children around Vimary. S'klas reserves the worst for those that it deems have been "naughty" over the past year.

Agnes in particular, and Agnites in general, are a particular obsession of S'klas'. Its research has turned more and more toward exploring how Agnes' rebirth from Mary and the way that Agnites use Synthesis might not only be used to re-open the Fold, but also allow for S'klas to dominate all children in Vimary. It is S'klas' hope that this will allow vindication and a return to Hl'kar.

Of course, getting close to Agnes is nearly impossible. Even when S'klas suppresses its Atmosphere, Agnes is still able to sense his presence long before he gets near - and a confrontation with a protective Fatima is not something S'klas could survive. The Agnites themselves are a little more accessible. Some Agnites are  fascinated by the idea of S'klas and the items he leaves. They encourage S'klas' winter outing by creating small shrines in hidden places, replete with grisly "snacks" and decorations. These Agnites willingly accept the items that S'klas brings, squirrelling them away lest an adult take them away or Agnes Herself finds out.

Their behavior only encourages S'klas, who thinks that his methods are working. The items he leaves are obviously all Tainted, and sometimes actively dangerous. Worse still, as S'klas' understanding of children grows deeper his toys become more subversive. There may come a point that S'klas will succeed in getting a toy into the hands of the greatest Child of all.

High Concept

Twisted Children's Icon. Invoke this aspect when dealing with children (both scaring and appealing to them - sometimes both at once). Compel it to push S'klas to do something in line with what the true icon would do (like protect a child).

Aspects

Horrible Helpers: S'klas' serfs often provide the means for both the "gifts" S'klas distributes as well as luring children. It holds for these Serfs what amounts as "affection" for a Z'bri. Invoke this aspect for S'klas' Sundering as well as situations involving enticing children. Compel to make S'klas to have to take some action to protect his Serfs.

Melanis Atmosphere: Like all Z'bri, S'klas constantly emits an Atmosphere. S'klas' Atmosphere causes those around him to ignore his gruesome visage, replacing it with feelings of wonder and joviality.

Melanis Johan: S'klas was once a Melanis Lord, but has now been exiled from Hl'kar. As such,  it is not bound by the tenets of the Pact of the Dome by Z'bri or Tribal. Invoke to provide a benefit to doing something that violates Z'bri law (such as dealing with Tribals or Fallen). Compel to put S'klas in a situation where it has to answer for his actions.

Naughty and Nice List: S'klas spends a lot of time observing children and recording their actions, categorizing them as having been "naughty" or "nice" (of course, these concepts to him have little to do with actually being good or bad). Invoke this aspect to provide allow S'klas information about a specific child. Compel this aspect when S'klas may not have that child on its list.

Touched By the Seed: All Z'bri are close to the Seed. Invoke to activate Sundering, compel to make S'klas to do something visceral or hedonistic.

Skills

Sundering+4

Lore+3

Will+3

Resources+2

Crafts+2

Investigate+2 Deceive+2

Burglary+1

Rapport+1

Stealth+1

Empathy+1

Stunts

Animation: You get a +2 bonus to using Sundering to create the advantage Animated on an inanimate object. In addition, you can use Sundering instead of Craft to make items.

Appeasement: You gain a +2 when using Sundering to create physical advantages on yourself or others.

Atmosphere Suppression: By paying a Fate Point, S'klas can suppress its Atmosphere for one scene.

Chaining: You get a +2 bonus when using Sundering to inflict Equilibrium stress on another character, by attempting to combine that character with another character or object. When doing so with another character, both characters must have stress inflicted on them. If the character(s) are Taken Out by Chaining, they become a mindless, pain driven fusion of objects with the additional aspect Chained.

Note: This was created using my Fate Core conversion for Tribe 8. You can view any of the relevant documents here.

Beliefs and the Spark RPG

Today's theme is "Belief", and so I have a short overview/review of the Kickstarter draft of the Spark rpg from Genesis of Legend Publishing. I backed the Kickstarter because I found the ideas behind the game, on how challenging beliefs are central to the characters and the setting, to be really interesting. Just a word of forewarning: this is a fairly complete draft but it isn't 100%. There are some rough spots I've overlooked. Even so it gives a very good idea of what the final game would be like.

A lot of roleplaying games have tried to implement systems for "domain management" (i.e., running a country or organization or faction), social conflict or similar non-Stabby McDude endeavors. These are seldom the goal of the game, though there are exceptions. Spark takes this idea in a different direction and creates a framework for exploring beliefs that is the underlying purpose of the game. The introduction to the game sums it up best:

You tell a story about a group of individuals with their own firmly held convictions. These characters struggle with each other and the world to uphold their Beliefs.

From the very beginning Spark is a highly collaborative game. The players and GM create the setting, designating the setting Beliefs and various Factions that have agendas which either refute or support those beliefs. Everyone creates Faces - major NPCs that embody the faction - as well as Ties to other factions. Of course, the players have their own characters. These characters have their own Beliefs that can be refuted or confirmed.

Without going into the mechanics in depth, there are four attributes and a selection of Talents the characters possess. The attributes are rated by a standard set of polyhedral dice (d4 to d20). Unlike other games, there are no skill rolls against set thresholds or target numbers. Instead, when players make bold declarations that affect other characters or become objective parts of the setting they roll against one another using the appropriate attribute. The various Talents which apply add bonuses. If others are supporting the character's declaration, it increases the level of the attribute (and thus the die size). The winner of the roll pays an Influence, and their declaration becomes reality (or if the opposition won, does not). If no one objects, no rolls are made. This essentially means that a player who narrates that they succeed at a task just does so unless another player doesn't want that to happen. It is notable that the GM has his or her own Influence pool and setting attributes, and unquestionably has a strong voice in what goes on around the table.

Spark describes this core mechanic like this:

Conflicts in Spark can be reduced to a single, basic procedure. If you are ever stuck in the game or uncertain what the rule is, just follow these steps.

1. Discuss the problem and explain your intentions.
2. If everyone agrees that something should happen, it does.
3. If people disagree, everyone rolls the relevant dice and the person with the highest number gets their way.

Instead of checks and balances in the game being within tables and modifiers and target numbers, it's ensconced within the player group. This even extends to pacing - the players are involved in determining whether factions achieve their short term agendas, or where the scene takes place, the pivotal event within the scene and what question needs to be answered. When that question has been answered, the players also have the ability to suggest closing the scene out and moving on to the next one. At the end of each episode (which is comprised of several scenes), the players get to evaluate both their beliefs and the setting beliefs. Anyone who successfully refuted or confirmed a setting belief gains Influence. Players characters can also convince other characters to change their Beliefs by spending Influence.

Unfortunately, while the draft rules are clear about what happens at the end of the episode - there are Influence tokens on the Belief sheet, and when the Beliefs are refuted or confirmed by a player character they are able to take that Influence - exactly how the tokens get there is not clear. It is a draft, and the comments on the Kickstarter clarify that at the beginning of each session one Influence token is placed on each Belief on the Belief sheet. Also, while I genuinely like the "Influence economy" and the rules for challenging and changing beliefs, I feel that the scene phases are too mechanical. At times while reading Spark I got a board game vibe from the rules. This is with the caveat that I've not had a chance to playtest the game - it may go a lot smoother than I imagine. Part of it may have more to do with presentation than anything else.

Spark's implementation is likely one that won't work for every group. Whether the group is successful or not with Spark is going to be highly dependent on the players, more so than with "mainstream" games. Some groups or individual players will take to the collaborative nature more than others, and some players may be put off by the amount of "meta gaming". I can hear a late friend of mine spinning in his grave just thinking about the level of collaborative play and player input Spark demands. He liked skill points, rolls for success or failure, combat rounds and omnipowerful GMs. Spirit of the Century, no matter how much I tried to sell him on it, was even too much. I'm tempted to suggest that scene framing phases be taken care of during downtime, so the players know what to expect during each episode. The game sessions would be comprised primarily of Collaboration, scene closing and then wrap-up at the end of the episode. The problem with this solution is that depending on how a particular scene goes, it may invalidate some or all of the other scenes that had been worked out during the downtime.

On the plus side, the basic framework for working to influence and change Beliefs is very compelling. My favorite setting, Tribe 8, seems to be perfect for this kind of play. Tribe 8 was the main reason I backed Spark's Kickstarter. The setting attributes and beliefs, the factions, the Faces, the ties, the agendas - they are already present in Tribe 8. At its heart, Tribe 8 makes exceptionally strong statements about belief and how it can change the world. All of the right elements are there to be slotted right in, and I have a clear idea about how it would be set up. Spark goes further afield than Fate Core does in terms of player input and collaboration, and from my experience that buy-in is required for a good Tribe 8 game. For sure any foray into playing Spark for me is going to be Tribe 8. I'm actually considering having concurrent Fate Core and Spark games that shadow one another. We'd switch from Fate Core to Spark as needed when testing beliefs are involved, yet still strive to maintain continuity between the two games.

I think that with some clarification on the draft rules (which is apparently already been noted and is being worked on), Spark is a very good game - for the right group of people and the right setting. It won't necessarily be for everyone. Players who want to seriously explore their characters' (and their own) beliefs will certainly enjoy it. Even then, Spark's set up is one that lends itself well to be included as part of another game - not just mechanically, but thematically. Any group that wants to explore their characters' (and their own) beliefs couldn't go wrong by at least looking at what Spark has to offer.

Fate of Vimary character sheet

After a lot of tweaking, I finally got my character sheet done for Fate of Vimary. It's interesting how just having the character sheet done makes things seem more concrete, more of a thing. The other awesome thing is while I've always created custom character sheets for various games, the tools available now totally beat using Publisher and Word to try to do it. Between Inkscape and GIMP, it's very easy to create a character sheet and with a lot less time and effort.

Without further ado, I give you three versions of the sheet in PDF format as well as the .SVG file (for anyone who wants to tinker with it themselves).

• Tribe 8 Fate of Vimary PDF Character Sheet (with background)
• Tribe 8 Fate of Vimary PDF Character Sheet (without background)
• Tribe 8 Fate of Vimary PDF Character Sheet (without background and using Cambria instead of Adler for the font)
• Tribe 8 Fate of Vimary Character Sheet SVG

Fate of Vimary Character Creation Draft

This is extremely short, but it's the nuts and bolts of character creation for Fate of Vimary, specifically highlighting minor differences in the phase trio and a very short guideline for cells. The idea is to leverage the use of Fate Core's cooperative character creation to make sure that the player characters are connected to one another in a way appropriate to Tribe 8, as well as emphasize that cell creation is something which has a tangible benefit as an extra. You can grab the draft from Google Docs.

I was also inspired by the Spark RPG Kickstarter, which looks totally worth backing, to figure out a simple way of abstracting out factions and belief systems. It wouldn't be a subsystem that would see regularly use in play, but it might be kind of cool for use during Rants and whatnot.

I also think I'm in a position to start to throw together a character sheet.

Fate of Vimary Gear and Weapons Draft

This took a while to figure out. There are numerous ways of handling weapons and armor in Fate Core. Balancing out the costs and how they work as extras is a pretty big deal, and is something there aren't a huge number of guidelines for. Fortunately there are a lot of ideas out there. The one that I went with was from this post on EldritchFire Press which synced up with some other suggestions I'd seen. I think the end result has a good amount of abstraction without making the weapons and armor entirely too fiddly (and, having looked through some GURPS and Hero books lately, I definitely know fiddly).

You can grab the draft document here. It still needs some details regarding "enchanted" artifacts and whatnot, which I'll be filling in later.

Draft Contacts/Social Stress write-up

This was the result of a lot of tinkering. It looks pretty solid without playtesting, but I think it will capture the feel I'm going for. There are a lot great thinkers on the Fate Core Google+ group who helped bounce ideas around, particularly +Jack Gulick. I'm also considering moving over to Andrew Jensen's ideas on using Stress as a Positive Currency because they look like they go a ways toward alleviating some of the problems I can see with stress only being the result of "attacks". Other tweaks I'm considering are adding at least one extra consequence to the mild or moderate consequence tiers to accommodate that there's one more way to inflict stress. Those decisions might have to wait until I actually run this thing.

Without further ado, you can download it here.

Tribe 8 Extras (and thoughts on a project name)

Tribe 8 in Fate Core is coming along nicely. It's gotten to the point where I have to plan what portions I  need to draft out in terms of Extras. Tribe 8 is a rich and well-developed setting, and there's temptation to assign aspects and stress tracks to everything, which goes against what I'm trying to accomplish. Here is that preliminary list of Extras I think are absolutely necessary.  

1. Locations. Tribe 8 has a number of locations that deserve to be Extras because they have a distinct character and theme. Some, like Hom or Bazaar, play integral parts to Tribe 8's story. These places will get the "Extra" treatment, but I won't do it for all of them as I did for Strands of Flesh and Spirit.
2. The River of Dream. The need for this can't be overstated. There's a reason the River of Dream has a whole sourcebook devoted to it.
3. Armor and weapons. I'm not wanting to make them too detailed or fiddly, but there is a difference between a flint knife, an artifact sword made from Joan Herself, and a Keeper rifle. However, there's not much difference between the flint knife, a length of pipe, and a makeshift spear. The same goes for armor. The idea will be to paint them in broad strokes and not sweat the unimportant things.
4. Survival. The Tribes have it pretty good, but it still isn't easy. The Fallen have it a lot worse and the Squats aren't much better off than the Fallen. Food, fresh water, clothing, shelter and other necessities are constant needs that drain time and resources for everyone. It's just a matter of striking a balance between a dull subsystem or an entertaining one.
5. Status/Reputation. This is something that was lacking from Tribe 8, but in a post-apocalyptic tribal setting reputation is pretty much the only currency you have. I've become convinced the designers missed the boat on dropping barter in as a simple substitute for a typical game economy, and doing retcons in later books to create a monetary system was a step in the wrong direction. It's not about what you have to barter or what you're bartering for - it's all about your standing in the social group. Hunter Gatherer Games has some fantastic things to say on the matter. Tangentially, through them I found a link to a continuation of The Fifth World, which I discovered a few years ago and thought was an interesting project.
6. Spirits. Tribe 8 gives Spirits the "just give them some stats" treatment, so I'd like to expand on  their capabilities quite a bit.

As for what to call this project...there's a long tradition of incorporating system name for Fate-based games:  Spirit of Vimary, Strands of Flesh and Spirit. Each one fits quite well. This time around I want to incorporate Fate into the name. Some possibilities include Fate of Flesh and Spirit, Fate of Vimary, or Tribe Fate. I've also considered naming it Rusted Sky in tribute to a website run by one of the Tribe 8 authors, or just falling back on my signature name, Dreams of Flesh and Spirit.

Fighting "Aspect Creep"

One of the things I didn't realize until after the fact with my Strands of Fate adaptation for Tribe 8 is the sheet number of aspects. On top of the character aspects there was a tribal aspect, and then if the character had Synthesis there were two Eminences apiece. I want to try to figure out a way to streamline it for Fate Core while still keeping the basic tenets of the way Synthesis works. For those who are unfamiliar with Tribe 8 (and to help me try to focus on the important bits), there are a set of "Eminences" which are essentially archetypes - Life, Inspiration, Motion, Wisdom, Truth, etc. Tribal and Fallen characters in Silhouette have two - for each Tribe they are fixed while Fallen retain one from their birth Tribe and can choose one from their new Outlook. These characters are considered to be "awakened". In Dreams of Flesh and Spirit, I represented this as an advantage which granted a persistent aspect. The Eminences were also aspects. By this point, the character would a Tribal or Fallen aspect plus an Awakened Aspect and two Eminence Aspects (not to mention the Synthesis skill). That's four additional aspects, and it's too many. Now, there are two things that strike me about Eminences. The first is they're more of archetypes than personal characteristics. They're universal constants and exist outside of the character. The second is that they can likely be collapsed pretty easily. Using archetypes I can see seven Tribal archetypes and four Fallen ones. Tribal Archetypes:

• Agnite: Child
• Baba Yaga: Crone
• Dahlian: Trickster
• Evan: Mother
• Joan: Warrior
• Magdalen: Lover
• Tera Sheba: Judge

Fallen Archetypes:

• Doomsayer: Prophet
• Herite: Heretic
• Jacker: Avenger
• Lightbringer: Visionary

One of the things that Eminences do in Silhouette is allow a character one reroll or a bonus on a roll during a session. Fate Points and creating advantages already mimic this, so there's nothing more to be done other than allowing the character the aspect. This aspect would be Awakened to [Archetype]. Characters who don't want to invest in Synthesis don't need to do any more - otherwise the character would only need to buy ranks in the Synthesis skill, along with any other requirements (since I need to evaluate what those might be). The awesome thing about this solution is it could probably work just as well for the other three groups that have powers: Keepers, Z'bri and Guides. It's just a matter of identifying archetypes. One aspect, one skill, and a much less cluttered way of dealing with Synthesis.

Rusted Sky - Fate Core Tribe 8

I'm starting to put some tentative processing cycles toward how I would redo my Tribe 8 conversion for Fate Core, and I'd like some thoughts. The Strands of Fate adaptation, as I've mentioned before, I think is solid and a good step away from the ill-fitting Silhouette mechanics. There were still a lot of mechanical fiddly bits - multiple stress tracks for different things, it sticks fairly closely to the way the powers were modeled in Silhouette, and it skews more toward a more "down to earth" tone.
For Fate Core, I want to make the step in the direction of how Tribe 8 has always existed in my head and break even further from its semi-realistic roots. More surreal and dreamlike, more mythological, more Robert Holdstock, more Neil Gaiman, more Clive Barker, more dark fairy tale and legend.
The first thing I want to do is get a rough idea of the skills. I want them to be archetypical, in name and function. One idea I had was to name them after the Fatimas, the other was to take the Eminences and use those in some way. There are multiple paths to go down, and I just need to find the right fit.
For those unfamiliar with Tribe 8, the survivors of our world have been broken into what amounts to five camps: the Tribes, the Fallen, the Keepers, the Squats and the Serfs. The Tribes are descendants of the humans that were enslaved by supernatural beings called the Z'bri. Each Tribe is led by a demigod-like being called a Fatima, who freed the Tribes from the Z'bri. The Fallen are those that have been banished from Tribal society. The Keepers are those who are descended from survivors who tried to preserve knowledge of our world. The Squats for all intents and purposes are savages. The Serfs the tainted servants of the Z'bri who were not liberated.
Each Fatima represents a pair of specific concept or archetype (called Eminences). These are:
Agnes the Child: Capriciousness, Inspiration Baba Yaga the Crone: Death, Fate Dahlia the Trickster: Illusion, Motion Eva the Mother: Empathy, Life Joan the Warrior: Devotion, Fury Magdalen the Lover: Conflict, Sensuality Tera Sheba the Judge: Truth, Wisdom
In addition,  there are two more Fatimas, who were destroyed:
Joshua the Ravager: Force, Magnum Mary the Forgiver (Agnes took her place): Purity, Recognition
In addition, the Fallen have four Outlooks: Doomsayer, Herite, Jacker, Lightbringer with their own pair of Eminences. There are four Z'bri Houses, mapping to alchemical humours: Flemis, Koleris, Melanis and Sangis. There are three types of "magic" in the setting: Synthesis (for Tribals and Fallen), Technosmithing (for Keepers) and Sundering (for Z'bri).
I want a skill selection that isn't quite as dry as the default skill list. I also want to avoid having a large number of aspects - because I was treating the Tribe, Outlook, or other affiliation as an aspect, plus each Eminence was its own Aspect, along with using Strands of Power. I think it all fits together nicely, but I can see it could get unwieldy.
Now, the Eminences map pretty nicely to each Fatima's sphere of influence so it might be possible to collapse those to their archetypes and get rid of the individual descriptors entirely. That would give us: Child, Crone, Trickster, Mother, Warrior, Lover, Judge, Ravager, Forgiver. The same holds true for the Fallen. The Z'bri Sundering powers are easily represented by their House. Each archetype would occupy, and aspect slot, and the use of any powers would hinge on that aspect.
Another possibility is to make each of the collapsed archetypes a skill. I'm somewhat unsure how that would work given the Squats, Keepers and Z'bri - it makes no sense for a Koleris to have the Child skill, even at 0 ranks.
Once I have some idea of how I want to handle the archetypes and skills, I'll also know what direction to take with Synthesis. Even in Strands of Flesh and Spirit, Synthesis is free-form but still mechanical. It enables the character to "control" whatever is within the realm of either Eminence. By collapsing the archetypes, I think it would be much more wide open. Instead of Capriciousness and Inspiration being two separate things, it becomes encompassed by "The Child" (plus a whole lot more).
I'm just not sure what direction I want to go with it yet. I'm certainly open to suggestions.
As an aside, the name for the Fate Core version (Rusted Sky) is a homage to the website run by one of the early Tribe 8 fans and a contributor to the line, Edwyn Kumar. Even after all of these years, his insights and contributions to the game left a lasting impression on me.