I was sitting on the fence for a while. I heard that a Dresden Files RPG was coming out, and with the whole family loving the novels, I thought I would be curious and check it out.
Initially I was a bit sceptical. What's this Fate system all about? I have been role-playing on and off for around 25 years now. Traveller was my first GM experience all those years ago. I have played with lots of systems and eventually settled on GURPS ('scuse me) for the past few years. I was into war games when I was a kid, and to me all the 'good' role-playing systems needed to feel like, well, a war game.
I checked out the SRD for Spirit of the Century and found it interesting but was sceptical. What you don't measure ranges, instead you use zones? Dice that have no numbers, just +'s and -'s, huh? I pondered the zone concept and found it interesting. Analysing the dice probabilities I found that yeah, +'s and -'s make a great game mechanic due to the bell curve and the visibility and ease of use.
Then I read that you get the PDFs for immediate download when you pre-order the books. So my curiosity got the best of me and I pre-ordered.
Damn am I glad I did. I find myself well and truly hooked by the system. I believe it goes in a direction I have wanted to go in lately. Into role-playing (where the story matters) instead of rule-playing (where the war game simulation matters). I still enjoy rule-playing but these days I can satisfy my rule-play needs by buying an Xbox game. I have grown tired of needing to keep track of all the numbers and rules mechanics at the gaming table.
Now the DFRPG has pleasantly shown me a new approach to how to run a role-playing game. I realise I could do something similar with another system but with the Fate system, it’s all built into the core of the game rules. I feel the abstraction level is just right, and needed, to run modern day adventures. At the same time with all the abstraction it still allows for an extremely detailed personalized write up of characters, but without all those numbers.
I would like to thank all those involved in developing the DFRPG and Fate. You have awakened a creative spark in me that I lost many years ago. Well done!