I just found these links in a german FATE forum.

http://worldwithoutsyn.com/2010/06/gaming-on-the-cheap-part-1-paper-miniatures/
http://worldwithoutsyn.com/2010/06/gaming-on-the-cheap-part-ii-paper-mini-construction/
http://worldwithoutsyn.com/2010/06/gaming-on-the-cheap-part-3-fate-zones-with-index-cards/

Especially the index card idea stuck with me and is going to make a lot of fights a lot easier. The paper minis are a good idea, too. You could just use some random markers, but I think it is going to create a lot more atmosphere if every character and villain has its own personalised paper miniature, and this way it is going to be affordable 

I don't think the quality of the forgery matters as much as how you use it. Focus on that instead of the forgery itself and it should be easier. The badge itself is not the issue, but somebody questioning the characters authority is.

For example:
You try to get some information from the local police department, so you prepare yourself: declare your badge (and maybe something else that might fit) as a temporary aspect while you create your FBI agent disguise. Now when you pose as an FBI agent you can tag this aspect for free to aid your roll to deceit (or performance?)

On the other hand, if by chance you have your fake FBI badge with you, when you run into a fresh crime scene and you want to get in there, you would have to use a FATE point to add your badge's aspect to your roll, because you are using it on the fly.

Or at least that is how I understand the rules.

The High Concept should include the class your character thinks he is playing.
Based on that you can choose the magic powers.

I think a character like that would probably best fit something like Mage, Priest, Paladin, Druid, Shaman, maybe a few others.

Mage is pretty straight forward: either pick a template like Sorcerer or Wizard (Sorcerer probably fits better), and let him have some of the standard spells like fireball or frostbolt.
Or (taking WoW as a baseline): let him be a focused practitioner with either arcane (spirit), fire or frost specialisation.

Priest would be a True Believer, although that might not be right, because he does not actually believe. Again a focused practitioner would be the way to go. Put the focus on something holy and you should be good to go. Remember, that you can not just throw out healing spells like you can in an mmorpg. You can (and should) however do a great deal with blocks and helpful maneuvers.

Paladin is pretty much the Fist of God type. Again, that template requires true faith, so again, a focused practitioner would be best. Maybe only ritual(holy) and some refinement, so you can enchant a weapon and maybe bless you and your friends with a "prayer" before you do battle.

Druid is easy, either a wizard/sorcerer with druidlike spells, or a true shapeshifter. Might be tough to get enough beast powers to be efficient in every single one of them, but you can still do a lot with it.

Shaman is simply a wizard/sorcerer with a focus on totems and ancestral spirits. You can do pretty much anything, as long as you keep it "shamanesque". Possibly a great focus on thaumaturgy rather than evocation.


All in all, the character pretty much builds itself, ones you have chosen a class that you want to derive your power from. You might also think about having him be an emissary of that exact class, having some sort of "god" somewhere in the nevernever, that has been created by so many geeks "believing" in this class. Think phobophages in PG, some of them had taken a form of general believe as well. The character would take his powers directly from that "god", so it would be sponsored magic.

I think as a GM I would compel the trouble aspect almost everytime the player is hesitating to go into battle, because if he dies, he would simply "respawn", no harm done, so why be afraid to die?

I've been thinking about some thaumaturgy spells for my chloromancer:

Rampage Growth
Complexity: 23 (21 to reduce time from "a mortal lifetime" to "a few moments" + 2 to cover a zone)
Duration: a few moments
Effect: The plants in the zone start growing extremely fast, creating cover and obstacles, growing in and over houses, cars, everything.
Variations: reduce shifts for a slower growth (14 would take a whole day to grow), making it more of a reforestation spell, but it would also be a lot easier to do.

The time chart is usually used to increase the duration of the spell, I used it to lower the growing time of the plants, did I still count the complexity right?


Banana phone (yeah, that's right)
Complexity: 2 for duration +1 for each banana over the first two, that is connected to the "network"
Duration: 1 hour
Effect: The chloromancer takes a bundle of bananas and creates a link between them. For the duration of the spell the bananas will act as a radio to communicate. It is important, that the bananas are still connected before the spell is cast.
Variations: add shifts to increase duration.

I know, this one is kind of silly, but I really like it. Bananas are plants (or parts of), so as a chloromancer I should be good to go. For complexity I took the advise from iago from another thread, where he suggested the complexity of a water breathing spell at a level equal to a resource roll for buying scuba gear. Radios are not really expensive, so a roll of mediocre should be enough, so the spells complexity is only made up of duration and the number of "phones".
As a matter of fact, you could use pretty much anything to create short term radio communication for your group. Take some playdo, put a little piece in everyone's ear and you got the full blown wizard version of it (and the less silly/fun one). Of course, the range is limited, maybe a block or two, but if you use it to storm a house from opposite directions or something similar, it is extremely useful. And it is hexing resistant as well.

There are some other spells, but with those two I was not sure if they should be able to work like that.

Problem is, to short circuit a wizard using water, you would have to have a constant stream running over him, like Nick did in DM. Other than that, most you would likely accomplish is him not being able to cast for an exchange or 2, so a block against his discipline would probably be the way to go. As long as he can't overcome the block he won't be able to cast any spells. Sort of like an entropy cloud around him that keeps him from shaping a spell.
Or, as you pointed out, you can do it as a maneuver.

Another way to do this would be through thaumaturgy, like Harry did to Kravos in GP. He had a doll with some of Kravos Hair and he used it to block out his spellcasting for the entire scene. Would also be a block against his discipline (or maybe even conviction?) I think, but with a hell of a lot more oomph than you could accomplish with evocation. Plus it will last a hell of a lot longer than an evocation would.

And of course there is the simple "draw a circle, add a drop of blood" trick. Kincaid used it on Harry once, but I have no idea how one would do that in terms of the rules. Plus, the circle is easily broken. Still, even mortals can do this.

Thanks everyone for your contribution. I don't think enchanted items alone will work only so far. Sure an armour or a block can help, but I think infight counterspells can really add to a high power game.


As a houserule, I would do it like this:
Without the lore roll to determine how much power the spell was cast at, so the counterspeller is flying blind. He makes a counterspell evocation at a power he choses beforehand, done by the standard evocation rules, including mental stress. If he is not able to match the power of the spell with the power of his counterspell, the only thing he achieves is to lower the weapon rating of the spell, it still hits with the full discipline roll made plus the remaining power. If on the other hand the counterspeller is above the power of the incoming spell, he gets an extra stress per shift of power above the incoming spell, reflecting the power that is summoned yet unused . Plus, the counterspeller has to have his action waiting for a spell to counter, it is not a defence action.

So in my example from above:
Weapon:7
Discipline Roll: 10

The defending sorcerer tries to counter the attack. He doesn't think his opponent would go all in in the first round, so a counterspell:5 should do. He rolls a 6 on his discipline roll, so he can easily apply his will to the incoming attack. Unfortunately that only brings the powerlevel of the spell to a 2, which is still enough to inflict 12 physical stress combined with the shifts from the attack. As an evocation, the counterspell inflicts 1 base stress, because it is at the conviction of 5 (bonus from foci would apply) of the counterspelling sorcerer.

If he had gone with a counterspell:8 instead, it would have looked like this:
assuming he succeeds in his discipline roll, he overshot his counterspell by 1. He rips the incoming attack right out of existence, but now he has to deal with the backlash. First, he will get 1 base stress plus 3 for each level of power above his conviction. And 1 additional stress for the 1 power his counterspell is above the incoming attack. This results in 5 mental stress. Not cancelling the stress out to zero, but this is a hell of a lot better than in the example above.

You can wear yourself out by this quicker than if you would sling out spells yourself, but I think it is a good option. Maybe another rule to add 2 shifts to not cancel out a spell but redirect it. The rules above would still apply, so if you have an power 5 spell incoming, you would have to at least put 7 shifts into the spell to redirect it. Anything above that gives an extra stress as a standard counterspell would, but it does not increase the spells power. If the counterpower (power - 2 shifts for redirecting) is below the attacking spell the attackpower is just decreased as above, nothing is redirected. The redirection attempt has to be announced before the counterspell is cast.

And last but not least, I might go with the penalty for not knowing an evocation element, but I don't know if that really is necessary.

Oh and one absolutely last thought: the sight should cancel out the "flying blind" disadvantage, making it possible for the wizard to assess the power of the spell by a Lore roll. I was first thinking of just having him know the spells power without a roll if he activates the sight, but that would be too easy. Plus, that way the sight is not such a major advantage, so any wizard would still think twice about opening it up in a combat situation.

I would have to test this, but I like it so far.

We created the characters at the submerged level, so 10 refresh.

I have never played fate before, so I admit, I might have done something wrong, but I did it exactly as the examples described it.

The first sorcerer was at 5 conviction and 5 discipline. His specialisation and foci made that into 7 and 6 for spirit attacks, so a 7 spirit attack would be at his conviction level, 6 control + 4 shifts from his roll would put his attack at 10 plus weapon:7 from the spell is 17.