Realistically, I think the Codex Alera would be a simple mod of FATE.  Anima would be a decent system to tweak to make the story, but the GM would have to take some extra time creating limits for the PCs and statting up NPCs.  It could be done, though...at least until a licensed property comes out.

Oh, as far as skills and the ladder are concerned, are there going to be any skills that begin at a negative if they are untrained?  Like Performance, for example.  I've spent a point training the skill, so obviously I'm Average or higher, but some things, like playing a guitar, would be worse than Mediocre if they're untrained.  I mean, if a Chlorofiend (sp?) wanted to smash me with a fighting skill, fine, but what if he's accepted a Break Dance challenge?  Is he going to be able to use a Performance, untrained, with no penalty, or should he have to use the untrained skill at a higher penalty?

I know some things can be done with only no penalty if you don't know how to do them, like driving a car through narrow streets at high speed.  No problem without training the skill, in theory, but Surgery would be a lot more difficult.  Is there going to be any kind of rule that mentions this with particular skills?  Or will it be left up to the GM?  I, as a GM, of course, don't mind "doing" that to my players, as long as the text backs me up when I say that it's up to my discretion.

One last thought, I think, in regards to Stress in the skills chapter.  I couldn't see it mentioned anywhere in the intro of that chapter, only in the skills that modify stress, which is why I brought it up in the first post.  What if, for some incredibly odd reason, none of my players take skills that modify their stress?  I guess what I'm really asking in this thread, as far as stress is concerned, is; will there be a paragraph or two that explains stress in more detail?  As far as I'm concerned, that would help me out as a consumer, regardless of where it's located in the book.

Again, thanks for the attention you guys have been putting in to this book.  I'm really looking forward to it!

So, I've been reading through the rules for FATE 2.0 and Spirit of the Century (the first FATE 3.0 installment) and I have a question about skills.

In SotC, any skill that has not been "purchased" by skill points apparently defaults to Mediocre (or 0 modifier), and then if a skill point has been spent, it goes up to Average (or +1).  My question is, why bother putting -1 or -2 on the skill ladder?

Let me expand my thought for you with an example.  If I have a character who has never trained with a gun, then I am Mediocre with that skill.  But I want to shoot someone.  For the purpose playing the game, I as a player, or even a GM, don't need to know that if I roll enough "-" on my dice to take me below zero, I fail.  The negative part of the ladder doesn't seem to be important as a STARTING point, or even a point of reference for my skills.

So, why is the negative side of the ladder even mentioned?  I haven't read anything that answers that question in the SotC book, and I can't find anything in FATE 2.0, either.

I was also wondering about Stress for the characters.  I haven't seen Stress mentioned anywhere in the character creation chapters of either system book, and to me, that seems like it would be really important information to have in that chapter.  I understand that this isn't a number crunching system, but all of my players, when I GM, are going to need that information in that chapter, since they won't be reading through the entire book before they begin playing.  Is that something that you plan on adding to the Character Creation chapter in DFRPG?

In my opinion, the CC Chapter would be able to stand alone as a pamphlet (without listing skills, of course) that any player could read through and create their PC on their own without having to read the rule book until they get to the gaming location where I have a copy available for them.  (And let's face it, not everyone can afford to buy a copy of the book, which is why I'm going to buy three).

I know they're putting in a chapter on how to make your hometown all magical and stuff, so I'm going to go with Denver.  In the Fool Moon, that wolf-woman moved to a reserve in the Rocky Mountains, and they didn't specify the state, so I think I'm going to get her involved in my campaign.  Denver also has some cool history, especially with street gangs, art and culture, and sports....lots of fodder for a rag-tag group of people to investigate the wierdness of the supernatural.

Alright, so I know DFRPG is using Fudge, and from what I've read of the Fate rules, it seems to me to be very similar to the Cortex system that Battlestar Galactica and Serenity use.  Am I the only who got this impression, and am I the only person who will at least toy around with changing some of the system rules to use Cortex rather than Fudge?