The Campaign Builder's Guild

Hmm, tried to check out Diaspora, but they only have a review on Space Combat... Can you tell me anything about the game in general?

on stunts, the SRD has this to say:

Quote from: SRDtunts exist to provide guaranteed situational benefits, or special abilities or minor powers, under particular circumstances.

which is, admittedly, pretty vague. Basically, you get a number of these (5 in SotC) and they provide some kind of extraordinary benefit. They are each associated with a skill, but this is mostly meant as a guide to help you pick them. The benefit they can provide can be anything, really. The Alertness stunt "Saw it Coming" makes the character immune to surprise, the Athletics stunt Contortionist allows you to use the skill to contort your body, or you can take a Fists stunt called Flying Kick to move and then attack. (mind you, SotC is a pulp setting)  

Yeah, the name is confusing: a "stunt" isn't a crazy action you do, it's just a specific power you have that goes on your character sheet. On the bright side, if you really get all that stuff about aspects and stress, stunts will be super easy for you.

Other favorites, in addition to Crow's examples, are:
- various Endurance and Resolve stunts which allow you to take more consequences than usual
- Five Minute Friends (Rapport): spend a FP and a few minutes of chat-time, and you've made a staunch pal (even if that's totally unlikely where you are)
- Master of Disguise (Deceit): when you use this stunt, your character goes "off screen"; later, at any point you choose, pick any NPC in the scene-- ta-da! that NPC is actually you, in disguise! (if some detective gets the better of you, they can "discover" where you're hiding-- they get to choose which NPC is you in disguise)

Basically, stunts either give you a bonus in a specific situation (+2 to Deceit when you tell a lie that contains a significant kernel of truth, etc.), gives you an ability that you did not previously have (get an honest, yes/no answer about what a specific character would be capable of, etc.), or represents a possession/ally/treasure that provides a tangible game benefit (a faithful retainer, or a magic sword, etc.).

Stunts are extras; that's really all.

Did you have anything on Diaspora LC?

Quote from: Superfluous CrowDid you have anything on Diaspora LC?

I've read some reviews and I've pored over the Diaspora website, but I don't have the actual game, no.

I have the book. Somewhere. I will find it and share my musings.

Without having the book at hand, I can at the very least say that Diaspora begins with the most beautiful, concise and evocative piece of setting fiction I've thus far encountered in an RPG.

Here's what I've gathered from what I read just now.

The game begins with stellar system creation (individual characters are created last). Each player, including the referee, creates one or two systems, for a typical total of between six and ten. Systems have attributes and Aspects, just like characters. Those attributes are Technology, Environment and Resources, with values ranging from -4 to +4, and they can be generated randomly (with Fudge dice), or by deliberate allocation or group consensus.

The systems are then named, and each system gets two unique Aspects extrapolated from their attributes that nevertheless cannot be re-presented numerically. They are things like 'In the wake of holocaust', 'Ecumenopolis', 'Population of clones' and so forth. Then the group establishes the relationships between systems and each system gets a final Aspect reflecting its place in the politics and economy of the cluster.

There is also a very brief rundown of the probabilities of certain kinds of worlds and systems, given standard generation methods, and a writeup of Earth with possible Aspects such as 'Heavily Balkanised', Microprocessors Everywhere' and 'Apparently Alone'.

Lastly each player writes a paragraph about their system.

So far I like this so much that I'm ashamed it's taken me this long to read through it. I will probably be using this as my system for Endless, even though I had sworn to a hiatus from FATE and fudge.

This is a really smart game.

Are characters identical to the ones in SotC? I have heard rumors about a financial stress track (probably from LC), but that's about all I know.
Both strange and cool that every "setting" is auto-generated. I wonder, is Diaspora meant for campaign play or shorter story arcs?

Quote from: Superfluous CrowAre characters identical to the ones in SotC? I have heard rumors about a financial stress track (probably from LC), but that's about all I know.

Oh, here's another thing I do know. To get the "hard sci-fi" feel, you're a lot less resilient than in SotC. Consequences work like in Dresden Files, not like in SotC (so you can be one-shotted in Diaspora), and consequences reduce stress by only -1/-2/-4, so they give you less protection.

I will say that I love that system generation method. And that I think it's a great example of the sorts of things one can do with aspects.

Just noticed another FATE-based system: Agents of Swing. Basically 60's/70's spy action. I know little of it besides the name.

EDIT: Hmm, apparently there is also a generic FATE-based system called Strands of Fate. Know anything of that?

How do skills work in this game?

Xathan, I don't know anything specific about Agents of Swing, or about Strands of Fate, but the FATE devblog had this to say about Strands:

Quote from: Newb MSTieHow do skills work in this game?

Are you asking about FATE in general, or about one of the specific FATE implementations recently mentioned?

Oh hey PS, here is an episode of Narrative Control that is an interview with Fred Hicks, one of the Evil Hat guys who wrote SotC and Dresden Files RPG, and he's talking about the system in general, changes made for DFRPG and why, all that nice-and-good stuff.

So that may give you some insight on how the system works, why it's put together the way it is, how you might go about changing parts of it, etc.

@Luminous Crayon
In general
Also i'm beginning to run a game using FATE, so i may need a walk through on this.

Okay: skills are easy.

You have a skill on your sheet at a certain value. Like, say, you have Awareness as a Good (+3) skill. Whenever you roll Awareness, you start on that +3 and roll your four fudge dice. So your result can end up anywhere between Poor (-1), if your roll all minuses, and Epic (+7), if you roll all plusses.

In general, each skill will tell you how it works, and what it can be used for.

If you have additional questions, I'll keep going if you make your request for information more specific.