Fate Character Creation: Makass, Part 1

So I’ve been having fun playing around with Fate’s character creation system for the past few days and have been going through the process of Turning Makass into a Fate System character. Not technically difficult, but it’s been interesting to figure out some of the parts of it in order to get what I wanted out of the system. Which is exactly what I was trying for with this exercise.

Character creation in Fate is pretty straight forward. You start with your character idea. This consists of 3 things, your High Concept Aspect, your Trouble Aspect, and your character’s name. Like I said, pretty straight forward and simple, right?

The thing with the two Aspects you’re determining here though is that because they are Aspects you need to come up with a way of wording them that will allow them to come up in gameplay often. It is part of what makes the character who they are and why they do what they do. The more creative and/or double edged the phrasing the better (For use in Compels/Invoking). Some examples of what I think are good High Concepts included in the book so far include; Infamous Girl with a Sword, Wizard Private Eye (I wonder who that is…), Scar Triad’s Patsy in Riverton, Reluctant Lead Detective, Monster-Slaying Accountant (Owen Pitt reference!?!) and Ambitious Low-level Thug.

Each one of those concepts has some way of being both Invoked and Compelled by the players and GM to not only encourage RP, but it also says a lot about the character as well. For Makass, I’m building him as though he’s just starting out fresh again. He is an ambitious young telekinetic with untapped potential. So for his High Concept I’ve chosen to use “Aspiring Psionic Powerhouse.” It is short, sweet and has multiple layers of use for Compels and Invocations.

The next step is to determine your character’s Trouble Aspect. This is basically what complicates your character’s life. In here there are two types of Troubles, Personal Struggles and Problematic Relationships. Personal Struggles are going to be things that the character is struggling with about themselves while Problematic Relationships are going to involve other people. The book lists things like Sucker for a Pretty Face, Tempted By Shiny Things, The Bottle Calls to Me, and The Manners of a Goat for Personal Struggles. For Problematic Relationships it gives Family Man, Debt to the Mob, The Scar Triad Wants Me Dead, and Rivals in the Collegia Arcane.

This particular aspect is more negative than the others and is meant for you to be compelled by it semi-often. (It can be used just like any other Aspect though, just because it’s “bad” doesn’t mean it isn’t useful to you) It is also not a trivial matter either. This is something that your character has to struggle to overcome over the course of a long storyline. You don’t want it to sound dull either. Yeah you could put “Alcoholic” down, but that doesn’t have the same ring as “The Bottle Calls To Me” does. The first sounds clinical, the second makes it sound like he’s got a real reason why it calls to him. What happened to cause this? Another example the book gives is “The Criminal Underworld Hates me” as the Trouble for someone with the High Concept “Lead Detective.” It calls it kind of a boring aspect. Which it really is. Of course the Underworld hates you, you’re a lead detective. How can you spice it up? Well, they recommend something like “Don Giovanni Personally Hates Me.” Boom! You have a specific character with an obviously personal reason for disliking him. It gives you something that can be resolved, a rival that will complicate the story, and a history between the two characters that you can build on.

So Makass has some things about him that are potential Trouble Aspects. First off, he’s an impatient, arrogant prick. That’s okay, but is really too general for a Trouble Aspect. He’s got a little bit of a case of psionic short man’s syndrome., another potential candidate, but that feels more like a general aspect to me rather than something that really complicates his life constantly. At this point in his life he has abandoned his responsibilities with the Pheonix Order to pursue expanding his powers on his own. The Order was never really established as an entity, just more as a general background concept. I always pictured them as a mostly-benevolent organization though and one that one wouldn’t be dealing with on a regular basis, so basing the Trouble on that doesn’t sound too appealing to me. His journey and story has always seemed more of a personal one to me anyways so basing a Trouble off of his relationship with an organization doesn’t feel right to me. But he is obsessed with gaining more strength to power and enhance his abilities to prove himself to said organization, and is constantly pushing himself to improve, sometimes at the detriment to his health and body. That feels like the right spot to start for me.

So he’s obsessed with power. That is in and of itself a good point to start with, but that seems a bit more evil than I’m wanting to make him, at least at the start of his journey. Just putting something along the lines of “pushes himself too hard” is also pretty weak and doesn’t seem to touch upon the darker side of his lust for power enough, plus both are pretty damn bland. So with those two extremes in mind, how do I come up with the right balance and wording? I’d go with “Has a Vegeta Complex” but that doesn’t fit the setting and only makes sense to those people who know DBZ well enough. Maybe a good way to word that is “I WILL be the best, the consequences be damned!” (Yes, with the Caps lock on). I think this appropriately captures his drive and obsession with the dark potential that lays at the edges of it all.

The next step is picking a Name, well that’s an easy one…

So, here’s how we look so far

Name: Makass
Aspects:
High Concept: Aspiring Psionic Powerhouse (signifies his abilities, his skill level, and his potential)
Trouble: “I WILL be the best, the consequences be damned!” (shows his obsession with expanding his powers and proving his strength no matter the cost)

Okay. that’s a really good start. Time to move on to the next step. In this new edition of Fate, the number of aspects a character starts with has been decreased from 7 to 5 (This includes Trouble and High Concept). So we have 3 more to create with this character. The idea behind this part of the process is to develop your character and their relationship to the world and the other members of the group. You do this using what they like to call the “Phase Trio.” An (obviously) 3 part process for exploring these. First step is Your First Adventure. What brought the character onto their current path? Second step is to randomly pass out your first adventure to a second person who then decides how they participated in that adventure. You decide how your character helped in that adventure and write up an aspect that reflects this. Step 3 is step 2 again, but with another character that you haven’t interacted with yet. Obviously this is designed to help connect the group in an organic and collaborative way.

Obviously this is really hard to do it exactly the way I just described in an exercise like this so I’m just going to not even attempt a half-assed version of it. Instead I’m going to try to explain the Aspects I’m picking and why. Maybe even give a basic description of what he’d do to justify that particular one.

So I previously mentioned his Inferiority complex/psionic short man’s syndrome and his Arrogant/Impatient Dickheadedness, so those are probably good things to turn into Aspects. Other things about the character are his willingness to use and abuse his powers for dramatic effect (and just because he can. He is also a firm believer in the concept of Shock and Awe, believing Intimidation and Fear are extremely useful tools in getting what he wants with less effort while still showing off his superior abilities. The using and abusing powers seems like something that can fit into all of the other potential aspects I’ve mentioned here so, if I word them right I can incorporate that idea into the character’s Aspects anyways.

So in our pseudo-phase 1, I come up with his adventure. This one is actually semi-important. In this he goes out with some other members of the order to face down some type of threat they’re sworn to defend against. He is either easily beaten by what they face, or his powers fail and it causes the deaths of others he is with. This is where he decides that the order isn’t doing him any good tapping into the potential he is told exists within him and starts to plan his departure. This leaves him with an inferiority complex related to his powers.

Implying any type of weakness in his abilities will make him want to show them off directly to that individual. Possibly through a direct exercise of his powers in an attempt to intimidate the person who slighted him. Now, Inferiority Complex or Psionic Short Man’s Syndrome are good starting points for this Aspect but don’t carry enough into the Invoke category for my tastes. Maybe it should be something he’d say, particularly irritated and defensive phrase. That might add the right edge of flavor to it. I think “Weak? I’ll Show You Who’s Weak!” is an appropriate statement. It combines the themes into an appropriately flavorful Aspect and lets it be used in as an Invoke more easily. It also adds a bit of flavor to his personality by giving a slight insight to how he speaks.

Pseudo-phase 2 is his interaction in someone else’s adventure. This is his first time participating with someone outside of the order so he’d likely want to establish some type of reputation quickly. This is where the Shock and Awe would likely show up. The phrasing of this one is already pretty good and can make for some good Compels as well as Invokes while being a phrase that creates a strong image in your head. So “Shock and Awe” it is.

Pseudo-phase 3 will be his 2nd interaction with the rest of the group. This seems like a good point for his attitude to come out, exposing just a bit more of who he really is to the other group members. “Arrogant, Impatient Prick” is a rather bland Aspect though. It also has very limited Invoke opportunities I’d think. So the phrasing needs to be worked on a bit. Hmmm… Well ,let’s think about this a little bit. Arrogance is overconfidence in ones abilities and/or status. So saying things like “Do you know who I am?” or “Do you know what I could do to you?” are appropriate. Those phrases also add that little bit of dickitude I’m going for, but they don’t quite reach that image of impatience I’m looking for here.

Impatience is obviously a lack of patience. So he wants things done quickly, so this implies a quote like “Why isn’t this done NOW!?!” or “I don’t have time for this” He wants it done by his command, completed quickly and all because he is better than those he’s telling to do something. OH! I know!“You’re Wasting My Time, Peasant…” is a good one. It implies he despises waiting, he sees his time as more important (possible inflated self worth), and he’s being a dick about it. Maybe replace the word Peasant with some type of derogatory term for non-psionic people. Maybe “Chattel,” yeah I like the sound of that one. “You’re Wasting My Time, Chattel…” is what I’ll go with for now. Impatience, arrogance, and dickheadedness in a phrase with a derogatory name for non-psionics thrown in for flavor.

Plus Chattel is a great word for this, “an item of moveable personal property” because he’s a telekinetic, get it!?!

Okay so that’s all 3 phases of the Phase Trio. Only one more step left in this process, but first let’s Recap where we are.

Name: Makass
Aspects:
High Concept: Aspiring Psionic Powerhouse
Trouble: I WILL Be The Best, The Consequences Be Damned!
Phase 1 Aspect: Weak? I’ll Show You Who’s Weak!
Phase 2 Aspect: Shock and Awe
Phase 3 Aspect: You’re Wasting My Time, Chattel…

I think that’s a good place to stop for today. Next time we’ll get into the hardest part of this for someone new to the system with minimal help, Stunts and Extras.