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FATE and Morphs

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Thu, 2014-11-06 14:44

atamajakki atamajakki's picture

FATE and Morphs

The Morphs section of the playtest is the only part to dissapoint me so far. FATE is all about games that can run fast and loose, with minimal book-keeping in favor of dramatic action and what "feels right." While the changes to Skills and Rep work wonderfully (and I'm in love with the new Aspect creation process), I'm let down by Morphs being more or less a direct translation from the old system. I don't want a player to ask "what can this morph do?" and be dragged out of play while they look down at their Ruster and read Essential Biomorph Implants, Enhanced Respiration, Temperature Tolerance, Enhanced Aptitude (Somatics, tag). I want them to say "what can this morph do?" and look down at Built For The Martian Outback and maybe Planned Obsolescence. The current "just come up with Aspects yourself" isn't terribly helpful; give us an example or two of what would be stereotypical for that morph. Scarred Remade says so much less than The Ultimate Ideal or Human 2.0 in terms of letting a player understand a morph. As written, you've put too much of EP's crunch into FATE's flow. I suggest taking a step back and breaking Morphs down into something far punchier and concise than what is currently there; an Aspect or two, and a handful of stunts (no more than three at the absolute most) would work much better. I'm also not sure I agree with their cost being based on Refresh. Say one player uses three Refresh to get three Ego Stunts while another uses three Refresh to get a Fury morph; what happens when they resleeve for plot reasons? Morph choice should be independent of such a core resource as Refresh, especially given how fluid morphs tend to be in the course of a campaign. A guide for quick conversion of morphs not currently in the document would also be lovely; my Hulder depends on it.

Fri, 2014-11-07 02:22

thefnord

On the topic of morphs.

The flexbots are said to take heavy-duty tasks like demolition, excavation, etc. This sharply contrasts their having a Mediocre Durability, when Pleasure Pods are Average Durability, to me. Prop 'em up a little? Or equate higher Durability with more Modules, thought I'm guessing the fiddling of Flexbots found in Transhuman isn't ported to the Fate version. Cheers, tF

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Fri, 2014-11-07 04:31

mythicfox

Regarding the OP

I don't mind the Refresh cost for the more expensive morphs -- using Refresh as a cost to represent advanced equipment is a pretty common thing across various Fate hacks/settings. But I do agree that the sheer amount of fiddly bits in the morph traits (and yet pretty much nothing on suggested Morph Aspects) is a bit much for the system. It approaches a point where it's less a 'Fate hack' and more 'straight-up Eclipse Phase with different dice.'

Fri, 2014-11-07 04:38

Skimble

Fate and Morphs - The Fractal?

I think this might be a good case for the Fate Fractal. I can see some players (especially those who are more EP-heads than Fate-heads) valuing the extra crunch in the morph descriptions, with their specific beneficial elements explicitly laid out. However, each morph could be given one or two high-level aspects for treating them at a highly abstract level for games where that's considered optimum, which is then drilled down into by providing tags, aspects and other additional crunch. In a sense that's what has already been done in that each morph has a High Concept aspect (effectively) that relates to everything that morph can do. But honestly for my sensibilities drilling down into individual sub-parts works very well, especially because it means morph traits work at the same level of abstraction as implants.

Fri, 2014-11-07 04:42

Skimble

Refresh cost for Morphs

I presume if the player can't resleeve into an equally expensive morph when egocasting or otherwise temporarily absent from his or her own body, then he'll get the refresh point back during that sequence of events. Even if they fork into another morph I'm assuming that would be the case unless the action is happening simultaneously in two places. If their primary morph is 'off screen' for an extended period I don't think they should have to pay the cost for it.

Fri, 2014-11-07 06:16

Gee4orce

Aptitude tags

I like the idea of aptitude tags for morphs - essentially tags act like sub-aspects that you get 1 free invoke for, and the aptitude tags neat answer the question of 'what is this morph good at' ? The alternative approach would have been burdensome full-blown aspects or separate skill trees. It may be too late to throw this one out there, but I would have approached egos & morphs using skill modes, a-la Atomic Robo

Fri, 2014-11-07 11:57

Acatalepsy Acatalepsy's picture

Also, the standard Synth

Also, the standard Synth morph is given a durability of Superb (+5). Is that a mistake? It seems like it should be at most Good.

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[I]This isn't a war ordinary humans can win. This is the future. Death's an inconvenience, now. Nothing more.[/I]

Sat, 2014-11-08 15:11

Acatalepsy Acatalepsy's picture

I'm not sure I understand

Disregard, misread something.

—

[I]This isn't a war ordinary humans can win. This is the future. Death's an inconvenience, now. Nothing more.[/I]

Wed, 2014-11-19 16:03

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Morph's Refresh Cost

Hello! A question about Refresh Cost. It's something that is paid just once, upon acquisition, or regularly, like a rent? What about a morph that is stolen, gained by Rep or won in a contest? does the owner have to pay that 'rent' too?

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Wed, 2014-11-19 17:24

#10

mythicfox

Quincey Forder wrote:Hello!

Quincey Forder wrote:
Hello! A question about Refresh Cost. It's something that is paid just once, upon acquisition, or regularly, like a rent?

If it's like other effects that cost Refresh, then while you have the morph you've reduced the number of 'default' fate points you start the session with (unless you ended the prior session at a higher number). The rating's lowered until the morph goes away.

Wed, 2014-11-19 17:55

#11

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

paying for a gift

So basically, one is forced to pay even if the morph was provided, through honest or dishonest mean? I don't know, that seems a bit off to me

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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...

Fri, 2014-11-21 01:56

#12

bblonski

I think this could be handled

I think this could be handled with expanding morph integration and alienation. Maybe if you can't pay the full morph cost you suffer from failed morph integration penalties until you can give up some ego stunts to pay for the morph cost. I think this makes a lot of thematic sense in that you are investing more of you identity into the morph. I was disapointed the conversion guide didn't have more on integration and alienation since that is the kind of thing that I think Fate could actually handle better than EP Core.

Sat, 2014-11-22 09:55

#13

jiyunatori jiyunatori's picture

Quincey Forder wrote:So

Quincey Forder wrote:
So basically, one is forced to pay even if the morph was provided, through honest or dishonest mean? I don't know, that seems a bit off to me

I think there are two distinct ideas here. The player is forced to pay, not the character. The point of refresh cost is to keep the characters around the table balanced, regardless of how they get their stuff.

Wed, 2014-11-26 08:27

#14

Silverwave Silverwave's picture

Loan and not cost

You have to see the point cost as "loaning". You lend some of your points in exchange of something (be it a better Morph, or some stunt) but as soon as you lose that benefit, you get your points back. While having some extra benefits is great, having less Refresh means you have less Fate Points. It balances itself out.