Mash-up: FATE & The Mythic RPG

On a whim, I've decided to combine my favorite parts of FATE games like Spirit of the Century and The Dresden Files with the Mythic RPG.

To be clear, I'm referring to the original roleplaying game by Tom Pigeon that included the Mythic Game Master Emulator, not simply the emulator itself. I've always felt that Tom's relative rank system and expanded Fate Chart in the Mythic RPG was a brilliant and elegant concept ultimately underrated by gamers. Admittedly, character creation needed a little zip to it, and I think that FATE Aspects could do the trick.

Why do this? I'm looking for a no-prep gaming experience that can be more concretely character-centric and even easier to play than relying on only interpreting a random Mythic event. Invoking and compelling Aspects in FATE does just that with Fate Points. In fact, just coming up with character Aspects can create adventure hooks before the game even begins!

But if FATE is so great, why bring in the Mythic RPG at all? Well, I've learned a lot during the past year about how newbies to the RPG hobby relate to the mechanics of a game. Numerical stats need to be immediately intuitive or a player can become easily disengaged. I saw that during my Mutant Future Dinner Party even though the game was statistically Old School and about as easy as it gets.

In the Mythic RPG, the relative rank of the acting character's skill - an intuitive term like "average" or "incredible" that does NOT have an inherent numerical value as in FATE - is compared to the difficulty rank of the action or opponent, generating a percentage for success on the Fate Chart. Percentages are probably the most intuitive of numerical data - just ask any American student.

So, I'm essentially fitting the Mythic RPG engine into the FATE construct.

As a solo pursuit, I think this will be a valuable experiment. Haven't tried it yet, so all of the following is purely theoretical.

Here's the plan (you'll need familiarity with the systems to get this all):

• Keep Aspects as they are in Spirit of the Century, but use only 8. 
• The FATE skills list is now annotated with Mythic ranks of Average, Above Average, High, and Exceptional. 
• Characters will get 10 skills arranged pyramid-like as in FATE, and totaling 100 points according to the Mythic point-based system which places PC power neatly in the "shoot 'em up, pulp era" category, which I was aiming for. 
• Skills will be derived from a list of 30 genre-specific concepts. Plugging in a new skill list can alter the entire campaign, making it easy to customize the system for genre. Also, there won't be a need for "basic" Mythic RPG attributes like strength and I.Q. because they can be represented by certain skills. Whatever isn't is automatically considered "below average."
• Stunts will be replaced by Mythic Strengths. There will be 5 Strengths maximum; each will articulate a more specific version of a skill (ie: Guns > Marksmanship) and give a +1 rank shift under a specific condition. 
• There isn't a need for Mythic Weaknesses as a player will have an incentive to create Aspects that are inherent weaknesses for the GM to compel as per FATE Point rewards. 
• Mythic Favor Points will be replaced by FATE Points which can be used to lower a die result by 10, enable a re-roll, or make a declaration via a 50/50 Fate Chart question. Each player starts with 5 FATE Points, or, similar to The Dresden Files, may sacrifice one or more Strengths to gain a larger number of starting points. 
• All task resolution is handled by the Mythic system. Any scene's actions may be "elongated" by the nature of the questions asked. This includes combat, which will follow the extended Mythic rules only when it'll make the combat more fun. 
• There are no hit points or stress tracks. A character's condition will be handled by the context and the outcome of actions, as per the Mythic RPG. Checks can be made against appropriate skills when necessary.
• The Chaos Factor will remain at 5 for general Fate Questions and won't change in any way.
• Doubles (11, 22, 33, etc.) will always result in a random event that interrupts the current action.

SAMPLE: Pulp character Richard Parker, hunter extraordinaire

My homemade character story worksheet, like in SotC.

My homemade FATE/Mythic character sheet.

Let me make one more thing clear: This is NOT my attempt to make either system BETTER. This is simply my way to make them accommodate my particular needs both for solo play and, hopefully, social gaming.

I'll test this out during the next week or two and report my findings then. If you're familiar with either system, comment at will...