Paen to Fate

Matt Miller

Mechanically, I'm really liking Fate of late. 4dF provides a very strong median tendency, while permitting sufficient variance to make things unpredictable. 

Rob Hicks 

The best thing about the fate die system is environmental or situational bonuses. You can creatively do just about anything to get the bonus, but you have to justify it through actions, environment and character history. It blends the strategic elements of the game with the storytelling.

Paul Goldstone 

Fate has extensive meta gaming that makes the game for me, players describing scenes, incidences etc to get mods. The end result being that if you have the skill you are more or less going to succeed. D20 for me has a huge amount of random, that doesn't cater to the if you have the skill you are most likey to succeed mechanic due to the wide possible variances. The arkham dice method for an RPG, when combined with a skill, offers the "have skill will succeed" mechanic which does seem to be popular of late. Its worth noting that ffg custom dice rpg have that, just with symbols over numbers, as does Mutant Chronicles to some extent (MC has a great system and is well worth looking at).

Nathan Dowdell 

IMHO, what makes Fate sing is the way that Aspects and the Fate Point economy turn a test from a pure risk consideration to a matter of cost - being able to spend after the fact, and suffer costs for success, changes the game dynamic hugely. Failure isn't the end, merely a chance to ask the question "how much is success worth to you?"

Matt Miller

You make an excellent point. The ability to 'burn' clue tokens in Arkham, AFTER a roll, is one of my favorite parts. It makes rolling slightly less visceral, but it still works: Clue Tokens are a representation of a generic advantage in understanding.