The Fate Ruleset With a Healthy Dose of DFRPG

Fudge Dice and the Ladder

All task resolution in Fate is done with Fudge dice (named after the Fudge free universal RPG system). They are six-sided dice with two "+" sides, two "-" sides, and two blank sides. You always roll four of them (4dF), allowing for a result of -4 to +4, with distribution heavily weighted toward a result in the middle (-1, 0, or +1)

Almost everything in the game world can be described with an adjective and a matching number, ranging from Terrible (-2) to Legendary (+8). Roll the dice, compare the result to the ladder, and you can see how well an action succeeded.

Since I don't have Fudge dice, but do have plenty of dice left over from D&D, I'll be using d6, with the top two numbers +, the bottom two -, and the middle two blank.

Skills, Aspects, and Stunts

Characters in Fate have three important features: Skills, Aspects, and Stunts.


Skills are anything a character is good at, whether learned or inherent. The Skill list varies based on the needs of the setting: Hulgren includes the majority of the Skills in the Fate ruleset. More on those later.


Where Skills tell what a character can do, Aspects tell who they are: personality traits, points of view, quotes, important people and important objects are all types of Aspects. They are a roleplaying guide to the player, a guide to the GM as to what to include in the campaign, and can temporarily improve a character's skills when they're doing something important and in their nature.


Stunts are little ways to get around the rules, representing special training or equipment: a +2 bonus to Athletics to run fast (and only to run fast); the ability to spot a liar with Deceit rather than the usual Empathy; a sword enchanted to be harder and sharper; etc.

Fate Points

Last, but not least of the core mechanics: Fate Points. Fate Points represent luck, opportunity, or the hand of fate, depending on how you look at it. They power Aspects, certain Stunts, and...

Magic, which I'll explore in another post.