Squee!

Sorry, that had to be said.

You are most probably wondering why I would start a post out with such a joyful noise? Those three simple words at the top of the post is why. Evil Hat Productions has unleashed upon the internet the Kickstarter for the Fate Core System. This is the system that is at the heart of Spirit of the Century, Diaspora, Icons, Bulldogs, and the Dresden Files RPG. It is a great system that has been around for a while now and does an excellent job of bridging the gap between traditional and indie style role playing games.

My first exposure to the Fate system was through the game Spirit of the Century. I played a one shot with a group of friends and had a good time with the game but had an issue with the system and I spoke about it on my blog not long after the game. A few days later, Fred Hicks dropped by and left a comment on my post pointing out where in my problem was coming from and how to fix it. This easily elicited a Squee! I didn’t get another chance to play Spirit again but I kept the information Fred provided in memory for later. I did not get to use the Fate system again until the release of The Dresden files RPG. I bought the both books upon release and devoured them in no time. I was very pleased to note that the advice that Fred had given was something explicitly called on in the Dresden Files. I was overjoyed! I’ve went on to run the game at GenCon and for several groups here at home.  We’ve even taken the fate system and hacked it to try and play a modern Ars Magica game.

Evil Hat has done an excellent job with each iteration of the rules thus far. My expectations for how they are going to further improve these mechanics are pretty high. It is on this idea that they have used the Kickstarter project to turn everything up to 11. Depending on the project, you will sometimes get early access to the project once the kickstarter is successful and be allowed to give input at this time. Evil Hat Productions has allowed access to a digital copy of the book upon backing the project at any level. You can download the book, read it, play it, blog about it, and give them feedback. This is huge! It is part and parcel of Evil Hats commitment to transparency and availability to their fans. Instead of worrying about pirates and such they want to empower the community they already have around their games and are willing to trust them with this information from the outset. It also allows them to get people to support the project that may be new to the system as well because they can see what they are getting before the project ever reaches fruition.

This project also gets major raves from me for the price points involved.  You can back the project at $10 and get the book in digital format or you can back at the $30 and get a physical copy of the book. A good game book tends to run between $30 and $60 and any Kickstarter that gets me a physical copy of the book within that range is awesome. The thing with Evil Hat is that they are big believers in adding value. The project has only been up for about 2 days and if you back at the $10 level you are getting 12 extra things in addition to the core pdf. If you are backing at the $30 level, you are now getting a hardback copy of the book instead of soft cover and all the digital stuff.  With the way things are going, the value of your support can go no other direction but up.

Go check it out, you won’t regret it.