Dragon Keepers of the Fallow (Fate Accelerated)

[roryb]

The Short

In a dying world of dragon keepers, dragon hunters of the League of Fangs seek to take the resources of the north by raising the corpses of their prey to bend to their will. The noble Fangorim fights until the prophecy of the unborn king reveals itself.



The Longer

Since the dawn of early man, dragons have reigned supreme over the lands. As mankind spread and developed greater technology, so too did they lay stake upon the vast wilds. Iron and ingenuity challenged these great flying kings. Greater conflicts did great harm to both sides, decimating entire cities and pushing the great serpents of the sky further northward. The Fallows was a place of insurmountable glacier, inhospitable tundra, and shadowed fjord. The peoples, now freed from the reign of dragons began to propagate. The relative peace of an age was destroyed as an empire rose among men championed by summoned beings from the dark, and black magics corrupted the hearts of men. Conquests swept the wide lands of men and consumed the continent with war, famine, and later plague and religious oppression. Over time, the empire fractured from the depths of its corrupted heart.

In an effort to defy the seven tyrants of the south, pioneering men ventured into the wild icy realms of the dragons. Many were destroyed or succumbed to the hardships of weather, but at last, Fangar, first dragon lord of Nelbacor succeeded in taming a clutch of dragons. Establishing several strongholds in the fastness of the Fangar Range, the king and his dragon knights kept at bay the various mercenaries that sought to topple any challengers, no matter how far they may be entrenched. Then Fangar’s heir, Fingol the Tall rode forth with a great host of riders and ended the wars that threatened them.

After a thousand years, Fangar’s people established a realm of honorable men and women who lived peaceful, yet hard lives in the northern climes. Breeding programs turned out not to be effective. It was discovered that domesticated dragons never lived long nor yielded the great sky lizards that were hatched in the wilds. And so, only the bravest and most worthy of warriors and dragon keepers could find young adolescents through trapping and hunting or fight the feral mother dragons that protected them. It was cruel and dangerous work, yet the Fangorim had improved the art of breaking dragons for riding and battle. Times were harder because the numbers of dragons in the wild dwindled, and signs all pointed to the dimming of the world. Scholars and lore masters believed the coming twilight was linked to the course of dragonkind’s fall. Poachers and the encroachment of other men, who prized the commodities of dragonhorn and dragonhide and other valuable stuffs derived from the slaying of these noble beasts, endangered the remaining dragons. This created a great crisis for the Fangorim whose own existence was inseparably intertwined with that of their symbiotic serpentine companions.

The lore masters were given visions that their hope lay in the coming of an unborn king. While the truth of such a prophecy was unquestioned, who or what that meant has been sharply debated for decades. Great storms and tremors of the earth have grown in intensity, and with it, the primordial constellations, always fixed in their position, have began to change. As the long winters grow longer and more dangerous, a new threat rises from the south.

For many hundreds of years, dragon hunters have ventured forth, growing in audacity and craft. The ways of southern man had not stagnated over the last age. They had devolved into a depraved and grasping society, and still they mingled with demons. Two horrific advancements have further threatened the dragons and their Fangorim keepers. First is the advent of atrocious killing machines, including great gasbag airships equipped with fiendish harpoon guns, powered by batteries of bound demons and other fearsome sorceries. A single such ship was often armor plated and could rise to heights well above what dragon and rider can achieve. They are massive and can bear a crew of well over a hundred men. Secondly is the creation of the ghastly anti-dragon – animated corpses that are imbued with powerful magics to make them as powerful as their living counterparts. Such abominations are ridden by spear-wielding warriors in a parody of their enemies. The anti-dragons are the only thing that can invoke fear into the hearts of the great winged serpents.

Heroes are needed like never before.

What I'm Seeking

This is a Fate Accelerated game for 2-3 players. I’d love to take more, but I know myself and I flounder tracking everything with more than that. I have two interested players so far, @Spykee and @Marullus. I’d shoot for 2-3 posts per week, more if the action is particularly hot and everyone lurks on the boards. There will be slowdowns, but let us all be on the same page when those occur. I can take novices, but I expect everyone to have at least read Fate Accelerated. It’s PWYW and short.

Rules for Dragon Riding Action

Characters have a High Concept (Veteran Dragonknight of the Northern Wing, Dragon Baron of Golstad, or Bookish Dragon Veterinarian), a Bond Aspect representing a unique relationship between the dragon and keeper and leaning on the more troublesome nature of that bond, a Dragon Aspect, and two free aspects.

A Dragon Aspect constitutes one of the character’s five. It must contain a nature, habit, or troublesome type of descriptor or adjective along with other descriptors of its physical or emotional nature, like Headstrong Bull Razortail or Feral Young Blue. Riding or commanding a dragon allows a character’s Approaches to interact at the dragon scale. Any of the character’s own actions or Approaches cannot act at the dragon scale except to create an advantage. However, each Approach is renamed to its Dragon Approach to indicate its more dragon-like nature. Examples include “Majestic” instead of “Flashy”, or “Thunderous” instead of “Forceful”. This is to simulate the more catastrophic powers of dragons, and place certain narrative limits to what these destructive flying war machines can do. Whenever acting at the dragon scale, these alternate Approach names are used exclusively, unless a human scale character is acting at their level or creating some sort of advantage. In other words, characters have one array of Approaches, and another that corresponds, but renamed to dragon inspired ones. If one aspect is not enough to get the job done, characters can devote one of their two free slots for an additional aspect devoted to their pet.

Stunts help kit out what you're good at, whether it represents something about your dragon, or something about the rider.

Powers are simulated through a list of power facts and weaknesses that a particular dragon possesses. No two dragons are identical in terms of abilities. Forget ye olde chromatic dragon types. Think something unique. Similarly, magical abilities characters may possess are tied to a power aspect and given a similar list of power facts and weaknesses. It is assumed that the character and dragon act with the same stress track and consequences. However, the dragon aspect is subject to an extreme aspect, which is assumed to affect the dragon. Being taken out can also permanently remove a dragon aspect, leaving the character to bond with another. This is to be avoided, as it is less fun unless mutually agreeable and furthering the story.

I imagine men and dragons without other races. However, if you want to include fae races or other unique or cliched fantasy beings types, go for it. Then they exist.

Refinements to Character Creation (revised Dec 27, 2022):

Aspects (5)

Aspects are as following:
High Concept (you, the rider)
Trouble
Dragon Aspect (something unique)
Free Aspect
Free Aspect

At least one of the aspects must speak to your unique bond with your dragon, and may be wrapped together with one of the required aspects, or assigned to one of the free aspect slots.

Power Facts

Any aspects suggestive of special powers, as well as your dragon aspect must have a list of specific powers and weaknesses. This is to help adjudicate and determine permissions to perform specific actions. There is no set number, but anything from 4 to 8 powers, and 1 or 2 weaknesses is a guideline. Powers should also strongly suggest scale. For example, a Bonehide Dragon might have "Spinal Scales are hard like thick steel", or a Tawny Razorwing might have a "Fiery furnace capable of melting stone with concentrated blasts".

Approaches

Normal Approaches are chosen at character creation, as well as parallel ones representing your bonded dragon according to the closed list as follows:

• Majestic, Haughty, Furious, or Dreadful (Flashy)
• Ferocious, Mighty, Indestructible, or Stubborn (Forceful)
• Swift, Precipitous, Soaring, or Impatient (Quick)
• Guileful, Cunning, or Perceptive (Clever)
• Sly, Devious, Calculating, or Secretive (Sneaky)
• Enduring, Guarded, Paranoid, or Provident (Carefully)​

Stunts and Refresh

Characters get the standard 3 free stunts as suggested in the rules that may reflect or augment any dragon or human scale abilities, from social, to combative, to special powers. Characters get 3 refresh to begin, and may reduce this (to a minimum of 1) to buy more stunts.

Stress and Consequences

Characters have the standard 3 stress boxes and 3 consequences. These resources represent one complete "character" (a bonded rider and dragon mount).

[Marullus]

This looks very interesting! That's some good grist to start with. I appreciate Fate's approach to shared world generation by establishing facts with aspects. I see your rider/dragon system as working similarly to the way most systems handle mech pilots / mechs and that makes sense to me. Some roleplay will happen amongst people away from dragons with our own skills, some will happen mounted and in conjunction with the dragon stats.

For those looking to play:
The system is deliberately easy to self-define, with you creating aspect that then define the game world around you. It is very free, with useful structure. The way he described the Aspects above works, and I'll provide an example below. You spend Fate Points (a game currency) to make things happen related to your aspects.

When you roll dice in the game, you add +0 to +3 for your approach, and if applicable, a +2 for a Stunt.

Everyone then has six approaches: Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky.
You put them in order and assign them +3, +2, +2, +1, +1, +0

Stunts are narrowly defined (per quote below). A character can have up to three without cost, but the GM probably wants us to start with 1 or 2 while we learn the game for the first session.

Because I [describe some way that you are exceptional, have a cool bit of gear, or are otherwise awesome], I get a +2 when I [pick one: carefully, Cleverly, Flashily, Forcefully, Quickly, Sneakily] [pick one: attack, defend, create advantages, overcome] when [describe a circumstance].
or...
Because I [describe some way that you are exceptional, have a cool bit of gear, or are otherwise awesome], once per game session I can [describe something cool you can do].

Example: I'm looking for a brute/warrior type - strong, forthright - for direct action and preferably with experience in the wars. Here's an example character for initial brainstorming.

Lukkur Ashforge

Lukkor-Small.jpg (27.17 KiB) Viewed 1020 times

High Concept: Grizzled Veteran of Queen Sibbe's Company
Trouble: Overprotective of my daughter Astrid, who is reckless and too young
Dragon Aspect: Ridris, a Freed Ancient Forgebreather
Free Aspect: I plucked out one eye to earn the Fabled Secrets of the Futhark Runes.
Free Aspect: I am a Dwarf born of Fire and Stone.

Approaches: The Brute: Forceful +3, Careful and Flashy +2, Clever and Quick +1, Sneaky +0
Stunt: Because I am a Maskbearer, I get a +2 when I Forcefully defend by using my Mask or Shield against flame or projectiles.
Stunt: Because I see the flow of magic with my missing eye, I get +2 when I carefully create advantage by scribing runes to influence Fate.

I made up the aspects (they're not picked from any list), riffing off the world described by the GM above. My choice of aspects sets him up as a grizzled veteran as a core concept, establishes that there is a Queen Sibbe, and she has/had some kind of Company as an organized unit which he is proud of his service in. The book recommends a good aspect be able to be used positively or negatively - perhaps there is contention around Queen Sibbe and being part of her company is good or bad depending on audience, and being a grizzled veteran means you can know things from experience, but perhaps also are too rooted/conservative in that experience. It establishes an NPC in his daughter Astrid, who wishes to do things (that are reckless) and whom he is highly motivated to protect and keep safe (overprotective). His dragon is a freed ancient forgebreather - which establishes that they have forges fueled by the breath of captive dragons, and that he bonded with and freed this dragon from that fate after a long life of servitude. I added Maskbearer (stealing from Burning Wheel dwarves) establishing that he was a forger/metalworker in those fires prior to freeing the dragon and becoming a Rider. Going with the grizzled veteran (and always loving some mystic elements) I took a bit from Odin mythos and established he knows runes, that runes are Fabled (and thus quite rare), he plucked out his eye to get them, and that scribing runes influences Fate. (All of those aspects also have positive and negative connotations.)

If approved, I consider adding an aspect to make him a Dwarf (which may or may not be rare in the setting). The rest of the concept stands without it (he could just be a Fangorim, and those aspects still true). If he's a dwarf, it could mean longevity (his grizzled veteran status could be through several Human Kings/Queens), it establishes the above facts about dragon-forges about dwarf culture (rather than human, which could be defined differently... perhaps freeing a Forgebreather and joining the human dragon riders did not sit well and he's outcast? Perhaps it was a final gesture to save the dragon during the dwarfhome's collapse?), and gives opportunity to flesh out relations between human and dwarven cultures (if there are relations, or if dwarves have already dwindled, or if he's an outcast, etc). If longevity is a factor, it makes the daughter more interesting. Is she still being treated like a child while her human peers are reaching old age? Is he overprotective because she is special to him, or because she's otherwise unique/special (last dwarven youth with the dwarven society fallen, or the only dwarf he has since the death of her mother and them being outcasts, or she's a foundling with some special Fate he can see before her, etc.) All of those are interesting things that may or may not come out in play (unless named as an Aspect, they details aren't established). That's the kind of story I think would be fun, but I'm okay if we choose to leave the "dwarf" aspect out of it. If we choose to not have dwarves exist, I might establish longevity anyway with the aspect to keep some of the angles open. (Past adventures having led to learning the Runes and to mystical longevity.)

Caveat: This is posted as an example for brainstorming. I may not have all these aspects or this character depending on what the other players and GM want to do.

[Spykee]

That's really helpful Marullus. Nice worked example. The way Fate let's you play anything is one of the things that interested me in it.
Roryb, I'll download FAE give it a read and start putting something together over the next couple of days.

[roryb]

Sounds good, @Skykee

Echoing what you said to @Marullus. That’s a great example, and a character I would very much like to see in play. One change would be instead of a standard trouble, it would be an aspect leans toward the troublesome that speaks to your character’s bond with his dragon, suggesting some tale around that. But we can keep a normal trouble aspect as long as one of the others says something about that special bond.

Really great write-up and examples. You know Fate well! And if you say there are dwarves, then dwarves there be.

[Leitz]

Haven't played Fate, and I'm not sure if you're full up or have room for another. Lemme know.

Addendum: I know you mentioned that it's Fate Accelerated. For a newbie, would getting Fate Core provide more understanding?

[roryb]

Greetings, @Leitz! I can take a third. Including you, I’d be full. Fate Core is pretty great for more thorough discussion. Core is really only minimally more complex than Accelerated. Its page count is largely more verbose due to examples and discussion. I’d still recommend reading Accelerated first for the quick overview.

[Leitz]

roryb, thanks! Downloading FAE now. I have the basics of a character concept but need to see how it would look under the rules. Should have something to you this evening.

[roryb]

Excellent! Marullus and I can walk you through it.

[roryb]

Here’s another sample character:

Logan Blackshield

Exiled Dragonknight Turned Renegade
“Feral Dragons Are the Most Powerful — And To Be Broken”
Narghast — Unyielding Ancient Bonehide Giant
Secrets of Shadow
Ragtag Dissidents Sworn Against the Crown

• Careful +1 Paranoid
• Clever +1 Perceptive
• Flashy +3 Furious
• Forceful +4 Indestructible
• Quick +1 Soaring
• Sneaky +2 Calculating

Spies Everywhere. Because I’ve built a network of spies, once per scene I can automatically declare a relevant aspect about someone of the Fallow with a free invocation.
Tough as Bone. Because Narghast is covered with a bonelike hide, I gain +2 to Indestructibly defend against physical attacks at the dragon scale.
To Me! Because I have loyal followers, once per scene I can uncheck one stress box from my followers when giving rousing oratory.

Stress: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Consequences:
[ 2 ] Mild.
[ 4 ] Moderate.
[ 6 ] Severe.

Power Facts:

Unyielding Ancient Bonehide Giant

• hard scales effective against physical damage
• equally hard of mind and difficult to influence
• a normal dragon furnace of fire
• a secondary breath weapon — a miasma of disease
• a repellent aura — shunned by normal creatures

Secrets of Shadow

• summon shadow servants to carry out tasks
• create the shadow of fear in opponents
• animate shadows for minor illusory effects
• cloak feelings in shadow
• easily corrupted

So, here’s another sample. This might be a formidable NPC villain that might appear to complicate things. His concept speaks for itself and his role as an agitator. His bonding aspect shows him to be a cruel and uncompromising master, yet shows that his approach through brutality is not the best way and his dragon may at times rebel. He’s got an old Bonehide. I don’t really know the lifespan of a dragon in this setting, so whatever is old. This will come in handy when gaining respect from other dragons, but might penalize Narghast in contests of speed or flexibility. Two other aspects speaks to Logan’s acquired shadow magic and team of fellow exiles.

I’ve given three stunts, as everyone has gets. His array of Approaches is ranked differently than the standard array that PC’s get. For major NPC’s, you may see levels at 1 or 2 higher than your starting peak Approach. +5 is the max in this build of Fate. You’ll note the secondary names for each Approach. This represents being in “dragon mode”. Whenever acting at the dragon scale, you have a more specific renamed version of the six Approaches. In order to use Approaches at all, one can only act under these more narrow circumstances. For example, when Narghast is chasing prey, Quick would be the sensible Approach to use. If he can soar on the clouds to overtake his prey, he can use his Approach level. If, on the other hand, he’s chasing prey through a canyon labyrinth, he’s got no specific mention of maneuverability, and so may only roll his fate dice without an added bonus.

This NPC has the standard track and consequences to absorb stress (note that stress boxes are not like hit points and don’t represent wounds or damage, but rather reserves and close-calls).

Lastly, I’ve included some power facts to give a bit more specificity to what abilities he has in terms of some of those vague powers and breeds of dragon. There’s really no limit on the number of these facts. They just give a bit more context regarding what actions one can take in terms of permissions or complications. The rules are applied as normal.

[Marullus]

Thanks!

So, a bonded dragon and rider share a symbiotic nature (i.e. the Approaches are ordered the same) and the difference is the naming? I like it - from a system perspective I think it is important to use a common set of stats and from a story perspective it implies that you can only bond with a dragon that has a similar personality to you and/or the bonding process mirrors you through symbiosis over time. (It prevents a min/max approach where a rider and dragon have opposite aptitudes and balance each other's weaknesses.) As we improve our Approaches during play, it remains synched and mirrors for our Dragon?

Do you want us to establish a certain number of power facts about our Aspects as well? (A certain number positive and negative? Looks like you used 4 and 1?) This allows us a limited ability to establish facts before gameplay, but actually invoking the Aspect to use that fact to our advantage still requires spending a Fate Point, correct?

[roryb]

Correct on the linkage between rider and companion. Those power facts were ripped directly from Four Color FAE. They cost nothing to use, just pick one of the four actions and roll...so their number doesn’t really matter either. They’re just clarification and justification to do things. Don’t feel limited to 4 powers and 1 weakness, since it won’t break anything.

[Marullus]

One change would be instead of a standard trouble, it would be an aspect leans toward the troublesome that speaks to your character’s bond with his dragon, suggesting some tale around that.

That's harder for me to conceptualize - a troublesome dragon bond? Or just belief statements about dragons that can be challenged in play?

...Like this?

• Neither the souls of men nor dragons are meant to be caged, whether forged by ourselves or others.
• Age and wisdom make men and dragons alike prefer the comfort of fire-lit mountain halls filled with what we treasure.

But we can keep a normal trouble aspect as long as one of the others says something about that special bond.

So that means keeping:

• Trouble: Overprotective of my daughter Astrid, who is reckless and too young

...if I modify to something like this?

• Free Aspect: I am a Dwarf born of Fire and Stone, but freeing Ridris means we can never go home.

The appeal of this trouble is that it opens the concept. The "gruff old man" is self-limiting - by introducing the external impetus for him to express compassion and emotionality, he's more interesting. If we switch to the dragon-trouble I just need to think how to overcome this another way. (Actually, I would love if a PC played the young-dwarf/daughter/princess/protoge to challenge it by establishing me be overprotective of them.)

[roryb]

That's harder for me to conceptualize - a troublesome dragon bond? Or just belief statements about dragons that can be challenged in play?

...Like this?

• Neither the souls of men nor dragons are meant to be caged, whether forged by ourselves or others.
• Age and wisdom make men and dragons alike prefer the comfort of fire-lit mountain halls filled with what we treasure.

That’s sort of what I had in mind. But perhaps it’s less troublesome (heh) to keep the normal Trouble and just say that one of your five should speak to your unique bond in whatever form you wish that to be.

So that means keeping:

• Trouble: Overprotective of my daughter Astrid, who is reckless and too young

...if I modify to something like this?

• Free Aspect: I am a Dwarf born of Fire and Stone, but freeing Ridris means we can never go home.

The appeal of this trouble is that it opens the concept. The "gruff old man" is self-limiting - by introducing the external impetus for him to express compassion and emotionality, he's more interesting. If we switch to the dragon-trouble I just need to think how to overcome this another way. (Actually, I would love if a PC played the young-dwarf/daughter/princess/protoge to challenge it by establishing me be overprotective of them.)

Then let it be! Keep the Trouble and I love shoehorning lots into a single aspect...even if that means the aspect gets wordy.

[Spykee]

@roryb, Would something like "Impulsive Scion of Sibbe's Noble house" work as a high concept?
It dosent introduce anything particularly new, but can be used positively and negatively and potentially establishes a relationship with @Marullus' character; maybe the grizzled veteran has been asked to rein in the impetuous son?

[roryb]

@roryb, Would something like "Impulsive Scion of Sibbe's Noble house" work as a high concept?
It dosent introduce anything particularly new, but can be used positively and negatively and potentially establishes a relationship with @Marullus' character; maybe the grizzled veteran has been asked to rein in the impetuous son?

Not to worry if you feel it’s not very different or unique. I like the idea. It gives more insight into the directives of the Fangorim.

One thing that Fate Accelerated does well is take a group of similar characters. “You’re all dragon riders!” or “You’re all creatures of the night” and differentiate through the aspects. One of you might be the Forceful (Unstoppable) dragon rider, the other the Clever (Curious), and yet one might be Flashy (Pompous).

[Marullus]

I think that gels really well. With Lietz (developing in PMs), we have:

• A noble scion of the current house raised to rule but needing to be tempered
• A rustic foundling who "lucked" into a dragon bond who doesn't know he's prophesied to be the saviour-king
• The gruff mentor pulled out of retirement to keep them from getting themselves killed and guide their Fates.

It's an Aragorn/Boromir/Gandalf dynamic.

It makes me like this type of Dragon Bond/Trouble more:

Age and wisdom make men and dragons alike prefer the comfort of fire-lit mountain halls filled with what we treasure.

...and I introduce Astrid as a foremost thing he treasures, instead of the sole focus.

[roryb]

Very good! I like this collection too. Thanks, Marullus for coaching Leitz through the process. I’ve been following, but I’m on mobile.

[Spykee]

Looks good to me
I've come up with some more aspects;
Dragon; Igjarjuk the Savage, vicious adolescent scythe-talon
Dragon bond; Igjarjuk views everything apart from me as prey or rival; Only I am completely safe to turn my back on him.
Free Aspect; I carried the Fangorim banner through the carnage at Broken Tooth Pass (or Against the South at)

Struggling a bit with alternative approaches, here's what I've got so far;
Quick +3 (Explosive?)
Clever +2 (Cunning)
Flashy +2 (Imposing?)
Forceful +1 ()
Sneaky +1 (guile)
Careful +0 ()

[Marullus]

Oh, I didn't think we were making alternate approaches? They're normally fixed.

When RoryB made alternatives for dragons, I assumed they applied to ALL dragons. Dragons have natural approaches for their species, and different aptitudes. Rory, is that wrong?

Careful +1 Paranoid
Clever +1 Perceptive
Flashy +3 Furious
Forceful +4 Indestructible
Quick +1 Soaring
Sneaky +2 Calculating

[roryb]

Clarifying...you’re making up your own alternate approaches...these are not universal for all dragons. That means your dragons are even more specific. If you want universal ones, I’d come up with better ones I think.