Moments in Fate

Context

In Fate, characters can do anything, but in terms of rules and meta, there are only 4 actions a character can do. They can Attack someone or something, Defend themselves or someone else's, Create an Advantage or Overcome an obstacle. Lets compare this quickly to the Powered By The Apocalypse System where the players have a set of Moves. Those moves are basically actions that a character can do and each Move has a game mechanic attached to it. For example, in Monster of the Week you have: Kick Some Ass, Act Under Pressure, Help Out, Investigate a Mystery, Manipulate Someone, Protect Someone, Read a Bad Situation and Use Magic. In PBTA games, Moves vehicle something that Fate Actions have a hard time doing: they clearly layout multiple examples of how the rules can be bent to match what a player wants to do. But Moves have a big downside to them. Since there is no general underlying mechanic for them, it is harder to know what to do when a player character does something that doesn't match any premade Move. Fate Actions, on the contrary, shine in this situation since they are generic on purpose. That is in part because Fate's Golden Rule:

Decide what you’re trying to accomplish first, then consult the rules to help you do it. - Running the Game | Fate Core

That being said, since Actions are so far on the other side of the game mechanic spectrum, they can be daunting to work with. For example, they make it harder for new or temporarily indecisive players to know what they can do during a session. Also, because they are very broad and generic, you need to stretch the original definition of the words to make them match certain situations. (e.g. You can use the Defend action to oppose someone else's Create An Advantage action.) While it's very useful to have generic terms that empower our characters to do basically anything, imposing restrictions or initial guidelines can actually boost creativity. Which is why I want to try to create a generic list of what I will refer to as Moments, or "Fate Moves" if you will, using the 4 Fate Actions as a base structure.

Creating a Moment

To create a Moment, you can follow the following recipe. For example, if a player wants to be on someone's tail in a space battle, you could create a moment called Getting on Someone's Tail that would look something like.

Getting on Someone's Tail

Use Create an Advantage C and Drive to be on someone's tail and gain the upper hand in a space battle.

While there is more than one way to bake a pie, this recipe will get you started so that you can create your own list of Moments that is best for your setting.

Moments are not set in stone

Even if use Moments as a starting point for your Fate campaign, the GM and the Players should always be aware that this is only a guide and if a player wants to do something that isn't on the list, nothing should be stopping them from going for it. Fiction First! As a GM, if one of your players is trying to do something that is not part of the your pre-made Moments, it is part of your job to create a Moment on the spot by matching a Skill with one of the 4 Actions and describing the possible outcomes.

Getting Started

If you are looking for more concrete examples of how this can be applied, here's a list of 10 Moments I think are relatively generic and outline the general idea behind all of this. The following examples are based off the default Skill List which you can read more about here. Enjoy!

Harm Someone

Use Attack A and Fight / Shoot / Provoke to deal damage to another character. Attack | Fate Condensed

Defend Yourself

Use Defend D and Athletics / Fight / Will to protect yourself from immediate danger. Defend | Fate Condensed

Brace Yourself

Skip your turn and gain a +2 to all your Defend D rolls until the end of the turn Full Defense | Fate Condensed

Protect Someone from Danger

Use Defend D and Athletics / Fight to place yourself between immediate danger and someone in order to try to protect them. When doing this you expose yourself to possibly suffering the effects of any failed rolls. Defend | Fate Condensed Exchange | Fate Condensed

Stop Someone

Use Defend D to oppose someone from trying to Create an Advantage against you. Defend | Fate Condensed

Act Under Pressure

Use Overcome O to see if you can succeed the challenge. Overcome | Fate Condensed

Provide Support

Figure out who has the highest level in the skill among the participants. Each other participant who has at least Average (+1) in that skill adds a +1 to the > highest person’s skill level. Supporters face the same costs and consequences as the person making the roll. Teamwork | Fate Condensed

Investigate a Situation

Use Create an Advantage C and Investigate to try to find something to help move the story forward. Create an Advantage | Fate Condensed

Find Something Useful

Use Create an Advantage C and Notice to try to find something you can use to your advantage. Create an Advantage | Fate Condensed

Manipulate Someone

Use Create an Advantage C and Deceive / Rapport to convince someone to do what you tell them to do. Create an Advantage | Fate Condensed

Thanks

Thanks to Jeremy Price and Seelie Squire for letting me bounce ideas with them during my thought process. You are awesome.

Quick Action Reference Sheet

The 4 Actions | Fate Condensed

Overcome

• If you fail, discuss with the GM (and the defending player, if any) whether it’s a failure or success at a major cost.
• If you tie, it’s success at a minor cost—you’re in a tough spot, the enemy gets a boost, or you may take a hit. Alternatively, you fail but gain a boost.
• If you succeed, you meet your goal and the story moves on without hiccups.
• If you succeed with style, it’s a success and you also get a boost.

Create An Advantage

Your outcomes when creating a new aspect are:

• If you fail, you either don’t create the aspect (failure) or you create it but the enemy gets the free invoke (success at a cost). If you succeed at a cost, the final aspect may need to be rewritten to benefit the enemy. This may still be worth it because aspects are true.
• If you tie, you don’t create an aspect, but you do get a boost.
• If you succeed, you create a situation aspect with one free invoke on it.
• If you succeed with style, you create a situation aspect with two free invokes on it.

With an existing known or unknown aspect the outcomes are:

• If you fail, and the aspect was known, the enemy gets a free invoke. If it was unknown, they may choose to reveal it to get a free invoke.
• If you tie, you gain a boost if the aspect was unknown; it stays unknown. If the aspect is known, you get a free invoke on it instead.
• If you succeed, gain a free invoke on the aspect, revealing it if unknown.
• If you succeed with style, gain two free invokes, revealing it if unknown.

Attack

• If you fail, you fail to connect—the attack is parried, dodged, or maybe just absorbed by armor.
• If you tie, maybe you barely connect, maybe you cause the defender to flinch. Either way, you get a boost.
• If you succeed, you deal a hit equal to the difference between your attack’s total and the defense’s effort. The defender must absorb this hit with stress or consequences, or else be taken out.
• If you succeed with style, you deal a hit just like a success, but you may reduce the shifts of the hit by one to get a boost.

Overcome

• If you fail against an attack, you take a hit, which you must absorb with stress or consequences. Regardless, the enemy succeeds as described for their action.
• If you tie, proceed according to the tie result for the opposed action.
• If you succeed, you don’t take a hit or you deny the enemy’s action.
• If you succeed with style, you don’t take a hit, you deny the enemy’s action, and you even get a boost as you gain the upper hand for a moment.