Fate: Condensed

Fate Condensed is an updated, streamlined, 50-pages-or-less version of Fate Core System. It's completely stand-alone and features new refinements to the Fate Core engine that'll have it running better than ever. Call it Fate 4.5, if you like—it covers all the ground (and uses the same skills) as Fate Core, in about a sixth the size.

You can use Fate Condensed (FCon) to drive any game, any scenario, with proactive, capable player-characters leading dramatic lives. The easy-to-digest rules are presented here with a minimum of verbiage, letting you get to the table and roll the dice, fast.

For game creators, the text of Fate Condensed is available for development under an open license, at a word-count that won't bust your budget when making an all-in-one-book stand-alone game Powered by Fate.

Fate veterans will appreciate the refinements and additions to the Fate Core engine, including:

• A shift to one-point stress boxes to help reduce player confusion.
• The use of “Balsera Style” initiative (also known as “elective action order” or “popcorn initiative”) as the default rather than using skills to determine turn order.
• Improvements to advancement, eliminating significant milestones and finessing major milestones to compensate.
• Changing active opposition so it's no longer separate from the defend action.
• Eight pages of optional rules to make building your variant of choice easy, including Dresden Files Accelerated scale rules, extreme consequences, countdowns, and a variety of ways to make your Big Bads bigger and badder.