Fate Universal Conflict System -- Part 3

We return to the Fate Universal Conflict System -- which, now that I look at it, has the initials FUCS and should probably be changed -- as we cover Skills and Example Conflicts. Every Fate character has skills, but not every skill is appropriate for every conflict situation. You can use Fists to hurt someone in a physical conflict, but to embarrass them, you’d be better off with Rapport. A complete list follows (however, note that all the categories are fuzzy, and certain situations might allow for just about any Skill to be used, particularly for Maneuvers):


[A note: for the purposes of this article, I will use the Spirit of the Century Skill List -- because SotC is, so far as I know, the only Fate product with an SRD, and it’s the one I started with. Any particular Fate system will have a slightly different Skill List, which may add or subtract Skills from the following categories. Of particular note are the various magical systems in use in Dresden Files and Legends of Anglerre, which might go all over the place, depending on the spell].

	Access Conflict	Physical Conflict	Repair Conflict	Research Conflict
Attack Skills	Burglary, Engineering, Might	Fists, Guns, Might, Weapons	Engineering, Science [Medical Attention trapping]	Academics, Art, Contacting, Investi- gation
Block Skills	Burglary, Engineering, Endurance	Athletics, Fists	Engineering, Science [Medical Attention trapping]	Academics, Art, Contacting. Science
Maneuver Skills	Engineering, Sleight of Hand, Might	Engineering, Might, Science [Medical Attention trapping], Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Survival	Academics, Burglary, Empathy, Science, Resources, Sleight of Hand, Survival	Art, Contacting, Engineering, Science [Medical Attention trapping]
Move Skills	Burglary, Engineering	Athletics, Stealth, Survival [Riding trapping]	Engineering, Science [Medical Attention trapping], Resources	Academics, Contacting, Investigation

	Social Conflict	Vehicle Conflict
Attack Skills	Deceit, Empathy, Intimidation, Rapport	Drive, Pilot, Survival [Riding trapping]
Block Skills	Deceit, Empathy, Resolve	Alertness, Athletics, Drive, Pilot, Survival [Riding trapping]
Maneuver Skills	Academics, Art, Contacting, Leadership, Resources, Science	Engineering, Fists, Guns, Sleight of Hand, Weapons
Move Skills	Deceit, Rapport	Drive, Pilot, Survival [Riding trapping]

Once you know what Skills might come into play, it’s time to actually run the conflict. Below is a basic layout of all possible actions. Note that a lot won’t make sense unless you’re familiar with the Fate rules as laid out in SotC or another system. But don’t worry, we’re backing away from the heavy mechanics for a while after this!

Initiative:

• Roll initiative: Each character in the conflict rolls Alertness (for Access, Physical, Repair, and Vehicle conflicts) or Empathy (for Research and Social conflicts). Record scores, and characters act in order of their initiative score.

Possible Actions:

• Attack: Attacker uses one of the Attack Skills to deal Stress damage to a defender. Resisted with Block Skills.
• Player declares a target character.
• Player rolls an Attack Skill, modified by range. Reduce shifts by one for each zone between the attacker and defender (Certain Skills -- Fists being the prime example, others being GM fiat -- have an effective Range of 0 and may only be used to Attack within the same zone).
• If the attacker has shifts, the defender’s Stress Track (Health or Composure) is marked at the box indicated (one shift marks the first box, two shifts marks the second, and so on). A Weapon’s Accuracy and Damage values may affect the Stress damage.
• Hits may be mitigated by Consequences.
• If the attacker fails their roll by three or more (gets three or more negative shifts), the defender gets Spin.

• Maneuver: Player uses one of the Maneuver Skills to perform an action or place a taggable Aspect on an opponent or Zone. Resisted with Block Skills.
• Player declares a target character.
• Player rolls a Maneuver Skill, modified by range. Reduce shifts by one for each zone between the attacker and defender (Certain Skills -- Might being the prime example, others being GM fiat -- have an effective Range of 0 and may only be used to Maneuver within the same zone).
• If any positive shifts are generated, the player may add an Aspect to the target zone or character, and that Aspect may be free-tagged once in the course of the scene.

• Move Other: Player uses one of the Attack Skills to move a defender a number of Zones equal to the attacker’s shifts of success. Resisted with Block Skills and Borders.
• Player declares a target character.
• Player rolls an Attack Skill, modified by range. Reduce shifts by one for each zone between the attacker and defender (Certain Skills -- Might being the prime example, others being GM fiat -- have an effective Range of 0 and may only be used to Move Other from within the same zone).
• If the attacker has shifts, they may move the defender that many zones.
• If the attacker fails their roll by three or more (gets three or more negative shifts), the defender gets Spin.

• Move Self: Player uses one of the Move Skills to move self a number of Zones equal to your shifts of success. Usually not resisted, but the player must expend shifts on any Borders.
   
  Whew. Enough heavy mechanics for today. Next time, we’ll wrap up our Universal Conflict System with some Examples and Discussion.