Proactive, Competent, Dramatic

You play someone worth telling stories about: good at what they do, driven to act, and carrying a life complicated enough to be interesting. Fate has no classes and no levels. Who your character is gets written on the sheet as aspects — short phrases like Cat-Quiet Second-Story Man or I Owe Brea Everything — and those phrases are the engine of the whole game. They make you better when they help. They make trouble when they don't. Both directions pay.

How a session runs

The GM frames a scene and tells you what's at stake. You say what your character does — in the fiction first, always. Most of what you attempt simply happens, because you are competent people. Dice come out only when the attempt is dramatic and failure would be interesting, and every roll in the game works the same way: four Fate dice plus one skill, read against the Ladder.

What to expect

• Failure is a fork, not a wall. A failed roll never means "nothing happens." It means trouble: you get it at a serious cost, or the situation gets worse in a way that matters. The story always moves.
• Trouble is currency. When one of your aspects complicates your life and you play along, you get paid a fate point for it. Fate points buy the bonuses that win climactic rolls. A character who never gets in trouble goes broke.
• You can lose without being lost. Getting hurt is a resource decision, and when a fight turns against you, you can concede — exit on your own terms, keep your character, and get paid for the trouble.

Where things live

The complete rules sit in the Rules folder, starting with @Missing file. During play, keep the @Missing file at your elbow — the four actions, aspects, the Ladder, and getting hurt, one tab each. Character creation takes one good conversation, and it is next.