Changing my mind – Fate

Last time I talked about the change I’d make to Fate Accelerated – I’d add a seventh approach, Charming.

Vodkashok pointed out some errors in my thinking on The Tavern discussion forum (where, through the magic of Interwebs, my blog was automatically posted).

He wrote:

I'd humbly suggest falling back onto my old favourite Fate Accelerated adage - Approaches say how you do something, not what you do. So each one can be applied to anything. So, if you are trying to charm someone

Quick - rapidly bombarding the listener with words, not letting them get a word in. Literal fast talk

Forceful - power of charisma or fear, like a drill sergeant

Flashy - a staged performance, ala Donald Trump

Careful - slowly and steadily picking your words to make the most impact

Clever - long words, complex sentence structure, introduce some Latin phrasing and the occasional 'Whaar!'

Sneaky - Laying down linguistical traps, boxing someone into a corner where they cannot do anything but agree, the weasel words salesperson

He’s right, and that’s helped my Fate Accelerated thinking.

How you do it, not what you do

Vodkashok is right to remind me that approaches are how you do something, not what you do.

It seems odd that I had forgotten that, as when I teach Fate Accelerated to new players, that’s exactly what I tell them: you tell me what you’re trying to do, and I’ll tell you which approach that is.

Can you forcefully charm someone?

But I’m not sure about all of Vodkashok’s examples (they appear to be persuading someone rather than charming them), but it’s a good example of how something like persuasion works in Fate Accelerated. 

And “charming” might even be part of your high concept aspect, allowing you to spend a fate point to invoke it for a bonus. Or it could be a stunt.

How do you charmingly open a door?

Thinking about it further, charming doesn’t work as an approach because it’s so limited. How would you “charmingly” open a door or drive a car? You can’t. It doesn’t work.

Now, I’m not sure that every approach should be used in every situation (I probably wouldn’t let someone forcefully charm someone), but adding niche approaches probably isn’t the way to go.

So, I won’t add Charming to Fate Accelerated after all.