Fate Core

Fate Core is a generic, narrative-first tabletop RPG by Evil Hat Productions, built around aspects (phrases describing what’s true and important about a character, place, or situation), fate points, and four core actions: overcome, create an advantage, attack, and defend. Rolls use four Fate dice (each showing +, -, or blank) added to a skill rating and read against the ladder. Characters are defined less by numbers and more by the story-relevant statements attached to them, which can be invoked for a bonus or compelled by the GM to complicate the story in exchange for a fate point.

License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). Attribution: Fate Core System © 2013 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. Developed, authored, and edited by Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks, and Rob Donoghue. Content sourced from the official Fate Core SRD HTML, as mirrored in the fate-srd/fate-srd-content GitHub repository.

Rules

Getting Started

The Basics — What you need to play, the character sheet, rolling the dice, the ladder, fate points, invoking and compelling aspects
Game Creation — What makes a good Fate game, setting up your game, the setting’s big issues, faces and places
Character Creation — High concept, trouble, the phase trio, the skill pyramid, stunts and refresh, quick character creation

Core Mechanics

Aspects and Fate Points — Types of aspects, invoking, compelling, the fate point economy, creating and discovering aspects in play
Skills and Stunts — Building stunts, stunt families, and the full Default Skill List (all 18 skills with actions and stunts)
Actions and Outcomes — Opposition, the four outcomes, the four actions (overcome, create an advantage, attack, defend)
Challenges, Contests, and Conflicts — Zones, turn order, stress, consequences, extreme consequences, conceding, movement, teamwork

Running the Game

Running the Game — The Golden and Silver Rules, setting difficulties, dealing with time, creating the opposition (NPC types), scenes, sessions, and scenarios
The Long Game — Arcs, campaigns, milestones (minor, significant, major), and world advancement
Extras — The Bronze Rule (Fate Fractal), creating an extra, weapon/armor ratings, superpowers, special gear, cybertech, wealth, vehicles, magic

Reference

Character Sheet — Blank character sheet (printable) with interactive generator
Cheat Sheet and Veterans’ Guide — Quick-reference notes and what’s changed for players of previous Fate games
Appendix I: Open Game License — The full OGL 1.0a text and Fate Core’s copyright notice

Data

skills.json — All 18 default skills with actions, descriptions, and example stunts
ladder.json — Adjective ladder from Terrible (-2) to Legendary (+8)