Have More Fun by Embracing Failure in Fate Games

by Andrew Gronosky

This is a section of text from chapter 6 of the Magonomia® manuscript.

When I first read the Fate Core System book, I had a negative impression. It looked to me like Fate was designed so characters rarely fail. I'd spent most of my gaming years playing RPGs like Call of Cthulhu®, where having your character devoured by a monster is considered one of the better possible outcomes. "Young gamers these days are a bunch of crybabies!" I harrumphed. "Back when I started playing First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons® (or AD&D® for short), one failed dice roll could get your character disintegrated beyond hope of resurrection!"

It did cross my mind that having a character you've been playing for two years blasted into ash on Round 1 of a battle might be considered a bit anticlimactic. In fact, I remembered, when I was a GM for AD&D®, I fudged dice rolls quite a lot just to prop up some semblance of a plot. The current (Fifth) edition of D&D® is a lot more forgiving, or perhaps I should say, less gratuitously harsh. And more fun.

If you’re coming from an old-school mentality of "make this dice roll or your character dies!" then you’ll probably have an impulse to apply all the narrative tools Fate gives you to avoid failure. You can sustain that for several game sessions, if you’re parsimonious with your Fate Points. I did. You'll be missing out on more than half the fun of Magonomia, because failure, setbacks, and complications add a lot to the experience.

The key insight that made me embrace the Fate system was when I decided, for the first time, not to Invoke an Aspect to prevent failure. I took the "success at a major cost" option instead. That's the anecdote [about the wizard hiding in a tree and dropping the potion they were planning to use, then having to think fast to get out of that tight spot ] . Tell me that's not better than succeeding on the Stealth roll, if you can!

Failure has a different meaning in Magonomia than it does in a game like D&D®. Magonomia becomes fun when you let go of your fear of individual failure. Step outside your character and realize the story won't get derailed if something bad happens to them. In fact, unless they face dangers and trials, there is no story. Internalize that mistakes and bad luck don't punish you, the player. Trust the GM to make failure a springboard to move the plot forward.

Frankly, I think Magonomia is more like real life, where mistakes are recoverable and your friends have your back.

In the end, I concede that the Fate system gives you many tools to avoid failure. I would add that it also gives you every reason not to be afraid of failure. In Magonomia, we mean it when we say "create a positive experience for everyone." One of the ways you can do that is to let your character fail.

The Platinum Rule

For Magonomia ®, we developed something we call the Platinum Rule:

All players share responsibility for making the game fun for everyone.

A lot of RPG players and GMs understand and use this rule already, of course. Strangely, I have never seen it written down in an RPG rule book in quite this form — many games address making the game fun for the players, but usually that’s framed as solely the GM’s job.

Why the Platinum Rule?

I’ve tried to make our game accessible to new RPG players and to players who might want to re-enter the hobby after a long absence. Therefore, I thought a lot about how to present the rules to make the essential concepts clear. The Platinum Rule emerged as the most important concept I could think of that I wanted to communicate. This is the one principle that I most want to share with the whole RPG community. It’s the distillation of my 40 years in the tabletop RPG hobby.

Now that it’s occurred to me to write it down, I am rather puzzled that I haven’t come across something like the Platinum Rule more often in other games. I have certainly seen language to the effect that the GM is responsible for making sure all the players have a good time — but that places all the responsibility on the GM. If you think about it, players have a great deal of impact on the quality of one another’s experience. That is both a responsibility and huge opportunity.

Full Text of the Platinum Rule Section

The text between the separator lines is directly from the Magonomia ® core rules manuscript, ©2020 Shewstone Publishing LLC. See “Republishing the Platinum Rule,” below, for legal information.

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It goes without saying that the reason for playing the game is to have fun with your friends. We think it's useful, though, to make that idea explicit and examine it.

This is the only rule that's really important: all players share responsibility for making the game fun for everyone.

The implications are far-reaching. How do you, as a player, get to have your character shine without upstaging the other characters? How do you encourage a shy player to participate without being pushy? As a GM, how do you know when you're making things too easy or too hard?

What is “fun,” anyway? Different players will have different priorities. Some want to solve challenging problems, some want to immerse themselves in an imaginary world, and some want to create a rousing adventure tale. You’ll need to discuss this a bit so you can make sure everyone can get what they want out of the game.

Roleplaying games are a hobby. Everyone, new or old, develops their own style. That means everyone, including you, has something unique to offer. The best experience comes when you realize that you can contribute to making the game awesome for your friends.  

Bad Habits to Avoid

The Platinum Rule is primarily about making positive contributions, but there are some pitfalls in roleplaying that are worth bearing in mind.

Don’t hog the spotlight. Some people are naturally more assertive than others. Go ahead and have your character be awesome! Just make sure everyone else also gets their moments to be the star.

Don’t undermine other players. Don’t make choices that directly contradict what another player has started to do. For example, if one of your fellow PCs has started to negotiate with an enemy, don’t suddenly interrupt and challenge that enemy to a duel. If you really want to change direction, ask permission.

Don’t make a character who’s a jerk. You control what your character is like, so you’re responsible for whether they’re a positive or a negative influence. This is not to say your character can’t have personality flaws – a flawed character is often the most enjoyable and rewarding to play. Just make sure your character is likable in some way and can work well with others.

Good Habits to Cultivate

Giving a list of advice on how to be a good roleplayer may seem overwhelming to some (and superfluous to others). It’s certainly sufficient to start with the Platinum Rule and just apply it as you think best. If you want some more specific suggestions, here’s a list you can refer back to from time to time to help you develop your collaborative roleplaying skills.

Keep the story moving. As long as everyone is enjoying themselves, the game is going well! There will come times when the game session feels stalled or goes completely off track. When you notice that happening, say something or have your character do something to refocus people’s attention on the story. This is everyone’s job, not just the GM’s. If your group is having trouble making a decision, the General Divination spell is a powerful tool for getting past that impasse.

Yes, and… The first rule of improv theatre is to accept your partner’s idea and add something to it. You will find many opportunities to do this as you play. Aspects and Fate Points, explained later in this chapter, are a game mechanic for creating “yes, and” moments in the game.

Give positive feedback. When another player or the GM does something great, say so! This will help build a shared understanding of what your group enjoys.

Embrace setbacks. There is more to a good story than having your character go from success to success. A good story needs moments of tension! Some of the best experiences in a roleplaying game come when the heroes have to claw their way back from the very brink of destruction. Don’t be afraid of bad things happening to your character. Be afraid of letting their story become bland and forgettable.

Show your character’s reaction. Showing or describing how your character reacts to what’s happening around them is an easy and powerful method for engaging everyone in the story.

Learn the rules. Nobody expects you to memorize everything in this book – even the authors have to refer to it frequently during play. That said, the better your grasp of the rules, the more you’ll be able to apply them creatively. Spend 10 minutes re-reading sections of the rule book before each game session and you’ll probably be surprised how much that helps.

Being a Great Player

A good player doesn't interfere with other players' fun.

A great player actively promotes other players' fun.

If you try to be great, you will probably succeed.

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Applying the Platinum Rule

The Platinum Rule only works if you talk about it. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation. Just introduce the concept and make sure everyone knows it is part of your group’s social contract. During that conversation, it’s a good idea to invite the players to volunteer what makes the game fun for them. Focus on the positive, to encourage players to start collaborating.

I find it especially helpful in breaking the ice at convention games, where players may be meeting for the first time.

Something particular to Magonomia ® is that it’s a historical fantasy game, and a lot of gamers will understandably hesitate to step into a setting based on a time that’s so strongly sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and generally nasty compared to our own. The Platinum rule is a very tidy shorthand for how to make even a historical fantasy setting safe and welcoming. If something wouldn’t be fun for everyone, then don’t bring it up at the gaming table. Simple enough?

Related Subject: The X Card

I would never have thought of the Platinum Rule if I had not been taught about a similar and very useful concept, the X card, at Gen Con 2015. I definitely recommend you use the X card in addition to the Platinum Rule. They compliment one another.

Why It’s Called the Platinum Rule

The reason we called it the Platinum Rule is simple: Magonomia ® is based on the Fate™ Core System and Fate™ already has a concept called the Golden Rule of Fate. In other words, the term “Golden Rule” was taken.

Republishing the Platinum Rule

We want people to use the Platinum Rule in their games, including commercial products! You are welcome to use the Platinum Rule in any written work. The exact text of the Platinum Rule (appearing between the separator lines in this article) is Open Game Content under the terms of the Open Game License version 1.0A. If you prefer, you may also use, modify, and republish the entire text of this article or any portion thereof under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). Magonomia ® is a registered trademark of Shewstone Publishing LLC and must be acknowledged as such. You can also just paraphrase the Platinum Rule: it’s short and simple and we’re not going to sue you over it. If you feel, as we do, that the Platinum Rule is a worthwhile contribution to the gaming community, please use it!

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Update: Revised Jan. 20, 2020 to add full text of the Platinum Rule from the Magonomia ® Core Rules manuscript, change X-card link to the original source, and revised to emphasize positive reasons for using the Platinum Rule.

Actual play video of Magonomia: A Night in the Graveyard

With Halloween approaching, we have a spooky new actual play video of Magnomonia! This is a complete play session of our sporadic weekend game, which grew out of our internal playtests. Four of our wizards venture into a graveyard in search of a missing person. We realize the audio isn’t perfect and we have ideas for how to get it better next time. Notice how the GM makes a simple plot and we, the players, embellish it with our crackpot ideas! Enjoy!

Gen Con 2018 tickets went on sale today!

Tickets for Gen Con 2018 went on sale today. Gen Con is regularly held in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. This year's convention dates are August 2-5. If you're interested in attending, my advice is to buy your four-day pass and think about where you want to stay between now and Feb. 11. Feb. 11 is when "housing registration" -- which means hotel reservations -- opens! Rooms downtown sell out quickly, but outlying hotels do offer free shuttles to and from the convention center.

Shewstone Publishing LLC will be presenting one seminar and playtesting Eldritch Realms at this year's convention. I hope to see you there!

Video: Wil Wheaton on Playing Fate Core

Wil Wheaton's Tabletop webcast has an excellent video demonstrating Fate Core. The goal for Eldritch Realms is to have a similar, collaborative story experience.