Fate System Toolkit
Don’t have your Fate dice or Deck of Fate handy? Here are some alternatives to get your game going.
Take two six-sided dice of different colors. Designate one as the positive die and the other as the negative, and roll. Subtract the negative from the positive to get a result of -5 to +5. Doubles are always a zero. It’s “swingier” than four Fate dice, and the range is broader, but it’s close enough for jazz.
This technique was first seen in “Baby’s First Fudge Dice” by Jonathan Walton. You can Google up a more extensive explanation of the idea—look for the link that leads to sinisterforces.com.
With a permanent marker and some pipped six-sided dice, you can make your own Fate dice by connecting the dots. The 2 and 3 sides become your - sides, the 4 and 6 sides become your 0 sides, and the 5 and 1 sides become your + sides—you’ll have to freehand the 1. Ta-da—artisanal Fate dice!
If you go in for tables, or if you just have a good memory, you can roll three six-sided dice.
| 3 | 4 | 5-6 | 7-8 | 9-12 | 13-14 | 15-16 | 17 | 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -4 | -3 | -2 | -1 | +0 | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 |
This one’s the least work, but maybe not the most intuitive: roll four six- sided dice and treat 1s and 2s as -, 3s and 4s as 0, and 5s and 6s as +.