Water, water, where art thou?!

One morning in Fairy Land, Rosy woke up to water her plants. However, there was no water flowing out of the tap. A passing servant says to Rosy to check the dam; when Rosy got there, there was a commotion as apparently, the key to turn on the water from the dam has been stolen by a troll! The only way to make the water flow again was to retrieve the key from the troll, but where can Rosy find him? The villagers told her to ask the all-knowing king of Fairy Land, King Peacock.

King Peacock tells the princess the way to the troll's cave is long and winding, but there is a short cut that she can take, through the dark forest. Not wanting to go through the scary forest, Rosy and her friend Flappy the Butterfly took the long route, despite the King's advice that it will take them a long time to get to the troll's cave with that route. Taking the long road might delay the princess, and the plants in the garden might die if they don't get water soon enough.

After a long and uneventful journey, the duo finds the troll's cave. The troll Carrot, orange-colored and grumpy, tells them that he has they key, but is unwilling to return it unless they get his special dipper from the dwarf who stole it. Flappy asked where can they find the dwarf, and Carrot points them to the direction of the dwarf's tower. A howling tunnel leads the way to the tower, and Flappy and Rosy tried to go flying in to no avail since the wind blowing out was too strong. Flappy decided to sing a song to attract anyone who can help them; soon enough her outstanding voice attracted a villager named Morty, who showed them a secret rock to press to stop the wind from blowing so they can get in.

After getting in, the dwarf named Sneezy refused to give the special dipper back. Rosy tried to reason with the dwarf to return the dipper but failed. Flappy sang a song to change the mood of the dwarf; it worked and he told them that he would gladly return the troll's dipper if they give him another one. So with a wave of her magic wand and the words, "Abracadabra, dipper," Rosy made him a nice new dipper. Sneezy was delighted and gave back Carrot's dipper. Rosy and Flappy returned to Carrot's cave to give his dipper back; he in turn gave back the key. Swiftly, the two made haste to return to the dam with the key, and they made it back in time to Rosy's garden to water the plants before any of them got wilted.  

Rosy the Fairy Princess

It's been a while since I last posted in this blog, the reason being is that I've been busy. I'm also discovering that it's really difficult to blog about creating a campaign world that I can't somehow get off the ground. Anyway, my wife has recently asked me to try and play an RPG with our five year-old daughter Chichi. She's a precocious little thing - very early exposure to my primary hobby of board gaming has made her eager to try board games children her age can't normally play or understand yet. With Fate Core being one of my favorite RPGs, I decided to try the Fate Accelerated Edition (FAE) with her since I wanted something simple where she can start. Below is a transcript of what roughly transpired in our little game creation:

Me: So what kind of pretend character do you want to play?
Chichi: I want to play a fairy princess
Me: (Well, that was easy). So what does she do beside the usual princess-y stuff?
Chichi: She waters her garden!
Me: Ok...
Chichi: And she loves purple tulips and pink roses. And eats chocolate cake every day!

At this point I realized that the rule book suggests a minimum of three players for FAE: at least two players and one GM. So I included the wife.

Me: Chichi, Mommy wants to play a character, too. What kind of character do you think she can play?
Chichi: She can be a talking pink and purple butterfly.
Me: And what does the talking butterfly do, beside fly around?
Chichi: She can be the princess's friend
Me: And what else?
Chichi: The butterfly likes pretty stuff. And loves to sing all the time!

So at this stage I introduced the concept of Approaches. Chichi wants the fairy princess to be Careful, first and foremost (+3). Next, she is also Clever and Flashy (+2). Lastly, she is Quick and Sneaky (+1). As for the talking butterfly friend, Chichi determined it to be Flashy as a singer (+3). Also, Careful and Quick (+2), and Clever and Sneaky (+1). Both of them are mediocre in Forceful (+0).

Finally, I introduced that their character can have Special Powers (Stunts). Chichi wanted her fairy princess to have a Magic Wand that can create nice things. The butterfly, aside from being able to talk and fly, has a Magic Song that can make people happy.

Lastly, I asked for the names. Chichi wanted to name her character "Chichi" but I said she should think of another name, so she called her Rosy. As for the butterfly, she was named "Flappy".

So after all of these, we created two characters for the players:

Rosy the Fairy Princess
High Concept: Fairy Princess who waters her own garden
Trouble: Obsessed with pink roses and purple tulips
Other: Eats chocolate cake every day

Approaches:
+3 Careful
+2 Clever
+2 Flashy
+1 Quick
+1 Sneaky

Stunt:
Magic Wand: Once every session, can create one nice thing

Flappy the Butterfly
High Concept: Rosy's talking butterfly friend
Trouble: Attracted to pretty stuff
Other: Likes to sing a lot

Approaches:
+3 Flashy
+2 Careful
+2 Quick
+1 Clever
+1 Sneaky

Stunt:
Magic Song: +2 to Flashy to change the mood of listeners to "happy"

Tomorrow, hopefully my first FAE game :)