Putting the pressure on

My previous design goal documents were mostly about what I didn't like about old school fantasy. So I thought I should write about what I want to keep. Most of all, the feeling of danger.

Too often, that danger came in the form of unexpected, arbitrary death. That's not heroic fantasy, that's "subterranean fantasy fucking Vietnam" The sort of danger I want is more like slow torture. Fate mirrors this idea nicely. Even minor fights can leave a PC limping around with a consequence or two. All I'm doing is broadening the concept.

The Cursed World is a dangerous place, and adventurers are those who venture into the most dangerous parts of it. No one survives these places for long. Supplies dwindle, magic fades, and raw endurance is put to the test. An adventure is also a slowly tightening trap.

Unfortunately, this will require a bit of bookkeeping. After I did a whole post about the terrible bookkeeping that I'm getting rid of, here is some of the acceptable bookkeeping that I'm going to keep.

Gear

Adventurers love their equipment. Writing actual equipment lists is dull and time-consuming. Mundane shopping trips are the sort of  detail the player shouldn't have to worry about.

On the other hand, a character's stuff is too important to completely hand wave away. The steady depletion of supplies is a central factor in old school exploration. It serves to put time pressure on the PCs. In a dungeon, this is the torches and lanterns burning out. In a wilderness adventure (hex crawl) it's food and water. In high-level adventures, it's the magic that allows the PCs to survive whatever hellish plane they're tromping through.

So there is definitely going to be some sort of gear point system. Basic tools associated with the character's skills are free starting gear. beyond that, a player can check off a point to declare any piece of equipment that's reasonable. (Less-reasonable equipment is the domain of fate points.) A character's maximum gear points are based on his skills, representing a combination of foresight, market savvy, and carrying capacity. Gear is refreshed whenever the characters have money and a place to spend it.

Healing

In Fate Core, healing time can be reduced by a skill check. This is well and good, but in old school fantasy, healing has always been a limited resource. This is a big part of the tightening trap feel that I want to capture.

So instead of making a skill roll, the Healing skill gives you points to spend. Check off a point to reduce a character's recovery time. 

Yes, there will be some things to keep track of. More than Fate usually requires, but still worlds less than any d20 variant.