The book in this case is Fate Core, Fate Accelerated, or Fate Condensed, the book which literally contains the game we’re talking about here.
It is with mounting horror and depression that I watch post after post after post after post after post over on Reddit ask “How do I do <x> in game?” or “Can I run a game set in <setting>?” as if there isn’t a chapter in each book (well, maybe not Accelerated) explaining in detail how to implement pretty much any damn concept you need for whichever game you want to run. The best place to look for that stuff is Chapter 11 in Fate Core, “Extras.” Have they not read that far?
Hearing someone else complain about Fate’s magic system, I came up with the “Terry’s Hardware Store” Analogy.
Imagine a hardware store. The lumber yard in back has pretty much any kind of wood you might want for your project, and the team on the saws can cut it into whatever shape you need to make that project happen. There’s an incredibly wide assortment of paints, pigments, stains, lacquers, and finishes you can pick up to transform the wood into any smooth dreamy surface you could imagine.
Toward the front, there’s hardware of every sort. Hinges, pulls, rings, slides, hammers, saws, nails, screws, drill bits… anything you might want or need to connect those pieces of wood together in whatever way you see fit. In short, if you have a woodworking project, you can make anything with the parts here. Anyone could be satisfied, right?
Then Terry walks in.
He goes from aisle to aisle, tut-tutting and clicking his tongue, and finally when he reaches the last shelves, he turns to someone and says, “I’ve looked all over this store, and there isn’t a single table to buy. This is the worst furniture store I’ve ever been in.” Then he gives it a one-star review on Yelp and walks out without any further interactions with anyone.
That’s how I see some people approaching Fate, as if it’s supposed to have exactly the thing they need without having to assemble anything. And if they can’t find the thing they need, just these leftover character parts that don’t seem to do anything on their own, they claim it’s the game’s fault, that it should have known what they wanted and actually catered to them.
Someone, please tell me I’m being unreasonable here, and that the evidence of my own eyes has read something wrong. Because it looks like there are a whole lot of people who expect a specific experience from Fate without putting a single iota of think-work into leveraging its various systems (all four of them) to pull off that experience.
It’s been a while since you posted, but I thought I would comment anyway.
My theory behind reactions like these is that FATE is quite different from the “standard, rules heavy” rpg experience people are used to. People who have never played a light system go into fate and find the flexibility offputting. I found it quite hard to grok myself, even though I prefer these types of systems myself. Maybe an analogy of my own.
Terry has spent their entire life shopping at Ikea for furniture - to the point that they are utterly dependent on the choices they offer. If Ikea sells something, they know about it, and if they don’t, they avoid it. Ikea doesn’t sell lumber, only finished furniture. Then Terry enters your store, treating it like an Ikea. He asks to see the showroom, and is told there is none. He look through the hardware section, and the lumber yard and tries to give your store a chance, but he is overwhelmed by the choices, he’s never had to think about these kinds of things before. He asks the clerk, “I want a Kallax!”. The clerk says, “We don’t have a Kallax, but we can construct something similar. But before reaching for cube storage, maybe you should consider finding a more specialized storage solution, like a bookshelf, perhaps? Here are some examples!” Upon seeing some hand-crafted bookshelves and drawers, terry finds himself excersizing parts of his brain that have never been used. “That’s a strange feeling, shouldn’t the clerk be doing all the work here? If I’m paying, I shouldn’t have to make these decisions!” Terry asks for a Kallax once again, and the team tries to make one - but the result ends up being very different from what Terry is used to - solid wood rather than particle board, imperfections due to the hand-crafted nature, and it’s a pain to transport something already assembled. If you squint, it’s a Kallax, but it lacks the essence that Terry was expecting. Terry leaves and is dissapointed with the store.
Bringing it back to FATE and maybe the magic system, and substituting me instead of Terry. I (unlike Terry) am deeply unhappy with 5e’s magic and combat system. I find it much too complex and promoting gameplay I dislike. It won’t fit into the setting I want to run, which has ridiculously complicated Magic “rules”. So I turn to FATE, and I’m met with countless choices. Magic system as an aspect, stunts, skills? What’s an extra, isn’t that just homebrew? I don’t even know what an aspect is! If there’s no spell slots, how can I balance power? What’s stopping a player from casting “Wish” all the time? It wasn’t until I played over 5 games of FATE, experimenting with different ways of playing, before I began to grok it. Suddenly all these words click! A magic skill could be useful in a low magic word, but you have to be a bit careful to make sure one stat dosen’t get used for everything. Stunts are good for specific “powers”, maybe mapping to superheros. And if you want something even lighter, just make it an aspect, and make sure to be aggressive about enforcing narrative limits. If you have a very clear mechanical vision, maybe you can make something crunchy using extras and some light tracking. But imagine me being someone already happy with 5e’s magic system - I would have been constantly trying to fit aspects, stunts, and extras to match 5e, setting up spell levels, slots, preparation, etc. And once I’m all done, I’ll still be unhappy, because I’ll constantly be comparing the giant pile of homebrew I made with 5e, and be dissapointed! An example for me, I play a star wars game (FFG), that I was thinking about moving into FATE. After going through this homebrew: https://fate-accelerated-star-wars-the-infinite-empire.obsidianportal.com/wiki_pages/the-force I realized this was a futile task - why bother building this complicated system when there are systems built for the setting already? Just fix the problems from a better known “starting point”.
Anyway, as someone who’s been in both positions, hopefully that can explain both sides of this.