WotA Tutorial 3: Campaign Aspects and Reincorporation

Now that the Wrath of the Autarch kickstarter is in full swing, I thought I would discuss some other aspects (heh) of the kingdom building game that might be of interest to Fate Core players. In particular, how Wrath of the Autarch handles aspects that have impact at different timescales.

If you haven't heard of Wrath of the Autarch, check out the kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/295104591/wrath-of-the-autarch-a-kingdom-building-game

Aspects at Different Timescales

A Sunrider Visits Her Clan's Ovoo

Wrath of the Autarch has aspects which occur at three distinct timescales: minor advantages, mission aspects, and campaign aspects. As well as having varying timescales, the longer lived aspects typically have a more central role in the campaign.

• Minor Advantages - These are very short lived transient aspects, similar to boosts. They can be created as an action during either the challenge phase or the final conflict. Usually, minor advantages are not written down. Furthermore, they don't last beyond the end of the creating player's next turn.
• Flanked, Embarrassed, Hidden
• Mission Aspect - Mission aspects are created during the challenge phase as an action. They last until the end of the current mission (the end of the season). As such, they tend to be harder to create. Mission aspects are usually created during the challenge phase for use during the conflict.
• Wolfsbane, Heinrich's Password Convention, Curio for the Prince
• Campaign Aspect - Campaign aspects are created during the challenge phase as an action. They're written down on the Stronghold sheet and last the entire campaign (or until they're no longer applicable).
• Sword of Kynian, Contact within Autarch's Spy Network, Angry Hearts in Burgan Vale

Create Advantage as Scene Creation

Creating mission and campaign aspects is a bigger deal than creating minor advantages. These aspects can't be created during a conflict and can't be created if a character is in a challenge scene. Instead, the creation of these sorts of aspects is handled as their own scene. The Stronghold player who wishes to create the aspect sets the scene on their turn, then uses the appropriate skill to see if they're successful.

The opposition for creating mission aspects is equal to the difficulty of the mission. The opposition for creating campaign aspects is two higher than the mission.

Example: Rebecca is playing Varys, the silver tongued sorcerer from Aben's Hollow. He is deep within the Imperial library at Northkeep, looking for a particular book of Secrets. "Varys is trying to find the Whispers of Kynian, famed for revealing the secrets of the mind. I'd like to create a campaign aspect."

The mission difficulty is 4, so the opposition to create a campaign aspect is 6. Varys is using his Lore skill, which is 5. Rebecca gets a +2 on the check, success! She writes down the aspect Whispers of Kynian on the Stronghold sheet with one free invoke.

Reincorporating Campaign Aspects

By virtue of writing these aspects down on the Stronghold sheet, they become reincorporated over the course of the campaign. This is a particularly nice feature for Wrath of the Autarch given that there is no gamemaster. Typically, reincorporation of thematic content is one of those elements that gets forgotten without one strong driving force. By writing campaign aspects down they become important and explicit.

The Autarch player also sometimes is able to create campaign aspects to reflect negative situations - such as Angry Hearts in Burgan Vale. During a related mission, the Stronghold players could attempt to deal with this as an overcome action.