What is Strands of Fate 2e? Strands of Fate 2e is the second edition of Strands of Fate, a tabletop roleplaying game that evolved out of a desire to create a genre-agnostic version of the original Fate rules found in Evil Hat's Spirit of the Century and Cubicle 7's Starblazer.

Is it a Fate Core game? No. Strands of Fate 2e and Fate Core come from the same heritage, but tangent in different directions. There are ideas in Strands 2e that are lightly inspired by Fate Core, but I would not call it a Fate Core game.

So what is it then? The original Strands of Fate was a massive collection of rules and rules variants designed to help you run just about any sort of game you could imagine using the Fate system. Strands of Fate 2e is much the same, but benefits from several years of experience and development, and is being organized and structured in a much more concise and GM-friendly way. This is most evident in the introduction of two new design concepts, Threads and Strands.

What are Threads? In the original SoF, we provided dozes of variant rules all throughout the book. They served as "levers and dials" that could be used to tweak the rules to better fit your personal campaign. They worked well, but could become cumbersome due to their lack of organization. So in SoF2e, we call these variant rules "Threads", and they are neatly organized into their own chapter in the back of the book.

What are Strands? So the first part of the book focuses on presenting the core rules that every Strands of Fate game will use, regardless of genre. This is followed up by a chapter on Strands. Strands are best described as campaign templates. The process of creating a Strand involves the GM working with the players to pre-define certain campaign elements, and which Threads they will be using. Once complete, the Strand provides the GM and players with a clear picture of the sort of campaign they are about to play in, what sort of characters are appropriate for the players to make, and what Threads are being used. This gets everyone on the same page from the start, and avoids confusion about which optional rules are in play.

And to help out, we are including several pre-generated Strands to cover some common campaign types. "Strands of Fantasy" give you everything you need to get started playing a classic fantasy game using SoF2e. "Strands of Cthulhu" is about what happens when nosy investigators encounter sanity burning eldritch horrors. "Strands of Justice" is about super heroes, the choices they make, and the price of power. "Strands of Neon and Chrome" tells stories about cybernetically enhanced soldiers, street thugs, hackers, and con artists; and how they work to resist the oppressive corporate regime. And lastly, "Strands of the Dead" is about what happens when the dead rise, civilization falls, and what the survivors are willing to do to carry on.

You'll be able to use these sample Strands as written, mix and match different elements from them, or use the provided guidelines to create your own custom Strands from scratch.

How do I check it out? By filling out this form, you will be put on a mailing list to receive the Strands of Fate 2e playtest document, which will be sent out on May 1st.