Fate: About the Town

Banks in the real world just don't have the guts to go for names like this, even though they'd work well when the bank inevitably buys the naming rights to a sports arena.

   

The breadth and scope of modern RPGs is both a blessing and a curse. Part of me loves huge, open-world games like Fallout: New Vegas and Skyrim, but there's a danger in biting off more than you can chew. I don't know how many times I started a new Oblivion character and said that this was going to be the one who solved all the quests, closed all the gates, and so forth, started off strong, and then inevitably coasted to a stop as I got distracted by other things. If my break from a game, intentional or not, lasts more than three or four weeks, there's a good chance I won't have any motivation to pick it up again. Instead, I'll let six months go by until I can stomach the idea of completing the introductory dungeon again, and then start all over.

Fate: Gates of Dawn is perhaps the first game in my official chronology to offer such a large scope that I'm likely to simply coast to a stop if I don't force myself to keep active with it. There were other games that have come close--Tunnels & Trolls, Knights of Legend, and Disciples of Steel all come to mind--but the risk seems higher with Fate. As I write this, I haven't played in 15 days, and I'm fighting the urge to just begin again rather than try to remember what I thought I was doing when I last saved the game next to a tavern.

Here's another thing incontrovertibly true about Fate: if I'm going to keep up a regular posting schedule, we're really going to have to get into the weeds. In a long game like Disciples of Steel or Might & Magic II, I might get one posting focusing on combat, one on equipment, one on magic, and perhaps one on character development. There are lots of games where I plan to do that, but the game surprises me by finishing before I can dedicate something to each of the topics. By the time we get to Skyrim, on the other hand, I'll probably have an entire entry dedicated to the different types of crossbow bolts. I might have a separate posting on each and every shout.

Fate feels like that kind of game, and hence this entry, devoted solely to the different kinds of things that you can do in a town. Not every town--just the first one, because I've barely gotten out of it. And even then, there are a lot of things I don't understand.
  

My "completed" map of Larvin.

   

Since I last posted, I have visited all the accessible squares in Larvin. I say "accessible" because there are several areas blocked by water. I assume there's some way to pass over the water at some point, as I can see buildings and stuff beyond. There's some kind of inaccessible island in the middle of the map, for instance, and a small building in the northwest. There's also a large area in the southeast that either requires me to skirt a bit of water on the east side of the map or find a secret door. I have no idea how secret doors work in this game. I've tried bashing headlong into every wall surrounding the inaccessible area to no avail.
   

An inaccessible building in the middle of a lake.

   
Last time, I noted the game's allegiance to Alternate Reality: The City, reflected in the size of the city, the types of facilities available there, the large number of essentially duplicate shops, and the kinds of things you can do there. Larvin offers banks, traders, smiths, taverns, chapels, healers, inns, and guilds, all with many of the same options as Alternate Reality, such as the ability to invest money in banks or the ability in taverns to purchase both rations (including water flasks) or food that you consume immediately.
   

I understand this about as well as my Fidelity statement.

   
Generally speaking, however, Fate expands upon the options of the Alternate Reality base. Unless I missed something in the earlier game, for instance, "chapels" are an entirely new option here. You visit them to "confess your sins" and pay a fee to cleanse your karmic slate. (I'm not yet sure if this has any real impact on gameplay.) When I visited one and chose to confess a "grave" sin, my character said that I'd killed a non-hostile person. I don't remember this, but it's entirely possible that I did so in the early stages of the game when I didn't understand encounters. The cleric wanted to charge me almost half my "piaster," so I at first said no, then found myself barred from the chapel in a most unpleasant manner. I reloaded, sucked it up, and paid the indulgence.
   

This town needs Martin Luther.

   
Taverns and stores each have an option to "go around," in which the selected character leaves the party for a time to check things out on his own. In stores, this seems to be a mechanic for stealing items. In taverns, it allows the party to hear useful rumors or find useful NPCs. After some fixed or variable interval (I'm not sure), the character returns to the party with whatever he's found. In a couple of cases, though, my party member hasn't returned after quite some time and I've had to reload to avoid losing him.

Taverns have an option to listen for rumors, but the other patrons always just want me to buy a round for the house. There's no explicit option to do that, so it's a bit of a mystery.
   

The options in a tavern. "Drink" seems only to apply to the party.

   
I haven't quite figured out guilds yet. They seem to allow the improvement of skills and acquisition of spells, but only for certain characters and (I guess) only after those characters have leveled up. I'm not sure if, having leveled up, you can only improve in one guild per level or whether you can make the rounds of all of them that help your class. The manual is a bit obtuse on this, and I haven't leveled up enough to experiment.
   

The various guild options.

   
Aside from the inaccessible water areas, there are a few mysteries about town. Two buildings called "stations" are always closed. One square has an inactive teleportation field. Another has a fountain that serves up cool mineral water--it is perhaps simply there to provide free water.
   

   
Finally, there's one square that notes a "hole in the wall." None of the many options the game gives you--examine, listen, look in, touch, pull, open, seize in (whatever that means), drink, take, hit, dig, search, read, close, climb, press, kiss, join, enter, item, or spell--seems to do anything, except for "close," which covers the hole with dirt.
   

This is going to bother me the whole game.

  
In between the shops, the party meets a wide variety of NPCs, including simple townsfolk, beggars, mages, druids, hunters, gladiators, and hostile creatures like thieves and burglars. Not even the latter classes, however, are universally hostile. Sometimes robbers will talk with you--even help you--despite their usual disposition.

A "murderess"--normally a hostile enemy--cheerfully tells me about her job.

  
When you first encounter an NPC, you have options to immediately fight, disengage, talk, move forward (if they start at a distance), or perform a number of other actions--mock, warcry, use a scroll, suicide, dig in, close eyes, and laugh. I don't know how serious some of these latter options are supposed to be. "Warcry" can scare away opponents, but "close eyes" seems to just be a joke--you close them, the screen goes dark, but then you open them and the opponents or NPCs are still there. "Laugh" just makes you go "Ha ha ha" to no avail. I don't even understand what's happening when you click "suicide." In the one or two times I've tried it, the game says, "OK! But first you must show me how to do it. I'm waiting!" then "Your click shows me that you're still alive! So I think it's better I do it too!"
  

Is this even English?

   
"Disengage" brings up its own set of options--run away, ignore, hide, pray, bribe, chant, and joke. I haven't been using it much because talking to NPCs and fighting monsters gets you experience, money, and other benefits.
   

I might be disengaging from this one, however.

   
I'll cover combat some other time, but if you choose to "talk," you get a menu with options to ask for (something), wait, chat, (ask them to) join, trade, threaten, give alms--which, despite the name, is more of a bribe--and say goodbye. "Chat" opens its own sub-menu with options to introduce yourself, tell lies about your prowess, brag, joke, curse, adulate (compliment), insult, or enchant (seduce) the NPC.

"Ask for," in the meantime, brings up options to ask about the NPCs name, profession, and "self" (characteristics), as well as ask for generic "help" and hints, including those about items, persons, and beings.
   

The various "ask for" options.

   
The menu options are arranged awkwardly, and it took me a lot of contacts to figure out what's going on, but basically it seems that your goal is to use the various "chat" options to either ingratiate yourself with the NPC or cow him, thus increasing the likelihood that he'll give you help or a hint. Your success at the various options seems to depend on your own attributes plus the class of the NPC. For instance, warrior classes often seem to respond positively to "joke," whereas mage classes generally say "I've heard better." Almost everyone seems to respond well to "adulate," hardly anyone (so far) to "threaten," "insult," or "curse"--in fact, some of the latter options can result in an instant kill against a party member if used against a strong NPC.
   

Winwood's use of "Curse" will turn out to be unwise.

  
"Give alms," which always gives 200 piaster, seems to obviate the other chat options, immediately turning the encounter into a positive one, but some warrior types get offended by that. I've found that "enchant," when used by one of my high-charisma party members, works reliably with them.

However you do it, once you have the NPC on your side, it's time to ask for help, a hint, or both. "Help" offers a small probability that the NPC will teach the character something that increases one of his attributes by 1. I've started keeping a log of what attributes each class increases. Thieves, for instance, increase dexterity, while druidesses increase wisdom. Some commenters noted that these increases won't help you above 20, but that doesn't seem to be universally true. Winwood's dexterity is 21, and when he talked to a thief and supposedly got an increase, I checked his character sheet and it hadn't gone anywhere. But later, talking to a "banshee" increased his wisdom from 23 to 24.
  

Winwood gets a mage to "help."

   
"Hints," including information about items, persons, and beings, seem to be how you find information about the game world, including your current quest. These hints seem to come in a set order no matter which NPC gives them to you, but certain hints only certain NPC classes will deliver. So you might get a line from a mage and then need to find a warrior to get the next piece of information.

From the succession of hints, I've learned that the city of Larvin is isolated from the rest of the world, and their only contact is through the "Cavetrain." The Cavetrain, however, has been broken by something called "mongards," a race of "nasty ape men," which live only in darkness. King Garloth has offered a "big reward" to anyone who can get the Cavetrain working again.
   

Getting a hint from an NPC in the dungeon.

   
Once the Cavetrain related messages ended, I started getting messages about the catacombs accessible in the northwest part of the city: they're a mysterious place, they're a nasty place, and something called "Shade Ghosts" live there. I did explore the catacombs briefly for combat experience and money. It turns out you can meet NPCs in dungeons, too.

The next set of messages has to do with the inaccessible southeast part of the map: it's a small island, some wise men live there, and I might find some clues there. Maybe at some point I'll find a water walking spell that allows me to get there.
   

An NPC responds favorably to "hint."

   
For now, the direction seems to be to head out into the wilderness and find the cave containing the "Cavetrain." Before I do, let's talk a little about my party. Largely by asking random NPCs to join me, I've filled it with 6 members in addition to Winwood. (A couple have died and been replaced along the way.) Right now, it consists of (and remember these people were named by the game):

• Dolly, a Bes Zarak adventurer
• Howard, a Laurin magician
• Elgarette, a Moron priestess
• Norma, a Ter Moron valkyrie
• Unaques, a Zarak hunter
• Billy, a Laurin warlock

I honestly don't know how many classes there are in the game. Each of the spellcasting classes in my party has a different (small) selection of offensive and defensive spells. The priestess has a healing spell which has come in handy.
   

I'm not sure the term "banshee" translated well.

   
As for the races, as the manual gives it, they all branched off humans through magical experimentation. Zaraks are strong and dumb; they used to be slaves. Bes Zaraks are human/Zarak half-breeds. Morons (ironically) are mentally superior but fragile; Ter Morons are half-human, half-Moron. Laurins are supposedly shapechangers created by black magic. Not represented in my party are giants, dwarves, gnomes, Errins, Pheyds, and mutants.
   

The main character's statistics as I close this session.

  
I wouldn't mind some advice from people who have played the game about my party composition. Dolly seems to me the most redundant since Winwood is also an "adventurer." Perhaps I should be looking for a stronger warrior class in that slot.

Several miscellaneous notes:

• The day/night cycle has a lot of consequences. Different establishments are open during different hours, and more difficult monsters come out at night (or in the rain). The world gets almost completely dark at night.

• Like any good game of the era, lamplight immediately starts out strong and fades as time goes by. Unlike most games, the entire lamp disappears when you use it.

• After peaceful encounters, NPCs entirely disappear from the map.

• Ending a conversation with a "bye" provides a small amount of experience.

• Winwood has leveled up once since the game began.

   

Yay!

    

• Time passes quite slowly in the game, at a rate of about 1 minute every 10 seconds. A game "day" takes 4 hours in real time.

• If Winwood dies, the game doesn't end. Can the game be won without the original character? 

  

If everyone dies, on the other hand....

  

• The excellent sound includes superb rain and thunderstorm effects. I left the game running while I was making some food and it started to rain and storm in-game. Both were so good that I thought it was actually storming outside. 

• There are options to kiss and touch your fellow party members. I don't know why I would do this.

   

Neither do my party members, apparently.

   
Hints about anything I have wrong or have overlooked are more than welcome. I do quite like the game so far, but I can definitely see how it will take a long time to win. There's still a lot I don't understand about equipment and combat, but we'll save that for next time.

Time so far: 8 hours
Reload count: 11