History TabletopGame / Fatal

''FATAL: "From Another Time Another Land"'' ([[AuthorsSavingThrow formerly known as]] ''"Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery"'') is a {{tabletop|Game}} RolePlayingGame published by Fatal Games in 2004. It's since become a '''major''' example of SnarkBait, due in no small part to its content and rules, which feature:

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%% Don't ask to restore the tropes, whether for the game, the review, or the creators.
%% This page is a compromise to keep the game from being stricken completely from the wiki.
%% Re-adding the tropes is putting the page back in the territory that got it in trouble in the first place.
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''FATAL: "From Another Time Another Land"'' ([[AuthorsSavingThrow formerly known as]] "Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery") is a {{tabletop|Game}} RolePlayingGame published by Fatal Games in 2004. It's since become a '''major''' example of SnarkBait, due in no small part to its content and rules, which feature:

We're not linking the rulebook due to its content; it can readily be found [[BileFascination if you really want to go looking]]. The game even has an official [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLlbVW-VA0 theme song]].

''FATAL: "From Another Time Another Land"'' ([[AuthorsSavingThrow formerly known as]] "Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery") is a {{tabletop| game}} RolePlayingGame published by Fatal Games in 2004. It's since become a '''major''' example of SnarkBait, due in no small part to its content and rules, which feature:

We're not linking the rulebook due to its content; it can readily be found [[BileFascination if you really want to go looking]]. The game even has an official [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLlbVW-VA0&feature=player_embedded theme song]].

Not to be outdone, some brave Tropers began a liveblog on the forums. The results are [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=7ixhxjqoe9swz1xv4bxgw5h0&page=1 here]]. (Text not safe for work or sanity)

''FATAL: "From Another Time Another Land"'' ([[AuthorsSavingThrow formerly known as]] "Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery") is a {{tabletop| game}} RolePlayingGame by Byron Hall, published by his company Fatal Games in 2004. It's since become a '''major''' example of SnarkBait, due in no small part to its content and rules, which feature:

''FATAL'': "From Another Time Another Land"'' ([[AuthorsSavingThrow formerly known as]] "Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery") is a {{tabletop| game}} RolePlayingGame by Byron Hall, published by his company Fatal Games in 2004. It's since become a '''major''' example of SnarkBait, due in no small part to its content and rules, which feature:

''FATAL'': "From Another Time Another Land" ([[AuthorsSavingThrow formerly known as]] "Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery") is a {{tabletop| game}} RolePlayingGame by Byron Hall, published by his company Fatal Games in 2004. It's since become a '''major''' example of SnarkBait, due in no small part to its content and rules, which feature:

* Subtle (and not-so-subtle) themes of rape-fantasy, [[FantasticRacism racism]], and misogyny; lots of ToiletHumor; and generalized perversity. Even the cover art for the rulebook is {{NSFW}}. The original name is another blatant hint at its content.

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%%% Although this game is prime Snark Bait, as are its creators, please follow the Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment.
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->''[[TooMuchInformation "Should any anus be stretched beyond the limit as determined by the table below, which differs from anus to anus, the orifice will rip to accommodate the incoming object."]]''
-->--Excerpt from the manual.

''FATAL'': "From Another Time Another Land" ([[AuthorsSavingThrow formerly known as]] "Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery") is a tabletop roleplaying game by Byron Hall, published by his company Fatal Games in 2004. It may very well be the only RPG ever produced in which orifice sizes need to be calculated.

For those who are not faint of heart, [[http://www.donatebytes.com/fatal.pdf the game itself]], and the official [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLlbVW-VA0&feature=player_embedded theme song]].
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!!This game provides examples of:

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Many of the magical items have names of this nature.
* AerithAndBob: The name list for humans is composed of standard European names, and the name lists for other races are comprised of fantastic names...except for Kobolds, which use common Indonesian names.
* AmazonianBeauty / HotAmazon: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Females get penalties to their charisma stats as their strength increases, making HotAmazon characters by definition less hot than they would be if they ''weren't'' Amazons.
* {{Animorphism}}: Dwarves and Elves have natural shapeshifting abilities, allowing them to transform into certain animals.
* ApocalypseHow: Total planetary extinction, with the titular spell Fatal.
* ArmorIsUseless: You randomly determine an armor's defense bonus. Roll low and it actually ''subtracts'' from your defense. Oh, and if it's magical you have a 7% chance of being killed by its magical effect.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** A slash to the abdomen that misses all "critical" organs has a 70% chance of causing your small intestine to spill out. [[OnlyAFleshWound This isn't considered a particularly life-threatening wound.]]
** The cardiac notch is a small dent in the left lung wherein the heart rests. The author took this to mean that "the left lung is smaller than the right", and made it so a lung crit is twice as likely to hit the right lung as to hit the left.
** Childbirth never takes more than fourteen hours.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Where to begin...?
* ArtisticLicenseStatistics: Some events in FATAL are "(1d100)% likely" to happen. This means you roll a d100 to get the odds, and another d100 to see if it makes the odds. That is, you roll two d10 dice [[hottip:*:(color-coded percentage dice usually, unless you have one of those huge golfball-like novelty dice, but the principle is the same)]] and see which one is higher. You can see why the results are less complex than intended. [[hottip:*:(For the record, it's 50.5% to get a second d100 roll equal to or less than the first.)]]
* BoobsOfSteel: An enforced inversion in the case of the female characters.
* BottomlessBladder: A rare inversion. A character with 20 [[YouHaveResearchedBreathing Urination]] can send their urine 16 feet... without having taken a drink first.
* BrawnHilda: Any lady with physical strength.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick: The entire rulebook reads like this. For example, while listing wrestling moves and explaining how each works, it [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment inexplicably describes how to rape one's opponent in the process]], then continues on with regular wrestling. Even the {{squick}} has its own sub-squick: Modifiers when calculating a character's Vaginal Circumference Potential include +1d20 if slut, +5 if old aged, and -95 if infant.
* ButItReallyHappened: The authors cited a book on prostitution in Medieval France as evidence that all of their sexual content is historically based.
* CampGay: A man with the lowest possible "Vocal Charisma" is described as "gay". Similarly, men whose Strength stat is too low (or women whose Strength stat is too high, or the general physical appearance stats are too low) are automatically homosexual.
* CharacterAlignment: Two axes, "ethical" and "moral", which are exactly the same as D&D's "lawful/chaotic" and "good/evil" respectively, [[SerialNumbersFiledOff just with different names]].
** CallAHitpointASmeerp
* ChunkySalsaRule: The rulebook encourages the [[GameMaster Aodile]] to re-roll randomly determined results if the original result didn't make sense.
* ClassAndLevelSystem: The Professions system, essentially. There's well over 100 professions with possibilities for multi-classing, but the multi-class system is broken. Each level taken doubles the experience point cost of the next level, but only for that one class. At level ten, you can level up a new class to level 5 in less time it takes you to level up your current class to level 11.
* ConservationOfDetail: Averted. There's a lot of unnecessary detail here, cluttering up the game.
* ConvenientlyCommonKink: Sexual deviancy is a sliding scale, so anyone who does X is guaranteed to do A-W.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: Averted. If you get wounded, you will feel it.
* CursedWithAwesome[=/=]BlessedWithSuck: The Anakim have the chance to gain many useful powers randomly at character creation (such as the ability to cast certain spells once per day at will), but the chart these are rolled on also contains disadvantages (mainly physical alterations that lower the physical or facial charisma stats), things that prevent the character from interacting with society (such as emitting odors), or things which make the character downright unplayable (such as traits which force the character to make Drive checks to resist the urge to [[FantasticRacism kill members of a certain race on sight]].)
* DeadBabyComedy: A lot of it was intended. In one grisly example, if a certain artifact is destroyed it "showers the surrounding area in baby parts".
* DeathByChildbirth: Possibly because you were ''raped by a sword and gave birth to a spear''. This is an actual magical weapon quality. Plus the obvious, that the rules state that anything passing through the vagina that exceeds its circumference (like, say, a baby's head) has a chance of causing fatal rupture.
* DepravedHomosexual: Homo/bisexuality, oral/anal sex, and pedo/necrophilia are solidly painted in an overtly bad light. The game provides mechanics for such things to occur anyway.
* DisabilitySuperpower
** You can get "Retard Strength", strength bonuses due to low intelligence.
** The player may re-roll low ability scores, thus making them more capable, at the cost of acquiring deformities and mental issues.
* {{Doorstopper}}: The official rulebook is 900+ pages long.
* EmptyLevels: The only benefit to advancing in most professions is additional skill points to spend on class skills, which means (due to the fact that experience required for each successive level ''doubles'' every level), one is best off advancing in several closely-related classes, rather than focusing on one and trying to max it out.
* EvilIsSexy: InUniverse aversion; dark elves are repulsively ugly and rely on illusion spells to seduce other races.
* ExperiencePoints: You gain very small amounts of experience for jobs associated with that profession. They're all mostly mundane activities, so gaining experience can be very tedious.
** Warriors gain 10-20 EXP ''per swing'' of their sword, while basket-weavers gain maybe 1 EXP per ''basket''.
** XP is also counted ''per class'', meaning that if you have three classes that gain damage XP, you can be getting ''60 XP'' per swing.
* FantasticRacism: There are extensive lists and tables of things regarding relations between races.
* FantasticSlurs: A long list of them is includes as part of the above-mentioned race-relations section.
* {{Fartillery}}: Anakim Trait for a roll of 72:
-->"The anakim may fart as loud as thunder. All creatures within a 10-feet radius of this anakim, except the anakim, automatically take 1d4 sonic damage and are stunned for 1 round, which can be avoided by passing a Drive check at TH 17. This can be utilized only once per week."
* FunctionalMagic: Device Magic.
* GameFavoredGender: Initially, Hall tried to claim that there ''was'' no game-favored gender because female and male characters got "small but equivalent" bonuses/penalties on various stats. Then when he updated it after the [=McLenan/Sartin=] review, it was changed so women also receive a -30% penalty to strength whereas men got a +30% bonus to strength, thus resulting in a large stat-gap with no real balancing factor.
* GratuitousRape: Certainly gives players plenty of opportunities, since rape is a non-issue in this game (except for the constant mentions).
* GrotesqueGallery: One of the playable races, the "Anakim", are [[HalfHumanHybrid the children of demons and mortal women]]. As a result they gain random attributes like smelling of rotten meat, and causing everyone around them to have anal sex orgies in addition to more mundane (but still nasty) effects.
* HonestRollsCharacter: Stats have to be determined this way. Additionally, the rulebook ''suggests'' that everything except gender (ie. race, class, etc) be determined this way, but gives the [[GameMaster Aedile]] the freedom to decide whether or not to enforce this rule. The honest-rolls method does result in possible oddities such as a character being at opposite ends of the spectrum in two stats that you would think would be related.
** Stats may be rerolled, at the cost of acquiring a random physical or mental disability.
* ILoveTheDead: "Have Her Cadaver". According to Burnout, this was "included purely for comic effect".
* ImplausibleFencingPowers: It's possible to get a critical hit on specific internal organs without damaging the surrounding anatomy, or to critical-hit someone's [[LudicrousGibs navel]], [[EyeScream eyelid]], or [[GroinAttack clitoris]]. With a ''[[UpToEleven maul]]''.
* IndecisiveParody: The comments of the game's creators leave us unsure as to whether it's supposed to be a work of "[[BlatantLies historically and mythologically accurate scholarship]]" or "[[DeadBabyComedy controversial humour]]".
* InsistentTerminology: Loads. Among others:
** The constant euphemisms/dysphemisms for reproductive organs, most notably "fuckstick", "cuntpipe", and "Manhood".
** They insist that the [[GameMaster GM]] be referred to as the Aodile, the Aedile, or the MM (Maim Master).
** That isn't the character sheet, it's the character ''sheets''. [[LoadsAndLoadsOfRules Which it is.]]
* JesusTaboo: The alleged setting is "like medieval Europe [[hottip:*:("Neveria", the official setting, is described in a supplemental PDF)]], only with no Christianity" ...which is the cultural equivalent of "the Atlantic Ocean, only without water".
* LamarckWasRight: The stats of a child are determined by applying a percentage modification to the average of their parents' stats.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRules: A character "sheet" consists of ''11'' (single-sided) sheets of paper. Oh, and did we mention how the rulebook is 900 pages?
* {{Lolicon}}[=/=]{{Shotacon}}: Invoked via faulty game mechanics. An omitted percent sign allows infants to have the same attractiveness of an average human.
* LuckBasedMission: Spellcasters. There's a nontrivial chance they'll kill or grievously wound themselves or a party member with every spell they cast, and skill has nothing to do with it. And let's not forget that one of the ways this can happen also happens to [[GoneHorriblyWrong kill every living thing in the universe]] on the way.
* MarijuanaIsLSD
* MindRape: Some of the racist magic armor does this to the wearer.
* MoodWhiplash: What claims [[BlatantLies (falsely)]] to be historically accurate scholarship is stuck next to things like the aforementioned racist armor and a spell failure table that among other things summons randy gay ogres, which Byron Hall admitted were only included ForTheLulz.
* NoWomansLand: The setting.
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Surprisingly, averted. White Dwarves are pretty much the same, but Black Dwarves have a strong influence of TheFairFolk in them and Brown Dwarves resemble the tamer, post-Fair Folk fairy tales.
* ParodyRetcon: Inverted. The second revision of the rules cleaned up ''some'' of the "controversial humor" (such as removing some of the magical enchantments based on racist caricatures) and making some of the terminology less juvenile (the [[GameMaster Maim Master]] being renamed the "Aedile" for example). The revision of the original acronym was part of this change. The conversion was imperfect, to say the least.
* PoesLaw: It's an RPG all about rape, misogyny, and racism. [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong Who could take it that seriously?]]
* PunnyName: "Have Her Cadaver".
* RandomNumberGod
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Averted most gruesomely. It's barely a crime and mildly punished but usually ignored and instead the woman is punished. To boot, ''half the males in the world'' are rapists in the game's universe.
* SophisticatedAsHell: This is what happens when dark, edgy, SeriousBusiness meets fart jokes. "Experience an accumulation of gas in their rectum", indeed.
* STDImmunity: You'd think [=STDs=] would be pretty major in a game which places such heavy focus on sexual activity, but they're never so much as mentioned.
* TitleDrop: The spell "FATAL". It destroys all life, everywhere.
* ToiletHumour
* TotalPartyKill: One of the many, ''many'' magical fumbles results in killing off the entire ''planet''.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange: There is a section on warfare in an otherwise character-focused game. Yes, ''warfare'', as in army-on-army, not individual combat.
* UnusualDysphemism: "Fuckstick", "Cuntpipe", and "Mouth-cunt".
* ViewersAreMorons: The book contains ''paragraphs'' describing to the reader what things like salt and cheese are.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: While Christianity itself is absent from the game, there are many spells such as "WalkOnWater", "waves be still", and "multiplication of loaves and fish".
* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: There are skills for Spitting and Urination.
* YouKeepUsingThatWord: One of the traits an anakim can have is [[ImAHumanitarian Cannibalism]]. The authors apparently confused this with carnivorousness, since the description says eating any vegetables at all makes it sick. The authors later defended this with the argument that being exclusively cannibalistic being would also be a carnivore.

* ApocalypseHow: Class 5, with the titular spell Fatal.

** So, a barren wasteland?

* MarjuanaIsLSD

** Childbirth takes fourteen hours [[InstantBirthJustAddWater at most]].

** The constant euphemisms for reproductive organs, most notably "fuckstick", "cuntpipe", and "Manhood".

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Averted most gruesomely. It's barely a crime (less punishable than a wife keeping an untidy house) and mildly punished but usually ignored...and instead the woman is punished. To boot, ''half the males in the world'' are rapists in the game's universe.
** Minor nitpick: the crime of "keeping a disorderly house" that the authors claim was taken more seriously than rape actually translates as "running an illegal brothel." By modern standards, that's nothing like as bad, of course, but in the context of the Middle Ages, it might indeed been seen as a worse crime because of the obsession with "chastity" (and also the minor detail that ''legal'' brothels were often a monopoly of the Church. [[http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Documents/prostitution.htm No, really.]])

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: One of the traits an anakim can have is [[ImAHumanitarian Cannibalism]]. The authors apparently confused this with carnivorousness, since the description says eating any vegetables at all makes it sick.
** The authors later defended this with the argument that being exclusively cannibalistic being would also be a carnivore.

* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: A real-world example. The author's retort to the game being described as "the date-rape RPG"? That there are no rules included for dating.

Most people who are familiar with FATAL became so through the review of it posted on [=RPGnet=] by Darren [=MacLennan=] and Jason Sartin. As the story goes, Hall and his "contributors" Torturon, Burnout and Psychotic [[RougeAnglesOfSatin Messanger]] of Doom, {{troll}}ed the forums at [=RPGNet=], causing the community there to request a review as negative and abrasive as reviews can get. The review was essentially an {{MST}} of the game's sourcebook; [=McLennan and Sartin=] savaged FATAL, its creators, and its fans. Hall and Burnout posted a rebuttal to the review. The [=McLennan/Sartin=] review can be found [[http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14567.phtml here]], and the Hall/Burnout rebuttal [[http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/FATALReviewRebuttal here.]]

For those who are not faint of heart (and the [[BileFascination morbidly curious]], and the weird people...) [[http://www.donatebytes.com/fatal.pdf the game itself]], and the official [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLlbVW-VA0&feature=player_embedded theme song]].

%%% Although this game is prime SnarkBait, as are its creators, ''please follow the RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment''.

For those who are not faint of heart, [[http://www.donatebytes.com/fatal.pdf the game itself]], and the official [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLlbVW-VA0&feature=player_embedded theme song]].

Most people who are familiar with FATAL became so through the review of it posted on [=RPGnet=] by Darren [=MacLennan=] and Jason Sartin. As the story goes, Hall and his "contributors" Torturon, Burnout and Psychotic [[RougeAnglesOfSatin Messanger]] of Doom, {{troll}}ed the forums at [=RPGNet=], causing the community there to request a review as negative and abrasive as reviews can get. The review was essentially an {{MST}} of the game's sourcebook; [=McLennan and Sartin=] savaged FATAL, its creators, and its fans. Hall and Burnout posted a rebuttal to the review. The [=McLennan/Sartin=] review can be found [[http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14567.phtml here]], and the Hall/Burnout rebuttal [[http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/FATALReviewRebuttal here.]]

For those who are not faint of heart (and the [[BileFascination morbidly curious]], and the weird people...) [[http://www.donatebytes.com/fatal.pdf the game itself]], and the official [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLlbVW-VA0&feature=player_embedded theme song]].

Although this game is prime SnarkBait, as are its creators, ''please follow the RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment''.

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%%% Although this game is prime Snark Bait, as are its creators, please follow the Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment.
%%%
%%%

''FATAL'': "From Another Time Another Land" ([[AuthorsSavingThrow formerly known as]] "Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery") is a tabletop roleplaying game by Byron Hall, published by his company Fatal Games in 2004, and has since become infamous as the worst tabletop game ever written. This reputation is founded on its incredibly-complicated and mathematically-intensive mechanics, terrible writing, and the massive level of [[UnfortunateImplications misogyny, rape-fantasy, and racism]] included. (For instance, it may very well be the only RPG ever produced in which orifice sizes need to be calculated.)

Most people who are familiar with FATAL became so through the review of it posted on [=RPGnet=] by Darren [=MacLennan=] and Jason Sartin. As the story goes, Hall and his "contributors" Torturon, Burnout and Psychotic [[RougeAnglesOfSatin Messanger]] of Doom, {{troll}}ed the forums at [=RPGNet=], causing the community there to request a review as negative and abrasive as reviews can get. The review was essentially an {{MST}} of the game's sourcebook; [=McLennan and Sartin=] savaged FATAL, its creators, and its fans. Hall and Burnout posted a rebuttal to the review. The [=McLennan/Sartin=] review can be found [[http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14567.phtml here]], and the Hall/Burnout rebuttal [[http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/FATALReviewRebuttal here.]]

For those who are not faint of heart (and the [[BileFascination morbidly curious]], and the weird people...) [[http://www.donatebytes.com/fatal.pdf the game itself]], and the official [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLlbVW-VA0&feature=player_embedded theme song]].

Although this game is prime SnarkBait, as are its creators, ''please follow the RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment''.

''FATAL'': "From Another Time Another Land" ([[AuthorsSavingThrow formerly known as]] "Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery") is a tabletop roleplaying game by Byron Hall, published by his company Fatal Games in 2004, and has since become infamous as the worst tabletop game ever written. This reputation is founded on its incredibly-complicated and mathematically-intensive mechanics, terrible writing, and the massive level of [[UnfortunateImplications misogyny, rape-fantasy, and racism]] included. (For instance, it may very well be the only RPG ever produced in which [[ORingOrifice orifice sizes]] need to be calculated.)

* ORingOrifice: Averted by the various orifice circumference/depth stats.