History TabletopGame / SpiritOfTheCentury

''Spirit of the Century'' is a role-playing game of pulp-era adventure using the ''UsefulNotes/{{Fate}}'' system (originally a spinoff of the ''UsefulNotes/{{Fudge}}'' rules...with which, ironically enough, it already had little more in common than the dice by the time ''[=SotC=]'' came out, and which it would eventually outstrip commercially by a fair margin). Characters are described by [[SkillScoresAndPerks their skills, their stunts]] and their ''aspects'', with the latter being essentially being freeform bits of description considered important enough to have a mechanical impact via the fate point rules--a character could literally have an aspect like "Nice Hat" and spend fate points to invoke that for appropriate bonuses (or conversely have it compelled to get into trouble over for ''bonus'' fate points). The game is designed as a "pick up game", features open-ended character creation and is fairly rules light. It also allows a large degree of player involvement in shaping the story--both through creating aspects which define the game background and spending their fate points to make declarations about the world around them.

''Spirit of the Century'' is a role-playing game of pulp-era adventure using the ''UsefulNotes/{{Fate}}'' system (originally a spinoff of the ''UsefulNotes/{{Fudge}}'' rules...with which, ironically enough, it already had little more in common than the dice by the time ''[=SotC=]'' came out, and which it would eventually outstrip commercially by a fair margin). Characters are described by [[SkillScoresAndPerks their skills, their stunts]] and their ''aspects'', with the latter being essentially being freeform bits of description considered important enough to have a mechanical impact via the fate point rules -- a character could literally have an aspect like "Nice Hat" and spend fate points to invoke that for appropriate bonuses (or conversely have it compelled to get into trouble over for ''bonus'' fate points). The game is designed as a "pick up game", features open-ended character creation and is fairly rules light. It also allows a large degree of player involvement in shaping the story - both through creating aspects which define the game background and spending their fate points to make declarations about the world around them.

* BirthdayBuddies: The player characters are all 'Centurions': 'potent individuals of action', born on the first day of the century, and endowed with extraordinary skills and abilities.

* AVillainNamedKhan: One of the sample antagonists is the evil conqueror Gorilla Khan, an [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted gorilla]]-- although his cape and helmet make him look more Roman than Mongol.

* MadeOfIron: There are whole chains of stunts centered around making the players able to shrug off the most horrifying punishment-- as appropriate to a game inspired by the likes of Literature/DocSavage! However, see PaddedSumoGameplay...
** The most notable example, though, is the aptly-named "Man of Iron". Normally, when you get hit in a stress box that's already checked off, the damage "rolls up" -- and if it rolls off the stress chart, you take a Consequence. With "Man of Iron", the damage rolls ''down'' first, and only rolls up if there aren't any lower boxes to hit. This means that dealing the character Consequences requires either hitting them for more than their stress ''capacity'' in one shot (tricky, since one of the prerequisites gives the character another stress box) or filling ''the entire stress chart''.

''Spirit of the Century'' is a role-playing game of pulp-era adventure using the ''UsefulNotes/{{Fate}}'' system (originally a spinoff of the ''TabletopGame/{{Fudge}}'' rules...with which, ironically enough, it already had little more in common than the dice by the time ''[=SotC=]'' came out, and which it would eventually outstrip commercially by a fair margin). Characters are described by [[SkillScoresAndPerks their skills, their stunts]] and their ''aspects'', with the latter being essentially being freeform bits of description considered important enough to have a mechanical impact via the fate point rules -- a character could literally have an aspect like "Nice Hat" and spend fate points to invoke that for appropriate bonuses (or conversely have it compelled to get into trouble over for ''bonus'' fate points). The game is designed as a "pick up game", features open-ended character creation and is fairly rules light. It also allows a large degree of player involvement in shaping the story - both through creating aspects which define the game background and spending their fate points to make declarations about the world around them.

''Spirit of the Century'' is a role-playing game of pulp-era adventure using the ''TabletopGame/{{Fate}}'' system (originally a spinoff of the ''TabletopGame/{{Fudge}}'' rules...with which, ironically enough, it already had little more in common than the dice by the time ''[=SotC=]'' came out, and which it would eventually outstrip commercially by a fair margin). Characters are described by [[SkillScoresAndPerks their skills, their stunts]] and their ''aspects'', with the latter being essentially being freeform bits of description considered important enough to have a mechanical impact via the fate point rules -- a character could literally have an aspect like "Nice Hat" and spend fate points to invoke that for appropriate bonuses (or conversely have it compelled to get into trouble over for ''bonus'' fate points). The game is designed as a "pick up game", features open-ended character creation and is fairly rules light. It also allows a large degree of player involvement in shaping the story - both through creating aspects which define the game background and spending their fate points to make declarations about the world around them.

** The most notable example, though, is the aptly-named "Man of Iron". Normally, when you get hit in a stress box that's already checked off, the damage "rolls up" - and if it rolls off the stress chart, you take a Consequence. With "Man of Iron", the damage rolls ''down'' first, and only rolls up if there aren't any lower boxes to hit. This means that dealing the character Consequences requires either hitting them for more than their stress ''capacity'' in one shot (tricky, since one of the prerequisites gives the character another stress box) or filling ''the entire stress chart''.

''Spirit of the Century'' is a role-playing game of pulp-era adventure using the ''TabletopGame/{{Fate}}'' system (originally a spinoff of the ''TabletopGame/{{Fudge}}'' rules...with which, ironically enough, it already had little more in common than the dice by the time ''[=SotC=]'' came out, and which it would eventually outstrip commercially by a fair margin). Characters are described by [[SkillScoresAndPerks their skills, their stunts]] and their ''aspects'', with the latter being essentially being freeform bits of description considered important enough to have a mechanical impact via the fate point rules -- a character could literally have an aspect like "{{Nice Hat}}" and spend fate points to invoke that for appropriate bonuses (or conversely have it compelled to get into trouble over for ''bonus'' fate points). The game is designed as a "pick up game", features open-ended character creation and is fairly rules light. It also allows a large degree of player involvement in shaping the story - both through creating aspects which define the game background and spending their fate points to make declarations about the world around them.

* MadeOfIron: There are whole chains of stunts centered around making the players able to shrug off the most horrifying punishment-- as appropriate to a game inspired by the likes of Franchise/DocSavage! However, see PaddedSumoGameplay...

%%* CoolCar

%%* MasterOfDisguise

%%* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: The Death Defiance stunt
%%* {{Omniglot}}: The Gift of Tongues stunt
%%* OneBulletLeft

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: Apes were a common feature in pulp adventure tales. Naturally they show up here, in the form of Gorilla Khan and his gorilla army.

''Spirit of the Century'' is a role-playing game of pulp-era adventure using the ''Fate'' system (originally a spinoff of the ''TabletopGame/{{Fudge}}'' rules...with which, ironically enough, it already had little more in common than the dice by the time ''[=SotC=]'' came out, and which it would eventually outstrip commercially by a fair margin). Characters are described by [[SkillScoresAndPerks their skills, their stunts]] and their ''aspects'', with the latter being essentially being freeform bits of description considered important enough to have a mechanical impact via the fate point rules -- a character could literally have an aspect like "{{Nice Hat}}" and spend fate points to invoke that for appropriate bonuses (or conversely have it compelled to get into trouble over for ''bonus'' fate points). The game is designed as a "pick up game", features open-ended character creation and is fairly rules light. It also allows a large degree of player involvement in shaping the story - both through creating aspects which define the game background and spending their fate points to make declarations about the world around them.