Adaptation is Hell Itself
I read Weird Writer’s Appendix No and in a way it’s filled me with shame.
Months ago I wrote a post about “adapting” Kinoko Nasu’s Fate into a TTRPG game. When I swapped back over to this Bearblog, I didn’t port this post over.
I didn’t port it over because, in truth, I haven’t put a single thing to paper since I wrote it. Sure, I’ve fiddled with ideas in my head and maybe wrote out some ideas for mechanics on a piece of scratch paper, but I’ve been stuck. I’ve been stuck thinking about how to run a pvp ttrpg campaign, stuck thinking about how to make servants feel like they’re on an entirely different level from other characters, stuck on how to allow class skills and NPs to break the rules of the game without being entirely unfun for the person on the other side, stuck on how to make the simultaneously scientific yet mystical magic system work, and even stuck on how character can be created in a way that allows for all the different variations we see in the franchise.
I think part of why I’ve been stuck is that I’ve been going about it in the shallowest way possible. That original planning post isn’t actually about Fate. It’s about the elements of Fate that sit on the surface, the Facts, to borrow WW’s terminology. It’s a collection of ideas you can find on the Type-Moon Wiki and then sloppy reasoning on how those Facts should be translated into mechanics for a game. But it’s felt like climbing up a 40 foot marble wall covered in lube, oil-based. The Facts of the Type-Moon universe are bountiful, magnificent, and mostly shit I don’t care about.
Sure, I love to think about the Fate world, how its magic works and how it’s possible for 17 year old boys with defective magic circuits can ever beat the hell out of 4 millennia old heroes with a fetish for throwing priceless weaponry at his foes with zero concern. But those aren’t the reasons I fell for Fate in the first place. They didn’t matter to me until after I was done reading the VN with friends, or watching UBW with my partner. To be honest, outside of my fruitless thinking bringing Fate to the table, they’re not even the thoughts that return to me while I’m sitting at the bus stop and staring into the sun.
I’ve failed to consider the Truths that actually inspire me about the series, the ideas at the core of Nasu’s philosophy that make me fixate on everything I’ve ever read from him. What’s the point of adapting the parts of the franchise that I frankly don’t resonate with and that don’t really keep me coming back to his works? Am I trying to emulate the wiki, or the stories which emerge from those Truths?
So I guess I’m just going to go back to the drawing board and copy WW’s homework. There are things that really resonate with me and are the reason that this stupid franchise is still stuck in my head, so I’m going to try and start from those things and move outward. I’m probably still not doing it right, but maybe it’ll lead me out of the dark while I figure out just what right means.
Three Truths Related to the Holy Grail War
1. Ambition robs us of our humanity.
2. Our regrets chase us even after death, no matter if we’re The Weak or The Strong.
3. Our Ideals are beautiful. Our Ideals will destroy us.
I’m going to go do the laundry that I’ve been putting off for 4 hours now. Thanks Weird Writer.