Replacing skills with approaches and vice versa

Question

One of the most noticeable differences between Fate Core and FAE is that FAE replaces skills with approaches. This is really great for forcing characterization and getting games running quickly, but lacks some of the granularity that skills can leverage to make longer campaigns more interesting.

So, sometimes a group is going to want the advantages of skills in a FAE game, or the advantages of approaches in a Core game; I'm looking into this for one of my campaigns right now, and others have asked me about it for their ideas.

• Is there one combination that's more reasonable/workable than the other?
• What are the pitfalls to look out for in making this kind of transplant?
• What should I look for to indicate if it's a particularly good or bad idea to do this in a given campaign?

To clarify, I understand that in terms of hard mechanics, approaches are basically skills with the dial turned all the way down. This might produce a few anomalies when one is transplanted into the other system, but their effect on gameplay is drastically different. While mechanical advantages/pitfalls are interesting, it's the effect on the players, the narrative, and the game experience that I'm most interested in. How does a "dial all the way down" mechanic like approaches interact with a "dials higher up" system like Core, and vice versa for skills in FAE? What effect might it have on the players' choices and characterizations, or the style/feel of the game being played?

Answer 1

Approaches modifying skills

You could leverage the mechanism of skills modifying other skills but, in this particular case, approaches modifying skills. Each character would have their set of skills plus the basic six approaches. Whenever a skill is used the one who uses it has also to select one of their approaches which modifies their roll.

When Sneakily striking an opponent who does not expect an attack, roll fudge and add Brawl skill modified by Sneaky approach. When doing a strike and trying to impress crows at the same time, use Flashy approach, and so on.

This will most likely noticeably slow down the gameplay but will increase the granularity and simulationism of your campaign.

Answer 2

Approaches are mechanically indecipherable from skills. They fill the same role in the mechanics.

Unless mixing FAE characters with Fate Core characters or characters from other FATE system games, all they are is skills.

If using both in the same campaign, you may want to limit one or the other, or the total, to prevent excessive numbers. Perhaps, say, a limit of ±1 on approaches, and normal skills. You also need to figure out if approaches are separate pools of levels, or integrated with skills, and if so, what the conversion is.