Finally, here's the introduction to the Fate Core rules, lightly adapted and containing some beginner-friendly Ancient Greek!


The philosophy of the game emphasizes collaboration between players and the game master (GM), so even in English it's standard to start with a session zero. In this session zero, the players and GM discuss the setting for the game, what sort of thematic issues they're interested in playing out, who their characters are, and how their characters are connected to one another (which is sometimes called the Phase Trio). I can't imagine getting through half of that in a single 50-minute class period, so I've divided the session zero into a few fundamental questions.

First, what sort of story do we want to play (ποῖον μῦθον βούλεσθε)?

After introducing the new vocabulary through picture or movie talks, I would pose the following questions in Greek, supported by lots and lots of illustrating slides:

ποῖα πρόσωπα βούλεσθε; (what sort of characters do you want?)

  • ἆρα πάντα τὰ πρόσωπα ἄνθρωποι (ἢ ἡμίθεοι, κένταυροι, νύμφαι, καὶ τὰ λοιπά…) (are they all human, or demigods, centaurs, nymphs, etc?)
  • ἆρα τὰ πρόσωπα κρείσσονα τῶν ἀνθρώπων; (are the characters stronger than human beings?)
  • ἆρα τὰ πρόσωπα Ἑλληνικὰ ἢ ξενικά; (are the characters Greek or foreigners?)
  • ἆρα τὰ πρόσωπα βασιλεῖς ἢ δοῦλοι; (are the characters kings or slaves?)

ποίους θεοὺς βούλεσθε; (what sort of gods do you want?)

  • ἆρα οἱ θεοί εἰσιν ἀληθεῖς; (are the gods real [in the story]?)
  • ἆρα οἱ θεοί εἰσιν ἐγγὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἢ πόρρω; (are the gods near or far from human beings?)
  • ἆρα οἱ θεοί εἰσιν Ἑλληνικοὶ ἢ ξενικοί; (are the gods Greek or foreign?)

My only rule for the setting is that it has to be one in which it makes sense for their characters to be speaking ancient Greek. If students want to play as demigod heroes inspired by Homer (or Rick Riordan), that's fine. If they want to play as non-superpowered mythical heroes--also fine. They could be native to mainland Greece, or they can be foreigners who've learned Greek. I presented the idea of social class in its extremes--kings or slaves--mainly to get students thinking and talking about what kind of lives they are interested in playing out.

I'd try and use a lot of Greek during this conversation, but I really do need to know what their expectations/interests are regarding the supernatural in the story. I would not expect students to respond (or indeed, discuss amongst themselves) in Greek.

New vocabulary based on my list, as it stands:

  1. βούλομαι [Herm.]

  2. ποῖος [Moira/TPR]

  3. ὁ μῦθος [Kat.]

  4. τὸ πρόσωπον [LGPSI 3]

  5. κρείσσων [Moira]

  6. βασιλεύς [Herm.]

  7. ξενικός [Moira]

  8. θεός [Herm., Kat.]

  9. ἀληθής [LGPSI 5, Kat.]

  10. ἐγγύς [LGPSI 6]

  11. πόρρω [LGPSI 6, Kat.]

Second, I need to know when and where students want the game to be set (πότε καὶ ποῦ γίγνεται ὁ μῦθος;)

Again, the only real rule (in my book, anyway) is that it has to be a setting in which people spoke ancient Greek. I would be surprised if students have a good understanding of how widely Greek was spoken, so this seems like a good point to give them a very quick (English) crash course in the geographical and chronological range of the language. The purpose of this session is to choose a time and place in which our story will occur, so descriptions of different eras are mainly going to be framed in terms of suggestions of what kind of storylines would be a natural fit.

πότε γίγνεται ὁ ἡμέτερος μῦθος; ἐν τινί αἰῶνι γίγνεται ὁ ἡμέτερος μῦθος; (when does our story happen; in what age/era?)

ποῦ γίγνεται ὁ ἡμέτερος μῦθος; (where does our story happen, in Greece or far from/outside of Greece?)

  • ἐν Ἑλλάδι ἢ πόρρω/ἔξω Ἑλλάδος;

ἐν ποῖοις τόποις γίγνεται ὁ μῦθος; (in what sort of places does our story happen?)

  • …ἐν μακροῖς τόποις ἢ μῑκροῖς; (large or small)
  • …ἐν πόλει ἢ τοῖς ἀγροῖς; (city or countryside)
  • …ἐν πόλεσι πολλαὶς ἢ μιᾷ πόλει; (lots of cities or one city)
  • …ἐν νήσοις ἢ ὕλαις ἢ ὄρη ἢ σπηλαίοις; (islands, forests, mountains, caves?)

Again, lots and lots of pictures, lots of examples of where different well-known Greek narratives occur, lots of examples of well-known historical episodes. The geographical settings will be somewhat restricted by the vocabulary list; still, it's good to know what students are interested in, and therefore where the campaign(s) might spend the most time.

It would of course be less work to just tell players when and where the story is set, but I think that students are far more likely to get engaged if, e.g., they've expressed some collective interest in the Hellenistic era and then they tune in next week for an adventure set in Alexandria or Rhodes. Or, if they're all about 300 and they want to have a story that involves the Persian wars. If what gets them really excited about learning Greek is the early years of the Byzantine empire, then I will find a way to turn Procopius into a Fate campaign.

New vocabulary needed:

  1. πότε…; [Kat.]

  2. γίγνομαι [Herm., Kat.]

  3. ἡμέτερος [Kat.]

  4. ἐν (if not earlier)

  5. αἰῶν [Moira]

  6. ἔξω (?) [LGPSI 5]

  7. ὁ τόπος [LGPSI 1, Kat.]

  8. ὁ ἀγρός [LGPSI 5]

  9. ἡ ὕ-λη [Moira]

  10. τὸ ὄρος [Herm.]

Third is a character generation (char gen) session (τίς εἶ σύ, καὶ τίνες ἐστὲ ὑμεῖς;)

Fate doesn't do the same complicated character sheets as D&D, for example; instead, it distills the essence of each player character (PC) into five Aspects that players get to choose--well, choose by negotiating with the GM. Each Aspect should be short (~3-5 words) and communicate something important about what that character is, does, or has; ideally, an Aspect is something that might be good/helpful in some situations and bad/a hindrance in others. I think the best Greek work to communicate the idea conveyed by Aspect in the Fate game is στοιχεῖον (but let me know, as usual, if you think there's a better way of expressing the essential elements of a character). I've combined Fate's Phase Trio mechanic with the Aspects, because I think that's the best way to ensure that the characters really are connected in ways that are useful to me as GM. More coordinated input from students on the story theoretically means less prep work for me!

τὸ πρῶτον στοιχεῖον

  • I'm making the first element of the character into what Fate calls the 'high concept' Aspect, the thing that most succinctly expresses the core of who that character is. Hercules' high concept Aspect, for example, might be 'mighty son of Zeus'. Odysseus' could be 'clever protege of Athena', or perhaps 'wily king of Ithaca'--whichever you think is more central to his identity. Atalanta could be 'speedy huntress raised by bears'. Is Medea's identity better captured by 'magic-wielding princess of Colchis', or 'Helios' witchy granddaughter'? Discuss! Students should have been thinking about who their characters would be since the last class, when a time & place were decided.

τὸ δεύτερον στοιχεῖον

  • Fate refers to the second Aspect as a character's 'trouble'; it has some (though not complete) overlap with ἁμαρτίᾱ. It should be the Aspect of your character that nearly always gets you into, well, trouble. Is Hercules' trouble that Hera hates him, or is it that he has a short temper? Is Medea's trouble that she likes Jason? A trouble could be a character flaw, a weakness, an enemy/rival…you name it. Every character gets one.

τὸ τρίτον στοιχεῖον: τόλμημα τι νεόν σον

  • Or in English, what's a recent adventure your character has been on? What was their last incident/escapade? Hopefully players figure out something more about their characters' personality as they decide this Aspect. Given how condensed campaigns will have to be to fit into the classroom, a GM might want to draw on this Aspect in some characters when laying out the plot.

τὸ τέταρτον στοιχεῖον: πῶς σὐ οἶσθα ἄλλον τι πρόσωπον;

  • Or in English, how do you know one of the other characters? Could be a relative, enemy, ξένος, rival, coworker, student of the same teacher, former neighbour, whatever. You could assign which characters have to have a connection, or you can let students choose. Again, this Aspect should clarify who characters are and give GMs something to work with in their storytelling.

τὸ πέμπτον στοιχεῖον: πῶς σὺ οἶσθα καὶ ἄλλον πρόσωπον;

  • Yep, just repeat step 4: how does your character know someone else in the group? Same rules apply as above.

I reckon that negotiating the five στοιχεῖα for each student/character, providing lots of examples from movies/TV/books for them to think about what drives characters in fiction, would take longer than one class period. Consequently, I'd just start in the process one day, and the next day I'd finish up and then discuss how the Fate rules incorporate Aspects into the mechanics of the game, i.e., by Invoking or Compelling them (which I would probably merge in the classroom). The short version (and you should really go read or watch an example of a longer version) is that I, the narrator/teacher/GM, can Invoke/Compel an Aspect of someone's character by making it a part of the story, usually in a way that makes their situation more difficult or complicated. If the player accepts the Invoke, they receive a Fate token (ψῆφος μοίρᾱς) from me, and the story carries on with that complication. If the player is unwilling to accept that consequence of the Aspect, they can reject the offer; they receive no Fate token, and the story carries on without that complication. For example, Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride carries the Aspect of 'dedicated to becoming the greatest swordsman'. After climbing the Cliffs of Insanity, Vizzini tells Inigo to kill the Man in Black. At this point, Fate invokes Inigo's Aspect of 'dedicated to becoming the greatest swordsman', and he (disadvantageously) assists the Man in Black by throwing him a rope--because he needs to test his skill with the blade against the stranger.

An Aspect of Harry Potter's might be 'abused orphan hates bullies': the Dursleys were horrible to Harry, so he refuses to stand by while someone else is bullying them. When Draco Malfoy steals Neville Longbottom's Remembrall, he Invokes Harry's hatred of bullies--and Harry has to do something stupid and rule-breaking in order to rescue Neville's possession.

As stated above, the GM can Invoke/Compel an Aspect of someone's character. (Would I phrase this in Greek as ἀναγκάζω/ἐπικλῶ τὴν μοῖράν σου, παρέχω στοιχεῖόν τι τῆς μοίρᾱς σου, or something else? Still undecided--but whatever it is, the offered plot twist would always be followed by ἆρα βούλῃ δέχεσθαι;) For the price of a Fate token, other players can however also suggest an Invoke/Compel of another player's Aspect to the GM. If the GM approves of the proposed plot twist, they will offer it, with a Fate token, to the player whose Aspect is being Invoked. The affected player can accept or decline, but either way, the player who suggests the Invocation does not get their Fate token back.

Additionally, a player can Invoke one of their own Aspects (opportunity to distinguish the use of the active and middle voices, huzzah! ἐπικλοῦμαι!) in a way that is narratively advantageous; if the GM accepts the proposal, then the cost to the player is again one Fate token. Someone playing Hercules in a combat situation might, for example, Invoke 'mighty son of Zeus' in order to attempt some epic feat of strength; in the mechanics of the game, the player would normally add +2 to a relevant roll of the dice.

Yes, there are dice rolled in Fate--but I'll cover that another day. The conversion of Fate tokens into story developments described above is referred to as the 'Fate economy'. As you can see, turning down lots of disadvantageous Invokes/Compels restricts your ability to Invoke your character Aspects for your benefit later on, so think twice before rejecting someone else's narrative suggestion.

New vocabulary required:

  1. ὑ-μεῖς [LGPSI 5, Kat.]

  2. ἡμεῖς [Herm., Kat.]

  3. τὸ στοιχεῖον [Moira]

  4. τὸ τόλμημα [Moira]

  5. οἶδα, οἶσθα, οἶδε [LGPSI 4, Kat.]

  6. ἀναγκάζω/παρέχω (???) [Moira]

  7. ἐπικλέω [Moira]

  8. δέχομαι [Moira]

Apart from the rules for when and how to roll the dice, that's all the rules you need to play Fate. Tune in next time to learn how to Attack, Defend, Overcome, or Create an Advantage! While you wait (impatiently, no doubt) for my summary of the rest of the Fate mechanics, check out this teacher's blog about playing D&D in the Latin classroom.

As usual, chime in if you have thoughts or (heaven forfend) spot a misplaced accent in my Greek.