TEXT:  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN 
  FATE + FICTION 
  is our line of original and 
  classic 
  short 
  stories. 
  Situations, characters, and 
  other elements from the 
  story are expressed as 
  Fate RPG Aspects. Read 
  and enjoy the stories on 
  their own, then mix the 
  Aspects you like into your 
  own Fate Core or Fate 
  Accelerated game! 
   
   
  ASPARAGUS 
  JUMPSUIT 
  We believe in literacy, 
  curiosity, and creativity. 
  Through 
  these 
  things 
  individuals, societies, and 
  the 
  entire 
  world 
  are 
  enriched 
  and 
  transformed. The Fate + 
  Fiction line was created to 
  help uphold and promote 
  these values.   
   
  Building Better Worlds 
  AsparagusJumpsuit.com 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Fate Core System 
  Fate Accelerated Edition 
  Copyright ©2013 Evil Hat 
  Productions, LLC. 
  All rights reserved. 
   
  Fate was originally 
  created by Rob Donoghue 
  and Fred Hicks 
  By Gary E. Weller 
  I woke. The room was unfamiliar. It was all too bright. My head hurt. 
  ‚John,‛ the warm and soothing voice came from somewhere, ‚you’re in 
  Sioux Falls General Hospital. There was an accident.‛  
  That explains the strange smell and the bright lights. How did I get to 
  Sioux Falls? Who’s John? My jaw and throat hurt as I tried to put words out. 
  ‚Take it easy, John.‛ Her face came into view. It was soft and worn. She had 
  been at the job for years based on the crow’s feet around her eyes. Freckles formed 
  an odd pattern on her face. Red hair that was slowly greying was tied back. Green 
  eyes, pale skin, pinkish lips. I could easily love waking to her forever. I felt at ease 
  around her. I wanted to take the wrinkles out of her brow. I wanted to ease her pain. 
  She checked on me. Held my hand and seemed to understand that I wanted 
  to speak. She fed me something cold and soothing to my throat. I smiled and finally 
  saw her uniquely quirky smile. She was gorgeous. She was my personal beautiful 
  guiding angel in purple scrubs.  
  Liquid cooled, my throat gave way to my will. I took a deep breath that 
  rattled in my lungs and promptly coughed. New pain laced up through my chest as 
  if it were in a corset. A loud beeping came from somewhere. It was annoying and 
  obtrusive. The ginger in purple came around and tapped buttons on a machine that 
  was out of my view. Thankfully the noise stopped. 
  ‚I told you to take it easy,‛ her face filled my field of vision. I wanted to fall 
  into that face and bask in its warmth.  
  ‚A nov…‛ I started. The pain in my throat was terrible. I wrinkled my face 
  around the pain and forced the words out. I needed to say them. ‚A novice revenges 
  the rhythm.‛ My rasps came out softly, but I could tell she got the message. 
  ‚John,‛ her mellow voice came as she stroked my forehead, ‚I don’t know 
  what that means.‛ I felt my eyes go wide. How could she not understand? This was 
  important. 
  ‚A novice revenges the rhythm.‛ My voice was stronger this time. ‚How 
  does each adjacent enthusiasm invest in its worst nostalgia? The trace experiments 
  over the royal.‛ She had to understand. My ginger angel in purple only smiled at 
  me. 
  ‚Let me get the doctor, John.‛ I nodded. I wasn’t John, but she seemed to 
  think that I was. I let her think that if it got my message out. 
  ‚Below the foul arcade rages a travelled ploy.‛ I agreed with her. She left 
  with a quizzical and concerned face draped over her soft features. If she didn’t 
  understand the doctor must.  
  My head hurt, someone hit me in the back of the head when I was in the 
  warehouse. Why was I in Sioux Falls? Who’s John? Who got me to the hospital? 
  A new face came into view. This one had glasses and a mustache. Steel grey 
  hair was close cropped. He was a smoker. He had smoker’s breath. 
  ‚Hello John,‛ the man said. ‚I’m Doctor Long.‛ He passed a bright light over my 
  eyes and checked the reaction.  He was apparently satisfied with the result. ‚Tell me 
   
   
  M.R.M. Blackwood (order #5896805)
  
   
   
  Communication Breakdown 
  Page 2 of 5 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Situation Aspects 
  You’re in Sioux Falls 
  General Hospital. There 
  was an accident 
  Description 
   
  A novice revenges the 
  rhythm  
  Some sort of expressive 
  aphasia 
   
   
  what’s going on.‛  
  I was beginning to get frustrated.  
  ‚A novice revenges the rhythm.‛ I urged my exasperation to not come 
  out. It did anyway. His face remained neutral. I could still take the stack of chips 
  in front of him in a game of Texas Hold ‘Em. His poker face was horrible. The 
  tell was subtle. It was a slight twitch underneath the frame of his glasses that was 
  obvious before he moved them. 
  ‚John,‛ he sounded concerned. ‚You’ve been in an accident.‛ I nodded in 
  understanding. ‚You’re suffering from some sort of expressive aphasia.‛ He 
  waited for me. 
  ‚The raining continuum runs before a breakdown.‛ I nodded to him. He 
  still didn’t understand.  ‚How does each adjacent enthusiasm invest in its worst 
  nostalgia? The trace experiments over the royal.‛ The doctor only shook his head. 
  He was such a stupid ape. 
  ‚The moon bounces before the liquor! The reserve unknown inspires a 
  joke. A criminal characteristic busts the radius.‛ The beeping on the machine 
  started again. It was inflammatory against my ears. The warehouse, didn’t they 
  understand that the warehouse held the answer? 
  Nearly seven billion lives were at stake and a simple doctor couldn’t 
  understand what I was trying to say. The device was going to go off. It was 
  inevitable. 
  ‚A novice revenges the rhythm!‛ I urged them again. How didn’t they 
  understand? ‚The moon bounces before the liquor!‛ I made a fist in the air. There 
  were tubes in my arm. ‚How does each adjacent enthusiasm invest in its worst 
  nostalgia?‛ 
  I struggled to get up. Strong hands held me firmly against the bed. I 
  looked over at my ginger angel. She had a look of concern. She was so beautiful. 
  I gave up. It was fruitless. The device was going to go unnoticed.  
  ‚The merged antique completes the happening spigot. The soup orbits 
  under a flexible orbital. The angel suffers the converse sect.‛ The only reaction 
  was a look of pity. 
  I resolved that I would die on this backwater planet with these people. 
  The device would create the singularity and destroy everything around it. It 
  wouldn’t stop. Everyone was going to die if they didn’t escape. 
  ‚A novice revenges the rhythm.‛ I tried again. It was no use. I felt the 
  tears well up in my eyes and didn’t hold them back. 
  ‚Oh John,‛ my angel cooed, ‚It’ll be all right. I know it’s hard. We’ll get 
  through this.‛ I looked up to her and studied her face. I knew we wouldn’t get 
  through this. I let her think we would. It was the least I could do for her in the 
  short time we had. 
   
   
  M.R.M. Blackwood (order #5896805)
  
   
   
  Communication Breakdown 
  Page 3 of 5 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  About Communication Breakdown 
  by Berin Kinsman 
  I hope you enjoyed Gary’s story. That would make me happy, and I know it would 
  make Gary happy. Yet even if you didn’t, I hope you can see how even a piece of 
  fiction you don’t like can be mined for ideas, and ways that those ideas can be remixed 
  and reimaged and used as material for your own Fate RPG game. 
  Now let’s deconstruct the story, pick out some of the elements that are present, 
  and discuss ways that you might use those as possible Aspects in your own Fate RPG 
  game. Understand that the following interpretations are only my interpretations, and 
  not the only possible interpretations. The object of Fate+Fiction is to help you learn 
  how to mine stories for pieces and parts that you can adapt for your own purposes. 
  Let’s begin by trying to summarize the story. A man wakes up in the hospital, with 
  what we presume is a nurse hovering over him (she refers to another person as the 
  doctor, so we can assume she’s not an M.D.). She calls him John, but that’s not his 
  name. He’s been in some sort of accident, which results in him speaking in 
  unintelligible gibberish. The hospital staff assumes it’s some sort of brain damage. In 
  reality, ‚John‛ is an alien trying to save the Earth, and the communication breakdown 
  is a result of damage to his translation device. I really liked that Twilight Zone-style 
  twist.  
  The Situations 
  There are a few Situation Aspects that we can pull out of this story. These Aspects, 
  or something like them, can then be adapted to your own Fate game. Let’s take a look. 
  You’re in Sioux Falls General Hospital. There was an accident. That pretty 
  concisely set up the current situation. It begs questions, which can be explored in an 
  expanded story, about why John’s in South Dakota and why type of accident. My first 
  thought was, if there’s an alien doomsday device that can destroy the whole planet, 
  there’s no need for it to be in a typical action-adventure location like New York or 
  Paris. You can just as easily blow up the Earth from the middle of nowhere, if the 
  device is that powerful. 
  A novice revenges the rhythm is a perfect Aspect to describe what the nurse calls 
  some sort of expressive aphasia and ‚John‛ thinks of as a device malfunction. But what 
  if it’s more than that? What if ‚John‛, who isn’t named John, really is John and the 
  brain damage causing the mixed-up speech also leaves him believing that he’s an 
  alien on a mission to save the Earth? Now we have a whole other story and a 
  completely different adventure should he decide to not give up, break out of the 
  hospital, and try to complete his task of getting to the warehouse and halting the 
  device.  
  The Characters 
  Now let’s examine the characters in the story. For your own Fate game you don’t 
  need to use these exact characters. Look at existing player characters and supporting 
  characters, and see who might fill the same roles in relation to the Situation Aspects. 
  Who might the relevant Character Aspects, or something similar, be appended to? 
  John is a character we don’t know much about, other than what he tells us. He’s 
  potentially an unreliable narrator. We can’t verify whether what he believes is actually 
  true. He certainly believes it, and whether we believe him or not gives us two separate 
  story paths, as described above in the Situation Aspects. 
  Character Aspects 
  Who’s John  
  Whether he’s an 
  undercover alien, or a 
  delusion accident victim 
  who only thinks he’s an 
  undercover alien, the lack 
  of a confirmed identity can 
  be Invoked or Compelled 
  in a number of ways. 
   
  You’re in Sioux Falls 
  General Hospital. There 
  was an accident. 
  An established fact, no 
  matter what’s really going 
  on.  
   
  A novice revenges the 
  rhythm 
  Some sort of expressive 
  aphasia. Or a device 
  malfunction. Either way, 
  he speaks gibberish.  
   
   
   
   
  M.R.M. Blackwood (order #5896805)
  
   
   
  Communication Breakdown 
  Page 4 of 5 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  My personal beautiful guiding angel in purple scrubs, aka the nurse, is described 
  in a lot of loving detail, which also makes me think that John is an unreliable narrator. 
  He spends more time thinking about her than he does with completing his mission, 
  and he seems to give in too easily to her requests to settle down.  
  Let’s spin this out to sinister aims, then. Maybe she’s one of the bad guys, and she 
  knows how to mellow him out and keep him from pursuing his objective. There is a 
  device, and the people she works for planted it.  Stop John from interfering, and she 
  gets out of there at the last minute. This can spin out further to questions of who she 
  works for, and who John works for, and why anyone would want to blow up a planet, 
  and what interest aliens would have in the Earth that they’d send an agent to save it.  
  Doctor Long is an extraneous character, in my opinion, unless there’s something 
  else going on not expressed in the story. The ‚guiding angel‛ could have been the 
  doctor and Long could have been cut, unless he has a purpose in an expanded story, or  
  there’s a reason the nurse isn’t a doctor (because she’s a bad guy?). 
  Consequences 
  Not every action has a clear or specific consequence, and sometimes we need to 
  dig a little bit to discover them within a story. Here’s what I found. 
  Communication breakdown is the result of John taking damage in the accident. 
  Whether it’s a device malfunction making him unable to speak, brain damage causing 
  aphasia, or a blow to the head causing him to think he’s an alien, these are all 
  Consequences of the accident, whatever it might have been. 
  Boosts 
  Boosts are another set of elements that don’t always make themselves explicit 
  within a story. It often takes some probing and a little bit of imagination to discover 
  something that could potentially provide a Boost in a Fate game.  
  The translation device gives you the ability to speak and understand languages. 
  The details of this can be worked out for your own game. Is it an automatic thing, a 
  fact established in the setting so you can ignore any sort of language barrier? Does it 
  give a bonus to a skill? Is it Stunt? Does it cover unknown languages, all known 
  languages, or just one language that it’s been programmed to deal with? 
   
   
   
  Consequences 
  Communication 
  breakdown 
  A Consequence of the 
  accident is that the 
  character can’t speak 
  coherently. This is truth 
  whether it’s because the 
  translating device is 
  broken, or John’s suffering 
  from aphasia due to 
  trauma. 
   
  Boosts 
  Translation device 
  Allows characters to speak 
  and understand languages. 
   
   
  M.R.M. Blackwood (order #5896805)
  
   
   
  Communication Breakdown 
  Page 5 of 5 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  The following text is the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and is Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc 
  (‚Wizards‛). All Rights Reserved. 
  1. Definitions: (a)‛Contributors‛ means the copyright and/or trademark owners who have contributed Open Game 
  Content; (b)‛Derivative Material‛ means copyrighted material including derivative works and translations (including into 
  other computer languages), potation, modification, correction, addition, extension, upgrade, improvement, compilation, 
  abridgment or other form in which an existing work may be recast, transformed or adapted; (c) ‚Distribute‛ means to 
  reproduce, license, rent, lease, sell, broadcast, publicly display, transmit or otherwise distribute; (d)‛Open Game Content‛ 
  means the game mechanic and includes the methods, procedures, processes and routines to the extent such content does 
  not embody the Product Identity and is an enhancement over the prior art and any additional content clearly identified as 
  Open Game Content by the Contributor, and means any work covered by this License, including translations and derivative 
  works under copyright law, but specifically excludes Product Identity. (e) ‚Product Identity‛ means product and product line 
  names, logos and identifying marks including trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; stories, storylines, plots, thematic 
  elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes 
  and graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, spells, 
  enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, locations, environments, creatures, 
  equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or 
  registered trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the owner of the Product Identity, and which specifically 
  excludes the Open Game Content; (f) ‚Trademark‛ means the logos, names, mark, sign, motto, designs that are used by a 
  Contributor to identify itself or its products or the associated products contributed to the Open Game License by the 
  Contributor (g) ‚Use‛, ‚Used‛ or ‚Using‛ means to use, Distribute, copy, edit, format, modify, translate and otherwise create 
  Derivative Material of Open Game Content. (h) ‚You‛ or ‚Your‛ means the licensee in terms of this agreement. 
  2. The License: This License applies to any Open Game Content that contains a notice indicating that the Open Game 
  Content may only be Used under and in terms of this License. You must affix such a notice to any Open Game Content that 
  you Use. No terms may be added to or subtracted from this License except as described by the License itself. No other terms 
  or conditions may be applied to any Open Game Content distributed using this License. 
  3. Offer and Acceptance: By Using the Open Game Content You indicate Your acceptance of the terms of this License. 
  4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, 
  worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content. 
  5. Representation of Authority to Contribute: If You are contributing original material as Open Game Content, You 
  represent that Your Contributions are Your original creation and/or You have sufficient rights to grant the rights conveyed 
  by this License. 
  6. Notice of License Copyright: You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact 
  text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing, and You must 
  add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder’s name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game 
  Content you Distribute. 
  7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility, 
  except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity. 
  You agree not to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Registered Trademark in conjunction with 
  a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of 
  such Trademark or Registered Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open Game Content does not constitute a 
  challenge to the ownership of that Product Identity. The owner of any Product Identity used in Open Game Content shall 
  retain all rights, title and interest in and to that Product Identity. 
  8. Identification: If you distribute Open Game Content You must clearly indicate which portions of the work that you are 
  distributing are Open Game Content. 
  9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated versions of this License. You may use any 
  authorized version of this License to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any 
  version of this License. 
  10 Copy of this License: You MUST include a copy of this License with every copy of the Open Game Content You 
  Distribute. 
  11. Use of Contributor Credits: You may not market or advertise the Open Game Content using the name of any 
  Contributor unless You have written permission from the Contributor to do so. 
  12 Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms of this License with respect to some or 
  all of the Open Game Content due to statute, judicial order, or governmental regulation then You may not Use any Open 
  Game Material so affected. 
  13 Termination: This License will terminate automatically if You fail to comply with all terms herein and fail to cure 
  such breach within 30 days of becoming aware of the breach. All sublicenses shall survive the termination of this License. 
  14 Reformation: If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the 
  extent necessary to make it enforceable. 
  15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE 
  Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. 
  Fate Core System and Fate Accelerated Edition © 2013 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. Developed, authored, and edited by 
  Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks, 
  and Rob Donoghue. 
  Fate+Fiction: Communication Breakdown ©2014 Gary Weller, Berin Kinsman. Authors: Gary Weller, Berin Kinsman. 
  Editor: Stefan Livingstone Shirley. 
   
  Open Gaming License 
  Asparagus Jumpsuit 
  AsparagusJumpsuit.com 
   
  Communication Breakdown 
  ©2014 Gary E. Weller  
   
  Additional content  
  ©2014 Berin Kinsman 
   
  Edited by  
  Stefan Livingstone Shirley 
   
  Designation of  
  Open Content 
  Except material designated 
  as 
  Product 
  Identity, 
  the 
  contents are Open Game 
  Content as defined in the 
  Open 
  Gaming 
  License 
  version 1.0a Section 1(d). No 
  portion of this work other 
  than 
  the 
  material 
  designated as Open Game 
  Content may be reproduced 
  in any form without written 
  permission. 
   
  M.R.M. Blackwood (order #5896805)
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/FATE (fudge) [multi]/Fate + Fiction/Communication Breakdown.pdf