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FATE
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An Extra is something -- an item, for example -- that you purchase with skill ranks. It's less central to your character (and less persistent) than an item bought as an Aspect, but is still something more than just an everyday item you pick up. (FUG 24)
So you might have a loyal manservant. There's no skill that covers that. If he's just there to lend you a hand, he'd be an Extra. (If he was a bosom friend and mentor from childhood, an Alfred to your Bruce Wayne, he'd likely be an Aspect.)
You acquire Extras by spending skill ranks on them during character advancement. Extras can be lost in game circumstances (unlike Aspects). If an Extra is lost or destroyed, and cannot be restored in normal game play, then at the end of the Phase, you can either respend those skill levels on another Extra, or recover the Extra through some mutually-agreed-upon bit of story.
By default, non-skill extras (props, allies, etc.) do not count into The Pyramid, which make them a bit more costly, game-wise. (FUG 28)
One might optionally consider divorcing Extras from skill levels (i.e., giving separate points for Extras each [Phase]? as part of advancement. This would also free Extras from The Pyramid).[1]
There are three types of Extras: Intrinsic, Personal, Shared.
Intrinsic ExtrasPermanent parts of the character -- Night-vision, for example. Passive effects that are always on, don't get "checked off" (like an Aspect would be), etc. (FUG 24) It would be represented either as an addition to an existing skill, or as a new skill, depending on what exactly it does. (This would affect The Pyramid, of course.)
Personal ExtrasUsually equipment or servants. (FUG 25). One skill rank nets an Extra with one Aspect built in (additional skill ranks give the object additional Aspects). Equipment of this sort would have one or two Aspects, granting rerolls and/or occasional passive bonuses when appropriate. Should such equipment be Extras, or Aspects themselves? Good question. Very good question. So for example, you might take a particular gun as an Extra (1 skill level), which gives you one free Aspect in it (Deadly Accurate); you could then spend another skill level to make it Intimidating, too, or maybe another box of Deadly Accurate. You could then make use of those Aspects as if they were your own, as long as you had the item around and were utilizing it. Other Aspects that might be appropriate for, say, weapons would be Armor Piercing, Poisonous, Concealable, Frickin' Scary, Innocuous, etc. I could also imagine having a vehicle as an Extra (Fast, Sexy, Unobtrusive), a computer (Advanced Prototype, Tiny), etc. As a very generalized rule, it's usually better within the system for an Extra's attribute to be an Aspect, as opposed to a standard bonus (e.g., that "Deadly Accurate" should be an Aspect that allows a die flip or a reroll rather than a continuous +1 Superior Weapon). That's in keeping with the idea that things are important to the plot when you, the player, choose them to be. (Anyone looking at the gun can see that it's got a cool laser sight on it, and the manufacturer is well-known for cranking out fine weapons; but you get to choose when it's going to make a difference in the game flow -- sometimes a significant -- reroll -- difference.)[2] Note that, in-game, it's possible for someone to obtain (outside of a skill spend) an Personal Extra (e.g., you snag the Really Cool Pistol that the assassin was carrying). That's not "fair" within the game system, and various things might happen to the item (its real owner might come looking for it, it may turn out that it's DNA-activated, it's balanced in an odd way that requires some serious practice range time, it might get confiscated by the police as evidence, it may turn out to have an additional Aspect to it that the player didn't want or wasn't aware of or the GM can use to advance the plot -- ask the player what happens to it if they aren't going to pay to keep it).[3][4] Alternately, a player might let their character go "in hock" for the skill points of that Extra for the next reward ...[5] Consumable items might reflect an ability to create/obtain more between Aspect recharges. E.g., when you get that Potion of Dragon Invulnerability, it's actually an Aspect of Dragon Invulnerability that can be used -- and you know the ingredients, now, so even after it's used, you can use your alchemy (or the alchemist at the next town) to create you some more. Servants would be any NPC "whose first priority is the character." They are generated as characters (Phases = Skill Ranks spent), gaining both Aspects and Skills. Those Aspects only help the NPC, not the PC directly, but if the NPC is ''also'' an Aspect, they indicate what the NPC would probably do for you. (There's a GM note on Minions on FUG 26.)Shared ExtrasUsually contacts and resources. {FUG 26) Contacts are shared NPCs. Each skill rank = 1 Aspect for the NPC. The first is usually the connection, the following may strengthen that connection, or define some element about the NPC. Indeed, you can use this to spend a skill rank to give a weakness (an negative Aspect) to an arch-enemy in the game, or create a bond between you and one of the Numbers (GM discretion, natch). By establishing the connection as an Aspect for the NPC, it makes that permanent as far as the NPC is concerned; to make it permanent for the player, you'd have to take that NPC as an Aspect, too. Resources are an organization or location with an Aspect to describe it ("a connection to the character, a safehouse, or some manner of debt").
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