Zones

Setting the Scene
Establish what's going on, where everyone is, and what the environment is like. Who is the opposition? The GM should write a couple of situation aspects on sticky notes or index cards and place them on the table. Playerscan suggest situation aspects, too.

The GM also establishes zones, loosely defined areas that tell you where characters are. Rather than limiting—as many other games would—how far in measurement units you can get in one unit of time, or how far you can shoot, then applying penalties for local conditions like terrain or visibility, it skips the math and looks at local conditions to thenestablish how far you can move or shoot.

This method is also part and parcel of Fate's fractal nature, since it allows re-scaling; if you change the time unit, or the size of the map, or both, then naturally your zones are going to change too, while necessitating no change to the rules describing how things work.

Zones and the Battlefield
Even in physical conflict, zones aren't measured in yards in the fiction or inches on a map—they're much more abstract than that. Roughly speaking, if another combatant is close enough that you could take a few steps and attack them with a hand-to-hand weapon, like a spear, axe, or dagger, you're both in the same zone. In non-physical conflicts a zone might represent areas of political influence, a clan supporting one of their own, the various gods' attention, or groups of people you can talk to.

You can visually represent zones using a number of different means, such as a series of connected squares drawn on a piece of paper, index cards arranged together on the table, elaborate 3-D terrain tiles, or anything in between. The only thing that really matters is that everyone has a clear idea of where the zones begin and end and how their spaces relate to one another. Physical conflict: Raiders are attacking the characters in an old farm house. The kitchen is one zone, the bedroom another, the front porch another, and the yard a fourth. Anyone in the same zone can easily throw punches at each other. You can also carry the fight from one room into another.

Zones for Non-Physical Conflicts
That's all nice and well for a battlefield, but what about conflicts that don't involve coming to blows? How do you establish zones for a social conflict (for example, about who will become the new leader of a scout troop) or a mental one (for example, a debate between scholars of the Royal Academy of Sciences)?

The process is essentially the same, but the zones represent more abstract divisions of the metaphorical ground the opponents are fighting over. Social conflict: Jusipio and Meloria, respectively members of the Architects' Guild and the Merchants' Guild, disagree about what to do with the limited supply of stones excavated from a quarry. Jusipio argues for a bridge across the river to ensure the new city's communications, while Meloria wants to build a new granary to protect the food reserves from barbarian incursions. The Architects' and Merchants' Guilds form two zones, the city council a third in between them.

Zone Aspects
Of course, zones aren't merely abstract space—they're the very terrain of the battlefield. To that end, every zone can have a zone aspect that tells you what's in it. Unlike character aspects, zone aspects shouldn't be particularly nuanced. The simpler and more straightforward, the better. No matter what the terrain in the zone is like, it's going to be useful in some situations and a hindrance in others. An aspect that clearly communicates that in one or two words is ideal.

Keep it intuitive and broad—and short enough that it can easily fit on an index card. There are two good reasons for this rule of thumb. One, the battlefield is likely going to contain several zones and therefore several aspects, and you don't want things to look cluttered and confusing for the players or yourself. Two, time spent crafting the perfect zone aspect is time not spent actually playing the game. Better a good zone aspect now than a great one in 90 seconds.

A zone might have Trees or a Steep Slope, or it might be a Kitchen or a Crumbling Stairway, or even a Waterfall or Bottomless Chasm. Every zone needs a zone aspect. That flat, featureless meadow over there? Why, that's an Open Field.

If a zone has more than one potentially interesting feature, either combine the two into one succinct aspect (like a Farmhouse On Fire) or pick the one that you think will be most entertaining or relevant to the scene and go with that (what feels more fun for this combat, a Narrow Passage or all those Rocks and Boulders in it?).

Normally it's the GM's job to assign zone aspects, but that doesn't mean they all have to be done in advance. If the PCs are in a starting position that prohibits them from seeing the entire battlefield—due to a closed door, outcropping of rock, heavy fog, or the like, feel free to leave them blank and fill them in as the PCs gain visibility to them.

Alternately, let the players define some of these aspects by exploring these zones. Handling zone aspects in this way gives the players more control over their situation and lends a little more unpredictability to the combat. This is a create an advantage action, typically using Clever or Careful, and can be done from another zone, provided the character in question can see into the unexplored zone. Generally speaking, you can't replace an existing zone aspect, unless the aspect itself is responsible for obscuring the zone in the first place. The difficulty for this task should be fairly low, such as Average (+1) or Fair (+2). If it makes sense that a zone aspect would make the task more difficult, increase it by +2 for every such aspect. Likewise, if the unexplored aspect is more than one zone away from the character, increase the difficulty by +2 for every zone that separates them.

Olivia the scout wants to know what's hiding in the Fog a couple zones over, so she takes time to Carefully peer into it and see what she can make out. The GM sets the difficulty at Average (+1), then bumps it up by +2 because of that Fog and another +2 for being two zones away. That doesn't sound so good to Olivia's player. Fortunately, she's able to move a zone closer, lowering the difficulty to Good (+3), and gets a result of Great (+4). Success! Since the scene takes place in a mountain pass, the player suggests that the zone actually contains a Fog-Shrouded Chasm, and the GM agrees. Someone's in for a surprise.

Each pre-defined zone aspect starts the scene with one free invocation. Aspects "discovered" by the players (that is, by creating an advantage) start with one or two free invocations, as usual.

GMs are encouraged to use common sense when determining whether an aspect would affect a particular creature or character. For example, flying creatures would be affected by Buffeting Winds but not by Icy Ground, and a swamp-dwelling creature would not mind Marshy Terrain but would be at a disadvantage on High Rocky Ground.

Number of Zones
Deciding the size of a battlefield—how many zones it contains—can be a tricky business. Too many and you have wasted space, or combatants spread so far apart that their spatial relationships to one another have little meaning. Too few, and everyone's crammed together into a too-small space, without a variety of terrain types to make things fun and interesting.

Start by visualizing the scene in your mind's eye. What does the surrounding area look like? Is it all on a flat plain, or is there varying elevation? What's of interest nearby? If the answer comes back "Uh I dunno." then put something interesting in and expand outward from there.

In the course of their quest, Olivia, Rolf, and Deliah and some hired mercenaries need to deal with a hostile lizardmen encampment. The GM wants the scene to take place in a tactically interesting location, but other than knowing that she wants the PCs to have to take care of some guards, she isn't sure where to start. Fighting guards in a flat plain would be pretty dull, and she can't imagine the lizardmen would camp in such a vulnerable location anyway. Maybe they're in some badlands where they can post lookouts on natural pillars of rock—it's a cool visual. Even better would be access via a narrow ravine cutting through a low cliffside. So far the battlefield looks like this:

At the bottom of the cliff, our GM pictures a sparsely forested area with a clearing—so the lookouts can see intruders coming—but also a water feature of some kind, just to mix things up. A lake would be good. It's fun to throw people into, and it makes some sense with the ravine. And a waterfall flowing into it. Sure. You don't to be a professional geologist; we just want a battlefield with interesting features.

That seems like enough for some variety, with enough space that missile weapons will make a difference. Our GM imagines hidden lizardmen archers on the clifftops letting fly at the approaching PCs, a PC or two sniping back from cover of the trees, someone being pushed into the lake, or maybe even off the waterfall or a big jagged pillar

Note that our GM hasn't assigned aspects to two zones. She figures the PCs can't see them from where they're starting (the Sparse Treesin the upper left), plus it'll be fun to define them during play.