When comparing Fate Core vs Savage Worlds, the Slant community recommends Savage Worlds for most people. In the question“What are the best tabletop RPGs?” Savage Worlds is ranked 2nd while Fate Core is ranked 9th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro An even more streamlined version is available, called Fate Accelerated
Whereas Fate Core is skill driven, has more variables to keep track of and is potentially more varied in terms characters created, Fate Accelerated is approach driven, has less variables to keep track of and allows getting started quicker.
Also, the Accelerated version is just 50 pages whereas the Core version is 310 pages.
Pro Excellent clarity of rules
It starts at the very beginning by explaining what is roleplaying and moves on to introduce various mechanics and conventions and explains why they're there, when's the appropriate time to use them and what are the best practices on how to do it.
The book does so in easy to understand language, offers many examples and highlights the important bits in various ways.
Pro Focuses on roleplaying by originating gameplay from world-building
Fate uses "aspects" to influence the gameplay in ways that are consistent with the world that's built. Aspects are descriptive phrases that define anything they are attached to. They give both roleplaying and mechanical advantages and disadvantages. For example, a character could be "raised in a wretched hive of scum and villainy" and that would allow him to better negotiate with thiefs and crooks, but also make him poor at fine dining etiquette.
Pro Multiple settings available for free
If you have problems creating your own game world there are a lot of settings available for free and they range from fantasy to Soviet-era pulp sci-fi, so everyone can find something for himself.
Pro Straightforward and Flexible
The system is great for moderating a session of roleplaying. Bring your own setting, and any additional gameplay your group enjoys. It lends itself well to those without the money to invest in miniatures, game boards, or even tables.
Pro No fixed setting
Fate Core is a general purpose RPG system that can be applied to any theme.
Pro Fast-paced play
Pro Generic rule-set
The rules cater to multiple genres, and offer additional rules for GMs (or players) to create their own races, powers, etc.
Pro Companion books with expanded rules to support 4 major genres
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horrer, and Super Heroes. Each of which can be portrayed in a basic sense with only the core book.
Pro Classless
( Not a Class Based System ) This is also listed as a con, but it can be very refreshing to build you character from scratch. You can make whatever sort of archetype you like, and many are available pre configured for you.
Pro Easy to learn / teach
Pro General machanical similarities to d20, d6, and conventional RPGs
Cons
Con It can be difficult to come up with aspects
Coming up with aspects can take a while. Especially for new players. In addition to coming up with traits that define the character, tags and compels are needed. Furthermore all of these little nuances have to be coherent as well as balanced in terms of power. This can make the character creation process take a while.
Con Compel mechanic is not for everyone
Compels allow GM to trigger a player's aspect in exchange for a fate point. The player can avoid invoking noted apect by spending a fate point.
Concerns about the system include removing control from the player of how a character is played, GMs having a lot more data to track (each aspect for each player) and possibility of getting stuck in a compel-loop of forcing certain behaviour.
Con Atypical mechanics
The general mechanics of Fate are broadly dissimilar to classic roleplaying games like D&D. While this is generally the system's strongest point, players who are not yet accustom to the game may find great difficulty with it.
Con Not for passive players
If you find your players passive and unwilling to take an active role in creating game world then the experience may be not as enjoyable as it could be.
Con No combat rating guidelines
No guidelines exist in the game to advise the difficulty of combat encounters. It is generally assumed in the rules, that the opponents will be reasonably proportional to the narrative situation, and that players will use ingenuity, retreat and avoid combat, or muster the villagers into a militia using the rules for Extras (mooks) as necessary.
Con Medium complexity
Straddles the space between lightweight games like Fate, and heavyweight games like d20 System.
Con Classless
Characters are developed completely independently of any sort of D&D-esque class framework. This allows players to make more free-form characters, but as a result characters which are less focused may be generally weaker. The book does provide a number of "archtype" partial-builds, which can generally serve as an alternative to classes, and Savage Rifts offers the Iconic frameworks, which more closely resembles classes.