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CREDITS
Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse: Accelerated Edition

Written by Derek A. Kamal and Steve Radabaugh

Based on Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse by Derek A. Kamal

Illustrated by Jacob Hunt

Layout based on a design by Paolo Bosi

This work is based on the Fate Core System and Fate Accelerated Edition (found at http://
www.faterpg.com/), products of 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, and licensed for our use under the Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
4 Introduction
6 What is Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse?
6 What is Fate Accelerated Edition?
7 How do I use this document?
8 Character Creation
8 Aspects
9 Approaches
9 Stunts
10 Club Creation
10 Belief
10 Favored Approach
11 Playing the game
11 Action Resolution
11 The Four Actions
11 Create an Advantage
12 Overcome
12 Attack
12 Defend
13 Using Fate Points
13 Combat
13 Stress & Consequences
14 Advancement
14 Advancing and Changing Gangs
15 The Game Master
15 Running FAE vs Fate Core
15 NPC Creation
18 Sample Characters

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 INTRODUCTION
Froggie jumped all over the stage that day.

The sun went down, the humans clocked out, and the Bardlings showed up just as they did
every night at the little pavilion in the middle of Maybach Park. They roared up on their little
bikes, stashed them in the tall grass. In twos, threes, and fours (never singly) they rolled in, little
guitars and horns and drums slung over their cuts, throwing arms over shoulders, ready to get
down.

Froggie was among the latecomers, having hitched a ride with the Bardling’s chief bongo
instructor, a little field mouse named Sunflower who was never punctual if she could help it. He
was not a member, Froggie, so he would fit more comfortably into the “affiliated” category; the
clubs hired him when they needed a deep dive and Froggie played no favorites...except tonight.
Tonight was the monthly Bardlings Drum Circle and Open Mic Talent Show Spectacular...and
Froggie would dance.

The evening progressed as one might expect: Juniper had some rather horrid, but expressive,
spoken word pieces; Maggy did her own rendition of Good Vibrations using techniques in
succession of, but not restricted to, the mouth harp, banjo, and tamborine; Jolly gave a talk on
painting techniques using ochre and q-tips; Horace, under the approving gaze of Sunflower, led
the percussionists in a drum circle that lasted several hours. And they danced.

The drum circle was there on the lawn at the bottom of the three steps leading up to the top
of the pavilion. That bottom step served as a particularly nice stage, backlit as it was by the
overhanging lights high above on the ceiling of said pavilion. A few tea lights made for pillars of
flame on either side to heighten the effect. Some dancers took to the step, but quickly dove away
for embarassment’s sake. Not Froggie.

The little amphibian, clad in his denim jacket, lept here and there: now on top of the step,
now on the stringer, then on the rail of the little pavilions fence, now back on the stage. It was
that beat. That swingin’ beat. The congas went high and the djembes went low and then they
swapped. Some staccato, some low and steady, all banging loudly and lighting up the evening air
with rhythm. It filled Froggie’s froggy heart with joy.

Even when Wanda and her thuggish chipmunks showed up and started trouble, Froggie
jumped on. When Garcia and the Beat stood up to the ruthless brigand, even though she
was a head taller, Froggie jumped some more. It wasn’t long before there was combat and the
peace-abiding Bardlings had to throw down. Djembes became clubs and tambourines became
projectiles. Froggie jumped on.

A lone drummer pounded out her rhythm for all the night to hear. Unfazed and untroubled by
the pummeling of mouse and chipmunk, her rapid and thundering conga reverberated all over
the pavilion. It was Sunflower, chief bongo instructor and all around nice chick, and for Froggie
her beat was enough.

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 Froggie jumped all over the stage that day. And when Wanda went home defeated and the
Bardlings roared away on their bikes to tend to their bruises, he and Sunflower kept the beat
going well into the night.

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 What is Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse?
Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse (HMTM) is the award-winning tabletop roleplaying game of mice
and their motorcycle clubs! You and your friends make your mice, found your club, and hit the
streets. These are mice with the gusto to build their own motorcycles and set off into an intim-
idating world where they are outsized but never outclassed.

Your stories are set in Thunder City, USA. For small creatures existing in a place which
doesn’t belong to them, these stories will be filled with the drama of their lives, and the trou-
ble, both inside and outside, of a biker gang. Will your gang be Robin Hood-like doers of good,
springing cheese from unwatched refrigerators and delivering it to needy widows, or will you be
thugs and thieves exploiting the weak? Your mouse, your bike, and your gang all belong to you
and the stories you tell at your table.

So HMTM is all about mice on bikes having awesome adventures. The game has a city’s worth
of characters to interact with your mice and their bikes: rival clubs, packs of pampered kitties,
aging watchdogs, mayors, pest controllers, killer crustaceans, and much more. This world is
fully described in the Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse core book, available at ShorelessSkies.com.

What is Fate Accelerated Edition?

Fate Accelerated Edition, or FAE for short, is just a version of the Fate rules with some of the
dials turned down to make the game simpler. It isn’t Fate lite or a starter version of Fate. It’s a
complete game system that stands side by side with Fate Core.

The biggest difference between the two is that Core uses skills, a list of 18 items, where FAE
uses a list of 6 approaches. The skills in Core ask what you are trying to do. The approaches in
FAE ask how you are doing something. This has more to do with a characters temperament than
their abilities.

You may wish to use FAE instead of the Core rules as presented in the book for a variety of
reasons. If you’re new to Fate, FAE is easy to pick up and play. It’s also more family friendly, so if
you’re playing with a younger audience then using the FAE rules is a better option.

The Fate Accelerated book is available from Evil Hat in digital formats for pay-what-you-want.
The book version is $5. Everything you need to play is presented in either this document or the
Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse core book, but the Fate Accelerated book can be a handy reference.

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 How do I use this document?
This document exists to adjust the rules in Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse to the Fate Accelerated
rules instead of the Fate Core rules that the core book is written with.

If you are a player looking to get a snapshot of the rules before your first game, and you have
played some Fate before, you really don’t need to read too much. The mechanics of FAE are
practically identical to those of Fate Core. You will, however, need to read the character creation
steps on p. 8 because characters are a bit different than Fate Core.

If you are a player with no real Fate experience, read up to the GM section on p. 15.

If you are a GM you better read this whole thing, then go and read Fate Accelerated by Evil
Hat available here, especially if you are skipping the rules as written in the core HMTM book.

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 CHARACTER CREATION
Because this is accelerated, you will treat your mouse creation a little differently than in the
core version of the rules. The biggest difference is that your Bike won’t have its own sheet with
aspects and stunts on it. Instead, it’s going to be reflected by one of your aspects. Don’t worry,
you still get a super cool motorcycle to zoom around on. We also will replace the skills with a
much more streamlined set of approaches. We’ll go into more detail on those later.

Aspects
For your aspects, start with a high concept and trouble just like you do with the Core version
of the game. Make sure you read the side note on making aspects on page 48. Remember, these
are the “big ideas” of your character and what makes them cool.

Now instead of doing the big three, we are going to be a little more specific on the other three
aspects.

Bike
The first of these will represent your motorcycle. Think about the motorcycle that you have,
and what makes it unique. Boil that down to a single phrase. Since this aspect is going right onto
your mouse, phrase it something like “My bike has super tough tires” or “I inherited the meanest
red chopper from my Dad” it’s about the bike, but it’s also about the mouse. This aspect is going
to be the only place where anything about the motorcycle itself is recorded.

Club
The second aspect will represent your connection to your Motorcycle Club. What does the
club mean to you and why are you a member? Would you do anything for the benefit of the club,
are they your family, or are they simply the means to an end? For example: “Club before Does”,
or “The gang is my family now.”

Relationship
The final aspect will represent your relationship to one of the other players’ mouse. One play-
er will start by choosing another player, then describing the relationship between their mice and
use that for their final aspect. When finished the player who was chosen will then pick another
player who has not been chosen yet and do the same thing. The last player chosen will then
choose the player who started it off creating a full circle. (If you want to simplify this process,
everyone could simply choose the person on their left.) These relationships can be anything
really. Commonly they are family ties or a mentor/mentee relationship or a close friendship.

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 Examples: “Frankie is my idiot brother that I’m always keeping out of trouble”; “Pauline is my
mechanic who keeps my bike running”; “I hope Johnny will notice me.”

Approaches
As mentioned above, the skills that are in the core version of Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse have
been replaced with a set of approaches. These approaches are descriptions of how you accom-
plish something. This is the biggest difference right here between the Core rules and the FAE
rules. The skills in Core describe what problems you can solve. These approaches describe how
you solve them. The approaches are:

■■Careful
■■Clever
■■Flashy
■■Forceful
■■Quick
■■Sneaky
Each approach has a rating that acts as a bonus when you roll dice for an action. Assign the
following bonuses to your approaches: +3, +2, +2, +1, +1, 0. These will be able to be improved
later. We will talk more about how to use these approaches in the Running the Game section.

Stunts
Stunts work effectively the same in the Accelerated version of Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse as
they do in the core version. Since we don’t have skills, stunts can be used to give a bonus to an
action or to do something you normally can’t. The simplest way is to write your stunts in one
of the following formats:

Because [one of your aspects] I get a +2 when I [choose an approach] [choose an action (attack, de-
fend, create advantages, overcome)] when [describe a circumstance].

Because [one of your aspects], once per game session I can [describe something cool you can do].

Examples:

Because my bike has the loudest pipes around I get a +2 when I flashily create an advantage when I
try to distract people by revving my engine.

Because I am a Fantastic Mechanic, I can take a reroll without spending a Fate Point once per
session whenever I work on a motorcycle in any way.

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 Club Creation
You have a few choices with gangs when playing Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse: Accelerated
Edition. You can use the gang rules exactly as they stand in the core book. You can play without
gang rules at all and just let the gang itself be set dressing, or you can use the accelerated rules
for gangs provided below which is somewhat of a middle ground.

In the accelerated version, each gang has a name and patch just like in the core version, we
simplify the beliefs down to just one that acts like a persistent aspect, and each gang has a favored
approach which generates a single gang stunt. Gangs won’t have skills, stress, or refresh.

Belief
The belief is an aspect that is a brief statement of what the club is all about. Think of it as being
similar to a clubs mission statement, or core values. If your gang is inspired by Robin Hood and
his Merry Men, it can be “We Steal from the Rich and Give to the Poor”. This belief acts as a
permanent game aspect that can be invoked and compelled just like any other aspect.

Favored Approach
Choose one of the main approaches (Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky) and
choose one that is best suited to your club. This is your clubs favored aspect. Now write the stunt
using this template:

Club members get +2 when they [Favored Approach] [choose an action (attack, defend, create
advantages, overcome)] when that action is in direct benefit of the club and stays true to the club’s belief.

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 PLAYING THE GAME
Running HMTM FAE is just like running a regular game of Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse, except
doing stuff is a bit easier. This section will talk you through how to do stuff using the four
actions and your character’s approaches. Each one follows the same pattern: you choose an
action, choose an approach that says how you’re going to make that action, then resolve the
action depending on whether your roll failed, tied, or succeeded against the target number.

Action Resolution
When you, as your mouse, want to do something, explain what it is you’re trying to do. You
probably have a good idea of the type of things your mouse will do in particular situations, but
your aspects are a great place to look towards if you need inspiration.

Once you know what you’re trying to do, take the time to describe it. Are you scurrying over
a pipe to avoid Old Jerry? Revving your engines to try and intimidate some poor citizen? This is
the part where you explain how you try to do the stuff you want to do.

However, the stuff doesn’t just get done (at least not successfully) just because you say so! I
mean, sometimes it does. Typically you’ll just describe what you do and it happens within the
fiction. But sometimes, after your description, it’s time for the dice to fly. Whenever there’s a
chance for failure or, more specifically, a chance for something exciting to happen should you
fail, you’ll need to roll. The GM will let you know if you’re not sure. Take your four Fate dice
and roll ‘em!

Total up the result of your dice: a + means +1, a - means -1, and a blank is 0. Add the modifier
of the relevant approach and compare it to the target number (TN) the GM has given you. You
will either fail because your total is lower than the TN, tie because your total is equal to the TN,
succeed by getting higher than the TN, or succeed with style by beating the TN by 3 or more. If
you don’t like your roll, you can spend a Fate Point to invoke an aspect just like Fate Core. We’ll
explain that a bit more on p. 13.

The Four Actions

Just like Fate Core, when you roll the dice you are performing one of the four actions. They
are as follows:

Create an Advantage
Creating an advantage is anything you do to help yourself or anyone else, especially your club
mates. You might call it “Create an Aspect” because ultimately that’s what you’re doing: creating
a new aspect; discovering an aspect in the scene or on another character, or taking advantage of
an existing aspect. Aspects are used along with Fate Points (p. 13) to get bonuses when you need
them. Describe what you want to do (in other words, how you’re going to set something up to be
taken advantage of in a future action) and roll it.
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■■If you fail: Don’t create or discover, or you do but your opponent (not you) gets a free invo-
cation.
■■If you tie: Get a boost if creating new, or get a free invocation on an existing aspect
■■If you succeed: Create or discover the aspect, get a free invocation on it, or get a free invoca-
tion on an existing aspect
■■If you succeed with style: Create or discover the aspect and get two free invocations on it.

Overcome
You overcome an obstacle when there’s an obstacle to overcome. Climbing over a barrel;
solving a puzzle; outwitting an owl; that sort of thing. Choose an appropriate approach and roll
it.

■■If you fail: Fail the attempt or succeed at a serious cost.

■■If you tie: Succeed at minor cost.
■■If you succeed: You accomplish your goal.
■■If you succeed with style: You accomplish your goal and generate a boost.

Attack
Combat is described more fully just ahead on p. 13, but an attack is just like it sounds. Whether
you’re trying to psych someone out or punch them in the snoot, it’s an attack.

■■If you fail: No effect.

■■If you tie: Attack doesn’t harm the target, but you gain a boost.
■■If you succeed: Attack hits and causes damage.
■■If you succeed with style: Attack hits and causes damage. You may reduce damage by one to
generate a boost.

Defend
Pretty much all attacks can be defended against. Some other rolls that affect you directly,
or that you’re trying to stop, can be defended against as well. You choose the best approach to
defend with and roll.

■■If you fail: You suffer the consequences of your opponent’s success.
■■If you tie: Look at your opponent’s action to see what happens.
■■If you succeed: Your opponent doesn’t get what they want.
■■If you succeed with Style: Your opponent doesn’t get what they want, and you get a boost.

Concerning Boosts
Boosts are basically just baby aspects. You don’t write them down and if you don’t use them quickly
(generally within a round of combat) they go away. Fore more info on boosts check out this blog by
Mr. Ryan Macklin and the HMTM core book p. 87.

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 Using Fate Points
Just like Fate Core, each character starts the session with Fate Points equal to their refresh rat-
ing (usually that’s 3). When the dice don’t go your way, you can use a Fate Point to invoke an as-
pect. This means that some aspect available to you can be used to possibly better your situation.
Those are scene aspects that make sense for you to use; character aspects relevant to the context;
or even aspects you’ve discovered on an enemy. Once you know which aspect you’re going to use,
spend a Fate Point and describe how it helps your mouse in their current situation. Then choose:

■■Add +2 to your total

■■Reroll the dice (best if you’re at like -3 or -4)
■■Invoke an aspect against an enemy to give +2 to their TN before or after they roll
■■Give an ally +2

Note, you do not need to spend Fate Points on aspects that have a free invocation on them.

Combat
Accelerated combat does not differ much from combat in Fate Core. The first thing you have
to do is set the scene by describing the sides in the combat, then creating zones and situation
aspects. Like most things in Fate, this can be done loosely and added to later on.

Next, determine the starting order by rolling and comparing Quick approaches in a physical
contest, Careful in a mental contest. Whoever rolls highest goes first.

Now combat begins in earnest! Combat is resolved through exchanges, which are very
straightforward: one character takes an action and, if that action is an attack, the target gets to
defend.

Combat is over when one side concedes (gives in) or is completely taken out, which is ex-
plained below.

Stress & Consequences

When you suffer an attack, you can choose to take stress or consequences. Stress is your
mouse taking a bruise, getting upset, or otherwise taking hits that are not life-threatening. The
amount of stress you take is equal to the shift of the roll, that being the difference between your
defend roll and your enemy’s attack.

So your enemy rolls a +4 attack but you only roll a +2 Defend. That’s a two shift hit.

Stress is absorbed using your stress track. You have three boxes each equal to a successive
number of stress: Box 1 can absorb one stress; Box 2 can take two; Box 3 is able to soak up three.

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 Your other option dealing with hits is using consequences. Just like Fate Core, your sheet has
three slots for these consequences and each can absorb shifts equal to the number next to it. The
consequence will be given to you by your GM (broken paw; stressed out; etc) and becomes an
aspect that may be invoked or compelled later!

Advancement
Advancement in Accelerated is nearly identical to Core. The big difference here is that we
have approaches instead of skills. However, for advancement, you treat approaches just as you
would treat skills if you were playing a core game. You won’t be able to purchase a new approach
because you already have all six.

Advancing and Changing Gangs

Because we’ve simplified the gang rules, we won’t be doing gang advancement, so don’t worry
about that section.

If a player wants to change a gangs belief, then they can do that. Treat it as a conflict where
the player is trying to overcome an obstacle, where the obstacle is the existing belief with a
difficulty of 6 to overcome. Once the obstacle is overcome, the players will then need to create
an advantage to create the new belief. While they are doing this, the opposing gang members
will still be attacking the player trying to change the belief.

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 THE GAME MASTER
Running FAE vs Fate Core
In its heart, Fate Accelerated is Fate Core. As the GM, there isn’t any major difference to the
two. If you’ve read the chapter on being the Game Master in Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse, then
most everything holds true. Since Motorcycles don’t have their own section, they won’t have
their own stress track. If you need to do something to one of the motorcycles, you’ll want to
create an aspect for the players to overcome.

The one thing you’ll need to do differently is to push a bit to make sure that the approach
the player wants to do fits the fiction of what they are trying to do, and is effective. Sometimes
there’s only one approach that makes sense for what they are trying to do. You can’t forcefully
try to sneak up on someone. This typically goes in the form of a player describing their actions,
the GM suggesting which approach it sounds like they are using, and the player either agreeing
or have a convincing argument for something else. It’s the GM’s job to ultimately decide which
approach is being used.

NPC Creation
Fate Accelerated NPCs are a bit simpler than their core counterparts. Important and recurring
NPCs should be statted out just like a PC with aspects, approaches, stress, and consequences.
Other NPCs that are not going to stick around and don’t get a name follow a different format.

To create such a nameless NPC, do the following:

■■Create a list of things they’re good at. They get a +2 to all rolls dealing with these things.
■■Create a list of things they’re bad at. They get a -2 to all rolls dealing with these things.
■■Everything not in one of these lists gets a +0.
■■Give them an aspect or two reflecting what they are good at or to show a vulnerability. This
can be really simple.

They have anywhere from 0 to 2 stress boxes depending on how tough you want them to be.

They do not get consequences. Stress can only be soaked by the stress track, any stress that
can’t be soaked takes them out.

To create a group of no-name NPCs, do the same as when creating an individual, but give a
group a stress box for every two members.

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Examples:

Songbird
Good at (+2): Flying, Spotting prey
Bad at (-2): Empathizing with others
Aspects: Above it all, literally and figuratively; Annoyingly Positive

Stress:

Rival Gang Members (Group)

Good at (+2): Ganging up, Riding Motorcycles
Bad at (-2): Planning, Grammer
Aspects: Leather and Chain

Stress (6 members):

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 THANK YOU!
So that’s it! The goal for this little document is to help make your games of Heavy Metal Thunder
Mouse more accessible, to remove any unnecessary hurdles for your group to overcome to tell
awesome stories about mice on bikes and I hope we’ve done

If you’ve got any questions, comments, or concerns, be sure to connect over on ShorelessSkies.
com!

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 Name

Paula
Fate Points

ASPECTS APPROACHES

Concept CAREFUL +2
Eager Prospect

CLEVER +1
Trouble
My family doesn’t know
FLASHY 0
Bike
“Lucky” FORCEFUL +2

Gang QUICK +3
Never leave a mouse behind
SNEAKY +1
Relationship
“Mother’s always look out for their brood”

STUNTS
 Born Fighter - Once per game, Paula can use Forceful instead of Clever to
Create an Advantage concerning an enemy’s fighting ability in a Conflict.

 Domestic Mountaineer - Paula takes +2 when using Quick to climb

anything inside a building (like cabinets, pantries, hearths, etc.)

 I Always Win - Paula takes +2 when she’s Forceful during a race

STRESS CONSEQUENCES
Mild

Moderate

Severe
 Name

Twofer
Fate Points

ASPECTS APPROACHES

Concept CAREFUL +2
Club Grunt

CLEVER +2
Trouble
Socially Incompetent
FLASHY +1
Bike
The Night shadow FORCEFUL 0

Gang QUICK +1
Pretty much always around
SNEAKY +3
Relationship
Kicked out of the Colony

STUNTS
 Sneaky Sneak - +2 when Twofer rolls Sneaky in a dangerous situation.

 Scrappy Fighter - Once per session, Twofer can cancel a shift that would
take him out.

 Nose for Trouble - Twofer can use Sneaky instead of Quick to determine
his turn order in a Conflict, provided he has the chance to observe or speak.

STRESS CONSEQUENCES
Mild

Moderate

Severe
 Name

Johnny Rad
Fate Points

ASPECTS APPROACHES

Concept CAREFUL 0
The Road Captain

CLEVER +2
Trouble
Never Enough Road
FLASHY +3
Bike
Pure Nitrous FORCEFUL +1

Gang QUICK +1
Faster, Faster!
SNEAKY +2
Relationship
Got an eye on Clank

STUNTS
 Motorcycle Guy - Johnny can take +2 when has to be Clever to fix a
motorcycle. Because he is.

 Roadmaster - Because he’s the Road Captain, Johnny can take +2

whenever he does something Flashy to help his friends on the road.

 Probably didn’t break anything important… - Once per session, Johnny

can use Flashy to try and fix something in a hurry

STRESS CONSEQUENCES
Mild

Moderate

Severe