When designing a game it's common to find a "baseline" of power for Characters to be based upon, a point where the characters are similar in their own way regardless of the situation. All Dwarves in D&D have the same stat bonuses, all Knights are relatively similar in Pendragon, and most of Nechronica's dolls are playing by the same rules.
However, during my process of designing "Fate/Dice Dancer," my attempt at a Fate game in the Nasuverse I realized that creating characters that don't abide by these rules are incredibly difficult for a few reasons. Not only is it that you have to have two sets of Characters play by separate rules, but you have to make those rules similar enough for when the two parties inevitably come into conflict with each other. So when I'm designing F/DD my goal was to keep things fairly streamlined, but the more I approach the issue, the more I realize that it's not quite working the way it really ought to.
Servants are fundamentally stronger than a Master, but the relationship between the two is "roughly" equal. So how do you represent dynamic between the two at the table? In the VN and Anime of the series, the relationship is portrayed through dialogue and actions of the characters, however in Tabletop, where dice are involved and the expectation is that the players are playing together does this get a bit complicated. The original intention was to have Masters act as someone as a Buffer to the Servants, maneuvering around their titanic battles to either deal with the other Master or enable their Servant to strike a decisive blow. However this is proving to be difficult, as I've already switched strains twice to address the power gap, and now looking at this I feel as though I'll have to rewrite the system from the ground up.
While I do enjoy the idea of a Fate tabletop game, I understand why the concept has been difficult to create into a functional game to this point. As you are forced to acknowledge the difference between the two, fundamentally linked, forces in the setting. So as of right now F/DD will be put on hold until I can get that moment when it can click together. My initial hope was that changing the Dice Pool system would be best, but I may have to fundamentally rework the system to accommodate this. Ironically something FAR FAR lighter would be best for a setting like this. After reading around I've discovered that, ironically enough, the FATE system (alternatively FUDGE) is quite popular when representing the setting. I may consult with that to either create an entirely separate strain or just carve out the ideas and Frankenstein them onto another strain of my choice.
