Aspects are the best tool in your arsenal as a Fate GM. For those who have not played Fate before, aspects are descriptive words or phrases that describe different parts of a campaign. When an aspect would benefit you, it can be invoked for a +2 or a re-roll on your check. When an aspect works against you, it is compelled to force you to spend a fate point or suffer a -2 on the roll and receive a fate point. Aspects can also be used more narratively: invoked for small changes to the scene or story such as having a cheap piece of equipment on hand, or compelled to offer your character a fate point for doing something unhelpful or dangerous, such as mouthing-off to the big, bad villain.
Aspects give your characters and your world complexity and life when done correctly. But for new Fate GMs, managing so many different aspects can be overwhelming. Each of your players is going to have at least four aspects, each of your npcs should have at least one aspect, each area your players visit should have multiple aspects, even your game world as a whole can have aspects placed on it. How do you remember them all? Just remembering to compel your players’ aspects takes up most of your brain-space, and the rest tend to fall by the wayside.
In short, you don’t make all the aspects the rules recommend. Just remembering the aspects your player characters have is difficult enough, so I advise only putting aspects on non-player characters and areas you know you’ll want to compel against your players at some time in the session and leave the rest blank. There is a great mechanic in the game where your players can guess an aspect of a person or place, and if they happen to guess an aspect you didn’t have written down but makes perfect sense, you simply nod and say, “You figured that aspect out!” and add it to your notes. This is supposed to require a successful skill check, but you can certainly add the aspect even if your player fails the roll. Simply withhold the free invoke on that aspect on a failed check.
Aspects are also excellent tools for planning your sessions. Have you ever worried over whether your player would be happy with a plot you planned specifically for their character? With Fate, all you need to do is look at your players’ aspects, especially their Trouble. When your player chooses his or her aspects, they are literally saying, “I want my challenges to revolve around this!” This doesn’t mean you can’t surprise your players, as long as you’re willing to put a little extra effort into the build-up.
For example, in a game I’m running, one of my players was expecting her character to be roped into a political marriage proposal at some point thanks to her aspect of Daimyo’s Illigit Sister. She was NOT expecting her probable husband to be another daimyo’s son whom she had just discovered was willing to capture innocent people to sell into slavery. In this example, I used two tricks to make the plot-twist unexpected yet meaningful. The first is that I took her expectations and cranked them up a few notches to make the problem much worse than she had assumed. Secondly, I introduced her to the character and gave her a reason to hate him on a personal level, but gave the impression he was a defeated foe and no longer a real problem to her.
If you take advantage of these tips, aspects will be your best friend as a Fate GM. They add complexity and realism to your world with just a few words, and give you an easy to read guide to the hearts of your players. I hope you invoke this article for +2 to your next GMing check sometime soon.
Doran Ylitalo
Latest posts by Doran Ylitalo (see all)
- Rules Lawyer- FATE: Aspects of GMing - July 8, 2015
