In the first Touch of Fate article, we looked at ways to use Dresden Files style campaign creation in our Star Wars games. This time, we are going to look at ways to use one of the core mechanics of Fate, Aspects.
Sometimes when creating characters to play in RPGs, we come up with great motivations, back stories, and personalities. However, it isn't always easy to see those things come into play at the table. One of the great things about the Fate system is that it takes those details about your character and uses them to drive the core mechanics of the game. It does so with Aspects.
Aspects are short narrative statements that define and describe a character or situation. A great summary of what aspects are and how they are used can be found here: Fate SRD. For characters, aspects are related to who they are, their background, or their personality. For instance, Luke Skywalker at the beginning of A New Hope might have the aspect, "Force Sensitive Farmboy".
In Fate, aspects are used by players to give their characters a bonus to their die rolls in situations that one of their aspects could apply. The player spends a Fate point to do so. Aspects can also be used by the GM to make life more complicated for a character. This is called a compel and gives the character a Fate point to use later. Continuing our example above, Luke's player might spend a Fate point to invoke "Force Sensitive Farmboy" when calling on the Force to get a bonus, but the GM might also compel it when Luke gets into an altercation in a cantina because his isolated upbringing means he doesn't know how to tell who the dangerous faces in the crowd are.
To add aspects to your characters, come up with a few statements that describe them - some Fate games have specific ways to come up with them, such as one for a high concept, one for the character's trouble, and others based on events in the character's background. I would recommend only going with two to three when trying it out.
If course, the tricky part is trying to figure out a way to use them in the game, otherwise, why bother?
There are a few ways to give this a try based on how deep you want to go:
1. Use aspects to give boosts and setbacks: Allow the player to add a boost die to their roll when they can invoke an aspect. The GM can add a setback to a roll if they compel an aspect.
2. Tie use of the Destiny pool to aspects: The players can only use Destiny points when they can invoke an aspect or compel an aspect of an NPC or situation. The GM can only use a Destiny point when they compel a PC's aspect or invoke an NPC's aspect.
3. Replace the Destiny pool and use Fate points instead: Give each player Destiny tokens to use as Fate points. You can either give them a predetermined number, say two to three, or let them roll Force dice to determine their starting number. They each have their own pool and spend them for a standard light side point effect, but can only spend them by invoking an aspect. The GM gives the player a point when he invokes an aspect to complicate life for the character or use a standard dark side point effect.
Each option has its own strengths and limitations. Option 1 is the simplest to add, and allows players to really use the things that drive their characters, but can lead to players always trying to get a boost by trying very hard to connect every action to an aspect.
Option two preserves the ebb and flow of light and dark that the Destiny pool gives, while adding in the character story factors that aspects can give you, but can restrict it's use in certain situations.
Option three basically gives you the full Fate point experience, however, this option does remove the light vs dark balance that the Destiny pool provides.
All in all, adding aspects to our games is a good way to try to dig a little deeper into our characters and bring the details of a character to the forefront while in play, and I would recommend you give it a try.
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