Hi,

I've started a new campaign in a generic fantasy world using Fate(one opening session played so far, plus a bluebook session), and I'm struggling a bit with involuntary invocation of aspects. See, I'm kind of worried I might use the invocation to force players to conform to a GM-preferred storyline.

In my next session, for instance, I'd like to use a character's "Family" aspect so he'll want to see his parents and siblings one last time before fleeing the city. If the player accepts his character will choose a risky escape route crawling with the city guard simply because it passes close to his parents' house. And if he fails his Stealth check he just might get arrested after all, where he will meet the villainous NPC brothers and get a clearer idea of who he's up against and what's at stake...and then he makes his daring escape, of course.

You see my dilemma. GM-invocation of aspects is a brilliant mechanic that brings character flaws into play for a more in-depth story, but could also be a railroading tool. How do I make involuntary invocations without reducing the PCs to marionettes on the GM's string, with Fate points as the bait? Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Hello,

If no one's said it yet, welcome to the Forge. It's good to finally see a FATE post up on the Actual Play forum.

Here are some tips to avoid falling into railroading when you're compelling Aspects (compel = involuntary invocation, it's just easier to say that way):

1.) Only compel the Aspect when a player makes a decision that contradicts the Aspect, instead of bringing it up yourself. That makes you reactive instead of proactive, and keeps you out of the hot seat in a very big way. It's one thing for a player to go, "Yeah, I'm just going to skip town," and for you to compel at that point. It's another thing for you to force the action on him without prompting. This avoids the marionette problem quite a bit, because you're waiting for the player to exercise his freedom of choice first.

2.) Never, ever have a scene hook rely on a compel. Ever. It sounds to me like you want this encounter with the guards to happen for plot development purposes. So just frame it as per normal, regardless of whether or not he goes to see his family. He has to get out of town anyway, right? So of course he may run into the city guard. It's a tense situation. Run it regardless.

Additionally, you could have some NPC friend he talks to mention that he should see his folks, or something, and present the choice to the player that way. You might also say that doing so will make it slightly harder to avoid the guards (+1 difficulty to the stealth roll). If he decides to just skip town, you compel, talking about how poor Mama would want to see him before he goes. That puts the player in a position of power over a dramatic decision -- which is more important, my obligations to my family or my safety?

Either way he chooses, you still potentially get that villain encounter, but you've learned something important about the character and affected the story in the process. Everyone wins.

3.) Remember that compels aren't all bad -- there's compensation for going along with them. They're the primary method for picking up Fate Points in play. If a player went spend-crazy and has no Fate Points, he should ideally be looking for ways to push the GM into compelling his Aspects so he can replenish his totals. It's a natural give and take in the system, and everyone knows it's there from the outset. In that sense, when you compel a player with no Fate Points, you're kind of doing him a favor.

In the same vein, if you absolutely have to set up a plot point with an Aspect (like saying that a character's 'Mob Connections' Aspect makes it easy for a PI to track him down), just offer the FP (or two) as immediate compensation for the use of the Aspect. No big deal. But make sure that kind of stuff is cool with your group.

***

This should prevent a lot of the issues with Aspects and the dreaded r-word, especially tip #1. Hope this helps.


-Landon Darkwood
Assistant Developer, Dresden Files RPG
www.dresdenfilesrpg.com

It's good to see FATE discussed here -- I use a lot of elements from it in actual play, but haven't posted about my experiences.

I tend to treat involuntary invocations more as bangs -- they raise an issue you have to deal with, without specifying the "right answer". Instead of saying "Pay a fate point or you have to rescue your family," you might say "Pay a fate point or your family hasn't gotten out yet". If they're interested in dealing with the added complication, they'll agree to it.

My experience in play has been that if a player chooses a negative Aspect, they want it to come into play. I tell them that they can voluntarily invoke it to add a complication which will pay off with a fate point, as well. Even so, sometimes it's satisfying to add that complication at a dramatic point. But I always try to ensure that it's not something they have to deal with in a certain way; usually they could even avoid it, although that would have consequences.

As for your specific example, I'd probably have "unresolved situation with family" and "meets villainous NPCs" as separate Bangs, and would throw the second one in whenever circumstances merited.

Thanks for the welcome, and the great suggestions. (Compelling aspects is a great way to put it, btw--"involuntary invocation of aspects" is really quite a mouthful, heh.) These are definitely stuff I should keep in mind when it comes to compelling aspects, especially taking a reactive role. The point about payoff is important too; it's only been one session, and I can see players are already leery of invoking aspects at all because they don't want to be caught without Fate points in an absolute pinch. One player actually squealed for joy when I compelled her character's aspect, so this is something I should definitely be doing more often. :)

The Aspects-as-Bangs idea is interesting, especially because Fate's aspect system includes so many elements found in other games--traits, virtues, flaws, Keys. And aspect compellation, done right, definitely forces hard decisions with strong thematic implications.

*Slinks off to digest the advice*

Landon Darkwood wrote: Hello,
1.) Only compel the Aspect when a player makes a decision that contradicts the Aspect, instead of bringing it up yourself. That makes you reactive instead of proactive, and keeps you out of the hot seat in a very big way. It's one thing for a player to go, "Yeah, I'm just going to skip town," and for you to compel at that point. It's another thing for you to force the action on him without prompting. This avoids the marionette problem quite a bit, because you're waiting for the player to exercise his freedom of choice first.

Neil wrote:

Landon Darkwood wrote: Hello,
One of the things I've done is remember these situations and awarded extra FATE points at the end of the session if something like this occured. Not strictly canon I know, but it works.

That's what I used to do, but I found my players didn't make the link between their fate point awards and aspects. They were saying: "I got 3 FP and he got 1 FP, I got rewarded by the GM more that session."
I saw that as a problem, which went away when I changed to instant in-session awards.

demiurgeastaroth wrote:
That's what I used to do, but I found my players didn't make the link between their fate point awards and aspects. They were saying: "I got 3 FP and he got 1 FP, I got rewarded by the GM more that session."
I saw that as a problem, which went away when I changed to instant in-session awards.

Sorry to have missed this thread when it originally arose.  My apologies if I'm responding to this later than I should.

Landon really said a lot of what needed to be said (big surprise; of the current Fate author crew, he's the guy who gets to our destinations ahead of us, and usually ends up being right about what our destination was going to be.  Smarmy bastard.).

But in general, I'd say that GMs can and should feel free to do compels (the term I use nowadays for "negative" invocations) ab initio, without player prompting, so long as they aren't doing it to *force* decisions.  When a compel comes up, it should be very clearly about laying a relevant, aspect-based choice in front of a character (and, as a GM, because I want to see my players feel like they're able to make the choice -- either by resisting it, paying a FP, or accepting it, gaining a FP -- I pretty much never do an ab initio compel if the player's completely out of FPs, because that _will_ seem railroady).

To talk specifically about actual play, just this past Wednesday I ran a playtest session of the Dresden Files RPG for my local crew.  The character in question, Tamsin, is a changeling, half-faerie, and was travelling with the other characters through the Nevernever.  They passed through the Winter Court, and finally were ready to cross back to the mortal realms.  A bridge came before them.  Tamsin chose to go across last.

GM: "Really?  You're going to go across last?"
Tam: Uh huh.
GM: *rolls forward a fate point* "You know, you're in the Winter Court, where your mother came from.  That's a sort of Cold Comfort" (one of her aspects) "don't you think?"
Tam: *whimpers*
GM: *toying with the fate chip* "It's nice here.  Comfortable.  Winter's army lies just over that bluff.  Isn't it time to sign up?  Join others of your kind?  You don't belong with these people, here." (to the other players) "Tamsin's standing at the starting end of the bridge, but she's looking off to the side.  She hasn't stepped on yet."
(At this point there's a commotion of the bridge as some of the other PCs want to do something about this, while others think it's Tamsin's choice to make on her own.)
Tam: Let me get this straight.  On the one hand, I have Winter, here.  It's cold and bitter, but it's in my blood.  On the other hand, I have my friends, just across the bridge, who are human, and sometimes I just don't "get" that. Right?
GM: *nods* Yep. That's how it plays. *slides the fate chip over*
Tam: *takes a breath* Nope.  *slides the GM's chip, and one of her own, back to the GM* It's not time.  It's not time for me yet.
GM: All right then. (to another player, who's just gotten over to Tamsin) Her glassy eyes clear as she turns back to you.
(story progressed from there; they cross the bridge)

What's important in the above is that the choice was put before the character. If she'd accepted the compel, I would have started unfurling a subplot that would've made life pretty tough for her.  Since she resisted, her story takes another course of her own making.  Either way, there were no rails.

Fred,

That was a great example.  I've had moments like that in freeform play, but having a mechanic for it brings it more into focus. I mean, a single FATE point is not that huge a deal (compared to the choice that character was making)--but simply triggering the compel is like a way of saying, "Hold on a second. Think about this. This here is important." Know what I mean?

Yep, xeno -- I know exactly what you mean.