Editing Unwritten: System Reference Document/Running the Game (section)

==Handling Aspects==

Aspects are the pivot that the Fate system turns on. You have an important job in managing the flow of fate points to and from the players, giving them opportunities to spend freely in order to succeed and look awesome, and bringing in potential complications to help keep them stocked up on points. As a GM, understanding how aspects work is the most important skill you can develop.

A lot of people get confused about what qualifies as an aspect and what doesn’t. The only difference between a story detail and an aspect is that an aspect is important. Pre-determined aspects are inherently important: character aspects are those details that the players want to be important, while the aspects you place on a scene are what you think the scene will be about. They are meant to ‘stick out’ so that you remember them, and so you can use them for invocations and compels. Not everything in a scene or a location will be notable. You don’t need to give a forest an aspect of Lush Forest unless you plan to actually use it. 

There is no way you can anticipate what players will find important, though. As soon as a detail becomes important to the story, it becomes an aspect.  You should allow it to be used as an aspect as long as it makes sense. If a player says in the middle of an action, says something like , “Hey, this forest is pretty dense right? Maybe it has the aspect Lush Forest that I can invoke with a fate point,” you should consider it. Players can force this to happen through successful Advantage actions, but there is no requirement that an aspect has to come from an action.

At the same time, if a detail just doesn’t come up, then it won’t become an aspect. If an aspect never gets used, then just drop it.

This may seem really vague, with aspects popping in and out of existence. This is a strength of aspects - what is important narratively becomes mechanically important when it needs to.

===Justification is Power===

Justification might seem like the least interesting of the roles that aspects play. However, using an aspect to justify an action or a situation gets the most mileage out of anything you can use it for.

Aspects are true. Because they are, they shape the game. Whether an action makes sense or not depends on the aspects that affect it. Dissecting a mysteriously dead animal makes perfect sense if you are a Former Medical Examiner or a Biology Major. Without that, it won’t fly.

Situation aspects offer the same guidance. For example, if a character is trying to sprint quickly across a room with Cluttered Floors, it makes sense to ask for a roll before they can move. If there is no such aspect, just let them make the move and get on to something more interesting.

===Invocations===

We recommend that you don’t apply extremely exacting standards when the PC wants to invoke an aspect—you want them to spend in order to keep the flow going. If you’re too stringent on your requirements, it’s going to discourage them from that free spending.

On the other hand, ask for more clarification if you don’t get what a player is implying, in terms of how the aspect relates to what’s happening in play. Sometimes, what seems obvious to one person isn’t to another, and you shouldn’t let the desire to toss fate points lead to overlooking the narration. If a player is having a hard time justifying the invocation, ask them to elaborate on their action more or unpack their thoughts.

You might also have the problem of players who get lost in the open-ended nature of aspects—they don’t invoke because they aren’t sure if it’s too much of a stretch to apply an aspect in a certain way. The more work you do beforehand making sure that everyone’s clear on what an aspect means, the less you’ll run into this. To get the player talking about invoking aspects, always ask them whether or not they’re satisfied with a roll result (“So, you succeed with a result of 1 shift. You want to leave it at that? Or do you want to be even more awesome?”). Make it clear that invoking an aspect is almost always an option on any roll, in order to try and get them talking about the possibilities. Eventually, once you get a consistent dialogue going, things should smooth out.

===Compels===

During the game, you should look for opportunities to compel the PCs’ aspects at the following times:
* Whenever simply succeeding at a skill roll would be bland
* Whenever any player has one or no fate points
* Whenever someone tries to do something, and you immediately think of some aspect-related way it could go wrong

Remember that there are essentially two types of compels in the game: decision-based, where something complicated occurs as a result of something a character does, and event-based, where something complicated occurs simply as a result of the character being in the wrong situation at the wrong time.

Of the two, you’re going to get the most mileage out of event-based compels—it’s already your job to decide how the world responds to the PCs, so you have a lot of leeway to bring unfortunate coincidence into their lives. Most of the time, players are just going to accept you doing this with minimal negotiation.

Decision-based compels are a little trickier. Try to refrain from suggesting decisions to the players, and focus on responding to their decisions with potential complications. It’s important that the players retain their sense of autonomy over what their PCs say and do, so you don’t want to dictate that to them. If the players are roleplaying their characters according to their aspects, it shouldn’t be hard to connect the complications you propose to one of them.

During play, you’ll also need to make clear when a particular compel is “set”, meaning that there’s no backing out without paying a fate point. When players propose their own compels, this won’t come up, because they’re fishing for the point to begin with. When you propose them, you need to give the players room to negotiate with you over what the complication is, before you make a final decision. Be transparent about this—let them know when the negotiation phase has ended.

====Weak Compels====

In order for the compel mechanic to be effective, you have to take care that you’re proposing complications of sufficient dramatic weight. Stay away from superficial consequences that don’t really affect the character except to provide color for the scene. If you can’t think of an immediate, tangible way that the complication changes what’s going on in the game, you probably need to turn up the heat. If it doesn’t give someone a sinking feeling, you probably need to turn up the heat. It’s not good enough for someone to be angry at the PC—they get angry and they’re willing to do something about it in front of everyone. It’s not good enough for a business partner to cut them off—he cuts them off and tells the rest of his associates to blacklist them.

Also, keep in mind that some players may tend to offer weak compels when they’re fishing for fate points, because they don’t really want to hose their character that badly. Feel free to push for something harder if their initial proposal doesn’t actually make the situation that much more dramatic.

====Encouraging Players to Compel====

With five aspects per PC, it’s prohibitively difficult for you to take the sole responsibility for compels at the table, because that’s a lot of stuff to remember and keep track of. You need the players to be invested in looking for moments to compel their own characters.

Open-ended prompting can go a long way to this habit in your players. If you see an opportunity for a potential compel, instead of proposing it directly, ask a leading question instead. Let the player do the work of coming up with the complication and then pass the fate point along.

Also remind the players that they can compel your NPCs, if they happen to know one of that NPC’s aspects. Do the same open-ended prompting when you’re about to have an NPC make a decision, and ask the players to fill in the blanks.

Your main goal should be to enlist the players as partners in bringing the drama, rather than being the sole provider.