Following up from my previous post. Go read that and this comment first: http://lcdarkwood.livejournal.com/3824.html?thread=15600#t15600 - I'm doing my reply as a new post because it got long, and because I think it'll be helpful to further discussion.

I don't think there's functionally that much difference between what SotC says and what I'm saying. Let's break it down by passage, and I'll show you where the letters fall:

"If a character is given a situation (X) where he would normally have a number of choices (Y), and limiting those choices to act in accordance with his aspect is going to make more trouble for the character (Z)..."

"If everything would be going along normally (X and Y), and the aspect makes things more difficult or introduces an unexpected twist (Z), that’s also grounds for a compel."

The only thing I'm adding is clarity, mainly for the purpose of providing a rubric for judgment, for those folks who still wonder if their compels are doing what they actually should. Because, look, you have to evaluate a game mechanic by asking yourself what it actually does to play, what its purpose is.

So, let's look at a bad example:

***

You're Dane Black, private eye. You have the aspect, "Damsels in Distress Do It To Me Every Time". I narrate that a beautiful dame comes into your office, distressed, and flops into the chair at the desk and says, "Mr. Black, you have to help me, I have no one else to turn to!"

You decide to take her case. The GM hands you a fate point.

***

What actually happened there? What did giving you a fate point do for the story we're making, what did it show me about your character, what drama did it create? Absolutely nothing, and absolutely none. I basically just gave you a bennie for playing your character, something you should be doing by default, or else you have bigger problems than figuring out this game.

So, let's go again, and this time add the all-important Z (apologies for potential lack of class here):

***

You're Dane Black, private eye. You have the aspect, "Damsels in Distress Do It To Me Every Time". I narrate that a beautiful dame comes into your office, distressed, and flops into the chair at the desk and says, "Mr. Black, you have to help me, I have no one else to turn to!"

You decide to take her case. I go "Hm," and decide a compel might be fun here.

So I narrate that you're heading out the office with her when your phone rings. You say you ask her to hold on a second and answer it. I say it's your girlfriend, and she's, oh my god, stranded on the freeway with smoke coming out of the engine and needs your help right now!

You try and reason with the dame, and she tells you that she came to you instead of going to the cops ('cause she thinks they're dirty), so it looks really bad for her right now. She needs you to get there and investigate the scene before the cops do, otherwise, she's (gasp!) a suspect.

You say, "Don't worry, babe, we'll have plenty of time." I hold up a fate point and say, "No. No, you won't."

So now we have all three elements - a situation that is complicated by an aspect, a potential choice that needs to be made, and a good idea of what consequences could result from doing so. If I want to be explicit, I might say, "Look, it's either one or the other. If you go to your girlfriend, there are probably going to be cops all over the scene, mucking with evidence and whatnot, and then the dame will be a suspect. If you go with her, your girlfriend is going to be upset, to say the least... and you will feel the fury of a woman scorned later."

You think about it and say, "Man. I guess the job comes first." I give you a fate point and smile the smile of the wicked, and we roleplay the rest of the scene.

***

Now: what did *that* exchange do for the story? A whole ton. First of all, it told us something more about the situation at hand, which maybe sets me up for a new scene. Second of all, it told us something essential about your character *beyond* just the aspect on the sheet - your decisions do that more than any selection of pithy phrases can. And notice, I didn't tell you what to do or what not to do at any point; control of your character remained wholly yours.

Next, it ramped up the drama a bit - now we have a tension of both time and relationship in play, which we can mess with to good effect later. Paying off that kind of buildup will give the session more emotional resonance and punch.

Lots of bang for buck there. Imagine if you had one of those every scene.

***

Final note: So, you may be looking at this and saying, "Well, what if I refuse the compel?" Hey, fine by me - but what are you really saying "no" to? Are you really rejecting your aspect? No, because it's clear that whatever decision you make, it's relevant to your usual pattern of falling for damsels in distress. (Even if you say no to taking the case, because you're having a strong-willed moment.) Are you saying no to one particular choice or another? Not really, or not anymore so than you would in normal play.

So there's only one thing left to reject, really, which is the potential for complication. The Z.

So, there it is. If you do compels in your group, and you don't say a lot of this stuff explicitly, but you still have fun and dynamic results, I'm willing to bet that all of X, Y, and Z are happening in some fashion. If you're having issues, going back to this rubric and evaluating what you do by it will, I hope, help you out a bit.

Hack Type: Advice
System: Spirit of the Century, The Dresden Files RPG, any Fate v3 variant

Just because it came to my mind and I wanted to archive it somewhere, this is as simple as the definition can get:

1. Something relevant to aspect X happens.
2. The player chooses to respond with Y.
3. Z happens as a result.*

* = Z is something complicated and/or horrible, and is not bound by the application of other game rules (like skill rolls, etc.)

Accepting or rejecting the compel is almost always (and by this, I mean if it's not, reexamine the compel) about accepting or rejecting Z, not X or Y. 

When in doubt, applying this as a litmus test is a pretty good way to go, I think.

EDIT: I've been asked to provide examples. Didn't any of you folks ever take algebra? :)

Aspect is Greedy.

1.) A crime boss offers you money to sell out your friends. 
2.) You sell out your friends for the money.
3.) As a result of this, your home base gets destroyed. (And probably, your friends are pissed at you, but they're PCs too, so that's for them to decide.)

or

1.) A crime boss offers you money to sell out your friends.
2.) You want the money, so you give him false information.
3.) As a result of this, he discovers the deception and puts a price on your head so large every bounty hunter within 1,000 miles wants to kill you.

New example. Aspect is Senior Assassin for the Black Mambo Society

1.) The Society asks you to do a job of questionable ethical value.
2.) You refuse.
3.) They kill your grandma.

or

1.) The Society asks you to do a job of questionable ethical value.
2.) You agree.
3.) Your grandma finds out and disowns you.

***

Why does it not become a compel until the third part? Two reasons.

The first is, because this could always happen instead:

1.) Crime boss offers you money to sell out your friends.
2.) You lie to get the cash.
3.) I ask you to roll Deceit against the crime boss' Empathy, to see if you successfully get the cash or not, and you invoke your Greedy aspect to help you on the roll.

See the difference? With a compel, you *automatically* decide the outcome is going to be dramatically or "plot" complicated, as opposed to using any other means of resolution. With compels, plot happens because of who you are and what you choose.

The second reason is, you cannot ever, ever, EVER take away a player's choice regarding his character's actions. Period. Even when we didn't know how to articulate these things as precisely as we do now, we knew enough to tell you on SotC page 44 that you can limit the available range of choices but not dictate precise actions. Aspects are not, and never should be used as, a railroading tool.

I'll be the first to admit the text in SotC could have been clearer on this point. It's clearer in Dresden.

Hey folks! We've had our heads down & nose to the grindstone for a while, trying to deal with the Dresden Files RPG Entropy Curse Effect (more on that in a later post) and watching the Burning Alpha play itself out.

That said, we wanted to call your attention to a series of podcasts over on Narrative Control. These guys were part of the Burning Alpha and give the game some good attention. (That said, a lot of our playtesters got caught up in city creation more than anticipated -- something we're working on in our current revisions -- so you'll be seeing a fair amount of that in this round, too.)

Here's a guide to the Dresden Files Burning Alpha episodes on Narrative Control:

Title: Episode 3: City Creation – Part 1
Topics: Picking a City and Themes
Link: http://www.narrativecontrol.com/index.php?post_id=380416

Title: Episode 4: City Creation – Part 2
Topics: People and Places
Link: http://www.narrativecontrol.com/index.php?post_id=382891

Title: Episode 10: Actual Play Report
Topics: Compels and Fate Chip Economy
Link: http://www.narrativecontrol.com/index.php?post_id=400612

And here's where they talk with Evil Hatter Fred Hicks:

Title: Episode 13: Interview with Fred Hicks
Topics: Points of Tension, System and Setting Integration, Advancement System, Stunts and Damage
Link: http://www.narrativecontrol.com/index.php?post_id=407242

Hi folks! Sorry about the lack of updates these last couple months -- the Summer convention season has had us swamped. While we're continuing to work on the RPG (despite a computer crash slowing down one of our writers), we've lacked that crucial extra chunk of time to update folks on this blog.

So what's new? Well, we recently kicked off the Burning Alpha Playtest. This is the second alpha round, with another 20 or so playtesting groups selected out of our pool of over (yikes!) 750 applicants. Stacey Chancellor, one of our Burning Alpha playtesters, has started collecting links to the various places you can see the Burning Alpha underway, over on the Dresden Files RPG Livejournal Community:

http://community.livejournal.com/dresdenfilesrpg/10010.html

Evil Hat will be attending GenCon, as a part of the IPR / Forge Booth (#1939) -- and by that we mean lead developer Lenny Balsera, setting guru Chad Underkoffler, and Evil Hat owners Rob Donoghue and Fred Hicks will all be there, along with other members of our writing and editing staff. Come on by and pick our brains!

And while we're on the topic of GenCon, the Ennie Awards voting is underway, and Evil Hat's product Spirit of the Season is up for an award for Best Supplement. We'd love to get your support with just a couple minutes taken to vote (you don't have to vote on everything, just the stuff you're familiar with).

http://www.ennieawards.com/voting/index.phtml

If you'd like to familiarize yourself with Spirit of the Season before casting a vote, please do! We have a completely free 40-page version (trimmed down from the 72+ page version that's for sale) available on DriveThruRPG:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=51248

Thanks, everyone!

Counter to my usual policy until things are verifiably in motion, I offer up some timeline intentions:

AFTER ORIGINS:

- We'll put Don't Lose Your Mind up for preorder on IPR.

- We'll try kicking off the second Alpha round of Dresden Files RPG playtests (early to mid July as the start-point).

AT GEN CON:

- We'll have Don't Lose Your Mind up for sale.

AFTER GEN CON:

- We'll ship out preordered copies of Don't Lose Your Mind and put it up for "standard" sale & shipment.

- We'll try wrapping up the second Alpha round of the DFRPG playtest (mid to late August as the stopping point).

Did I forget to mention that staceyinastoria started up a dresdenfilesrpg livejournal community? I may have. If I did, I hereby correct it!

Good news! Evil Hat has inked a deal with Kenneth Hite to have him write the Occult Chicago chapter for the Dresden Files RPG, blending the locations and events of the novels together with Ken's real-life research into Chicago, where he currently resides. We're (somewhat obviously) thrilled to have Ken on board for this.

If his name sounds familiar to you, that's because you play RPGs. :) You might have even heard about a little game he recently worked on titled Trail of Cthulhu.

Welcome aboard!

Good news! Evil Hat has inked a deal with Kenneth Hite to have him write the Occult Chicago chapter for the Dresden Files RPG, blending the locations and events of the novels together with Ken's real-life research into Chicago, where he currently resides. We're (somewhat obviously) thrilled to have Ken (princeofcairo) on board for this.

If his name sounds familiar to you, that's because you play RPGs. :) You might have even heard about a little game he recently worked on titled Trail of Cthulhu.

Welcome aboard!

So folks are probably wondering where we're at on the Dresden Files RPG development front, after the previous bit.

Chad U. is continuing his update of our setting components with material from Small Favor (and eventually the comic books and Backup). More about that, here: http://chadu.livejournal.com/tag/dresden

Lenny had semester finals up through Wednesday, and is now in the period of recovery. Starting next week, he goes full-tilt at the playtester feedback, doing revisioneering and expansion on spellcraft, conflict resolution, and supernatural abilities.

Other stuff is afoot too, but those are our two workhorses on the project, so that should give you a picture. As I've been saying, I'm hopeful we'll be able to kick off a second alpha round sometime in June.

So I've kept the playtest application for the Dresden Files RPG open during the bleeding alpha period. During the playtest, we've taken in an additional 200+ applications. As of this time, the total number of playtest applications on file is over 850.

Think we have enough?

Anyway, I put this out there because I've gotten a few people saying "why haven't I heard back", and so on. We're looking at a TITANIC number of interested folks here, and we've only done one round of picks for playtesting so far -- maybe 30 applications at most. That still leaves over 800 folks who are *possible* for later-round picks.

But we can't send out 800 emails each time we do a round of picking to tell folks "sorry, you're still on pending status", not managably, and not without that eating into actual productivity.

BUT! Those of you who have applied and not heard back should know that at the least, we'll be contacting you once ALL playtesting is concluded and we're heading towards publication. We'll want to do right by everyone who took the time to apply -- we haven't quite figured out what form that will take, but it *is* our intention, and one I hope we can deliver on.