Evil Hat Productions » spirit of the century

[Fate] More Compels in a Nutshell

The Toolbox - Roleplaying Game Hacks and Nifty Stuff — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:20:09 +0000

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.

[Fate] Compels in a Nutshell…

The Toolbox - Roleplaying Game Hacks and Nifty Stuff — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:38:06 +0000

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.

Driving Blind 2009-08-13 10:25:50

Driving Blind — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:25:50 +0000

(Ennie-Nominated) Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, seen at the IPR booth at GenCon:

You can pick up all of Evil Hat's games there, including A Penny For My Thoughts (look around and see if Paul's there, so he can demo it for you), Don't Rest Your Head, (Ennie-Nominated) Don't Lose Your Mind, and (Ennie-Silver-Winner) Spirit of the Century.

And as mentioned on @IPRTweets, IPR's booth number at GenCon is 2139. Drop on by (wish I could)!

2009 Ennies Nominations

Driving Blind — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:05:33 +0000

So, the 2009 Ennie Award Nominations are out this morning:

http://www.ennie-awards.com/nominations/nominees.asp

As someone on Twitter said, my fingerprints are all over 'em. This is good, because I like the Ennies, and it's really great when the Ennies like me back. I'm already a proud papa lately, but this magnifies the feeling, and for my other 'babies' to boot. :)

Evil Hat's Nominations

Best Writing - Don't Lose Your Mind
Best Setting - Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies
Product of the Year - Don't Lose Your Mind
Product of the Year - Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies

One Bad Egg's Nominations

Best Electronic Book - The Death Mother
Best Electronic Book - Hard Boiled Armies

I declare TRIUMPH with chadu at this point, since we went back and forth on the presentation of the Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies' setting so much, and lo and behold a BEST SETTING nomination. Yes, I'm jazzed as all hell for having two entries on Product of the Year (out of 10), but the setting nod is the real marker there as ultimate validation of the goal we had in producing S7S.

And Ben Baugh getting BEST WRITING for his work on Don't Lose Your Mind? Well, yeah. He did such wonderful things with language and vignettes and all that in DLYM, I would have been sorely disappointed if that hadn't gotten a specific nod, too.

The One Bad Egg stuff is a happy thing, finally, as that's the place where I actually wrote some stuff this year instead of doing higher-level production and layout stuff. I'm a little startled that Armies and Mother beat out Cultures (Cultures has been a consistent strong seller) for nomination, but they're both results from me working at the top of my game at OBE, so I'm pretty tickled.

It doesn't stop there, though, as I look towards the question of "What non-Fred IPR-carried products got the nod?"

IPR Nominations

Best Cover Art - 3:16 (BoxNinja)
Best Interior Art - HELLAS (Khepera)
Best Interior Art - Mouse Guard (Archaia)
Best Writing - Hot War (Contested Ground)
Best Production Values - Mouse Guard (Archaia)
Best Production Values - HELLAS (Khepera)
Best Rules - Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7)
Best Setting - Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor (Arc Dream)
Best Setting - Hot War (Contested Ground)
Best Podcast - Voice of the Revolution (IPR!)
Best Game - Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7)
Product of the Year - Mouse Guard (Archaia)
Product of the Year - Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7)

I'm mixed, of course, in my feelings about Mouse Guard. Mouse Guard is a fine work, worth the nods it has gotten (and more that it curiously didn't). But Luke and I are on the outs (something I don't really want to talk about, but also don't want to pretend isn't true) after he decided that it was more important to spit in my face than accept an apology for a big goof-up I made earlier this year. As such, I am doubtful that I'll be continuing The Summer Revolution past this year, and am on the fence as to whether I'll use that promotional site this year at all, since it was based on a partnership with Luke, and Luke's temper makes him a poor partner for me. I might be giving Mouse Guard some vote love, but that love's all for Archaia at this point.

Anyway, enough of that drama.

Overall, that's a pretty good spread. It's a great spread from the Evil Hat perspective, too, given that Starblazer Adventures is based on the Spirit of the Century SRD, but I'm also intrigued that IPR's catalog includes three of the five Best Setting nods, given that I think there's a sort of general perception out there that "indie means setting light". I'm sad that Master Plan isn't on the Podcast list, but Ryan's influence is still strongly felt, as he's been doing the audio production on Voice of the Revolution, which has improved the show's quality in all sorts of subtle-but-palpable ways. Don't Lose Your Mind author Ben Baugh is getting some love for Candlewick, too, which is good & just; he's probably one of my top five setting authors these days anyway, and it's *hard* to get me to love setting writing.

In the end sum, it's important to realize that in one very big way, the Ennies are already done for us (speaking in the smaller EHP/OBE sense, and in the larger IPR sense). Nominations are hard-won and carefully considered by the judges each year, but the voting is in the hands of the general public. It's particularly hard getting actual wins from that everyone-in-the-world vote; our catalogs do their best work not in quantity, but in quality, so to some extent creating the product familiarity necessary to garner a vote is the biggest obstacle of all.

So when you hear folks on the above list say things like, "It's an honor just to be nominated" -- and it is! -- listen a little closer. That nomination they're talking about is a win all by itself.

Edit: Chad's post: http://chadu.livejournal.com/743514.html

Second Edit: Somehow I failed to mention I did the layout on Starblazer Adventures, so I have an actually-palpable connection to that product beyond contributing to the SRD on which it's based.

Double Update on Sales Figures

Driving Blind — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:10:24 +0000

I goofed up and didn't do an IPR summary on April 15th. I plead taxes. So this is a double-feature, hitting both the close out of last quarter, and the beginning of this.

2009Q1: January-March, IPR

What's particularly interesting about our IPR sales is the volume to retailers. Do some quick thumbnailing to figure out the approximate percentages, and you'll see what I mean.

DLYM PDF: 16
DLYM SC: 62 (41 to retailers, 3 at cons)

DRYH PDF: 29
DRYH SC: 85 (52 to retailers, 2 at cons)

SOTC PDF: 14
SOTC SC: 174 (107 to retailers, 2 at cons)

SOTS PDF: 9
SOTS SC: 8

S7S HC: 56

2009Q1:
DLYM PDF - 16 + 16 = 32
DLYM SC - 0 + 62 = 62

DRYH PDF - 39 + 29 = 68
DRYH SC - 1 + 85 = 86

SOTC PDF - 62 + 14 = 76
SOTC SC - 0 + 174 = 174
SOTC HC - 4 + 0 = 4

SOTS PDF - 18 + 9 = 27
SOTS SC - 0 + 8 = 8

S7S HC - 0 + 56 = 56

Lifetime:
DLYM: 374 + 16 + 62 = 452
DRYH: 1964 + 29 + 85 = 2078 (milestone!)
SOTC: 3354 + 14 + 174 = 3542
SOTS: 480 + 9 + 8 = 497
S7S: 56

A solid quarter in a downturned economy. I'm happy.

2009Q2: April - OBS, Lulu, e23, YGN

Q2 2009 starts off with S7S getting into the mix. Remember, I don't include IPR numbers until the 15th of the month following the end of the quarter, so this is strictly other sales sites.

OBS:
DLYM PDF - 10
DRYH PDF - 14
SOTC PDF - 20
SOTS PDF - 2
S7S PDF - 44

Lulu:
DRYH PDF - 3
DRYH SC - 1
SOTC PDF - 3
SOTC HC - 1

YGN:
DRYH PDF - 1

e23:
DRYH PDF - 2
SOTC PDF - 2
SOTS PDF - 1

2009Q2:
DLYM PDF - 10
DRYH PDF - 14 + 3 + 1 + 2 = 20
DRYH SC - 1
SOTC PDF - 20 + 3 + 2 = 25
SOTC HC - 1
SOTS PDF - 2 + 1 = 3
S7S PDF - 44

Lifetime:
DLYM: 452 + 10 = 462
DRYH: 2078 + 20 + 1 = 2099
SOTC: 3542 + 25 + 1 = 3563
SOTS: 497 + 3 = 500
S7S: 56 + 44 = 100

I'm liking April.

The GSL Isn’t Worth Worrying About

Driving Blind — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:10:58 +0000

My initial impression after reading a bit of the GSL hullaballoo is that it's nothing really worrying about...

... so long as you're willing to walk away from it. Yeah, it represents a sticky legal bog into which many a game company could walk and few could come out. Yes, it's a disappointment for many folks who thought they could make some more money like before by creating products supporting the biggest dog on the block.

But for Evil Hat Productions (and hopefully, for many others), it's a big So What. Sure, maybe EHP could someday put out a 4E supporting product (I certainly think I have a setting concept that could go interesting places, and Rob's been talking about a modular add-on concept that could fit to nearly any campaign world), but it's not essential that we do -- and it never really was. The 3E OGL days gave us a lot of opportunity to get us some strongly developed second and third tiers. Plenty of companies and one-guy shops made their bones in that environment; they've got a name and a brand from that time. If they play their cards right and leverage that brand well, they don't need 4E to continue growing their fan-base. It'd just be nice. Phil Reed has plenty of folks standing shoulder to shoulder willing to follow Ronin Arts wherever he takes it. Green Ronin's supporters are legion. And so on.

If anything, the GSL tells us that we can probably comfortably give 4E a year to see where it goes, to see how it settles out from its awkward early stages. But more than anything, at least from where I stand, the 4E GSL is -- for my money -- a move by WOTC to support diversity in the RPG market (however unintentional that move may be). Fewer companies will be producing 4E stuff. Some will because some are willing even in the face of some pretty nasty legal terms -- every swamp-bog has its explorers, however few -- but many won't. But those many won't be standing still.

And as a few folks have pointed out, there are plenty of options for the second and third tier to get some all-star team-up action going on. True20 and Pathfinder provide successful, proven branches of the d20 oeuvre for folks interested in staying "close to home". If WEG ever gets off its ass, there's talk of making d6 an open license. Savage Worlds now has a free license (once you're approved) and a second license that provides solid support of fan-sites doing whatever they want, legally. And, yeah, Evil Hat's Fate system (and the open content of Spirit of the Century) remains free for use via the OGL (plus, we're happy to negotiate reasonable brand license terms for SOTC and DRYH if someone becomes interested -- as we already have).

So I'm not worried. I'm excited.

Maybe you can be, too.

Spirit of the Second Life

Driving Blind — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:23:22 +0000

My google-tendrils have discovered this blog post:

http://fireseeds.geekhero.net/2008/06/09/spirit-of-the-century-in-second-life/

It's talking about some folks building the tools to play Spirit of the Century in Second Life. Now, Second Life never really clicked for me, but I still think this is hot buttered nifty.

More International Love

Driving Blind — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:23:50 +0000

From Fate supporter Rene Lopez:

I just wanted to let you know that Spirit of the Century was chosen as Game of the month in the Argentinian roleplaying community Derol.com:

http://www.derol.com.ar/foro/viewforum.php?f=16

Every month, these guys chose a game to talk about and discuss in their forums. So, if you happen to speak Spanish and want to chime in on the conversation, feel free to drop buy. So far, there's been a few people already interested in both the setting and the mechanics.

I can't read it, but I like looking at http://www.derol.com.ar/foro/viewtopic.php?t=14342 all the same!

2008Q2: May for Lulu, OBS, e23, YGN

Driving Blind — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:24:30 +0000

Second month of the quarter. SOTC got a bit of an "Indy Bump" over on OneBookShelf thanks to a promotional 30% off sale. Seeing as we sold double what we did last month, I'd say the discount was more than made up for. The other salesfronts were, as usual, dwarfed by the OBS gorilla.

Lulu DRYH Soft - 2
Lulu SOTC HC - 3
Lulu SOTC PDF - 2

YGN SOTC - 1 (on sale discount -- seems to be the only way I can move product at YGN)

e23 DRYH - 1
e23 SOTC - 1
e23 SOTS - 3

OBS DRYH - 20 (12 via bundle)
OBS SOTC - 51 (Many on sale; 12 via bundle)
OBS SOTS - 11

Our totals for this month:

DRYH PDF: 2+1+20 = 23
DRYH Print: 2
SOTC Hardcover: 3
SOTC PDF: 2+1+51 = 54
SOTS PDF: 3+11 = 14

Our totals, for the quarter to date:

DRYH PDF: 14 + 23 = 37
DRYH Print: 2
SOTC Hardcover: 5 + 3 = 8
SOTC PDF: 25 + 54 = 79
SOTS PDF: 31 + 14 = 45

Spirit of the Season tapered a bit, not shocking now that we're past the initial release, but SOTC really packed a whallop. This was our second biggest month on OBS ever. Our lifetime update:

DRYH: 1391 + 23 + 2 = 1416
SOTC: 3040 + 3 + 54 = 3097
SOTS: 131 + 14 = 145

Dynamic Podcast Duo

Driving Blind — Sat, 31 May 2008 03:27:14 +0000

Fist Full of Comics & Games talks Spirit of the Century and Supers:

http://www.fistfullofcomics.com/podcasts/2008/05/29/the-superhero-summit-vol-1-03-d20-modern-spirit-of-the-century/

The SOTC bit's around the 16 and a half minute mark.

The Digital Front talks about the Evil Hat PDF guarantee and IPR at GTS -- at the 47 and a half minute mark:

http://thedigitalfront.com/2008/05/30/tdf_12/