In this chapter, we talk about aspects. How they affect the game, how to tell a good aspect from a bad one, and I’m gonna give you a whole ton of example aspects. But first, a short history lesson.
Aspects were first presented to me in a game called Spirit of the Century. Spirit uses an open license game engine called “FATE.” It was written by Robert Donoghue, Fred Hicks, and Leonard Balsera. (FATE itself was designed from another game called FUDGE, written by Stephen O’Sullivan.) You can find a link to the open source documentation at the end of this book. When I saw how aspects worked for the first time, I was excited. Aspects made sense. They were also the missing link in making this game, fulfilling one of my most crucial goals: getting rid of ambiguous and abstract elements from my anti-D&D RPG.
With aspects, a player doesn’t just choose from a list of skills, he has to think about who his character is. He has to think about where she came from, who she knows, and what she’s learned. In other words, aspects were anything but abstract. They represented the character’s real experiences and the skills, talents an abilities she learned from those experiences.
That’s what you should be thinking about when you create your character’s aspects. Not just who your character is, but how it all happened, when it happened, where it happened and why it happened.
Of course, with most RPGs, we have some sort of abstract skill system that implies these questions, but the system itself does not put you in the position of having to ask them.
So, with all that in mind, exactly what makes a good aspect? Let’s start by building one from scratch. A Name, for example. In fact, let’s build Shara’s.
Your Name
Names have powerful symbolic and supernatural influence over every ven. Shara is no exception.
When designing Shara’s Name, I have to ask three questions: how the Name can be invoked, tagged, and compelled?
Invoke
Invoking your Name gives you bonus dice for a particular risk. For example, Shara’s Name means “veiled rose.” I could draw all kinds of meanings from that esoteric phrase, but the one meaning I choose is that she’s damn good at keeping secrets. So, when she’s doing just that, I can invoke her Name and gain bonus dice for my risk.
Now, this is important. Remember that invoking your Name gets you bonus dice for a risk. If you aren’t rolling dice, you aren’t invoking your Name. Also, you may only invoke your own Name. You can’t invoke someone else’s.
Tag
When another player (or the GM) tags your Name, they get some sort of advantage out of it. This is when they are using your own Name as an advantage against you in a risk. Again, this is important. Unless someone is rolling dice, they cannot tag your Name. Tagging an aspect only comes into play when rolling dice. If you want a narrative advantage against someone, you compel their aspect. You can read about that below.
Also, you cannot tag a third party’s Name for an advantage against someone else. I don’t exactly know how this would work, but one of the playtesters asked if they could do it, so I’m putting it in here. If one person thought of it, someone else must be thinking it, too.
Using the above example, let’s figure out how Shara’s “veiled rose” can be used against her in a risk. This is someone taking some kind of risk against her, rolling dice, looking for additional advantage. In this case, I define that advantage as “untrustworthy.” In other words, Shara keeps her cards close to her chest. So much so, that sometimes she appears just a little too secretive to be trusted. When Shara is trying to make a case for relying on her word, someone can tag her aspect, veiled rose, and gain bonus dice. Why? Because she’s just a little too veiled to trust.
Compel
When folks invoke and tag aspects, they get bonus dice, but compelling an aspect is a bit more direct. In other words, tagging and compelling are mechanical advantages and compelling is a narrative advantage. (Or, in your case, a disadvantage.) When someone compels your aspect, it limits your ability to act. But the real trick here is this: both you and other players (including the GM) can compel your own aspects.
Using the above example again, someone can compel Shara’s “veiled rose” aspect to make her act a certain way. I have to come up with how that would work. After some thought, I come up with the answer. Again, this time, it has to do with trust.
Shara does not trust people. Her mother’s journals and her father’s behavior have taught her that those around her are weak. With the sole exception of her mother, of course. For Shara, weakness is like a disease. If you get too close to it, you can catch it. So Shara doesn’t let the weak get close to her. She doesn’t allow herself to trust.
Compelling Shara’s “veiled rose” aspect means she won’t trust you, no matter what you say to her. Because this limits her behavior in a specific way, it is an appropriate way to compel her aspect.
Now, other people can compel her aspect to make her not trust people she should. Or, I can compel her aspect to force her not to trust people I feel she should not. Both are viable options. I can even compel Shara’s aspect just for dramatic effect. Remember, the ven love drama. So should you. Putting your character directly in harm’s way, or even losing a small advantage, is good form. And you’ll be rewarded for it.
Compelling an aspect is narrative, not mechanical. By that, I mean that you don’t get any dice for compelling someone’s behavior. Also, you cannot compel someone while they are taking a risk. Risks must resolve themselves out before you can try compelling someone. All the dice have to be rolled and all the wagers have to be spent before you can compel an aspect.
To be clear on this issue—which is rather important—do not mix tagging, invoking and compelling. This way leads to madness. One thing at a time, each thing in its own time.
So, with all that in mind, how is your Name invoked, tagged, and compelled?
Choices
When building an aspect, you have three choices. Like I mentioned above, aspects can be invoked, tagged, and compelled… but you don’t have to have all three. You could choose just two or even just one.
- You could choose an aspect that can only be invoked, tagged or compelled.
- You could choose an aspect that can only be invoked and tagged. Or tagged and compelled. Or compelled and invoked.
- Or, you could choose an aspect that can be invoked, tagged and compelled.
All of these choices are valid, but there’s a benefit for how many choices you include in your aspects.
Aspects get you bonus dice when taking risks, but how many bonus dice depends on how “deep” your aspect goes.
- If an aspect can only be invoked, you get one bonus die when you invoke it.
- If an aspect can be invoked and tagged or invoked and compelled, you get two bonus dice when you invoke it.
- If an aspect can be invoked, tagged and compelled, you get three bonus dice when you invoke it.
It’s up to you how deep you want your aspects to go. No rule says all aspects have to go three deep. If you want an aspect only you can play with, go for it, but you’ll only get one die when you invoke it. If you want a bigger bump from your aspects, you’ll need to add tagging and compelling to them in order to get the big dice.
Limits on Invoking
Here’s an important rule. Aspects may only be invoked once per adventure. Once you use an aspect, you can’t invoke it again until the adventure is over. Not unless you’re willing to pay for it.
You can refresh any aspect by spending a style point. That allows you to invoke it again. You can refresh aspects as many times as you like as long as you have style points to do so.
The Reward of Tags and Compels
Whenever someone tags one of your aspects, they gain two dice to use against you on that particular risk. You, on the other hand, get a style point. You cannot use the style point during that particular risk—you have to save it.
Likewise, if someone compels one of your aspects—even if it is you—you gain a style point. Now, if someone compels you in a way you don’t like, you can cancel that compel… but it costs you a style point. So, you can either go with the flow and take the disadvantage you asked for to begin with when you made the character or you can be a snotty brat and spend your style point to ignore the compel. It’s up to you.
(End of Part 1. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the Houses, their Names, and how you can invoke, tag and compel them.)