On Nov 1, 2005, at 6:57 PM, steppsensei wrote:
>
> Forgive me for interrupting, but I must question this interpretation.
>
> Are Fate Points in the revised system used solely to "power" Aspects?
> Because if any Aspect may legally be applied to any task and if
> Aspects no longer have limited use, then there is no situation where a
> Fate Point would need to function (or be wanted to function)
> differently than an invoked Aspect.
>
> My reading of the previous edition was that the greater power of
> Aspects was compensated by their limited applicability. Fate Points
> could not do as much, but could be used for anything.

Part of the idea was to combine the things we thought were cool about
Fate points with what we knew was cool about Aspects, and I end up
thinking of the end result as having aspects which work like fate
point lenses. Fate points can still do all the things they used to
be able to do, but if a fate point is used in conjunction with an
aspect, it's more potent. In pure mechanical terms, we're looking at
the practical difference between a +1 and a +2, but the same thinking
applies to the more ephemeral uses.

Notably, the Fate Point ability to be spent to create coincidences
can now be used with an aspect. Previously, when you got to a new
town, you could spend a fate point and say to the GM "I know a guy
here" and have it be true, though the nature of the relationship was
subject to GM whim, and the importance of the relationship was likely
fairly low. Now, if you walk into a town and spend a fate point and
invoke your "Shady Contacts" aspect and say "I know a guy here" then
that fact has more narrative "weight" - the nature of the
relationship is implied in the aspect, and it's likely a more
signifigant or useful relationship. You can still spend a fate point
the old way (if, for example, you want to know someone who's not
shady) but it won't have quite as much punch.


So, bottom line is that Fate points are as good as they've always
been, but a fate point + an aspect is _better_, so there is incentive
to go with an aspect whenever you can, and fall back to a raw fate
point when you can't. Since that encourages _more_ aspect use, we
kind of see it as a desirable outcome.

That help?

-Rob D.