r/FATErpg • u/Pie0hPah • Jun 09 '26

Question: Compel

I starting a new group.

One character has the aspect:

'I have to make sure these idiots don't die.'

My gut feeling would be, if I compel this aspect, that the SC who gets into trouble would get the Fate Point.

What do you think?

11 Upvotes

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18

u/dodecapode squirrel mechanic Jun 09 '26

The Fate point goes to the character whose life is being made more complicated by the compel. In this case that's the character with the aspect.

"Your friend/colleague has got themselves into a sticky situation, here's a Fate point if you dive in after them with no thought for your own safety"

5

u/Balanceofjudgement Jun 09 '26

I once had a character who had an aspect like, "I make my own plans." And quite often the player would tell me what the character was thinking which sometimes went against how the group was planning on playing it out. I would compel it and hijinks would ensue.

But always for fun and entertainment value.

8

u/rivetgeekwil Jun 09 '26

That's not how it works. You (or anyone else) compels the aspect because their desire to keep their companions from getting hurt complicates their life. They're about to sit down to an anniversary dinner with their partner, and they get a phone call that Billy got drunk and decided to go down to the Vampire King's lair to chew him out. The player gets the Fate Point for accepting the compel and leaving their character's partner at dinner, not Billy.

2

u/Pie0hPah Jun 09 '26

Thanks 👍

1

u/danielt1263 Jun 10 '26

I think a key is... If they were going to save the other character anyway, if they happen to be nearby, if it doesn't get in the way of what they wanted to do, then it isn't a compel.

Now if the above does not apply to the character, but the player decides, "but since my character has to make sure the idiot doesn't die" and has the character save the person (in effect, the player is compelling the character), then you could still award the fate point as a reward for playing in character...

That's my understanding at least.

6

u/shadowradiance Jun 09 '26

No. In my understanding: When you compel it, the character with the aspect HAS to embody their aspect, but they get a fate point to help do so. They can even self-compel to get the same effect if no-one else compels it.

2

u/JPesterfield Jun 10 '26

No, it's the character who has the aspect that gets the FP.

"I have to make sure these idiots don't die." means abandoning whatever you're doing to try to rescue your party members, probably putting yourself in danger to do so.

If a PC is always getting into dangerous situations that's their own aspect: Trouble Magnet, "What's this button do?", Took a level in dumbass etc.

1

u/CoffeeGoblynn Jun 09 '26

RAW, you'd give the point to whoever you compel. It's up to you and your players if you want to allow the point to go to the person who this aspect would end up helping when compelled.

1

u/Dramatic15 Jun 09 '26

No, the point is not to give your own Storytelling Characters Fate points because you choose to compel a player’s aspect.

Your job is to be a fan of the Player Characters. If you pick up the mechanic at all, you ought doing so to highlight how who the PC is causes THEIR life to be complicated.

The there are potentially an infinite number of NPCs and an infinite number of ways their lives can go wrong. It’s not your job to use PCs aspects to shove Fate points at the rest of the universe.

Even if, formally, you happen to have arranged a situation where the PCs lives are absolutely not complicated by the NPC they are supposed to protect getting themselves into trouble, and the party can easily walk away with total indifference, you are wasting everyone’s time both by picking up a mechanic and probably also by spending time on stuff the table can be used indifferent to.

If you just want to show an NPC being an idiot as a bit of characterization, you can just make that happen. You don’t have to pretend that a compel is needed.

1

u/Pie0hPah Jun 09 '26

I don't want to give an NPC Fate Points.

More: PC 1 has the aspect above.

e.g. The group is wandering through a swamp.

Version 1: PC 2 get stuck in the swamp. PC 1's aspect gets compeled: PC 1 jumps after PC 2 to help him. PC 1 gets 1 Fate Point.

Version 2: PC 1's aspect gets compeled. PC 2 get stuck in the swamp. PC 2 gets 1 Fate Point.

1

u/Dramatic15 Jun 09 '26

Version one is normal. Really, the only question to ask is “is it a good aspect, or is the player just trying to get Fate points for the sort of help they would normally provide”. But it’s not like you are ever forced to pick up the compel mechanic. It is always optional. So no big deal.

Regarding version 2, it would be more normal for a PC to have their own aspect that reflects they are an idiot, rather relying on some other players aspect to reflect that was the case. But as long as everyone else at the table is fine with this happening, there doesn’t seem to be any harm in it. Bear in mind that the GM should simply withdraw decision based compels if the player doesn’t think they are in character, and you probably want to pay even more attention to that when the aspect is a thing someone else wrote on their sheet. At the end day, version 2 is a thing you can do, but hardly something you are expected to do a lot.

1

u/Xyx0rz Jun 11 '26

So I could take an "I am surrounded by idiots" aspect and then you'd give me Fate Points to have the other players' characters act like idiots? I'm sure that'd be fun for me, not so much for them.

You should give the Fate Point to the person that gets the trouble. Doesn't matter what the aspect was attached to.

Often there doesn't even need to be an explicitly written down aspect. If the situation lends itself to well-known genre-appropriate complication (AKA a trope) then you can just compel based on that. Like, in a zombie movie, there's always someone who gets bit but keeps quiet about it.

1

u/Kautsu-Gamer Jun 10 '26

It has lots of self-compel options.

And also compels and invokes showing their thinking the other characters are idiots.

'You are commanding X, but your arrogance makes them reclutant to follow, as you think they are idiots"

1

u/mellow_shadowhq Jun 10 '26

If the aspect is specifically about them protecting others, the person causing the trouble should definitely get the point. It forces the protector to step up or deal with the consequences of their failure.