A general tip for GMs about aspects,.

Originally shared by Rob Donoghue

A general tip for GMs about aspects,.

The best aspects have the equivalent of potential energy, like a round boulder on top of a hill. Left alone, it might not roll down the hill, but it very clearly wants to do so (as much as a rock can want anything), and it's pretty obvious what could happen. In play, the expenditure of a Fate Point represents the nudge to get the rock rolling.

With that in mind, a lot of aspects could be categorized as setup or resolution. Setup aspects have that potential energy, while resolved aspect have used it up. A Dangling Chandelier is a setup - it's full of potential for swinging and dropping. A Fallen Chandelier doesn't have much left to do. It might be an obstacle, and it's certainly true, and a clever player might find a way to leverage it, but it's potential is not obvious.

(As an aside, this idea is one of the reasons that I sometimes suspect that Fate needs some clearer guidelines on how aspects change but it's easy enough to just do that I don't feel like it's a huge problem)

Players, more often than not, are going to push for resolution aspects. They have an endgame they're pushing for, and they they may want the occasional flexible advantage, but mostly they are looking to control the situation. That's fine, but as GM, you may want to steer clear of them whenever there is an option for one simple reason - if the resolution you're pushing for is actually interesting (and it is, isn't it?) then it's more fun to set it up and then play it out.