Have you ever felt the holy might of the FATE system, from Spirit of the Century? Apart from that book having one of the strongest GM section  (suggesting, for example, to “Send in the ninjas”) I’ve seen in a book in my short and mostly uneventful life, it brought a few interesting mechanical concepts to the table.

The core of the FATE system is what they call “aspects”.  Although we won’t be studying the intricacies of “aspects” (although you can find the SRD here), I’ve found that they’re fairly easy to implement in any game with a little house-ruling and a tiny bit of time to add a layer of depth to your players’ characters.

Aspects

Aspects are a word, an expression, a quote, that represents something a character is skilled or talented in. For example, a character with the “Daughter of a seamstress” aspect would be pretty skilled in the fine art of sewing.

The exact bonus such an aspect would give depends heavily on “What is decent, following the spirit of the system”. In DnD 4E, it could be an extra +5 on a skill check and not be that ridiculous (the equivalent of a specialization, or skill training, or what-have-you) or in a White Wolf, it’d be, say, one dice, same as a specialization (Hey! Look! A trend!)

But Sasha, how do I get aspects?

You ask the right question, blog. That heavily depends on how you want to use them. In the FATE system, you pull them out of your background, so you require some pre-game work from the players. But here’s what I suggest as a method of implementation in any other game (which is just as good as any other method of implementation, mind you) :

The players have 3 (or more, who am I to force you to eat numbers you don’t like) ”slots” for background aspects when the game begins. There are 2 different situations which can prompt a character to fill them.

First of all, at any time in the game, when faced with a challenge, a player can, if he still has free “aspect slots”, petition to get a new aspect. The only rule for this is for it to be justified with his background (which can be justified on the fly, as long as it’s not completely ludicrous; in the end, it’s the GM’s call).

Segundo, a character who does something jaw-dropping or shoots the mother of one-liners should be allowed to use it as an aspect.

Oh Sasha, but how do I use them?

Excellent question, pixelated letters! A player who feels like an aspect as it’s place in a situation may “Invoke” it.

It’s the fancy term for looking at the GM with a sly smile and telling him “Maybe… But I could convince the orcs… I was “raised by orcs”, I know how it all works!”. It’s the simple act of declaring that one of your aspects is relevant to a given situation. That’d give you a bonus. You like bonuses, don’t you?

Personally, in a more combat- and rules-heavy system, say, DnD, I’d rule for aspects to be impossible to use directly for combat bonuses. Of course, imaginative use of the aspect… say… “The best shoes in Faerun” to create a distraction by stepping on the toes of one with lesser footwear, could give you a few pluses.

Why it’s good for the player

Minor bonuses to things no one cares about. I mean, we all had this character with twenty ranks in Craft (Purikura) and we’ve felt totally gimped when compared to the guy with just has much ranks in Stealth or Perception. Sure, you were “Going along my character’s background”, but I’m willing to bet either that skill never got used, or that at least, you never felt like a rockstar for having it.

With the instant addition of aspects, you can just choose to have a piece of your background suddenly, in a crisis situation that requires that specific area of expertise, and it does have an influence on the game. Bottom line, you get to have silly background skills skills and get at least one opportunity to use it in a dramatically appropriate moment without have to have the GM find some strange challenge that would let you roll that Craft check to identify what kind of Purikura machine made the photos you’ve found on the crime-scene.

Why it’s good for the GM

That’s an easy one. If your characters can have minor bonuses to pretty much anything they like as long as they have slots left, you can allow yourself to throw any bizarre challenge you can think of with little to no second thought. I mean, chances are, one of the player will have “Wrestled bears all his youth”, thus giving him a solid chance at the Bear wrestling contest!

Also, you get to watch your players try to justify having insane aspects. That’s always fun.

In the end, this little house-rule is a cute, elegant and interesting addition to most campaigns, allowing for on-the-fly background creation, setting up interesting RP situations (Wait… you wrestled WHAT? WHY?) and give everyone a few pluses, just for kicks. If you like what you read, check out the FATE system, you won’t be disappointed.