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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dbm" data-source="post: 6209270" data-attributes="member: 8014">Bear in mind that the majority of aspects in play will come from the PCs, and that the players get to define what those are. Aspects are a way for players to signal to the GM what they want the game to be about. A player who gives their character the aspect "Master of Capo Ferro" is signalling they want different types of scenes than a player who gives their character "I never got the hang of the Fox Trot". One of your jobs as the GM is to weave the different PC aspects into an interesting set of encounters. This is one of the reasons why Fate is an excellent system for running a sandbox. The players give you lots of little threads and you can emphasise different ones as the game progresses. Fate requires trust between players and GM. You can use the tools it gives you to push people around, sure, but that's not what they are for. Good use of aspects adds twists to the flow of the game - complications which should be fun to play out. The players can refuse the compel because the system isn't perfect, and you as GM might interpret their aspect differently to how they had envisaged. But if the system is working well and the GM is in sync with the players then (in my experience) they rarely do reject a compel.Another thing to keep in mind is that aspects are all about spotlight time.  Having the GM compel one of your aspects makes you the centre of attention at that moment. It also earns you a Fate point which allows you to do something cool later on - again making you the focal point. If you as the GM spread around those compels you are also ensuring that each of the players gets their time to shine.Taking out an opponent does allow you to do what you like with them, but defeated in combat doesn't have to mean instant death (though it could - that's what happens in most traditional games, after all). But it could mean being stored for later eating (like the Wompa did with Luke in Empire Strikes Back) or any other outcome you choose as the winning party. When a player concedes, they get to say (within reason) what happens to their character. So if you are facing a lethal opponent you might choose to concede if the battle is going against you and you want to be sure you won't die. Or any time, really, when the odds are against you and the price of failure is likely to be too high. It's a mechanism for keeping the game going through avoiding the worst possible outcomes by accepting a lesser (but still meaningful) loss. Deciding a concession is easy - the player says they want to concede and offers the penalty they are willing to take. The other party decides if they are willing to accept or not; if not you will need to offer a better concession. There is really no grey area here.</blockquote>

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