A Tool for Troubles

[zerogain]

I've been reading Rob Donoghue's blog for some time now, and came across this gem a few months ago:

http://rdonoghue.blogspot.com/2010/09/trick.html

Basically the idea is that you hang events and plot lines off of a character's story hooks, rather than directly exploiting those hooks.

I have adapted this for my game for use with my players' Trouble aspects.  I have one player's Trouble that is just an endlessly renewing gift to me called "Curiouser And Curiouser" - basically I can compel that to get her to go do stuff or explore curious events that the others might feel is better left alone.  Everyone else on the other had have more abstract troubles:

• The Knight has "Big Shoes To Fill"
• The Wizard has "I Doubt the Rightness of my Path"
• And the Cop has "Dad, You Can't Run My Life"

So for these three I have a chart similar to what Rob is showing in the posted link above.  Off of these troubles I have events and plot lines that arise from them, so in effect rather than compelling their aspects or directly bringing them to the fore I bring in events that are tied implicitly to their Troubles, without throwing the trouble under the bus and letting it get resolved in a session or two.

For the Cop, who's father is the Deputy Chief of Police (we did this before Blue Bloods aired, but that is proving an interesting resource for me) I've got hooks like "Anything for the Chief's daughter" for those times when name dropping gets her special favors, especially when she doesn't want them.  The list is endlessly expandable, but of course there's resentment from colleagues who see her position as a gift rather than earned, proteges of rivals who see her as a weakness of her fathers, etc.

Troubles were one of my big problems when starting this game.  Hope this maybe helps someone else too.

[admiralducksauce]

Thanks for that link, that's very helpful, and not just for FATE (although it explicitly ties into Troubles of course).  It's a great tip for engaging any PC.