Help please! My Search Fu is lacking it seems.

[JediDresden]

I read on the boards somewhere, a discussion on Fate Points.  Someone I do not know who linked to a blog or another website about someone who sets the bag of Fate Points in the center of the game table and let the players compel each other based on aspects they notice on each other's character sheet.  This kind of happened to me last game session I was running.  A player noticed an aspect I was overlooking on another player's sheet and brought it up with something like, 'Hey she has an aspect you should compel in this sene, check it out.'  I was just trying to find that reference because I might try it in my next session.

On a related note: I have a group of 9 players and it it so hard to keep track of everyone's aspects and make it fun for all. Is there anything you all have done to keep a large group involved?  I thought that if I had them all watching for opportunities with each others aspects it might let me focus on the story aspect more

[EdgeOfDreams]

The groups I've played with do almost the same thing.  That is, they often say to the GM "Hey, so-and-so should get a compel on his aspect blahblah".  Then the GM decides if it's compel worthy and exactly how to handle it.  Still, it does help keep people involved and help the GM track all our aspects.

[Haru]

It might have been this blog:
http://www.rickneal.ca/

But regardless, letting the players contribute in a way like you described is absolutely in the spirit of fate, so I say go for it.

And did I read that right? 9 Players? At once? I get overwhelmed, when there are more than 4 players, I can't even imagine what I'd do with 9...

Well, I can think of 1 thing: prepare a cheat sheet. Grouping similar aspects of different characters together, so I have an overview of the situations where I could justify compelling the aspects, instead of having them grouped by character. Maybe that can help you as well.

[JediDresden]

Yup, you read that right - 9 players.  It was a big change running this than our ussual D&D adventures.  I really like the Fate system, but 9 seems to be to many.  We are getting ready to start another here in a couple of months that will have 4 PC in it, I think it will run better.

We have 3 couples, 2 single friends, and 2 of the groups oldest children (age 14 and 16) who get together.  I am part of one of those couples - my wife plays and I GM.

Thanks for the suggestions, I feel like some are being left in the dust.

[JediDresden]

Haru,

Thanks but I don't think that was it.  It ia a great blog though - I have visited a few times.

[Lanir]

Any chance you could have your players do something like familiarize themselves with the aspects or at least the Trouble of one other character? I remember White Wolf's Wraith game had an advanced concept like that for handling the shadows (in that game everyone's playing a ghost and a shadow is your dark side). I think some semi-organized way of handling it and passing the responsibility around the table would be the only way to keep track of that many individual stories. Hell, I've played in story-centric games (not DFRPG) run by other people where the GM couldn't track two.

[UmbraLux]

Thanks but I don't think that was it.

This what you were looking for?

[JediDresden]

Yes!! Thank You!!

It is an awesome site by the way.  Lots of good ideas.  I kind of poked around a little the first time I looked at it.

I appreciate the help.

[newtinmpls]

Nine players? Nine?

Wow, kudos to your sanity points. My head is exploding just thinking about that. My ideal gaming campaign is 3 PCs. Right now we are over that, poor DM has 3 in person, two via scype. It's challenging to say the least.

[JediDresden]

Very!  This is a much more player involved system than D&D where you just need to make your character up and then hit the bad guy.  Myself and one other player in the group love the system, some are OK with it and the rest want to go back to something they know - like D&D.  I was hoping to convert them all to the new system, we all love the books- so I thought it would be a no brainer - but I think the group was to big and some got lost and have lost interest.

[polkaneverdies]

It might benefit you to simply ask if anybody wants to bow out with no hard feelings. It would help you to focus more on the remaining players which would improve their experience and prevent the game from slipping away from you.

[newtinmpls]

Ahh... playing the books.

Well the problem with that, even though I've attempted DMing a group of folks who have all read at least some of the books. We don't all focus on the same parts. So even if all of us were there to play (or attempt to play) in that exact universe - we'd still have different expectations.

I'm one of those DM's who will never "do the X universe as written/gamed/whatever". So my "Dresdenverse Campaign" is very not the actual Dresden universe. Not that I think anyone's needs to be, but that's just something I know about myself up front.

On the other hand the campaign I'm currently a gamer in is based on the Harn (detail heavy) rules and the Morrowind (yes, the computer game) universe. I've never seen a DM work harder, but I was lukewarm about the computer game and am totally sucked into the game.

It's all figuring out what I (as DM) really want to set up and what I (as Player) really want to do. I was in a campaign for a while, a post apocalyptic thing, and it was nice for a change, but I have come to realize that I require magic (of some sort) in my worlds. Tried to figure out a way to make Paranoia playable - but for me the 'no magic' was an issue.

I think that the creating the world together is a great tool for playing in any universe derived from something else - everybody gets to put their 2 cents in about what they need in order to make it fun/playable/whatever.