How often do you ________ in game

[sinker]

I self compel a bit less than I should also, mainly because I'm afraid of bogging down the game by constantly trying to get another fate point and seeing if the compel is contested by the GM.  Dunno if it would happen, but I'd rather not have it become an issue.  That's a personal issue our group needs to work on.

You shouldn't really need to worry about this. The only thing the GM can contest about a self-compel is whether or not it deserves a fate point, the action itself occurs because you want it to. So self-compel and then ask for the fate point later, then you can worry about whether it's contested or not.

Annoyingly, almost never. I'm trying to get the players to utilize it, but it seems only one player "gets" the concept.

This seems bizarre to me. Most of the time the second one player gets the concept of skill declarations all of the other players jump right in to something that is clearly designed to give them an advantage. Have you talked to them about it?

[Michal]

Wow, I'm surprised. @admiralducksauce @sinker @CottbusFiles @Harboe and others, how you manage to do so many compels? Can you give some examples? An example scene with compels listed would be great. I'm gonna search in this forum's archives in the meantime.

I must be misunderstanding compels. Right now I'm using them mostly to lure characters into action and that's not needed very often.

Do you use many compels mid-battle?

[Mr. Death]

Don't forget about self-compels; if your characters don't need to be "lured" into action, chances are they're playing to their aspects anyway and might deserve a fate point.

As for compels during battle, I don't do them terribly often; more often I have enemies invoke something for the +2 against a PC, or set up compels at the start of a scene to last throughout (compelling "Narrow Walkways" to keep an acrobat from dodging with Athletics for the duration) or to make the first round interesting (Compelling a psychic's "I Know Before You Do" to throw her into the path of an ambush attack meant for someone else).

[admiralducksauce]

Wow, I'm surprised. @admiralducksauce @sinker @CottbusFiles @Harboe and others, how you manage to do so many compels? Can you give some examples? An example scene with compels listed would be great. I'm gonna search in this forum's archives in the meantime.

I must be misunderstanding compels. Right now I'm using them mostly to lure characters into action and that's not needed very often.

Do you use many compels mid-battle?

I get a lot of mileage out of group Compels based on campaign themes, actually.  "You're On Your Own" has been printing FPs for my players ever since the start of my campaign - cops are abusive and unbelieving, the PCs don't have a support structure, and they're all basically outlaws. Each adventure leaves one more city they can't go back to. One PC is a compulsive thief, and he self-compels really well. Plus, it's easy to Compel him for selfish ends (although he refuses most of these Compels). Another PC has "Driven By Redemption" - it's always there to throw a monkey wrench into the "default" player thinking of "let's kill them all and take their stuff". But generally I end up coming up with a shitty situation or twist of the plot knife, THEN figure out how to Compel each PC. Sure, some of those Compels are more appropriate to some PCs than others, but at the very basic level, most everyone has an Aspect relating to helping out their friends or getting in over their heads. All I need is a good Compel on one PC and I can chain that into Compels for just about everyone else to drag them along on the misbehavior.

[Katarn]

How often do you/or a player

Make Compels
Make Declarations
Have inter-party Social/Mental/Physical Conflicts?
Law break?

Compels- in the exposition, vague plot guidance, tbh my group does more self-compels (mainly because I forget sometimes).
Declarations- fairly often, they're great for roll-boosting.
Inter-party-  Depends on the group.  The players on site I've played with do it mostly during exposition, and very rarely afterwards.  My IRL group knows each other well and do it much more often 
Law break- Rarely, if ever.  Most people don't build their class with room to allow it.

[Harboe]

Wow, I'm surprised. [...]@Harboe [...] how you manage to do so many compels?

Whenever there's a lull in the action, I mentally run through a list of whatever aspects they have that I can remember and try to compel the most interesting ones.
Having a member in the group who has "Peacekeeper" and another with "Drawn to Battle" has led to some great moments.
Also, when I write the adventure, I try to add in notes saying "here, you could compel X using Aspect Y for some fun results."
I'm of the opinion that, much like the spice on Arrakis, the Fate Points must flow.

Can you give some examples?

When the PCs (more or less) had to defeat a particular ice giant, I compelled the honourable nature (I forget the name of the aspect) of one character. The player got what I was trying to do and rather than have a big fight between everyone, he challenged the giant to a single combat, using only their swords.
It led to an awesome fight, by the way with (IIRC) a total of 16FP having been spent during that scene (a couple previous to the fight, most during).

When the Red Court and the White Council were scheduled to meet to discuss a truce, a (self-)compel on one characters Peacekeeper and the others Drawn to Battle led to a great in-character discussion of whether they should try to help the peace talks (saving innocent lives in the process) or try to sabotage them (so that their own personal vendetta against the Red Court wouldn't be squashed by the, now, full attention of the local Red Courts).

I must be misunderstanding compels. Right now I'm using them mostly to lure characters into action and that's not needed very often.

I think it's the intent that characters should be lured into action or inconvenienced by compels. I see it as a "Take an awesome point for moving the game in the right direction" deal.

I'll compel for:

• Stuff that complicates matters.
• Things that makes things more interesting.
• Things that are awesome.
• To keep the game moving.

Do you use many compels mid-battle?

No.
It hasn't really come up, to be honest. Our resident mass-murderer is perfectly happy killing things. Our resident Believer/Knight is mostly trying to stay alive and destroy the occasional Red Court (but never without provocation) and our weremonkey mostly just annoys and disorients enemies in combat.

[Belial666]

Make Compels

About as often as the GM does, or maybe once or twice more per session. I don't want to give a GM more work than he wants to and how often the GM compels is a good indication on how much work they want.

Make Declarations

Quite often; A couple times per scene at least, without counting rituals.

Have inter-party Social/Mental/Physical Conflicts?

Once or twice per session/adventure/major campaign part.

Law break?

Over 100 times during the longest campaign I'm still playing in, not counting behind-the-scenes stuff and routines. 
What? If nobody ever broke the laws, there wouldn't be any need for laws to begin with. Besides, tentacles are fun!