Looking for advice on how to Self-Compel aspects

[newtinmpls]

"If you could ask your players to change something (characters, playstyle, etc.) what would you ask them?  Can that advice be made generic for all players and GM's?"

Hmm... I'd reinforce that for whatever reason, the CHARACTERS should have strong trusting relationships, and I'd ask for more work on the background/aspects to support this and more roleplaying of it. The truth is though, mostly that doesn't come up. I'm blessed with some really good role players as players, and the less experienced folks are willing to learn/explore, which is nice.

Dian

[noclue]

As an extreme example, let's say you wanted to run Dresden Files so that you could build a city full of intrigue, social interaction, and high moral stakes.  Then your players all built a bunch of combat monsters with Aspects like "Shoot First, Ask Questions Never".  You would want to sit down and talk to your players, right?  What would you ask them?

Here's the thing. We would have spent a session together in City Creation and another session together building characters into that setting together. So, I'm having trouble with the whole I want intrigue they have combat monsters setup. Why did that happen? We should have good idea of the type of game we're going after here. As GM, I think I messed up before play began.

Secondly, after city creation and character generation I walk away with a metric fuckton of Aspects. Before the next session I should have a good idea of at least a couple ways to hit each character's aspects during the game with compels, and some ways that those aspects can shine in invokes, or I know I'm in trouble.

[ironpoet]

Here's the thing. We would have spent a session together in City Creation and another session together building characters into that setting together. So, I'm having trouble with the whole I want intrigue they have combat monsters setup. Why did that happen? We should have good idea of the type of game we're going after here. As GM, I think I messed up before play began.

It doesn't matter when]/i] the disconnect was discovered between players and GM.  It could have been before the game started, or during City Creation, etc.  In this particular example, the players start talking about combat stunts, then the GM says they want to play a more social, dramatic game.  After a quick, civilized discussion, the players agree that they want to play that type of game, but they're not sure how to make characters to fit that type of game.  And the GM tells them... what?

One way or another, the players and GM have agreed to some style of play (combat-heavy, stealth and intrigue, investigation-heavy, etc.).  Knowing that, how should the players make characters, or tweak their existing character ideas, to fit that style of play?

Secondly, after city creation and character generation I walk away with a metric fuckton of Aspects. Before the next session I should have a good idea of at least a couple ways to hit each character's aspects during the game with compels, and some ways that those aspects can shine in invokes, or I know I'm in trouble.

Sure, but again, that's putting all the responsibility on the GM, which is what I'm explicitly trying to avoid.  I am not the GM, and I don't necesarily want him to change what he's doing.  I would prefer to modify my own character to suit his story style, but I find that I don't have any concrete ideas about how to do that.

The GM has lots of input on how to modify their playstyle to match the players (City Creation and Character Aspects).  What tools do the Players have, and how do they use them?

[ironpoet]

"If you could ask your players to change something (characters, playstyle, etc.) what would you ask them?  Can that advice be made generic for all players and GM's?"

Hmm... I'd reinforce that for whatever reason, the CHARACTERS should have strong trusting relationships, and I'd ask for more work on the background/aspects to support this and more roleplaying of it. The truth is though, mostly that doesn't come up. I'm blessed with some really good role players as players, and the less experienced folks are willing to learn/explore, which is nice.

Dian

That's interesting advice.  How does that help Aspects to be compelled (or storyline to advance)?  Wouldn't some antagonism between characters (not players) make Compels easier?