Tagging Aspects

[bestial warlust]

Getting ready to run a DFRPG session and I want to clear something up on tagging. It seems to me that what goes on in FATE as tagging seems counter intuitive to how other games handle situations. And it's probably me misunderstanding how it works. So say one character places an aspect on an opponent BLIND. So other players can "tag" that aspect for free. But it seems to me that whether or not someone tags the aspect that the person blinded should have penalties to their actions? Most other RPG's do. Now after the first round does that mean that now that have to pay a fate point to continue to take advantage of this?

So what am I missing here with tagging aspects?

[Rel Fexive]

The thing with aspects like that is that the obvious effect of the aspect only applies when it is relevant to the story i.e. the action.  Technically they are BLIND all the time but it only matters when someone makes it matter, by tagging or compelling the aspect.  The two main ways to use BLIND that I can see off-hand is a) tag to get an advantage - "he can't see, so he can't stop me hitting him!" - to get +2, or b) compel them so they stumble around for a bit and can't act - "your character is BLIND so he can't see: what does he do?"

This is easily the most counter-intuitive part of FATE by a long shot!

[Biff Dyskolos]

There is a section in Your Story on why there are no lists of situational modifiers like you find in other games. It might help answer some of your questions; but I have been unable to locate it, sorry.