Question on Frequency of Compels

[huntsfromshadow]

Question for all the GMs out their.

How often do the compels show up in your game?
A similar question is how much back and forth do you have with the fate chips?

[KOFFEYKID]

It depends on how clever your players are, in the case of self compels. Ive played it so a scene could hand out 2 or 3 compels to the two players I was GMing for, and they spent them rather quickly. Within the next scene.

Ive also had it so one player gained 5 compels in a single scene (but I was throwing them at him to beef him up for a strong solo encounter).

The player was a white court vampire who was basically locked in a room with two lusty hussies. They were throwing +6 (Fantastic) + Roll Rapports at him, and invoking aspects and using maneuvers to try to get him to sex them up. The hammer over his head, of course, was his accidentally killing them and becoming a white court vampire. He barely survived, it was a pretty dramatic scene for him, and it was fun to run.

Thats probably going to be a rare case though. At most you'll probably see players wringing one or two fate points from each scene.

[Wordmaker]

I keep a piece of note paper on hand with all of my players' Aspects listed so I have easy reference. I keep an eye on what they're doing and if I see an opportunity for a good compel I'll go for it.

I try to compel my players when I think it's something they'll accept, since most of them have characters with low Refresh, and they need opportunities to earn Fate Points. So far I haven't given a compel that I've expected a player to refuse.

So far I haven't done more than one compel per character in a given scene. I should work on that, though, since my players are about to go up against some real heavyweight conflicts compared to what they've been doing up to now.

[Deadmanwalking]

See, I compel my players whenever I think it would make the game more fun or interesting, or whenever I'm screwing them over anyway (for plot reasons) and think they deserve a reward for that. The second kind pretty much can't be refused, but at least they get something for the plot screwing them over.

[TheMouse]

This answer is going to suck as a guideline: As often as I think will be fun.

During scenes without a lot of actual danger, I like to throw compels in to make things interesting. Normal scenes with a bit of tension but which look likely to resolve quickly are good times for a couple of compels; it drags out the tension a bit more and gives people a chance to play up their characters' weak points.

You have to make sure to come out with the compels at least a few times before a big conflict. It helps to pick up the pace a bit and to make sure that players have fate points to chuck about when they need them.

You sort of get a feel for it, really. You get this feeling that things could get more interesting.

[JosephKell]

This answer is going to suck as a guideline: As often as I think will be fun.

During scenes without a lot of actual danger, I like to throw compels in to make things interesting. Normal scenes with a bit of tension but which look likely to resolve quickly are good times for a couple of compels; it drags out the tension a bit more and gives people a chance to play up their characters' weak points.

You have to make sure to come out with the compels at least a few times before a big conflict. It helps to pick up the pace a bit and to make sure that players have fate points to chuck about when they need them.

You sort of get a feel for it, really. You get this feeling that things could get more interesting.

That is the point of complications (a form of compels).  To spice up scenes the players are getting through easily or when the story as a whole is going to smooth.  (YS 101, that is the page, not "101" like "Economics 101")