Can you Declare an aspect on a person?

[WillH]

To be fair technically those are assessments not declarations. Wesley is already using bonetti's defense then Inigo is assessing that and using his sword skills to exploit that aspect by using a style that counters it.

Actually they could be either. It depends on whether or not "Bonetti's defense" was something the GM had previously decided on being in play.

[luminos]

Make sure you reread page 313 to get a grounding in how declarations as skill rolls works. 

1.)  As long as seems reasonable.  Declaring an aspect is basically retroactively making up a fact about the world.  Its reasonable that some will be permanent.

2.)  Declarations cost a Fate point if done by invoking for effect.  OR they just use a skill roll, and you set difficulty as determined on page 313 YS.

3.)  Declarations follow the same rules as all other aspects discovered or created by a player.  This means it gets the free tag.

4.)  It is possible for an NPC to make a declaration that removes the aspect given by a previous declaration.  I do not think you should let previously established facts be contradicted in this manner, but you can accomplish the same goal by establishing new facts that dissolve the advantage of the old facts.

5.)  I cannot find a page of the rulebook that says one way or the other on this issue.  I'd count it as a full action in combat if done as a skill roll, so that other forms of establishing aspects (maneuvers) don't become irrelevant.  If done as a fate point invoke, then it is totally a free action.

[sjksprocket]

sorry, my mistake about the rolling for decelerations. must of misread that.

[sinker]

Unlike assessment, declaration doesn’t take any
actual in-game time at all—just successful use of
a knowledge skill at the right moment.

YS116

So it's not explicitly a free action, but I think it's fair to assume that it is.

[luminos]

YS116

So it's not explicitly a free action, but I think it's fair to assume that it is.

Ah, thank you for that.  That would mean that making declarations should be fairly powerful for the knowledge types.  I can live with that.  If it starts getting abused during combat, I can always start limiting how many declarations get made.  And if I do my job right w.r.t. making failure interesting, players will hesitate to go willy-nilly with declarations for fear that interesting will turn out to be something more challenging than whats already going on.

[Craftzero]

I'm gathering that there isn't a 100% consensus on some of these things.  Which is fine, I don't have a problem in tinkering with the system.  So, just to sum up my thoughts (and a bit of tinkering).

You can declare aspects on an NPC, with using a skill roll and a standard action - just like a maneuver.  This gets a free tag, and if sticky - may last a long time, depending on what the player wants and what the DM agrees to.

You may also do it as a free action, by using a Fate Point.  This requires no skill roll, and may or may not last a long time, as per the previous.

This applies in hand to hand combat if you have the Martial Arts stunt.  You could possibly do this in other situations, too.  ("DM, can I use my Guns knowledge to put the aspect "Misaligned Barrel" on his .45?  That model is known for that flaw, maybe?")

[babel2uk]

Yes there is a little bit of vagueness in the rules. Page 116 defines a Declaration as taking no time at all. But elsewhere it's described as a kind of assessment, and an assessment is defined as a simple action, a category that also includes things like climbing walls etc. I guess you can interpret it either way.

[WillH]

This applies in hand to hand combat if you have the Martial Arts stunt.  You could possibly do this in other situations, too.  ("DM, can I use my Guns knowledge to put the aspect "Misaligned Barrel" on his .45?  That model is known for that flaw, maybe?")

You don't necessarily need the Martial Arts stunt to do that. The Martial Arts stunt adds that trapping to the Fists skill and provides a bonus when doing it. Depending on the situation, you could possibly use Scholarship or even Lore to make such an assessment/declaration.

As for doing something similar with Guns, sure why not. I would probably just roll it into the Gun Nut stunt.