Recap Aspects in Fate

For the past eight years I’ve been running a wiki that hosts information about all the RPG games that I’ve played and run. Say what you will about being OCD, but being able to go back and reference those notes is handy and allows me to wax nostalgic from time-to-time.

My players understand that part of my agreement to run an RPG campaign is that the players have to write recaps for each session. I never ask for a novel. I usually post the session name and a series of headlines like so:

The Sauceror’s Apprentice (session name)

  • Gay Bingo at Rodef Shalom
  • Breaking Into The Carnegie Museum
  • Egyptian Nevernever
  • Popeye Pissed Someone Off, Surprise!

Then under each section the players write a sentence or three talking about what went on.

Life can get really busy and sometimes updating the recaps can slide. To try and encourage players to stay timely with filling out recaps, I’ve started using Recap Aspects.

Recap Aspects

For each session that a player fills in a recap, I give them an aspect that ties to what they did or experienced in the session, with one free invoke on it.

These aspects are available for the duration of a story arc but once the arc concludes all Recap Aspects go away. This prevents too many aspects from building up and helps to keep them focused on what is currently going on.

For example, let’s say that the Accidental Voodoo Student Reba discovered that the spirit Sousson-Pannan was responsible for the murder of some of her family.

After Reba fills in the recap for that session I give her the aspect Sousson-Pannan killed members of my family with a free invoke.

Using Recap Aspects also has the side effect of modeling how the characters learn more about what is going on in the story. They start an arc with no Recap Aspects but as they learn more about what is going on they get aspects that tie into what is going on. So during the end fight they are tagging aspects like I know your secret, I found a loophole in your agreement with the devil, and My defensive magics are prepared for you.

If you liked this, you may also like How to Handle Missing Players in a Fate Campaign where I suggest writing up missing PCs as aspects.

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