Oct 23, 2013 So Create Advantage and Aspects Being...

Robert Hanz - October 23, 2013 at 4:38 PM -0400 - Updated: October 23, 2013 at 4:38 PM -0400

So, Create Advantage and Aspects Being True

(not a Thought of the Day)

I've noticed overall that my general view on Create Advantage is shifting away from the primary value being the bonuses that are acquired, and towards the things that get changed as a result of them.

Is anybody else experiencing this, or has experienced it previously?

Shared to the community Fate Core - Public

+1'd by: Hollis McCray, Mike Lindsey, Dan Hall, Kurt Rauscher, 昆遊龍Cintain, TJ Molina, Porter Williams, Andreas Habicher, Jon McCarty, Benjamin Wandio, T.J. King, Jack Gulick, Wil Hutton

Jack Gulick - October 23, 2013 at 4:52 PM -0400

Yes. Create Advantage is the action to establish a fact as true. The ability to use that fact for an invocation bonus is just gravy, IMO.

Strategically, sure, the focus might be on the bonus. But narratively, CaA is all about "establishing facts". And as that is realized it becomes a much more popular action.

T.J. King - October 23, 2013 at 5:00 PM -0400

I was joking with a friend the other day, saying that "create an advantage" is a misnomer. It should be "create the story."

Fred Hicks - October 23, 2013 at 5:09 PM -0400 - Updated: October 23, 2013 at 5:12 PM -0400

Well, I think the action, and properly the verb, is Create. It's just that there's a blank following that that must be filled. Create Advantage; Create Story; Create Truth. Create Wall of Fire, Create Slippery Footing, Create Great Word of Mouth.

Benjamin Wandio - October 23, 2013 at 5:10 PM -0400

I use an example in one of my games about the power of aspects. In that example, I explain that someone who has the aspect "Stand Up Citizen" could not use his sneaky approach to pick a lock, because they wouldn't know how. They're stand up citizens after all. Unless of course they had previously used their clever approach to create the "Looked it up on Youtube" advantage. They can do more than just provide a free invocation. They an also be used to create permissions that might not have been available otherwise.

Christopher Moore - October 23, 2013 at 8:16 PM -0400 - Updated: October 23, 2013 at 9:09 PM -0400

I didn't learn this lesson until my campaign concluded, but its a huge revelation once you pick up on the story impact of the "Create" action!!

Rich Warren - October 24, 2013 at 8:33 AM -0400

Definitely went through this change in focus myself.

And, just to reemphasize what +Jack Gulick said. I think too many players focus on the +2 bonus. That's why they don't use CA as much as they probably should. Especially in a game with weapon bonuses, if I'm already getting a +2 to damage, making two attacks seems a lot better than a CA and an attack. Of course, that kind of "pure math" logic only works if you ignore the story potential in CA.