Can you hear the Song? 8: Aspects and Things Like That

Now to look at character creation and Aspects in this Setting I've been working on.

Characters in Noah have same High Concept and Trouble aspects as other Fate Core characters.  If your character is going to have psychic powers or be a Angel, Demon or part of the Song, you need to reflect that in your High Concept.  Alot of the psychic skill, stunts and extras here are going to be based on representing what Angels, Demons and the Song can do.  You can break with the three big stereotypical forms of psychics in Noah, but your character might have other troubles too, being sought out as a target for research or other accusations.

ICON ASPECTS

Characters in Noah have an new Aspect slot in addition to their normal five (High Concept, Trouble, the Phase Trio aspects).  This is their Icon aspect, and it reflects a character's ties to a particular Noah Icon.  This aspect will come into play for some adventures in which its Icon is part of what is going on.  This can be negative, positive or somewhat neutral, but still reflects the nature of what ties the character to that icon.

Phase trio aspects still are done like they are in the Fate Core book.  In the context of Noah, each character's story reflect their own "episode" in Noah, treating it more like episodes of television or web series.  This is a suggestion, and you can always alter or use something kewler.

ANCHORS 

After creating your character's aspects, you next should fill out what Anchors represent them.  Anchors are a person, place or thing that you declare is associated with that aspect.  Each aspect will have an Anchor.  You can choose to leave some of these Anchors undefined- afterall, you might meet a enemy NPC that works better for it, or like a location that is found that you feel better represents.  Awesome.  Just make sure you have some Anchors defined.

Anchors can make it even easier to bring some aspects in play, and they can give you great spots for compels and invokes to be brought into play.  You are creating something that will affect the game, and this is great way to create a flag- something for the GM to see and try to work into the game because you want to see it.

For example, if you have the aspect "Big Damn Safecracker You'll See."  You might have anchors like:

• Favorite set of safecracking tools (used to belong to your Mentor, before you stole them from him).
• Zarah Hermes (Ex-girlfriend and the best safecracker you'll never see, especially since you left her at the altar).
• The Brass Dragon Pawn Shop (Fencer for the Dragons, it'll always pay for a nice piece... and occasionally needs your help from time to time)

The anchor can be as huge as an Icon (The Oracle Jezebel, for instance) or as small as tiny piece of gear (My favorite duster).  Have fun with it, and use it to make your character more interesting! :D

ICONS

And each Icon has its own pair of Aspects.  At the start of an adventure, or during important, big scenes or whenever the GM feels its the right time to do, Icons come into play.  Each character gets 3 points to distribute amongst what Icons they are tied to.  These points define how "deep" their connection is.  Use the ladder for this.

Just +1 means Average- you and everyone else tied to that Icon at least are known to that Icon, albeit on the periphery.  A +3 or Good connection means your character has more weight or focus from that Icon, be that a positive or negative thing.

Whenever deciding if a Icon would enter in a Scene or Adventure, each player rolls for their Icons and add their rating in that Icon.  This is just like rolling for a skill.  The result is how strongly interested the Icon is in the situation.  For each Icon, the GM rolls a single Fate die.  If a [+], that Icon is trying to improve things and make things better.  If a [ ], that Icon isn't involved directly, but is wanting for a opportunity to step in (as decided by the GM).  If its a [-], that Icon is making the situation worse.

EXAMPLE CHARACTERS

I don't have time for it now, but at some point I'll put in examples of aspects for characters and things.  Next time, I tackle skills and stunts for Noah: The Kaiju-Song.