Hello everyone. I am new to the Fate system and the DFRPG and I have some questions regarding the whole aspect / fate point system. The main question is: Doesn't it hamper the roleplaying experience? Don't get me wrong. I have been GMing for twenty years now and I have played many games. I started with AD&D and its Czech clones, we have played Shadowrun for ten years on (I ran a single Moscow campaign for ten years IRL :-) than D&D again (Greyhawk and Eberron), White Wolf's WoD, Fuzion with Alien/Predator plugin by Chris Tavares Dias, Battlestar Galactica based on the Cortex system ... there were many. We even played a campaign in Hell (Infernum, anyone?) And with passing years we moved from the hack&slash phase towards roleplaying and deep in-character experience. Some of my best gaming experiences come from sessions where not a single die was rolled.
I'm halfway through the books now but I'm a bit sceptical about the said Aspect / Fate Point system. Doesn't it get the player's attention from in-character experience and storytelling more towards game mechanics? I mean, why use it in the first place? It's probably an excellent cinematics means but does a good roleplayer need it? Example from the rulebook: Location aspects. A dark warehouse has the aspect SHADOWED CORNERS (YS 113) so the PC can use stealth. But we don't need aspects and fate points moving across the table to utilize that. A good and attentive player comes up with the idea anyway and with the dim lighting the GM just modifies the difficulty accordingly without even needing to tell the player about that. Another example are compels. A good roleplayer doesn't need being compelled to do something which is part of the PC's background and/or description. In one of my games a street thug PC joined the army - and the PC was in problems every session due to insubordination and lack of "army spirit". No one needed to ever compell the player. In another game there was a bard suffering from the bipolar disorder. Both her manic and depression phases were played out very well, without compelling the player to do that at all.
Many games have some sort of point system and game mechanics that enable the PCs to modify events in their favour to some degree. In Shadowrun it's called Karma in other systems it has other names. It doesn't matter really as it's either used sparingly or at least not subject to constant trade. In Fate system and DFRPG it's different, Aspects are a core mechanic. And I'm not sure I like it.
So, please, could you relate your gaming experience with this mechanic? Thanks.