Tedronai: I think you're getting too hung up on being a rules lawyer in a system that's by it's nature meant to be flexible

In this case, the lesson learned is that, if something needs to happen story wise, you CAN handle it by coming up with a good mechanical reason, or you can just add an aspect to the scene instead and compel it. So, in this case, I could come up with an 11 shift magical block that someone has added to the combat from off screen - or I could just say that the block is an aspect that compels the player to do what the block was intended to do anyways. Either way, they will have to pay fp to overcome it (possibly several!) but in the compel scenario you hand wave the actual math and possibly grant the player a fatepoint as a reward for going along with it - or possibly more than one.

Either way, I'd give the players a basic idea of what happened (a magical shield) and they could roll lore to figure out more clues (there are spellcasters nearby!) The GM has narrative power to say how an aspect can be compelled, and even if you wish to up the Ante on a compel.

I think this is what people have been trying to tell me, I only really understood now. You just have to remember that aspects can be on anything, and as a GM, if there isn't one that fits your needs story wise, you can add them on the fly.

I'm pretty sure the write-ups for Kalshazzak and the Shen demons--which both have strength powers--still refer to Breath Weapon as only Weapon:2, which would imply to me that Breath Weapon doesn't benefit from strength.

I think it depends on how you style the breath weapon - if your just breathing fire or a toxic gas, then of course they don't benefit from eachother. If "Breath weapon" is just how you're saying "He can throw a barrage of weapons produced out of nowhere" then it makes sense that strength would benefit it.

Of course, at that point it's not really a breath weapon - it's a new supernatural ability balanced around breath weapon.

Just finished my next session and tried giving out targets for everything. Essentially, I learned a few things.

Firstly, my players spent fate points, whereas before they were mainly hoarding them. This was primarily a combat session (which I learned a few other things about running that are off topic) but I think this was an improvement.

Secondly, in some cases, my players complained that I told them the targets. Now, this was in extreme cases where their target to beat was an 11 (legitimately, there were a group of off screen mages working together to free the BBEG of the fight) - essentially the block was on the level of compel and I think my players would have preferred if I blurred the line and didn't tell them whether it was a compel or just a really wicked number.

I think what this tells me is that every group is different - and not every group enjoys having access to ALL the meta. It's my opinion that you have to find a balance between the two - not telling your players all the meta info does hamstring the system somewhat, but telling them all the info can take away some of the entertainment. Fate is a role playing game, not a chess game. I think - and this is going to be difficult for me - that the trick to telling when not to tell your players the target is to remember that it's not a tool for manipulating them.

I have had similar questions and I think that the thread I started on this sort of thing garnered a lot of insight and constructive responses. Here it is:

Purview of Evocation

I think the bottom line is, regardless of your element or sphere of expertise (in this case, biomancy) ... quick and dirty attacks, blocks, and maneuvers are Evocation. Channeling/Evocation are magical guns; they are also probably magical bulldozers, too -- and little more than that. For everything else, you'll need Ritual/Thaumaturgy.

I don't think that's in question here. He's asking where to draw the line fluff wise. Are his evocations too fine to be evocations.

I will make one other comment in regards to biomancy: make sure that they have a stated weakness speciality wise. Perhaps she's good with healing aspects of magic, but terrible with the brute force aspects. Or perhaps she's bad with distance and good when she can get up close and personal with a problem. When your balancing out magic, you want the character to have things shes good at, and things she's not good at.

I'm hoping the PC's will recognize the need to hit the Concession button if/when it's necessary.  Of course, if your weres are out for blood, it won't really matter and all you've done is railroad engineer a TPK. 

Nah, in this case the Were's have no real gripes against the party, they're just worked into a frenzy. I've dropped the group in the middle of a chaotic battle field full of berserkers who don't know friend from foe, so working together should provide the group with enough of an advantage to make something of it. They just have to figure that out before they get KO'd.

That said, they're interested in fighting: not being malicious. They'll probably leave anyone who's gone limp alone.

If the PC's start out surrounded by PO'd weres, the their only options will be fight-or-flight, barring some power ful magic on their part that can cool things down, so...yeah, options 1 or 2. 

Can't make  more comment without knowing the makeup of the party--here's hoping there's at least ONE wizard/sorcerer present, or things will go wahuni-shaped. 

Eh, it's Fate. Losing a fight doesn't mean death, if anything getting your ass handed to you makes for a more interesting story. My group consists of 6 players, including two casters with handicapped casting (7 refreshed, one opted for channeling, one opted to craft a few combat items but has no other combat casting) A werewolf with toughness and recovery, a were-leopard with speed, a lawyer with toughness, and a seer with no real combat potential. That said, part of me hopes things go pair shaped, but it's open for the players to get out of this.

Other than that, why not let the chips fall where they may? You can always use GM fiat to bail the group out or get them back on the rails if you need to move the story forward.

Actually? I'm trying to get off the rails completely. And keep off of them. I want them to decide the rails and I'll build the tracks in front of them a bit in the future, although I may have to figure out how to balance this out in the future.

Also, Morrigan is a type of fae in your story? I mean, I like the idea of Morrigan not being a single being (as she was a triad-goddess or three goddesses depending) but The Morrigan being a whole breed of Fae? I'd be curious to hear more about your interpretation of The Morrigan in your game!

Eh, they seemed like a good candidate for wild-fae- I could easily play them out to be too chaotic to fight into either court. In this case, I was going with a redcap-ish heirarchy: their are plenty of harpy style Fae, but the Morrigan are the top dogs. I'm going to have this incarnation to be the strongest since the originals - who haven't been seen for more than 300 years. Gives me lots of interesting ways for the story to play out. The sisters could succeed and become a new Triad, giving the players a long term new threat. They could fail, leaving only one Morrigan with a broken heart love story. We could get into what happened with the original Triad - are they alive? If so, would they confront these new upstarts? Are they dead? How? Why? I chose to leave them in Shroedingers limbo until later so I can figure out how best to make it interesting.

My main concern at this point is victory conditions. I don't know what needs to be done to successfully complete the story, and it makes me nervous. I'm hoping the players decide on a satisfactory ending of their own and I'll just fly with it, leaving tons of loose threads for later stories. We'll see.

OK,

So it's been brought to my attention that I've been abusing the rules a bit much. I'm running an intro adventure for my group (the setting has been detailed somewhat on these boards before. I've avoided too many details so as not to give them to my players yet, but I'd like to detail the current status and hopefully people can suggest things I'm doing wrong, and ways to do it right.

As an overview: The setting contains no major vampire presence. We've stuck with primarily Wild Fae and mortals for reasons that'll be expanded upon throughout the adventure. Essentially, the city has 2 factions: The mortals who wish to keep the city in mortal control (including a paramilitary faction that harkens its roots to german witch hunters and still likes to use crossbows and the odd enchanted item) and the changelings, were's and minor practicioners who are still disorganized but finally realizing they're a faction.

An important thing to know about this particular setting is that, due to an aspect of the setting, there's a difference between changelings and Fae scions here. Some have the choice, but most are stuck in limbo, unable to make a choice to be either human or fully fae.

As par for this adventure, I chose a mildly Romeo and Juliet style story: Angelo is a hunter who falls in love with Jules, a changeling Fae. When Angelo is kidnapped, Jules and her friends assume that the Hunters have discovered their love affair and chosen to make an example of the pair. She contacts the group to help her and they discover (too late!) that it was not the hunters that took Angelo, but rather Jules sisters - who wish to frame the Hunters for Angelo's death and trick Jules into making her choice.

The major spoiler that my group hasn't seen yet? Jules is a Morrigan changeling. I've statted up her full form to be eventually a harpy with the ability to evoke rage and bloodlust in anyone en masse around her. Her sisters hope to capture her once her choice is made and sacrifice her in a ritual that should supercharge their own natures and allow them to also make the choice to become Morrigan. Once her choice is made, she'll be the real deal whether she likes it or not and will be compelled to start war and cause bloodshed.

Now, the group has rescued the boyfriend and are trying to catch up to Jules, who's been doing her own investigating while trying to avoid capture from the hunters, who in turn want her for questioning. They're arriving at a forest kegger in the area where they were told to meet up with her. About an hour in, the party werewolf gets a scent and wanders away, into a clearing where she finds the sisters plan coming together: They've lured the hunters to investigate something at the clearing, then used glamours to make it look like they've just finished hanging Angelo - just as Jules was wandering by. I've left the game at a cliffhanger as Jules screams and makes her change: intent on revenge on the hunters.

My intention for next session is to stick the group in the middle of a battlefield. The kegger filled with people nearby will be attracted to the ruckus and noise, and the Morrigan will use her power to rile the werewolves into a bloodthirsty mob. With tensions high already between the werewolves and hunters, all hell will break loose.

At this point, the group does not know the identities of the real culprit and only has hints as to whats going on. Admittedly, there has been a lot more railroading then I'd like so far: partially my bad GMing, partially just necassary railroading to put the group together and get a story going. From here on out, I'd like to open the game up and let the players run with it. I haven't decided how the battle will turn out (other than badly - this will be a messy combat that is more or less unwinnable if you take the attitude that winning is killing everyone) or even if the sisters will successfully capture their now morrigan sister.

So, thats it! My question is, how would you run this going forward? How do I open it up and kill off the railroading that's gotten to this point? I'm looking for suggestions please.