Compulsion to "believe you see that thing," I'd say. The other interpretation smacks of shenanigans.

After all, compulsion to "fear that thing" counts too...

Hrm, who are some miffic defenders...?

Praetorian might work- the Praetorian Division or some such. I like Project, too, and if they're doing a "supernatural things to fight the supernaturals" thing, Prometheus [Project/Division/Section] is very appropriate, as is Pandora [P/D/S].

Alternatively, if they're sorta policey, something riffing on Special Branch (which may be a UK thing, actually).

... no MC's brain Special Investigations has been used think of something else please.

Task Force [One/Three/Seven/Nine/other significant number], the Normalisation Division...

(I also though the Nonlinear Crimes Department, but that sounds like more of a time travel thing; I may just use it myself...)

Would some examples of Aspects people have for various characters help?

The way I'd tend to look at it is to have a couple of things- relationships and personality traits- which pretty much everyone's going to have some of; for example, my Changeling Wizard (Submerged game) has an Aspect for his relationship with his Sidhe father (Daddy Looks Out For Me), and character traits like one I called "I Can Get Some Shining Armour, If You Want."

People are often also going to have Things (Bearer of Amoracchius; Sword Of My Forefathers; My Mother's Silver Pentacle); in general, a lot of these are going to be quite obvious choices (something as significant as a Sword of the Cross is an Aspect...), though it can also be things that are just important to the character; the Sword Of My Forefathers doesn't need to be anything better than a normal sword in mechanical terms if it's a Big Thing to the character. If you're having trouble with character aspects, one option is to think of the sword of Thing that might matter to them, like Harry's silver pentacle.

The other big category I see is things you're character's good at or bad at- Shiro's Peerless Swordsman, for example. These are character-defining skills, and there can be some overlap with the personality traits- that Changeling Wizard I mentioned has Tomes, Not Teachers, 'cause he was raised in pretty much total seclusion by a wizard, so that's doing duty on Knowing Stuff About Magic Stuff, Not Knowing Stuff About Normal People Stuff, and Not Noticing Social Conventions. Again, a lot of these are going to come up from basic ideas about the character- if you want to make a mercenary sharpshooter, you can make that into an Aspect.

The last thing I want to say here is that there's always the option of putting something down that kinda fits, then playing for a while and changing things around if and when character traits that seem aspectworthy come out in play. If you've got a cheerful bodyguard, say, and you discover in play that as well as being protective, you're playing him a bit belligerent and likely to throw himself into fights, you can switch that in as an Aspect (First In, Last Out or something like that).

Well, they let you give stunts effects that are more like those of powers. A bit stronger, and not as limited to simple skill bonuses.

What's more, they let mortals specialize better.

Mortals should get cool stuff too.

Can't you just have stunts that do that without being locked into a tree structure?

I'd argue a little against all the people saying "play self = bad".

Playing a character based on yourself is risky, and I wouldn't recommend it in most cases. A modern game like DFRPG, where it's easier to make a character who's quite literally You, is probably worse, but if you can get the disconnect in between gameself and realself, it can work.

I'm speaking here as someone who's enjoying doing slightly mean things to a version of myself in an Exalted game; thing is, he occupies a box in my head where he's basically got a personality much like mine, but I don't think of him as me. Done like that, it can work. But like I say, it's a risk, and it may be worth considering something else.

If you're playing a game where you know that your character will not be crippled or killed - then where's the stakes? I'm not saying it needs Call of Cthulhu levels of PC death, but if you know that your PC will never die then where's the drama?

Except...

When Harry Dresden goes into a fight you know that people can get hurt and maybe die.  Over the series some reoccurring characters have been hurt, crippled, or killed.  Sometimes the innocent victim can't be saved.  Sometimes bystanders get hurt.

And yet Harry hasn't died. There are more ways to lose than being killed; sometimes losing a character who's mportant to the PC can be just as bad, or worse. I'm not saying that works for all games, it depends on the predilections of the group; but for some groups, it's the best way to do things. If I've spent a lot of time working on a character, I'd have a lot more fun if he fails tragically than if he dies, in general.

Exceptions exist- I have an L5R character who I'd be quite happy with dying in one particular plot thread, because it'd be deliciously tragic- but in general, I prefer my characters to fail, not die.

Your group may prefer the risk of the character dying, and that's fine- but it's not the case for everyone.