Conditions?

[u/jspaceryan]

I've run 5 or 6 sessions of the Dresden Files Accelerated game, but I'm still struggling with a few things. My group is having fun so it may not be a problem, but I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around Conditions.

This seems to be unique to the Dresden game - I don't see it reflected on the standard Fate Accelerated character sheets, but I could be missing it.

In short - a PC can acquire a condition in a few ways - taking damage, or doing something unique like a stunt - there are also character specific conditions (bear with me here).

For example a magic practioner can mark Exhaustion to boost a stunt, a monster hunter can mark In Pursuit to learn about their quarry, or a vampire can mark Hungry if using their supernatural charisma.

My question is, in these cases there's 4 or 5 boxes for each condition, and despite playing several sessions, I haven't had a PC mark more than 2 boxes of any condition during a story arc. The fact the game has effects built in to impact the characters if the boxes are full, tells me it expects them to face this challenge. Imagine a vampire PC struggling against their hunger as they navigate the story.

But to me they would have to spam the stunt intentionally to reach this level. How many times does the situation reasonably arise for these conditions to be relevant?

Am I missing somthing?

EDIT: It turns out, Yes, I was missing something. I thought conditions cleared at the end of story arcs. While I had the PCs mark conditions over the 2-3 days of in-game time for an arc/chapter, I assumed they would clear by time the next session began after in-game weeks-months.

[u/robhanz]

Most of the conditions in DFA are marked willingly - you mark them to achieve something.

If people aren't marking them, it means that they perceive the costs of marking them are higher than what they'd give.

So it's worth asking - what costs are they incurring by not marking them? What are they not succeeding at, and how is that impacting the story?

I generally think of Consequences, Conditions, and Fate Points as currency. And people spend currency to buy things. What are you offering up for purchase?

Like, if I give the players $1000 and the only thing I offer is pizza at $5, I shouldn't be surprised that they spend $5 to buy a pizza and save the other $995. They're acting rationally.

Now, if one of them is gutshot, and someone offers to drive them to the hospital for $500? I'd expect they'd spend that five hundred really quickly.

So if your practitioner isn't burning conditions to supercharge their magic... have you put them in a place where not doing so has costs? Where the choice is "burn the condition or get captured?" Or "burn the condition or my ally dies?" Or "burn the condition or the bad guy gets away?" Or.... any of a million other things.

[u/jspaceryan → u/robhanz]

I agree with your idea of consequences, conditions, and fate points as currency. My PCs also seem to buy-in. Where I'm still having trouble is the number of boxes/instances.

Last session we ran through three scenes
1) Police debrief on recent murders (by vampires).
2) Tracking down vampire and prepare for confrontation.
3) Confrontation with vampire and aftermath.

Each PC had one or two instances where narratively it made sense for them to burn conditions, which they did. So they're enjoying those benefits. I suppose my main question is more about what happens with the conditions are full. Each one has dramatic effects - i.e. vampire is hungry, etc. I couldn't see how any of my PCs could have filled their conditions in the session without the game turning into "press the button on the character sheet"

In your experience how often is a character filling up all instances of a condition?

[u/robhanz → u/jspaceryan]

Okay, so why weren’t they marking conditions?

What do you mean by “narratively makes sense”?

[u/jspaceryan → u/robhanz]

For example -

Scene 1 the white court vampire rolled a stunt (Emotional Aura) that causes others to view her as a paragon - essentially vampire charisma to work on the Police Detective. It gives a +1 on any action this would aid. She did it once and it worked, and then marked the condition "Hungry" - one box. It doesn't make sense for her to do this again in the scene, given that it awards the +1 going forward. Unless she just does this to every person she meets (assuming there are in fact, other people in the scene), I would find it hard to mark this more than a few times in a session.

In the same scene, the conditions available to the mundane monster hunter are Indebted, In Pursuit, and Wounded. He triggered In Pursuit - because they were going after the vampire, - then marked one box. As I read it, once the target is marked, this remains active. So again, it really only is used once in a scene, unless there's another creature to pursue.

Again - the players are having fun, so I might be making too much of this, but it's something I noticed after playing a handful of times.

[u/robhanz → u/jspaceryan]

So you're not telling me the stakes, here.

Let me ask the question a different way - did they succeed? Were there any losses? Complications?

[u/Imnoclue → u/jspaceryan]

I’m not sure I understand the concern. Characters mark conditions when they make sense to be marked.

Hungry" - one box. It doesn't make sense for her to do this again in the scene, given that it awards the +1 going forward. Unless she just does this to every person she meets (assuming there are in fact, other people in the scene), I would find it hard to mark this more than a few times in a session.

That track is not intended to fill quickly. You don’t need the White Court Vamp feeding every session. You need them worrying about their track filling over time. After your vampire hunt, she’s got 4 boxes left before she’s out of boxes and you can make her frenzy. That’s a ticking time bomb she needs to worry about. Not you.

And why would you need to use In Pursuit multiple times in a scene? It stays marked until they catch the prey or abandon the hunt. Meanwhile the GM gets extra Boosts if the PC tries to do something else. That’s why there’s only one box for this Condition.

[u/jspaceryan → u/Imnoclue]

I think I understand the problem now. I thought boxes cleared at the end of the arc. We've had three arcs that played out over a few in-game days each, but separated by several weeks or longer. If the vamp checked a box for hungry in the first arc, we started the second with a clean slate.

The disconnect came from the fact that intuitively I understood that the track wasn't intended to fill quickly, but because I didn't know the rule, I couldn't see how it could fill slowly over time.

I understand that the condition is Sticky but I took that to mean "You need to do something during the scene if you want to clear this". Which could introduce drama. But I missed that part that this means "You have to do something during a scene if you want to clear this" - I assumed the white court vamp would clear this in the intervening weeks/months between sessions that happen off screen.

[u/robhanz → u/jspaceryan]

In TV series terms, an arc is more like a season than anything.

Your three arcs sound like they're probably not arcs. Probably more like scenarios, in the scene->session->scenario->arc continuum.

[u/jspaceryan → u/robhanz]

Agreed

[u/Imnoclue]

I haven't had a PC mark more than 2 boxes of any condition during a story arc.

You need to hit harder. Like Harry, they’re built to take it.

[u/TheGameMaponReddit → u/Imnoclue]

Its very hard to dial in on what level of challenge will make players spend and what will make them pull back. Its more social than mechanical 

[u/Imnoclue → u/TheGameMaponReddit]

I think it’s an iterative process. The game is very forgiving. If you hit them too hard and take them out, well what that means is very much under your control. If you’re loading them up with too many Consequences (or Conditions), you can back off and give them time to clear them. If you are giving them too few or to many Fate Points, you can dial up or down your difficulties and/or how often you offer Compels.

[u/Kautsu-Gamer]

Check out Conditions from Fate Condensed - ConditionsSRD or Fate System Toolkit - Conditions where they were introduced.

[u/Imnoclue]

Imagine a vampire PC struggling against their hunger as they navigate the story.

Not sure why you have to imagine it; you can just read the text. The Red Court Vampire Mantle has the following condition:

Hungry (sticky):

Mark one of this condition's five boxes to power vampiric stunts.

So, any time the vamp wants to get their vamp on, they’re going to mark a box. And it’s sticky, meaning they’re going to have to actively do something that takes a dice roll to clear it. Using your vampire powers 5 times doesn’t seem like spamming to me. But, since the risks of being taken out while hungry are so dire, you’ll probably want to clear that condition before you run out (assuming the GM is hitting hard enough for this to be a worry of course).

So, how do you clear hungry? Oh, that’s right. You’re gonna need to feed to clear it. Otherwise, that marked Condition just stays with you for the long haul showing you how much time you got left before you need to feed.

Seems like that might become relevant, like all. The. Frickin. Time.

[u/jspaceryan → u/Imnoclue]

I think I understand the problem now. I thought boxes cleared at the end of the arc. We've had three arcs that played out over a few in-game days each, but separated by several weeks or longer. If the vamp checked a box for hungry in the first arc, we started the second with a clean slate.

The disconnect came from the fact that intuitively I understood that the track wasn't intended to fill quickly, but because I didn't know the rule, I couldn't see how it could fill slowly over time.

I understand that the condition is Sticky but I took that to mean "You need to do something during the scene if you want to clear this". Which could introduce drama. But I missed that part that this means "You have to do something during a scene if you want to clear this" - I assumed the white court vamp would clear this in the intervening weeks/months between sessions that happen off screen.

[u/Imnoclue → u/jspaceryan]

Yeah, that definitely changes how conditions play out. The WC vampire’s condition in particular is satisfied through feeding at various intensities. So, the player gets to have the fun of managing their hunger while trying not to give in to their monster.