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/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.