[RPG] Is Fate style GMing “lazy”

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Newbie GM here preparing for my first ever Fate GM session. My group consists of 4-5 players with varying levels of experience in RPG games. We have previoulsy played a long Pathfinder campaing and several Cthulhu-like one shots.

I know the emphasis about collaborative character, villains and overall game world creation in FAE/Core. I keep believeing my players may find themselves thinking I am a lazy GM because I put many of the tasks that are supposed to be the DM's responsibility at their hands. How do you cope with this situation? Do you feel this is an essential part of Fate? Or have you GMed while "fully in control" of the story?

Best Answer

Sharing some responsibility over the world is an essential part of Fate. The players have far more agency over the nature of the world than in other games, and part of that comes with a more 60/40 distribution of responsibility over the game compared to many others. That leads to what can feel like a lighter workload for the GM, and might be pretty alarming for GMs used to controlling everything, but that's how Fate's meant to roll and everything's fine. (In fact, lighter workload for me before/during playing, and increased ability to let the players show me what they want the world to be like, is a solid chunk of why Fate is one of my favoured go-to systems.)

You say:

I put many of the tasks that are supposed to be the DM's responsibility at their hands.

Which isn't wrong, since those might be the responsibility of a Dungeon Master — but you're not a DM, and you're not running D&D. You're a Fate GM. The many thousands of tabletop RPGs all have varying rules for what the players and GMs are meant to do, so what one of them (D&D) says doesn't relate to this game.

A GM in Fate isn't meant to be fully in control of the whole story. This is a game where players have a mechanic (Fate points) that is explicitly for declaring story details and proposing factual events and decisions that complicate someone's life. You are meant to share control; the players, by design, are enabled to make big changes to the world you give them. If that feels like the players are providing a lot of input and sharing control over the world and story, good, that's within how Fate's intended to feel. Largely, what they do and change will tell you a lot about what they care about, and often generates further plot to capitalize on later, helping you craft the story.

You don't say what details you're sharing with your players, but I find Fate comes with a lighter GM workload during play than D&D does. You do benefit from having a well-established dramatic setup for the session to bring to your players, and I've found in my experience that the game runs best when you have a well-established commonly-understood story that has player buy-in. I both play and GM Fate sessions with various groups, and I enjoy being able to suggest world details as a player (and have my GM run with them, because the group enjoys them too) and I enjoy it when my players share world details with me.

However, there's situations where narration generally doesn't come for free:

  • When it's directly to the player's benefit: If the players are narrating a change in the world that's to their advantage, they should probably be making a create an advantage or overcome roll, or spending a fate point to declare a story detail (either option's open, and sometimes one will make more sense than the other).

  • When it's a decision or event complicating someone's life: If the players are narrating an event that'll complicate someone's life, or a decision that'll complicate the life of the person who made it, that's a compel. (If it's their own character in question, that's a self-compel.) Check if they'd seriously like to make that compel, and if they do want to make that compel, Fate points should change hands accordingly.

    Compels are for serious stuff though — if it doesn't have much bite, it's a weaksauce compel and it's either not really a compel or the bite should be turned up until it's felt.

Go ahead and let the players narrate and assist you with making the world tick, and enjoy the game with them.