Okay, I'm looking over SA again, and I'm trying to get a handle on what the authors intended it to be. Here's how I understand a ST's use of Aspects for his/her NPCs, scenes, etcetera and so-on, in a fictional example of play; if I'm wrong, please set me right...

So I'm the ST, and I'm running a scene where the PCs meet Jeeto Klein, an NPC of importance. I've given the Jeeto the following 3 Aspects:

• One-legged;
• Big Pink Floyd Fan;
• "I Have Never Been To Cairo Nor by Plane Nor Autogyro".

Obviously, PCs who know about, or suss out, these Aspects can Tag them and get a bonus &c., right? I'm pretty sure I'm not wrong on that.

The NPCs monopedal status is going to be pretty obvious to the players when I say, "Jeeto Klein swings toward you on a pair of crutches. He has but one leg, the left one." Getting a +2 to trip him, throw him prone or outrun him in a footrace is going to be pretty easy, as anyone who looks at him is gonna say to themselves, Hey, one-legged dude..

As I figure it, the fact that Jeeto is a Floyd fan is going to be pretty much hidden (a Hiden Aspect) unless the PCs piece together that Mr Klein is wearing a t-shirt depicting the cover of Wish You Were Here and that he hums "Dogs Of War" as he walks with them to his ship, the Dark Side Of The Moon. Once a player clues in, he can try to Tag that Aspect. Right?

Now, that third Aspect is pretty vague. Maybe I decide that it means, literally, that Jeeto has never been to Cairo, Egypt; maybe it means that he's never been to Cairo, a world in the Dafargon Hierate; maybe it means that he's not very well-travelled, and has kept (or been kept) away from exotic locations aplenty. I figure, a bunch of PCs aren't going to even begin to guess that until I, the ST, drop a hint or two -- maybe then they can Tag that particular Aspect, but until then, it's good and hidden from them.

In short -- it's up to me to hide what Aspects I want to hide, and for the PCs to ferret those out based on what information I may or may not give them.

Do I get it?

And, if so, what's to keep a session from turning into a guessing game? ("Is he wearing a red hat, overalls and a moustache? If so, he probably has the "Hey, Paisano!" Aspect and he HAS to follow us into this sewer!")

Ultimately, most of a given characters' Aspects should be the kind that make themselves somewhat apparent in the normal run of play if the players are paying any kind of attention.  With only 3 Aspects, it's a lot harder to find one that is specifically taggable by the players; at that level, the primary function of the Aspects is character definition.  Characters with 10 Aspects (e.g. most PCs) have enough that a number of them should become relatively obvious in short order.

If the session has to turn into a guessing game, then either the players are overemphasizing the mechanical benefits of tagging Aspects*, or the Aspects themselves aren't well-chosen.

(* That's not a diss at the players, either -- one of my early reservations about FATE was its potential to be overly metagamed, and I still think that it can fall apart in the hands of a group with certain perfectly valid playstyles that I don't happen to share.)

KoOS

Good enough.  I only put up 3 Aspects because I wanted the example to be brief; mostly, I was looking for confirmation that I get the notion.  So, thanks!

You've hit one of the key conundrums with Aspects. For example, let's take Jack here:

• CAPTAIN, Jack Sparrow
• Now, bring me that horizon.
• Not without my effects.
• That has got to be the best/worst pirate I've ever seen.
• This shot is not meant for you.
• I'm not sure I deserved that.
• Human hair... from my back.
• Don't do anything... Stupid.
• But why's the rum gone?
• ...but you HAVE heard of me.

These Aspects are all quotes, which effectively makes them impossible to guess directly. The only thing the players might have a chance of guessing is what they imply. But that's open to interpretation, which is one of the reasons Fate Points are required. It really doesn't matter what your interpretation is if you have FP to spend, and I consider surprising interpretations of my character's Aspects to be part of the fun, often running with the suggestions.

But this aspect of, er, Aspects undermines their utility as puzzle pieces, and as a rule easily guessed aspects are less interesting than the more subjective ones. My solution is simply to have a few Aspects that are easily guessed at, and a few that are interesting for characterization purposes. So "I Have Never Been To Cairo Nor by Plane Nor Autogyro" means whatever you think it means, and you can act on it in whatever manner you want, as it's there to give depth to the character, not provide a flag for players to get a jump on him.

I should mention that this exact problem first appeared in White Wolf's Mind's Eye Theater. Aspects were even more central to it than they are in FATE. The problem was there was no point cost to Tagging an Aspect, so once a secret weakness was known (say Weak Minded), it could be used against a character by anyone thereafter just by mentioning it. This caused many players to 'hide' their Aspects, which ran counter to their use as characterization devices.

So in a nutshell, Aspects have two purposes, but the better it is for one, the worse it is for the other.