How to GM Fate

By Jeremy Price

Take inspiration from movies and TV, not from video games.
In D&D you start with what's true about the world, and cool moments come out of following the realistic (in that world) consequences of PC actions.
Fate is the other way around; you begin with the cool moments you want to create, and you then establish whatever facts about the world you need to get you there.

You need a story problem which is urgent, and catastrophic if ignored.
Look at the PCs' aspects, and the game aspects, and see what problems those imply.
Make them open-ended, like "aliens are attacking".
Then think about what details you need to solve the problem, like "how many aliens, who's the leader, how are they invading, where and when?"
Answering each of those questions is a problem in its own right, and each scene should answer one or two of these questions.
Think of who would oppose the PCs, and prepare them and their minions.

Think in terms of scenes, and montage anything that doesn't deserve to be a scene.
Each scene needs a story question to answer (that's how you know when the scene is over), and a source of opposition (that's how you give your problem agency and urgency).

Don't roll unless success and failure are both interesting
Don't set up enemies just to be knocked down; PC's are damn resilient and failure is fun anyway
Don't forget how much narrative agency the players have. If they spend a fate point and say there's a secret door, then there's a secret door now. Forget about maps and plot twists; you're not showing your players something you made earlier, you're making it with them as a team. Don't take that away from them!

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