1.Aspects

1. Aspects

1.1 What Counts as an Aspect

Aspects and Experiences used to feel like two separate systems. This supplement treats them as one. Here’s the test: if you can spend Hope on it for a bonus (§1.3), or the GM can use it to cause a complication (§4), it counts as an Aspect. It doesn’t matter where it came from. Right now, this list counts:

• Scene Aspects — a fact about the place you’re in
• Enemy/NPC Aspects — a fact about a creature
• Item Aspects — a fact about an object
• Experiences — Daggerheart’s normal, permanent tags that players write for their characters
• Conditions, sometimes — the three normal Conditions follow the special rule in §1.4. One-off special conditions follow the rule in §1.2.
• Class, Ancestry, and Community (just the name itself) (new) — like “Slyborne,” “Human,” or “Bard.” Not the special powers these give you. Just the identity itself. This is permanent. You pick it at character creation. It works more like an Experience than a Scene Aspect. Its main use is for Compels. A broad identity is exactly the kind of thing Fate uses for its big character Aspects. Compels are safe to use a lot. You can always say no. And the Hope/Fear caps keep things from getting out of hand. You can also spend Hope on your identity for a bonus, like anything else on this list. But it needs a real reason tied to the moment. (“I grew up reading rooms like this — Slyborne does that to you.”) A vague link to your theme isn’t enough. This does not include the actual powers these grant, like Scoundrel, High Stamina, or Rally. Those already have their own rules. This supplement doesn’t touch them.
• Background Questions & Connections answers (new) — Say a player answers a prompt like “You were in love once — who did you adore, and how did they hurt you?” Or a Connections question like “What secret about yourself have you entrusted only to me?” That answer is now a specific fact the player wrote. Nothing else in the rules overlaps with it. It works as a full Aspect. You can spend Hope on it. The GM can Compel it. No restrictions.
• Adversary “Motives & Tactics” and Environment “Impulses” (new) — Every adversary and environment stat block already has one of these fields. For example, the Spy’s Motives & Tactics say: “Cut and run, disguise appearance, eavesdrop.” Pitched Battle’s Impulses say: “Seize people, land, and wealth, spill blood for greed and glory.” These are already-written Aspects sitting on every stat block. You don’t have to invent anything. Just use what’s already there. The GM can use as much or as little of a line as they want, in any scene. It’s a menu, not a rule you must follow. It also doesn’t count toward the soft cap in §1.6. That cap only slows down Aspects a GM makes up on the spot — not the ones the book already hands you.

Example: The party is hiding in a cliffside shrine. They’re carrying the egg. In one scene, all seven kinds of Aspect show up:

• Scene Aspect: “The Shrine Is Riddled with Updrafts.” That’s the place itself.
• Enemy Aspect: “Overextended.” A scout took a bad step.
• Item Aspect: “Cracked Reliquary.” An object they’re carrying.
• Experience: the ranger’s “Grew Up on These Cliffs.” Already on her sheet.
• Identity: the bard’s Community, “Slyborne.” The GM could Compel this later. “Your Slyborne instincts say don’t trust this shrine’s silence.”
• Background answer: the warrior’s answer to “who did you adore, and how did they hurt you?” That person turns out to be the scout they’re fighting right now.
• Motives & Tactics: the scout’s stat block already lists “Cut and run, disguise appearance, eavesdrop.” The GM uses it as-is. No extra work needed.

All seven can be spent on for +2, or used by the GM for a Compel. They came from very different places. But they all follow the same two rules.

🎨 Art Prompt — The Shrine
ancient cliffside shrine carved into a mountain face, ruined stone
archways open to a howling wind, mist swirling upward through cracked
floor tiles, close foreground shot of a cloaked figure's two hands
cradling a single scaled dragon egg roughly the size of a rugby ball,
faint warm light glowing between her fingers, out-of-focus adventuring
party approaching in the background, painterly fantasy illustration,
dramatic golden-hour light, rich texture on scaled shell, cinematic
depth of field --ar 16:9

This actually matches how Fate itself works. Fate doesn’t wall off character Aspects from scene Aspects either. Every Aspect works the same way, no matter where it came from. Keeping the names “Experience” and “Aspect” separate still matters (see below). It avoids clashing with either game’s own words. But the separate name doesn’t mean separate rules for who can spend Hope on it or get Compelled by it. Both count, the same way.

One thing doesn’t change: the bonus math still depends on where it came from. An Experience keeps its own bonus (+2 or higher, and it grows as your character grows) when you use it. A native Aspect always gives a flat +2, no matter the source. Treating them the same for spending Hope doesn’t mean giving them the same number. That difference still matters.

Keeping “Experience” and “Aspect” as separate names avoids clashing with either game’s own words. But both count as Aspects for this supplement’s two shared moves: Invoke and Compel.

1.2 Types of Aspects

• Scene Aspects — a fact about the place. Example: “The Bridge Is Slick.” Or “Thick Fog.”
• Enemy/NPC Aspects — a fact about a creature. Example: “Off-Balance.” Or “Overconfident.”
• Item Aspects — a fact about an object. Example: “Cursed Blade.” Or “Unstable Footing.” A fourth kind, pulled from the core rules (new): the core rules leave a gap here — “Some features can apply special or unique conditions, which work as described in the feature text.” That’s a catch-all for one-off effects that don’t fit the three standard Conditions (Hidden, Restrained, Vulnerable). Run these one-off conditions through the Aspect system instead of inventing a new rule for each one. Give the effect an Aspect name. Use the standard +2 bonus. Clear it once it stops being true, per the rule below. This does not touch the three standard Conditions — see §1.4 for why those stay separate. It only brings the odd mix of custom conditions into one procedure you’re already running.

This also closes a small gap. The core rules’ own Temporary Tag rule clears a condition “by making a move against it.” That’s usually a successful action roll. That’s basically the same as Overturning an Aspect (§5). Once a special condition is treated as an Aspect, Overturning an Aspect is how your table clears it. No second rule needed.

Permanent facts about a character stay Experiences. Only temporary, scene-bound facts are Aspects. Clear an Aspect when the scene ends, or when it stops being true in the story (the fog clears, the guard steadies himself).

Example: One of the Overseer’s cursed relics gives whoever carries the egg a special condition: “Marked by the Dreaming.” It’s not Hidden, Restrained, or Vulnerable — it’s a one-off. Instead of writing a new rule for it, the GM treats “Marked by the Dreaming” as an Aspect. Someone can spend Hope on it. The GM can Compel it. And it clears the same way any Aspect clears — someone takes an action that makes sense for shaking it off (Overturning an Aspect, §5), instead of needing a whole separate “cure” rule.

1.3 Invoking an Aspect (Player Side)

Spend 1 Hope. Add a flat +2 to a roll. You can stack it — spend Hope on more than one Aspect on the same roll.

Example: The party’s Scene Aspect “The Shrine Is Riddled with Updrafts” is live. The ranger tries to leap a gap to reach the reliquary before it falls. She spends 1 Hope, uses the Aspect (“I use the updraft to carry me across”), and adds +2 to her roll.

🎨 Art Prompt — The Ranger's Leap
female ranger leaping across a collapsed stone bridge inside a mountain
shrine, cloak billowing caught in an updraft of glowing mist, one hand
outstretched toward a cracked ancient reliquary mid-fall, below her a
sheer drop into shadow, dramatic low-angle shot, painterly fantasy
illustration, dynamic motion blur, warm rim lighting against cool blue
shadows, high detail digital painting --ar 9:16

1.4 GM Aspect Invokes (new)

The GM can spend on an Aspect too, the same way a player does. But the GM pays with Fear instead of Hope: spend 1 Fear → +2. This works on an NPC’s own roll, or as +2 Difficulty on a PC’s roll made against that NPC (or near them). This matches the core rules’ own “spend a Fear to add an adversary’s Experience” rule exactly. Same move, just running on an Aspect instead.

A GM invoke does not also give a free invoke. If the Aspect came from a Success-with-Fear roll (see §2, §7), the Fear the GM already banked from that roll is the cost the core rules already charge. Don’t pay for the same thing twice.

On the three standard Conditions: there’s only one restriction. A Condition can’t give the same bonus twice. Vulnerable already gives every attacker full advantage, for free. Spending +2 for that same reason pays twice for the same thing. That’s the whole restriction. Conditions still work with the rest of this supplement:

• A Condition can still be spent on toward a different bonus than its built-in effect. (A Restrained target’s helplessness could justify an ally’s unrelated +2, instead of stacking onto the attack-advantage Restrained already gives.)
• A Condition can freely be the basis of a Compel (§4.1). Compels don’t add a number at all, so there’s nothing to double-pay there.

Example: Ser Iyrenna Voss has the Aspect “Reads the Room” from her Motives & Tactics. The warrior tries to bluff her at the negotiating table. The GM spends 1 Fear. She uses the Aspect. She adds +2 to the Difficulty of the warrior’s roll. “Iyrenna’s spent a lifetime reading liars. She’s already caught the tell in your voice.”

🎨 Art Prompt — Ser Iyrenna Voss
a legendary armored woman warrior seated at a rough-hewn stone table in
a mountain war-tent, sharp calculating eyes, weathered battle-worn plate
armor etched with dragon motifs, firelight flickering across her face
as she studies a nervous young warrior across from her, tense
negotiation atmosphere, painterly fantasy portrait illustration,
chiaroscuro lighting, rich earthy color palette, highly detailed
character art --ar 16:9

1.5 Bookkeeping: Aspects Need a Place to Live (new)

Let’s be clear about this. “Counts as an Aspect” (§1.1) now covers a lot of different things. Experiences and Class/Ancestry/Community identity are already written on the character sheet. Forgetting they exist isn’t really a risk. Conditions don’t have a box on the sheet either, but they’re usually obvious in the moment, so they’re not a real risk either. The real gap is Scene, NPC, and Item Aspects — plus any free invokes banked on them. These get made up live, during play, with no printed spot for them anywhere. And free invokes only ever come from Create an Advantage (§2) or Overturning an Aspect (§5) — both of which only ever touch this trio, never an Experience or an identity.

Fate solves this with a physical setup. Aspects live on index cards. Invokes are tokens sitting on the card. Nobody has to hold the count in their head.

This supplement asks for the same setup. It’s not optional. It’s a rule you actually need. Every live Scene/NPC/Item Aspect, plus its leftover free-invoke count, needs somewhere visible to live: index cards, a whiteboard column, a shared doc, sticky notes on the table edge. An Aspect that only lives in the GM’s memory will get forgotten right when it matters most — like a banked free invoke, two scenes later, that nobody remembers. If your table can’t keep a tracker going, that’s a sign to run fewer Aspects at once (see §1.6), not a reason to skip the tracker.

Example: During the shrine scene, the party creates “Overextended” on the scout — a Critical Success on Create an Advantage banks 2 free invokes. The GM writes it on an index card and puts two tokens on it. Two scenes later, the scout shows up again at the mountain pass. The card comes with him. The players can see right away there are still free invokes waiting — nobody has to try and remember it from before.

🎨 Art Prompt — Overextended Scout
a lean cloaked scout caught off-balance mid-lunge on a narrow mountain
ledge, one foot slipping on loose scree, cracked stone crumbling
beneath him, storm clouds gathering above jagged peaks, dynamic action
pose, painterly fantasy illustration, dramatic diagonal composition,
cool stormy color grade, dust and debris in motion, high detail
digital art --ar 16:9

1.6 Scene Aspect Budget (Soft Cap) (new)

Aspects are meant to mark facts that are dramatic enough to matter. Not everything interesting that happens in a scene needs one. Left unchecked, one lively scene can spin off four or more live Aspects. (This actually happened in playtesting — a crowded tavern, one NPC, and a handful of exchanges produced Standing Room Only, Rasha Doesn’t Trust Strangers, Rasha’s Made You, and Rasha’s Fond of the Disaster, all in a row.) At that point, Aspects stop adding texture. They just add clutter and extra bookkeeping.

Guideline: aim for 2–3 live Aspects per scene as a soft target, not a hard rule. If a scene is generating more than that, ask if the newest one actually matters enough to earn a slot — or if it’s better left as flavor folded into a roll’s narration instead. Aspects that stop being true should be cleared right away (per §1.2), instead of left to pile up.

Note: this cap only applies to Aspects a GM invents on the fly. It doesn’t apply to the ready-made Aspects the core rules already hand you (Motives & Tactics, Impulses — see §1.1). Those are a menu the GM can draw from freely, not something to police.