It’s important to note that aspects designate what a character can do. Forgery, sleight of hand, and auto repair are not everyday skills, so only characters with appropriate aspects have “permission” to do them. 

A good aspect is double edged: offer a clear benefit to your character while also providing opportunities to complicate their lives or be used to their detriment.  

This is because aspects are the primary way you can gain fate points (the fuel of the fate system) that let you influence or even change the narrative, re-roll or add to dice results, or otherwise accomplish things that are out of the ordinary.  Many powers, spells, and stunts also require you to spend fate points to power them.  

At first glance, the most powerful aspects would seem to be things that are broadly useful with no real downside—things like Quick, Lucky, or Strong—and you may be tempted to go with those. 

Resist that temptation! See, there are three large problems with broad aspects like these: they’re boring, they don’t generate fate points, and they surrender your ability to help shape the story

The Rule of Three

And as a rule of thumb when picking an aspect, think of three situations where you can see the aspect in play. If you have one reasonably positive situation and one reasonably negative situation out of that set, you’re golden! 

If the aspect’s uses are all negative or all positive, you may want to reconsider how you’ve worded your aspect—try to put in a little of what’s missing. Ultimately, though, one aspect that’s “all good” or “all bad” isn’t much of a problem, so long as you have a good mix throughout your whole set.

You also want your aspects to say more than one thing.  Consider several things that a character aspect might describe: personality traits, backgrounds, relationships, problems, possessions, and so forth. The best aspects overlap across a few of those categories, because that means you have more ways to bring them into play.  

At the very least, make sure you include several types of aspects in the makeup of your character.  Five relationships means that you can’t use your aspects unless one of them is in play, but five personality traits means that you have no connection to the game world.

Of course, your aspects need to have clear phrasing.  Avoid metaphors and implications when you can get away with just saying what you mean. That way, other people don’t have to stop and ask you during play if a certain aspect would apply, or get bogged down in discussions about what it means.  To check whether your aspect is unclear, ask the GM or other players what they think it means. Here are a few “good—better—best” examples:

• Tepid: Wizard.
• Toasty: Wizard Private Eye.
• Fuego!: The Only Listing Under “Wizard Private Eye” in Chicago’s Yellow Pages.  
  
• Tepid: Strong.
• Toasty: Troll-Blood Strong.
• Fuego!: Strong-Man of the Winter Court.  
  
• Tepid: Dark Past.
• Toasty: Reformed Evil Cultist.
• Fuego!: The Ebon Shroud Cult Wants Me Dead.  
  
• Tepid: Computer Genius
• Toasty: Nerdy McNerdson
• Fuego!: I hacked MI6, the CIA, and the KGB all on the same day