Combating Artha Bloat

[Totally Guy]

I have a player who's accumulated 20 Fate points. He's a wizard who rarely engages the big 3 subsystems.


This week I hit him with several Duel of Wits, one of which was with the big bad for some top stakes and the player was quite outclassed as he'd got wound penalties on top.

But by spending fate points on as many rolls as possible and scripting a key avoid at just the right time he was able to call a draw.

The statements were:
Bob: You will abandon your evil plan. Because it's evil!
Mordak: You will assist me with the plan. You're on my side because you belong to me.

The compromise was...
Bob will work together with Mordak to enchant a Moral Compass. If Mordak can be shown he's lost his way by this creation he'll reconsider and try to find the right path. But until then, the evil scheme continues unmolested.

But anyway, back to the point. The player spent 7 fate points this session and earned 2 new ones. He was awarded persona points for moldbreaker too because he avoided falling into the comic relief role whatsoever. He got Artha rich in the first place by getting into repeated trouble with comedy instincts.

So if we can carry on engaging the subsystems with the player and keeping the stakes high we might see those points drop to more reasonable levels.

[luke]

Also, don't be lenient with awarding Belief artha. Playing a Belief must serve a purpose and drive the game forward. You can't just parrot what you've written and expect to be rewarded.

[Paul B]

I also find that Fate can very easily accumulate if, for whatever reason, your character doesn't engage in the subsystems . ALSO, Fate really only works if you're already rolling pretty big pools -- the rich get richer and all that, and the odds of rolling explodable 6s gets bigger with bigger pools. So I'd actually go looking for big pool/big Ob rolls for him to aim for.

[Odie]

Really? We see Fate all the time on 'small' pools, 2-3. My group is pretty certain Luke invented Fate points to hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth when you're one success short, but there's a 6 on the table, so you get a 50/50 shot at what you wanted - and then fail anyway. The chorus of groans is music to my ears.

-B

[Paul B]

I have a couple players who horde artha as -- I speculate -- a means of keeping score.

[Dominik]

This is my experience as well. Fate is often used as the "1 need one more success damnit" mechanic... and often enough fails. Which is what makes it such a great mechanic in my eyes.

But on the original topic: I think, some fate bloat is to be expected, especially if one player is just quicker to grasp how the system works, and starts utilizing the various BITs earlier than other players to get a lot of Artha. I just wouldn't call it bloat then, the other players will catch up eventually.
However in your example I'd say it is totally valid to save up a couple of Artha to blow on one key conflict.
If you still think, that Artha flows a bit too freely you can always be more stingy with the conditions under which Artha is earned and make them work for it more. Also, when you challenge their beliefs you can challenge them with higher, uglier stakes. That should slow down the Artha generation at first.
In the end though I think a lot of Artha is a natural consequence of players learning how to engage the system.