Decide what the world that surrounds the protagonists is like. Decide how epic or personal your story will be.

• How epic are the characters?
• How much magic do the characters have access to?
• How epic are the challenges?
• How much magic are the antagonists going to have access to?
• What are the fundamental details of the setting? How big is it? How much will the characters be moving around in it?

Decide what threats and pressures inherent to the setting will spur the protagonists to action.

Come up with two issues as a group and write them down on index cards or a game creation worksheet. These issues are aspects and will be available to invoke or compel throughout the entirety of the game.

The default number of issues in a Fate game is two: Either two current issues (for a story solely about trying to make the world a better place), two impending issues (for a story about striving to save people from threats), or one of each. The latter option is common in fiction: think about the stalwart heroes who work against some impending doom while already discontent with the world around them.

Decide who the important people, groups, and locations are.

Put some faces on those issues and those groups, so that your PCs have people to interact with when they’re dealing with those elements. Doesn’t need to be an exhaustive list, but come up with a few to start.

Optionally, create an aspect or two for each NPC or location or issues for the groups to be working on or challenged by.

If there’s a piece of your setting that’s meant to be a mystery which the protagonists uncover, define it only in loose terms. The specifics can be detailed as they are revealed in play.