I'd go as far as saying that what lead to a nice wrap-up to the session was a chase contest ending in getting to a hide-out which the NEWCOMER spent a fate point declaring! I thought newcomers wouldn't GET it but she DID
And get this: the first part was actually quite freeformy, and aside from one simple overcome the first important roll was BETWEEN the players
where Z tried to fool the other one that she has this rare kind of crystal using her illusion magic... she was about to lose the roll, but I encouraged her to use a FP to improve her roll and win
She did, and the other player's character buying the lie drove the entire session, with people wanting in on the deal, authorities becoming suspicious, larger plot horizons opening up, etc
I thought the other one would metagame, knowing that it's just Flashy illusion rubbish, but no! The complete newcomer instantly grokked the idea that the player and the character have different positions
The character risked his life, then his future to get his hands on the illusion rubbish, which started off not just a plot thread, but turned a minor corrupt guardsman into a main antagonist
I had compelled a Suspicion [] boost earlier, causing them to have a guardsman become kind of iffy about them... they drove him away easily, both of them being rather good at that... so when there was a moment of stagnation in an alleyway where they were dealing stuff, I decided to not let that compel go... that same guard turned out to be this black market-connected figure that ambushed them with another thug
I statted them up quickly for a fight, but they instantly chose a non-violent approach, using their stunts and aspects to cause a distraction while they run for it... they succeeded by a margin of FIVE on the guard chief, which I had statted up as a "miniboss", leaving him covered in fiery magic dust, so I decided he's just not going to be a part of the chase... they wound up this big guy with a pistol through the forest until they almost won the contest... when suddenly the newcomer said she'd
had enough of this, and took him out on an all-out knock-out
the black market guard chief is still alive and mostly unharmed, and he hates them, but they found an incriminating letter in the unconscious thug's jacket... they asked, naturally, to loot the body, so I asked them "What here is interesting, that you find on him?" They got it immediately, so they said they took his gun, his jacket, and a letter that incriminated Mr. Rodrig, the chief
It was completely brilliant, and for a first session I'd say I handled it remarkably well
It helped a lot to have difficulties and temporary roll results on dice, like "Ok, so the guard rolled a 0, plus his quick and the free invokes that's a 5" [puts a grey die with 5 facing up on the table]
So I can think of other things
It was really beautiful, I loved it so much
They are both normally shy people, even more so in English... but in-game they were so proactive, they carried things... and when I wrote some notes or aspects a bit to the side they started conspiring and planning and having in-character chatter
