Where they are mechanically useful is when you could say they give you an advantage. If you are locked in a pushing match with a bad guy and you are tall, you would have an advantage. Then again if he has huge, he has the advantage. Conversely the huge guy has a disadvantage when wriggling through the bars of a cage.
I don't know what I was thinking. I've read most of the mechanics now (I've avoided magic per your suggestion until after I try playing a little to get a feel for the flow of the system.) and I went back and re-read the basics, which really helped. The FoRKs combined with character traits (along with tests for advancement) seemed very confusing on my first read through, but on the second run, once you have a rough overview of the system it's a lot clearer.
Also you earn artha (fate) when your traits help the story by making it more complicated.
I love that, by the way. Yeah, you get artha when you follow your beliefs, but you get it especially well when you make your insticts
complicate things.
And during a trait vote you can change character traits into die traits
As an aside, how often do you have trait votes when you play? The recommendation is at the end of an "adventure" but I've seen a lot of different opinions for what constitutes an "adventure..." I'm thinking at the end or beginning of a session? Do you think that's too often? Our gaming group usually ends up meeting and gaming for ~6+ hours, so a lot can get done (even more so in BW, me thinks)
Another idea... The character burner worksheets are great. The actual sheets are pretty good, but I get the feeling some things (routine v difficult v challenge tests or weapon range organization) will get confusing for new players so I was thinking of making a sheet for each player with some of the important charts to help keep track of these kind of things. Do you think that might be a good idea?