Monsters and Men Table 1

Game Master tumbler

"You got it," Cooper says reflexively as he makes for the kitchen, wanting to get something of his own to settle his grumbling stomach. Doing magic tends to take a lot out of you, and he is no exception. He makes a beeline for the refrigerator and sets to picking through the contents in search of something edible. "Hans, I'm raiding your fridge! I owe you some food, probably!"

As he wanders around the house, he tries to keep an eye out for anything that might seem out of place. As tempting as it may be to pull his Third Sight on again and look around, he does not know the place at all. Who knows what sorts of horrific deeds have been committed in the past within these walls? So, for now, mundane sight will have to do.

Looking: 1d20 ⇒ 4 Not sure if you want a Notice, Investigate, or Search check. If Notice, add 10. If Investigate, add 9. If Search, add 11.

There is nothing obvious as you move around the room, but there are the faint remains of a chalk circle on the floor in the kitchen. It is a small circle, only a couple of feet in diameter.

On the kitchen counter is a copy of the Complete Annotated Sherlock Holmes. It is open to "A Study in Scarlet," and underlined in red pen is the part where Holmes explains that Rache is German for revenge.

I'll let you narrate the finding of that stuff.

Cooper blinks in surprise and quickly furrows his brows, moving to crouch beside the chalk circle. For the moment, he does not try to touch it in the least lest something useful can be gleaned from all that. But when he stands and notices the underlined book off to the side, he quickly moves to pivot and yell out again.

"Guys! I think I found where the guy was casting from! There's a book here, too!" With that, he looks back to the book and leans over it again without touching the pages. Revenge? Who wants to take out Hans? Or are they gunning for all of us?

"Hans, have you got anybody that really wants you dead?!"

You softly hear 99 Luftbaloons being sung in a basso voice over the shower, but no response to your question.

Hailey turns towards the kitchen and the old circle. Squatting down till she can get close to the circle without touching or breaking it, she examines it to figure out what it was for.

ARcane Lore: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27

"Ugh, god that's a s*@#ty song," Gemma says with a cringe. "I remember I got linked that song by half the angsty guys on the one forums I used to frequent."

She gets up off the couch to check out what Cooper found around the house. She doesn't linger long on the magic circle, that's more for the wizardly folks to worry about, but she does take a look at the passage.

"Wonder if this is Hans' book or if the culprit brought it from home."

Hailey, you think the circle was used to work a complicated spell that robbed Hans of his will and memory of the event and forced him into his man-wolf form. The spell is complex, and, given the prohibition of entering other people's minds, an unusual skill for a wizard to have. Obviously dark magic. It does use the kinds of magic used by a Wizard of the Council, someone trained in that kind of magic. It would certainly be a good idea to record it in some way as evidence in case someone wants to prosecute Hans.

Cooper steps up to the book and frowns down at the underlined passage in question. Revenge tends to mean that one has done something horribly wrong to someone else, in his experience. Maybe something to do with Hans's past and how he became a werewolf?

He quickly shakes his head and calls up his will to levitate the book off of the counter. Brows furrow as he works to flip through every individual page of the book as quickly as he can, trying to find any other telltale marks that might be worth looking over.

"No idea. Stoner, take a picture of the circle there? And the book, probably, after I'm done with it."

Something: 1d20 ⇒ 11 Not sure if looking through the book would require a roll, but here is a flat d20 just in case.

Nothing else of interest is to be found in the book.

In due course Hans finishes his shower, after scrubbing especially hard after being changed against his will. He heads down to the sitting room in a bathrobe, sweatpants and a t-shirt.

"I am still unclear on what happened to me. I hope I did not go on a rampage or there will be serious trouble. "

At this point Hans realizes that his leash is not on his wrist.

Gemma pulls out her phone, shooing Hailey and Cooper out and away before she even tries to take a picture. One wizard was bad enough, two mortal magicians? Ugh, even worse.

"Out before you manage to fry the screen," she said as she shuffled them out. Once they were several paces off, preferably in the next room, she takes a quick shot of the circle and the page highlighted in the book.

"You tore up more than a couple things," Gemma says to Hans when he comes out. "Including a hospital I think. You got any enemies? Is this your book or did whoever do this bring it with them?" she asks, holding up the copy of Sherlock.

"I am a monster hunter. Let's just say I've been very effective in eliminating a certain demographic. While we didn't leave a lot of survivors, it still didn't leave us very popular in those communities. Also, I appear to be missing my 'leash'. "

Hailey steps back away from Gemma, so she can take a picture. "This is some complicated work. Well beyond my capabilities. It's more something that someone on the Council would use, somebody trained in mind magic, but this?" Hailey shakes her head grimly, "This is way dark, but it should be enough to clear Hans, if anyone comes poking around."

Hailey bites her lip at the news of Hans' leash, "Maybe we should let the powers that be about it? Hopefully they have some sort of 'brick switch' that can render it useless."

"I don't know that STFU is as understanding as you say. However since I don't even have my leash, we probably have to contact them anyway given how the leash could get me in even more trouble. "

"On it," Gemma says, pocketing her phone and turning her attentions to her little do-hicket that STFU had given her. She tapped at it a few times, shook it a bit, then sighed.

"Pretending I wasn't listening when they explain how to use it... How exactly do you use it again?"

"Well, hold on, hold on. Before we get into any of that, maybe we ought to take stock of what the hell we're doing. Clearly we aren't about to call the cops for probably the same reason we don't want to call STFU." Cooper pauses and peers down at the leash on his own wrist in a brief bout of paranoia. If they can tell GPS positions and listen in through the devices at all times, this could get significantly worse in a hurry.

"So, if we're gonna call anybody we get our stories straight first, right? So, what are we gonna say? Somebody broke into Hans's place while he was napping and took it? They mind controlled him? What?" Coop looks around at the group searching, clearly accepting input from the peanut gallery. As an afterthought, he adds, "Hailey, you got any friends on the Council? Or in the Wardens? It wouldn't be bad to get the word about this out. I don't know about you guys, but I'm really not the magical version of Special Forces."

Hailey lets out a little laugh, "Me, I'm small time, Cooper, I doubt the council knows who I am, much less keeps tabs." She sighs, "Still, this circle is heavyweight stuff. I think they'd be the first people that we should contact. Maybe they can run interference with the STFU?" Hailey shrugs, not really sure what to do.

"While I expect that STFU knows of the council, I don't imagine they particularly care about what they have to say. STFU may have new management, but I don't expect the institution to have changed much. They are very barely accountable. "

"To be fair, most people and organizations in our situations care what the Council says. Even the Courts occasionally give them half an ear before we ignore it," she adds, sticking a tongue out at Cooper.

"But any way it goes, nothing is ever gained through circumventing the people who might be able to help us. There's no story to get straight. Hans was under the influence of magic, evidenced by the circle I doubt he knows anything of, then some s@%@ happened."

Cooper rolls his eyes and resists the urge to make a face back at Gemma, for now, in favor of focusing on the problem at hand. "See, you say that, but things are rarely so cut-and-dried with the Council. To say nothing of how black-and-white the Wardens are. But if you want to be the one to roll the dice, go nuts. I just figure we might want to look into what we've got at our disposal before we jump into one course of action. Speaking of, Hans. Is this your book?" He gestures to the Sherlock Holmes book with the underlined passage.

"No, I generally read in German. "

"Oh. Well. That's convenient. Gemma, you want to see if you can find the nearest chain book store? Let's hope he bought it at a Barnes and Noble or something."

"Don't know the area. Hans? Anywhere nearby? But wait--- What are we going to do? Demand to see their sales receipts?"

"Yes. It is not as if we are police. More like DHS needed really. "

"The council isn't all bad. They'd see this for what it is. He was mind controlled. It's not like they don't let weres run free. Pretty big packs in Chicago and New York already, I think. In any case, we don't have to even have Hans here when we show them the book and the circle. We found some bad mojo, and we're reporting it." She shrugs, "Hell, we could even go so far as to take a photo, and the book to them."

"Sure, we're not police. But have you never seen an action movie? An American action movie," he amends for Hans's sake, before continuing, "I've never seen a German action movie, so I have no idea how things go there. But people do all sorts of things with a little bit of misdirection. We can just distract...whoever with some carefully placed flirting from you ladies. Or Hans and I. It's 2015, I don't judge."

An amused grin creeps into his features as the shell of a plan starts to form, despite being severely outclassed and having no idea what he is doing. Granted, when it is put that way, it sounds bad. But really, he just wants to be a Luke Skywalker as much as anybody else. "C'mon, what's the worst that happens? It doesn't work and we have to call the Wardens and STFU anyway, right? Let's give it a try."

"Whatever. If this fails, I'm vanishing and leaving you to the wolves. Er..." she gives a look to Hans. "I mean cops."

I'm good to head to local bookshops and making inquiries if no one else has any last minute business here at Hans' place.

The book is a nice copy and from a 1943 printing, so it is more likely from somewhere like Brattle Book Shop if it came from nearby. That would be a good place to start. It is about half a mile back across the common, just a quick walk away.

Cooper gathers up his things, or rather his jacket and hat since he does not need to carry much around, and looks around at the others. "Well, come on. Let's get to it, lazybones. We've got clues to follow. If anybody else feels like Scoob and the Gang, please tell me so that I don't feel alone in this. I mean, hell, all we're missing now is a Shaggy. Or a Fred, I guess. I haven't got an ascot."

I think we're good to scoot on ahead to the bookstore. Or at least, our first try at the bookstore. However you want to handle that stuff.

Giving Copper a stern look "Call me Scooby and bad things will happen. ". Then he follows him to the store.

When you get to the store, which is in an old building and has a giant pencil over the doors, you find it closed. There are police cruisers outside, and the glass in the front windows is broken in from the outside. You only see one uniformed cop. You would imagine the others are looking for the bear/wolf.

The shop is closed.

"So much for that idea. "

Quitter : )

Cooper lifts his brows in surprise at the sight of the taped off bookstore, but he heads straight up to the officer. It's not as though he is the one that's wanted, anyway. And not too many people are privy to the knowledge that Hans is very au naturale in the hair department every once in a full moon, so that helps. "Hey, officer. What gives? This place didn't get hit by that big gorilla thing, did it?"

While Cooper takes the social route, Gemma simply fades from existence and waits for a chance to get into the book store to do her own investigating.

Either waiting for a chance to hop in through the window, or maybe sneak in behind someone opening the door. Either would work!

To Cooper: "You mean the thing over by the hospital? No, none of that has made it over here. Just some vandalism. Someone through a brick through the window. You didn't happen to be here this morning did you, around 4:00? Didn't see anything?"

Gemma slips easily through the broken window. You can see evidence flags where the brick sits on the floor, and broken glass that someone has swept up.

The store is filled to the brim with old books, long stacks of bookshelves, antique posters, and old world charm. It isn't a pretentious place, but a place for people who love books and craftsmanship.

High up on a shelf you see a cat watching you.

The cat is watching me? I should be invisible to all forms of sight and hearing iirc

Perhaps "watching over his domain" is more appropriate. Didn't mean anything by it

"Sorry, guy, I wasn't. Nowhere near here this morning, honestly. They just threw a brick through the window? Didn't even take anything? What a toolbox." Cooper shakes his head with a frown and stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "Hopefully there's some prints on the brick though, right? Y'know, I'm surprised you're the only guy here. Where's the owner at? You'd think he'd have more of an invested interest in this, wouldn't you?"

Not overly comfortable in the presence of so many police at the moment, Hans gives a curious look and keeps on moving to somewhere a bit away from the hubbub.

No worries! I just want to make sure that I wasn't supposed to be taking that as a cue that the cat was some crazy magical entity!

Gemma carefully steps through the bookshop, ensuring she doesn't step on any broken glass or anything else the police might consider evidence.

She quickly does a skim over the books, looking for the Sherlock Holmes novels. She keeps her eyes open for anywhere that looks like a book might have been recently removed, such as a gap or missing volume.

While she makes that search, her eyes sweep the rest of the shop for anything else out of place the police might have missed. Maybe a kleenex, or dark magic circle. You know, whatever.

Notice: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25
Investigate: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

Gemma slips through the stacks, finding the mystery section and Doyle. Indeed, there is a gap in the Holmes collection just where your book should go. Looking around. Unfortunately, this place is pretty low tech. Convex mirrors at the end of the aisles to allow observation, but no cameras even near the register.

Looking around, just in front of the shelves where the book is missing, there is a tiny brown spot on the otherwise clean carpet. Investigating futher, she sees that it is a spatter of relatively fresh but now dried blood.

Officer says: "The owner is inside with the insurance agent, I think."

He is beginning to wonder why Cooper is so interested.

notice: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19
investigate: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

Hailey finds a spot among any bystanders and then tries to see if any of them are paying any undo attention to the place. Usually vandals like to watch their handiwork to see how much chaos they unleash, let's see what I can see.

Could be anyone's really, with all this broken glass. The shopkeeper's, insurance guy's, policeman's... But also possibly the culprit. Wonder if Hans can do anything like track scent...

Not that she could get him in here to try with the cop out front.

Hailey's possibly a wizard thing. I can't tell with that dumb toy gun she uses. Maybe that's the magic thing... Whatever, maybe she can do some magical wizard blood voodoo to track it.

Gemma steps back out the way she cam in and seeks out Hailey, only becoming visible when she's right beside her.

"Blood on the carpet near where a Sherlock book is missing. Could be any number of people's including our mystery culprit. And chance you got some weirdo wizard juju for tracking?" she asks in a hushed tone.

"Ah, I get you, buddy. Say, you know a halfway decent coffee place around here?" Cooper asks the cop conversationally, really just doing his best to look as though he simply wants to chat. Assuming the officer is just standing around for the moment, given that he seems to be the only one here. Policemen are still people too, so there's no reason why he would avoid standing around to shoot the s**$ with the guy. Or so goes his logic, anyway.

Hailey gives a bit of a jump when Gemma pops up right next to her, "Geeze, give a little warning, would ya?" Shaking her head with a grin before answering the question, "I could probably create a finding charm, or something like that, but we'd need some of the blood."

Assuming that this would be a way to use the arcane knowledge and ritualist combination, to create a charm like Dresden does?

that would work.

.

doot doot

I'm kind of confused and needing some help to position myself! So many references!

I'm not totally sure how to... use tvtropes.com. >.>

OK, have to say regeneration is needlessly complicated in this edition. Makes building a character more onerous than it should be.

Still plugging away nonetheless.

That is true, buzzard.

The tropes thing is not mandatory. I just thought that might be a short cut to me understanding how you see your character.

Hans is a soldier at heart, and would have stayed in the Bundeswehr until retirement had he not been involved in the weirdness of a zombie attack. He still thinks of things in military terms and maintains a strict self discipline. That's probably the only way he managed to overcome the werewolf curse enough to re-establish a sort of normal life.

Ok, build is done, but I welcome any suggestions. I'm no wizard at M&M 3e, and I am positively crap at 2e.

So, I'm far from spectacular at 2e either, but I think I see a few things that you could do to cut down on your PP cost. For instance, you didn't pick an extra thing from Super Speed to have, like Rapid Attack, Rapid Fire, Wall Run, Water Run, ect. So if you just wanted the speed, quickness, and initiative modifier, that would cost 3 PP instead of 5 per rank. Also, I don't know that you'd have to buy two different versions of Blast. But I could be wrong on that?

I have two different weapons. One is a sniper rifle, one is a submachinegun. Hence 2 versions of blast (as equipment, both being actual weapons).

I guess I can go back and change out the super speed. Thanks.

So, from the other group's discussion, I figured this may help sort out some things.

The Five Man Band

The group traditionally includes:
The Leader — (lead singer) The leader of the group. Can be a mastermind, charismatic, levelheaded, headstrong, or some combination of the four. Often also The Hero.

The Lancer — (lead guitar) Usually a contrast to The Leader. If the Leader is clean-cut and/or uptight, the Lancer is a grizzled Anti-Hero or Deadpan Snarker; if the Leader is driven and somewhat amoral, the Lancer is more relaxed and level-headed.

The Smart Guy — (keyboardist) The physically weak, but intelligent or clever member. Often nerdy and awkwardly played for comic relief. Sometimes unconventionally young (early- to mid-teens). Sometimes a Trickster and a buddy of the Big Guy.

The Big Guy — (drummer) The strongman of the team. May be dumb. Or mute.

The Chick — (vocal effects, tambourine) A peacekeeping role to balance out the other members' aggression, bringing them to a nice or at least manageable medium. The Chick is often considered the heart of the group. This role is played by a woman or girl. Someone female. Otherwise, it is not a Five-Man Band.

Naturally, we don't have to follow these to a T or even at all. Just figured they would be a good place to start or get ideas from.

Check out "background noise" on the campaign info tab for a quick summary of the state of the world as it might affect you.

We should also figure out how we know each other, unless the DM had planned on bringing us together via a bigger event at the beginning that is.

Hans, you could buy both of those weapons as a single device with one of them being an alternate power of the other. The downside there is that you can lose both guns with a single attack.

As another option, you could take blast not as a device at all. Then you have guns aplenty, with alternate powers representing different guns. Essentially, you cannot be disarmed. Anytime something happens to one of your guns, you have another one, or steal one from an enemy, or other flavor.

My plan for this group is that they are recruited by the new incarnation of Special Task Force Unicorn so that they can earn an exemption from being hunted. Sort of a Dirty Dozen set up. We will begin the campaign in a forest fire in New Hampshire, hunting some sort of fire creature or something. Haven't totally figured that out yet.

All ideas welcome, of course.

I dig it. Gemma and I were thinking of being roommates, so that would give Cooper an in to being a part of the STFU if he wants to help her get her PUFF. Would we have just been thrown in with Hans, Annurian, and the unnamed guy and forced to work together, then? Or have they met previously?

Hans has some experience hunting monsters and connections in the community, so he might even have signed up. My impression is that Annurian is pretty new at even being a monster, so he is probably a fresh recruit. Cooper and the unnamed guy aren't "illegals," as it were, so they could be hired help or volunteers, as desired.

Note: I understand the charged and negative connotation of the term illegals in this context. I would not use it under normal circumstances, but am using it here to signify the outsider nature of monsters in the setting.

Dotting to watch.

Sounds fair to me. Coop would gladly jump in as a volunteer to help out his friend, and if he makes a few more on the way, so much the better.

What exactly was Annurian's deal? I read his backstory, but how situated is he in actual society since being joined with the elemental?

Also, tumbler, what were you looking for in terms of tropes?

*cracks knuckles* apparently im not sleeping tonight so i set to work looking at the various tropes. of course, she's several all at once (i think most character as) and of vary degrees depending on the day so let me just throw out some i think she's rocking in one way or another:

The Chick
Slightly non-optional as I believe she is the only chick

Girly Bruiser
Girly in a more yoga pants and crop tops sense rather than frilly

Sarcastic Devotee and Deadpan Snarker
Because what type of woman would she be if she wasn't dryly picking apart everything?

Girl next Door and maybe One of the Boys but I'm not sure
Supposed to come off as easy to talk to,

Rascally Rabbit
I mean, she's a vandal, but she does it for the art

The guns really aren't an issue since they're cheap by comparison to buying a power. The idea that they are just one power bugs me a bit, but I can see the logic in it, but I doubt I would do that. I can accept being disarmed, that's just some realism.

I have removed superspeed in favor of improved initiative and speed. Then I bumped up my BAB and got some diplomacy.

Think this will do.

Way I see it, Hans would be new to STFU (book acronym, not mine) as he was involved in the Las Vegas incident which taught the international monster hunting community not to trust that organization. After the Nemesis events, he would be willing to give it a shot for PUFF exemption under the new management.

Cooper, I was just thinking that some tropes might help me understand how you want your character to fit into the story or what kind of person they are. And they can provide inspiration. For example, on the hats page I learned that the baseball cap is based on civil war soldier hats, which made me wonder if that is what you are really wearing, and why would that be true?

Here are a few based on your description:

Wearing a baseball cap tells people that you're adventurous, heroic, slick, and an all around cool guy, or that you want them to think of you that way—the latter especially if you wear it backwards. The wearer of the baseball cap is usually either the good hearted leader of the group or a Jerk Jock. In a Lady Land or one full of ambiguously-gendered persons, they're probably male. If worn by a tertiary character, it means that the writers were not confident enough to trust that they could establish the character's place of origin without a regional symbol on his forehead.

As another example, a skilled wizard working at a temp agency (and possibly using duplicates to get things done?) is an example of Mundane Utility.

Cooper, the power level of you duplicates are still limited by the power level of the campaign.

Yeah, the hat was less an effort to adhere to a trope and more me trying to figure out an appropriate focus for Cooper. That said, he is totally a Mundane Utility kinda guy. Need to clean the apartment? Why not do it five times faster rather than one thing at a time? I'll pull together some applicable tropes when I get off work later today.

As for the duplicates, they're technically less powerful than any of us at the moment. The way that they get power points is the rank times fifteen. At rank 8, they have 120 power points, which is 20 less than all of us. So, my question to you is this: in order to use the Survival extra, they have to be the same power level as us. Do you want me to drop them down to power level 7 and have them with less power points? Or keep it more or less in the same range that it is currently at, which is a bit closer to our power level? Or rather, are you willing to accept that the Survival extra can be used when they're at our power level and not our same amount of power points?

They can have 120 points, they just need to adhere to all of the Power Level caps at 7. Survival is fine. Giving you extra power points per level messes with those rules.

I'm not seeing a lot of complications on anyone's sheets. I can pull some out of your various histories, but you definitely want to have some. Hero Points are the bomb.

Let's collect them in replies to this post and build a list, then I will compile them all and post them on the campaign info.

Not sure why, but I couldn't find complications in the 2e Hero Lab.

His complications would be:

Goes feral under the full moon. Has to be locked up.

PUFF applicable creature who when transforms is quite scary to any normals.

I assume those are OK.

Cool, sounds fine to me. I'll make sure to keep them in that range and have a separate sheet in a spoiler for the Duplicates if I ever need to use 'em somewhere down the line. As for Coop's complications:

He has a job with a temp agency as a secretary more or less wherever they put him. If he loses that job, he's up a creek without a paddle because that's really his livelihood right there. Not to mention his mother would be so disappointed.

With two parents and an "uncle" to worry over, anything involving them would be a complication. Whether it be them coming to visit or some nefarious villain targeting them or somewhere in between, all are cause for concern. For Cooper, if not everyone else.

The other two are obvious: he has an apartment and a roommate that he wants to not see dead/destroyed. The apartment because having a roof over your head and a place to keep all your stuff is pretty great. The roommate because, as annoying as Gemma can be on occasion, she's probably his best friend. Hence why he signed up for STFU to help her out.

Any suggestions for others that are applicable I'm totally open to!

White Council would be one. If you get called into wizard business or something.

Any enemies?

Okay, so I've added the Morph power to my character.

I got thinking about what kind of fey she may be, and I was inspired by my favorite artist (as I usually am), as well as reading about how changelings start to see fey stuff pop up around puberty. As it was, I didn't have much in terms of physical traits that went along with that and I was like WELL NOW WE NEED TO FIX THAT! Not only that, I think it makes her more of a target for all this PUFF nonsense if she's got more monstrous traits and gives her a reason to want to get that exemption.

So I figure, without using her Morph power, she looks something like this...
Nature Spirit by Sakimichan
Colors and details vary to what I actually imagine for her, but this is along the lines of what I have working in my head.

But uses her morph power to appear like this...
Gloves by Kuvshinov-Ilya

Now, she's got the Dresdenverse limitations stuck on that power (how does that effect cost of a 1PP power?) which means that when it's raining she has a hell of a time maintaining that glamour. And let's not even talk about any incidents at the beach...

Oh, and I had a question about fey and electronics/technological devices: do they have the same struggles as wizards?

And finally, I'd be willing to take some suggestions about drawbacks/complications for Gemma. I'm brainstorming now, but I;d love to hear any opinions and ideas anyone else may have!

The cost of a 1PP power at -1 per rank becomes 1 per two ranks.

In the Dresdenverse, for some reason, fey do not have the adverse effect on technology. For example, the Winter Lady (major muckity muck among fey) carries around and cell phone and uses a computer.

I added the White Council to my list of Complications, but I don't really see Cooper as having too many enemies if any at all. He's not a whole lot like Dresden who goes crusading around and righting wrongs. At most, he might've pissed off a person or two at his job for being pretty poor at it.

Though, since he gets bounced around between companies often, that could result in a fair few people who aren't fond of him. You're welcome to run with that however you like. Maybe one of the CEOs/higher level managers/whatever have ties in the supernatural side of things. Or a one-time coworker of his is a bit unhinged and has developed an overly large grudge.

Nice Art Gemma Stone.

I will be posting the beginning of gameplay around 6:00 Eastern Today. We will begin in the middle of action with the group on a rescue mission in a forest fire in Vermont.

You have been recruited by an Agent named Benton Fowler. You can decide how aggressive or gentle your recruitment might have been based on your character traits. Fowler is not a jerk, and is an excellent manipulator, so you might feel good about the opportunity that has been extended to you to earn a PUFF exemption. At the same time, he isn't afraid to be tough with anyone who would respond better to that.

In general, I hope to use real places for much of the campaign so that we can easily access information and maps. Obviously, those real places are fictionalized.

In the Dresdenverse, for some reason, fey do not have the adverse effect on technology. For example, the Winter Lady (major muckity muck among fey) carries around and cell phone and uses a computer.

That is true.

Sounds good to me! I'm excited to get started.

Sorry for the delay getting started, I was probably being too picky about things being just right.

I'd like to say that I only barely know what I am doing running a pbp, so please feel free to give advice. I have pretty thick skin, so don't worry about hurting my feelings.

Also, let me say that I won't generally make decisions for your characters, just doing that a little to get things rolling.

So, for my Dresdenverse limitations, should I remove the technology fritzing aspect of it? Is there anything to replace it with?

The main Dresdenverse limitations are Fey are (that I can recall):
A) You cannot tell a direct lie. You can misdirect all you like, and can omit like it's going out of style, but direct lies are a no-no.
B) Cold iron (which means pretty much any iron or steel) is bad news for you.

Not really sure how this would work as something to put in as power limitations.

I am very lost! I don't know what's "Dresdenverse" or what's happening right now enough even to write my post. I apologize!

Dresdenverse is the world in which the Dresenden Files series of novels occurs. It has a certain set of magical rules which are being followed in this game.

Never heard of! Lol I feel so terribly uncultured right now!

Also you can't break a vow, right?

As for your limitations, I say keep them as is, with the caveat that you don't have the technology issue and that iron will disrupt them.

So, for example, if you are glamoured and dropped into running water, your true appearance would show. Also, if someone threw iron filings at you it would burn through your illusions.

It seems that iron weapons (like steel jacketed bullets and most swords) might penetrate your defenses. But since you don't have tough skin or anything, it might not matter.

On a personal level, fey generally consider iron offensive. You wouldn't take iron into a fey's house, for example. It makes them uncomfortable. So you could reasonably take a complication with regards to wanting to stay away from iron.

Sorry Annurian, I didn't see your post last night. I just sent you a message and didn't even realize you had posted here.

There is a pretty good wiki for the Dresden Files that covers a wide range of topics for the setting.

At the moment, you have been recruited by a government agency called STFU or Special Task Force Unicorn. In exchange for your help, you gain an exemption from being bounty hunted for being a monster, and eventually you will be allowed to go on your way. Your handler is the agent mentioned in my first post.

I intended for this first segment to be a bit of trial by fire (pun intended), with story flowing after that. Think of it as the action scene at the beginning of a movie. You don't have to understand everything is going on at this point. You are in a forest, a booby trap has started a fire, there is a little girl to save from hostile elements. You probably don't know your allies all that well. What will you do?

Some thoughts:

Gemma, if fire, or specifically fire and plants, make you want to avoid an area, that could be a complication. Anything that requires some sort of response from you. Protects plants, even.

Cooper, you need a spell to detect mirrors, amiright?

Anyone know how to make code appear in a post? I want to post up some pre-built text to make combat tracking easier, but I can't figure out how to keep them as code that we can copy/paste rather than converting into the formatting.

I keep everything in a notepad file :3