Alright, I love the Dresden Files (Jim Butcher novels and graphic novels) and I finally got my copy of the RPG.
So, I would love to find a group of people interested in building a city and participating in adventures.
Q. I like Dresden Files but I don't know FATE system. Can I play?
Certainly. FATE is a very easy system to learn. I'll give the Coles notes version of the rules.
1> You roll some dice and add your Skill Value to the roll. You compare the total to a difficulty number to determine success. Higher then the difficulty number can get you extra benefits called 'shifts'.
2> You have a variety of extra abilities called, 'stunts', 'powers', and 'aspects' that are powered by pool of points called 'Fate Points'. 'Fate Points' are the currency that determines how you run your character and allows you to do amazing things.
3> 'Aspects' are the central way to get modifiers to die rolls, to earn 'Fate Points', and describe what motivates you and everything else in the game world. 'Aspects' are the hot buttons that makes your character and opponents tick. They have both positive and negative qualities. When an 'Aspect' works against a character then the character earns 'Fate Points' and when they work for a character they give them various modifiers or re-rolls to the die roll.
There it is in a nutshell all the basic rules of the system. We'll go into more detail as we get into city creation and then character creation.
Q. I know FATE but I don't really know Dresden Files. Can I play?
Certainly. We won't be basing things in Chicago unless the group thinks that is the town for them to use. Even if we do use Chicago, it won't be identical to the Dresden Books Chicago (though I do have DFRPG Vol 2 Our World which covers Chicago). During city generation, players will identify the types of monsters and problems that interest them and the group. That information will develop the 'landscape, sandbox, or dungeon' which they will initially start playing within.
Dresden Files is an Urban Fantasy but I see no reason to limit it to 'pure' fantasy. If you are a fan of things like Delta Green and want to bring in 'aliens' (note: in Delta Green aliens are often various outsiders and their servants) then that is fine with me as long as it is good with the group. The DFRPG has rules for various Outsiders for the Call of Cthulhu lovers in the world.
Q. So what do I need to do to sign up?
I'm looking for 5 to 6 players interested in playing. I currently game a successful Star Wars Saga game on this site and play in a couple of other games; so, I check this site a couple of times a day for posts.
I'm looking for people who can post usually once a day though we all have lives that sometimes require us to do other things. Polite notes of times when you need some one to NPC your character for a couple of days are appreciated.
So if this is you, then post to this thread that you would like to play along with five or six things that you think would be neat or interesting to have involved in the game.
The list of things should have first, a general name of what you think might be neat or interesting. Second, it should have a sample type of location. Third, it should have an example in movie or TV that you reference and a brief explanation on you think this is would be fun. You don't need to limit yourself to the Dresden books and can pull material from where you find it.
Examples
1> Masonic Architecture - Washington, DC - movie National Treasure - The idea of ancient monuments built by secret orders in special ritualistic patterns has awesome potential.
2> Isolated community beset by monsters - Alaskan station or Antarctic Base - movies The Thing and 30 Days of Night - The idea of hunting a horrible monster or monsters in a small isolated community is the definition of horror.
3> Old Victorian Home Demonically Possessed - Old Eastern Houses - movies like The Amityville Horror - The idea of dealing with demon possession of a location or possible gate to Hell would be a wonderful challenge.
Good stuff. The suggestions help figure out what people want in the game. If a person wanted to be a Black Court Vampire hunter then they would suggest something with Vampires or similar to make sure they had something in the game to hunt.
I would *love* to be involved in a Dresden Files RPG, as it is easily my favorite series of books. However, I know absolutely nothing of the system, so someone would probably have to bear with me and hold my hand while I learned it.
I would *love* to be involved in a Dresden Files RPG, as it is easily my favorite series of books. However, I know absolutely nothing of the system, so someone would probably have to bear with me and hold my hand while I learned it.
Perfectly fine. The system is fairly straight forward to learn.
This link will give you an overview of what we'll be doing first which is building the 'city' that the game will take place in.
There are additional links at the end of the page to other Dresden RPG articles and podcasts.
There is also within the article a wiki link to FATE Rpg that describes briefly what FATE system games are and has more links at the end of the wiki to other FATE page resources.
This link provides a compilation of downloads of Fate Standard Reference Document information. There is a slant towards Spirit of the Century which is a pulp fiction system that uses FATE. You can learn some of the system rules from there and it will be very easy to teach anything else.
I might be interested but I have absolutely zero experience with PBP and have no idea how one goes about doing it.
I might be interested but I have absolutely zero experience with PBP and have no idea how one goes about doing it.
Here's an example of the pbp Star Wars game that I GM. Our group has put up 540+ posts of in game play.
We also have a dedicated OOC thread where we discuss rules and various things related to the game.
You can see the various dice rolling and adjudicating of situations by looking at the posts.
Hello Smerg,
I would be really interested in playing some Dresden Files RPG. I have the PDFs right now. I may be getting the books, but that is a few months away. (Santa Day/B-day). I have read some of the first book, but put it on hold as I could not find any games.
I am avid Dresden Files fan. I have read all the main books, and a few of the short stories. I have seen the TV show (thankfully the show before the books)
As for playing and posting... I have RPed online for many years now. Playing serveral PHBs. I am in a few right now over at EnWorld... (if you would like a fe more to look at, ask away)
Mir Malone at Dawn of Defiance: Chapter I: The Traitor's Gambit (Star Wars)
Ava Varaun Scum and Villany (Star Wars)
Marda Hammerstar War of the Burning Sky - Scouring of Gate Pass (Pathfinder)
For some ideas off the top of my head...
Monster Hunt >>> Traveling on the road >>> Supernatural (TV) >>> Hunting down the mean and nasties and staying one step ahead of those who are clueless.
Learning New Abilities/People/looking for history of self/family >>> Large city full of history >>> Lost Girl (TV) >>> Finding you have some strange abilities and not knowing who you are and then thrust into the fae/magical.
Another Supernatural Detective >>> (books set in Seattle) >>> Greywalker books by Kate Richardson (Book) >>> Again, find you have inherited powers and helping out those connected to the supernatural
Supernatural Mysteries/Government cover ups >>> Several large cities, perhaps through the world >>> X-Files >>> Someone in authority looking into the strange and unknown. In our case, having some abilities of our own
Right now... a character idea that has stuck with me is a monster hunter similar to that of Supernatural (TV). Perhaps with some sponsored ability or the like. Or perhaps just something that develops.
Songdragon, glad to have you along.
Monster hunting themes are good. I am a fan of Supernatural, too. I only got into the first couple of seasons of X-Files and lost interest after that. I've only seen the first of the X-File movies. I've read the first of the Greywalker novels and it fits in well to the overall game theme.
I am looking for a bit more detail on the suggestions. Mumbling out loud here.
FBI part of government doing supernatural investigation is good. It forms an element that can be combined into a story.
Lost Girl (another good program!) could develop into a hidden Fae court inside of a town or city.
I suppose with the Supernatural you could take that to be small family groups that do 'unofficial' hunting. They are unconnected to any larger organization and only have their own family and small groups of others to rely upon. Theme of this group might be more southern redneck. Basically guns, knives, and not much technology.
I suppose the Greywalker could again represent a separate hunter group but with a more native theme.
Ever see the mid-90s's short lived TV series Strange Luck?
The lead character is kind of Harry Dresden like (lots of uprooted problems in his past), save that instead of being a talented Wizard, he's a PI who has, well, bizarre luck.
He's the kind of guy who, if he gets rear-ended, it's always going to turn into a strange case involving bizarre circumstances. He's got ridiculous luck - but almost always with a cost to it, to him, or to people he cares about. He knows that if he doesn't USE that karma for something, it's going to bite him in the ass, and he can't really use it for his own benefit.
In some ways, the Dresden-verse can be seen as a 'human scale' perspective on the Sandman universe.
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I'm also interested but don't have the books nor am I famailar with the fate sys. But I am willing to play if someone will help me out with character gen.
1.Necropolis, grave yard with catocombs dug under it (rome,paris). Under the control of some budding necromancers and their servants
2.Wolf town. Tribal lands.
The local tribe are all werewolves bears or what have you live a really long time but something is killing the elders
3.Savage garden. Local state park. See yellowstone. The wild Fey there are going nuts reason unknow.
4.Gate of Madness. Stone henge
Acient stone work has been rumored to be the link to other worlds for years now though things made of insanity have been crawling through on the dark of the moon.
5. I don't know yet.
I can be contacted at oberontheelfking@gmail.com
If you have space for me let me know. I hope to buy the books soon. I'm gonna go look at the srd now.
Alright, I'll read over those links, if I have a spot.
Ever see the mid-90s's short lived TV series Strange Luck?
The lead character is kind of Harry Dresden like (lots of uprooted problems in his past), save that instead of being a talented Wizard, he's a PI who has, well, bizarre luck.
He's the kind of guy who, if he gets rear-ended, it's always going to turn into a strange case involving bizarre circumstances. He's got ridiculous luck - but almost always with a cost to it, to him, or to people he cares about. He knows that if he doesn't USE that karma for something, it's going to bite him in the ass, and he can't really use it for his own benefit.
In some ways, the Dresden-verse can be seen as a 'human scale' perspective on the Sandman universe.
Sorry, I don't know the series 'Strange Luck' but the Fate System has many ways to make something like that work for a character.
Since we have several people new to Fate (myself included but I've at least read a few FATE engine books and played in on Fudge based game); this is a good time to mention a bit more on Aspects.
Most RPGs that people are familiar with like DnD, GURPS, WoW, Traveler, and others have a standard set of characteristics and use numbers to describe how they compare to each other.
Aspects are instead ordinary language used to describe things. Ideally, Aspects have both positive and negative qualities (but they don't have to) and should tell someone more on what is important to your character or what motivates your character.
For example;
You could choose to say your character is Lucky. When a situation comes up and you feel that you need a bit of an edge then you could point out that your character is Lucky, pay the 1 Fate Point (FP) cost to 'invoke' the aspect and either re-roll the dice or get a +2 on your roll.
The problem with that is it doesn't really tell much more on the nature of your character.
Let's look at some alternatives;
Luckier than Bill and Bill is either a NPC friend or another Player. Here, you can invoke your luck when ever a choice comes up between you and Bill of some bad event happening like catching a grenade or being targeted for a kidnapping. This aspect can also be used to ensure (compel) bad things happen to Bill instead of your character. The aspect of Luck now has a story element that defines some of the relationship between your character and Bill.
Luck of the Irish this would tell something of the source of your luck and give some insight into being Irish. While you might be lucky you likely have picked up friends and enemies associated with Irish and Irish fae. That sort of association would likely require some discussion with the GM as to what you mean by the aspect.
And this brings us to;
Strange Luck where the luck can work to help (invoke) or work against you (compel). One key thing to remember is that Aspects are the way that players earn Fate Points. You want to have a few things that you can point to help you earn Fate Points and a few things to help you spend them. Strange Luck is good in that it allows you both! You can have a GM compel Strange Luck to be picked up by some villain planning to experiment on homeless people (earning a Fate Point) and then invoke Strange Luck to say the jailer 'goofed' and didn't lock the cell properly (this is another usage of Aspects where you can 'edit' events if you pay a Fate Point and the GM agrees). The net value is 0 but now your character is in the villain's secret lab.
Okay, more on aspects later.
Alright, I'll read over those links, if I have a spot.
Glad to have you and divineshadow agreeing to join!
Let's see where we are;
1. Songdragon - Yes
2. Divineshadow - Yes
3. Arctaris - Yes
4. Saedar - Maybe
5. Ithuriel - Maybe
6. AdAstraGames - posted (not sure if that is just for info or an interest to play)
So, we definitely are building up a good core of interest in play with three fully committed to play and a couple of others sitting on the fence.
I'm also interested but don't have the books nor am I famailar with the fate sys. But I am willing to play if someone will help me out with character gen.
1.Necropolis, grave yard with catocombs dug under it (rome,paris). Under the control of some budding necromancers and their servants
2.Wolf town. Tribal lands.
The local tribe are all werewolves bears or what have you live a really long time but something is killing the elders3.Savage garden. Local state park. See yellowstone. The wild Fey there are going nuts reason unknown.
4.Gate of Madness. Stone henge
Ancient stone work has been rumored to be the link to other worlds for years now though things made of insanity have been crawling through on the dark of the moon.5. I don't know yet.
I can be contacted at oberontheelfking@gmail.com
If you have space for me let me know. I hope to buy the books soon. I'm gonna go look at the srd now.
Your ideas of Wolf Town and Savage Garden make me think of Patricia Briggs and her Mercy Thompson novels. They are set in Tri-Cities area of Washington State.
Necropolis's are lots of fun and there are good ones on the surface like New Orleans.
Plenty of old stone works around the world. I'm always amazed when you do digging around in local areas as to what weird stuff from man made to nature made exist (witch mountain)
All good ideas.
I'll be watching this thread closely, to see how FATE works on a PbP. I've been reading Legends of Angleer, and have both Starblazer Adventures, and The Dresden Files books...and really love the rules set, but will be interested to see how it plays out in PbP. I've had some reservations, because many of the rules seem to be designed around group interaction, so it will be interesting to see how things progress. Good luck, and I hope things go smoothly.
I am interested, yes. It's why I asked if you'd seen Strange Luck.
Have you seen Unknown Armies? You may want to look at how its magic system might meld with FATE.
Oh, hey a Dresden Files game! That already has six applicants. Well, put me on the reserve list then.
Have you seen Unknown Armies? You may want to look at how its magic system might meld with FATE.
Personally, the various Adept paths would generally be closest to the Emissary of Power template, just instead of getting power from some otherworldly power you're getting it from your own obsession with self improvement and the concept of "no pain no gain". (That's not saying much, since Emissaries of Power are the template that doesn't really have any standard powers, but it's close conceptually.)
Let's see where we are;
1. Songdragon - Yes
2. Divineshadow - Yes
3. Arctaris - Yes
4. AdAstraGames - Yes
5. Davi - Yes
6. Saedar - Maybe
7. Ithuriel - Maybe
I treat people that say they are interested in playing as higher priority for joining then people that say maybe. I do try to people in order of their posted interest.
I also know that at this stage it is often okay to take an extra person till all people have settled into a cycle of posting.
Thanks for the support Scranford. I don't think it will be much different then other RPGs in the negotiation of story elements. I often do that in my regular games like my Star Wars game where I gave the players an option to roleplay a section, montage the section, or skip the details (assume that it worked out) and jump straight to the next main event. The players chose a montage and I allowed them to each describe a scene appropriate to the montage of getting ready for their big assault (It sped up a section of posts which otherwise would have been various shopping and construction).
AdAstragames, I have read UA and own a copy though it has probably been close to a decade since I last looked at the system. I remember the elements of acquiring a 'charge' (minor or major) by fulfilling a requirement (like Alcohol, Sex, or Money). The downside of the system as it seemed to me was that you were constantly having to do more and more extremes to get a major 'charge'.
I am fairly confident that with a system of Aspects (to generate Fate Points ie Charges) along with Stunts, Aspects, and Powers to use the Fate Points that pretty much any of those types of magics could be simulated. I also have books like StarBlazers and Icons RPG to give me guidelines for a range of powers not in Dresden Files.
I will note at this point that I won't enforce the Templates Must Take statement of the Dresden Files. If you have a concept then I'll work with you the player to develop something that comes close to what you intend (provided it can fit in the Power Level of the game).
I definitely am interested in playing. It sounds like the game is full, so I'm fine with being on the waiting list. I've played the FUDGE/FATE systems before, but I don't have any of the Dresden RPG books. (Never thought I'd find a group to play). But I'm very familiar with the world.
Where would the game take place?
Let's see where we are;
1. Songdragon - Yes
2. Divineshadow - Yes
3. Arctaris - Yes
4. AdAstraGames - Yes
5. Davi - Yes
6. Torolf - Yes
7. Saedar - Maybe
8. Ithuriel - Maybe
Okay, so we have six people that are committed to playing and another two that might want to play.
That's enough to get started; so, I'll open up an OOC Thread to begin the first part of campaign generation which is 'City' generation.
Dresden Files is different from many other games in that you generate the 'City or Game Sandbox' first and then generate characters, second. The 'City' is also a combined work of all the players with the GM instead of being something the GM creates alone.
Geographically, the 'city' could be a single city, a region, a state/province, a country, a continent, or the whole world. You could even include several regions within the NeverNever inside your 'city' if you wish. When you create the 'city' you are basically choosing which groups are important elements of the campaign and which locations you would like stories to focus around.
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Glad to be on board ohhhh on board
5. The Deeps. Big greenie (the big ass reef near Australia)
Home to weird and nifty aquatic creatures the reef itself is sapient and sometimes gives people near by the power to breath the water around it is in need of aid as it is dying from pollution from the
6. Industrial sector. Oscorp like area. They perform strange experiments and dump the waste in to the lake near by no one knows how many have died in these labs the only reason angry ghosts haven't torn the place apart yet is that it sits over and taps a
7. Necrotic nexus. Think a freaky cave underground or something. A place that consumes the energy of nearby restless spirits suppressing them and funneling away their energy some of the energy can be tapped but most is funneled away somewhere to where no one knows.
Those help??
I will download the srd tomorrow and as for character concepts and aspects I would like to be a wizard or maybe a Fae. And where are we in the time line??
Here is the OOC thread.
Is it too late to throw my hat into the ring? I'd have to learn the system, but you know my work over on our other Star Wars PBP.
Wow; I would love to play in this too; I practically have the Dresden files memorized; hehe. Jim is going to release a compilation of all of his short stories later this year; story from other characters prospecitive; I have read the novelettes also.
Guess that puts me on the reserve list; I dont know the sytem; but I know pbp and have been running on these boards for a couple years now. So will lurk the game to keep up on the story as in pbp players come and go quite a bit.
Barcas (I'll admit that I have a soft spot for GMs particularly ones that I game with because I know it can be hard to get an opportunity to play) and Valegrim you can come and help with the city creation.
When the city is created I'll see how the posting is going and make any adjustments at that point to numbers.
As the FATE style has more player direction and input it might be possible to do things a bit larger as I could conceivably have a couple of story threads intermingling at a time.
Anyways, city generation first.
I will definitely have to cut off recruitment at this point.
Anyone else that wants to watch is welcome to watch and learn how the FATE game plays.
Recruitment has gone well; so, there might be room for some other GM to start up another game, too.
Okay... third time is a charm (I have tried to send this twice before)...
Two ideas that I had for places...
Monsters Protection Service... A old villa which houses more modern tech (although with the Dresden Verse, perhaps non-tech is better) and in caverns below are holding and environmental cells that help protect supernatural beasties. ... Based off of Sanctuary... Perhaps a group that is out there to protect both the not so viscous critters that have happened upon (insert city) and hunt those that are causing havoc.
A Monster in the Basement... An older home (as old as one can get, or perhaps newer built over the ruins of an older home) that has a monster chained/imprisoned below... Based off of Merlin (tv)... A monster (does not have to be a dragon) trapped below who is helping someone with the powers to set them on their destiny (or for its own ends to eventually free itself).
Okay... third time is a charm (I have tried to send this twice before)...
Two ideas that I had for places...
Monsters Protection Service... A old villa which houses more modern tech (although with the Dresden Verse, perhaps non-tech is better) and in caverns below are holding and environmental cells that help protect supernatural beasties. ... Based off of Sanctuary... Perhaps a group that is out there to protect both the not so viscous critters that have happened upon (insert city) and hunt those that are causing havoc.
A Monster in the Basement... An older home (as old as one can get, or perhaps newer built over the ruins of an older home) that has a monster chained/imprisoned below... Based off of Merlin (tv)... A monster (does not have to be a dragon) trapped below who is helping someone with the powers to set them on their destiny (or for its own ends to eventually free itself).
Those sound like interesting ideas.
You might have missed the link above but we've started the OOC thread to discuss these types of ideas along with other ideas.