I'm a Dresden Files fan and would like to try the RPG, but don't have experience with the DF RPG system.
Anybody starting a Dresden Files game online I could join to try it out?
I've been looking for one too, but seems the few I found in the early stages never even made it to city generation.
I'm interested in playing. But i do not have the book, and have never played the system.
Well I almost posted when i first saw this that I'd like to play... and didn't but... perhaps we can find a way?
Hahaha, I'm in the same boat. I'm a big fan of the Dresden Files (neck deep in Cold Days right now) and the system seems interesting, although I haven't poured through it fully.
I'd love to play but we'd kinda need a GM with some system mastery :)
I could run a game, but I just don't know the Dresden Files RPG system that well (I think it's FATE, but I'm not sure)000.
What if we use Modern Path rules?
Of course then the GM has to stat up everything in the Dresdenverse.
After having watched a few Dresden Files pbp's on these forums, one of the main problems getting it off the ground is the City Creation aspect.
There are 2 ways of doing it for a pbp;
My advise is start crafting a few Places and Personalities you'd like to see in your game. Craft a world together and that should enable either one of you to pick up the reigns or allow a GM to see you're serious.
*IMO GM'ing in Dresden is interesting as it's a collaborative effort, you combine to make the story. Plus the system doesn't require that much mastery.
Just my 2cents.
Seeing as i'm not familiar with either ruleset (though d20 would be more familiar than FATE), I'm up for either. And it is FATE that the books use. I did go looking for the FATE rules, and it seems you get them for pay-what-you-want. I'm still up for a dresden game.
I'd be in with collaborative city building. Seems cool!
(with the disclaimer that I'm not from the US, so my entire knowledge base of US cities is based on American media)
I suspect that anything but the Dresden Files' FATE system would quite simply not feel appropriate in play since it would have a radically different magic system.
I'm not picky about where it is set but it sounds like so much fun. I do not have access to the dresden files rpg books, will that be an issue?
Not sure if there's a SRD or something of them?
If we're gonna vote on cities my votes would probably be New Orleans > Maine/New England > either Berlin, London or Amsterdam.
1) New Orleans: come on, there's no city in the USA with more of a supernatural vibe! Everything about it (in American media) oozes mythology and almost Grimm-style new world fairy tales.
I've actually had an idea for a Fallout RPG stewing in my head for a few weeks set in the remains of New Orleans, just because of the parallels you could make between the Mississippi and the river Styx.
2) Maine (or New England in general): the location of almost every single one of Stephen King's books and reportedly a place where weird stuff happens.
3) Berlin, Amsterdam or London: toughy. All big old world cities with lots of culture and unique elements. London is kinda obvious of course, almost every single old-world urban fantasy is set there. Berlin is an amazing city with a rich culture and history and incredible psychological and architectural scarring from both the WWs and the Berlin wall. Can you imagine what the local equivalent of the Demonreach Genius Loci would be like there? Scary stuff. Language barrier might be a problem though. Amsterdam is also interesting, lots of culture, very much water-attuned and the parallels between the 'Grachten' (concentric circular moats throughout the city, centered in the ehm... center of the city) and the Circles of Hell is just too delicious (which was explored in Camus' The Fall). Little language barriers since everybody speaks English anyway and I can translate almost everything. Biggest problems I see are the IMHO bland nature of Dutch mythology and the general preconception of 'HOOKERS AND WEED' that most non-Dutchies can't seem to shake :)
I'd prefer a US city though, easier since most people here probably are American, the books are set there, guns are mostly legal there, we're all familiar with the media and probably most of the mainstream culture and you can explore the differences between the old world higher Echelons of the White Council and the less old-fashioned Wizards from the US.
[Edit]: although Portland, Oregon also sounds cool. I know very little about the city though
I think of that list I'd cast my vote at New Orleans.
Because while Portland could be really cool, I don't know much about the city itself. Though Salem and NY, NY came to mind as possible good cities.
New Orleans would be about as good as it gets with the fusion of old world charm, vodoo, and nasty adjacent swamps (which can likely hide anything). You throw in some psychic residue from the Katrina disaster and that's a hell of a pot to stir.
New Orleans really is my first choice on city, because of what all drbuzzard mentioned. Not to mention Hoodoo (which is different than voodoo).
Hadn't even thought of the Katrina disaster impact.
I was mostly thinking about the fact that is was one of the biggest slave trading ports on the continent. That's gotta leave nasty residue, even after so many years. Taken into account that is also was the largest and most prosperous community of African Americans in the US at that time, there should be a wealth of vengeful spirits there that hate everyone and everything.
Re-iterating my support for the Big Easy.
Ditto
Hm.. gotta buy a travel guide to New Orleans or something
New Orleans just sounds like tons of fun, so my vote is there ^^
I'm not picky. If people have preferences let them get theirs first and I'll take one of the ones left.
I gotta figure out where Bourbon Street is. That would be my district of preference. Though I do need an idea of what we are actually signing on to do here.
I've got no preference myself.
Semi-side-note, after a quick google search for Dresden Files PbP city building I found three relatively well-developed versions of Washington DC.
Might save us a bit of trouble, although the Big Easy would be more iconic.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/168155/dresden-files-rpg-low-prof ile-ooc
http://dresden.forumotion.com/forum
http://dresdendc.wikispaces.com/
[Edit]: also just discovered that somebody else recruited for a DF PbP set in New Orleans on this very site! I PMed him to see he had any advice or even kept his notes on the setting.
I found a few that seem to be on obsidion portal. I still vote new Orleans. I can post links when I get home. On my phone right now. Plus, I think it would be more fun to play the world we built.
Well there could be Hoodoo magic going around in the bayou, that is believed to be Voodoo at first? I could see this fitting in with perhaps an upsert of power is happening in the city?
EDIT:
Types of foes:
Fey - They work anywhere and I greatly enjoy seeing them around, even if it's opposing them
Hoodoo Practitioners - Hoodoo is more magic than voodoo (which is more religion), and was brought over by African Slaves. Hoodoo uses Catholic Saints as a means to hide.
I'll add more later when I think of more but those are what I can think of for now.
Sounds good!
I'd kinda argue against mystery solving since that might require intimate knowledge of the city itself. Political intrigue sounds pretty cool but I'd wager that in a PbP game the discussions might take ages, since you really have to watch your words.
The types of foes:
1) Fey: personally, I'm in love with the Fey from the Dresden Files. I'd love to include a minor fallen Fey court. I like the idea of minor female-headed Courts related to another seasonal- or cycle-based theme and minor male-headed Courts related to other primal or natural themes.
Examples of Queenly Courts: could be the Court of High Tide, the Court of First Snow, the Court of Rains.
Examples of Kingly Courts: the Court of the Hunted, the Court of Storms, the Court of Raptors.
I'd also love to include the idea of the 'Goblin Market', a place in the Nevernever or on the border where the supernatural and natural overlap. A place where treasures, secrets, souls, promises, firstborn names, memories and much more esoteric items are traded.
2) Underground: with an as vibrant community as NO and a major port connected to one of the biggest cities on the continent, there must be a large criminal element that is connected to smuggling, human trafficking and possibly theft of special objects. It would be cool to include an underground market for magical items (I was actually playing with the idea of a mundane cat burglar specializing in magical items). The smugglers would also need protection of their shipments at certain dangerous moments (Halloween comes to mind) or hire 'specialists' to deal with competitors or a shipment gone wrong.
3) The Undead: ghosts, ghouls and creepy cultists! New Orleans has a long and bloody history and is associated with plenty of Voodoo. We have to do something with that. The metaphysical scarring of the Mississippi river and the areas hit by Katrina must be enormous! (hm.. just thought of this: what better place to dump a Wizard's body that the Mississippi?).
I also can't wait to include a cultist plot during Mardi Gras, possibly involving mass sacrifice of partying students.
BTW, I'm a bit of a natural brainstormer, I tend to just spout ideas. Please do not hesitate to shoot them down if you're not in favor!
I'm in favor of a lesser fey court. And I had debated about saying something about having undead as well. Mix in some Voodoo/Hoodoo with that and I see tons of fun.
Perhaps there is an Underground market that deals in both magical and non-magical items? You just have to know who to talk to to get what you want.
Actually I think I'm going to go ahead and say I like the three ideas you presented BIG, fits with what I was leaning towards as well. They probably need more fleshing out, but they are a good start
I'd be interested in trying to help get this off the ground. Don't think I'm willing to commit to GMing at this point, as I'm already running three games on the boards, plus my RL group. I would love to play however. Like some others here, I think I've made a character three times but failed to see the game ever get started.
Coolio, welcome aboard Rictus!
We could of course also pilfer the settings in my links for stuff that we can adapt :)
Concerning vanilla mortal activities and the Goblin Market: it might be an idea that the Goblin Market is able to manifest in the mortal world or is accessible from the mortal world only through a covenant between the (mysterious?) organizers from the Nevernever and a vanilla mortal. The supernatural patrons of the market would need an invitation to the mortal realm to manifest in the market. Possibly the magical boundary that also prevents supernatural things from accessing homes is all-present in the world. While not strong enough to prevent access, it might be strong enough to prevent supernatural mercantilism and deal-making. The supernatties would need permission to conduct business in territories of mortal 'lords'.
The Goblin Market would manifest in a cyclic manner (once every month?) and vanilla mortal gangs and organizations would try to obtain tradeable items (cash would be useless in the Market). There could also be battles between vanilla mortal gangs to get dominance in the territory that is likely to host the next Goblin Market so that the mysterious merchant masters would need to cut a deal with the 'lord' that holds the territory at the moment.
I agree with wanting other vanilla mortal activities. Maybe mortal smuggler and trafficking gangs (how else are rogue mages gonna get their hands on eye of leopard or the livers of left-handed twin boys?) or mercenary agencies. I'd love to see a sort of supernatural support group for vanilla mortals who traumatized but can't speak to psychologists without being institutionalized.
One thing I've always kinda missed in the Dresden Files is a witch-hunter type organization of supernatural-phobic muggles.
Good points, although I did kinda like the idea of a constant frantic battle for certain territories between vanillas, kinda like a constant 'king of the hill' battle :P
IIRC it's mentioned in the books that Marcone is the only muggle who is a member of the Unseelie Accords. He is the only one but maybe not necessarily the first. Maybe a long-dead vanilla power figure signed the Accords and made a deal with the Goblin Market that it could manifest once a month if they paid him. While the original vanilla lord has been dead for more than a century, the contract he signed with the Goblin Market had a loophole as it defined the lord as the 'current owner of the location'. The one who owned the territory that the GM is gonna manifest in basically becomes a temporary and location-specific member of the Unseelie Accords.
Concerning the witch hunters: wouldn't the White Council be the kind of guys who secretly tolerate that kind of organization as long as they keep their hands off WC members and possibly female practitioners (as they carry the wizardly genes)? It would be a really convenient way to keep non WC practitioners, dark mages, vampires, fey and other undesirables down.
Sorry for not chiming in sooner. I'm at work and reading/researching/posting when I can.
Maybe the power of the WC is weak in NO? Maybe there's a group there that chooses to govern the city itself because of Katrina (which i did like that it may have been a Fey Smackdown happening). This means that things are not done the same here.
Perhaps the Goblin Market can be like Sigil in a way? Has portals all over the place, though one has to know where to find them and maybe even have to have a key of sorts.
What if the whole turf war is about gaining control of the city? It could be because one of the easiest to access portals to the GM is in NO. Thing about the power it would bring to the person/group able to control access to the GM.