Ironeye's Dresden Files Game

How about this: all of our players (so far Staghorn, Matrix, Lance, arks, and Kara, with Zudak and Jinxed as possibilities) list out the High Concepts (or at least templates) of the characters they'd like to play, ordered if that matters to you. That way we can see what our minimum power level is going to be. This will also allow us to avoid stepping on each other's toes

Edit: I also had an amusing idea for a campaign (though obviously not for ours): everyone is a changeling of unknown ancestry and discovers new powers at the GM chooses to reveal them.

edited 7th Sep '10 2:59:11 PM by Ironeye

Ooh, I'm torn on whether to be an ogre changeling or a pure mortal retired FBI agent (that one, I have a full template for)

So what are the disadvantages for having a higher power level game?

You also said there was a possibility we'd each be making multiple characters. I'd like a little more death in this game, actually.

edited 7th Sep '10 3:12:56 PM by arks

@Staghorn: I can look up other varieties of Faeries for you if you would like—there are over a dozen of them, and some of them are more brutish like an ogre. (I'm assuming that you want a creature that's tough, strong, or both.)

@arks: The only disadvantage is that the power level of enemies is based on the sum of the base refresh of the party. eg Five players at Feet in the Water would go up against the same sort of enemies as three at Submerged, since both groups have 30 refresh. (This is assuming neither group has advanced yet.)

My comment about multiple characters was in regards to NPCs—the group will collectively be making at least two NPCs per player, likely more. That being said, death (and permanent injury are actually a threat in The Dresden Files, contrasting with SotC, where nobody is ever dead unless they bleed out on-screen, and all injuries go away eventually unless the player decides to keep them. Also, as you may have noticed, a few of the templates (all three magic-users, changeling, and red court infected) have ways for the character to become NPCs without the character naturally advancing too far, with the magic-users being in danger of NPC-dispensed death from the change (lawbreaking) even if they don't get to 0 refresh. Changelings and White Court Virgins can also permanently change template, and so on—this is a game where the consequences of your actions matter a great deal, unlike with SotC where the mechanics are based around episodic adventures with static characters.

@Ironeye: Yeah, go ahead, that'd be great.

everyone is a changeling of unknown ancestry and discovers new powers at the GM chooses to reveal them.

Uncannily enough, that was exactly the sort of character I was thinking of playing.

The phrase that jumped into my mind for a character was "Exorcist Kindergarten Teacher." I'll need to wait until I have the books before I know which template would work best, but the basic idea is that the school she works at crosses a small ley line which attracts various nasties to potentially threaten the kids, so she protects them.

Here are the ones that get enhancements to strength and either toughness or regeneration, with a more brutish style. All of these have an automatic weakness to cold iron—their toughness and recovery do them no good against it.

• Goblins: Burly bat-eared faeries associated with the Wild Hunt; hunting hound senses, Glamours, strength, toughness, recovery, pack instincts
• Gruffs: Human-sized, goat-headed/hooved, troll-hating faeries associated with the Summer Court; Goblin powers plus claw weapons, talent for guns, and goat senses instead of hound senses
• Hobs: Eyeless well-muscled fae with sharp teeth; comfort in darkness; Glamours, Myrk (magical light-absorbing fog), strength, toughness, weakness to light
• Ogres: Hulking fae with gorilla-like features and colored skin (red for Summer and blue for Winter); Glamours, Hulking Size, strength, toughness, recovery, immunity to mortal magic
• Trolls: Even bigger than ogres and often aligned with winter, turn into a horde of mini-trolls when killed; Claws, Galmours, Hulking Size, strength, toughness, recovery, Spider Walk

I already said them in Vent, but I'll reiterate my character ideas here:

"Aggressive Negotiations Specialist For Hire", Pure Mortal

"Egomaniac Narcissist Pyromancer", Focused Practicioner

By the way, what happens to the player when they can no longer play their character?

Assuming you want to keep playing, I'd let you make a new character for the next session. If you had planned ahead for your character becoming an NPC (eg with a Changeling), then you could even have a new character ready to go and jump in at the next reasonable scene.

Ooh, they all sound interesting... I'll have to think about this one.

Also, what exactly is cold iron in the Dresdenverse?

edited 8th Sep '10 1:35:15 PM by Thnikkafan

Iron.

...yipes.

Anyway, I'm considering picking one (currently most influenced by the possible prevalence of one trope that I'd like to have verified) or having Ironeye pick from those five at random. That can be done, can't it?

Yes, I can pick at random for you and dole out powers as you request them

Okay, I've got a template:

Changeling (Troll); Part-Troll Professional Ballet Dancer; Brutish Blood

edited 8th Sep '10 4:26:53 PM by Thnikkafan

The High Concept rule for Changelings is that your High Concept must reveal your faerie heritage. (eg your High Concept should include something like "Ogre-blooded" or "Half-Ogre" in it). I'm not sure how much your character's profession will come into things in terms of High Concept unless you're going to skill and stunt yourself up as a ballet dancer independent of your faerie abilities.

Here are the skills and what they do (with comparisons to SotC as appropriate). Some of the skills are a bit less potent than in SotC, particularly Might, given that this game is grittier and focuses less on pulp heroism.

Before I go over skills, though, I should discuss the new way that stress and consequences work. There are now three standard stress tracks instead of two: Physical, Mental, and Social. Templates with the Hunger (like the vampire templates) also have a Hunger stress track, for a total of four. In any case, the default length is two instead of five, and it's also a bit harder to increase them without supernatural abilities. When a hit would fill a box you don't have, you're taken out.

However, you are able to take consequences to reduce the strength of a hit: -2 for minor, -4 for moderate, -6 for severe, and -8 for extreme. You can use these four consequences for any stress track, but you only have four total. Consequences don't start going away until recovery starts—until you get to a place that is appropriate for handling the consequences (eg a hospital stay for physical or a night out at a bar for social). Characters with appropriate High Concepts can take actions to start the recovery for someone else (eg a doctor could start recovery on physical consequences with just some down time and decent equipment, or a roll to take appropriate action when there isn't any downtime). Minor consequences go away in about an hour or one scene; moderate last a day to a week or the end of the next session; severe take several weeks to a couple of months or the end of the scenario (subplot—or two/three sessions if the scenario is going to end sooner); and extreme are permanent—they replace one of your five secondary aspects, and the new aspect can only be renamed (through normal character advancement) to something that would be a logical progression of that Aspect—you can't use advancement to get away from the difficulty. Concession still works like normal, but loosing a conflict (through a concession or being taken out) nets you one fate point per consequence sustained. There is one additional condition: if death will be the result of someone being taken out due to character preference (eg someone really wants revenge), it must be declared (by the controlling player) when the conflict begins so that everyone knows that this fight is for keeps if no concessions are made.

There are also now weapon/armor rules. Weapons have weapon ratings, usually 1-3 for mortal weapons, higher for explosives and some supernatural weapons. So long as an attack is a hit (ie the attack roll matches the defense roll), the attack gets the weapon's bonus to the stress dealt. Likewise, armor has a rating that reduces the stress taken in the event of a successful hit. Mortal armor almost never goes above 2, with 1 being the norm (Kevlar and the like).

• Alertness (Alertness)
  • Avoiding Surprise
  • Combat Initiative
  • Passive Awareness
• Athletics (Athletics)
  • Climbing
  • Dodging (the universal physical defense)
  • Falling (Weaker than in SotC)
  • Sprinting
  • Other physical actions (the "when in doubt" skill)
• Burglary (Burglary)
  • Casing (Declarations/Assessments about security)
  • Infiltration
  • Lockpicking
• Contacts (Contacting)
  • Gathering Information
  • Getting the Top-Off
  • Knowing People (a new trapping that lets you have a contact at hand during a scene)
  • Rumors
• Conviction (strength of belief; formerly Resolve, or at least part of it)
  • Acts of Faith (When defending against mental or social attacks to undermine your faith in something, you may defend with Conviction instead of Discipline)
  • Mental Fortitude (bonuses to Mental Stress track for every two points)
  • Spell Power
• Craftsmanship (replaces Engineering, can generally be complemented by Scholarship)
  • Breaking (Destroying structures and devices)
  • Building (Making mundane devices)
  • Fixing (Repairing devices)
• Deceit (Deceit; Sleight of Hand, at penalties)
  • Cat and Mouse (You may use Deceit as a social attack, with convincing lies as consequences, but with discovering the truth as the reward for taking you out.)
  • Disguise (Modified by Performance when attempting to act in-character)
  • Distraction and Misdirection (hiding objects and actions in plain sight; Sleight of Hand from SotC, though at penalties unless you take stunts)
  • False Face Forward (Use Deceit modded by Rapport instead of straight Rapport to defend against Empathy and insults, with the benefit of faking that the offense was successful—you can give fake Aspects this way)
  • Falsehood and Deception (general lying and convincing people of falsehoods, keeping control of spells; some parts of the old Resolve)
• Discipline (ability to stay focused; some of Resolve)
  • Concentration (restricts other abilities)
  • Emotional Control (defending against Intimidation to incite emotions; it's possible to auto-fail due to compels)
  • Mental Defense (The default defense against mental attacks, unless Conviction would be appropriate as stated under that skill)
• Driving (Drive; Pilot)
  • Chases (There are no special rules for chase scenes this time around—they use a more generalized rule)
  • One Hand on the Wheel (restricting other skills while driving)
  • Other Vehicles (boats and planes, so long as they match your character background)
  • Street Knowledge and Navigation (Getting from Point A to Point B as fast as possible—you may use Contacts, Investigation, or Scholarship to get the information some other way if your Drive is low or you're unfamiliar with the region)
• Empathy (Empathy)
  • Reading People (Assessment versus Rapport)
  • A Shoulder to Cry On (Start recovery on social or mental consequences)
  • Social Defense (Mainly versus Deceit to detect lies)
  • Social Initiative
• Endurance (Endurance)
  • Long-Term Action (restricting other skills)
  • Physical Fortitude (Lengthening the Physical Stress Track)
• Fists (Fists)
  • Brawling (Attacks with only your body or something like brass knuckles)
  • Close-Combat Defense (Defense against attacks with close-quarters weapons likes fists, knives, and short clubs; defense against other weapons so long as there is reasonable justification such a very close quarters)
• Guns (Guns)
  • Aiming (Maneuvers to aid in gun attacks)
  • Gun Knowledge (Knowledge/Repair skill for guns)
  • Gunplay (Attacks and maneuvers with guns)
  • Other Projectile Weapons (at a -2, though you can rename the skill to make guns the "other"—to "Bows", for example)
• Intimidation (Intimidation)
  • The Brush-Off (At first contact with someone in a scene, you may make an Intimidation attack against Discipline or Presence to startle someone into letting you pass, so long as they're not ready for a fight)
  • Interrogation (of the "bad cop" type)
  • Provocation (incite emotion, in a mundane way)
  • Social Attacks (defense with Rapport, Presence, or Discipline)
  • Threats (also direct mental stress if you know the target well)
• Investigation (Investigation)
  • Eavesdropping
  • Examination
  • Surveillance (with a Stealth roll to remain hidden)
• Lore (Mysteries, more or less)
  • Arcane Research
  • Common Ritual (Using a spell that doesn't require magical talent)
  • Mystic Perception (replaces Alertness around magical effects, but can never get better than "I'm getting a bad feeling about this," or "There's something very wrong here.")
• Might (Might, albeit nerfed a bit)
  • Breaking Things
  • Exerting Force (modifying other skill rolls)
  • Lifting Things
  • Wrestling (modifying Fists or Weapons in some cases; as the primary skill for things like holds; as the primary skill for grappling maneuvers—yes, these have special rules that I'll go over if someone wants to start a grapple)
• Performance (Art)
  • Art Appreciation (As an alternate and superior skill to Scholarship for art knowledge)
  • Composition (Making art; if you want to be good in more than one area, you can choose as many mediums as your Performance skill)
  • Creative Communication (poetry; modifying Scholarship for other writing other than dry academic documents; modifying social skills for public speaking so long as your speech has a creative component)
  • Playing to an Audience (declaring Aspects from a moving performance)
• Presence (leadership, reputation, and charisma; social toughness; the passive side of Rapport; a bit of SotC Leadership, Rapport and Resolve)
  • Charisma (other people's perceptions of you when you're not making an active effort; complementing Rapport when trying to make a specific impression)
  • Command (Adding aspects like "Well-Coordinated" whenever multiple team members are making maneuvers to assist in a single team member's roll; convincing a mob of people to engage in organized behavior, such as fleeing a building)
  • Reputation (Reputation as a defense in social situations)
  • Social Fortitude (Boost to social stress track)
• Rapport (Rapport)
  • Chit-chat (social attacks to get people to open up unintentionally or to distract someone)
  • Closing Down (Defense against Empathy reads, with an additional +2 as a Full Defense if you're willing to make it obvious that you're blanking your face)
  • First Impressions (When actively trying to make one, modified by Presence in some cases, with Aspects for both success and failure)
  • Opening Up (Defending against Empathy, with the bonus that if your defense succeeds, you can choose what details are revealed)
  • Social Defense (the default defense skill in social conflicts when you're not choosing a particular defense)
• Resources (Resources)
  • Buying Things (reasonable quantities of things costing -2, anything -1 with justification, or a roll for anything at +0 or higher, with a limit of once per scene; as an attack or defense in a conflict about out-spending the opponent)
  • Equipment (Obtaining equipment that you don't have because it's rare, unusual, or illegal—use the "Buying Things" rules)
  • Lifestyle (Owning anything at -2 so long as it's reasonable to have)
  • Money Talks (modifying other skills whenever knowledge of your wealth matters—either normally when being wealthy is good or in reverse if being wealthy decreases something like "street cred"; social interactions whenever money is the primary factor, such as hiring a cash-strapped PI or bribing a guard)
  • Workspaces (-2 Library, Lab, Workshop, Arcane Library, or Arcane Sanctum, at -1 for specializing; buying more at Resources +2, or +1 for a specialized one; note that the Library and Arcane Library can use any data-storage medium)
• Scholarship (Academics and Science—general mundane knowledge)
  • Answers (General knowledge of a particular topic)
  • Computer Use (unless hacking, in which case it only complements Burglary)
  • Declaring Minor Details
  • Exposition and Knowledge Dumping (Skipping the exposition button by having the GM commandeer the character for the purposes of exposition, with the bonus of a fate point)
  • Languages (One bonus language per point)
  • Medical Attention (Initiating recovery from minor physical consequences; higher with stunts)
  • Research and Lab Work (for when Answers fails)
• Stealth (Stealth)
  • Ambush (sneak attack!)
  • Hiding
  • Shadowing (Following someone, modified by Drive while in a car, often tied with Investigation to keep the target in sight)
  • Skulking (Sneaking around)
• Survival (Survival)
  • Animal Handling
  • Camouflage (constructing hiding places outdoors)
  • Riding (Like Driving, but for beasts of burden; also keeping the mount calm and taking care of it)
  • Scavenging (Finding natural items in large parks, the wilderness, or the Nevernever)
  • Tracking (modified by Investigation)
• Weapons (Anything other than projectile weapons and brass knuckles; Weapons)
  • Distance Weaponry (Thrown weapons, whips, and long spears, which all have range 1)
  • Melee Combat
  • Melee Defense
  • Weapon Knowledge

Alright, Summer Knight get! from the library...

Anyway, before I start reading, I'd like a summary of the stuff from the previous novels that I'd need to know in order to understand it best.

Butcher does a decent job of giving a one-paragraph explanation for events in past books if they matter, so I wouldn't worry.

Also, have we decided on Chest-Deep or Submerged yet? I'm trying to draft out my character plan.

Also also, are there any trolls in the Summer Court at all?

No.

Likely not, since if a Wyldfae (unaligned Faerie) chooses a side, it will choose the side that matches its personality, which will generally be Winter for trolls. Aside from that, the gruffs, the mortal enemies of the trolls, almost always side with Summer.

I think I want to stay chest deep, if that, since it makes it more dangerous.

Books purchased (plus a hard copy of SotC for good measure). Now the waiting begins...

Yeah, I'm more leaning toward Chest-Deep than Submerged, personally.

Also, why exactly do Gruffs hate... ah.

edited 9th Sep '10 2:00:04 PM by Thnikkafan