*sigh*

You just -had- to make a Dresden Files game, didn't you? Just when I've been trying to avoid getting into any other board RPGs.

I'll get in on this. I've been wanting to -play- in a Dresden Files game anyway, and I'll probably be kicking off a campaign soon with my RL group sometime within the next month or so. I can probably help others here with the system as well.

Alright, some questions.

1) When in the Dresdenverse does this take place? Pre or Post Changes?
2) Where will it take place? Gotham city route, or actual city in the world?

Essentially, what's the setting?

----

On a note - according to Dresden himself, for all intents and purposes a shapeshifter is a focused practioner. Billy and the Alphas, for instance, are focused practicioners that really only know one spell: turn into great big frikking wolf. That said, most wizards would wave that off and just call them werewolves, and wouldn't bother enforcing the Laws over them.

Now, that said, there's at least one full wizard that IS a master shapeshifter. Injun Joe, on the Senior Council, is the strongest water mage, as well as probably being the most skilled at transforming himself into other shapes.

That said, from a -game- standpoint, if all you intend to do from a spellcaster standpoint is change from form to form, it's a lot easier to simply take Modular Abilities. Plus, if you're a shapeshifter and decidedly not considered to be a practitioner (which they generally are not), then you don't have to worry about having the Laws of Magic enforced over you.

Another important note for the players less familiar with the world - magic has a tendency to make technology go fubar. The more advanced, the more likely it is to get screwed over. Of course, this only applies to mortal magic - faerie magic and other such magic works perfectly fine around technology. There's a long, drawn out reason for it, but suffice to say that mortal magic tends to be... unstable, compared to the others, which causes that. How that would apply to faerie glamour of a changeling... that'd fall under GM fiat.

Of course, prior to advanced technology, it'd do other things... make fresh milk turn sour, and other strange effects.

In any case... hrm. What character to make.

----------

Also, for others making a character... no matter what, you -need- to leave at least 1 Refresh unspent. If you ever go to 0 Refresh, you are considered to have completely succumbed to your inhuman nature (wizards go full dark evil wizard, Changelings turn full Fae, ect). In game terms... you have full control over your character for the rest of the scene, and then he essentially becomes an NPC. He is no longer wholly in charge of his own life.

----------

Also, a note on shapeshifted practicioners of magic killing. It's a grey area. Wardens don't see grey. They see black and white. And they see a lot more black than they do white. So odds are if you are turning yourself into a wolf and ripping a mortal's throat out, then you shouldn't be surprised if you see a man in a grey cloak and a silver sword coming your way some day.

Of course, that doesn't count for killing fae, vampires, zombies, or anything along those lines. Only mortals.

Right now the game is Pre-Changes. Eventually it will transition over into Post-Changes. The city itself will be made up. I'll be drawing a more or less basic map of it up and will fill in prominent locations as we go along. Once the game "officially" starts, I'll make note of the general location on the world map that False-City inhabits, but likely I won't give an exact placement of where it is.

You'll all be playing a relative bunch of small-timers just starting out. If the Paranet is made up of a lot of the weaker talents and the White Council is made up of some of the strongest, you guys would be caught somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. Over time the characters will grow in power, fully realizing their potential strength over the course of the game. Which is a good thing, because I fully intend on various unsavory things hitting the metaphorical fan.

Also, please make note of the fact that I've never actually made a concerted effort to be a GM. I likely won't do a good job, but I'd still like to try anyway.

No problem Kajin - every GM has to start somewhere. Lord knows I don't have the best track record with my own games.

----

Character Name: Ozymandius (aka, Oz)
Character Type: White Court Virgin

Skills:

4: Deceit, Discipline
3: Endurance, Conviction
2: Athletics, Presence
1: Resources, Fists

Powers:

Emotional Vampire (Despair) (-1): Feeding Touch, Taste of Death, Feeding Frenzy
Incite Emotion (Despair) (-1): Touch only. Deceit roll +2 mental attack vs. Discipline.

Spent: 2 Refresh, 4 left over

Fate Points: 4

HP: [][][][]
MP: [][][][]
SP: [][][]

Aspects:

High Concept: Prince of Wails

A scion of the (or one of the) local families of the White Court of vampires. As pretty much everyone with any power save for the head of his family has killed one another, he is the heir apparent of his family. While he's not killed, and is still a 'virgin', he's considered to be a very promising candidate. His family, focused on despair as their target emotion, has ties in the underworld of the city.

Trouble: Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty

More than anything else, Oz wants the acclaim of others. He wants to be better than everyone else, and have them despair in the knowing of it.

Where Did You Come From: Shall I Give You Despair?

His family is known for being of the despair type of emotional vampire. As a man who has, essentially, a decided tendency to look down his nose at others, he actively enjoys causing despair in others, to the point it's rather surprising he's not made his first kill yet and became a true White Court Vampire. As part of his family, he's experienced despair on a regular basis, and by this point can only sneer at those who give into it as opposed to fighting their way through it.

What Shaped You: Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

While Oz loves the acclaim of others and wants people to laud his accomplishments, he's very much of the manipulative mold, following his kind's natural tendencies. While he can get his hands dirty if he needs to, he's far more inclined to let others do the work for him if he can. He also, if at all possible, tends to avoid direct confrontation, finding it very distasteful.

First Adventure: And Your Little Dog, Too

As he found on his first 'adventure' - taking care of a mortal who began interfering with his family's businesses - merely defeating an opponent is not enough for Oz. No, it is far better in his eyes to crush every bit of his opponent's will, to remove all chance they have of success, to toy with them, play with them, and laugh as they fall deeper and deeper into despair. In some ways, his first adventure was a great success - he established himself exceedingly well as potential heir to the family's ways. On the other hand, the mortal - by then penniless, friendless, and pretty much broken - is still quite alive. Every so often even today, Oz returns to make the poor fellow's life a living hell. It's a bit of a game for him, really - see how long he can keep the mortal's life miserable without him knowing who is causing it, or having him off himself from despair.

Guest Starring: ???

Guest Starring: ???

---

... in case you can't tell, this is based off of the idea I had for a villain I have for my own campaign. Still, he has to start somewhere. While he'll undoubtedly be a complete bastard, he's not yet fully -evil-. This will give me a chance to develop him a bit more as a character.

I wasn't sure if you were counting High Concept and Trouble Aspects as part of the 3 aspects - if not, then tell me and I can remove a few.

He's not yet very powerful, especially not in a physical confrontation - thus he still has a tendency to rely on outside resources and getting others to do his fighting for him. Still, if he touches someone, his incite emotion ability for despair can be quite nasty even as 'small' as he is right now.

The name of your High Concept made me laugh. I'm sad now :/

But yeah, I was including the High Concept and Trouble aspects as part of the first three you'll be starting with. That's just a minimum, though. You can start with five if you want. Whatever you don't have you can fill in as we go along. Once everyone gets their character in we'll get this thing started.

Also, you should probably PM me some ideas as to what this local family of White Court consists of, if you don't mind. It might come into play at some point. Probably later rather than sooner, but definitely at some point.

I was stumped for a bit, trying to think of a high concept for a despair-type White Vampire. Went looking around on quotes on princes/heirs... note - if you are looking for Aspects, go to wikiquote and try searching for keywords related to where you are wanting to go with the aspect. You might not use the full quote, but it's an excellent way to get ideas regardless.

Anyways, I came across an entry discussing the Prince of Wales, at which point I went hah! Prince of Wails, bad pun, YES!

Of course, by the time he gets to my campaign (where he's taken over his family and is a major player in the White Court and city) his high aspect is King of Kings. But he's still small now.

Kajin, I really want to play but it's going to take a while for me to come up with a character. Let me stew on it, and if I get one in before the deadline, I'll play. : )

Ruan's the only one with an actual character at this point. The other players have all got ideas but so far haven't turned anything in. I don't have a deadline set yet. It could be a little while before we actually start. If you don't mind, we could probably use someone mindlessly heroic ;)

Your choice, though.

I have a whole set of random Dresden Files characters I've rolled up as NPCs, so it wasn't too hard to take one of my favorite ones and tone him down a bit to PC level. Plus I know the system.

I got characters in from balthazar and CCC, still need characters from Dom and Stan.

Ruan's letting me use one of the NPC's he's created. As soon as he's passed it on to me, and I've taken a look at it you'll get it Kajin!

Alrighty, then. Game'll start on Friday.

Mine is well underway! Should be finished tonight/tomorrow.

Summary version:

Name: Charles Cane

Skills:
Presence (+4)
Deceit, Fists (+3)
Scholarship, Athletics, Rapport (+2)
Drive, Stealth, Conviction, Burglary (+1)

Charles is a changeling; this shows itself physically in naturally purple hair (he uses brown hair dye to disguise this) and pointed ears. He does the special effects for a small stage theatre group called Changeling Theatre (yes, they're all changelings; they can let their hair down a bit on stage, because no-one takes particular notice of pointed ears or other strange features when performing). His mother died, about three years ago; he has a twin sister (fully mortal, paralysed from the waist down) in a wheelchair and a Fae father. The father and the sister do not in general talk to each other (the father strongly disapproves of the sister having embraced her mortal side).

Personally, he's good at his job; able to make people on stage disappear from sight by completely mundane means, and even to create the illusion of flight. He's always calm, always unruffled, virtually always keeps his cool.

Aspects:
Stage Mage Changeling
Cog in a Faerie Plot
Strange Luck

Ta-Da! Character!

Name: Brecon Sagar
Role: Jedi (Focused Practitioner: Kinetomancy, with a touch of True Faith.)

Powers:

Channel -2: Kinetomancy, spirit, force.
Ritual -2: Craft, Kinetomancy, Strength specialization

Guide my hand -1.

Refresh Spent: 5, 1 left for Fate Point(s).

Skills:

+4: Weapons, Conviction
+3: Discipline, Lore
+2: Athletics, Alertness
+1: Endurance, Stealth

Stress:

Physical: ( ) ( ) ( )
Mental: ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
Social: ( ) ( )

High Concept: "My Powerful Ally, The Force is."

''There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.''
―The Jedi Code.

Trouble: "Guardian of Peace and Justice."

"Jedi do not fight for peace. That's only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace. We fight for justice because justice is the fundamental bedrock of civilization: an unjust civilization is built upon sand. It does not long survive a storm."
―Mace Windu.

Where Did You come From: "The Force is strong with this one."

Brecon didn't know his parents growing up. They weren't dead or anything, just wealthy enough that once the novelty of having a child wore off, they could afford to place him in the care of the best nannies and other child care specialists available and go back to their life of luxury. None of the caretakers seemed to last too long though, they were always spooked off by things moving about oddly and without cause. He was a very lonely child.

What Shaped You: "Silver Spoon? I'd rather a Sword."

By the time he was six, Brecon had a fairly good idea that he was the one behind all the moving objects. Things only started to move if he was angry or upset, but he still didn't know what to do about it. Then he saw Star Wars, and it was like he had been struck by lightning. He realized that he must be Strong with The Force, and as such he had best become a Jedi before he fell to the Dark Side. He began to learn to meditate and to train. The random moving objects stopped, and by the time he achieved his first conscious use of The Force, he had found his calling.

First Adventure: "Nomad Jedi."

After over a decade of training,(and one very odd but very serious visit by a strange Grey Cloaked man) Brecon decided to go to a Science Fiction Convention in a nearby city, almost on a whim. What he experienced there would change his life. Not only did he find companionship and friends, but he managed to make a difference, if only in a small way. As he passed by a disused exit, he felt a disturbance in The Force. Slipping through the door, he found a pair of Fen* being accosted by some thugs. After a quick scuffle the thugs wisely decided to depart and leave the Con-goers in peace. From then on, Brecon decided to live a nomadic existence, guided by The Force to where he was needed most, having only what he carries with him, and relying only on a small trust fund his parents set up in his name before they forgot about him to support himself.(Resources: Mediocre.)

*Fen, the proper plural for Science Fiction and Fantasy fans.

A Kinetomancer who thinks he's a Jedi was just too funny for me to disallow.

Also, how do you guys feel about fighting alongside a support NPC or two? I'm writing up a bunch of them and I plan on switching them in and out of the party based on whichever scenario I happen to be running. First scenario I'm running will have a Red Court Infected named Felix supporting you all, but after that who knows.