Dresden Files RPG playing online or by post?

[Archaicwonder]

I have an idea for a Dresden Files story that I would like to play out, but I am leery of running something online with it. I've run one other PBP before and had read up on a few threads here for advice so I didn't completely fail at it. I want this story to go over even better, so i thought I would ask the GitP forum readers for more specific advice if they have any.

I have a story sort of fleshed out in my head about what would happen in St. Louis if the Arch were taken down and with it some of the spirit. I want to incorporate the whole AB bought by inBev trouble, and even possibly tie in some of the outside interests in our Sports teams being caused by mystical influence gone wrong in STL. I'm not picky about how these issues are looked into, so I am unsure of how to present the game. It could be kick in the door style, or more noir. I'm up for both, but what would play better? Suggestions?

[DeadManSleeping]

I want to incorporate the whole AB bought by inBev trouble, and even possibly tie in some of the outside interests in our Sports teams being caused by mystical influence gone wrong in STL.

I have read every Dresden Files book and short story, and have read the RPG book, and I have absolutely no idea what this sentence means. There's really nothing I can do to help you.

[Archaicwonder]

You know I've had a problem with my writing being incomprehensible lately. I was hoping it was just my business writing.

I was trying to get across my story arc ideas and how they are not dependent on what characters I get.

Anheuser-Busch (a St. Louis based Brewery) was bought a few years ago by InBev, a Belgium company making a huge powerhouse in the Beer world, and making one source of local pride become a foreign interest. I want to play up the possibility that this changed the focus of magical power in the area.

None of the St. Louis sports teams have been doing that hot lately competitively and the Rams were almost sold last summer. Because of the level of sports craziness in the area, I want to explore in game the possibility that this is all manipulated in the Magical realm as well.

The Arch is just ludicrously huge, and I want to the story to have in a time when it becomes destroyed for whatever reason and deal with the fallout in this area afterward.

Better?

[DeadManSleeping]

Yes, that is more understandable.

If you want to have multiple things going on, tie them together. How is a brewing company related to a sports team? I don't know, but you should make up something that's fun to discover.

What's key to remember is that every character you introduce should be useful. Do you give a random secretary a name? Make her important. Maybe she's having an affair with the boss and is casting curses on his wife (through something other than wizard magic, like maybe rituals or dark bargains), which has broader implications on the investigation as a whole. Sports team? Mix the coach up in some crazy magic stuff. Oh, and it turns out he goes to the same bar as the secretary. Oh, hey, look, the bartender is actually some kind of Fae making tricksy evil bargains.

Stuff like that.

Also, expect your players to know jack about St. Louis. Even in the wikipedia age, actual working area knowledge is something won only through experience and time.

[Archaicwonder]

Thanks Deadman!

I'll remember the parts about not knowing the town, hell I don't consider myself someone that knows STL that well, having moved here about a year ago.

Any advice on running FATE based systems in general? I come from a WOD background, so I haven't gotten a good sense of steering in the FATE system Dresden Files uses, I just liked the theme and the write up on spellcasting much better than anything else I have read.

[BRC]

As a Lifetime Saint Louis resident and Dresden Files fan, this thread speaks to me.
In terms of supernatural weirdness in STL, two things to think about.

1: The Rivers, Saint Louis sits at the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi, it's not hard to imagine that each of these rivers has a magical force associated with it, and that they are combining at Saint Louis. Rivers can also be considered kind of like roads, with two rivers meeting here, Saint Louis could be considered a sort of natural Super-crossroads, perhaps making it an ideal place for meetings and deals. Also, remember that running water grounds out magic in Dresdenverse.

2: The Arch: Consider, it's not a usual design for modern monuments. We could have built statues, or something more like the Washington Arch decorated with images of westward expansion. Instead, we build a very large, plain metal archway, and say it symbolizes westward expansion. What if the Arch was intended as a magical gateway from the beginning, a massive magical focus designed to bring something into this world. Also, the arch is made of Stainless Steel, so maybe it's meant to contain or entrap something from the Nevernever.


Edit: I am now craving Fitz and Toasted Ravioli.

[Archaicwonder]

Definitely agree about the Arch just being freaking odd. Not to mention it just dwarfs everything else down town it seems like. Crazy.

Hadn't thought about the rivers. I'll have to blend that in. Thanks BRC!

[BRC]

Definitely agree about the Arch just being freaking odd. Not to mention it just dwarfs everything else down town it seems like. Crazy.


It's the tallest monument in the united states and the tallest climbable structure in Missouri. For all I joke about people from STL never noticing it, it kind of defines the skyline.

Now, imagine something needing a door that size to step through. You say you want the setting to be the Arch being destroyed, maybe it was destroyed to prevent it's being used for a summoning, or maybe, as huge as it is, it still wasn't quite big enough, and the strain of the magical ritual ended up destroying it.


Also, you are required to set at least one fight and/or chase scene in the City Museum. If you havn't been to the City Museum after living in STL for a year, then you must go there right now.

[DeadManSleeping]

General FATE tips:

1. Your players will not likely come up with as many good Aspects as they have Aspect slots to fill out. This is okay. Try to be supportive, and give them chances to shake things up a little in that regard.

2. The more things you give at least one Aspect, the better. Important NPCs should have a few Aspects. Any cadre of mooks should have no less than one good Aspect. Any scene should have one key Aspect (maybe two, for really big scenes). There's a lot of stuff based around Assessment, so give them things to Assess!

3. While FATE systems aren't nearly as laden with the issue of "optimization" as other systems, it's still kind of an issue. It is most certainly possible to make characters who will have little impact on the narrative because of their mechanics. Keep a weather eye out for that.

[Archaicwonder]

Awesome information people! Thank you so much. Especially the information on Aspects, Dead, I wouldn't have had any idea about how many was right.

now to find the right folks to play!

[DeadManSleeping]

If you decide to do PbP, let us know. It's not like you've given out any real spoilers here.

[Archaicwonder]

I have a romantic hope that I'll be able to get something going with a voice component, whether it be skype or google chat or what have you. I'd love to have a post component to it as well, but I really want to hear people describe actions as well.

I have a couple people already lined up for it, if they get their tails in gear I'll see about getting a post up on the forums that you will be more than welcome to attach to Deadman!

[Blackfang108]

I have a romantic hope that I'll be able to get something going with a voice component, whether it be skype or google chat or what have you. I'd love to have a post component to it as well, but I really want to hear people describe actions as well.

I have a couple people already lined up for it, if they get their tails in gear I'll see about getting a post up on the forums that you will be more than welcome to attach to Deadman!

Dresden is FUN. my game collapsed after 2 sessions because the DM moved about 10 hours away.

[Archaicwonder]

Dresden is FUN. my game collapsed after 2 sessions because the DM moved about 10 hours away.

What was it that made it fun Blackfang?

[ninja_penguin]

General FATE tips:

1. Your players will not likely come up with as many good Aspects as they have Aspect slots to fill out. This is okay. Try to be supportive, and give them chances to shake things up a little in that regard.

As a note; Dresden cuts the usual number of aspects from creation in half compared to other versions of FATE that I have seen. For what it's worth, heavily enforce the guest starring aspect, and hit anybody with a rolled up paper who comes to you with a fully fleshed out and aspected character before you've done city creation/guest starring, because they probably won't work as well together.


2. The more things you give at least one Aspect, the better. Important NPCs should have a few Aspects. Any cadre of mooks should have no less than one good Aspect. Any scene should have one key Aspect (maybe two, for really big scenes). There's a lot of stuff based around Assessment, so give them things to Assess!

Also, for what it's worth, try and give every zone in an area one aspect, so it's not a boring white field. Also, mooks should be taken out immediately, and never got to consequences. If you have every single thing ever go all the way to extreme consequences, combat will take bloody forever.


3. While FATE systems aren't nearly as laden with the issue of "optimization" as other systems, it's still kind of an issue. It is most certainly possible to make characters who will have little impact on the narrative because of their mechanics. Keep a weather eye out for that.

This is kinda true. Always let players know the general theme of things, as it's possible to be a little too non-combat, and vice versa; a combat monster might be eviscerated in a social-fu setting. Or they can just pull a Dresden on everything and burn it all down. Oh, speaking of which, don't run a ton of wizards at once; unless you're super high levels, they are (mechanically) very very similar.

[Archaicwonder]

Thanks Penguin!

So far my characters know that I want to have a nice pulpy Indiana Jones feel to the setting, there are mysteries to uncover. I also know that one character REALLY wants to explore the choice involved in picking up enough power to do go at the cost of doing something really bad (White Court Virgin who knows what full vamps can do and that it requires committing murder to become one).

So, I feel like the people I've got lined up for the game so far are going to have a pretty broad base of wants to go with, adding more will make this even more broad. I've talked to my 3 people so far about how we will do City Creation together and that they each have a lot of say in what is created so they get to create the things they most want to do.

Any advice on that (Above and beyond the already great Aspect Everything advice?)

[DeadManSleeping]

Hmm...

For pulpy settings, it's a good idea to remember the policy "Allow two fists to solve what ails". There is always a morally unambiguous violent solution. There are badguys to punch. It's okay if there are consequences, but they players should not feel like they've done something wrong by punching most badguys' lights out.

Otherwise, it honestly sounds like you're really on track. Good for you.

[Archaicwonder]

Hmm...

For pulpy settings, it's a good idea to remember the policy "Allow two fists to solve what ails". There is always a morally unambiguous violent solution. There are badguys to punch. It's okay if there are consequences, but they players should not feel like they've done something wrong by punching most badguys' lights out.

Otherwise, it honestly sounds like you're really on track. Good for you.

This is beautiful. I hadn't actually heard that policy before, but I will now incorporate it wherever I can. I'm very much in favor of that in a non-crunchy not TOO much dice rolling kind of way so that we can explore the story more fully. The ambiguity of morality should be in situations where violence is not inherent.

[DeadManSleeping]

You'll actually find that it corresponds well to the Dresdenverse. Notice that 90% of the characters appearing in the novels are just BEGGING to get their faces punched in? Yeah. Harry doesn't do it often, of course, because he doesn't want to get in any more cop trouble than he has to (for many reasons), and because he doesn't want to pick a fight he can't win, and because he doesn't hit girls (and deserves every problem that causes him). But he's never had to fling a fireball at someone who MIGHT deserve it.

Of course, he spends a lot of his time eliminating ambiguity through investigation.

[Archaicwonder]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11352292#post11352292

Not the game we've been talking about, but something with which I can test out actual gaming.

[Blackfang108]

What was it that made it fun Blackfang?

A little bit of everything.

We made our characters together, and helped each other come up with aspects and backstory.

The DM accepted input on aspects for the locations.

Combat was fun. Plenty of interesting options, without being bogged down by a lot of crunch. (I like complex combat crunch, but remind me to tell you about my 4e game's 12 hour combat one day.)

We were gaming about 500 feet from Graceland Cemetary, which features reasonably prominently in the books. (I'm not joking on this one.)

And we were all just, really, really into it.

Really, just, everything. Having an open minded DM was the single most important factor, however.

We're actually looking into getting it into pbp, but the idea was just floated a few days ago and we haven't heard from our DM. Until then.

[Archaicwonder]

Thanks Blackfang! My newly formed in person group is getting together tonight to put everything you all have said into motion. I'm really psyked. I've gotten some bites about an online on shot as well that I want to run to hammer out some of the mechanical pieces so I'm in practice with the game running again. It's going to be a lot of fun.