A Dresden Files Game

[Vknight]

As it may be know I am crazy.
And my players are crazy in there own rights often times driving me just little to the edge of things.

With that in mind when I sat down and said I want to run a Dresden Files game. I went no that's a bad idea.
Then I stopped and said I could do this.
It could work
Then I ran into my next problem.
I got nothing no ideas. No nothing no clever worlds. No villians no plot twists or interesting things.
I want to do this Dresden Files things for simple reasons and I could get there but I have one big gap.
Making the city.
I only have one concrete idea.
I want to use Toronto, Canada.
Maybe I'm just tired maybe I need a break from running my creative juices(As in they are overcooked and just congealing into a slop) or maybe I just have no ideas or maybe I just don't want my players causing me to snap my brain with there ideas.

Whatever the case may be I need to create the basic structure for Toronto is 2004.
So I came to you guys. This is not one of the times were I ask for ideas to help bolster a already creative design. I just don't have anything, absolutely nothing, I have all the time in the world and when I look at that paper just nothing.
I can't think of any creative ideas.
So playgrounders can you give me some ideas for what you would do with a Dresden Files game set in Toronto.

I do in fact own the Dresden Files Rpg and that will be the system we will use

For once this Vknight is out

[Tavar]

Well, first off, do you have the Official Dresden Files RPG? It might give a bit of help regarding the fluff and starting adventure ideas.

[Vknight]

Yes yes I do.
My amazing Aunt gave it to me along with all the books and all the Discworld books...
I'm going to edit the original post and put that in.
How did I miss that.

[Wyntonian]

Y'know, I've been meaning to read up on that game for the while. Gimme a couple hours and I'll put words in a post. And put it here.

[Siegel]

Do City Creation together with your player. No need to come up with everything if you can do it as a group. You will also have extra buy in from them all.

[Vknight]

Trust me there is a reason why that is just no.

Mainly for my continued sanity

I'll put it simply.
My players can be great players
Other times...

This is what happens when they get involved with a settings creation. Or when working with NPC's that make up there backstory.
If one things wrong they try to reel it back in like a frantic madman or a crazed Dm without any control of the plot.
...A few good examples.

A 'MaOCT's' game player got angry when he felt his demon companion who hates him wasn't treating his character like his superior
A player tried burning down the orphanage to prove a point that his monster wouldn't mind. He then got upset when I said his monster said no.
A character that wants to be a prince getting angry when the 'King' of the nation he's in saying he's not a prince because its the kings nation...
If they create a location they will flip out if it suffers any damage
Me timeskipping after the initial party dies to the villain(Right as he's finishing his final plan) to after he's won...
...
...
...
Need I go on? Sometimes my players get me angry.
So I want them to have little influence on the basic idea. They can add flesh to this bone but there not helping this skeleton.

[Siegel]

I don't know if FATE/DF is the best game for your group then. FATE-Point/Skill Declarations can really screw up everything you have planned and give the player A LOT of power.
If you can't trust your players to be responsible with this than this can turn ugly really really fast.

2 creative declarations can really turn a whole scenario 180°

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, by any indication I can see, FATE is not the game for you. Pick something like Paranoia instead, where the players acting out or going off the rails is 100% rules-sanctioned by arbitrary and excessive punishment, then play it up extreme Zap-style to soften the blow.

[turkishproverb]

Yes yes I do.
My amazing Aunt gave it to me along with all the books and all the Discworld books...
I'm going to edit the original post and put that in.
How did I miss that.

I...no words....

You have a good Aunt.

My suggestion? Try the premise of an old episode of Kolchack the night-stalker as a jumping off point.

[Tyndmyr]

Yeah, by any indication I can see, FATE is not the game for you. Pick something like Paranoia instead, where the players acting out or going off the rails is 100% rules-sanctioned by arbitrary and excessive punishment, then play it up extreme Zap-style to soften the blow.

This. Pick the system for the players and situation. Dresden Files is amazing, and I consider it a good choice for some situations, but if you can't do setting creation together, you likely can't play it together, since the players have a LOT of power to alter the setting in completely normal play.

Paranoia is, if nothing else, a fantastic way for people to get sillyness and craziness out of their system. Fun times for all.

[Need_A_Life]

You Are Not Alone.
I'll echo the idea that FATE may not be the right system for the group... honestly, I'm hoping you're exaggerating about their behaviour, because it doesn't sound like it's a group that would be all that fun to play with based on those examples...

Paranoia excluded, obviously, because <You are not cleared for this information, citizen. Please report for termination. Have a nice day!>

If you really want to try DFRPG with these people, I suggest:
1) Have a "planning the campaign" session.
1a) Tell people that their characters are supposed to be real people, not cartoonish primadonnas with WMDs.
1b) The locations, faces, ideas they've brought to the table will be put in danger. No maybe about it. No different than having to save the world in a D&D/Superhero/whatever game.
1c) Remind people that "bad stuff happens to me" means "I get more powerful." If they're still not on board return to a "Clerks & Cubicles" game. Then ignore rules for high cholestorol, demotions and Hellish Bureaucracy /sarcasm.
1d) Explain how you'd like this campaign to differ from earlier ones. Get buy-in. In writing, if necessary.
2) City Creation.
3) Take a book, a DVD and "random page" on TVTropes. You'll now combine elements from each of these three into a workable plot, assuming you can't figure out a better one in the meantime.

[Fhaolan]

I want to use Toronto, Canada.

I assume your location of Durham is for Durham, Ontario and not the two dozen or so Durhams elswhere in the world.

First off, do some research on the a couple of old TV shows: from the 90's: Forever Knight, and in the 00's: Blood Ties. They're both set in Toronto with supernatural events, so lifting a few ideas and locations from them will work well.

The advantage of using Toronto as a setting is that it's freaking huge, especially if you allow some wandering beyond the official city limits to places like Hamilton, St. Catherines, etc. The steel works of Hamilton, the suburbs of St. Catherines, the nuclear power plant of Pickering... heck you can make a case of including the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and the various almost-abandoned waxworks museums there.

If you're fixed for being in just Toronto proper, there's the old Distillery District with all the Victorian buildings, The Cloud Guardens with all the greenhouses, etc.

Oh, there's always Maple Leaf Gardens as a good set piece. It was shut down in 2001, and turned into a Loblaws later, but during 2004 it should be basically a large abandoned hockey rink if I remember correctly.

[Vknight]

...I'm fine with them helping in creating this but the basic idea is mine.

That stuff is the worst they have done.

I'm fine with letting them have effects upon the setting.
Read myAnimus Campaign Journalfor the good stuff they have done recently.
When they build parts of the setting its a problem but if they change parts of the setting they understand it has consequences and are much more accepting.
Stealing ancient artifacts etc.

I am doing FATE because they are starting to understand the idea places they created are still under my control. And those backstories can hurt.
Also this will really hit the point home. Npc's they create will be influences. Those Vampires you had a run in with? They remember you to but they decided to kill your girlfriend

I don't think Paranoia will help that as its just random crazy antics.
The Paranoia Story

Spoiler

Show

One of my players the one that tries to Dm and is ok to bad decided to run a Paranoia game.
I could not attend. I'm the one who owns Paranoia.... he does not own a copy.
The group told me about it the next day at my session.

It was not just bad, and all the players thought it was bad. It was horrible.
(No ones told the Dm for that session how awful it was)

I cannot go into just how awful it was. From the fact the part was in a secret base working together to defeat friend computer to the fact they had limitless clones to the horrifying rules of quasi D&D he used for the system.
To the fact that it was basically a big attack upon the liberal agenda. I don't care about your politics(or politics period) but if you entire setting and everything that makes it is just an attack on a group of people then you have no idea. Oh did I forget none of them died because he didn't want to kill PC's... in Paranoia... when they have endless clones...
Oh even worse you now how your mutated. Well they were special because they got to choose 4mutations and they got all of them... WHAT

And that's what the group thinks Paranoia is like from that one session of such backwardness I cried.

There is zap happy and there was that.
I tried explaining real Paranoia to them and they asked what game it was I was talking about because it was nothing like the game they played.

This was all recent in the last 3weeks. The wounds are still to fresh and I'm not going to go in there and explain it to them all the while fighting the programing of someones stupidity of not simply asking to borrow a book!

@turkishproverb
Yeah my Aunt is awesome.

@Need_A_Life
Thanks for that its all good ideas.

[Vknight]

I assume your location of Durham is for Durham, Ontario and not the two dozen or so Durhams elswhere in the world.

First off, do some research on the a couple of old TV shows: from the 90's: Forever Knight, and in the 00's: Blood Ties. They're both set in Toronto with supernatural events, so lifting a few ideas and locations from them will work well.

The advantage of using Toronto as a setting is that it's freaking huge, especially if you allow some wandering beyond the official city limits to places like Hamilton, St. Catherines, etc. The steel works of Hamilton, the suburbs of St. Catherines, the nuclear power plant of Pickering... heck you can make a case of including the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and the various almost-abandoned waxworks museums there.

If you're fixed for being in just Toronto proper, there's the old Distillery District with all the Victorian buildings, The Cloud Guardens with all the greenhouses, etc.

Oh, there's always Maple Leaf Gardens as a good set piece. It was shut down in 2001, and turned into a Loblaws later, but during 2004 it should be basically a large abandoned hockey rink if I remember correctly.

I grew up in Newmarket. Its a 2hour drive at max to Toronto. I know the city I love the city and also love how easy it is to go to places beyond it. Also the fact that lots of the shows people watch set in 'New York' are filmed in Vancouver and Toronto.
I will look into those shows. Also thanks for those ideas Fhaolan

[Fhaolan]

I will look into those shows. Also thanks for those ideas Fhaolan

No problem. Oh, and be careful around Forever Knight. There was a TV movie done in 1989 called 'Nick Knight' that was the original pilot for the show. It got recast (the original main character was played by Rick Springfield, beleive it or not), reset (changed from being based in Chicago to Toronto), and refilmed as the pilot for Forever Knight. It's... a trip to watch it after having watched Forever Knight.

Other sources of Supernatural Toronto that I have on hand:

http://occulttorontodresdenfiles.wik...t_Toronto_Wiki - Somebody else's attempt at the Dresden Files in Toronto
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2218074/
http://www.torontoparanormal.ca/

Making up 'Dresden' explanations behind all of these should keep you occupied.