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Posted by: Redjack Jul 17 2011, 02:11 PM

Last year we bought both Dresden Files books at Gen Con. There was a gentleman running pickup games being referred from the Evil Hat Productions booth and we contacted him and got in a game. One of the features of the game is to create a framework for your character and "discover" the rest of your character as you play.

Last fall I tried to run a game and really didn't feel that it went all that well. I started with a small group, but my story line was just 'go with the flow' and 'make it up as I go along'. With most of my players not understanding a lot about Dresdenverse and me really weak on the rules, we kinda ended in the middle of a chapter.

Ran again last night. This time I fleshed out three characters with strong back stories and a story centered around the characters. In each scene we learned a bit about the rules and used that in the next scene. By the end of the night, we had a good time and I felt much better about my grasp of the rules.

Posted by: CanRay Jul 17 2011, 02:50 PM

Congrats! From what I've seen of it, it seems to be an interesting and well thought-out game. The idea of character development above all really speaks to me.

Too bad none of the other RPers I know here are as interested as I am in things. Hell, some of my GMs have complained about the backstory I put into characters, "I don't have time to read a novel." as one put it.

I really worry about the type of character I'd make, too...

Posted by: Critias Jul 17 2011, 10:00 PM

Sounds like you guys had fun.

I enjoyed my own brief foray into the Dresdenverse (never gave the books a shot, but my wife loves 'em and ran the campaign for us)...but things got sidetracked early on and basically the campaign turned into a train wreck (as had several other of our recent games) thanks to one disruptive player (who is no longer with the group). The rest of us got into it and worked on the setting together (a very rural Oklahoma town near a reservation, complete with a new casino), all making characters from the area, relocated to the area recently, or outright staying at the hotel (like our White Court vampire, who preyed on the emotions of the passing-through gamblers from his lair in the penthouse suite). We had a shifter, a vampire, a fey, a couple mages, a Faith-dude, a normal human or two...and then Captain Disrupt-o, who basically just recreated a character from Supernatural (down to driving the same car and having the same initials), and was out to just roll mysteriously into town, grenade and machine-gun any supernatural threats, and then roll mysteriously out of town to rinse and repeat.

Things went downhill rather quickly, and ended up with the rest of us (two of which were playing local law enforcement types) arresting him, after he rappelled down the side of the casino hotel to fling grenades through a window into one of the rooms. His replacement character was no better, being just a US Marshal sent into town to transport his former character away (so basically another one-shot wonder designed not to care about the setting or the rest of the group or the campaign, but this time based on The Rock, who had traits like "Stubbornly Refuses to Believe in the Supernatural").

Yeah. Our gaming group as a whole has gotten streamlined and de-stressed significantly since we decided not to invite him back after a year or so of that sort of stuff.

We've got some half-assed plans to fire up the Dresden game again, after everyone's busy summers quiet down.

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Jul 20 2011, 09:40 PM

I soooooooooooooo want to play in a Dresden game. Love the books. We tried to start one up, but our one powergamer pretty much didn't make it through character creation before we hit issues. The system is way more roleplaying heavy than he can really deal with. Everyone has their preferences though, and we don't hold that against him.

Posted by: CanRay Jul 21 2011, 06:00 AM

Maybe I should see if someone is interested in this in my neck of the woods.

Lack of game is getting to me. Bad.

Posted by: Critias Jul 21 2011, 06:49 AM

I enjoyed reading the rulebook so much it's got me planning to go through the novels themselves, now. I'd only read one earlier (Sidekick, or Side Job, I think it was called? Just a novella), but I liked what I saw. Now I'm fully in "okay hon, let's dig through boxes and find your Dresden books so I can devour them" mode.

Posted by: Redjack Jul 21 2011, 12:22 PM

I have five of the books and had started reading them a few years ago but got side tracked; I restarted with the first last night.
While I know its not quite the same, I own the Dresden Files Series (1 season) that SciFi produced so that at least gives me a flavor to shoot for.

Posted by: Platinum Jul 21 2011, 12:33 PM

I grabbed the audiobooks so that I can listen to them at work and when I ride the motorcycle. (which is a lot)

Like the powergamer I think the Dresden RPG is a little too roleplay heavy for me. Wish I could, but then realize how limited I am. That being said, it really makes me want to bring more of the elements from Dresden into Shadowrun. I think the two are a perfect fit. I don't understand the magic/technology dynamic really. And it doesn't always apply i nthe books. For instance when he goes into the Medical Examination room, the light's don't all blow, but in the beginning he said that light bulbs constantly blow on him. I do like the idea of him having gremlins, but don't think it should be that pervasive.

Posted by: CanRay Jul 21 2011, 02:04 PM

Technology blows around him when it's in constant contact, or he works his magic (He has a spell specifically for wrecking technology.).

So lights constantly blow on him... In his office. A bulb that'd last a year for someone else might last a month or two around Harry. The Blue Beetle (Which is any colour but blue) runs... Five-days-out-of-seven, and is considered to be a exceptionally reliable vehicle for a magician because of them being constantly around them and their being so complex (Of course, it's a VW Bug.).

That said, those are all fairly "Low Tech" and "Reliable" items. Anything high tech is going to die PDQ around him. It sucks because it prevents visits to a lot of parts of the hospital, which Harry should be going to more often. (Hense the visits to the ME, who is his "Family Doctor".).

Posted by: Platinum Jul 21 2011, 05:04 PM

I understand how it is written to work. It's the inconsistency that causes the confusion. IE when the loupe garou was in the precinct, lights weren't blowing as he was casting spells. Or either was the projector and such in the theatre when he hit "the Reaper". He's also had to use magic in the ME's theatre with nothing blowing. I know he tried to stay away from the cameras when he was a production assistant, but there are so many times he was around tech and casting spells that it just throws things off. I think it's meant to be a source of humour and frustration than a general rule.

All in all, it's a great series, and I think that shadowrun should look for some Dresden love.

Posted by: CanRay Jul 21 2011, 08:52 PM

There's also the issue that he's writing this (It's confirmed that the "Books" are his personal journal) well after the events happen, and he's not so good on memory.

He gets hit. In the head. A lot.

Not to mention all the smoke inhalation that happens when buildings catch fire around him (Once was not his fault, BTW.).

Posted by: Platinum Jul 22 2011, 02:38 AM

true. I am on book 9 now. my favorite part are all of the meme references, and banter.

Posted by: X-Kalibur Jul 24 2011, 01:48 AM

Makes me think of Arcanum really. They won't even let your mage ride in the "mage car" if you know certain spells or are highly magical.

Posted by: CanRay Jul 24 2011, 03:17 AM

Wait until you find out about the Zen SUV.

Posted by: toturi Jul 24 2011, 10:38 AM

Powergaming only runs into issues in DFRPG when the table decides to use "roleplaying" and "canon" to curtail and limit how a character is built. DFRPG is actually quite powergaming friendly, IMO.

Hexing, when it happens, is often attributed to the presence of magic. You can, however, write up a tech friendly wizard. There are many threads on the DFRPG forums that deal with this. The rules on this issue is pretty clear cut. It is how it is implemented at the table that is messy (some people do not like that there are in-system workarounds on hexing and insist that the wizard's player ought to take the Compel and like it).

Which reminds me: I need to create a troll for my DFRPG game. And his name is going to be Bubba.

Posted by: Mäx Jul 24 2011, 12:27 PM

Those audio books are so damm awesome, James Marsters is pretty much a perfect reader for the series.
I just last week got all the 12 books and now that i'm reading them myself, i kinda keep hearing his voice for harry

Posted by: LurkerOutThere Jul 29 2011, 10:00 AM

SLightly off topic, I've always wanted to steal the world/system of Arcanum for a table top RPG. Can anyone recommend this system (or any other) for that purpose?

Posted by: CanRay Jul 29 2011, 05:17 PM

I want to see how Harry deals with having no magic. Or Bob. Or the Blue Beetle. Or his apartment or office.

...

Or his body.

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Aug 1 2011, 01:34 AM

Ghost Story = Amazing. Mort needs a serious upgrade on his RPG stats.

I don't think it was as good as Changes, but then Changes was so damned epic it's hard to top that.

Posted by: CanRay Aug 1 2011, 02:56 AM

Changes was 12 books of pre-story coming to a crescendo.

Ghost Story is the first of the next series.

Better be in my mailbox tomorrow!

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Aug 2 2011, 04:54 PM

I'll agree with that.

Posted by: CanRay Aug 2 2011, 10:00 PM

Ghost Story came in today! I normally hate hardcovers, but am happy for this one!

Posted by: Platinum Aug 3 2011, 04:36 PM

I think that I am going to wait 6 or 7 years.... then get the next installments on audiobook.
I love the stories... it would pain me to have to wait between each book.

We should make a shadowrun sourcebook for the Dresden series.

Posted by: CanRay Aug 3 2011, 08:42 PM

Shadowrun: 5^th World Spike Babies?

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Aug 3 2011, 11:06 PM

LOL There's a person in my group who wants specifically to wait until they're all released until he starts reading them. Despite the fact that there are supposed to be 23+ books and then the 3 book apocalypse trilogy. Annnnnnd then we got him to read the first. Gotta get him the other hard copies to keep him in the series, though.

Sucks now though. I've read Ghost Story all the way through and now have to wait until next year for the next one. And there's no new Alera book to tide me over.

Sooooo now reading other stuffs, like the Bourne Trilogy. I am thus far *not* impressed with Bourne. Kinda sad about that.

Oh well.

Posted by: CanRay Aug 3 2011, 11:21 PM

I got a trio of Mickey Spillane novels cheap.

The Dresden Files is certainly one of the RPG's I'd love to play... *Sighs*

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Aug 4 2011, 01:41 AM

You and me both.

Posted by: toturi Aug 4 2011, 04:40 AM

I actually felt the movies were better than the books.

Posted by: CanRay Aug 4 2011, 03:15 PM

Just finished Ghost Story.

Jim Butcher is more of a bastard to his characters than I am. That's saying something.

Posted by: Gibbersan Aug 4 2011, 09:27 PM

I'm only about 1/2 way through.

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Aug 5 2011, 04:04 AM

I'm of the opinion that just before Changes, he attended Joss Wheedon University of Character Screwing.

That said, I'm still enjoying the hell out of it.

Posted by: Platinum Aug 5 2011, 02:12 PM

I've been thinking about how Butcher has handled magic in the series as well as some of the different creatures used.

Basically no astral but faerie replaces astral.
There is astral sight/aura reading (third eye)
He brings mundanes into there, and they have physical forms, through gates/rifts.

Mages are all basically adepts. If you do want to cast another spell category you use foci.


Anyone have ideas on the stats of the different opponents?

Posted by: CanRay Aug 5 2011, 03:44 PM

At least the White Court doesn't sparkle. Hell, they'd probably smack the hell out of any posers that did!

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Aug 7 2011, 05:35 AM

Actually, their skin turns milk white, eyes go silver and they practically glow when really hungry and going all out...


So nearly sparkling.

That said, the White Court are damned scary dangerous.

Posted by: CanRay Aug 7 2011, 03:02 PM

Yeah, but the Grade-A Curb-Stomp Asskicking that precedes the "nearly sparkling" makes up for that quite well.

The scary part is that we mostly get to see the nearly constantly starved "I'm trying to be human" member do his thing, too. One of the members that gives into the hunger completely and has a full tank of high-octane petrol throwing down?

I also have to laugh at the description of how said nearly constantly starved character spends his time with his loved one.

Posted by: Bigity Aug 7 2011, 09:58 PM

So I got the first Harry Dresden book on my Kindle, looking forward to reading it.


However, why does the kindle version cost more than an actual paperback? I remember when paperbacks were like 7 bucks dangit!

Posted by: CanRay Aug 7 2011, 11:27 PM

Electrons cost more than paper and ink?

Also, more chance of illegal copies of the file getting around than if you bought the paperback.

Posted by: Redjack Sep 8 2011, 02:59 AM

I reread the first two novels and read the third; Working on the fourth now. Wow.. They just keep getting better.

Gonna age myself here but I screamed when books jumped to $4.95 average.

Posted by: CanRay Sep 8 2011, 03:45 AM

Hell, I looked at a bunch of Ace-Doubles my Father lent me and saw they were priced at 25 cents and freaked. And that's one generation.

Tells you how bad inflation is.

Posted by: X-Kalibur Sep 8 2011, 04:02 PM

Yeah, but that's Canadian money, which doesn't really count.

Posted by: CanRay Sep 8 2011, 04:17 PM

That was back when the US/Canadian dollar was at par. Instead of today, where... We're almost exactly at par. With the Canadian dollar being worth one cent more.

Posted by: X-Kalibur Sep 12 2011, 05:46 PM

You keep your damned dirty logic out of my making jokes at your expense

Posted by: CanRay Sep 12 2011, 06:13 PM

So, how's that new credit rating treating you?

Back to Harry, whose gone through Ghost Story? *Raises Hand*

Posted by: Platinum Sep 13 2011, 02:29 PM

I am thinking of waiting for a few more books to come out and go through them then.

Also have more than enough material to work on converting into a SR sourcebook.

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Sep 14 2011, 06:42 PM

Ditto. Was awesome. Felt like the beginning of a new volume.

Posted by: CanRay Oct 17 2011, 07:15 PM

Got bored this morning and fired off a message to Evil Hat, and got very quick reply.

I asked about why Ivy wasn't getting in on writing for the game.

Posted by: ggodo Oct 18 2011, 12:39 AM

Because she's too far away to mail the manuscript. That doesn't mean she isn't reading it, though.

Posted by: CanRay Oct 18 2011, 12:56 AM

Actually, the answer I got was that she was too high priced for Billy. Which is true enough.

I just thought it'd be neat to see the margin notes in Crayon. I remember how she threatened one of the Denariians with a graph coloured in with Crayon.

Posted by: Lansdren Oct 20 2011, 09:24 AM

I would like to chip in with my thoughts that the RPG is very nicely written and I look forward to watching it age up into the territory of the books (given how the RPG is set way before changes)

As for the books, didnt like the new guy who did the GS audio but my understanding is he was a one time thing as JM will be back for the next one.

Changes and Ghost Story were in some ways some of the best / emotional writting I've read in a long time the end of Changes had me almost weeping in places which is not a normal thing for me

Posted by: Bigity Oct 20 2011, 10:15 PM

Is this RPG still under active development? The only two books came out over a year ago, and that makes me a little nervous when considering a new game to buy.

Posted by: Platinum Oct 21 2011, 02:07 AM

I haven't seen anything from them in a long time. The forums are slow as well. But I do know that I am working on a Dresden sourcebook for sr2.

Posted by: CanRay Oct 21 2011, 03:21 AM

There's one in development, the company is very small and doesn't put out much material, going for the "Quality over Quantity" idea. Thus the books they have put out weighing like Cinder Blocks and being used by the RPG Mafia as weights when they need to dump someone off the docks as a message to people who welsh on debts or cheat on rolls.

Posted by: Redjack Nov 25 2011, 03:33 AM

So here's a crazy piece of trivia that puts how small a world this is into perspective:

We were at Thanksgiving dinner with the inlaws and my daughter and I were talking about what we are currently reading. My brother-in-law over hears us and says, "I went to school with a guy named Jim Butcher". He told us where he went to high school and we showed him a picture from the book and he's like, "Yea, I went to school with him".

Of course, not being a reader of fantasy or scifi, it wasn't a big thing to him...

Posted by: CanRay Nov 25 2011, 03:43 AM

Smack him upside the head with the first Harry Dresden book. Tell him it's mystery or noir. Both also fit.

Posted by: Thirty Second Artbomb Nov 30 2011, 03:44 AM

As a player in a year-old DFRPG game: Buy it, and either find or start a group to run a game in it. The lack of quantity is just fine, given the quality of the product.

It's a very solid system, which manages to have struck the right balance between free-form and rules-heavy for me. You can come up with any character concept you like, but there are limits and rules that you have to work within to build your character. Plus, building the campaign area with your group helps solidify concepts that might've otherwise been glossed over, and the entire Aspects system is a fantastic way of modifying the classic "Hit it until it's dead!" RPG mechanics.

Magic is much different than Shadowrun, as might've been mentioned earlier in-thread. Rather than a list of specific effects, magical characters are limited by elemental type - which you can make up your own for, if the GM approves it - as well as how much juice they put into the spell and how well they can control it.

• A spellcaster with Fire as an elemental type could shoot a flamethrower blast at someone, or they could suck the heat out of the air around someone to encrust them with ice while cutting something else - like a pack of ghouls - in half with a heat-laser.
• A mage that can deal with Earth magic could levitate boulders and hurl them at a target, or they could summon a hand made out of rock to grab someone and hold them in place, or they could summon a wall of rock around themselves and their friends as a shield.
• Someone with Metal as an element - I prefer the 'can modify, manipulate, and mimic the properties of metal' rather than the classical Chinese element - could redirect electricity as an attack, or as an aspect-applying maneuver (I've found that 'Tased, Bro', 'Shocked', and 'Stunned' are all nice aspects to apply to enemies), or could start pulling some serious Magneto shit if there's no electricity around to play with.
• Seriously, it's very much an "Okay, what do you want to do?" magic system with rules that support it.

Mortals don't get the short end of the stick, either. There's these fun little things called stunts that everyone can buy, but mortals can take the most advantage of. They can be either a situational bonus, a skill-swap effect (Guns instead of Weapons when hitting someone in the face with a firearm instead of shooting them, for example), or a Fate Point-fueled temporary bonus that exceeds the situational bonus. I'm particularly fond of the skill-swap effect, as evidenced by an ex-MMA fighter I made. He's got a high Endurance skill, plus "Wait For An Opening" (Endurance instead of Might to start grappling), "I'm Not Going Anywhere" (Endurance instead of Might to maintain a grapple), and "Oh, Is That All?" (Endurance instead of Fists for melee defense) and they all come together to make him stick to things like superglue in melee combat. Hell, the last session I played him in, he managed to wrestle a Fetch (a fear-eating fey creature; this one looked like Redneck Death) to the ground and proceeded to bounce its head against a tile-over-concrete floor to make it answer questions.

...You know what? http://www.rickneal.ca/?page_id=842 This guy explains it all better than I ever could.

And Redjack? I endorse CanRay's suggestion. The Dresden Files books are modern-day fantasy-mystery-noir-with-a-splash-of-comedy novels, and I'd suggest them to anyone who enjoys any individual part of that description. (And yes, CanRay. Jim Butcher is a glorious golden bastard of a writer.)

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Nov 30 2011, 03:31 PM

Nearest I can tell, there have been no official updates, but the Jim Butcher forums has a section for the DFRPG and the people there are constantly updating character and world stats to reflect the progress in the books.

The two books that exist are so detailed that little would be needed in the way of supplements anyway. For all intents and purposes, they stand alone very nicely.

Posted by: LurkerOutThere Dec 1 2011, 12:02 AM

I bought the core book on Black Friday, and the girlfirend has started reading through it, I might try and dig into it at some point in the future for my monday gaming/football group.

Posted by: toturi Dec 5 2011, 07:10 AM

There are no additional books other than the first 2. Yet. There is at least one book that I know of in the pipeline. There are also free downloadable one shots.

Posted by: Redjack Dec 12 2011, 03:37 PM

I just started reading Turn Coat; the more I read, the better I feel I understand the world in order to run more complex games.
I am planning a game or two over Christmas break. Still trying to put a story together in my head. I may run one or two of the published adventures.

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Dec 12 2011, 04:33 PM

Egads, I wish I could play in one! Unfortunately, the only game that runs locally happens in the middle of my work week. Buncha bums!

Posted by: CanRay Dec 12 2011, 07:35 PM

I have the perfect idea for a character... Kind of an Anti-Version of Harry...

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Dec 13 2011, 12:17 AM

Oh? In what way?

Posted by: CanRay Dec 13 2011, 01:59 AM

Rich, nice car(s), no magic, not the protagonist, very technological in the "indistinguishable from magic" way, has a tame AI named Alice that works similar to what Bob does but over the Internet...

Hopefully doesn't get hit. In the head. A lot.

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Dec 13 2011, 02:46 AM

Awesome idea, but how are you managing the AI within the Dresdenverse...?

Posted by: CanRay Dec 13 2011, 02:48 AM

Not a bloody clue. Same way Bob gives Harry a bonus, I guess. Never really been able to convince myself to buy the book.

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Dec 13 2011, 03:37 AM

Totally worth getting it. Heck, snag the digital copy if you can.

Looking through mine now. I think there's a way to make that work after all. Just gotta find the relevant text. Cool idea, either way.

Posted by: CanRay Dec 13 2011, 03:45 AM

Yeah, well, another character that'll never see the light of day.

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Dec 13 2011, 03:54 AM

So here's my take on the idea... Dresdenverse doesn't really have a lot of stunts that apply for a mortal with an AI. You almost have to make the AI an item of power to make it work, and give it the equivalent of stunts (then of course you lose your pure mortal bonus). The nice part, is that if no stunts apply (and the suggested ones only work in a couple of cases), then you can make up your own and run it past the GM.

So it's plausible. Hope you can find someone to play with and test it out.

Posted by: CanRay Dec 13 2011, 05:59 AM

Wasn't going to play him as a pure mortal. Had a good curse for him to be stuck under.

Also a love of classic automobiles. 1949 Mercury Eight is the vehicle he uses when stuck helping magicians so they don't kill the damned thing.

Posted by: Jhaiisiin Dec 13 2011, 09:41 AM

LOL Nice. Stupid wizards breaking things.

Posted by: Critias Dec 13 2011, 05:36 PM

I miss our Dresden game. We made it just far enough into the campaign to start to really get a handle on the mechanic and fall in love with our mini-setting, we were just about to get our first level boost, etc, etc. *sigh* Another casualty to a (former) player in our local games, who got very, very, disruptive there towards the end.

Posted by: Redjack Dec 23 2011, 05:21 AM

Played "Night Fears" tonight for a table of seven, including a player's first RPG experience. Everyone had a blast!

I think we will play through the other two published adventures (perhaps one/month) and then work towards a campaign. Still playing fast & loose with the rules, given my inexperience with the system, but we made it through.

Posted by: CanRay Dec 23 2011, 05:24 AM