[X] My Assistant

[Platinum]

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.

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.

[CanRay]

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.

[Redjack]

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...

[CanRay]

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

[Thirty Second Ar...]

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.

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? Here, have a good batch of writeups on how the system works. 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.)

[Jhaiisiin]

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.

[LurkerOutThere]

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.

[toturi]

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.

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.

[Redjack]

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.

[Jhaiisiin]

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!

[CanRay]

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

[Jhaiisiin]

Oh? In what way?

[CanRay]

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.

[Jhaiisiin]

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

[CanRay]

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

[Jhaiisiin]

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. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[CanRay]

Yeah, well, another character that'll never see the light of day. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Jhaiisiin]

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.

[CanRay]

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.

[Jhaiisiin]

LOL Nice. Stupid wizards breaking things.

[Critias]

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.

[Redjack]

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.

[CanRay]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)