The Dresden Files > DFRPG

Playing Lawbreaking characters

<< < (2/7) > >>

Mr. Death:
You can houserule what you want. Tabletop games are great for that. But, in the setting, that's how it works. Actions have consequences.

Killing someone in a purely mundane, real-world way is going to have huge negative effects on the average person's psyche. Doing so by literally manifesting your will on the world -- effectively creating a link between your will and that death which reflects on you -- would only logically do the same and more.

It sounds mostly like you want to have your cake and eat it too. You want the devil-may-care badass who disregards the consequences, but you want to get rid of the most pressing of those consequences, making it moot.

If a central aspect of the setting and the rules of how the world works piss you off that much, maybe it's just not the series for you. That's why I stopped reading the Black Jewel trilogy and A Song of Ice And Fire. Finding something that fits you better has to be more productive than railing about the "Victorian-moralist, Judeo-Christian fundamentalist, fantastic-racism arbitrary and hypocrite bullshit" you perceive.

Wanderer:

--- Quote from: Mr. Death on May 06, 2017, 11:16:21 PM ---Killing someone in a purely mundane, real-world way is going to have huge negative effects on the average person's psyche. Doing so by literally manifesting your will on the world -- effectively creating a link between your will and that death which reflects on you -- would only logically do the same and more.

--- End quote ---

Honestly, I cannot see any meaningful possible difference between doing something with your hands or your mind. Plenty of high-functioning, low-empathy persons that can use lethal force when necessary w/o screwing up their psyche or their life exist in the world. I have my own reasons to prefer playing their kind first and foremost.


--- Quote ---It sounds mostly like you want to have your cake and eat it too. You want the devil-may-care badass who disregards the consequences, but you want to get rid of the most pressing of those consequences, making it moot.

--- End quote ---

There are consequences and consequences. I am willing to work with my playstyle preferences creating mundane consequences, such as making the White Council a recurring threat/antagonist. I just don't want the setting and rules making the cosmos arbitrarily stacked against them, to the point of having to pay character-creation currency through the nose or getting my characters sent on the fast-track to NPC-dom for them. 


--- Quote ---If a central aspect of the setting and the rules of how the world works piss you off that much, maybe it's just not the series for you. That's why I stopped reading the Black Jewel trilogy and A Song of Ice And Fire. Finding something that fits you better has to be more productive than railing about the "Victorian-moralist, Judeo-Christian fundamentalist, fantastic-racism arbitrary and hypocrite bullshit" you perceive.

--- End quote ---

I'm trying to salvage my investment in the purchase of the DFRPG books, which looks rather productive to me. Besides, this is my only really serious trouble with this game as far as I can tell, and good urban-fantasy games with well-written magic systems aren't that plentiful. I put reading the Dresden series on hold precisely because the game made me aware I might have a serious problem with this aspect of the setting in the books, too.

Sanctaphrax:

--- Quote from: Wanderer on May 06, 2017, 06:33:16 PM ---Thanks for your answer, and the welcome. You see, it makes very little difference for me if a game system tries to pull off this kind of stunt by picking the morality excuse or the mental health excuse.
--- End quote ---

It's not an excuse. It's not like Jim Butcher designed his story in order to circumscribe the PC-building choices of the people who'd play the RPG in the future. Thinking of the Laws in those terms will, I think, make it difficult to understand them.

That aside, I get why you'd dislike the association of insanity and evil and the existence of sapient beings without free will or full moral standing. If you want to reduce or remove the metaphysical weight of the Laws, well, it's your game. Might be good to make mind magic harder if you do, though, since it can be a bit of a story-breaker.


--- Quote from: Wanderer on May 06, 2017, 06:33:16 PM ---Do you have any wisdom to share about the Warden issue?
--- End quote ---

Wisdom is definitely too strong a word for them, but I do have some thoughts.

In the canonical Dresdenverse, the Wardens can expect every Lawbreaker to come to their attention sooner or later. Usually in the worst possible way, when they raise an army of zombies to conquer the world or something. If a Lawbreaker can remain sane, the dynamic changes.

In a world where you can break the Laws and not become a danger to yourself and others, the Wardens become more similar to a regular police force. And it's hard to deny that spellcasters need one; magic's potential for abuse is staggering. With that in mind, you can treat them more or less the way mundane criminals treat mundane cops. Running a guerrilla war against them is probably pointless; you just need enough subtlety, plausible deniability, and don't-mess-with-me-ness to outweight the value of bringing you in.

khadgar4606:
I agree with wanderer having bit of dark side what makes some characters unique look at nicky he is utter sociopath with rash al ghul style ambitions yet still until the last book bastard shows love to his dauther and until dresden pour acid on that wound of him by how idiotic tthe thing he do to his daughter by damning her soul to tartarus( unless jim pulls some clever thing and returns deidre as revenge monster ) and how he has no thrusty lackeys to sacriface for his ambitions

so having darkside helps the character development also look at harry him self one slippery slope and he is litteraly inchs away turning to full blown omnicidal maniac tu save susan from red court curse if wardens see him like that morgan probably busts a cap in his thick skull hell it might be f ing molly who may pull the trigger

blackstaff67:
He's not about arguing about PCs with a 'dark side.'  He's arguing about Lawbreaking and the Laws of Magic.  A PC can have a dark side, but one of the Laws about the Dresden=verse is that the Cosmos itself will slap your soul down if you use magic without regard for the consequences of your actions.  Magic springs from your soul, using it to break a law is like using the Force for evil--it can lead you to the Dark Side.  Actions do have consequences--even unintended ones.
 
Now, me personally as a GM, will cheerfully tell players that I'm not out to play "Gotcha!" with the rules. I'll tell a player in advance, "If you do 'A', 'B' will follow."  Emphasizing free will and choice by having the player make the decision is paramount to me.

Otherwise, you might as well be playing a generic urban fantasy RPG. 

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page