Alternate Time Periods for Dresden RPGs

[MatthewD44]

Another thing that got me thinking was, magic should be stronger in earlier time periods due to the lack of technology. I was rereading "On Stranger Tides" and that was one thing that got me thinking about earlier time periods and the strength of magic..

[Blaze]

Chicago -- the future:  An enormous space ship hovers silently over the city.  Can Harry and his pals thwart an alien invasion?  It is Sci-Fi versus PI.

[blackwolf]

Couldn't he just say Hexus and be done with them

[Quantus]

Couldn't he just say Hexus and be done with them

Alien Race based on advance Magical based Technological applications.  Runs on magic, not electricity and such.  and they need wizard blood for fuel, so they team up with the Reds. 

[Blaze]

Couldn't he just say Hexus and be done with them

Not unless you wanted a gajillion pounds of Spaceship crashing on the greater metropolitan area.   

[Quantus]

Not unless you wanted a gajillion pounds of Spaceship crashing on the greater metropolitan area.   

So what your saying is that Harry will somehow have to figure out how to stop a Hex thrown by Cowl, while the badguys are trying to kill him for trying to stop them, the aliens are trying to kill him for trying to save them, and the good guys are trying to kill him for seeming to help the aliens because they are too stupid to look up and remember how Newton's Apple works.   

Well, it fits his luck.   

[Blaze]

Pretty much exactly that.

[eldrwyrm]

An interesting resource for this might be a (new?) RPG called Colonial Gothic which uses the notion that there are supernatural nasties in the 1776 era.

If you're looking for something set in colonial America using supernatural, try Witchhunter from Paradigm Concepts.  The system is relatively easy to learn, the setting is rich and well developed with lots of secret organizations and incorporates the "real world" of late 17th century western civilization very well.  They also have a world wide campaign that runs at gaming cons called Dark Providence.
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A campaign I thought would be interesting is early age of enlightenment:
Hello, allow me to introduce my self.  My name is Charles Whycross, I'm an apothecary in London.  I'm part of a dying breed, because I'm also a wizard.  It's funny in a way that I should make my living in what is so obviously a "magician's" profession.  I say it's funny, because not so many years ago I lost a lot of people who might have been wizards and witches and warlocks.  Between the publication of "The Witch's Hammer" and the Inquisition I've lost most of my family and friends.  Even those I still have don't see much of each other.  We're scared to be seen together for fear that someone will think we're a gathering coven.
Things are getting better though.  A few years ago, Isaac Newton published some papers on theories of motion and gravity.  He kind of kicked off a movement.  Nowadays they call it "The Enlightenment".  Science, they say, can explain everything in the world: why things fall, how the body works, how to capture the power of nature.  It seems popular, people like what it tells them.  maybe in another hundred years or so, everybody will have forgotten about magic and wizards and consorting with the devil.  Of course, that's also the problem.
You see, part of the strength of magic is belief.  If everybody believes in magic, it's more potent, it's everywhere.  If people stop beleiving though, the fabric of magic will weaken.  Sure, it'll never go away completely.  There will still be things that go bump in the night, and places of power.  After all, it's not like we won't have fire and wind and water, but the air won't buzz with magic anymore.  The White Council tells me I don't know what I'm talking about, that magic is elemental and ever-powerful.  But I see it, I feel it in my fingers, I sense it in the fey I deal with on occasion: the magic is weaker than it used to be.
Who knows, maybe I'm just getting old and cynical, maybe I need new scenery.  I suppose I could always go to France and see if the new king needs a court philosopher.  It worked out pretty well for Nostradamus, and the air in France is a lot cleaner than it is here in London.

[Quantus]

If you're looking for something set in colonial America using supernatural, try Witchhunter from http://www.paradigmconcepts.com/.  The system is relatively easy to learn, the setting is rich and well developed with lots of secret organizations and incorporates the "real world" of late 17th century western civilization very well.  They also have a world wide campaign that runs at gaming cons called Dark Providencehttp://darkprovidence.net/.

Ive played Living Arcanis since 2003, my gaming group was on first-names with the entire paradigm staff, etc.  I have to say they are some of the best creative minds Ive met.  The stories that came out of the Arcanis world (a political heavy, roman-esk Fantasy setting) still rank as some of the best ive seen in literature, not just DnD.

That being said, I would strongly advise against joining one of their Living Campaigns.  They are frankly hopeless at running the thing.  They cant make a deadline to save their lives, retcon things constantly, and while they are great at story, they consistently fail to provide power balance in the rules, and in attempts to solve it they just throw more and more special case rules at the system until you can barely see the light of day.  Ive had 14 game sessions that had my heart racing and me on my feet cheering on a set of bloody dice.  Then Ive also had 4 hours where 3 of them where spent arguing over which rule applied to the Psionic character (an interal part of the world story-wise, but slapped on the side with their own rule-set for the crunchy bits).

Bottom line, their worlds and stories are fantastic.  In a home game. 

[eldrwyrm]

I agree, Living Campaigns suck compared to home campaigns.  Unfortunately, for some of us it is about the only option we have.  My gaming group is stuck on medieval high fantasy.  There's one other guy who is interested in Witchhunter, but two people does not a gaming group make.  The likelihood of my getting any of them to even think about playing Dresden are slightly worse than that of Harry and Karrin getting their romantic timing right.

[Blaze]

ROTF --  that good, huh?  ROTF 

[Quantus]

I agree, Living Campaigns suck compared to home campaigns.  Unfortunately, for some of us it is about the only option we have.  My gaming group is stuck on medieval high fantasy.  There's one other guy who is interested in Witchhunter, but two people does not a gaming group make.  The likelihood of my getting any of them to even think about playing Dresden are slightly worse than that of Harry and Karrin getting their romantic timing right.

I feel your pain.  My group was fanatically stuck on D20.  I tried so many times to get an Exalted game, and later a Scion Game going.

Scion BTW works really well in a Dresden type setting.  I was pushing it when I first read the series and started seeing the Blasting Rod as a Birthright relic with the Fire domain.  It was awesome.  

If you are willing to brave teh Living Campaigns, a surprisingly fun one is Living Death.  Set at the turn of the century and vaguely Cthulu, it is great in that dark and dirty sort of way.  Drucula was suppose to rise on schedule (by Bram Stoker's timeframe) and for equipment anything in the vintage Sears Roebuck catalog is fair game.  

[eldrwyrm]

Except for the fact that Living Death is now a dead campaign.    On the upside, most of the LD staff are now working on Dark Providence.

[Quantus]

...Damn and Sweet respectively. 
I need to get back to the cons more. Damn you 8-5 job!  Damn you Real World!!! 

[DrygonDM]

Eldrwyrm[/b]– Early Age of Enlightenment  is indeed interesting.

I have not tried Witchhunter, and would need to find more players to try it.
I only have a very few players that are interested in trying Games not of the D&D or D20 style.

Remember that Campaigns must split the Spot Light with all the Player's Characters.
So that a good Idea for a Main Character will not work for a group.
A lot of Game Sessions end up being more like “Friends” or “Charmed” - where the group is the main focus, and each Character might have the spotlight from time to time.

Harry Dresden-style writings (including the one you gave) make for great books, but for bad Campaigns.
Getting a Mature enough group of Players that can accept the “Back Seat” is extremely hard.

Need a better example? Ok, you get a group of friends Dresden fans together and you have
established the basics – Who is the GM, and The fact that only one person gets to be 'Like Harry'
– IE the main game focus. The GM assumes the role of  “Bob”, so as to be able to pass on
important information to the main PC.
Ok, I'll go ahead and list everyone that could be a PC, instead of just a background PC.
Harry(Duh!), Murphy, Micheal, Billyand Geogia(?), and Thomas.
People like Kincadand McCoyare important enough to be a Character, but not in the main stream.
Would be like a good RP Player showing up for a Game once a month, or so.

Problem: With the exception of Murphy, who is the most re-occurring non-center Character
in the Dresden series (and even she is not in every story), what do you have the other players do while waiting for their Character to be introduced into the game?
A lot of the Characters around Harry are background people that enhance the believability of the story, like a lot of the SI Cops.
Book 1 (Storm Front) – only Harry and Murphy are really seen. Everyone else is background.
Book 2 (Fool Moon) – meet the Werewolves!
Book 3 (Grave Peril) – Super Important Vampire Party and Holy Knight, Batman!!
Book 4 (Summer Knight)  – Not until the end of the story does anyone really get to be involved.
Book 5 (Death Masks) - Dual with a Vampire Warlord and still have to stop powerful baddies.
Book 6 Blood Rites - Find unknown Kin.
Book 7 (Dead Beat) – Necromancer Invasion!!!
Book 8 (Proven Guilty) – Apprentice?
Book 9 (White Night) – Sneaky Assassins and a Grand Challenge!
Book 10 (Small Favor) – Murphy gets a Job Offer...

Now, I'll take Thomas, since he's a prime example of what I'm talking about here
– he is not introduced into the story until Book 6
– what the heck is his Player going to do for at least that many Gaming Sessions?

But, onward!

I have always preferred Home Games to Convention Games. Don't get me wrong, You can have a great amount of fun at a Con, but it's like saying that you have fun at  World Of Fun. Something that you do once in a great while. Home Games have longer lasting impact on those involved. Cons show how the World is affect by what everyone did.