Greetings,

i am reading (and playing) the Burning (B. Wheel/Empires and Mouse Guard) games right now and they have something a bit similar to aspects. Beliefs and Instincts (and goals). Especially beliefs are meant to always be about a goal that the GM then complicates.

Can this work with Aspects? Let's say Harry Dresden is called on a case about people turning into flowery constructs.
Jim then takes an aspect of "Determined to find the biomancer". The GM than can than complicate that.

Do you know what i am talking about? Can this work with aspects?

Hello Dresdenphiles

I had this idea for an item of power. It is a modern sports bow but "blessed" by the erlking. I have no idea how to word it...

It should have a few abilities.

Weapon 2, nothing fancy there
A power that allows you to take 1 mental stress to enchant your arrow. In game terms it allows you to manuveur with it in all kinds of ways. Think the trick arrows green arrow or hawkeye use but with magical nature. Pay 1 stress and shoot a newarrow or a flamming arrow that sets something on fire or that turns into a rope that puts a "rope over the chasm" aspect and so on. It could also be used to engulf the arrow in goblinfire to overcome some catches. - Not sure how to price or word this. I was thinking -2 maybe.
A ritual that you can use with this bow. If you have something from your pray (blood, hair, fingernail clipings etc.) you can set up a simple ritual to make this your pray. This would make the bow deal 4 damage against that target as long as you continue the hunt and let you track it in some way. - here to, not sure with the price and the words.

What do you think of this item? 

Hello Gamernation Dresden Files RPG Board,

did any of you use the traditions from Mage The Ascencion/Awakening as an inspiration for your wizard character? I find them to be quite interesting and easy to import into the Dresdenverse. OF course not as a whole group but using the concept and stealing from it is quite possibyl. (okay, you shouldn't try to be a virtual adept...)

Furthermore, your character could be a RPG-Geek and a wizard and make a conscious choice to represent that character from his favourite rpg.

Hello,

in the solo game i'm running the character is going to take on a Black Court hide out.
He has made 6 potions. One is a "I'm drenched in garlic" aspect potion. Two are 3 rounds power 5 blocks against entering the same zone and attacking him (also garlic based). And 3 high powered (i think 7 shifts) holy water attack potions.

He would kill the vampire really easy. Looking at his preperations, should i let him fight 2 vampires? Should it be more of a social conflict maybe since the vampire is clever and knows he can't get close to him? Would that still be dramatic?

Another idea is to let him take out one vampire and then have another waiting in the shadow. The PC has no Alertness, Investigation to speak off so he wouldn't be able to find the hiding vampire. Than they could have a social conflict. Does that sound good or is it unfair?

A totally prepared character is scary...

Howdy,

one of my players decided to change her character to a Lutki Changeling. Lutki are small gnomish fey from our local folklore.
In a previous adventure the death of the baker that gave them bread drove them into a fury and they used their limited magic to make all the bread and pastries in the city disapear.

My player likes the idea of pastry magic to create potion cookies. This would be the Ritual ability (like Cobblers have).
I on the other hand would like it if she could use Craftmanship to determine the strengh of her potions. Should this cost her a point of Refresh (swap skill stunt) or should i give this to her for free ?
Craftmanship seems to be a weaker ability anyway so i think she would get this for free. Paying 3 Refresh should give her a limited form of sponsored magic in my mind.

Your thoughts ?

The Autumn (and to a lesser degree) Spring Court seem to be concepts a lot of DFRPG players find intriguing and interesting, what is your take or idea on them ?

As we know Summer and Winter are related to Life and Death, so for my Dresdenverse it was only logical to make Spring about Chaos and Anarchy and Autumn about Order. Of course we have a lot of order (bount to oaths, allways speak the truth etc.) and chaos in fey society but this courts exemplified this. The autumn court was like a perfect totalitarian state while the "rulers" of spring where only called that because they where the strongest. Both system had their flaws (unorganized/unflexibility) that brought them their doom. We know have aspects of Spring and Autumn in the other two courts.

What do you ?

Hello DFRPG Board

I'm currently GMing a Dresden Files game and i really have some problems.

1. I'm constantly having problems with the investigation part of my games. Having the whole city to go looking for information seems to be to big for my players and they constantly lack ideas for finding clues.
The wizard in the party sometimes figures out ways to use his thaumaturgy to find clues but the ninja-detective-werecat character has problems using her skills to her advantage.
Another problem for me is that i'm bad at helping them figuring it out. How should i give them clues without going "yeah you just need to go to this place over there and you will find everything" - that would be boring.
I have no idea how they will try to find info so it's hard for me to plan that or to even know how they could get that info.
I have run good "hey, that's the problem" sessions and good action ones, it's that legwork and detective thing that troubles me.

2. I'm lazy. I'm constantly underprepared and have to run a lot of stuff on improv. That's okay for me but the game is lacking because of that. Any tips for GMs that don't like to plan that much ?

3. My PCs right now have a job from the Summer Barons of the city to find out why some Summer Elfs attacked a group of anti-mining demonstrants.
At the same time they had to find a group of missing persons. Clues lad them to a museum where they found a sorcerer, enthraling people. After chasing him through the museum and the streats they battled a troll he had called for help. The next day the wizard conjured a water spirit to find him. The spirit warned them that this guy is the Black Miller (a fairy tale figure from our region), a sorcerer in pact with the winter court of the sidhe. (Our city is in summers territory, they try to get in)
The next session will be about them storming his home and finding proof that he tricked the elfs.
He has his home in a puppet theatre (because it's scary)
I want to try something a bit different, the session will start with them, captured and bound to chairs while the miller laughs at them. Then cut to the morning before. Should i do that or is this to railroady because they could try any kind of security measure possible and will still be captured...
Anyway, i don't want them to capture or kill him because i want to use this guy in following sessions and he, as a caster, can be quite deadly to them.
What can i offer my PCs to give them a satisfying ending to this story arc ? He could maybe collapse the house arround them. They will have to get out of their binding and then have to find a way out. (but that isn't enough i think)
Please playground, do you have any idea what i could do ?

4. problem : We only have time to play 2-3 hours every week and i have problems using that time effectively. Sometimes we spend this time and not much happens in the story because they venture of in a "wrong" direction or just RP without much story happening. What can i do to make the most out of the limited gametime ?