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Topics - Tallyrand

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DFRPG / Thaumaturgy Isn't Fun
« on: May 28, 2011, 04:39:23 PM »
As the title would suggest, I have a problem with Thaumaturgy.  In the fiction Thaumaturgy is interesting, it's all about making ritual connections, improvising, and using magic for some truly cunning effects.  At the table, at least the way my group has seen it and I'm pretty sure we're doing it as the book suggests, it's a tedious process of writing a grocery less and then rolling the dice a bunch of times to what is generally an inevitable conclusion.  Some times you can put some time constraints to add some tension but that doesn't change the simple fact that the process is dull and has one player rolling dice while the rest wait until they get to have fun again.

So two questions, one is there something about this process that my group and I are missing?  And two, if we're doing it right has anyone found a solution to this problem (if you find it to be a problem at all)?

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DFRPG / Seeking Character Advice
« on: May 14, 2011, 01:45:53 AM »
All right, here's my character as he stands right now, 11 Refresh 37 Skills, he being inserted into a game (to replace the 'boring' character I made thread about recently) and I'm looking for some aspect and powers/skill advice.

Before man grasped a plow Silvio has tended the great gardens of the Nevernever as a Prince of the Spring Court.  Like much of Spring he kept more aware of the activities of humanity than Winter, Summer or the lost Autumnal Court.  Silvio played the machinations of the courts as well as any maestro and gained a great deal of power before the fall of Spring.  When the King of Spring rested the Thorny Crown on his throne for the last time Silvio petitioned the Summer Lady Titania for entry into her court and was awarded the title Duke of Flowers.
Spring is not patient but Silvio was smart, he found friends in the court and over the centuries cemented his power.  Through all this time the Duke of Flowers had only one goal, re-establishing the Court of Spring, in this effort he sought the advice of Mother Summer and Mother Winter on how this could be accomplished.  Their price paid Mother Winter informed him that only if he could acquire free will could he accomplish his goal.
Silvio knew that Titania was to cynical and too clever to give him free will so he set his sights on Aurora.  He proved time and time again that he could be trusted with tasks and the prices he asked we always exactly as he should be.  He earned Aurora’s respect, her favor, and in time she gave him a task and neglected to specify a limit to the price, simply whatever he needed within the limits of her abilities.
Holding an open debt from the seat of the Summer Lady Silvio knew that now he only had to wait until the time was right, find the way to rebirth the Spring Court and take demand his free will able to rely on his new position to save him.  He didn’t however plan for two things, the first was the death of Aurora and the ascension of Lilly to her seat.  His debt still should, he was careful of that, but he had gained no trust from Lily and her wrath could be fierce if he angered her.  The second was meeting Shelly McMillian, a young chef who instantly stole his heart.  Unable to take his free will from a protected position and unwilling to leave the woman he loved Silvio demanded his free will damn the consequences.
Unable to strip him of his title or his demense Lily stripped Silvio of his favor in the court and appointed him as Ambassador to the Autumn Throne, a seat that has stood empty since before the city of Seattle grew around it.  Silvio now finds himself forced to spend most of his time in the dreary mortal city of Seattle without resources or friends with the exception of Zeb an aging Warden who has called on Silvio in the past and his love Shelley, recently relocated from Butte to operate a food truck in the city.
Silvio Khlores
High Concept: Duke of Flowers, Fallen Prince of Roses
Trouble: From the Seat of Power to Zeb’s Couch is a Hard Fall
Where did you come from?: Champion of All Things Verdant and Vital
What Shaped You?: A Wild Heart Won’t Wait
What Was Your First Adventure?: Shelly McMillian, Mistress of the Food Truck
Who’s Path Did You Cross?: The Myriad Prices of Besting the Summer Queen
Who Else’s Path Did You Cross?:
Powers
Greater Glamours [-4]
Demesne [-1]
Inhuman Recovery [-2]
Inhuman Toughness [-2]
The Catch: Cold Iron [+3]
Item of Power: The First Rose
One Time Discount [+1]
The Arsenal of Spring [-2]
      The First Rose can generate a variety of weapons based on the symbols of Spring (the most common being a thorny sword, leaf blades that may be thrown or wielded in hand to hand or a whip like vine).
Sense Life [-1]
      The wearer of the ring, with a moments concentration, can detect the life force in all mortals, allow him to discern mortal from undead or fae.
Stunts
Fairy Tongue [-1]
Use Rapport for the Deceit and Misdirection trapping when he never actually lies.
Mind Over Body [-1]
Use Discipline for the Physical Endurance trapping

Skills
5: Presence; Rapport
4: Intimidation; Empathy
3: Discipline; Lore; Weapons
2: Conviction; Craftsmanship ; Performance (Poetry, Singing)
1: Alertness; Athletics; Contacts; Might

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DFRPG / Cursed by a Boring Character
« on: May 05, 2011, 09:46:15 AM »
Some friends and I have been running a Dresden game for several months now, we've completed two and a half stories at this point and since we're doing the campaign rotary style I'm currently in the storyteller position.  I've come to a realization however, one that I should have noticed before.  My character, while interesting to me and mechanically sufficient is, I think, boring to the other players.  It isn't that they don't like her as a character, but there's nothing about her that says "Hey, my back story is something you want to play with!"  So I'm looking for some advice to the folks here (and of course if my fellow players wish to chime in I'd love to hear from you too) as to how to remedy this.

Mechanically she's basically a self aware Buffy clone, she's a young actress and martial artist who had the bad luck of being attacked by a White Court Vampire and the good luck of being bad ass enough to fight him off while one of her friends was filming.  4 million YouTube hits later she came up with the clever idea of having her buddy follow her around while she went on patrol to hunt down creatures of the night.  Over the course of the next year she built a moderate amount of fame, although always under the guise that the weird stuff in her videos are actually special effects and that she is just an actress, when she got involved with a rag tag group (the other PCs) who were dealing with a powerful Wizard in the midst of a doomsday plot.  The fight with the wizard culminated in our fallen angel character surrendering himself to his divine nature to gain the power necessary to defeat the wizard, and in doing so planted part of his mortal soul into my character (who's name is Sarah by they way).  This represented a major readjustment for her character, she had been pure mortal but through this connection gained Marked by Power (with intention of her gaining more powers at a later date).  Substance wise that's her story so far, so I already know that one thing she needs is a strong external threat to give her a better story hook (I've come up mostly playing games with few people interested in role playing so have the habit of making my characters stories very internal). 

At the moment these are Sarah's aspects.
High Concept: Angel Faced Action Star
Trouble: Blood on My Hands (this also came from that first adventure, Sarah killed one of the Wizards we were fighting and is having difficulty dealing with the moral and potentially legal implications of that action.
Dad's Old Bomber Jacket
Go Full Buffy
In Media Res

My Useless Brother Jason (this one I intend to change as the PC it refers to has since left the game, likely to something referencing her ever present camera man)
Protector of the Sword of Wrath (will likely become an IoP at some point, but the sword the fallen angel wielded)

Our game is set in Seattle, there are no obvious large scale threats we've established as of yet with the exception of a ghoul community living under the city.  I'm open to any suggestions.

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DFRPG / Combat Speed
« on: March 15, 2011, 10:53:05 PM »
Ok, so one thing that I'm finding difficulty with in games is the lack of variation in combat speed.  It doesn't matter if you're the Flash or a sloth, everyone gets one action per round.  I know that putting extra actions as a flat bonus for the speed powers would unbalance things but I would like to try to find a solution to this.  Currently in my game I've suggested the rule that with a Fate Chip and an appropriate aspect (or power) you can at any time take an action, even out of turn order.  This works for most normal situations, but still doesn't quite fix the problem to my satisfaction.

Does anyone else agree that this is a problem?  Has anyone used house rules in there game to allow for multiple actions per round?

(Note: While this is of course primarily for speed and its effects in the DFRPG I'd love to see how people have used it or seen it used in hacked systems as well, as I think that with this fix Fate would be great for representing Shadowrun or a Super Hero genre game.)

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DFRPG / Hypothetical First Law/Second Law Problem
« on: March 04, 2011, 08:12:17 PM »
Ok, so here's a hypothetical and I'm curious as to what people think.

Say that you have a human that was magically transformed into a dog against their will and is now for all intents and purposes a dog (no human mind remaining).  If a Wizard kills that dog with magic would he gain the Law Breaker power?

Does it matter if the Wizard knows or suspects the dog was once human?

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DFRPG / Starting a Game in Seattle Area
« on: June 08, 2010, 11:04:36 AM »
Ok, so I know there are at least two Seattle area residents on this board who might be looking for a game.  As it happens I'm only doing one game a week right now so would be very willing to pick up a second.  I, like I'm sure most, prefer to play but am willing to run and would suggest that we can rotate the responsibility.  If you're interested PM me or respond here and we figure this out.

Tallyrand aka Derek

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DFRPG / Aspects and Tagging
« on: May 24, 2010, 10:30:18 PM »
Ok, sorry if this should be somewhere else, I'm new to this forum.  Anyway, I was wondering about tagging aspects.  Specifically the first time you discover or declare an aspect (say "Off Balance" as the result of a maneuver).  Now I know that you as the person who applied that aspect may tag it, and in the rules it says you can pass that tag to another player if you wish.  But what's stopping from that other player and in fact everyone else from then Tagging it as they discover it (either through Assessment or through you telling them).

Similarly although it might work differently what if it's like the Loup-Garou's 'Vulnerable to Inherited Silver' aspect.  Say my character does the research and Assess that aspect, can he then tell his friends allowing all of them to then Tag it the next time they meet a Garou?

Thanks

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