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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Remy Sinclair on June 18, 2010, 05:11:32 PM
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Okay I am running a Dresden Game in Albuquerque/Sante Fe area. When myself and my players started to build the city one of my players, a big Anita Blake fan, tossed in ideas bringing in elements from the Obsidian Butterfly. I was not sure of this at first, but she pointed out as she is a huge Dresden fan as well that Itzpapalotl, the Master Vampire of the City in the Anita Blake novel, would be a high ranking Royal in the Blood Court. We all decided to add to our city.
Itzpapalotl is now a high ranking Red Court Royal in our city now obviously she is not 100% like the character in the Anita Blake novel. We made her for the Dresdenverse.
Rereading Obsidian Butterfly as I am in the middle of the book, she has some good points which is helping with our city creation. Now we decided to break Dresdenverse Canon and add in these elements into the game. There are some good NPCs I can use many of whom would work like Lt. Marks and Det. Hernando Ramirez for example.
After already tweaking/breaking Dresdenverse canon, I have started to borrow from other paranormal books as well taking in those elements I think would work in my game. Some of the books I have taken elements (note: not taking everything) from are:
- Rachel Morgan Series by Kim Harrison, her general ideas on Demons, Potion Making, Little Ones, Fey help the game.
- Riley Jenson Series by Keri Arthur, her general ideas of the government using Supernaturals works very well with my ideas.
- Otherworld Series by Kelley Armstrong, her various ideas from werewolf behavior, magic and ideas on focus practioners in her books
- Kitty Norville Series by Carrie Vaughn, various ideas from other supernaturals on human hunters against supernaturals and tactics to some more werewolf behavior.
There are a few others but I find you can adapt alot into the Dresdenverse without much work keeping much of the same concepts of the other authors which works great with Dresdenverse.
So am I the only one doing this? If not what are some of your own outside Dresdenverse sources?
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i've tossed ideas in from a bunch of things. Lets see
Anita blake series- for some of the tougher vampire ideas
H.P. Lovecraft- for the creepy demons and outsiders
The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind- for some cool things wizards can do with enough time, and some enemy ideas like the dream walker
The Seventh Gate Series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman- For some more power monster ideas like the serpent snakes.
The Nightside Series by Simon Green
probably alot more but those are just off the top of my head.
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Ive considered providng some connection to Nightside (and maybe he drood series) but mostly im honestly considering dropping the Vord into the middle of my groups game, in what would be like book 6 or so. somewhere down the line.
"You make your way through the Seattle Underground, you feel a change in the floor beneath you, and thats when you notice the tunnel starts to be coated in this green waxy gelatin like substance."
The first thing at least 3 of my players would say is "I turn around, go home, pack up and leave." lol :P
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I don't think you're the only one here. When I first mentioned tossing the Dresden RPG at my usual tables (it sadly didn't fly), a few random options came up, and I know that if I ever did run it, some of these elements would come in.
First, some former games were mentioned; primarily Old World of Darkness was referenced. Some of the major NPCs (such as Chicago's Prince Lodin) and even some of our old PCs were mentioned to be brought in. A step away from typical literature and into something a bit more flexible, but still an amusing idea.
My flatmate referenced the old soap opera "Port Charles," and used it to add some flavor to his character concept. One of my friends from college mentioned the TV series "Kindred: The Embraced," while another made reference to the BBC show "Being Human." (The latter being a GREAT idea with the whole human choice vs monster nature often seen in Dresden. If you haven't seen it, I would HIGHLY suggest it).
Being the nerd that I am, I thought the idea of John Constantine (the comic, NOT the film version) or Dr. Occult being tossed in would also be rather interesting and somewhat fitting, whether just the characters or a Dresden-acceptable variant of themes.
If anything else comes up with the discussion I'm having with some out of town gamers this weekend, I'll try to remember to come back here and share the thoughts.
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I would recommend the Nightwatch series by Sergei Lukyanenko. It is excellent and can be thought of as the Russian Dresden Files. The factional infighting is very interesting and it contains a wide variety of supernatural types.
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I would recommend the Nightwatch series by Sergei Lukyanenko. It is excellent and can be thought of as the Russian Dresden Files. The factional infighting is very interesting and it contains a wide variety of supernatural types.
Sounds like i need to check out this Nightwatch thing.
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I'm considering bringing in some Sookie Stackhouse elements into mine. Specifically the Were/Shifter relationships with each other.
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Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series is also a great inspiration for werewolves, the possibility of having a vampire friend even in the Dresden Files or another world where they're pretty much evil, and also for the Fae.
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That is the beauty of fate. It is so incredibly adaptable. Pick your favorite fantasy/sci-fi/whatever universe and apply to fate to it and BAM. God I love it. I'm actually thinking about running a Sword of Truth campaign on PbP once I'm familiar enough with the system to feel comfortable GMing. Seriously. I. Love. Fate.
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That is the beauty of fate. It is so incredibly adaptable. Pick your favorite fantasy/sci-fi/whatever universe and apply to fate to it and BAM. God I love it. I'm actually thinking about running a Sword of Truth campaign on PbP once I'm familiar enough with the system to feel comfortable GMing. Seriously. I. Love. Fate.
If you ever get around to that sword of truth campaign count me in ;D
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I'm really, REALLY contemplating the integration of both Buffy and Angel as well as Supernatural and the Dresdenverse into a single World of Darkness-style campaign.
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I'm really, REALLY contemplating the integration of both Buffy and Angel as well as Supernatural and the Dresdenverse into a single World of Darkness-style campaign.
Do - it! Do - it! Do - it! ;D
But seriously, though, I've considered the exact same thing, with Hellboy and Highlander floating around there somewhere, too! Problem is, once you start adding stuff it's hard to stop, until you get this (http://www.amazon.com/Crossovers-Secret-Chronology-World-1/dp/1935558102/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277004936&sr=1-1) as your setting book. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing . . .
I've also been entertaining some ideas for Alternate History Dresden Files settings, specifically in the Anno Dracula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Dracula_series) and Deadlands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlands) universes.
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I was considering running a game based on the concept of the Brimstone TV Show - three-four character who are "paroled" from Hell by the Devil to capture a bunch of escaped Fallen.
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I would recommend the Nightwatch series by Sergei Lukyanenko. It is excellent and can be thought of as the Russian Dresden Files. The factional infighting is very interesting and it contains a wide variety of supernatural types.
Seconded. Great ideas in that one. And, ironically enough, I had a conversation about that this weekend, which gave me some thoughts to mull over whenever I finally get something going. . .
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I would highly recommend looking at West End Games' Bloodshadows line... one of the best "fantasy noir" settings I've ever seen. The game is now out of print, but there are still copies out there, and the pdf is online and pretty cheap.
Flavor text from the game:
Almost a million people in the "City of Gold," according to seers. Most of 'em working to fatten the wallets of five or six guys. They all got sucked in by the runes, the ones that promised a car in every garage and conjurer's brew in every pot. Buildings tickle the sky and there's enough booze flowing to drown an anthor.
But that's all on the outside. Selastos, truth to tell, isn't that much different from a succubus with the plague.
On any given day, you can hear the Elders and the top sentinel making speeches about cleaning up this burg. But the politicians don't really run this town, they never have. The big rich run it, the mining tycoons and the vice kings, and they run it to suit themselves. And when they die, somebody will conjure their faces up at City Hall and declare them "civic heroes."
In the meantime, the suckers scrabble in the dark for a handful of dust and pray the walls don't cave in and the queskworms don't get them. If they make it through the week, there's a bottle and a broad to help them forget what they came here for. And if there's not enough money for the good stuff and a Human whore.... there's always the Taxim Quarter.
Also, I highly recommend one of the most flavorful movies never seen today: "Cast a Deadly Spell"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVdVuJAJias
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Here's an idea taken from a film I love - Equilibrium
Gun Kata. - Gun stunt, -3 refresh
-You may use your guns skill to defend against fist, weapon and gun attacks.
-You take no penalty when reloading as a supplemental action; if you're in a race to see who reloads first, or anything else having to do with your speed or ability to reload, gain a +1 on the roll.
-You may gain a +1 to attacks with Guns whenever personally outnumbered in a gunfight.
It's a mix of Fast Reload, Target rich environment plus the ability to use Guns as a defense skill. The defense skill is a little more powerful than the average stunt as you can defend yourself from guns without cover, but Fast Reload is a slightly weaker stunt and so I think -3 refresh is quite fair.
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I'm personally tempted to bring in more powerful shapeshifters ala WoD, just so the werewolves can exist in the same weight class as wizards.
Also, given that the Nevernever is infinite, it isn't like it's hard to bring anything you want into the setting. As the GM my bigger problem is keeping the supernatural elements in their proper place. One of the things I love about the Dresdenverse is that, at least in the mortal world, humans are the dominant species, not background noise like in the WoD games.
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I'm personally tempted to bring in more powerful shapeshifters ala WoD, just so the werewolves can exist in the same weight class as wizards.
Also, given that the Nevernever is infinite, it isn't like it's hard to bring anything you want into the setting. As the GM my bigger problem is keeping the supernatural elements in their proper place. One of the things I love about the Dresdenverse is that, at least in the mortal world, humans are the dominant species, not background noise like in the WoD games.
You saying this reminds me of the "Under a Harrowed Moon" Dime Novel Adventures for Deadlands classic, which crossed over Werewolf: The Wild West with the Weird West of Deadlands. There was also the Dime Novel "Adios A-Mi-Go!" which crossed Deadlands and Call of Cthlulu.
Both used the idea of transporting through the Spirit World (generic term to cover all cosmologies) to come together. Really great idea, which just adds even more to the infinite concepts of Dresden. . .
Oh, and yes, I've used Deadlands as a reference for a Wild West/Civil War Re-enactor, and Victoriana (among other Steampunk/Victorian-era fantasy games) for an older Wizard/Red Court Infected idea I've been kicking around. . .
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I'm staying as far away as possible from WoD due to some realllllly bad experiences. I'm looking to bring some similar genre aspects in, like Supernatural and such for my Sacramento campaign. Might use some Snookie, since a couple of my players are fans, since in one of her short stories she gives a shout out to Harry.
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Might use some Snookie, since a couple of my players are fans, since in one of her short stories she gives a shout out to Harry.
I think the story in question was Bacon, in the Strange Brew anthology, featuring Dhalia (an incredibly old vampire) and was hilarious.
Poor Sookie wouldn't last ten minutes in the Dresdenverse. "Wait, so you've been breaking the Third Law every waking moment since puberty? Ah. Okay. Put on this... special hat and kneel down, I have a cure for that bothersome telepathy right here..."