For Thaumaturgy, how are folks generally handling Lore Declarations?:

A) True Declarations:
no in-game time is spent on them, no clocks running in any way, just:
"I raced a Werewolf earlier this week and collected some of its sweat, so I make an Endurance roll to gain the Aspect 'Werewolf's Toil.'"

B) Scenes/Maneuvers:
each one advances the game clock depending on how long it should take:
"We have until midnight to gather supplies for this ritual. I'll be at the target site at 5 pm, sneaking in to get a "Sympathetic Link," then on to the forest with a pizza at 7:30 to get some "Pixie Dust," then I'll hit the shore around 8 to harvest some "Nereid Strands," then off to the Nevernever to beg some "Unicorn Hair" from my patron around 9:30, then...."

C) A combination of either/or depending on Plot.

D) Other

There are a few nemesis options in the DFRPG book (well, in any RPG, really): all-in-one master villains; doppelgangers; "reverse" versions of the PCs; variations on those themes.

How many GMs have actually set up a "reverse" NPC for each of their players?
Are these nemeses a fire-versus-ice thematic/literal reversal of special effects, or more of a Superman/Lex Luthor sort of antagonism, where the NPC thrives where the PC is weakest, and vice versa?
Are these NPCs allied (or at least cooperating) like a Legion of Doom, or are they on their own?
Did they all get introduced in the first story, or will they show when their plot comes up?

I have a peculiar set of demonic toughness powers which I think are fairly priced as follows, but I'm open to outside evaluation:

-2   Inhuman Recovery
-4   Supernatural Toughness
+3   The Catch: only works against mortal magic, any fire and any electricity.

Having a Catch that only works against mortal magic has consistently been a +5 discount in the books. Adding fire and electricity to the mix could bring that down by 1 or 2. I've opted for 2.

Also, the original D&D 3.x defenses I'm trying to model are:
Damage Reduction 5/+2
Spell Resistance 20
Electricity and Fire Resistance

I think DR 5/+2 was a small enough amount that the armor to apply would be sufficient.

Unfortunately, a Stacked Catch is only available when a monster has actually purchased Physical Immunity.

I've been noodling (in a few unrelated threads, here and here) about the potential value of allowing players to emulate Thaumaturgy and Evocation when they roll their mundane skills.

DFRPG already allows a character to make up the shifts of an unsuccessful roll by shifting along the Time Chart (each step up adds a shift). For example, picking a specific lock would normally have taken a few seconds, but the player rolled badly, so this time it takes a few minutes instead (during which interruptions can happen, plot advances, villains run away, that sort of thing). You give up time and potential agency, the plot rolls on without you - maybe not a lot, but enough. Sort of like "taking 20" in D&D 3.x. Spellcasters, too, can skip scenes during a prohibitively exhausting Thaumaturgy ritual, giving up narrative contributions in exchange for more sure success on their ritual.

However, spellcasters occasionally trigger Backlash when trying to control their magic, and they have the option to shore up the spell by taking Stress and/or Consequences. Some casters have even built in an automatic "sacrifice" requirement into the Control rolls of their Rote spells, meaning that whenever that spell gets cast, they automatically take an x-point consequence to help power the spell.

What about mundane skills? What if people were able to shore up a bad roll, not only by tagging an Aspect, but by taking a straight Consequence?

Example 1:
A hero is pinned down by a hail of enemy gunfire (enemis made a Block versus Attack, using their Guns skills). Hero wants to shoot the escaping villain, and makes a Guns check. It is two points shy of breaking the Block, and for sake of argument, he has no Fate Points.

How game-breaking would it be if he was allowed to take a 2-point Consequence (Shot in the Arm) narrated as "he braves the gunfire to line up his shot," in order to add 2 shifts to his Guns roll, effectively breaking the Block and allowing a successful Guns hit on the villain?

Example 2:
A spy is dropping down an air vent to sneak up on his enemies. He makes the Athletics check, but misses the Stealth check by 4 shifts. The player, not wanting to be discovered at this time, opts to take a 4-point Consequence "Torn Ankle" to reflect that the spy absorbs and rolls with the fall, but makes no noise other than a quiet snap. He limps painfully but quietly along to the next checkpoint, for the moment, undetected.

Edit: Negative Aspects
I completely omitted the bit about using Negative Aspects to balance out positive Aspects, such as:

A) taking a phantom Consequence on an item you acquired with a barely-failed Resources roll, or
B) the thugs you hired with your pitiful Contacts check DO manage to show up, but they have the Aspect "Squirrelly," "Good Help is Hard to Find," or "Completely Uncommitted to This Client."

This tactic came up in the Summoning thread awhile back: the concept being that you could shortcut your summoning spell by intentionally accepting lower-quality Nevernever creatures with hidden agendas, lowered competence, or simple lack of commitment.

Setting up a DFRPG game is intended to be a very collaborative process between players and GM: the Setting, Threats, and NPCs are created first; then players create characters, with backgrounds linked to each other, the setting, its Threats and its NPCs.

But for a single-shot convention game, it makes more sense to create these things in advance. Or is it?

If you were hypothetically going to sit down for 6-8 hours for such a game:
Would you want the collaboration, or would you prefer to be handed characters and go?
Or some hybrid where you get to choose a few customizable Aspects or other elements?
Would you play ball if a GM had predefined relationships between characters? Or would you insist on hashing those out before play?
How do you feel about starting this single-shot adventure in media res, backfilling relationships and other details as the game progressed?

For reference, my gaming community tended towards wanting a predefined City, Setting, NPCs, and Scenario.

I've been collecting smashed penny souvenirs from my game town (San Francisco) for use as Fate Point tokens. Not every city has them, but most cities with a bit of tourism do.

I just realized one possible game use: sympathetic links. I noticed that when the machine smashes a penny, a bit of the copper gets worn off. The machine has a wire or plate which scrapes away the shavings, presumably to keep the mechanisms clean (one could possibly make up a conspiracy to collect copper for industrial resale).

But for our purposes, there may be enough copper in that machine for a sympathetic link. And if you happen to collect one of these souvenir pennies from a machine near the actual location it depicts, it makes them easy to reference. Until the machine gets serviced, those copper filings will remain.

Which begs another question: can a sympathetic link be used if you did not create it yourself? Say a Wizard found one of these tokens, and it happened to still have a viable link. Perhaps a villain is using these to get around using some teleport ritual, and the players take one of these from a defeated agent of the villain.

Would he be able to incorporate it into a tracking spell and track the target of the link?
Would you, as a GM, allow these links to be remotely researched, using an involved Divination ritual?
Or would you insist each one get tracked down on foot?

Update: have acquired a small hoard of these coins now for my game!
Update 2: the players approved!

If you have an idea for a custom power, but don't know how to begin building it, feel free to post it here. Many folks on the forum like to tinker with the rules, and while we're not always coming up with new powers for our own games, we might be inspired by your idea!

This one came up in a recent game: how to make a bridge to easily get from two points of high elevation without the risk of falling.

Not sure how this should work, but here was how I ruled it as the GM:

Stone Bridge
Type: Earth evocation
Power: varies; usually 6 shifts (4 for the Athletics check, 2 for duration), but could be more depending on the zone border the caster is attempting to cross.
Target: One zone border up to 4.
Duration: Three exchanges.
Effect: This spell summons nearby rocks to build a temporary bridge across a zone border of at most 4 ranks. This substitutes for the Athletics check of anyone crossing the bridge, allowing them to safely pass. At the end of the spell duration, the rocks lose cohesion and fall.