Hey, folks. I've had a few people from the forum email me directly asking for an official word on Lawbreaking. We hate doing official word stuff in general, because we believe in folks getting to own their own version of the setting with each campaign.

So this isn't an official word. Instead, it's what our perspective would be on the topic if we were putting together a campaign of our own.

Before I get into it, I want to note that I don't think it's particularly fruitful for folks to hijack every conversation to bring up the breaking of the Laws (and it seems like that, sometimes, when we peek in). But that's not a one-sided issue. I think anyone posting a topic for discussion that is NOT interested in discussing the Lawbreaking side of the topic should say so in the original post (maybe even in the subject line, so it's always obvious to folks clicking in, e.g., adding [No Law Talk Please] or similar to the subject). It would then be considered rude and bad form to start talking Law in that topic; start another topic and link back to the original if you feel you absolutely must.

Finally, I'm pretty busy! So I'm firing this off, but I probably won't be available for follow-up conversation. That shouldn't stop all of you from discussing amongst yourselves, of course. Just trying to set an expectation here.

So, the basics, in very short form:

It absolutely is a law of the universe that breaking one of the Laws of Magic actually changes you. Us folks who've worked on the RPG find this to be established in the canon, in the books, and as such don't see it as particularly up for debate. If you disagree, great, but shouting this over and over again just isn't constructive.

Intent matters. If you have the intent to kill someone with magic and you do it, you're changed.

Edge cases do come up in the grey areas: self-defense, first mistake, and accidents. The canonical answer on the first two seems to be a yes. Personally, I'd make it a yes to all three, because I don't think the powers that be in this regard are much for finesse, and trend towards a draconian posture. So, game-canon (if not book-canon) is that it still counts. That said, my personal draconian posture on this is founded in confidence that me and my crew can have *fun* when an accidental Lawbreaking occurs. If it's not fun for your table, there's certainly wiggle-room for the universe (i.e., the game mechanics) to give you a pass. In other words, if pushing hard for the stunt to show up in the case of an accident ruins the fun, makes the GM come off as a jerk -- then don't push hard. But me? I'm all go hard or go home. In my games, you'd get the stunt. Chad, on the other hand, is personally uncomfortable with the idea that the edge cases, seeing them being low on or absent of intent. In his games, the universe would let you off the hook this time.

But even when the universe gives you a pass (i.e., you don't pick up a Lawbreaker stunt), the White Council manages to be even less forgiving. Remember that the Doom of Damocles is a rare mercy, rarely exercised, and requiring a mutually-imperiled sponsor; beheading is the prevailing preference.

Harry is an unreliable narrator. We can only model the universe based on his imperfect understanding of the universe, but he could be wrong. Which is at the root of why we say...

It's your table. Figure it out on your own so you're all happy. Talk honestly, openly, and clearly. Mind the fun. That's what matters. But remember:

This forum isn't about just one table. That means what works at your table might not work at someone else's. That doesn't make your table wrong, and it also doesn't make their table wrong. So quit acting like either is the case. This is a big tent. Make some room for each other, and focus on the areas where you agree.

Hey, folks --

We could use some volunteer rules-nitpickers to look over our next free one-shot adventure before it goes public.

Here's the catch, though: you can't volunteer yourself. So I'm looking for folks who reply to this thread to nominate (and second/third/etc) other forum members that they recognize as having a deep understanding of the rules and a good eye for detail. I'd like to pick about half a dozen folks from the nominees when it's all said and done to take an early look at the adventure & send us feedback & corrections on the stats.

So: who's your favorite "nitpicker" from around these parts?

Evil Hat released a FREE downloadable one-shot adventure for the Dresden Files RPG yesterday: http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/2011/01/17/casefile-neutral-grounds/

Hey guys,

I was shown this site just today and despite the generally 4E oriented bent, I think a lot of the tokens seen there could work very well as fate point markers for your game. Flames! Atomic energy! Skulls! Check 'em out.

http://www.litkoaero.com/categories/Tokens-%26-Markers/

No new threads on this board, please. This is for housing threads which have already been started in another DFRPG board and have been deemed useful for long-term reference. We want those threads to be allowed to continue to live, however, so we're not locking down posting on this board. Just don't start topics here.

This board is going to have a slow (but still present) topic expiration rate -- due in part to its tendency to produce extra-long topic threads. Any topic that's older than one month will get locked, forcing it into inactivity (to get deleted about 90 days later). You can start a new continuation topic when this happens.

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The bar is for general, unfocused conversation that is NOT on topic for one of the other sections of the board.

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No spoilers for anything here, please! Folks should not have to feel like they need to avoid threads here in order to preserve their enjoyment of what entertains them.

RAPID EXPIRATION

Persistent wandering topics have been breeding grounds for bad feelings in the past. With this in mind, The Bar is a rapid expiration area. Any topic which is one week old will get locked automatically (feel free to start a new one as a continuation when that happens). Any topic which hasn't been posted in for one week will be deleted. This means that even an active topic thread will get deleted in two weeks -- at the end of the first week, it will get locked; at the end of the second week, it will have had no activity for a week, so it'll get deleted.

Our hope is that this will help keep things positive, persistent enough that people in different time zones can all be part of a "conversation", but ephemeral enough that the topic of conversation is always just what's happening at the bar "right now" (i.e., this week).

If you want to have longer persistent conversations, then coming up with topics that are on topic for the other community boards is the way to do it.

BARTENDERS

We're going to be starting a "Bartender" program on this board specifically. What this means is that we'll be giving this specific board a lot of moderators, drawn from the community population.

This has two primary purposes.

For one, it keeps this "undirected" area under greater supervision. We want this, because as a moderator/governance body we need to be more responsive to conversations that are going pear-shaped. Having some front-line moderators means they'll be able to see and respond to problems faster than the Senior Council (the forum-wide moderators -- currently myself, Priscellie, Mickey Finn, and Ashton) can by themselves.

For two, frankly, it's a proving ground, a chance for auditioning folks who we could bring over to moderate other boards -- both in the McAnally's area, and in the other parts of the forum.

This does mean you should consider all of our bartenders to have a big "HOW AM I DRIVING? CALL 1-800-SNR-CNCL" sticker on them. If you have concerns about a specific moderation action they've taken, please contact us directly (using email, not "report to moderator", since clicking the report button will, I believe, email the person you have concerns about too).  Make sure to provide a link directly to the post that triggered your concern -- the Sr. Council won't have a lot of time to go hunting to try to find whatever the heck it is you're talking about.

All board moderators will also be given the ability to moderate our chat system. No obligation to do so, but it means we'll have extra front-line eyeballs there as well when one of them is hanging out in the chat.

If you have someone in mind who you think might work as a bartender, let us know by emailing the feedback address: feedback@jim-butcher.com (please don't use PMs for this). Let us know the person's forum name and, importantly, why you think they'd be a good idea.  That said, please don't do this until after June 7th -- we'll want to establish some of our early picks first. No point in nominating someone if they're already on the job. It is unlikely we will extend bartending duties to every nominee, even the ones we like, but we definitely want to hear your ideas here.