Considering Dresden himself is a geek, with all the comic and sci fi/fantasy references he makes, I was thinking about that in the back of my brain while making NPCs for my upcoming game.

My players are making their characters today - we did city creation last time we got together (every other Saturday). Not knowing exactly what they are making (at first, EVERYONE wanted to make a Wizard or Sorcerer; I explained to them I'm fine with that as long as they were, but not everyone was, so they went home to think about it and see if they really want to play a full group of wizards; one has decided he might want to play a warrior of god type instead, as Michael Carpenter was his favorite character in the novels, hehe)

Anyway, while I doubt we will be playing today due to character creation, who knows? So I started thinking of an emergency game where I can't take character aspects into account.  I started thinking of a renegade warlock.

Then, I thought of Molly's beginnings. And I thought of Harry's geekness.

And then a 15 year old kid who reads WAY too many comics suddenly discovers he's a Terramancer... a master of earth. But, as a kid who reads comics, it manifests as magnetism (you know, earth's magnetic field, magnets, blah blah blah), and he thinks he may be the earth's first real mutant.

And thus, he decides to name himself after his favorite comic villain.

Ernest Langely
Focused Practitioner - Earth
(Since I envision him as just a kid growing into his own, and is actually in his Rising Conflict Phase which may determine whether or not he turns into a good guy, a bad guy, a dead guy, or what have you, I'm not giving him a full set of aspects, skills, etc; set as a Feet in the Water PC-style character, because, who knows....)
High Concept: Deluded Teenage Terramancer
Trouble: "I am Magneto, Master of Magnetism!"
Background: "I'll show those bullies!"
Rising Conflict: (Currently in his rising conflict; giving him a temporary aspect, but will allow it to change based on how the PCs resolve the situation): ""With Great Power Comes Great Kick-Assness!!!""

Skills:
Good(+3): Conviction, Discipline
Fair (+2): Alertness, Lore, Scholarship
Average (+1): Craftsmanship, Driving, Empathy

Powers: Channeling (Earth) , Ritual (Earth)
Rote: Metal Storm - used with his Helm of Magneto! - +2 shift zone-wide block, a storm of metal he rises from all around him, keeping people from being able to do much other than seek cover

Focus Item: A bit of a story item here, as he doesn't realize he's using magic, and really doesn't realize he's performing ritual magic. As such, he has one focus item (and one enchanted item) that he created basically by accident by his passion for recreating himself into his vision of magneto:
The Helm of Magneto! - +1 conviction for power, +1 control, earth magic offensive evocation (although for magnetics due to the kid's psychological focus)

Enchanted Item: Chainmail of Magneto! - Armor: 1

Beginning Refresh: 6; total after powers - 2

Appearance and Mannerisms: Ernest is awkward, lanky, and his voice is cracking. He wears glasses, has a small acne problem, and typically wears geeky clothes (such as ), although he shows promise for filling into a larger adult, currently he's the kind of kid that no one, sadly, takes seriously - until he reveals and unleashes his full power.

Ernest Langely is a lonely, bitter, angry teenager, constantly teased mercilessly at school, and with a single mother working 2 jobs, he barely sees her, and while he wouldn't admit it, is desperate for a friend. When his power suddenly starts to manifest, he imagines it is his comic books essentially coming to life, and, angry at his bullies, starts to plan his revenge.

But like many troubled teens, he isn't lost. In fact, he hasn't broken any of the laws - yet. He starts harassing his bullies, first in secret, hurling small pieces of metal to bruise, screwing up their cell phones and cars, etc, but as he has finished constructing his Magneto armor and helm, as he works up his courage and his rage, he's starting to step up the consequences of his revenge. If not stopped, he may become a full Warlock and need to be put down. Or, otherwise, perhaps saved and redirected into a more productive life?

So... Can vampires feed on supernatural creatures, or mortals only?

For example, can a BCV feed off the blood of a RCV? Can a WCV feed off of a Nixie that mistakingly used her incite emotion to attract him, not knowing what he was?

This isn't just a philosophical question, actually. I have a WCV character being played in my game, and a pack of Nixies, not knowing what this particular PC is, but wanting to separate them, is planning on using glamour to disguise themselves as college girls, get them separated, and use her incite emotion to try and lure the WCV vampire to a watery death.

Problem is, of course, their incite emotion is based off of allure, beguiling, attraction, etc. I'm not sure how to adjudicate what would happen at that point.

However, it also makes a good philosophical question for the pack at large. Then again, maybe each vampire type has a different answer depending on the prey as well....

So, I'm starting up an online game of the DFRPG, and we are setting it in San Antonio. While working on it, I noted that there is a heavy catholic influence in the area, and someone said, in jest, "Hey, maybe one of the city's threats could be that the White Court actually is in charge of the Catholics, and that's why we've had so many priest / sexually abused boys scandals!"

Well, it was intended as a joke, but it became a serious, and creepy, discussion, that lead to one of the Threats we defined for the city. The White Court has essentially corrupted / infiltrated / taken over the catholic church influences here in San Antonio. Specifically, specifically house Raith, and a hidden sex community behind the doors of the catholic church.

The group got more creeped out as we discussed it. And they loved it too, heh!

We also speculate that the other households might have some input here too, but, nah, the creepiness of house raith in the shadows, pulling the strings of the catholic church locally, is too much fun. Then I went and started extrapolatig WHY they would be doing this, you know, since the WCVs so much like to be the puppetmasters, with their long term goals hidden behind smoke and mirrors, so what might they really be trying to accomplish....

Oh, the fun I had with that! The group came up with the "What" answer. I am keeping to myself the "why" answer, BWAHAHAA!!! 

I love the DFRPG, but I find myself dissatisfied with a few aspects of the game.

So, with this in mind, I stumbled upon and subsequently purchased a copy of Strands of Fate, a universal FATE game system.

Ironically, the writer of the game had the exact same issues with the DFRPG that I had.

So, I'm mining SoF for ideas to import into my DFRPG campaign.

One that I really like is persistent aspects. The idea is that some aspects should effect someone at all times and thus should never cost anything to invoke.

Now, SoF uses slightly different compel rules: normally, you can turn down compels without paying a fate point unless the gm declares the compel is a cutthroat compel.

A persistent aspect never costs a fate point to invoke but is also always a cutthroat compel.

So, everyone fighting in the middle of a blizzard might have have the persistent aspect snow-blinded on them, written thus: snow-blinded(p).

Anyone else found any other good rules from other FATE games to mine?

Ok, I grok the game overall, though I've gritched over a few things. But now I'm not sure about a few things, specifically in regards to Thaumaturgy.

1. How would "buffs" work? This all came up while considering Dresden's escape potion. I don't understand how that potion was built mechanically, but also, how would one build, say, a superspeed or superstrength potion? My first thought was that the strength of an enchanted item or potion hat does this would be equal to he equivalent Athletics or Might you wanted, but I didn't see any guidelines for "puffing" someone.

Heck, the transportation and worldwalking portion didn't really help much in determining the potion/item strength at all - it read like theory without practice.

2. Wards. I didn't see a rule on anything limiting their strength. It seemed like if I have a discipline of 5, I could put 1 point of power in it over and over without ever failing a roll. Obviously there has to be some kind of realistic limit, otherwise "I'm going have Sade strength of, oh, 50 on this. Good luck breaking in."   

I had a third question, but it slipped my mind. It'll come to me. 

So, examining the rules and looking at the examples, enchanted items don't seem to fit what we see in the source material - at least, Harry's trench coat.

His coat took shot after shot after shot, knife blows, all kinds.of things. The narration most definitely seemed to indicate that his coat lasts for months, and certainly seemed to get a lot of use.

And yet its limited.to a.few used per session?

I hadn't checked yet, but I wonder if the wards, which an last for months if not triggered, have the same problem. For that matter, the novels talks about taking down wards and restoring them, amulets to bypass them, etc, but haven't seen the rules for it. But, I admit to being new.to the game and still reading the rule book.

So, rules issues, or did I miss something?