I was talking with a friend about True Believers, and we started to joke about a True Believer in the force. I have lately heard a lot about the church of the jedi. In britain, it is already quite popular, at least in some polls (though still in the 0.something percent). Regardless, the jedi codex is a pretty good code of honor, and even though they might not believe in god, someone who really follows the code would probably be worthy of the white gods aid.

Jedi are the guardians of peace in the galaxy.
Jedi use their powers to defend and protect, never to attack others.
Jedi respect all life, in any form.
Jedi serve others, rather than rule over them, for the good of the galaxy.
Jedi seek to improve themselves through knowledge and training.

So I wondered, how hard would it be to create a believable jedi knight to live in the dresden world. If you look at „Guide my hand“, for example, it seems to be doing exactly what Luke did, when he shot down the death star. When he shut down the targeting system (guns or driving), he trusted the force to help him make the shot (conviction replacement). Perfect. Magic and faith powers can cover the rest, and the force becomes just another way the white god (or whoever is behind even him) manifests as a force for good.

I went with some repainted True Believer powers, that fit quite well, and I created two powers to accommodate for the (I think) most common uses of the force. I briefly debated going with channeling (the force), but I thought it be better this way. The uses are fairly limited, I think, and if the jedi abuses them, he can be put down pretty quickly by a compel. I also thought about sponsored magic (the force), but I think that would be a bit pricey for what little you might actually be able to do.
And of course, we can't forget the light saber. Nothing too fancy, I think, though it is still a freaking light saber.

I'd appreciate your feedback on this.

Jedi Powers:

Let the Force Guide you [-1] (Guide my Hand)
To Defend and Protect [-1] (Bless this House)
Telekinesis [-1]: You may use your conviction instead of your might skill to lift and move objects up to one zone away.
These aren't the droids you're looking for [-1]: You may use your discipline instead of deceit to convince someone of a lie, as long as the lie is not harmful to them, and you are in the same zone as they are.

Light Saber [-2]
It is what it is: And that is a very detailed replica of a light saber, including fake tech inside. Carried around by quite a few star wars fans, there are extremely few who can actually get use out of their prop. Only in a time of great bravery,  the force awakens in the jedi knight. After this, as long as he acts according to the jedi codex, he will be able to activate the light saber at his will, so it becomes a weapon:3, as if it were a real two-handed sword.
True Aim [-1]: When swung in keeping with its purpose, a Sword of the Cross grants a +1 to the wielder’s Weapons skill.
Deflect [-1]: A jedi knight is able to deflect ranged attacks with his sword, using weapons instead of athletics to defend against them.
Blade of light [-1]: The light saber acts as an artifact of faith, satisfying the catch of any creature vulnurable to it. Furthermore, the seering blade also counts as a source of fire for the same purposes.
One time Discount [+1]: When not in use, it is a well crafted but short and inconspicuous piece of a costume, easy to hide, even in plain sight.

I've finally run a real game of DFRPG last week. It was the group I usually play Shadowrun with. On a whole, the group was pretty happy with it, the rules were well accepted. We had a werewolf, a supernatural style hunter, and an aeromancer going up against a cult of demon summoners in an old bunker in Berlin.

However, whoever played shadowrun before knows of the "astral sight", wizards usually have in the setting. It is basically the Dresden Sight, without the drawbacks. And here lies the problem: the aeromancer used his sight exactly like it. Since he had discipline at +5, he never got any problems defending against or closing the Sight. He used it as a tool on pretty much every crime scene they investigated, but I didn't think anything higher than a +5 strength would be warranted. Now he used his Sight frequently, without any downside, which kind of defeats the whole "What has been seen can't be unseen" thing of the Sight.

Any idea how I can drive that home? I don't really like to just arbitrarily crank up the strength of anything he sees, but at the same time, looking at everything with your sight should have a drawback. Have you had similar problems? How have you solved them?

Hi, I just saw the button for the "suspicious visitors" function, but on preview, it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Which might be, because I am neither suspicious nor a visitor. But I'm curious, what does it do?

So I'm still having a bit trouble with character aspects. Using them is not so much a problem, but coming up with ones that not only describe the character but his place in the world is a bit of a challenge.

Now my question is, what kind of Aspects should a character have? At the moment we have "High Concept", "Trouble", "Background", "Rising heat", "Story" and two "guest stories", which are ok descriptions, but it could be better. What I am looking for is sort of a list of things aspects should cover, like a "social aspect", etc., and maybe what kind of information it should convey about the character.

It can probably even be a list of more or less than 7 things, since you can sometimes put 2 things into one aspect or have 2 aspects cover 1 thing from different angles. I just would like to gather up a little guideline to make it easier to come up with appropriate aspects.

I really like the new red look of the Forum, but one thing that I really dislike are those orange "new" buttons. I decreed "No more!", and made a new one, better fitting with the rest of the color scheme, I hope.

Enjoy:


directlink:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/11/newnewy.gif

A few questions put together in one thread for your convenience

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First of, I have been playing Shadowrun a lot, and despite a lot of things that are flawed with that system, there is one thing I really liked: the concept of totem spirits. Wizard types are mostly classified in 2 traditions: hermetic and shaman. Shamans (in the latest version it is every wizard, but I don't like that change) have a totem spirit, a guide that defines their understanding and use of magic. The totem spirit grants a bonus to one kind of magic while putting a penalty on another. The character of the totem is always similar to the shamans own character and the shamans own behaviour is reinforced by the totems character.

examples:
- Coyote is the Great Trickster, unpredictably bold one moment, cowardly the next. He can be a friend or a dark joker who leads you into danger. A Coyote shaman is too independent to be bound by anything except his word. Like Grandfather Coyote in the legends, his is intensely curious. He is often greedy and fond of taking risks just for fun.
- Owl is a wise and silent observer. She does not speak unless she has something important to say. Owl lives by night and shuns the sunlight, in which she is practically helpless. What she hunts for, she finds. Owl is helpful to her friends and fearsome to her enemies.
- Because Mouse is so much smaller than many other animals, and because so many other creatures hunt her, the Mouse shaman usually has a well-developed sense of danger. Mouse scrutinizes everything, and has a marvelous ability to categorize and organize. Mouse is not as skittish as Rabbit, or as selfish as Rat.

How would you put something like this into the game? I personally would put it somewhere between an aspect and sponsored magic. An aspect would probably be to weak, sponsored magic would be too much for what I have in mind. A supernatural stunt combined with an aspect would probably be the best way to go, the stunt representing the bonus/penalty of the totem, the aspect representing the character of the totem that can be invoked or compelled according to the totems character.

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Next, I am not sure if something like this has been brought up yet, so I am going to put it in the same thread. I am talking about non-animal-beast-changed. More specific, things like changing into pure flame/air/etc. with beast change. How would the powers of such a best-form look like? Would you be ok with things like this? They are not exactly canon, but only because we haven't seen things like this doesn't mean they don't exist. They would probably cost a lot of refresh in any case.

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The last one might be a bit silly. Do you think about what gestures they do when your wizards cast their evocations? And more importantly: do you do them?
Casting a fireball is pretty straight forward, usually: aim and shoot. I find myself most often doing the fireball throwing gesture in this case.
Other times, like an earthshock spell, I thrust both hands at the ground, palms open. Letting a tree grow to grab someone? Ever see the Merlin movies with Sam Neil? Something like that.

What are your casting gestures for what spell, and do you do them at the table, when you play?

When doing something, you can do a supplemental action, which increases the difficulty of the roll. Usually those are simple actions, like running to another zone or something like that.

But could you do a supplemental magic action?

Replacing a simple action with magic is mostly done by thaumaturgy, but sponsored magic allows you to do it at evocations speed, so it would probably work there, if not for evocation.

So how about spells that move you one zone (maybe the same way Harry's potion in SF does) as a supplemental action, instead of running the distance? A communication spell to shout a quiet warning to a friend while fighting off the horde of ghouls. There are a lot of simple things that probably won't require a full spell, because they just replace supplemental actions. Should they be able to be done as a supplemental magical action or should magic always be a full action by itself? Should they cost stress as any other spell does or would they just be a differently flavored supplemental action without additional cost?

Imagine someone exploding into thousands of tiny pieces that dart toward his target, set themselves together again in front of him and then lounge an attack. Would be quite a spectacle. Of course, you would also be able to go through a line of enemies that was supposed to cut you off, because you are not limited in the way you move as a cloud of dust. Maybe require stress taken only, if the supplemental magical action is more than adding flavor and actually creating an advantage.

Last night I got an idea, that kind of stuck with me.

If you want to locate someone, you need something from him, blood, hair, or his true name to do a spell that would do this. If you don't have any of this, there might still be something you possess, that could help you locate him: his cellphone number.

Or as I want to call it: his cellphones "true name". Well, technically the true name of the little card inside, but that is not the point. The point is, that there is a link between a phone number and a phone, that might transcend the technical and might help you get a connection on the magical side.

Sure, most wizards don't know about cellphones, so they would possibly never try this, but it still might be possible.

Too far fetched? Totally ok? What do you think?