A question for the GMs in the audience: How thoroughly do you plan out your games? Do you have set-pieces in mind when you start a scenario, signposts, if you will, for big events? Or do you just lay out the state-of-the-world and count on the players to make it interesting? Or some combination of both?

Me, I tend to have some kind of framework in mind for a given scenario--the badguy, his/her goals, what they're going to do to try and accomplish them, what NPCs are going to be involved, some cool set-piece parts I expect to happen, and a final confrontation. I try my best to tailor the scenarios so I can anticipate what the characters will do (and, occasionally, nudge them in a given direction with a fate point), though if they come up with something I wasn't expecting, I also do my best to roll with it.

What are some of your thought processes when you plot out a game?

So I was looking over the feeding dependency write up in the books, and have a question I'd like clarified.

It says that if you make the discipline roll, you get to wipe the hunger track clean, then it says if you fail the roll, you take stress to the track equal to the difference in roll.

Maybe I'm just being dense here, but on the first bit, does that include stress that's already on the track? For example, if a vampire fails a roll in one scene and takes 2 hunger stress, then makes the roll in the next, does it just not take the stress for that scene, or is the track totally wiped clean of the pre-existing stress?

One NPC I'm planning to use in a couple of my games is a minor-talent reporter who has a supernatural sense for detecting bullshit. I'm looking for ideas for how to actually work it. A rolling bonus to Investigation, or some other lie-detecting skill (Empathy, Alertness maybe?)? Lowered difficulty of attempts to determine falsehood in general? Or just moving the trapping to his highest perception skill?

Any thoughts?

Okay, so I've got a fight coming up in my game where a Warden will be up against a sorceress who I've given an enchanted item with a 6-shift block. The Warden, obviously, has a Warden Sword, which works as a 6-shift counterspell.

So my question is, when the Warden attacks, does the counterspell simply make the sword attack go through the block (meaning it's then a regular attack vs. dodge roll exchange), or does the attack have to be used against the block specifically (meaning even if successful, the sorceress doesn't take the hit, but the block is down)?

Does the Offhand Weapon Training stunt account for strength powers? If I've got a Supernatural Strength using character who takes the stunt to wield two Weapon:3 swords, do you add 2 to the Weapon value (3/2, rounded up), or 4 (7/2, rounded up)?

So, back in Small Favor, when
How might this be modeled in game?

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking that it was a series of maneuvers Harry made on himself with either Conviction or Discipline, which he later tagged to get passed the scene aspect that was limiting magic.

Of course, Harry was also apparently giving himself a headache holding on to the magic, so maybe it was a series of quick evocation maneuvers? Or drawing in the power (and marking off the mental stress) right at the start, and releasing/controlling it later? Like maybe he made four five-shift Spirit evocations just to pull in the power, giving him 20 shifts of magic that he could divvy up and throw out as spells later on?

Thoughts?

So what's the limit on using enchanted items at once? Mostly, I'm thinking of things like, in the books, Harry firing off several (or all) of the charges on his power rings at once. He's explicitly doing it to get more bang out at once, and it definitely has that effect, but how would you model it in game? Could you let someone use extra charges of an enchanted item to enhance the Weapon effect?

How do you keep this from getting ridiculous (the book describes Harry's original ring as a Weapon:4 effect, and later books have him with as many as 12 charges on it--just multiplying it would be flat out broken), while keeping it worthwhile (Harry keeps doing it, and it's shown to have a tangible benefit)?

I know the game and setting already have zombies, but I've always been fond of the slow, shambling George A. Romero style zombies, so I've been thinking of ways to implement them. Story-wise, it'd probably be the result of some botched attempt at real necromancy, or an Item of Power that was misused.

As for gameplay, I was thinking of having them fairly low refresh, and low skills, with Living Dead, maybe Claws and probably Venom if I go with the Claws. No Toughness powers. Use aspects to cover the 'mindlessly wanting to devour the living' bit.

Probably Fists ratings at 3, Endurance at 2, Athletics at 1, and 2 or 3 for Alertness. As for making them tough to keep down, rather than a Toughness power, I was thinking of having it so that, unless the players make a called shot to the head, the zombies will take every level of Consequence short of Extreme (and maybe give them the one Endurance stunt to double up on Mild consequences). Taken Out by burning would also do the trick. I feel like that'd best simulate the whole, 'bits get blown off but they just keep coming' factor.

And come to think of it, giving them a solid Might score so they can grapple is probably a good idea, too.

Any other ideas you guys might have that I'm not thinking of?