I picked up DFRPG when it first came out and tried to run a brief game without success. I've run a few demos and played in some online games, but that was all years ago, so I've been detached from things for a bit.
I tried playing Pathfinder with a couple of people, but it was too rules heavy and character creation was too much. I'm trying to think of another game to suggest. From what I remember, character creation can have a lot of rules-based options, in addition to the aspects that can require work. The gameplay though, is lighter on the rules thank d20, unless spells are involved. The other side of this though, is that player creativity is required in describing and flavoring various actions. Is this appraisal correct for those of you who have played more?
For those who are familiar with both d20 based games and DFRPG, how would you say they compare in character creation and gameplay rules?

I'm running a few DresdenFiles adventures for an RPG demo day and so I thought I'd try to write an additional one up myself. I'm just throwing out the general scope now. I'll format it a little nicer as I have it done.

The setting will be a small art college at least an hour away from any sizable city. I won't map it out specifically, but let the players make declarations and what not for anything reasonable.
I have 6 demo characters created. I'm leaving three aspects blank and the fair and average skills for the players to write in.

The idea is a girl got the inspiration and talent to get into the art college from a Sidhe of the Winter Court, and in repayment has to bring girls to the Sidhe for him to “drain” their inspiration. The Sidhe in question is one of the original nine muses (haven't decided which yet.) that has lost a great deal of his power through a combination of factors. Primarily, being forgotten and trivialized and being remembered as female instead of male. Since he has lost the ability to actually inspire new work, he is trying to feed off of the inspiration and talent of mortal artists and gift that ability to artists who worship/recognize him.

The players are a group that are all involved with the art college and are all a little “weird.” They have decided its interesting to solve problems on their free time, and occasionally those problems have a supernatural bent.

Act I
The group is hanging out together on a Saturday night. A distraught boyfriend arrives asking the party to look for his girlfriend. They were supposed to have dinner Friday night and she never appeared and he hasn't heard from her yet today. Sheriff won't do anything yet because it hasn't been long enough, and its a three day weekend for the school anyway. The sheriff figures they are college kids and the relationship isn't that serious anyway, she probably went to visit family or something. This gives the players time to look into things a little over the weekend. Maybe ask a few questions, do some investigation.

Act II
Tuesday morning the girlfriend shows up in class, that she has with the boyfriend and/or a party member. She can't really remember anything from the weekend and she doesn't really have any “inspiration” for class. The party has the week to look into things. Do investigation. Five other girls have been involved and one has dropped out of school. About half-way through the week the sidhe will send his ogre bodyguard to rough-up a few of the PCs and discourage them from their investigation.  A few of the girls also have an ex-boyfriend in common. A not so talented artist who becomes extremely possessive of the girls he dates. Finally, the school doesn't accept many students at semester, it just isn't that large. One of the few transfers is a girl in all of the missing girls' classes.

Act III
In some way the players try to confront the girl and find out about the Sidhe, or go straight for the area the disappearances have been happening and encounter the Sidhe and his “court.” The final brawl will include the sidhe, relatively generic sidhe abilities with inspire emotion, feeding dependency, and drain emotion, and a few low-power fae hangers on. Satyrs and dryads, using goblin and possibly nixie as templates.

I have 4 players in my Dresden files game and need miniatures to represent them and I thought I'd see if anybody had seen anything useful. I don't want to turn the game into a tactical simulation like some games, but visual aids can help a lot.

I have a hydromancer boat mechanic. I need some sort of modern mechanic. I'm not sure about trying to include the magic portion. I was thinking just some sort of guy with a wrench.

I have a guy with wings; kind of like Angel from the X-Men. Doesn't use any weapons.
I was thinking of using this.

I also have a female alchemist shop owner who is fond of her shotgun. I liked this one.

Finally I have a female Buddhist changeling. To me this may be the hardest because I'm not sure how to do more than just a girl. She is slightly based off of Maenads from greek mythology.

My friends and I are starting a DF game and so far we've done two sessions, both character/city creation. (We needed time to think). I'm going to start a thread detailing our experiences and occasionally asking for advice. Hopefully there are those that can gain something useful from descriptions of creation and play, and I can mine more minds for ideas.

First off, we chose St. Louis because we are all from there and it gives a good background for creation. We are expanding St. Louis to include a lot of the Metropolitan area including the wineries and suburbs.

Arcane St. Louis: Gateway tot he Supernatural

Choosing a city was pretty quick. We all know it, we are all from here. Made sense.

Then we went on to talking about Themes and Threats. Our first thought for a theme was the idea that St. Louis is made up of multiple townships and municipalities. There are dozens of different police departments, school districts, fire departments, and city councils throughout the area. We figure supernatural nasties can use this to their advantage, jumping around enough and not drawing too much attention to themselves. I know people who have called 911 and reached the wrong dispatch, just because of where a phone tower is vs actual city/county lines.
For right now we have decided on the aspect: Big City, Little Towns, though that might change a little to be darker.

Second theme was the rivers. We decided that the rivers would be some sort of ley lines, but also act as a giant threshold around the city. The rivers have historically controlled a lot of what made St. Louis important, and we decided that maybe now there are supernaturals using the thresholds of the rivers to hide out. St. Louis would have a higher concentration of supernaturals, but a lot of them just want to lay low, and will try not to do anything that will draw attention to themselves.
Here we settled on Where Two Rivers Meet, but again that may be too generic and/or not dark enough.

Since we already had two themes, we picked a threat for the third. We liked that there are different kinds of werewolves that are functionally so different, so we decided to throw that in St. Louis. St. Louis also has a decent crime rate and lots of areas of the inner city and North St. Louis can be pretty bad and have areas of abandoned buildings. We decided that there is are rival gangs battling in North Country. One gang is lycanthropes and the other is a group of shapechanging werewolves. They have recently really started pushing each other and its threatening to get out of control. This ended up tying into some of our other faces as well as we looked at other things.
As an aspect we talked about Who Let The Dogs Out, representing the werewolves, but also the fact that something else is behind their aggression.


After talking about Themes and Threats we then jumped down to the Balance of Power and Movers and Shakers. Here we just discussed a lot of things that we want to include, and jotted down a few notes.

Supernatural Status Quo
-Skavis in the Police Department
-Summer Court presence in the wineries
-Disinterested local warden that wants to gamble
-And then the werewolves
Mundane Status Quo
-Blues and Jazz presence in the Loop
-Lots of colleges
-Rising unemployment. A lot of big corporations (TWA, McDonald Douglas, Anheiser Busch, auto factories) have "recently" sold out or moved.
-Sports town
-multicultural; Bosnian/Kosovo refugees, areas of French & German settlers, Indian population, African-American population, especially because of the unique position during the civil war, etc
-high crime rate. St. Louis is frequently pretty high on the list of dangerous cities to live in per capita

We decided that the Skavis, Summer Court, and resident Warden are happy with the way things are, as are the corrupt cops and most of the wineries. On the other hand, there are a lot of multicultural activists pushing and pulling things, the werewolf situation is rocking the boat, including relief workers in those areas, and since the Summer Court is strong, the Winter Court has to want to mess that up.

I know werebears have come up a few times, but I'm trying something a little different and would like some help, on aspects, skills, and powers. Thanks

Character: Jorg Player: LankyOgre
Template: Were-Form
High Concept Aspect: Werebear Architect
Trouble Aspect: My Father's Legacy
Aspects: I'm not my Father; Classically Educated; They Do Exist; Protect the Innocent; Keeping the Masquerade

Appearance

ASPECTS
Were-Bear Architect:  (High Concept)
Invoke:
Compel:
My Father's Legacy: (Trouble) Even if I don't want to protect the world, threats still target me.
Invoke:
Compel:

Background
My Leg for My Life: Injured as a child, his leg is still maimed.
Invoke:
Compel:

Rising Conflict
I'm Not My Father: Doesn't want anything to do with his father's save the world" vibe.
Invoke:
Compel:

First Story:
The Story:
Guest Starring:
Aspect:
Invoke:
Compel:

Whose Path Have You Crossed
Guest Starring:
The Story:
Aspect
Invoke:
Compel:

Whose Path Have You Crossed
Guest Starring:
The Story:

Aspect
Invoke:
Compel:

Skills (Human Form)
Superb (+5)  Craftsmanship, Lore
Great (+4)    Alertness, Scholarship
Good (+3)    Presence, Weapons
Fair (+2)      Athletics, Endurance, Rapport
Average (+1) Contacts, Driving, Performance, Resources, Survival

Skills (Bear Form)
Superb (+5)  Fists, Endurance
Great (+4)    Athletics, Alertness
Good (+3)    Survival, Might
Fair (+2)      Craftsmanship, Lore, Scholarship
Average (+1) Conviction, Discipline, Presence, Rapport, Resources

Human Form
Stress         Mild         Moderate      Severe         Extreme
OOO Physical
OO Mental
OOOO Social

Bear Form
Human Form
Stress         Mild         Moderate      Severe         Extreme
OOOOOOOO Physical +1 Extra Mild Consequence
OOO Mental
OOO Social


STUNTS & POWERS
[-1] Beast Change
[-1] Echoes of the Beast
[+1] Human Form
   [-1] Claws
   [-2] Hulking Size
   [-2] Inhuman Speed
   [-2] Inhuman Strength
   [-2] Inhuman Toughness
   [-2] Inhuman Recovery
   [+3] The Catch (Gold)
Total Refresh Adjustment: -9

The idea is borrowing from Snow-white and Rose Red, or the Ungrateful Dwarf, and expanding upon it. Basically an ancestor was cursed by a dwarf when the dwarf stole all of my ancestor's gold. Eventually my ancestor killed the dwarf, and instead of reverting back to human, gained the ability to switch forms. He became a "super-bear" protecting his "kingdom" from supernatural threats against humanity and passing it down to his children. By the time my character gets around, the family holdings amount to a cottage in the woods, and Jorg wants nothing to do with it. He was injured as a child and the injury never fully healed in human form. His bear form is healthy. Jorg just wants to be an architect and builder. The campaign is submerged, but it takes place in the 13th century.

Since I received such great advice before, I thought I'd try again. Here's two characters I've created for campaigns. If I could get some advice on how they are built, that would be great. I may also thread-necro this occasionally if I come up with new ideas.

First a Pure Mortal Submerged Character.

Character: Samuel Lauer Player: LankyOgre
Template: Pure Mortal
High Concept Aspect: Supernatural Hitman
Trouble Aspect: Stranger in a Strange Land
Aspects: I Can Only Depend on Myself, This is My Rifle, Everyone Has a Weak Spot,


Appearance
Samuel stands about 6 foot tall and is built like a football lineman. He wears a short military buzz cut and usually sports fatigues of some sort. A serious man by nature, Samuel has become even more somber over the years and rarely ever smiles.


ASPECTS
Supernatural Hitman - Samuel kills the supernatural. That's his job and he does it well. Many members of the supernatural community have not caught up with modern technology and Samuel ruthlessly exploits that weakness. (High Concept)
Stranger in a Strange Land - While skilled at recognizing and defeating supernatural threats, Samuel himself is purely mortal. Samuel is not a signatory of the Unseelie Accords and does not need to follow them, or worry about any repercussions for starting a war.

Background
Samuel was born in Arkansas and grew up hunting on a ranch. His father was a harsh man and expected a great deal from Samuel. Early in his life he realized that he would have to make his own way, and nobody would give him anything. Eager to leave the one stop-sign town he grew up in, Samuel enlisted in the army at 18.
Aspect: I Can Only Depend on Myself - Samuel has a hard time trusting others, but he knows exactly what he's capable of and pushes himself to his limits.

Rising Conflict
Samuel enlisted in the army as a basic infantryman and spent a tour of duty in Desert Storm. While in Iraq, Samuel's patrol was ambushed by a group of ghouls. Since “ghouls attacked and ate the squad” looks bad on reports, Samuel ended up honorably discharged and instructed never to speak of his encounter. Realizing that there are things that go bump in the night, Samuel began studying what he could and found ways to defeat supernatural creatures.
Aspect: This Is My Rifle – Samuel has a large collection of guns and implements of death and violence, and he knows how to use them.

The Story: A Bullet Across the Water
While frequenting occult bookstores, Samuel fell in with a sorcerer by the name of Harvey Walters who promised him an introduction to the supernatural. Harvey tried to control Samuel, and Samuel discovered that a bullet from over the river kills a sorcerer just like everyone else.
Aspect: Everyone Has A Weak Spot – Samuel knows that everyone has a weak spot, its just a matter of finding it out.

Whose Path Have You Crossed
Within days of joining the Wardens Nicolas is tasked with hunting down a warlock ravaging New York City, by killing what appears to be random kids. When he hunts down the warlock, Nicolas discovers it is but a boy, having been bullied by the victims, the boy killed them without knowing he was even doing it. Nicolas brings the boy before the Senior Council, and when he is found guilty, Nicolas beheads the boy, despite his moral qualms. When Carl Strakhov realized students at his son's school were dieing in mysterious ways, he contacted Samuel Lauer to make sure it didn't affect his son. Samuel discovered the warlock, but before he was able to clean up the situation he encountered Nicolas. Deciding that it would be better to work with the Warden than against him, Samuel assisted Nicolas in resolving the situation. That, and he had to make sure it was done.

Aspect: I'll Work With Anybody

Whose Path Have You Crossed
In the time since graduating, Garrett has become an accomplished fireman and pyromancer.  His success rate in the mundane fire department is astounding, and he’s sort of a big name around town because of it.  He’s also a member of the Paranet, and when another member, a poor soul cursed with Cassandra’s Tears, comes calling he can’t ignore her frenzied pleas for help.  Despite not believing a word of her prophecies, he finds himself in a deadly battle against one of the Fallen looking to claim her as its own.  Though the victory cost him physically, he does not regret it.   A warden named Nicolas Lebeau, is also tracking down the same Fallen, it seems that the creature is targeting quite a few minor talents, and as signatories of the accords tasked with protecting mortals the White Council (and therefore Nicolas) have an interest in ending this Fallen. Together with Garrett, Nicolas works to ensure the Demon won't hurt any more creatures in his (significantly long for a mortal) lifetime. Samuel was hired by Marcus Pikman to find out who his wife was cheating on him with, and "take care of" the situation. (Hey, sometimes you have to take what pays). After a little investigation, Samuel fended up at an old parking garage. His old "friend" Nicolas was in the middle of fighting some creature, with the help of Garrett. Assuming the Fallen was also the one involved in the affair, Samuel opened fire.  (Pikman still thinks his wife was cheating on him.)

Aspect: When in Doubt, Shoot - Samuel has found that surprise can be a great thing, and sometimes just shooting can solve a lot of problems.


SKILLS
Superb (+5)  Guns
Great (+4)    Alertness, Athletics
Good (+3)    Discipline, Endurance, Fists
Fair (+2)      Conviction, Driving, Presence, Weapons
Average (+1) Contacts, Intimidation, Investigation, Lore, Survival

STUNTS
Alertness
On My Toes: Gain +2 to Alertness when using it to determine initiative.
Fists
Lethal Weapons: Your hands are lethal weapons. When using Fists to strike an unarmored opponent, you are considered to have Weapon:2. Against opponents with Armor:1, your Fists attacks are Weapon:1. There is no benefit against more heavily armored opponents.
Guns
Fast Reload: Provided that you have a supply of ammunition, reloads are rarely an issue. You take no penalty when reloading as a supplemental action; if you're in a race to see who reloads first, or anything else having to do with your speed or ability to reload, gain a +1 on the roll.
Quick-Draw Artist: When a gun is easily accessible drawing barely rates an after-thought. No penalty is taken when a gun is drawn as a supplemental action (page YS:213) and any contest having to do with your ability or speed of drawing a firearm receive a +1 on the roll.
Pin Them Down: When Aiming, the aspect you place on the target cannot be removed so long as they do not move out of the zone, and any attempts to leave the zone face an increased border of 1 as long as you continue to make Guns attacks against that target.
Shoot And Move: When using small firearms (handguns, submachine guns, etc), penalties to rolls due to moving are reduced by up to two.
Sniper: With a properly equipped and adjusted rifle, and something to brace it against or a turn to take aim, suffer no penalties to rolls due to range.
Target Rich Environment: Gain a +1 to attacks with Guns whenever personally outnumbered in a firefight.
Total Refresh Adjustment: -8


Stress Tracks
Physical:  OOOO
Mental:  OOO
Social:  OOO


And Second, a Wereraven trickster/protector
David Peterson
High Concept: Wereraven Tribal Protector
Trouble: I Have a Family
Other Aspects:

Skills:
Superb (+5): Deceit
Great (+4): Investigation, Athletics
Good (+3): Burglary, Stealth, Presence
Fair (+2): Driving, Fists, Guns, Alertness
Average (+1): Resources, Survival, Endurance, Intimidation, Rapport

Raven Skills:
Superb (+5): Deceit
Great (+4): Investigation, Athletics
Good (+3): Burglary, Stealth, Alertness
Fair (+2): Endurance, Fists, Survival, Presence
Average (+1): Resources, Guns, Driving, Intimidation, Rapport

Mortal Stunts
Pick-Pocket: Whether it's a simple bump-and-grab or something more complicated, you're adept at getting people to pay attention to other things while you or an accomplice liberates their pockets of their contents. This includes the filching of small items from a desk or someplace similar. Targets of this action usually oppose with Alertness.
Pilot: Your focus is on aircraft, not cars. Gain +1 to your Driving when piloting an aircraft and an additional +1 when steering float planes.

Supernatural Powers
Beast Change [-1]
Echoes of the Beast [-1]
Guide My Hand [-1]
Human Form [+1]
   Diminutive Size [-1]
   Inhuman Speed [-2]
   Wings [-1]

Total: 2 Refresh

Appearance & Mannerisms
David is a young man in his late 20's with long black hair and a full beard. He frequently wears comfortable jeans and t-shirts. David enjoys nature and frequently camps, skis, fishes, and goes sky-diving. He can be stubborn and rebellious, but he always does what he thinks is right.

Background
David was born and raised in central Washington State as the youngest of a large family. His father worked on a potato farm and his mother was a school secretary. While he never noticed a lack of food or clothing, his parents were never rich either. In high school he learned to sky dive and frequently got in trouble with his parents and school authorities. Occasionally he would skip school, or go visit his older siblings across the state. Despite his frequent challenges to authority, David never got arrested and managed to graduate high school. Soon after graduating he married his high school sweet heart.
Aspect: “Not if I Don't Have To.”

Rising Conflict
After high school, David went to a local college and started taking flying lessons. Throughout college he continued to take spontaneous vacations with his wife and would barely pass most courses. He continued sky-diving and loved the rush of free-fall. Once, while camping, David stumbled upon something he couldn't explain happening in a clearing in the woods. In his attempt to flee from the clearing, David found himself flying through the forest as a raven, and eventually landing high up in the hills. While scared and stunned, a spirit appeared to David and explained some things. During this conversation David was introduced to the existence of the supernatural and told of a deal his family had made with Grandfather Raven. Though the tribe no longer existed, David's ancestors had made a deal with Grandfather Raven to help protect humankind against supernatural threats. Unlike some of the other defenders of humanity, Grandfather Raven expected David's ancestors to handle problems intelligently and through trickery, not always with brute force. Therefore his ancestors, and now David, were gifted with the ability to change shape as a raven. Since then, David's ancestors have continued to help and guide him as he encounters the supernatural world.
Aspect: My Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandaddy is my Adviser

First Novel:
Soon after encountering his ancestor, David graduated and received his commercial pilot's license. With his wife, he moved to Seattle, at the urging of his “grandfather.” Around this time he also had a son and found it necessary to find a job. While out looking for a job, he met Trevor Macawley. Trevor owned a float plane tour company on Lake Union that was about to collapse and was being “hunted” by a minor Skavis. David intervened and tricked the Skavi into leaving Trevor alone and has since helped Trevor rebuild his company.
Aspect: I Work for a Living

Guest Star: Coming Soon!

Aspect: Coming Soon!

Guest Star Redux: Coming Soon!

Aspect: Coming Soon!




Though, after constructing a few characters and looking at starting to play, I wonder if a wide and shallow skill selection may be better (taking a lot of good or fair and not pushing for the superb). It seems like there are always more skills than skill points.

I was thinking of this in context of playing, so I figured I'd put it here.

Could a wizard fly a sufficiently old enough airplane ex. WWII P-51.

First off, the examples that Harry has given show mostly electronics failing. Even the Blue Beetle is new enough to have some amount of electronics and computers under the hood. OTOH, McCoy seems to drive an older truck with even less problems than Harry. Harry has referred to flying in an airplane a few times, though he prefers trains and ships. From the descriptions of when/why there are problems it seems all electronic and very little mechanical. So could an older plane fall under the same caveat as an older car?

The two problems I see would be learning to fly in the first place, and modern laws regarding flying. Even if a wizard can fly an older plane, I'd imagine it would be awful difficult to find a way to learn on an older plane, unless the wizard in question was older (so they learned to fly when airplanes were new) or the wizard's mentor knows how to fly. Finally, if a wizard did learn to fly, and could fly an old enough plane, modern laws and regulations require additional radios and instruments that would be susceptible to wizard hexing.

My wife also pointed out that with all the bad stuff that has the ability to fly, would you really want to leave the earth?