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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: finarvyn on February 09, 2008, 02:30:20 AM
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I want to be careful what I post here.
1. Fred wants playtesters to discuss DFRPG and "get the word out".
2. Fred does not want too much information leaked and I'm under a NDA agreement not to spill any real secrets.
Having said those things, here are a few thoughts I have at the moment based on my playtest experince so far. I believe that nothing I reveal will be a secret, and will intentionally remain somewhat vague:
1. Go buy Spirit of the Century. Right now. If you don't buy it, at least download the SRD for SotC. I felt that I had a decent understanding of SotC until I really played it, and now I realize that it really makes more sense in action. The DFRPG will be very similar to SotC, so what are you waiting for?
2. The DFRPG is similar to, but not exactly the same as SotC. Start with SotC right away, however, to make the "learning curve" better later on. Some of the skills/stunts/aspects have changed a bit, but the vocabulary of FATE can be heavy if you don't spend some time absorbing it. That's why you want to start right now. That way, when the DFRPG comes out you'll be ready and the transition will be small.
3. FATE is really the way to play in the Dresdenverse. I know that I've been trying other game systems to simulate DF for a while now, but I can really feel things starting to click here. The FATE system is detailed enough to do what you want, but simple enough to allow you to play without heavy reliance on the rulebook. When I got my players to use skills/stunts/aspects, I would just ask "what do you think it does?" rather than consult the rulebook all the time and the whole thing runs so smoothly. I know in general how the system works, but the players can pick up what they need to know in a hurry and without huge prep on my part.
4. Fred and Rob do an excellent job of constructing a doccument. I know I've said this in other threads, but when I read the DF playtest docs or read SotC I keep saying to myself "Wow. I knew this, but it becomes so much more clear this way!" Every time I read SotC again I find some new nugget of wisdom that I missed the time before.
5. Maybe it's just that my group has done Swords-and-sorcery fantasy so much lately, but my players keep bugging me about running more Dresden sessions. And some of them haven't read the books or watched the TV show!
6. The playtest docs are clearly a ways away from being a final product, but everything I have seen so far seems to point to a really fantastic RPG when this is finished.
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Just a little update:
I've been absorbing the playtest docs for Supernatural Stunts (this terminology should make sense if you've played SotC) and it's awesome so far.
There are rules designed to allow for any type of special character from the series -- wizards, vampires, weres, fae, knights, and so on. I'm still getting the hang of how some of the rules link together, but the ideas are great and the text is well written.
My group is in a character generation phase at the moment. Some of the players have read the books, some not. All are really pumped about what we've seen so far......
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1. Go buy Spirit of the Century. Right now. If you don't buy it, at least download the SRD for SotC. I felt that I had a decent understanding of SotC until I really played it, and now I realize that it really makes more sense in action. The DFRPG will be very similar to SotC, so what are you waiting for?
If you are quick the electronic version (PDF) is discounted by 33% from today until the 5th March
http://www.yourgamesnow.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=66&products_id=1821
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where do you find fudge dice?
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a quick google on "fudge dice" show several places, this one on top.
http://www.rpgshop.com/default.php?cPath=_30_316
Devin
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where do you find fudge dice?
You can also get them from the same place as Spirit of the Century (which I can assure you will also be one of the places selling the Dresden Files RPG when it's out), Indie Press Revolution:
http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/home.php?cat=279
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If you are in the United Kingdom I would recommend Leisure Games (http://www.leisuregames.com/) for both Spirit of the Century and Fudge Dice.
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Agreed. Leisure games is probably the single best source of Evil Hat's stuff outside of the USA.
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Or if you are on a real budget you could make your own paper dice using the handly pdf here:
http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/sprkdice.htm
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thanks I got my dice from the rpg shop
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Yeah, my local game shop ordered them and get them in pretty quickly.
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Yeah, my local game shop ordered them and get them in pretty quickly.
Keep in mind that there are actually TWO different sets of FUDGE dice that are out there (that I know of, there may be more...)
1. The classic set with blue, black, white, cream, and red.
2. The wild set with purple, pink, orange, green, and yellow.
The second set was particularly important when it came to be time to get my teenage daughter interested. She just *had* to have those hot pink FUDGE dice!
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Well I've found some amazing Fudge dice. Unfortunately they are well and truely over-priced. You could buy 20 Fudge dice from Indie Press Revolution for the price of four of theses.
But they are so cool...
Elven Fudge Dice (http://www.q-workshop.com/products.php?lang=EN&sell_type=DETAL¤cy=EUR&category=Special%20Fudge-Elvish)
Runic Fudge Dice (http://www.q-workshop.com/products.php?lang=EN&sell_type=DETAL¤cy=EUR&category=Special%20Fudge-Runic)
And who can resist Transparent Fudge dice with glowing red runes (http://www.q-workshop.com/showitem.php?kid=6fudrunpc&nritems=3&colortlo=&lang=EN&sell_type=DETAL) or the Black and Blood Red Runic Fudge dice (http://www.q-workshop.com/showitem.php?nritems=1&kid=6fudrunczc&colortlo=&lang=EN&sell_type=DETAL).
Unfortunately with a price like that I don't think I could afford to buy many.
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Very pretty! 8)
I guess FUDGE dice are like other dice in my collection -- at first I'm more interested in quantity and I'm willing to settle for cheap dice, but as time passes I think "hmmm, gotta have those cool colors" and start to invest in the nicer dice. Once I get a set of really nice dice, my players will start to shop for nice ones of their own. When my sister and I go to GenCon she'll start shopping for FUDGE dice that fit her "persona".
They may seem pricey now, but I'm sure I'll own a bunch of 'em soon enough!
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Careful with the runic fudge dice. Some of them have less + and - sides changing the curve dramatically.
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Well, that's not a good thing. Why bother to sell +/- dice if they're not really FUDGE compatible? ??? It's like some moron said "they're pretty and we don't know what they're used for, but how 'bout if we make them like this instead. Even more pretty..." :P
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Careful with the runic fudge dice. Some of them have less + and - sides changing the curve dramatically.
Just recieved four of the Q-Workshop Runic Fudge dice, and they have 2 - sides, 2 + sides and 2 blank sides (ie they are normal fudge dice)
Whilst it may be true that some Runic dice are wrong, there appears to be absolutely nothing wrong with these (apart from the rather high price, but I decided they were worth it - I'm just not going to take them to cons etc. where I might loose them)
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I wish I could add more to this other then just my opinion. I really want to see how this turns out. Never heard of the Fudge system before. Problem is the RPG vers around her has become thin at best and the guys I group with are die-hard Exalted (White Wolf) gamers. Only time they bounce to anything outside of a 10d system is if someone decides to run a Rifts game.
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Never heard of the Fudge system before.
How 'bout this: go to this place (http://www.faterpg.com/dl/) and download a copy of FATE for free. FATE isn't FUDGE but it was based on FUDGE and is a step closer to the Dresden Files game.
Do it. How can you beat a free download?
What you'll find is that FUDGE dice are simply marked with "+" or "-" or " " so that if you roll 4 of them (4dF) you'll get a bell-type distrobution from -4 to +4 with most of the numbers centered near the center.
FUDGE and FATE and SOTC and other games that use FUDGE dice are based on the notion that if you can set a difficulty level (given as a number or a word to describe the difficulty) and compare it to a character's ability then you can see how high you need to roll in order to have a success. Ability plus 4dF has to equal or beat the difficulty level. That's pretty much it. The rest is setting and background details.
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How 'bout this: go to this place (http://www.faterpg.com/dl/) and download a copy of FATE for free. FATE isn't FUDGE but it was based on FUDGE and is a step closer to the Dresden Files game.
Thanks for the tip. Downloading as I type this. I'll check it out later.
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As I said, can't beat the price. ;D
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Theres got to be an interesting story here. Bram Stoker did the research trip to Dracula in 1890...
First, this is the just the initial info for my setting. I can't really start fleshing it out until the rule book comes out. One of things about this famous How-To guide is that the White Court commissioned it according to Harry in "Grave Peril" so alot of the history in regards to it can be thought of as dubious. Stoker says, "I was doing research at the time..." Bu&$#*! he was.
..I'm surprised you haven't tied the Great Fire of 1889 into it.
First, I haven't gotten that far in my design yet and...I don't know anything about that part of history. Seems your more savvy in history than me. :o
I presume having 'broken free of the Black Courts control' he is still just as demonic and evil as every other Black Court vampire.
That Vamp, who still doesn't have a name, is just one of those characters who it depends on who you talk to and when.
Some people say the guy is a regular Marcone, a rogue with a heart of gold and a fist full of cash. This is substantiated by his office, which anyone with magical know how can find (with some difficulty like Marcone), which strangely has a continuously updated Evil Overlord's List nailed on the office wall. Most say it's been the office joke for the better part of a decade, but strangely it has annotations in red marker like, "Tried it" "Never works" and "That actually works" scribbled on the ideas.
Some people say he's the devil incarnate and is nothing like his former self, cutting off the head of anyone who starts anything his city without his consent.
Some say he was a sleazy Bastard in life, well on his manipulative way to becoming Merlin. They say when he got turned, except for making him undead, he was exactly the same afterwards.
Some others who say he's like Buffy's Spike on Steroids, a Black Court Vampire who is the nicest, most forgiving man in the world. This substantiated by his policy, "Everyone deserves a second chance" but that can also be attributed to the fact that he is repordely still a practicing Christian/Catholic despite the vampirism.
But, the most popular belief is that he doesn't exist at all. Most people think he's the White Council's Kaiser Soze, a bedtime story meant to keep the Old God under wraps. This can be debunked by any reader who knows what the Blackstaff is. However, there are some who say that this guy actually is the current Blackstaff(But most readers know who that is)...
For gameplay purposes though, I am prepared to run his organization as one of the central antagonists. They are cooking something up and most believe it is a plan to cure his vampirism through magic.
On the "Old God": Several times in the books (Not a spoiler) Harry mentions that Old Gods and religious figures like Zeus, Odin, Shiva and the like actually existed, but are now dormant. They hold a tremendous amount of power, rivaling if not exceeding that of Mothers Summer and Winter. The purpose of the Old God under Spokane is for obvious reasons, and is one of those things left unsaid. My current plan is that it is an Old God linked to the Native American Tribes of this region, but I haven't made any determinations yet as to what it is. For certain though, any practitioner in my games will tell you there is something off in this area, they feel a presence of some kind. This is evidenced in real life by the weird weather we have around here. For the past 3 days he have had slow winds and it has been bright and sunny on this spring break, but as I type this it is snowing outside... By this time tomorrow the snow will be gone at it will be sunny again....
Do you really want a campaign city where no magical creatures (including Wizards) are willing to fight with each other for fear of breaking the Accords? That is going to really hamper the game options.
One: Just because they're not supposed to fight doesn't mean there isn't any fighting. I talk alot about it being Casablanca, but it's also like Berlin during the cold war, there is a lot going on behind closed doors. There is simply no "Official" business conducted within the city, but there is still business. Third Eye drug deals, copies of Warden Silver Swords and cloaks, Vampire street gangs and Faires who like to mess with humans are still common in Magical Spokane, but they are done in a way that the normal person doesn't notice. The Accords and mini-Mafias playing police can only stop so much. Plus, it is a major campaign thread that this system of neutrality is breaking down. Members of the Kingpin's organization aren't patrolling anymore and more overt actions are being taken without fear of punishment.
Also, this will not limit my Players because my players will cause trouble no matter what kind of setting it is. It would not surprise me if in the first adventure they ended up derailing a train and set some huge fey on fire before the first day was out.
Plus, I don't know what my players are going to play yet. It would not surprise me if one or more of my players had an aspect called, "Instrument of God" in the same vein as Michael Carpenter except with fandoms instead.
"That weapon's just a replica prop..."
"But it's signed by the great one.."
"Tolkien?.."
"Shut up!" Is a conversation I would not be surprised to have if I could vamp someone enough. I have one of those gaming groups....
Yes, it is going to be a fun game.