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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: R00kie on February 29, 2008, 07:10:15 AM
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Jim has done an incredible job of exploring creature of legend, and appears to have examined almost every creature or monster we've heard of since childhood. The stories cover the Faerie Courts, Vampires, Werewolves, Ogres, Trolls, Holy Knights, Demons, Dragons, Outsiders, Fallen Angels and Wizards. The question is if you want to make the world your own, what is left to explore?
One option discussed in the "Alternate Time Periods for Dresden RPGs" thread is move the campaign to anothere time, but how about simply moving it to another City? How about moving it to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bejing or even Pyongyang. There's a full set of Eastern legends and so far Jim hasn't explored them (much). Why not take them and make them your own for your campaign.
You can use some of the ammunition Jim's given you. Maybe whichever city you've chosen is Ancient Mai's home ground. He's mentioned the Jade Court but we don't know very much about them. You can decide what they are like. As for the NeverNever - presumably this would have a very Oriental feel to it.
Hey presto, you have a Dresden Campaign in a city with a very different feel and a whole new set of legends.
If you don't like that you could try the Middle east. Again you get a whole new set of legends. Maybe now Djinn play a bigger role. There's no shortage of legends from Arabia, Persia, and India. You can fill your campaign with djinni and magic carpets. In this case your source is Islamic legends and of course 'the Thousand and One Nights'.
Or you could look to pretty much any other culture. Maybe South America and Mayan legends, although that might take a little research. Egypt might not be a good choice - you might end up with a campaign that felt like a Dresden / Stagate SG-1 crossover, but almost any Culture you pick will come with a set of creature, legends and myths.
Personally I'm more likely to try a Hong Kong themed version because I've been there, and a I have a huge collection of Jackie Chan and John Woo movies for inspiration. I might steal the ocational Japanese legend and hope my players dont notice, but I'll try to stick to Chinese mythology (and there is more than enough). I'll place Mai far enough away to make sure she's not a majort sticking point, but near enough that she can come when the players mess up (either to clean up their mess, or to act threatening on behalf of the council, depending on what the situation demands). Your mileage may vary. Perhaps you're a fan of the Arabian nights, or like Manga, in which case the Middle East or Japan might suit you better.
The other obvious location is your local town. Unless you live in Chicago you should be able to research what makes your town unique and emphasise this enough to make your setting unique. Unfortuantely for me one of my players is an academic at the local University and a historian. He has a better understanding of the local area than anyone else I know, and has worked virtually every legend about the area into atleast one of his campaigns. I'd feel like I was treading on well covered ground if I tried this technique. I'm going to leave all local stuff to him.
No the question that flows from that is with other cultures as the basis of the stories, should we still be using the Western image of the mage? Magic in other culture comes with its own set of baggage, and it may not be sensible to saddle your campaign with the Western mage image - but If we change that, are we still playing Dresden?
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Some good ideas, and the folks at EVIL HAT are a step ahead of you.
The "default" setting for the DFRPG will be Baltimore, so as to not conflict with Jim's pre-existing characters and storyline.
The playtesters are tinkering with guidelines as to how to "Dresdenify" other cities and at this point there are a dozen or more cities other than Chicago or Baltimore being fleshed out by playtesters.
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Yeah, I found the write ups of Austin, Newark and Winnipeg. I've got to say I am very impressed by all three. I am incredibly curious as to how a non-western city write-up might look, which is why I suggested the above cities.
I initially thought I'd like to set my future Dresden campaign in either Hong Kong or Singapore.
- If I went with Hong Kong I had the clash of the English heritage with the Chinese ownership, and the clash of Democracy and Capitalism with Communism as a backdrop. The city is an incredibly vibrant place. In addition I have the full depth of Chinese mythology to draw on, and lots of Hong Kong cinema.
- If I went with Singapore I had the clash of a predominately Buddist/Taoist state with the surrounding Muslim states envious of their economic success. Singapore is literally surrounded by Muslim counries and faces constant terrorist threats posed by the Jemaah Islamiyah groups. In addition I could build on the conflict between old Malasian and new Singapore culture, and the Malay underclass within Singapore.
Unfortunately its pretty apparent that Singapore just isnt going to work for a Dresden setting. The city is too clean, too organised and too boyant. Singapore is clearly a city still on the rise, and doesnt seem to have the decadence and corruption neccessary for a Dresden campaign.
Its likely that by the time the game comes out my thoughts mght have changed but at the moment Hong Kong looks really good. In fact it looks good enough that I might just ask my group if they fancy a quick brainstorming session. I may not have the Alpha rules, but its pretty clear from the three write ups the sort of things they've been asking the play testers to think about.
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I think some eastern block countries would be cool.
Like Yugoslavia, Poland and the Czech. Republic.
A city that would be cool to see game information for would be St. Petersburg.
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Something my gaming group has done, when it's appropriate or possible, is place the game in our own town, (the Quad Cities, only 3 hours west of Chicago). It's large enough to have some fun settings in it, and we KNOW it. It gives a great, concreteness to descriptions and a great point of reference.
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I think Detroit would be an excellent choice for a Dresden to down a major resurgence of Black Court Vampires.... or Skavis. And before you go there, I'm not suggesting Black Court because of the racial makeup of the city. Detroit is a wasteland full of the strongest and most cunning monsters in the world that mainly come out at night. It's also very oppressed by an all-pervading sense of despair.
Just a simple google search for the latest news on our despicable mayor should turn up all kinds of inspiration for Blacks or Reds in city politics.
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Hmm.. somehow I feel what I hoped would be my main point seems to have got lost. It probably comes down to the way I wrote it, and the lack of emphasis in my original post.
I was trying to point out that the Dresden files is very much based in Western Legends, and that be relocating to a non-western setting you have a very different campaign. As such I was hoping to point out the huge impact of culture on the very nature of the supernatural threat in a Dresden campaign.
In fact basing your campaign on Oriental or Middle Eastern legends would probably have as big an impact on the campaign as setting it in another time period.
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My advice on this situation is to set the game in a City that you know fairly well. The Dresden Files are all about Chicago and the stuff inside it, and you're going to need to be at least somewhat familiar with the place in question or you'll lose that feeling and the Players may end up feeling like they are just in random place A.
For example, I set my Dresden game in Honolulu, HI, because it's my home town and I know the area pretty well. Helps make the players feel like they are actually there.
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When the DFRPG comes out, I know where my game will be played: my hometown of Spokane Washington, of course. In saying that, I'd just like to share my ideas on this whole Dresdenification of cities that everyone and their dogs will do when the DFRPG comes out. I don't think my interpretation of my city is really special, I just thought forum readers might find it amusing and if not then I'll get a few healthy flames telling me what's wrong with it.
When most people Dresdenify their home towns, it seems like they just play off stereotypes. I just want a location that's fun to play in.
That being said, here's my take on the podunk town of Spokane, WA:
Dresdenverse Spokane is like the Magical World's Casablanca (Complete with Werewolf-Nazis)...
In Spokane, Washington, nothing happens. We have had a World's Fair, but that's about it. There is nothing here, yet we're the 2nd largest city in the state with the 2nd worst job market in the country. However, big names still come here from time to time. This seems suspicious to me. In the Dresdenverse, even moreso. I like to think that there's something special about my town.
My lore for the city begins when the White Council's member of the Lewis and Clark expedition discovered the Native American equivalent of an Old God dormant beneath (figuratively) what is now Spokane, Cheney, and parts of Idaho. The Council kept it a secret until the 1880's when a Warden was turned into a Black Court Vampire. The secret now out, everybody wants a piece of that Old God.
The ex-Warden Vampire meanwhile broke free of the Black Court's control and sold the secrets that subsequently became the famous How-to Guide on hunting Black Court. (I'm watching spoilers here) That vamp couldn't go back to the White Council and couldn't bring himself to suicide, so instead he parked his vampiric butt here. He is now a Gentleman Johnny Marcone in a way. He is the silent, silent partner of the Inland Northwest, running his own Mini-Mafia of outcasts.
The ex-Warden (Whom I haven't named yet, I'm terrible with names) also made deals with both Winter and Summer to keep the city a spiritual "No-Fly Zone" and later was the first entire city to sign the Unseelie Accords as Neutral Territory. ALso, the Vamp Kingpin decided that no side in the current magical hostilities claim sanctuary here (Again, I'm watching spoilers) It is literally is a magical Casablanca. This managed to stop Overt action by outside groups, but like Berlin during the Cold War, but Magical Spokane is crawling with Covert operatives from everywhere. The Warden Regional commander doesn't like to come here except for recruiting Wizards, but the commander is hard pressed to find them here because the other groups snatch them up.
Because of the Old God though, everybody wants it. The secret spread to the Third Reich in the 30's. Hitler sent a special SS unit to investigate and find a way to unearth it. After the War ended, the unit stayed in the Inland Northwest and now hopes to revive the God to resurrect Hitler.
Hence the Werewolf Nazis, because you can't have Dresdenverse Casablanca without them...
That's my idea for a Dresdenverse Campaign setting. I'd like to run it.
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The Council kept it a secret until the 1880's when a Warden was turned into a Black Court Vampire. The secret now out, everybody wants a piece of that Old God.
The ex-Warden Vampire meanwhile broke free of the Black Court's control and sold the secrets that subsequently became the famous How-to Guide on hunting Black Court. (I'm watching spoilers here)
Theres got to be an interesting story here. Bram Stoker did the research trip to Dracula in 1890 with his visit to Slains Castle (Scotland) and visits to the crypts under the church St. John the Baptist (in Ireland). He penned the first words later that year. At the time Stoker was acting-manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre in London. So the big question is how secrets sold some time in the 1880s somehow made there way from America to Europe where they ended up in the hands of a Theatre Manager.
I'm surprised you haven't tied the Great Fire of 1889 into it. Fire is always a big theme in the Dresden-verse and it appears to have happened just when your ex-Warden was breaking free of the Black Court. You really could tie the fire in and turn it into something big in the history.
I presume having 'broken free of the Black Courts control' he is still just as demonic and evil as every other Black Court vampire. After all, the Vampire isn't really the ex-Warden - its just a creature that looks a lot like him and has his memories. In this respect I suspect he'll be a lot less likeable than Gentleman Johnny - and he'll be running a lot shorter on redeaming features.
I'm also curious about the 'Old God'. Are we talking about something from beyond the Outer Gates? Something 'Cthulhu-like' straight out of the works of H.P.Lovecraft?
Its going to make an interesting setting.
One big concern though:
later was the first entire city to sign the Unseelie Accords as Neutral Territory.
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. If the PCs do get into a fight they'd better go out of there way to hide all evidence, not just from the mortal authorities, but also from the fey, the vamps, the council and everyone who has a vested interest in screwing them over.
It feels like equal parts Dresden, Lovecraft and Buffy. It could be a lot of fun.
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And of course there was never any violence in Casablanca. :)
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I'm not suggesting there'd be no violence.
I'm just saying the repercusions of that violence would be enough that players are going to have to be very, very careful, or alternatively players are going to get both them and whoever they represent into a lot of trouble.
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Dresden-ish Birmingham, Alabama is being worked on here: http://johnpaul613.livejournal.com/tag/dresen+files
Note: The special ban mentioned only has to do with out in the open fighting. Anything that happens behind closed doors is fair game.
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Just posting this back here since it was obviously supposed to be part of this thread:
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.
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
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....
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.
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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.
Hmmm. I'm sure you are right. I'm going to have to re-read Grave Peril. For some reason I thought the White Council comissioned it, but it has been a while since I read Grave Peril. Anyway I'll get there soon enough - I've just restarted Fool Moon and plan to work all the way through again.
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've never been anywhere near Spokane, but I did a tiny bit of research into the Town of Amber and Amber Lake for an ADRP game I ran a few years ago. It really didnt matter where I picked as long as it was called Amber (And there are lots of Ambers in the world). For some reason I picked the one in Spokane County.
I've just checked though, and the fire is actually mentioned in the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokane%2C_Washington)
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.
Thats one hell of a plot line. On the surface a magical cure for Vampirism looks like a great thing, but if you think about it a little more its an incredible weapon. In the wrong hands this beneign invention could lead to a lot of blood-shed. Your Marcone may claim his motives are pure but are they? As a weapon for ensuring the dominance of the Black Court over the Red and White I can think of few things as potent, yet at the same time the cure sounds so innocent.
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.
Yeah. I remember the mention of old gods from Summer Knight, but I thought the implied location of those old gods was the NeverNever. Of course any location makes as much sense as any other. You could take a leaf from Terry Pratchett's 'Small Gods' and have a gods power tied to belief, which would go along way towards explaining why those gods became dormant (i.e. People just moved on, and found new things to believe in).
Yes, it is going to be a fun game.
Considering the thought you've put into it already I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be a terrific game ;)
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Posted my response in the wrong thread.... Well I feel sheepish... :( :o
I've just checked though, and the fire is actually mentioned in the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokane%2C_Washington)
It is important to note that although I went through public schools in Spokane and had to sit through many lessons on local history....I didn't care about that at the time.... This is the first time I have heard of the 1889 fire. Kinda makes me feels bad.
Anyway, back on topic:
After talking about my setting for a while, I think it's important to talk about more conventional Dresdenified settings.
Although a good number of people will be playing in Dresden Files versions of their hometowns, other will be using more interesting cities. My Dresdenification (Wow, new word) of my hometown is a bit off the beaten path and most people won't do that. Most Gamers want settings that have the potential for a little bit of everything in them. Plus, setting the game somewhere other than your home helps with immersion since playing in your hometown reminds you where you are.
The advantage of running in your hometown is player vs. character knowledge is the same geographically. If I say to my players, "A group of Gremlins drop their veil at the corner of Sprague and Division," my group knows where that is and exactly what it looks like and will laugh hysterically at the revelation. (Sprague and Division has the highest accident rate in the city.)
The advantage of running in another city is that you get to go places you can't go in real life. That is even though part of DF's draw is the fact that it's reality with a twist. Plus, the major cities will already be written up by designers, so your workload as a DM goes down.
I do think, however, that the DFRPG will have its own trends in alternative locales. These trends can't be avoided sometimes, but I'm sure it will greatly depend on the group running. SOme groups will be smart enough to run a game anywhere. SOme groups, will think they know about a place and run a DFRPG there because they have big heads.
For example, I used to run with a group of people who would probably choose to run in Tokyo. Not because they know the geography of Tokyo, are experts in the Japanese lifestyle, or enough Japanese mythology to make a good game, but because they are demented Otaku who think they know those things...
That being said, Dresden Tokyo would be an interesting setting. Why? Not for the history, not for the effects of Nuclear Weapons on the magic world to be explored across the islands, but because of the people. Japan has one of the highest population densities in the world. Tokyo, the largest Japanese cities is crawling with people all the time. Running Dresden Files in a place like that would be interesting because there are people everywhere. Concealment of the magic world be damned. Evocation on a Tokyo Subway.....
But, that may in fact be wrong because I've never been there like so many of us. If I was in a game of Dresden Tokyo, the DM would have to make up a lot (even if they lived there at one time). And let's not forget if it is an Otaku heavy group, you have to brace yourself for gratuitous Highschool dramas, Anime references and Negima! jokes. Granted, I wouldn't even play in a game like that unless they really sold me on it.
There are however, 2 ideas I did have as alternative locations for play locations for DF that could be fun.
1. Globe Trotting. WHy use one city when you could use them all? Would get very hard from week to wekk though.
2. The Nevernever. I think it might be fun if the group was a bunch of people trapped in the Nevernever for some reason and were unable to get out. Screw Lewis Carrol references, this would be a trippy campaign. THe NEvernever can and does look like anything imaginable.
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2. The Nevernever. I think it might be fun if the group was a bunch of people trapped in the Nevernever for some reason and were unable to get out. Screw Lewis Carrol references, this would be a trippy campaign. THe NEvernever can and does look like anything imaginable.
Wouldn't you be worried about the campaign turning into something half way between Yellow Submarine (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063823/) and Naked Lunch (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102511/)? ;)
I don't think as a GM I could run an extended NeverNever campaign without it beginning to feel ordinary - at which point its not really a NeverNever campaign.
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Nothing wrong with running a trippy game. Even though it's not my style of game.
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Well if one had a very imaginative group you MIGHT be able to pull off a good campaign in Nevernever but personally if I were going to try to do that, it would be something found in the frey realms..
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While I don't have the rules for city creation produced for the Dresden Files RPG, I have been eager to run a game in this setting for awhile and have been coming up with my own Dresdenverse Philadelphia.
The city has Poe influence (although not as much as the Evil Hat chosen city of Baltimore), has a tie to Bram Stoker while he was writing Dracula (could be a nice Black Court storyline) which was in the same hotel that the first Legionnaires outbreak occured in (thinking of tieing that to a Black Court massacre and cover-up as well), tons of Colonial American history obviously, has ethnic-culturally centered areas such as Chinatown (to the OP point of bringing in some Eastern traditioned genre supernaturals such as Jade Court and probably a dragon), Italian Market (had already created an NPC Old god named J. Peter Dieti, Jupiter modelled after the Odin character from Neil Gaiman's American Gods), Fairmount Park (which has been called "one of the largest urban parks in the country", making it an ideal Fey ground), all the hustle and bustle of a major city with some old world feel and a surrounding area that is brimming over with history and penache.
That said I have nothing too concrete overall storywise as I want to get my hands on the official RPG stuff for background and work it in before planning, although I will only be using the Dresden Files RPG as a guide and using the d20 system as it is the only system the group I play with will use.
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I had been considering modern day New Orleans as a possible campaign setting for a Dresden Files game. There is a lot of local mysticism, history, et al, left untouched by the books and worth a flesh out… I was just thinking of the fun that could be had with Anne Rice’s old house for example.
I would second the mention of St. Petersburg as a potential setting also. I read the English edition of the Times from there twice a week and it really gives insight into the local area. I could see a lot of fun on city fencing day and a confrontation with the heirs to the Three Musketeers.
The best settings and game locations suggest stories and fun things easily. That’s my measuring stick… I've never actually visited either city.
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I had been considering modern day New Orleans as a possible campaign setting for a Dresden Files game. There is a lot of local mysticism, history, et al, left untouched by the books and worth a flesh out… I was just thinking of the fun that could be had with Anne Rice’s old house for example.
Two interesting considerations about running in N.O. came to mind:
1) Water grounds out Magic + Louisiana Swamp = very interesting place for a Wizard to be.
2) Hurricane Katrina probably redrew the supernatural road map since as mentioned, Water grounds magic. Any ancient magics sealing/veiling/controlling things that go Bump no mean precisely...nothing.
I would second the mention of St. Petersburg as a potential setting also. I read the English edition of the Times from there twice a week and it really gives insight into the local area. I could see a lot of fun on city fencing day and a confrontation with the heirs to the Three Musketeers.
Three Musketeers is French, what the heck do they have to do with Russia? Anyway...
Russia has a long history, which also means lots of magic running around. When I think about Russia in general, let alone St. Petersburg as a setting, I have 2 thoughts:
1. In Russian History there are 3 Kinds of Old.
Recent Old: As in Czar Nicholas II. As in that old staple....Rasputin. But, he may need to be avoided since even Hellboy has gotten a piece of his clichéd mystical ass.
Byzantine Old: The Byzantine (East Roman) Empire reigned for hundreds of years after the fall of western Roman Empire. With that fall can come old gods from Greece and plenty of other nasties looking for a place to live since the Byzantine Empire was also the Silk Road.
Slavic Old: The Rus people predate a lot of other cultures. Their mythology is to the point now that a lot of it has been forgotten. In St.Petersburg, local White Council Wizards would typically be dealing with stuff no one knows anything about.
2. The Iron Curtain's down, but not gone.
Communist Russia probably played hell with the Magical community. Stalin probably gave even Mab the red ass. The KGB experimented with Psychics, but what about Wizards? Now that the Communists are gone, how does that change the community?
That's all I got on that.
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*Chuckles* It’s about fun. I am aware they are French in origin but nothing prevents them from visiting for the event and a little competition any more than being a Norwegian fairy tale prevented the Billy Goats Gruff from kicking Harry’s butt around Chicago.
There might well be magically dead zones in the New Orleans area but it wouldn’t be any more a handicap than Harry’s battle on the small island… Or the spells he cast from Thomas's boat deck underway over the lake. It actually threatens to add some interesting dimensions to things for non wizards too. Been looking over a few maps and asking questions like "is a sand bar enough" and "how might tapping ley lines play into things," and "is proximity to land and water depth a factor."
A lot just depends on what the rules say when they are finished. Being in a swamp land region might not be an issue at all if some of the boat scenes from the books are an indication while being over deep water would...
Thanks for the thoughts. :)
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2) Hurricane Katrina probably redrew the supernatural road map since as mentioned, Water grounds magic. Any ancient magics sealing/veiling/controlling things that go Bump no mean precisely...nothing.
Hurricane Katrina could well have been the results of an imbalance between the Summer and Winter court, and even if it wasn't just think how much magical energy must have been tied up in a storm that size if the little storms in 'Storm Front' are anything to go on.
It might be interesting to set your campaign before the hurricane. The players know its coming, but thats okay - its just foreshadowing, and they get to discover the events behind it.
Of course this might be a difficult topic for a lot of players. Anyone who was affected by the hurricane might find it poor material for a game. For many the wounds might still seem to fresh, so sound your players out carefully first.
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One interesting thing to consider would be those cities which, for various reasons, have a mixed cultural heritage. For example, (and this is an admittedly random example which presents itself only because I am traveling there soon) Qingdao, China. This is a city which has, at various times, "belonged" to China, Germany, and Japan. In certain areas of the city, the architecture is such that the city seems more German than Chinese. In cities like this, you could mix and match the mythologies of the various cultures and even create a "turf wars" kind of scenario. What do you guys think?
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That said I have nothing too concrete overall storywise as I want to get my hands on the official RPG stuff for background and work it in before planning, although I will only be using the Dresden Files RPG as a guide and using the d20 system as it is the only system the group I play with will use.
If you're going to be doing d20 - I highly recommend picking up Monte Cook's World of Darkness (http://www.amazon.com/Monte-Cooks-World-Darkness-Cook/dp/1588464679/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208892822&sr=8-1). He's already done a fantastic job of converting the Mage magic system to d20. He also has some really great spins on Vampires and werewolves that could fit into a Dresden game as a new, previously unknown supernatural baddy. While reading through it I saw that the magic system in particular could easily be dropped into a Dresden campaign, almost unaltered. I'm probably going to end up doing the same thing myself.
More in line with the original topic, My Dresden Game will either be in Central Pennsylvania (Outside of Pittsburgh, Altoona, State College, Johnstown - Imagine what the Johnstown Flood did to the supernatural community.) Or West Palm Beach, Florida. Pennsylvania gives me a ton more options than Florida, I think. I don't know of too many paranormal stories that have come out of Florida, but i only lived there for two years. Pennsylvania has loads and loads of Forest, the Appalachian Mountains, leylines for sure, and all kinds of weird stories. Florida has swamps and sand and hurricanes and lots and lots of buildings. (Imagine what Mr. Sells could have done if he pulled magical power from a hurricane instead of a thunderstorm :P)
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FL could be used for the pirates, fountain of youth myth, native American stories...
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The fountain of youth could be alot of fun to play with. I can see all kinds fun things to do with it eitehr existing and being jealously guarded, or not existing, but people still looking, and having to deal with the supernatuals that are looking as well.
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FL could be used for the pirates, fountain of youth myth, native American stories...
Pennsylvania has Native Americans too, something I'm definitely taking into consideration for any future games and my in-the-works stories.
Pennsylvania would, i think, end up being a lot more fae and nature based. Florida I could see being based a whole lot more around vamps - especially reds and whites. Palm Beach and Miami practically scream White Court HQ, very close behind Los Angeles. THAT would probably be choice #1 for them.
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Running DF games in any part of New England or around the Southeastern U.S. allows for use of material from a recent event (Relative to the Wizarding World), The American Civil War. Sometimes I wish I still lived in Jersey so I could mine that adventure material.
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If you lived there at one point, there's no reason why you couldn't.
Heck, I'm considering putting together settings for Scotland and Cleveland, and I've never been to either. ;)
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Hey all,
It was mentioned earlier in this post but I am already starting to put together some material for Detroit as a setting. In the words of Michael Bay "No city does urban decay like Detroit". Plus there are a fair amount of local urban legends and spooky places. Lets face it no matter how much they try to slap a pretty face on it detroit is still a place you don't really want to be alone after dark. In the dresden files universe I see Detroit as what Chicago would be like without people like Harry and company keeping evil in check. After the start of the war most of the Red Court vampires from Chicago relocated to Detroit and turned the city into a vampire stronghold. A few brave, stupid, or powerful members of the council still live in the city trying to keep an eye on the vamps and hold back thier takeover of the city. Meanwhile a secret society of mortals live and fight on the fine line between our world and the world of the supernatural. Plus it has haunted cemetaries, indian burial grounds, a demonic herald of chaos and those are just some of the supernatural threats lets not forget dirty cops, crooked politicians, organized crime and gang violence. Detroit's got it all.
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How about Jerusalem? Now there's a city with lots and lots of history, having been sacked and occupied many, many times. It is also one of the most important cities to three major religions. I also think it would be a great starting point for magical archaeological expeditions (finding buried ancient cities where old gods sleeps.)
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Jerusalem... I can't even begin to wonder. This is one of those places where you have a great potential to piss off your friends if you're not all on the same page. How a GM treats this city would communicate a lot about the GM. It's all dependent on exactly what they did to explain it. It could reflect a dim view of humanity or a hope that that situation could turn out alright someday. IT all depends.
I think it could go one of 3 general ways:
The first way Dresden Files Jerusalem could go would be that the magical world is in chaos there, with the magical world barely able to keep up. You think a suicide bomber is a b***h, try his his ghost. That, and the psychic energy from all of the fear, hate and anger around the whole region would only spur the other magical force in the region, Faith. I'd be surprised if the Temple of Solomon didn't disintegrate any vampire or other ghoulie that set foot in it. Not to mention, Fundamentalists are scary enough, now think about Fundamentalist Wizards with Thaumaturgy....
This route of it as a hotspot could go further in one way with the Angels of the region are still crusading in a part of the Nevernever reflective of Dante's Divine Comedy, Hellgate London, Diablo and Little Nicky...j/k. But, it could also be a hotspot if it was interpreted as a city abandoned by the magical world and by the gods, but that is just one possible interpretation.
The second way Jerusalem could go is a common technique in the Dresden Files, Playing against type. Jerusalem is a center of politics in our world, in the Magical one, "Meh..." It could be a magically dead zone because of all the Faith magic combined with all of the emotions. That route would be a downer though.
The third way is actually logical. Jerusalem actually would probably be a better candidate for a Magical Casablanca/Berlin than a podunk town since the political sturggles could hide anything in it. Jerusalem as Accorded Neutral Ground would be fun because of the reasons you play a city like that, it's factioned. A main reason it could be accorded neutral territory is because there's so much magic in it. If you wanted to take it further, have magic banned within city limits under penalty of death because drawing from it is like having infinite supply of uranium bullets that explode. When something magical does go down in Magical Jerusalem, it's big.
I personally wouldn't run a game here (Not my kind of place and I don't know my way around) but if I did visit ingame, mine would be a mixture of all of these places.
That being said, I wonder about 2 other cities: Vactian City and Mecca...
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Well, no one else brought it up so I will. Staying in the US base it in San Francisco, lots of different communities there to borrow mythology from rather than staying with any one culture. Can you say Dresden meets Big Trouble in Little China? It's all in the reflexes........... ;D
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That, and the psychic energy from all of the fear, hate and anger around the whole region would only spur the other magical force in the region, Faith. I'd be surprised if the Temple of Solomon didn't disintegrate any vampire or other ghoulie that set foot in it.
I'd be inclined to think that the whole city would do that. Maybe the faith based magic just flows like a fountain from the combination of religions that view the entire city as holy ground. Interesting thoughts on the city.
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I'm busy writing a campaign for England and I have less problem with the things I can put in than things I should leave out.
Arthurian legends, Roman gods, Celtic, Norse and Saxon mythology, Eastern European legends (thanks to the influx of immigrants... thank you European Union), Chinese mythology (thanks to chinese immigrants who have been coming here for decades), stuff from anywhere the British Empire stretched the list goes on... and on... and on...
And this is without even looking at figuring out new cool and interesting stuff of my own, or looking into the two world wars or crusades, or inquisition, or running a spin on what Jim has already picked up on.
You see my problem here.
Wardens in Britain would be horrendously busy people.
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I'm busy writing a campaign for England and I have less problem with the things I can put in than things I should leave out.
Arthurian legends, Roman gods, Celtic, Norse and Saxon mythology, Eastern European legends (thanks to the influx of immigrants... thank you European Union), Chinese mythology (thanks to chinese immigrants who have been coming here for decades), stuff from anywhere the British Empire stretched the list goes on... and on... and on...
And this is without even looking at figuring out new cool and interesting stuff of my own, or looking into the two world wars or crusades, or inquisition, or running a spin on what Jim has already picked up on.
You see my problem here.
Wardens in Britain would be horrendously busy people.
I'd be interested in seeing the end results of that my own self.
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Wardens in Britain would be horrendously busy people.
For bouns points you could work in lovecraftian ichy things.
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For bouns points you could work in lovecraftian ichy things.
Great Cthulu you say... *smirks and cracks knuckles*
(Funny story, one of the players in an old table top Call of Cthulu game had a massive intimidate score and wanted to meet the great Cthulu to see if the line 'Nice tentacles you've got there sir, wouldn't like to see 'em get <sniff> broken!' would work. I didn't stick around to see the results. As I'm sure you can tell we were taking our role playing very seriously back then.)
As to seeing results, well the system adaption is working pretty well. Only problem I'm finding is working out a system for magical drain, ie getting worn out from casting magic, but I'll figure something out.
If you wanna stop by to read up on what is going on the board is here:
http://murpg.proboards19.com/index.cgi
I'll be calling the topic Semiautomagic (it's such a cool title I just gotta), but it's not set up yet as we're still doing character gen.
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Actually all this talk of Cthulu has just given me an idea so I thank you. Of course my players might not, but I am very grateful. ;D
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Something Wiki made me think about tonight...should there be some sort of relationship between the politics of "sister cities"? I mean, these kinds of pairings don't always make sense anyway -- seriously, what is the common thread connecting Belfast, Nashville, and Hefei, China? Could it be that there's some sort of supernatural relation between the locations?
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I'd probably run my first game in Amherst MA. Sure, it's not a big city, but it's got lots of people (several universities do that), a good variety of people, and some interesting locales. The campus of UMass alone offers a lot of possibilities. The dorms are a good Red or White court hunting ground. I can see a group like the Alphas springing up. What if the campus Christian group actually has some faith miracle workers? Etc.
Besides, it's just another way to continue the local tradition of running WoD games on campus. (: