Ran my first game of the DFRPG tonight.  All in all, it went fairly well--the story went nicely, people figured out the fudge dice system decently.  Combat was a bit strange to them, mostly the stress system, but I think the players will get used to it.  The sticking point was Social Conflict.

One of my players found herself without Presence, Report, Intimidation, or Empathy.  Perhaps I should have made it more clear that these skills would have been important during character creation.  Regardless, we got to a social conflict--three guys who suspected their friend had gotten into some dark magic were being questioned by this player and one other (one with a few social skills) and didn't want to tell them.  This player was left with the sense that she literally could not do anything in this conflict.

Now, I realize that the idea of social skills is that they represent the social capabilities of the character, which are different from those of the player.  However, it still seems strange to them (and me, at times) that their character needs a  skill to use simple logic to convince people of things.  Perhaps I was misreading the situation and it did not actually need to become a conflict.

In all, I think the situation reflects a general mistrust of any roleplaying game attempting to apply mechanics to the roleplaying aspect itself.  While it might be considerably easier to remove the rules for social conflicts, I think the game would lose something for it--and perhaps more importantly, doing so would largely invalidate the character that one of my players created, a socially oriented face.  I am considering allowing my players to rearrange some skills, now that they have seen how the game actually works.  Does anyone else have more advice on how to make them warm up towards the social conflict system?

Tomorrow my players and I begin city/character creation for Savannah, Georgia.  I was wondering if any natives of the city (or just people who are familiar with it) might have ideas for aspects we could use as themes.  (Threats, after all, are going to reflect which powers we decide are probably at work in the city.)

Ideas I've had so far include:

Living in the Past (Haunted by the Past, maybe?)
The Good Host
The Melting Pot is Boiling Over (reflects not only the tensions between different religious groups, such as voodoo and Christianity, but also the dangerous mixing and blending of the different supernatural forces at work)
Sinking Beneath the Surface (reflects not only Savannah's tendency for flooding, but also how the dark forces at work in the city are beginning to rise up and envelop the mortals)

Is there any technical reason that a character could not be both a White Court Virgin and a Red Court Infected?  Or even a White Court Vampire and a Red Court Infected?  I'm sure that it isn't possible, but I can't find anything that says it is, or why it might be.  Any thoughts?