Actually, the book does discuss having consequences disappear if it makes sense, even if they haven't taken their full recovery time. I seem to remember the books mainly discussing in game time taking such a leap that the consequence should be removed, such as a drunken consequence from a social encounter being removed after a month of in game time passing.

That got me thinking. The consequences you inflict on an enemy and the time they last are more a reward for the attacker then anything else. Reducing the duration of your attacks is only lessening you reward really. If you want to inflict the severe consequence "more asleep then awake" because you want this to be a soft sleep spell rather then a hard burn out your body sleep spell then heck why shouldn't you? Is it really that different from inflicting a drunk result on somebody, then having it disappear because a few days passed?

Library of Congress. Special Collections Division. To quote Jim: 'Don't mess with the Librarians. Holy Moly. Just don't.' 

Exactly what I was referring to. 

Actually Hexing is nothing like EMP, it just looks that way at first glance since modern digital is the first thing to go out. Hexing can stop a steam train if the wizard is old enough, that's not something EMP can do.

As for the government or military or any larger organized having a supernatural branch, I don't see it happening. Not on a large scale in any case. See say a small part of the FBI is supernaturally aware and uses it in in their work to gain an edge over the "bad guys" seems like an interesting campaign actually. But should they grow, they will need to acquire space and people and money and material. Sooner or later they will have some sub division or whatever, it will have a name a stated purpose and quarterly numbers of what they did. Now perhaps you can get a guy one or two rugs up the ladder to help your division out for a while and keep it on a need to know basis. But sooner or later someone up the line with more stars or whatever is going to see that name in a report, see the resources it is eating and what they are supposed to do and he is going to shut it or down or seriously decrease their budget at the very least. Its a economic crisis out there and we don't have the funds to frivolously spend on whatever your doing down there. No I wont come and look at what it is, I'm a rational man who doesn't believe in magic and besides no good Christian would allow such things, god forbid. 

The way governments are run don't lend themselves well to magic focused departments, it simply doesn't fly for long. As mentioned tough a division focused on information, especially history and the like will be far more effective at breeding a in the know crowd. However these sort of organizations are less do and more observe and anallize in nature most of the time.

Mind all of that is purely my 2 cents.

I like it. I'll have to remember that one. So how did they get out?

Well.... you know the expression skeletons in the closet?

Agreed, talk to your player ask him what he think he should be able to do at the minimum what he would like to be able to do but isn't sure about being good for a starting character and what he would imagine has his end point, the biggest thing he would like to able to do should his character stay the course and improve just on that power. This gives you a good idea of the scale he is thinking in and should this be outside the scope of Dresden you should talk about that.

That all goes for pretty much every character. But ninjas especially.
Are we talking historic ninja with no supernatural element outside those provided by the Kami? Are we talking a ninja with some supernatural powers as in folklore/pop-culture, if so what elements? or are we talking full on naruto style powers?

You could make a ninja without any powers, just the right stunt and skills would make a perfectly fine ninja. Ad in cloak of shadows, spider walk and you start to get a very good ninja.
Want him to have some magic but limit it? give him Channeling ninjutsu or something. Basically veils, treat smoke bombs as enchanted items that can produce a visual veil a few times per game. There you have a ninja with some magic power.
On to any of those you could ad sponsored magic. In the case of the third I would replace channelling with sponsored magic as the portfolio would probably overlap mostly.

Just use the sponsor debt mechanics from sponsored magic. The character doesn't get any sort of magic or anything from it (and so it should cost far less), but you keep the idea of being able to ask the Dark Powers for fate points (ie, luck) when you need them in exchange for debt to be repaid later.

Sounds like that would work, it really works for the idea of getting a little subtle boost with a very . I would still like incorporate the prayer mechanism, the idea of placing a aspect on the campaign itself I really like. Perhaps the borrowed point and selfish prayer ability as a -2 power? Any suggestions on this.

Richard, I like the idea's you bring up. However the player was looking more for a subtle little extra rather then a big power, at least to start with. Actual sponsored magic he thought of as possible in the future but not yet. Naturally I might throw him in a situation where that strength or toughness ability starts to look tempting. Anyhow I feel the prayer mechanic and borrowed fate points are too vague effects to work with your suggestions. But I do like them, so I will take a look at incorporating them. Perhaps lay down the words of his contract together during character creation.

I think my player is aware his character is in a downward spiral and probably going to crash before he can escape it. I think he likes the tragic hero.

Remember that point in the books that is mentioned as harry taking an extreme consequence? With the hand and the fire? His shield stopped the napalm but not its heat as I recall? I am pretty sure that is what would happen with a surface to air missile, the attack would stop short of the caster, but the explosion would still effect the whole zone that he was in. And the next depending on the type of missile were talking about.

I would say the exact opposite.  If a vampire has taken Hunger stress that means he/she is Hungry and if he/she has lost powers they'd be really Hungry.  I don't see taking a sip and saying "I'm good!" to be much of an option.  It's like an alcoholic walking into a bar, having one drink and then walk right back out like nothing happened.

Ooh, I like that point of view. Its not a logical sane message from your body saying your running low on fuel, its much more like an addiction. Your awesome when your high, but your terrible when your low, and your ready to do everything to get back that high.