Spirit of the Century Softcover
    by Rob Donoghue, Fred Hicks, and Leonard Balsera
      Format: 6 x 9 hardcover, 420 pages
        Price: PREORDER FOR $30.00 - FREE PDF!

    http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/products.php?publisherLink=evilHat#196

Fred, a little typo you might want to fix. I think everyone will know what you mean, but...

Others have replied, but I thought I would toss in a few more ideas on the subject.

There are lots of Role-Playing Games (RPGs) out there. Some use lots of dice, others are totally without dice at all. Each game has its own rules which guide how the game is played.

In general there is a storyline being woven by a Game Master (GM), but instead of a single author telling the tale the players get in on the action and help make the story their own.

What the dice can do is add an element of unpredictability to the story. When dice are involved no one (not even the GM) really knows ahead of time what will happen. This makes the game a lot more fun than a book or movie, because even a "re-run" adventure may be different the next time because of the roll of the dice.

Characters are usually ones you create, but sometimes a player might run a character from a book or movie. (For example, perhaps in a Pirates of the Caribbean game someone wants to play the role of Jack Sparrow. This is okay, but players are usually encouraged to make up an interesting character from scratch and play that.)

How do characters interact? Well, the GM explains a situation and asks the players how they react to it. Perhaps you are walking down a sidewalk and suddenly hear an alarm ring, then a bank robber runs into you and knocks you over. What do you do? When you tell the GM what you do, he advances the story as the other characters react to your actions. Often this involves rolling dice. We bounce back and forth, giving each player an opportunity to act. In that way the story unfolds.

What we are waiting for is an RPG designed to specifically simulate the world of Harry Dresden. Some RPGs let you play Star Trek or Lord of the Rings or a even world of your own creation. This one will take the ideas of the Dresden universe and give guidelines as to how a GM can run some adventures and tell some stories of your own.

Hope this helps.

What we're going to need to test with Dresden (though I'll not say anything about when) is going to be drilling down on the things that specifically make it Dresden, which is to say, the length and breadth of the supernatural world (as well as the nature of mystery games).

I see what you're saying here, Rob.

My point was mostly that a traditional playtest is such that a group is given a rules system to try out and give a shake down. If there's a way to bend the rules, it would be best to find this out before it goes to press.

For DF, however, it's going to be more of a partial playtest because a large percentage of the core rules have been playtested for SOTC and don't need to be tweaked.  "Yeah, well the game is fine. How about the extras?"

Just different, that's all. 

I think it's worth pointing out again that Harry and his peers (Michael, etc.) aren't all-powerful within their world.

This is a great observation, and I would think that this will form the foundation for a power level within the campaign. No one wants to be the absolute bottom of the “food chain” and there isn’t as much of interest to do at the top, so some sort of middle-ground is the way to go. Characters will clearly be better than mundanes, but won’t be anywhere in the league of the big boys.

…they can't stand up to the heavy hitters of the supernatural world without some pretty serious backup, if at all. In my mind, that's exactly where PC's should get to. Eventually.

Exactly. We would want our players to have some advancement room, so they have to start off a bit weak but can advance from there. I can see some campaigns where players become heavy hitters and others where the players are more like pawns being controlled by the big boys. Of course, each Game Master will have the power to moderate how slowly or quickly the advancement occurs, as well as the decision as to how high characters will be allowed to evolve.

I was just commenting on my opinions of new WoD versus old WoD.

Oh ... in that case, I agree with you. 

Having an extra core rulebook in one place is a lot better than having half of each new rulebook filled with the same thing.

Well, we don't conclusively know that. The only wizard we've seen anywhere near high tech stuff is Harry, and we know he's not a fair representative for all magedom.

Not conclusively, but...

If you plan to create a simulation of a literary world it often helps to look at examples from that world and build your simulation around that. With each book Jim adds a few new twists and elements to his world, but as a game designer that can be dangerous because it might not fit the big picture.

For example, look at Middle-earth:
1. Tolkien no longer can add to the world, so the picture is more clear. At least he can't change his mind.
2. Like Harry, Gandalf may be an exception to the rule. In Middle-earth this is because maiar (like Gandalf) are sort of like angels and each sems unique (the 5 wizards had differing abilities), plus Gandalf has one of the three great elven rings to assist him.
3. Gandalf has certain types of magic (fire, for example) but we notice that most of his magic is subtle and changes a process rather than crazy blasting magic. To use a "traditional" spell system for Middle-earth with a gaudy spell list, certain number of spells per day, and so on, would strip much of the life away from wizards in this world. That's just not the way they operate, so running a game that way doesn't work right. Would we want a "first lavel maiar" in the game?

Harry's world can be looked at in much the same way:
1. Jim clearly isn't dead and is still writing, so he may be adding twists as we go. This world still evolves, which makes our simulation very tricky.
2. Lots of people say that Harry is the exception, but in what way? Are all wizards different, and if so just how different? Harry has access to some non-traditional magic (for his world) and so we may not ever know how much is Harry and how much is the other stuff.
3. We have seen no examples of magic style X, but it may pop up in the next book. We don't want to rob the setting of its flavor, but if Jim doesn't use something we should be careful before we assume it should be in there.

So ... in my opinion we use Harry as the main template. Wizards mess up technology. Could there be a techno-mage (for example)? My answer is "no", unless Jim decides to put one in. In that case, we revise the model. 

Just my two cents.

An interesting question, and one that I have wondered about. In electrodynamics there is the idea of a "Faraday Cage", which is a screen enclosure which can shut out electromagnetic waves like radio. (Okay, so I teach Physics.)

Perhaps if magic is somehow electromagnetic (after all it does affect electronics) then a similar thing could be constructed to screen out magic, or to keep a wizard from affecting an electronic gizmo....

I'm running a Dresden Files game for my group and I thought I would share my idea.

I live near Chicago and am most familiar with that setting, so I wanted to keep my game somewhat local. Although we're near Chicago, I don't want to put myself in a situation where Harry and his immediate crew would be around to interfere.

My solution? Play the game in another time. I chose 1920's Chicago.

1. Jim hasn't said much about the past in his setting. This gives me a lot of freedom to establish a setting of my own while still remaining "true" to the series, assuming nothing significant happens that would change the future (our present).

2. This gives me a gangster element as a backdrop. Sort of like having several Marcones running around. It gives my players the opportunity to play roles in an era that I have never run as a campaign. (I can dust off TSR's Gangbusters RPG for inspiration, plus I have a copy of the 1920's Investigator’s Companion for Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu to assist me.)

3. I assume that major groups such as the White Council, Black Court, White Court, Red Court, Nevernever, etc. would have existed back then as well. Since supernaturals seem to live longer than mortals, it would be possible to use some of those same characters as NPCs, only younger. I also assume that they were plotting and scheming against each other the same as today.

4. It gives me my familiar setting without the hassle of the characters from the books getting in the way. It also means that I don't need to try to stay "current" as Jim writes new books.

Anyway, I thought that others might be interested in my reasoning if they are thinking of setting up their own campaigns. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.