See ... it's working! More recruits to the RPG world.

Reply to: DM vs. GM vs. Storyteller

I personally prefer "Game Master," as it isn't proprietary like DM (D&D) and Storyteller (WoD) are.

Oh, "Game Master" is clearly a superior term. It's just that I started playing OD&D back in 1975 and back then it was always "Dungeon Master" or DM. Anything else just doesn't "feel" right to me, but as I said I am an old guy.

Have you ever seen the Amber Diceless RPG? In the core rulebook each NPC has three versions, often low or middle or high-powered characters.

I've also seen this sort of thing handled in West End's Star Wars RPG from the '80's (for example, Luke Skywalker at the end of the destruction of the first Death Star would be significantly weaker than Luke Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi).

It's possible to do something like this and have multiple versions of any character who might change significantly through the series, and that way a DM could run the game in any "era" of the timeline. When the campaign progressed to a new stage, the NPCs would switch to their new pre-determined state.

It's more work (for the game authors) that way, but would certainly allow for each DM to select when their own campaign would exist. Also, later sourcebooks would update characters who change.

Just one thought. Not saying it should be done that way, only that it could.

I was wondering if it's going to use the d20 system put out by Wizards of the Coast, but I'm now guessing no 

I started a new thread that has information about the RPG that may be of help. It contains links that should give you a better sense of what's going on....

Yeah, makes sense. I mainly know D&D, so my examples of role-playing tend to come from there: TSR has released a good number of pre-created worlds, with history and all.

What makes this interesting is that Jim is still writing, so we drop our storylines into the middle of the story without knowing how it will end up.

With a D&D camapign, such as those produced by TSR, they build history and such with the intent of letting the DM take over at a certain point. Sometimes there are modules tossed in, but overall the company tries to shut up and let you play.

Now you can play for a year and develop a storyline, Jim does something unexpected in the next book, and then everyone looks at each other and says "Hell's bells! How are going to work that into our game." And Jim just sits back and laughs at all of us. 

As a DM, you get to decide these things to best fit the story you want to tell. DMs have total power.

Which is why I like to be the DM.   

I've never played RPG's before so, I'm looking for suggestions of where to start.  Are they somewhat easy to play?  Would I need any special equiptment?  If so, where do I acquire such things?  Is there a list of books that are needed for the Dresden RPG?  Where are they found?

It turns out that most RPG's are easier to learn from another player rather than just by reading and trying to figure out by yourself. You might look for a local game store and ask some questions there. Often these stores will have a board where players can post if they want to find other players.

As "the doctor" said, essentially the group is trying to tell a collective story. One person takes the role of the storyteller, or "game master" and comes up with situations of interest. The other players react to the situations of interest in whatever manner seems most appropriate. The rules make sure that conflicts are resolved in a fair and consistent manner.

One big reason to ask other gamers questions is that there are many different games out there, and many different styles. The original RPG is "Dungeons and Dragons" and the current edition of this is quite rules-heavy (and can be quite expensive because of the number of hardback books out there), which sometimes is frustrating to newcomers. There is a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" RPG based on the TV series that might be similar in concept to "Dresden Files".  Another game called "Witchcraft" has a modern-magic theme and could be used to recreate Harry's adventures.. There are so many options out there that it's hard to know which direction to guide you without knowing what kind of game you would find most interesting.

If you do a google search on "Fudge" you can find a free rules set that you can download. Fred/Iago took Fudge and evolved it into a different variant called "Fate", which is also a free download. The official "Dresden Files" RPG (when created) is supposed to be based on a modified version of Fate, but so far not too many details have emerged.

Hope this helps!

It would matter in terms of the world backdrop. It would matter if you wanted to RP a White Council wizard, a Fae, a Vamp, or someone connected to any of the above. So yeah, it would matter.

This is significant, and illustrates a potential snag that can occur in any RPG based on a book/movie/TV show type setting. (And it's perhaps magnified somewhat when that work is still ongoing by the author.)

I think I first discovered this effect back in the 1970's when my gaming group created a Star Wars campaign based on the only Star Wars movie released at that point -- our campaign took place right after the movie and made certain assumptions as to where the plot should go and how the characters would develop. We had no way to anticipate that George Lucas would make some unusual plot twists along the way, so our campaign ended up looking nothing like the later movies.

This doesn't have to be a problem, but it might be to some. Suppose the "default setting" for a campaign is after Harry book #5 (just to pick a number at random). Even if PCs aren't plaing the roles of Harry or Murph or Michael or other major characters, what happens in the books and what happens in the campaign probably will be nothing like one another, and if the GM is willing to allow for major characters to have changes (death, etc), then the potential is that future books events might be incompatible. Even in the event that something happens to a minor character, it may be that this character could evolve into a different role by the time Jim writes book #9 (or later) and again an alternate timeline is the only solution. Each individual GM will have to resolve these issues.

As a game designer, the problem I might have to face would be whether to have a "default setting" or not. Where this becomes important is for any character who might have a significant change. Do you include a "Susan before" and a "Susan after" NPC stat block, or do you select one with the assumption that the GM will use it or create his own. Many characters will be essentially the same throughout the series, but a few evolve enough where this should be a consideration.

Just my two cents.