Funny you should bring up stealing moon rocks....

From the wikipedia article on moon rocks:

In June 2002, 101 grams of moon rocks were stolen from the Johnson Space Center by interns Thad Roberts and Tiffany Fowler. The pair used knowledge of the security around the rocks gained during their internship to remove a 600 pound safe containing the samples. Roberts is a certified pilot and scuba diver who was an ambitious student pursuing degrees in Physics, Geology and Anthropology who aspired to be an astronaut. Fellow interns Gordon McWhorter and Shae Saur were also later arrested for their role in the theft and attempted sale of the rocks. The theft also included a meteorite that may have revealed information about life on Mars.

Incidentally.... Shae Saur was a student at Lamar University... in Beaumont, Texas... which is 10 minutes from here.

Just re-watched The Last Emperor and found the point where Pu Yi messed up.

At the beginning of the movie, young Emperor Pu Yi is given a cricket to be his friend by one of the imperial wise men.  We don't see the cricket again for quite some time.  Instead, we see him carrying around a mouse in his pocket.  Meanwhile, China is falling into chaos and all Pu Yi can do is mope around the palace, as outside of the palace, he is not emperor.

Pu Yi is later expelled by rebels and takes refuge amongst the Japanese.  He takes them up on their offer to become emperor of Manchuko (part of northern china).  Little does he know, he's only a puppet and before long, he's back to moping around his new palace.

After manchuko falls to the Soviets, Pu Yi serves prison time in Russia, and then in Communist China.  Afterwards, Pu Yi visits the Imperial Palace as a common tourist.  He then crosses a rope barrier and climbs up to the golden throne where he is confronted by hitler youth a small child dressed up like a little communist boy scout.  The kid tells Pu Yi that he cannot be up there, after a brief exchange of words, the kid demands Pu Yi prove he once lived there.

Pu Yi climbs the stairs and retrieves the box that contained the cricket he was given as a child and hands it to the kid.  The kid opens it, and the cricket climbs out (after living for SIXTY YEARS IN A BOX UNDER THE THRONE!! ).  Pu Yi however has disappeared.



My point here, the cricket is clearly something supernatural that was sent to help the emperor, and he ignored it.

Just as an odd item to throw out there:


Pu Yi's Cricket
Enchanted Item
Gives +1 to scholarship, empathy, deciet, presence, conviction, and intimidation during social engagements.

Why would I kill him when it's much more amusing to me to put my players in situations where they're likely to get on harry's bad side... like surrounding his apartment with iron nails to get out of a debt to a fairy.

(1.)What are your approaches for teaching new players the various mechanics, from Aspects to Thaumaturgy?
(2.)How do you explain such things to a group that is more familiar with number crunching than writing a backstory?
(3.)How much thought do you put in a backstory, or expect your players to put into the story of their characters?
(4.)Do you have a preferred character creation approach?
(5.)As a GM, do you have suggestions for a cheat sheet, whether for the new players or even for yourself?
(6.)If you have ever made said cheat sheets, would you care to give an idea as to what is there and how it was done, what inspired it, etc?
(7.)Do you have a cap for a set number of players, so as to not go overboard, drag down play, or even keep the system intact?

1) I'm still learning it myself, it's on a we're learning together basis.  This is my first time with the fate system.
2) Easy.  Tell them words are the numbers in this system.  If you've got some words that you can manipulate into giving you a good sounding reason to get away with something, you can.  Make good words on the character sheet.
3) I've got 3 players.  I must have spent somewhere in the area of 6 in total hours chatting them up coming up with stories (we couldn't get a proper first character creation session where we were all present).  Two were unfamiliar with Dresdenverse, but wanted to play anyway.  One is as familiar as I am, but thinks entirely too much.
4)Get a general idea.  Put pen to paper, change as needed by story.  Spoiler for my campaign in case JD, Chris, or Scott read this: 5) My cheat sheets are pretty disorganized.  If I can't find it, I make up something on the spot that sounds right.
6) I'm not a very organized person.  You don't want to use my cheat sheet.
7) No idea.  I've only got 3 friends that want to play DFRPG.

I'd suggest making "Big game hunter" to be 'ignore huge' so you don't need to make size judgment calls,

I'm kinda mulling that one over.  Lions are considered "big game" in terms of 1800's era African adventures, but aren't much bigger than a man.  Maybe a better definition of what constitutes "big game" in the supernatural world is in order...  I'd be inclined to say that red court nobility counts as "big game" on the same basis as a lion to mundane humans.

I've got a player that's playing a wild-west style demon-hunting-gunslinger.  I'm trying to write up some practical stunts that fit the flavor.  Input/suggestions are welcome.

[-1] Quickdraw: This allows a character to roll guns for alertness to determine who goes first on the first exchange.  The character can also draw the weapon that turn without taking a -1 penalty for a supplemental action.  If the character loses, he can still roll athletics to get out of the line of fire instead of suffering from mediocre, even in situations where this is normally not available.

[-1] Fan the Hammer:  Allows the character to fire off all 6 shots from a revolver in one exchange. (Enables spray attacks from revolver weapons so long as one hand is free)

[-1] Guns Akimbo: Works as Off-Hand Weapon Training (YS 156) but affects the Guns skill instead of Weapons.
You know how to fight more effectively with two guns in hand. Normally, you may only take the damage bonus from one gun on a successful hit; with this stunt, you may add half of the second gun's bonus as well (round up)

[-1] Make a Path: With a bit of practice, the character has learned what inanimate objects can be taken down with the proper application of bullets.   The character can use Guns to reduce or raise the border between two zones.  This can be something lasting such as shooting the support beams to collapse a section of the roof to gain access, or something temporary such as shooting a rope holding a weight and using it to pull the character to the roof.  This can also be used to shoot many types of locks.


___________________________

Also, the character possesses an artifact weapon (rifle of some sort).  I was thinking an 1876 Winchester that belonged to Teddy Roosevelt (Hey, weirder stuff has showed up in the Dresdenverse).

[+2] One time discount:  It's a rifle and not easily hidden.

[-1] Big Game Hunter: Gives +1 to guns skill and +2 physical stress when shooting at a creature larger than a person

[-1] Sure Shot: The weapon is exceptionally accurate and gives an additional +2 to guns skill after an aiming maneuver has been performed for a total of +4.

[-1] Big Stick: At some point, the weapon has been blessed by the Church and if used as a melee weapon, counts as a holy item.  Anything that would normally be repelled or take extra damage does so after direct physical contact with this gun.

Also, as a freebie, a limited supply of blessed silver bullets which basically add the Big Stick power to the bullets the gun fires.  The priest that made the bullets has since died, taking with him the secret of their manufacture.

RPG board is starting to suffer from Sticky Thread Syndrome, as well.  

RPG board?  What RPG board?  I thought it was the sticky forum.