In the last couple of sessions my group make short work of a heavily-guard Black Court nest, taking out a total of 32 renfields, all of whom were killed with magic (burned with fire, sandblasted with coal dust and metal filings, and pebble-dashed with rocks). Yep, the two players responsible were happy to kill them.

Now, I've decided not to enforce the Lawbreaker stunt, given the mental damage done to the renfields by their masters.

But this group is already on shaky ground with the White Council, as two of their member had, in their backstories, been framed for violating the First Law and have, as a result, been on the run. They've currently managed to negotiate a deal for a retrial and re-investigation, having recently saved the world.

However, I'm thinking that the Wardens would come out in force against the group if they find out that nearly three dozen humans had been killed by the group, using magic to do the job. Even accounting for the fact their minds are gone, it ought to show a marked willingness to take human life on a massive scale.

Thoughts?

As we get into the second "season" of our DFRPG campaign, I've decided to try out a new houserule based on the existing "Sponsor Debt" rules.

I got the idea from the Primetime Adventures game, which has players take turns giving a "Next time, on..." teaser at the end of each session.

I'm letting my players come up with "teaser" segments, just brief descriptions of something they'd like to see happen in a future session. It helps me come up with plotlines, and lets the players show me what they're interested in doing.

If they can relate the teaser to one of their aspects, then they can have it as a compel or a declaration. So, if they're in trouble and need some extra Fate, they can give me a teaser with a compel in it, and get a Fate Point, then in a later session I get to introduce the compel, but they can't refuse it, since they've already taken the Fate Point. Similarly, they can spend a Fate Point to make a declaration about something good that will happen, and bank it for later.

They can decide whether to receive/spend the Fate Point there and then, or wait for when the teaser comes to pass. If they try to use a declaration teaser close to the end of a session, they have to wait and spend the Fate Point when it will actually matter, to avoid players setting up a bunch of these at the the very end of a session, then getting their Refresh the following week.

In effect, this is the players putting themselves in debt/credit with the GM/the story itself.

Memory War is available for pre-order now!



War is coming to New York. Nathan Shepherd's growing band of followers is dedicated to protecting the city, but they now face their greatest threat.
Athamar returns, plunging the city into chaos. Uniting the forces of darkness against Nathan and his allies, Athamar strives to discover a secret hidden for thousands of years. A secret lost to Nathan's memories. Something so dangerous, even the gods themselves fear it.

Nathan and Elena were once the greatest of heroes, champions against evil. Now, haunted by Nathan's past-life betrayal, they must work together and brave the pain of long-buried lifetimes. Somewhere, locked within their former incarnations, lies the key to stopping Athamar, an enemy who has hunted them from one incarnation to the next.

As the city burns and innocents suffer, as heroes fall and hope dies, Nathan and Elena face their final battle, a battle where legends will be reborn.

I've finished the edits on Final Hope, the last part of the Locked Within trilogy, and started work on the edits for Lady Raven, my all-new YA steampunk series.

Busy year!

Earlier this month I signed the contract for the third instalment of the Locked Within Trilogy.

Final Hope will be released late next year.

This came up recently at my table, when I had an NPC concede during a fight.

The question raised by my group was when can concessions be made?

The way I've been running them is that they can be made any point before the dice roll that takes them out, as it says on pg. 206 of YS. In the session this happened, an NPC was clearly losing the fight and I wanted to get him out of it before the players killed him. So when it came around to the player who was fighting him, before the player rolled, I conceded. There was some disagreement about whether or not this was fair.

Some players argue that concessions have to happen on the NPC's turn, while others say having them happen on the NPC's turn isn't fair.

Personally, I've always thought concessions were meant to happen right before an attacker rolls their dice, so it's the choice between taking a sure way out of being killed/captured, and taking the risk to see how the dice roll.

Based on a reading of the rules, it seems that, aside from the fact you can't concede after an attack roll that would take you out, you can concede whether you like.

When we were doing setting-creation for our On The Run campaign, one of the Faces put forward was the Hitchhiker, an embodiment of journeys and travel. Originally the idea was that he was a creature of the Never Never, the manifestation of travel, but I've been thinking about ways to flesh this character out and here's what I have so far:

The Journey is "the one story no-one else knows." Similar to the Archive, the Journey was created as a magical construct. Where the Archive knows all that is written, the Journey can travel to anywhere mortals have set foot. Aware that humanity would need a guide to help it re-emerge from the Dark Ages, Merlin created the Journey, a force of energy that is passed on from traveler to traveler. His or her duty is then to walk the Earth, helping those who are lost to find their way. Originally this involved encouraging trade and diplomacy between warring kingdoms, and then evolved to the exploration of new lands to rebuild what had been lost after the fall of Rome. Now, in the age of information and secrets, the Journey helps those who seek to find the truth, whether of the world or of themselves.

The Journey cannot age, and can remember everything seen and done by previous bearers of the power.

However, the role comes with a price. Once a traveler becomes the Journey, he can never again set foot inside his home, and must leave his loved ones behind forever (perhaps they no longer recognize him? Or completely forget he ever existed?), and he cannot return to a place he has once visited (either forever, or only using his powers so he would need mundane travel to return to a place). Once the Journey can no longer fulfill his duties due to this restriction, he must find someone to become the new Journey, after which he dies.

What do you guys thing? Anyone have any suggestions for powers or other weaknesses?