Check out this passage from Poul Anderson’s book, _Three Hearts and Three Lions_. 

A signboard hung from the gallery above the door. 
Holger read the florid script:
“Martinus Trimagestus Magister Magicae - Spells, Charms, Prophecies, Healing, Love Potions, Blessings, Curses, Everfull Purses, Special rates for parties.” 

3H&3L was published in 1961.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Hearts_and_Three_Lions 
I am reading it because it was mentioned as a source for a lot of the tropes that ended up in D&D, but given how that wizard advertisement is almost the opposite of Harry’s, I wonder if the book had an impact on Jim’s writing as well. 

(If you have an active Audible membership, you can get _Three Hearts and Three Lions_ for free.  It’s a fun story, and the reader does a good job characterizing and separating the voices.  A few have accents so thick that you really need to pay attention to get what they’re saying, until you get to know them.)

I recently made a character to play in a Vampire: Dark Ages game (though the superflu may mean that we don't actually end up playing for a while), and it occurred to me that "Dark Ages" would work as a Dresden Files title. 

Harry has a habit of skirting or occasionally breaking (with some degree of justification) the White Council's laws of magic, but we don't know of him messing with chronomancy yet.  What if Harry did go back in time and end up becoming/training the original Merlin?  Maybe Mordred/Kemmler/Cowl are likewise related?  Maybe by the end of the series, Harry becomes the Blackstaff and ends up time-hopping to counter & combat the entity that turns out to be more than just an extremely powerful necromancer.  Maybe that entity is similar to the Fallen, and killing one host will only delay it for a time until it infects the mind of another mortal.  If Harry discovers that black magic acts as a gateway to let this entity into a wizard's mind, maybe he forms the White Council and its laws as a way to proactively detect and hunt budding dark wizards before they can grow powerful enough to become the next embodiment of the capital 'D' Dark.  If strict enforcement of those laws had cost his younger self his head, that would be ironic, but also a serious paradox, so maybe he's had to tweak the timestream in other ways to avoid that, which could take literal Ages of work... Dark Ages! 

Of course I'm likely nowhere close, but with the excitement of the next book finally coming out, such wild speculations come to mind. 

Okay, I am working on a new character, and would like some ideas.  This is a character coming in to an existing group, so I can't really tie my aspects in the normal way for now.  The overall idea is a junior warden from a Scandinavian country who has inherited one of the silver swords from a recently (apparently) slain parent.  I posted ideas on a FB group, so I'll just copy them here.

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So far I have the high concept of "Junior Warden" and the trouble of "Warden Jr." Yes, my mamma wore combat boots, and those are some big shoes to fill.

My 'family' aspect is also connected to that: "Queen of Swords, Knave of Staves". I inherited both my warden sword and my Conviction from mother, and of course this aspect is also based on a couple tarot cards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Swords
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_of_Wands
'Wands' and 'Staves' are interchangeable terms for the suit, and 'knave' is another name for the 'jack' playing card which is what became of the 'knights' in tarot. I'm not sure if this means dad was just mundane, or somehow dishonourable. The Knight of Staves is a symbol of wanderlust, so along with the 'combat boots' on one side, dad's boots were apparently made for walkin'.

My last aspect is currently 'Immigrant Song'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBmueYJ0VhA
Like Eddie Murphy in 'Coming to America', I'm not from 'round here. Unlike his character, I didn't come entirely by choice, and I'm quite a bit more pale, so for me the story title is 'Exiled to Vinland'. My mother's sword was found in the wreckage of the White Council's outpost at Archangel, and while my reaction to her apparent death gave me motive to hunt the Red Court, my inexperience could be more of a liability than an asset, so the Council moved me somewhere out of the way (a city of about 90k in the US).

I'm considering whether to give him an aspect that makes him a bit of a berserker, and whether I want him to be a metal musician. I don't know that he has room in his skills for a decent Performance, or if it even makes sense to be able to play around electrical devices like amps and speakers. Maybe playing calms him to the extent that he doesn't short out the equipment?

Having a skill cap of 29 and not able to put anything at 'Superb' does make it somewhat more difficult to build the skill tower. Besides the Conviction, Discipline, and Lore needed for spellcasting, he also needs Weapons and Might in order to sweep a sword around effectively. Add in Alertness, Athletics, and Endurance to round combat needs out, and there's not much room left.

Does the warden sword and cloak cover all my magical gear? If I wanted to use runes for thaumaturgy, how would I represent that?
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Hmm... being a big guy may make people assume you're stupid, so that could be a temper trigger. Then there's the tendency for a big guy to be targeted by those looking to make a name for themselves... that could piss you off a lot. Add that to having one parental role model missing and the other (probably) recently killed... having a tendency to flip out and break some shit is quite understandable. Now I just need a better aspect name than "would you like some making fuck", and to decide whether I want to make the berserking my 'trouble' aspect since that's something likely to get one in a LOT of trouble.
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This is something of a game but also an exercise in creating game content.  The idea is to create a character, either one from a fairly well-known source outside of the 'Dresdenverse', or new one that doesn't appear in the books, but has a High Concept and description that fits.  Include names, aspects, skills, powers, etc. - everything that would be needed for someone to play the character or for a GM to 'borrow' and use as an NPC.  Use the refresh level necessary to represent the character, without going overboard (in other words, try not to jump straight in to 'Submerged' - Ha!).  If you have an idea for a new Character Design Challenge, copy this introductory text and paste it into a new thread.

Let's start things off with someone that would have a Pure Mortal template:
Dexter Morgan, from the Showtime series that shares his first name.

Happy Hacking!
Thanatos

Nevermind.