OK, I have been starting a game and looking at the various City Sheets provided and noticed something was wrong.  What finally struck me was that one "level" of sheet to be missing.  To recap what exists, we have the High Level, Locations and Faces sheets, but these three do not make up all of how cities are organized or considered.  Basically they cover the High and Low levels, but ignore the Middle.  So, what is missing IMnsHO? A neighborhood/district sheet.

Cities are not generally a collection of individual locations and people, but rather a collection of neighborhoods.  Look at Chicago and "The Street Level" is neighborhoods. The Loop, Gold Coast, Cabrini-Green, Lincoln Park, Uptown, Chinatown ... each has a different feel, mood and tenor.  You might say "but those are just locations" but when you look at the sample City Sheet (Locations) on page YS38 what you see are SPECIFIC locations (with one exception). A business, a park, a bridge.  Note that the park in the example is not a neighborhood called Federal Hill Park but rather a specific park by that name (many neighborhoods are referred to as "the <blank> Park neighborhood" ... yep, I look at neighborhoods & neighborhood names for a living).  The only potential exception given is Fells Point / Canton which appears to refer to a specific location and an area (like Rush Street in Chicago used to be).

So, what I did was add an additional layer called City Sheet (Neighborhoods & Districts).  I put in a choice box for Neighborhood, District, Municipality and Township, a section for Description, a row of 5 circles for "Threat Level" (0-5 ... to indicate how dangerous the area is generally considered), retained the Name, The Idea, The Aspect and The Face but added a section called "Areas Included" that allows for a list of a half dozen or so Locations (with space for Type to be listed).  A Neighborhood is a collection of one or more Locations, a District one or more Neighborhoods, a Municipality (City, Town, Village, etc) one of more Districts, and a Township one or more Municipalities as well as the non-urban areas (Locations or Neighborhoods) in a roughly 36 sq.mi. area.  What this allows if for the GM to say, for example, that the local INS building (where Karl Kolchak works) is near the border of Cabrini-Green and the Near North Side ... or maybe it is located in Printers Row just south of The Loop.  In any case a group could use such a sheet to gather a number of locations in the same neighborhood and thus be better able to understand how the Themes work together and such (I may replace The Idea and The Aspect with Themes for this sheet).  I fit only 6 per page, but it looks like it may work.  I will see if I can construct and attach an image to this post.



Edit: Since the image insert worked the two samples are districts in a fictional city I am building for my own game.  The first is a ethnic district (aka a Chinatown) and the other is something that I may or may not treat as a separate municipality (depending on player input).  The former has a collection of locations that are neighborhoods and the latter has a collection of districts and highlights the most noteworthy neighborhood and business located in the area (aka, the occult bookstore).  The Names field would likely list aldermen, mayors, and so forth that are not generally tied to a specific location.


BTW, a link to a Chicago NBHD map  http://search.realtyproducer.com/core/maps/chicago-neighborhoods-map.jpg

Butter's theory doesn't really explain why internal combustion engines can be hexed. There's no way an emp could take out something like the beetle, but magic can.

   If I recall correctly the Blue Beetle has lots of problems with misfiring, etc, and Harry speculates it only keeps running because his mechanic is a genius IIRC.  If hexing creates electronic sparking it could cause cylinders to fire at inappropriate times causing a LOT of extra wear & tear on the engine.

As for vehicles & EMPs, as I recall they are as vulnerable as other electronic devices as a strong enough EMP can melt the wires, etc.  Just like solid state tube computers were less "vulnerable" because they could stand higher surge levels than transistors, and transistors can handle more current than integrated circuits, older vehicles can stand more current than newer ones, but can be affected to some degree. 

Cool, thanks for the heads up.  As I understand it it can still only be used for a single type of effect, right? (aka fire attack, spirit block, air maneuver)... so a lot less flexible than evocation. 

I have yet to find where Thaumaturgy is limited by elements like Evocation is ... anyone got a page number /reference on that?

With the particular character I am riding the line between a Superb Lore and Superb Resources (Chest-Deep ... but concept requires enough skills that "tower" required to have 2 skills at Superb is not viable).

At Great Resources I figure the character would not have the resources or Demense the size of a Barony or anything, but could well have the medieval equivalent of a Parish or Knighthold, maybe slightly larger.  Kind of difficult to tell given the Buying Things table.

(My read of that table is that a price equal to ones resources is something they could reasonably purchase on a semi-regular regular basis, +1 step they may need a bridge-loan or 3-5 year mortgage, and +2 steps equates to roughly a 30 year mortgage, as the resources only make sense when considered as a character paying cash outright for the items)


In other words, Epic (Small Corporation) would, to my mind, not indicate that the person OWNS a small corporation but rather with such a role could PURCHASE a small corporation.

I can see Resources as being one of the main factors in determining the size of the Demense  and can see additional Resource / Contacts / Presence Trappings with Mortal Stunts being used to yield various associated things including Title and such (Title as a type of Reputation)

Would be pretty bitchin' if there was an expanded settings and/or campaign book. I'm a semi-newbie looking to GM, a little bit lazy, and pretty overworked. Would be nice to see how the pros plan things out with this system.

What you mention above is EXACTLY what fan sites can handle.  As long as they post appropriate copyright and don't copy text from the books they are generally OK.  Having posts here about cities and settings are nice and all, but websites can gather things together, have multiple pages people can link between, and so forth.  If I had time I would consider doing it, but alas I am booked for the nonce.

A Doorway to the Nevernever?  Well, that fits the general theme of the city, so I don't see why not.

Bigger on the inside than on the outside would tie the Bar a bit towards the Faerie side of things.  I'm not opposed to that, but are you sure you'd want that additional complication?

Demense [-1] plus whatever else needed to make the object.

Some lines from Mearns' poem "Antigonish" (often called "The Little Man Who Wasn't There" due to the hit song under that title)

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away...

I can easily see that refer to a stair with a door at the top that leads to the Nevernever.
I plan for something like this (literally stair with door to Nevernever) to be included in my character concept & story (I was contemplating it for that Alchemist character I have been working on).

Could well be that the door can only be opened by people of power (aka, able to open a 0-1 threshold to the Nevernever) and thus mere mortals will face a brick wall unless guided through (aka, the reverse of a standard threshold's affect on spirits).

Interesting how multiple people can come up with similar / same concept

any chance of asking for a copy?

I sent message to Evil Hat to see if they had any interest.

I have a little* experience designing PC Records and for my own purposes have already started on more compact 2-sheet variants that handles increasing amounts of tasks "automatically".  Another feature I was interested in was some means to automatically pull stories from multiple characters and feed them directly into a printable sheet that can be distributed electronically or printed and cut into individual stories.  A third aspect was creating room on a character sheet for Foci, Enchanted Items, Potions, and/or equipment.  I will probably have to look at additional condensing to fit all but story on one sheet.

_{(* - aka, Hackmaster and Kalamar)}


July 15th Update:  I have tentative permission to distribute my Excel / Open Office version.  I sent Evil Hat a copy but I feel I probably need to make a few adjustments to it first (like adding a copyright for Evil Hat at the bottom, and probably removing some of the text).  I will keep people posted as to when I have it available, but as I have no plans to host it at this time.

As I am still technically a Neophyte GM (still in the building city & characters phases of the campaign) I would be very interested in this as well.  I could see warding being easier at some locations due to familiarity (ex:  Harry Dresden is a Wizard Detective and thus should be able to invoke this aspect when casting a ward his place of business, probably to his effective Lore).

I think an example is in order, and as I am not running yet I may need to have others clarify for me a bit to make sure I get it right ...

So, let us assume Harry is trying to Ward his office (as per the TV show).  He wants the wards to last 1 month (5 shifts up from normal duration based on my calculations) and the typical such wards are Legendary [+8], therefore base 8+5 = 13 complexity.  Harry's Lore is pathetic for the job (only Good [+3]) so he has to do Preparation (research, etc).
  The first thing he does is consult with Bob, and the GM declares he will allow Jim (Harry's player) to use Bob's Superb [+5] Lore meaning his is now only shy by 8 (rather than 10 he would be without Bob).  Harry decides to use warding drapes to accent the power, and the GM decides to give him a +2 bonus for using a physical manifestation as a symbolic link.  He taps his Wizard Detective for an additional +2, ok'd by the GM as it is his place of business.  As he lives there using a hair from his head (as well as a hair from Mister, the other resident) yields a +2 symbolic link as well.  This still leaves him 2 short so he takes some paint scrapings from the door, a chip from the wall, and a couple other places for symbolic links directly of the loci / threshold itself for the final +2 needed to yield 13 effective Lore, and the GM give Jim an estimate of the additional cost and time needed to gather additional components as well (window dressing to keep it interesting.

Now he can cast the spell.  Because he is not under any pressure he can cast the spell without making rolls.  OK, neat, it happens.


In another TV episode we find Harry having symbols either carved or traced on all of the beams, etc.  Obviously he has either reconsidered and altered things such that the walls & ceiling provide permanent symbolic links for the wards themselves and the door hangings provide some other benefit such as active defenses (shocks, booby trap, etc).

After a number of years he may no longer have to consider his effective Lore and utilize Bob as it has become second nature and thus considered a given when not under stress, at least for that specific location.


What do people think?