Hey Admins, there's something posted on Page 5 or 6 of the Demotivators thread that is tripping a Malware warning here at my work. Wanted to let someone know so it can get removed, I've enver had that warning on any other page here.

Do those of you who have beta readers require an NDA before letting them read?
Is it something that should be done?
I've gotten enough written that I think I can start considering official Beta-readers instead of the one friend I have reading it now.

Has anyone written up stats for a Naagloshii? I have some written but before I post anything I wanted to get some thoughts as my regular group will be facing one in the next session and I' d like to come up with something powerful but not impossible. I'm more specifically interested in what kind of catches one would have for Recovery/Toughness and/or Physical Immunity.

I did a quick search but didn't find any threads om handling Mass Combat so I thought I'd start one, though I know DFRPG isn't really a game of Mass Combats, more small skirmishes.
The last session of our game was an Epic battle that took place in the Everglades and involved something over 100 bodies on both sides and naturally this got fairly complex and while I did a good job writing up the NPC's I didn't exactly have much of a plan of action in place for handling the actual combat so things got a lot complex, even after enlisting the help of Bobjob to Co-Gm one of the major bad-guy groups and gave control of the Allied groups to the players (each player had 1 block of allies to control). In the end I wasn't totally satisfied how things worked out and I know there will be another battle in the future, though nowhere near as many bodies, and I'd like to try to avoid the same problems in the future.
One of the problems I had was my map was far to complex, being an art major tends to do that though, so next time I'll set things up a tad more abstractly with just a loose map of the zones instead of the details of whats in each zone.
The biggest problem was that as a result of the sheer numbers of beings involved the role-play was at a minimum and everything devolved down to a numbers game, so the important dramatic scenes that should have occur did not occur because there was too much going on. I the future I can partially control this by reducing the numbers involved and/or relegating lesser NPC's to side-tasks so that the PC's can focus on the main goals. But to add a sense of chaotic battle I'd like to have some kind of Mechanic to determine how they fare.
What I had been doing is when NPC groups clash the controller rolled a Regular Attack but added one for every 2 people involved on that side and could divide the end result amongst the enemy targets as a Spray attack of sorts. Problem is that the enemies only got a single defense roll with no modifiers, which was fine if it was a whole bunch of NPC's ganging up on One target, but didn't work so well for group on group.
[Apologies to Fred and Company for mentioning another game but its for purposes of an example, but I'll remove it if asked]
One of the best simple ways I've seen mass combat handled was in the Legend of the Five Rings (and 7th sea) System where each round the characters chose what level of battle they wanted to be involved in (back, front, in the thick etc...) then each side would have a Commander and the two commanders would roll off every round using a tactics skill to see who "Won" that round and battle continued until a certain number of successes were achieved to determine the outcome of the battle. During each round individual characters would roll their own Tactics and compare the result against a chart of whether their side was winning, losing or tied and where they were in the battle. The result would determine how much damage they took each round, damage in battle being inevitable, as well as how much glory they earned (Important for L5R) and if there were any "Special Events" such as a chance to seize the enemy Banner, getting a shot at an Enemy Commander or a chance for a one-on-one duel or small melee.Various modifiers like types of armor or special tactical school training would adjust the results as well. The rounds would continue until one side achieved it's target number of successes and the battle ended.
I can see doing something similar for the DFRPG; A Zone Map is made up ahead of time as well as a list of objectives. Each side picks a Commander to roll the overall result, using Scholarship (with some Trappings/Stunts for Tactics and such), then each round the Characters choose what zone they want to be in and roll on a chart with modifiers for type of Weapon used (Weapons, Fists, Ranged, Guns or Magic) as well as type of Defenses used (Physical, Magical or Barriers etc...) to determine how much damage they take or the enemy takes and any opportunities to achieve an objective for that Zone. Hrmm Doing it this way mat require a chart for each zone so it may be easier to have a chart with a list of Zone Types (Lightly Engaged, Average Engagement, Heavily Engaged etc...) then each Zone on the Zone Map is listed a given type. Changing Zones would have to be declared at the beginning of each round, and moving from lightly engaged to heavily should not be possible without passing through a medium engagement zone first.
I know it sounds a little confusing, especially if you've never played L5R or any system with a similar set-up before, but I'll try to come up with a better example in the net few days including a Chart for the Zone types etc...for now I just wanted to get the ball rolling and get some thoughts put out there.

So I'm working on a character for an upcoming mini-game set in WWII. The character I'm currently looking at is essentially a Doppleganger, able to steal the form, abilities, powers, skills etc...of anyone he consumes. A lot of this can be done with the existing rules but there were certain things that could not be done and after discussing things with the GM and some others we started talking about variations on powers and such and I finally sat down to write up the ideas into a cohesive and balanced (I hope) Power and below is what I have come up with.

[-Varies] Zoophagus Mimicry (Doppleganger)
Description: You are able to mimic the abilities of another person, at least to an extent.
Musts: Like the Mimic Ability and Modular Ability Powers you must set aside a number of points of your refresh equal to the maximum total refresh value of any mortal stunts, skills or supernatural abilities that you wish to copy from a target. You must also take at least the Inhuman Recovery power, if not greater, with a [+4] Catch of Cold Iron.
Skills Affected: Many
Effects:
Feeding Dependency – As the Power, requires regular consumption of fresh meat and blood.
Human Guise – As the Power.
Mimic Form – You are able to perfectly mimic the appearance of a target, but in order to do so you must consume the Skin and eyes of targets face. Otherwise this works the same as the Mimic Form Power (+4 to disguise checks).
Shapeshifting – You may gain the ability to take the form of any beast if you consume the beast’s Heart. This otherwise works exactly like the Beast Change power, however you must take a moderate physical consequence as a result of the change. All others powers are still retained from Mimic Power, except for any Beast Powers which are now replaced by the Beast Powers of the new form. Like the Mimic Power ability below, you can swap back to a previous beast-form by taking a moderate physical consequence, but you can only do so if you do not currently have a moderate physical consequence.
Mimic Power – You may gain the supernatural powers or mortal stunts of a target by eating the target’s Heart or Brain. This will naturally kill the target dead and is generally considered bad form. Like Mimic Ability you may keep a current Power Configuration as long as you like, but if you consume another Heart to gain a new set of powers the existing set will be replaced by the new set.
In addition you may take an Extreme Consequence (Your choice of Physical, Mental, or Social) to permanently learn that power configuration, but the aspect change you gain becomes permanently attached to that power configuration. You may change to any previous power configuration, by taking the same extreme consequence that you took for that set of powers the last time you gained them. When swapping tin this way the extreme consequence aspect attached to the new configuration will replace the aspect gained from the old configuration. So keep track of whom you’ve eaten and the powers and skills they had.
[Note: The Extreme Aspect for this use of the Power will never go away, as such characters with this Power may take as second Extreme Consequence of the same type for mitigating damage etc…however it also counts as an additional taggable aspect for those who know it exists]
Skill Shuffle – Anytime you consume a Targets Heart or Brain to gain their Stunts or powers you may also opt to shuffle your Skills around to match the target’s skills. The new set of skills becomes part of the current power configuration and will change when the power configuration changes.
True Form – A character with this power may revert to their True Form at any time, losing all existing power configurations (Though they can still revert to previously learned configurations at the usual cost later on), without taking any consequences.  

I'm posting this up here for commentary and review to see how potentially broken this could be. I think I built in enough Consequences (Literally) for using the power (Societal consequences aside) that I think it's self-balancing and possibly over-correcting, but that's why I'm posting it here.
Yes this is a gruesome ability and most GM's may not want to allow it on that basis alone, but given the additional societal consequences and stigmata involved...and it makes for a nice power for an NPC as well.

As a note; the name I chose comes from the psychological condition "Zoophagus Mania" which is the condition Renfield Suffered from in the original Dracula Novels. It was a condition in which the victim believes they can gain power from eating animals and occasionally people, so highly apropos.

Been a while since I posted but wanted to share a scenario from our most recent session that everyone seemed to enjoy that involved inter-party conflict, though in this case it was a social conflict.

The set-up for the scenario involves them searching through a cruise ship, in this case an updated sister ship of the Titanic called the Queen Anne, for the drummer maintaining the necromantic ritual that had brought a sunken naval destroyer to the surface along with its complement of now zombified crew who had been boarding the cruise ship and attacking everything in sight.
So they get to the No.5 Hold, defeat the Renfield's at the door, get inside and pinpoint the Drumming to a large pile of crates in the middle but as the begin to remove crates to get to the center one of the characters is mentally attacked by the unknown baddy they can't see yet who tries to dominate him into stopping the others from removing the crates and I tagged an aspect of his in addition and he accepted (Fate point whore!). Which lead into the Social Combat / Mexican standoff as he pointed his gun at one character and another character (an FBI agent who didn't like him to begin with) pointed his gun at him. This lead to several rounds of social challenges of deceit and intimidation or presence while he tried to convince them to stop, they were confused and trying to get him to stand down etc etc etc...and every round the baddy continued the domination until they finally defeated him (earning him bonus Fate Points for being "taken out") and the baddy switched to a new target.

The upshot is that Social or Mental Combat can prove to be just as challenging and fun as Physical Combat!
I think I read somewhere or was falsely told somewhere that characters couldn't run social or mental challenges against each other, but if you can shoot at each other, why not? The difficulty in this particular scenario is in having good enough role-players that won't act on out-of-game knowledge and fortunately my players are all excellent role-players so the scenario was a lot of fun! So don't be afraid to use social Combat to talk down a character that is about to do something stupid, sometimes failure can be rewarding!

I have a new player coming into my game and we've been working on his concept a bit but a question has come up I wanted to put out there. The High Aspect is going to be along the lines of "Former Denarian Sorcerer" and as can be imagined the character is a Denarian who gave up his coin and in the process lost all of his Powers, both Denarian-granted and most of the ones he was born with. Essentially making him a burn-out Sorcerer (Maybe form White Council Wizard, we're still working on the details) with lots of knowledge but a jacked-up body and almost certain brain damage.
The Question is, as a Denarian he no doubt broke many of the Laws of Magic and probably on Multiple Occasions, but while under the influence he was technically no longer human so would the White Council have any cause to pursue him as a Lawbreaker now that he has been freed from that influence. i.e. would he held accountable for his actions while he was a Denarian now that he is no longer? I suppose the argument may have to be based on whether he was fully invested and in cahoots with the fallen or if he was an unwilling victim. But I'm curious to get some thoughts on the subject as it could affect the actual character creation from the get-go. Odds are he will still have the "Law-Breaker" power to represent that temptation to regain his power.

I've been looking through the Rules a bit more, both here and on the forums and I recently noticed something about "Mooks" not talking consequences and upon thinking I am sort of already doing something similar except the mooks in my game could take Consequences, though that will be changing in the future.
I have played a game I very much love and will likely play or run again called "7th Sea" that is a swashbuckling game with a heavy storytelling and heroic dramatics emphasis, so much of the combat was fast and furious, not to mention fun! But one of my favorite concepts was the idea of "Brute Squads"...yes borrowed from the Princess Bride. There were the Major Villains who were equal or more powerful versions of the PC's and could take as much damage or more than a PC before falling. Their Lieutenants/Minions who could take a few hits before dropping and then there were the brute squads. At the basic level each Brute Squad consisted of 6 people and would have a threat rating from 1-4 assigned to them. Their threat rating was effectively their combat skill for offense and defense as well as for damage. One hit to a squad would take out a single member and characters could take raises to increase how many members of the squad they could hit, thus ensuring fun combats against heroic battles against hordes of foes. And as members dropped so would their threat rating (i.e. if it was a threat 3 squad then every 2 members knocked out would drop their threat by 1). 
So I'm planning to work on a way to incorporate similar rules into DFRPG as a way to a: speed up combat and b: make combat more heroic while explaining how a small group of people could fend off a small Horde of Grigs or whatnot...

In essence this will actually translate rather easily;
Threat Rating equals their Skill Rating for attack, defense and possibly other skills if needed;
i.e. Threat 2 = +2 on attack and +2 on defense and/or athletics
Each successful Hit on an attack drops one member of the group.
A 6-member Threat 2 group would lose one Threat for every 3 members lost.
The Threat rating equals their Weapon/damage Rating.
The trick is you can "Flavor" the brute Squad for flavor with different bonuses based on the type of Brute;
example 1: 6-member Brute Squad of Half-Trolls might be Threat 4 and each member can take an additional hit unless cold iron is used.
example 2: 8-member Pixie Squad might be Threat 1 but they lose two members per hit and get to add half their numbers to their Damage Rating.
example 3: 6-member SWAt Team might be Threat 3 but they have Armor 1 per 2 members so they remove 1 hit each time the squad is hit. In addition they might have a Hit Bonus equal to Half Their numbers, but only for purposes of Spray Fire (to reflect automatic weapons).

Naturally this will require some play-testing to work out the kinks but I've used similar rules in other games and it always adds a fun element to various combat scenes and I have high hopes that it will add to the DFRPG system as well.