Is it really so uncommon to want to play a Dresden game that looks like a Dresden story instead of dungeons and dragons in a modern setting?
Here's the problem a lot of GMs (myself included) run onto when running a game, and especially a game that's heavily invested in a well-known published setting...
Designing and running role playing adventures and campaigns is NOT the same as writing a novel. It can't be. Many of the best plot-developing tricks and techniques that work for one are complete disaster for the other. Here's why:
- You do not have complete control over the characters and story.
- You are dealing with a group of protagonists, rather than a single hero.
- You are subject to semi-random outcomes based on dice rolls.
For inspiration, momentarily forget the novels and look to other television shows and movies that focus on teams of characters that work together to investigate and solve problems.
If you want the adventures to look like a Dresden story then, with all due respect, stop playing the game and go write some fan-fiction. Otherwise, present your players and their characters with some interesting scenarios, let them run with it, and have the Dresdenverse react accordingly to their actions. For me, at least, half the fun of GMing is not just creating that initial setup, but not knowing exactly how the "story" will pan out because I can't always predict how my players will act.
That said, understand that your players are probably playing this way, because A) that's how they've always played, and B) it's fun for them. They don't have any incentive to change their play style. Unfortunately, I don't now your group well enough to help on that front -- that's going to be a fix that needs to be tailored to you particular players.
In the meantime, consider taking a more "Big Trouble In Little China" route for the game... The threats are serious and dangerous, but the heroes are allowed to indulge in sardonic (and occasionally bumbling) comic relief to preserve their sanity from That Which Man Was Not Meant To Know.
Also understand that, on a personal level, most people have more than enough drama and enough problems that need to be taken entirely too seriously in their Real Lives to begin with. Deep down, they don't really want to deal with those same sorts of emotions while playing a hobby meant to help them decompress and relieve the stress and frustration and such that builds up from those same emotions in the Real World. Generally, with a few exceptions, people playing RPGs are looking for the action, adventure and humor that you always see in movies and novels, but almost never in the Real World.
