Author Topic: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!  (Read 11236 times)

Offline Richard_Chilton

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New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« on: September 07, 2011, 05:47:00 PM »
It's been mentioned elsewhere, but I thought this deserved its own thread:
http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/2011/09/06/new-free-casefile-evil-acts/

Is a new case file.  No, I haven't looked at it yet - but odds are it's a good one.

Maybe we should have sticky that lists all the case files?

Richard

Offline chadu

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2011, 06:03:03 PM »
Also, you can see some "DVD extras" for Evil Acts over here:

http://chadu.livejournal.com/788733.html

Chad Underkoffler
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Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2011, 07:30:16 PM »
They worry about page counts on free PDFs?

Weird... But that stuff does add to the document.

And it's good.  The only nitpick I can make is when they give sample questions for the characters the characters are listed only by first name but refer to other characters by last name.

EG:
Jean, who are you currently defending Prospero and Miranda from? (Does not have to connect with Frost’s answer.)

"Frost" doesn't get asked a question - but Taylor (as in Taylor Frost) is.


Of course this is after they introduce the characters (giving full names and a line long summary) so it's just a minor thing.

Richard

Offline Ubbi

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2011, 01:44:12 AM »
Also, you can see some "DVD extras" for Evil Acts over here:

http://chadu.livejournal.com/788733.html

Hey Chad.  This is Tate.  The poor schlub who wrote the original manuscript.  It's great to see how you took my original fever-filled ramblings and actually made them coherent.  Great job on making something that I mostly had written down on napkins and food wrappers into something that actually works.
There is no situation, no matter how overwhelming, that can not be overcome through logic and a liberal application of C-4.

Offline chadu

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2011, 03:49:21 AM »
Hey Chad.  This is Tate.  The poor schlub who wrote the original manuscript.  It's great to see how you took my original fever-filled ramblings and actually made them coherent.  Great job on making something that I mostly had written down on napkins and food wrappers into something that actually works.

Tate Ricker, people. Give him some respect and love! WHOO!

(Major fist-bump, dude!  )

Your core ideas + my pedantic English major lit-crit crap = (maybe) something interesting and fun for people to roleplay with!

If you wanna, contribute here or on my linked (above) LJ post on "DVD extras" on your process, play, construction, and experience -- that could give different groups different play-style approaches to this casefile. (Note that we've already seen people posting -- positively! -- about the version you ran last year.)

Hey, you and I could even have a dialogue over the different drafts, if you're interested in that.

For example, your original draft is much more con-slot constructed; the draft I did is more amorphous. Draft 1 would give a satisfying play-thru in 4 hrs; draft 2 might play-thru (satisfying or unsatisfying; nothing is assured) from anywhere from about 2 hrs to 6.

So, it sounds like we could talk about pacing and stuff like that. If you want to, cool; if not, cool.
Chad Underkoffler
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Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2011, 04:56:16 AM »
Read it, liked it.

Finally realized that the casefiles use the same naming convention as the Dresden novels. Feel a bit dumb for not realizing earlier.

DVD extras are great. Would appreciate more of the sort, there are a lot of intriguing loose ends in this casefile.

Have a fair number of nitpicks, but don't want to intrude. Are you guys looking for critiques?
« Last Edit: September 08, 2011, 09:47:30 PM by Sanctaphrax »

Offline Rubycon

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2011, 06:13:59 AM »
I like "Evil Acts" a lot. In my humble opinion, it is the best of the free downloadable adventures and I will integrate it in my campaign.
I also like the DVD extras, they help me a lot. I just began to read "The Tempest" and getting some inspiration is great! :D

Offline Doc Chaos

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2011, 10:09:38 AM »
There is a small... error? inconsistency? in Alex Cross char sheet/description. In the char sheet it says "Incite Emotion: Desire", but in the description it is (as I assume, correctly) labelled "Incite Emotion: Inspiration".

Other than that, awesome work. Again. I truly wish there were more companies like Evil Hat.
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Offline chadu

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2011, 11:34:07 AM »
Have a fair number of nitpicks, but don't want to intrude. Are you guys looking for critiques?

Feel free... It's the Internet! ;)

Note that I personally am only going to be so-so on discussing nuts and bolts mechanics, except the weird tweaks I threw in that got vetted (Sycorax's slowly expanding whammy and the 1dF NPC vs. NPC quicky resolution).
Chad Underkoffler
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Offline Ubbi

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #9 on: September 08, 2011, 01:37:07 PM »
Tate Ricker, people. Give him some respect and love! WHOO!

(Major fist-bump, dude!  )

Your core ideas + my pedantic English major lit-crit crap = (maybe) something interesting and fun for people to roleplay with!

If you wanna, contribute here or on my linked (above) LJ post on "DVD extras" on your process, play, construction, and experience -- that could give different groups different play-style approaches to this casefile. (Note that we've already seen people posting -- positively! -- about the version you ran last year.)

Hey, you and I could even have a dialogue over the different drafts, if you're interested in that.

For example, your original draft is much more con-slot constructed; the draft I did is more amorphous. Draft 1 would give a satisfying play-thru in 4 hrs; draft 2 might play-thru (satisfying or unsatisfying; nothing is assured) from anywhere from about 2 hrs to 6.

So, it sounds like we could talk about pacing and stuff like that. If you want to, cool; if not, cool.

Chad,

I'm all for discussing the process the case file went through. I enjoyed creating and running it for the con and then attempting to flesh it out for you guys.  I'm not a writer by any means and would love to hear more of your process of expanding and tweaking my ideas.  Along with any suggestions you have for how to better plot out a story line.

There is no situation, no matter how overwhelming, that can not be overcome through logic and a liberal application of C-4.

Offline chadu

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #10 on: September 08, 2011, 03:09:28 PM »
    I'm all for discussing the process the case file went through. I enjoyed creating and running it for the con and then attempting to flesh it out for you guys.  I'm not a writer by any means and would love to hear more of your process of expanding and tweaking my ideas.  Along with any suggestions you have for how to better plot out a story line.

    Cool. If folks want to see some "behind the scenes" discussion of how the RPG sausage gets made, here's your chance!

    I will be tagging all material from or developed for the published version of the casefile with SPOILER tags, just in case.

    Okay! Tate's original version of the casefile is quite different than the published one. It's more up-front investigative, over three or four scenes, where all the various clues eventually lead the PCs to the performance/ritual. Looks to work pretty well in that regard. Also, proto-Prospero is a sorcerer and worshipper of proto-Sycorax (a plague demon), and is purposefully trying to summon her.

    The published version's set-up is different (see below).

    Let me ask you a few questions:
    • Where did you get your basic ideas for the casefile's plot?
    • How did you select/develop NPCs and PCs?
    • How did you arrange your scenes?
    • How did it play at the con -- what worked really well in it and what didn't work as well?

    From my end, here's some non-spoiler ideas I had when I heard about the first draft.

    The plot had to do with The Tempest, and I:
    • Was jazzed by that.
    • Expected a strong influence by the text of the play upon the casefile (on themes, plot, characters, and "color").
    • Expected some theater-related interesting bits of blocking, business, terminology, etc.
    • Started wondering how The Tempest translates in the Dresdenverse.

    I think everyone reading can agree you'd get all that from the casefile's blurb, right?

    Okay, let's go to SPOILERTOWN...

    (click to show/hide)

    So, yeah.

    I'll be interested to hear how this version plays "in the wild."



    [/list]
    « Last Edit: September 08, 2011, 05:48:17 PM by chadu »
    Chad Underkoffler
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    Offline iago

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    Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
    « Reply #11 on: September 08, 2011, 04:28:25 PM »
    There is a small... error? inconsistency? in Alex Cross char sheet/description. In the char sheet it says "Incite Emotion: Desire", but in the description it is (as I assume, correctly) labelled "Incite Emotion: Inspiration".

    Other than that, awesome work. Again. I truly wish there were more companies like Evil Hat.

    Yep, that's a goof, sorry about that. I'll put it in the list of things that should be tweaked -- I don't want to upload a new version every time I change a single thing, so i'm gonna let it ride for a few days.
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    Offline chadu

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    Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
    « Reply #12 on: September 08, 2011, 05:43:25 PM »
    They worry about page counts on free PDFs?

    Weird... But that stuff does add to the document.

    Not to speak for Fred, but only for myself as a nano-publisher, it makes sense to worry more about wordcount/pagecounts on a free PDF: it's taking up resources (writers, artists, editors, layout artists, publishers, money, time, sweat, etc.) for no direct revenue.

    There's a good argument that free material can generate intangible assets like goodwill and "free" advertising (and I agree with that argument!), but measuring the actual bottom-line impact of intangibles is 90% a gut-feeling process.

    Does that make sense?
    Chad Underkoffler
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    Offline Ubbi

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    Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
    « Reply #13 on: September 08, 2011, 07:02:18 PM »
      Cool. If folks want to see some "behind the scenes" discussion of how the RPG sausage gets made, here's your chance!

      I will be tagging all material from or developed for the published version of the casefile with SPOILER tags, just in case.

      Okay! Tate's original version of the casefile is quite different than the published one. It's more up-front investigative, over three or four scenes, where all the various clues eventually lead the PCs to the performance/ritual. Looks to work pretty well in that regard. Also, proto-Prospero is a sorcerer and worshipper of proto-Sycorax (a plague demon), and is purposefully trying to summon her.

      The published version's set-up is different (see below).
    Oddly enough, the original adventure, which I ran at Origin's for the DFRPG release, was closer to the final published version than the final draft I turned in.  I'll come back to that.

    As some of what's listed could be construed as spoilerish, we'll continue with the spoiler alert.

    (click to show/hide)

    And that is the first manuscript I turned originally turned in.   But, the editor felt it was too narrow and unbelievable.  He thought it should appeal to groups wanting to play their own characters and have the potential to be part of an on-going campaign.  From that advice, I added in a lot more investigating that could happen before the play happens.  I gave the characters more clues to find before the show that would allow them to realize something was up and prepare for it.  I stated up Sycorax and changed her from an outsider to a demon, as that was also suggested.  I added all of that together and that is the version that was passed on to Chad.

    In all honesty, I didn't feel as connected to the new stuff.  I didn't feel it was bad but it wasn't what I'd ever had in my head.[/list]
    There is no situation, no matter how overwhelming, that can not be overcome through logic and a liberal application of C-4.

    Offline Ubbi

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    Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
    « Reply #14 on: September 08, 2011, 07:04:42 PM »
    Not to speak for Fred, but only for myself as a nano-publisher, it makes sense to worry more about wordcount/pagecounts on a free PDF: it's taking up resources (writers, artists, editors, layout artists, publishers, money, time, sweat, etc.) for no direct revenue.

    There's a good argument that free material can generate intangible assets like goodwill and "free" advertising (and I agree with that argument!), but measuring the actual bottom-line impact of intangibles is 90% a gut-feeling process.

    Does that make sense?

    Knowing how much work you and the other Evil Hatters had to put into this and the fact they got someone to do art, it's entirely reasonable to keep things lean and mean.
    There is no situation, no matter how overwhelming, that can not be overcome through logic and a liberal application of C-4.