Category Archives: Dresden Files Playtest

I’m back. Did you miss me?

xiaolung says:

I am in the midst of creating my own Jade Court vampires for my Dresdenized Hong Kong and I think I’ve got some great ideas for it. I’ve got their basic history, who they are and what they are doing – even a reason why they are so secretive and why there are so few of them. I’ll actually stat them out later (when I’ve got all the books and all the material). But right now, the ideas have been flowing like water.

If I use this material (over 1,000 words so far) for a Dresden game, I would like it to be compatible (at least in background terms) with the DFRPG. While I am pumped about the game, I would like to see if I can complete the writeup for the Jade Court. But I can’t complete that until I know what those few paragraphs on the Jade Court actually say.

Can you give me the lowdown on what those few paragraphs say about the Jade Court? Just summarize. Not word for word.

Thanks.

Well, you don’t have much to worry about, there. The section on the Jade Court says,  basically, they’re based in Asia, they’re well-entrenched and well-hidden, like to stay out of the public eye, and may have significant political and social influence in the mortal world. No one who knows anything about them, including the other Vampire Courts, is willing to talk about them, and that they have had some interaction with Shiro Yoshimo (Knight of the Cross) and possibly Ancient Mai. Oh, and they’re not involved in the current Vampire War with the White Council.

That’s about it.

John Hawkins says:

I’m very interested in the toolkit aspects of the game (I’m super excited about DFRPG as a — for me — drop in replacement for White Wolf, but I’m also very excited about applying the rules in other genres). To what extent are more Marvel Comics style powers represented in the base game? (e.g. Mr. Fantastic’s flexibility, or Iceman’s ability to fire freeze beams.)

Assuming those things aren’t represented directly, can you flex the toolkit a bit for us and examine how those might be constructed for a Flexible Freeze Monster in Dresden’s Chicago?

In particular I’m interested in how such a thing might function _outside_ the auspices of magic power per se. Presumably a creature that can spit acid doesn’t need to take a 3-refresh (equiv. to Evocation) power and put points in three separate skills towards that end, but I’m not sure how that works in costing and creating systems for non-magical (i.e. less flexible) powers.

Thanks!

Well, this isn’t a generic game. It’s specifically tailored to produce a modern supernatural play experience. So pretty much everything is explained and described in terms of magic. That said, a lot of the Supernatural Powers can be described differently, with different origins and power sources, if that’s what you want. Spitting acid? Easy. Take the Breath Weapon power (-2) and up your Weapons skill. Ice Blasts? Still easy. Take the Channeling power (-2) and boost your Conviction and Discipline. Elasticity? That’s a little more difficult. I’d go with Modular Abilities from the Shapeshifting category, and dump 4-6 Refresh into it, which the player could then use to buy other powers as he shifts his body into the appropriate forms.

It’s doable, but it’ll take some prep work and judgment calls on the part of the GM to make it run smoothly. Of course, we could just bat our eyes and beg Evil Hat to make a Superhero Fate game, right? Or check out Truth & Justice, from Atomic Sock Monkey.

Bosh says:

Thanks for doing this, you are very awesome indeed.

Aw, shucks. You’re gonna make me blush!

Two vampy questions:

“You can recover one point of Hunger stress per scene that you skip to spend feeding”

Does this mean that your character sits out a scene without doing anything?

Essentially. You’re character is off-stage, doing the feeding thing, and not involved in the current scene. Now, before people get all steamed about that, they talk about sitting out scenes as a game mechanic in another spot – preparing for casting a Thaumaturgic ritual – and they bring up the fact that that’s kinda boring. They suggest using it only if it fits the mood, or if someone is going to pick up pizza, or something like that. Personally, I find that a lot of games have scenes where the characters scatter for a bit to take care of personal things, and that’s a good time for someone to take care of that little hunger thing. I’d also say that cut scenes (“Okay, so now you’re waiting for midnight. Now it’s midnight.”) are a perfect kind of scene for the character to miss without the player being left out of stuff. And downtime (“It’s been three days game-time since the last session.”) is a perfect excuse to clear out the Hunger stress track entirely. On the other hand, you’re getting a point of Refresh back for taking the Feeding Dependency, so it’s gotta cause you some difficulties, right?

And I don’t want to give you the impression that after every action scene a Red Court Infected character is going to need to sit out the next four scenes to feed. There’s a roll based on what powers you used during the scene to see if you take Hunger stress, so if your Discipline is strong, you’re going to be able to go a while before you need to feed. It’s a complication, not an eternal punishment.

For White Court Virgins what do they DO mechanically? In the book they seem like normal old vanilla humans except for the chance that they can turn into vampires if they kill someone, they don’t seem to have any of the powers that Red Court Infected do.

White Court Virgins start with the powers Emotional Vampire and Incite Emotion (Touch). It’s not a whole lot, but it does leave more Refresh for Fate Points or other powers they buy outside of their template.

Sephilum says:

The Merlin sounds like he’s pretty strong. But is there anyone tougher stated up in the book?

Rechan got this one in the comment thread. Thanks, Rechan!

Jon Hammersley says:

One more reason to go with preorder is to get the .pdf file so that you can eliminate (or at least reduce) the amount of page turning that you have to do. Cut and paste is your friend with electronic documents.

1. I know I keep going back to the well on this, but what does it cost to use a stunt in play (i.e. SotC has some that require a fate point and some that do not).

Most Mortal Stunts do not require anything to use in play except the correct circumstances. Some of the more powerful ones will require a Fate Point, though. There’s a nice list of stunts in the book, but these are more by way of example of how to build your own stunts using the guidelines they give you.

2. While I’m sure that there is quite a bit of information about the standard (Dresdenversse) magical forces and what you can do with them, I’m curious as to how much information is spent discussing other cultures’ forms of magic (Voodoo, etc) and how they translate to the system. Do they all have members attached to the Whitel Council or are some magical traditions considered “outside” their control (Fey sponsored magic for instance).

There are descriptions of what you can do with Seelie and Unseelie magic (the two flavours of faerie Sponsored Magic). Because of the allegiance to the Courts, these practitioners are outside the purview of the White Council. As for different magical traditions, there’s a discussion of how different Wizards will use their own cultural trappings for their magic, whether they are members of the White Council or not. The mechanics are all the same, but the types of ritual, focus items, and other trappings reflect the symbology and outlook of the originating culture.

Because the source material deals almost exclusively with the White Council as the governing body of magic in the world, there’s not a lot of information out there on other traditions of magic. Sponsored magic is outside the Council’s bailiwick, and minor talents are generally seen as beneath them. That said, the Circle has been rearing it’s head, and they get a mention, and there are some solo practitioners, though the Wardens try to hunt these down before they do any real damage. And they definitely hunt them down after they do real damage.

Well, at least before the war.

3. Will we see guidelines for playing Fey characters? I’ve been thinking of a concept that involves some poor mortal who was tricked into switching bodies with one of the Fey (who got killed while inhabiting the mortal body) and get’s stuck that way (or vice versa). If nothing else it makes for a fun time trying to fix the situation (not to mention moral dilemma of where to get a body).

You bet. Some of the minor fey, as well as Changelings, make great characters at different power levels. And your concept could work very well even with a Pure Mortal, if you take the right Aspects.

vultur says:

Going with Sephilum’s question: Are any of the high-level Fae statted? Aurora, Lily, Maeve? Leanansidhe, the Erlking, the Eldest Gruff? Mab or Titania *shudder*?

As noted above, the Evil Hat folks have (quite rightly, in my opinion) decided that most of the heavy hitters are more plot devices than characters for statting. They’ve statted up Aurora and Lily, but the Queens and Mothers, the Erlking and Lea, and the Eldest Gruff are powerful enough that giving them stats is kind of pointless. Even for the Ladies, they list their stats as a sort of starting point, implying that they may have more powers that people just don’t know about.

And what about Dragons?

Ferrovax is statted up, but again, it’s listed as a starting point.

Lanodantheon says:

1. What does the Scholarship skill do?

Bosh jumped on board with the answer to this one. Thanks, Bosh! Two things I want to add: first, Scholarship is what you generally use to do research. Second, Scholarship is one of the key skills for make Declarations and Assessments about things that your character may have no direct knowledge of. As such, it’s handy.

2. How do you do Hexenwolves or Hexenbears? Do they always carry serious consequences like madness or does it vary by the sponsor(A demon vs. a Great Wolf Spirit)?

Hexen-creatures are just like were-creatures, with the addition of Item of Power and Demonic Co-Pilot. Negotiation with the GM could change the spirit of Demonic Co-Pilot to something like a Great Wolf Spirit, as you suggest, but the main point is that the sponsor has an agenda, and you have made a commitment to help it in return for its gifts. So, not necessarily madness, but it does carry consequences. For the Wolf Spirit idea, I could see the character becoming alienated from the rest of humanity, caring less about human laws than the simple black and white of an animal’s mindset, and things like that.

3. How do you do an Ascension Rite like the one described in Welcome to The Jungle? What would be its in-game effects?

Had to re-read the comics before I could answer this one. (Oh, no! What a hardship! ;)) Here’s my take:

First of all, the hag took decades to gather what she needed. It also seemed to take place in stages. And it confers godlike power, but makes you “more of what you are.” Sounds like a stat-less plot device ritual to me. In a game, I wouldn’t work out stats for it, because the PCs would stop it before it gets completed. That’s the whole point, right? But I’ve got to plan for an interesting failure, as well, so I’d probably work out what the hag’s agenda was once she completed the ritual. And if she did complete the ritual, I’d give her power roughly on a par with the Faerie Queens, at least, meaning she becomes a plot device, as well.

But that doesn’t really answer the question, does it?

If I needed for some reason to make this ritual by the book, I’d set the complexity up around 76 (ruling that transforming oneself so completely means having to overcome the Physical, Mental, and Social stress tracks and consequences for the hag), which means that even the canny Hecatean Hag is going to have to spend some extensive time preparing the spell with researching the ritual, gathering the materials, and arranging the appropriate power sources. It also means the actual casting time is going to be quite extended, which is why it’s happening in stages (which the rules really don’t cover, but it makes sense to me).

And if the ritual is completed and goes off? Well, first of all, “becoming more of what you are” sounds a whole lot like losing a bunch of free will and becoming an NPC to me, so anyone completing it loses all unspent Refresh and Fate Points. And then they gain the power of a Faerie Queen, becoming a plot device character set on an agenda and set of goals dictated by the character’s Aspects.

(Well, if you really have to have some stats for this, let’s say they must immediately spend all their unspent Refresh on new powers, and then spend another amount equal to their new total of spent Refresh on more new powers. This’ll set them with a real Fate Point deficit, which means that they are constantly being compelled by their own Aspects. Great power, but more of what you are.)

How does that sound?

Keep ’em coming, folks. I’ve got an unrelated update that’s going to go up this afternoon or evening, but I’ll have another Q&A post tomorrow if I get more questions.

Big wheel keeps on turnin’…

Rechan says:

Since we know that Red Court infected go over if they taste blood, and White Court virgins kill the first person they feed on… how do you “take the time to feed”? If you “feed”, you go over the edge into Monsterland. So how do you handle that? Is there any advice to how to describe being “taken out”?

First off, White Court Virgins don’t need to take the Feeding Dependency, so that’s not an issue for them. Red Court Infected do need to take the Feeding Dependency, but they don’t go over to the dark side for tasting blood – only if they kill while feeding. You can recover one point of Hunger stress per scene that you skip to spend feeding, or you can regain all your Hunger stress in a single scene if you feed deeply enough to kill. Which might be a cool way to have a character sacrifice himself/herself in play, killing to feed in order to regain the power needed to save the rest of the party, and then retiring to NPC land afterwards as a very interesting new enemy.

As to being taken out, that’s actually a game term, meaning the character is out of the fight. The book recommends that in this particular case, taken out can mean things like being too weak to continue, or mindless with hunger. If the GM is feeling stroppy, this would be a good time to drop some compels on the character, encouraging feeding.

Or would that be too nasty? 😉

I’m going to take a guess that the powers on an enemy’s statblock is going to require a lot of referencing, yeah? So if the monster has “Supernatural Speed”, you’re going to either need to reference what that is, or write it down somewhere, aren’t you?

(I’ve been spoiled by D&D 4e statblocks)

Yeah, you’re going to have to do more looking things up than in D&D 4E. On the other hand, there’s a significantly smaller set of powers, so it’s much more reasonable to expect to gain some mastery over it so that you don’t have to look things up all the time. And things like Supernatural Speed tend to mainly give bonuses to other stats on the character sheet.

On the topic of enemies. Based on their statblocks, is there a way to tell how tough a monster is? For instance, “This would be appropriate for ‘Toes in the Water’ level PCs” vs. “This would be appropriate for ‘Submerged’, who have been advanced twice”? Lenny in the Podcast said that he spent a third of a chapter talking about advancing enemies. But I’m curious if there’s any indication on the statblocks currently presented. (For instance, what’s the “level” of a Hecatian Hag?)

Each character and monster statted up in the book has an entry reading Total Refresh Cost. This makes it fairly easy to judge how tough a given foe is compared to your PCs. Playing in a Feet in the Water game? Then things with a -6 or higher Refresh Cost are going to be tougher than the characters. It also allows you to “level up” foes pretty easily – either give them more Stunts or Powers, or give them Fate Points to make up the difference between their Refresh Cost and the power level of the PCs.

Continuing with monsters. We’ve been told time and again that “If it touched me, I’d have been killed”. That’s clear. And that you should pick your battles and be careful. Sure, granted. But for whatever reason, let’s say the fight has to go down. Do PCs have lots of options for ‘keeping it from touching me’? Basically, what’s between them and that Troll picking up a tree to play croquet?

Basically, Fate Points. Spending Fate Points to improve your defense is a key tactic in combat – whether by invoking one of your Aspects (“I invoke my It’s All In The Reflexes Aspect to dodge the tree the troll is swinging”), an Aspect of the scene (“I invoke the Junk Piles Aspect of the scene to duck behind a stack of old refrigerators”), or an Aspect of the foe (“I invoke the Blinded By Sand Aspect I tagged the troll with last exchange to cause his swing to go wild”). Note that, if you tagged the troll with an Aspect through using a Maneuver, you get the invocation for free, without having to spend a Fate Point. This is why Maneuvers are important in combat.

Last Q of the night:

It’s been shown that there are lots of awesome ways to beat the heck out of people physically. Combat is dangerous. Evocation, shotguns, tons of Powers, etc etc. Not to mention armor and all other sorts of things. However. Mental and Social conflicts can equally rack up stress and consequences. Is there anything that you can use in a Mental or Social conflict? Anything that’s equivalent to a weapon, anything you can use to break your competition (or use as a defense!), or is it purely a test of skill vs skill and otherwise you’re on your own?

Well, it’s mostly a test of Skill vs. Skill, but in any such test, Aspects factor hugely. You can build Stunts pretty easily that help you with Social or Mental conflicts, too. There are a few Powers, like Emotion Control, that can directly affect such conflicts, and you can easily work out Thaumaturgical effects that attack Mental or Social stress tracks. Admittedly, none of them are as flashy as having a shotgun in one hand and throwing around fire with the other, but they certainly get the job done.

Iorwerth says:

I noticed you could have stunts that increased strength, toughness and speed. How many different levels are there of these e.g. supernatural, superhuman, inhuman etc? Also, are these the only enhanced stats, or is there superhuman intelligence etc?

Do they give a +2/+4/+6 etc modifier, or do they give +1/+2/+3 etc? I presume enhanced strength stunt can act as a modifier to your Might and would also add in to stress caused by fists, melee weapons etc – would that be right? Toughness subtracts from stress damage? How does increased speed help you out?

There are three levels of each “Stat Booster” Power – Inhuman, Supernatural, and Mythic. There are also a total of three different “Stat Booster” Powers – Speed, Strength, and Toughness.

It’s not quite as clear cut as a straight progression like you have outlined above. Inhuman Strength, for example, gives +3 to Might for purposes of lifting or breaking inanimate objects, +1 to Might when grappling and the ability to inflict a 2-stress hit on a creature you’re grappling as a supplemental action, +2 to damage when using muscle-powered attacks, and always positively modifies other skills that might otherwise be limited by Might. The higher levels do pretty much the same thing, but more.

Toughness can improve recovery times, help your Endurance skill, wipe physical consequences from your character during combat, and at higher levels even grant you Armour and extra physical stress boxes.

Speed can boost your initiative, your Athletics skill, let you move farther in a given turn, and improve your Stealth because you’re moving almost too fast to see.

Rechan says:

To add to Iorwerth’s question, what about Recovery? Does it make consequences heal faster, give you stress boxes back, what?

Recovery is part of Toughness, which both lets consequences and stress hits heal faster and gives you extra stress boxes.

Lanodantheon says:

Dammit I want to play this game the more I hear about it!!!

Then my evil plan is working! Mwahahahahaha!

Anyway, I did think of some good non-random questions.

1. What are the magical elements under Evocation? Is Entropy an element? Related side note: I’ve been pondering for 2 years the idea of a Sorcerer whose shield is Entropy based, a shield redirects forces around him instead of stopping it cold (Kinda looks like Fortune from MGS2)

The book focuses on the western classical elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Spirit. However, there’s a discussion on how casters from different cultures use their own symbology and mystical understanding to work their magic. For example, they point out that Ancient Mai uses the Chinese elements of Metal, Water, Wood, Earth, Fire, and Spirit.

Entropy is generally covered by the erosive, destructive aspects of Water in the basic write-up, as epitomized by Carlos the Warden. That said, most of the side effects of the various elements are pure jazz, and easy to change with the consent of the GM.

2. What is the spectrum of Control, Power and Complexity. Harry is the paragon of Power(A magical Thug). Who are the best examples of Control and Complexity?

As statted in the book, the Merlin is the highest Lore rating (Epic +7) – he hasn’t forgotten more about magic than you’ll ever know, simply because he’s never forgotten anything about magic! The Gatekeeper and Ancient Mai are close seconds. All three of these characters are tied for Discipline (Fantastic +6) – they’ve got tonnes of practice keeping great forces under their control.

3. Related to 2: What’s a Spellcaster with a high Lore and therefore capable of high complexities look like? What’s a character like that good at?

Rechan points out some of the things in the previous comment thread. Thanks, Rechan! Basically, Lore is the foundation that the other two skills build upon. Without Lore, you won’t have much flexibility with the power you can call, and your control over it won’t matter nearly as much because you won’t have the options of calling down the big effects. If you read Turn Coat, look at the description of how the Merlin casts magic – it’s stuff that leaves Harry cold, because he doesn’t even understand some of it.

Thanks again for the info.

You’re welcome again. 😉

BTW, I’ve had to explain the DFRPG character types like 4 times already and whenever I do, I explain minor Talents perfectly with Lucky Firth.

Heh. Yeah, he was a good character – one trick, but it served him very well.

Jon Hammersley says:

Rechan’s question above about social and mental conflicts stress and consequences and it got me thinking about how you could bring these into play.

Aspects like “Knows where the bodies are buried.” could potentially be used to force information out of someone (Social conflict through intimidation?). Protective aspects might include something like “Plays things close to the vest” or “Trust doesn’t come easily”.

Giving an enemy the Aspect of “Sight not meant for mortal eyes” could have an effect on your mental state (If you stare into the abyss, blah blah blah). If you want to play up the horror aspect of a game of mortals vs things that go bump in the night, the mental reprecussions can begin to add up rather quickly forcing some sort of breakdown. Protective aspects might include “I’ve seen it all” or “Clean up, aisle 3″ for characters who have been exposed to these things in the past and have a better understanding of what’s going on.

These are all spot-on. And Intimidation is one of the primary skills used in Social conflict. I really like Clean Up, Aisle 3 as an Aspect, personally.

I’m really beginning to enjoy the idea of aspects and how they can be used in game to bring about situations that advance the game. What’s got me curious is the “stunt” side of things and how wildly different supernatural and mortal stunts are.

FATE is a cool system in many ways, and I like it for a number of reasons. But the main reason I love it is the flexibility, colour, and interesting situations that Aspects bring about.

About Stunts: it’s important to remember that, even though they use the same mechanic to acquire them (spending Refresh), Mortal Stunts and Supernatural Powers are qualitatively different within the game. Mortal Stunts are basically little Skill-based tricks that you can call on in certain situations – things that are possible, even if they may be unlikely. This is stuff like having a special in-depth knowledge of a particular aspect of a given subject, being better at running than at climbing, having friends in high (or low) places, etc. All of these things can also be represented by Aspects, and there’s a great synergy that can come into play if you have both an Aspect and a Stunt that’s applicable in a given situation.

Supernatural Powers are impossible things. They let you fly, or turn into a snake, or summon fire with the force of your sovereign will. They mark the difference between mortals and supernatural creatures, which can be important in the game world. For example, Harry is subject to the Unseelie Accords. Murphy? Not so much. And now we’ve got Marcone straddling that line.

Rechan says:

It seems like the Conviction/Discipline/Lore model is very hardwired together, and to an extent you need all three. Since you have to call up power for a ritual wtih Conviction (and if you exceed it, you take stress). Some with Discipline and evocation unless you’re not concerned about effecting the area around you.

Yup. The three are very intertwined but, as I said above, in many ways, Lore is the foundation.

Which brings me to a new question:

It’s really easy to understand when destructive attacks blow into the environment. If you call up an Evocation that isn’t necessarily Destructive, and it exceeds your discipline… what happens? Let’s say you’re calling up a Spirit evocation to Block an incoming attack (With your Shield Bracelet, let’s say). If the effect blows out into the environment… what happens?

It’s up to the GM, but I might do something like having the pulse of Spirit force that you can’t control splash out around you, knocking things (and people) over, maybe knocking out structural elements of the building, or spilling over into bright light that makes you a target for everyone in the area. This is essentially what happened in the playtest.

Sorry for the massive amount of questions from me today, Rick.

Dude. Never apologize for enthusiasm! That’s why I’m doing this, after all. And I knew what I was getting into.

Tush Hog says:

I’ve got a few questions to throw at you.

How are death curses handled?

Ooooh… Good one. There’s a nice little sidebar in the Thaumaturgy section that explains it. Basically, it’s a ritual with all the preparation and components being represented by the fact that he’s going to die. He can tag all the usual Aspects, as well as all Consequences he’s suffered, and can inflict more Consequences on himself. He can cast it in one round, because he’s not worried about backlash or fallout – he’s dead, after all. This lets it be very powerful, and absolutely devastating, whether it’s a short-term thing (Death-Nuke, anyone?) or a long-term complete transformation of the target’s fate.

In the books there are several instances where one wizard “shuts down” another’s magic. Is that talked about?

For short-term smack-down of a single spell, there’s the counterspell application of Evocation, where you sort of wash out one spell with the raw power you channel. For more long-term solutions, like permanently removing someone’s curse or ability to work magic, Thaumaturgy lets you build a ritual that would work, though that latter application would be difficult.

How tough is Michael?

Pretty tough.

Let me put it this way – he has the same Total Refresh Cost as the write-up of Harry. His Conviction is as strong as Harry’s, he’s got Superb Weapons skill, and a nifty little stunt called Wall of Death. Notice how I haven’t even mentioned the Knight of the Cross or Amoracchius or the armour Charity made him? Yeah. He’s that bad-ass without even getting into that.

Wow. Posts are getting longer because the questions are getting more detailed and the answers to them more complex.

That’s it for tonight. I will not be updating tomorrow evening, because I will be busy running a Spirit of the Century game based on this little treasure. Keep those cards and letters coming in, though, and I will resume answering them on Saturday.

…Proud Harry keeps on burning,

Burning,

Burning,

Burning down Chicago!

Here we go.

Lanodantheon says:

When I asked my question earlier I never got around to mentioning that your playtest campaign greatly amused me 2-fold. I loved the characters and the stories and because my family’s originally from Winnipeg. Reading about it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Cool! You may have already seen it, but this is what we did with Magical Winnipeg, using the original playtest chapter on city building.

Anyway, I got some more questions I hope you could answer:

1. You mentioned that Conviction determines the power you can draw in and Discipline determines your control of backlash, but what does Lore do? I read somewhere that it has something to do with your spell selection.

Lore is very important in Thaumaturgy, because it lets you build the ritual you need for the effect you want. Basically, you can perform rituals with a complexity of your Lore rating or lower off the cuff, but you need to spend time researching, experimenting, and setting up symbolic connections (i.e. make a Lore check) for rituals of greater complexity. For Evocation, your Lore rating determines how many rote Evocation spells you know – these are dependable, relatively safe applications of power. Lore also determines the base power of any enchanted items you create.

2. Items of Power, magical foci and intellect spirits in skulls. How much are these things? I know that crafted items like blasting rods are slot based from the magical abilities you have but what do you use to buy them(in system)?

There are different ways to handle different kinds of enchanted items. Characters with Evocation or Thaumaturgy get a number of slots to spend on focus items (for things like staves and blasting rods). You can trade those in for double the number of enchanted item slots (for things like Harry’s force rings). If you’re looking for something substantially more powerful (like a Sword of the Cross, for example), you can take the Item of Power supernatural power. And you can add some extra flexibility to items that you really depend on by making them Aspects, as well, which makes it easier to spend Fate Points on them when you need to. For something free-willed like an intellect spirit in a skull, to model that in the game, I’d recommend taking it as an Aspect, and maybe a Mortal Stunt or two to have it help you with Lore checks or Investigation. You could still invoke the Aspect with a Fate Point to get it to do some other stuff – like possessing your cat, or whatever.

3. related to 2: Say I’m a 2-bit Sorcerer character who hit it big and scored a major magical item. How expensive are the major magical items like a Shadow Cloak and a broom…no Hockey Stick of Flying.

Well, if you just have Thaumaturgy at the basic level, with no Refinements spent on extra slots, you could have up to four enchanted item slots if you didn’t want any focus items. A Shadow Cloak that adds your Lore to your Stealth skill once per session would cost one slot. If you want it to be always on, it would still cost one slot, but would only add half your Lore to your Stealth. You can bump up the power by one level per extra slot you spend on it.

Now, if you want something with a little more oomph to it, you probably want to take the Item of Power ability from Supernatural Powers. That gives you something a little bit beyond the basics, but it costs Refresh, just like any other Supernatural Power. A Hockey Stick of Flying that lets you fly at will would probably run at -1 Refresh, based on the cost of the Wings ability.

4. I’ve asked this in other places and the typical response is, “Wait and see”. Any sign of RPG-specific material aside from Magical Baltimore, etc?

I’m not sure what you mean by “RPG-specific” material. If you mean source material for the game, then the entire second volume and some good chunks of the first all qualify. If you mean stuff that isn’t drawn directly from the novels, then there’s less of that – mainly just the Baltimore stuff and the real-world Chicago weirdness from that master of the weird, Ken Hite. That said, a lot of the characters and creature types from the novels have large amounts of information about them that didn’t really make it to centre stage in the novels. A quick glance shows entries on Nick Christian, Gowan Commando, Lisa Boughton, and Mickey Malone, so there’s a lot of stuff that might not be familiar to the casual reader of the series.

5. What advice do the books give on putting the supernatural into the Mundane? I’d like to get a head start on vetting Magical Spokane before the game comes out.

The main advice in the City Building chapter is all about coming up with themes and threats for your city – what aspects of the city are you going to focus on for story purposes, and what things are threatening them. The advice on adding the supernatural to the mundane is sprinkled through it, with one specific section called Locations and the Supernatural: Making the Connection. The advice is generally to look at the city from the point of view of magical beings, and see what would interest them. Draw on real-world ideas and geography to help make things work. For example, when we did Magical Winnipeg, we looked at the junction of the Red River and the Assiniboine River. This confluence is why there’s a settlement in this spot. So, looking at these two rivers, and the idea of a meeting and trading place for the First Nations people, and the fact that Winnipeg is a primary destination for recent immigrants in Canada, we came up with the idea of the Consecration of the Two Waters to give those themes and ideas a supernatural resonance.

That’s the kind of advice you’ll find in the book.

6. What is the base starting level for campaigns? At what refresh rate do things get stupid power?

Good question! There are four suggested starting levels, named for how far you wade into the supernatural world, ranging from Feet in the Water to Submerged. Each sets a starting Refresh, number of Skill points, and cap on Skill levels. Feet in the Water is 6 Refresh, 20 Skill points, and Skills capped at Great. Up to Your Waist is 7 Refresh, 25 Skill points, and Skills capped at Great. Chest-Deep is 8 Refresh, 30 Skill points, and Skills capped at Superb. Submerged is 10 Refresh, 35 Skill points, and Skills capped at Superb. To give you some idea of what that means, it takes a minimum of 7 Refresh to build a starting Wizard. At Submerged, you could build someone at about the level Harry was at the beginning of Storm Front.

Stupid power? I dunno. You definitely need to ratchet up the opposition as the characters advance through the power levels, but because of the way the Aspects tie into the character, and the flexibility of building opposition, I don’t really see there being much of a problem with things creeping up too high. Of course, your mileage may vary; we all have our own favourite power-level sweet spot where we like to game. It depends on the kinds of stories you want to tell.

Iorwerth says:

Thank you for answering my questions – much appreciated!!

You’re more than welcome. Glad to do it.

When attacking someone with an evocation spell, such as some sort of a fireball, would do stress damage equal to the difference between your Discipline roll and the defence roll, or the difference between the power level and the defence roll? Is there a defence roll at all?

e.g. Randalf has a conviction level of Good, so calls down a goodly amount of power. He then rolls his Discipline and gets a superb result, meaning he can easily control the power. The target tries to jump out of the way and achieves a fair result. Does Randalf do 3 stress with the fireball (Superb minus fair defence) or 1 stess (Good amount of power minus defence of fair)? Or am i missing something crucial somewhere?

Fred jumped on the comments of my last post and answered this. Thanks Fred! Good to know that you’re keeping an eye on this process – it means I can trust you folks to jump in and correct me if I miss something or get it wrong.

Rechan says:

So Rick, here’s my questions:

What’s the book say about Companions (ala SotC)? I’m curious about things like Spirit Companions (something like Bob, but you take it with you and use it), or refluffing it as a familiar. Or other uses.

Nothing explicitly. It doesn’t have anything akin to the Companions stunts of SotC. That said, it’s easy to figure out how to handle such things. For example, they talk about taking Aspects to reflect relationships, so you could take an Aspect like My Familiar, Hecubus. A little negotiation with the GM means that you can tap him to help with magic, either the performance of it or the preparation of it, and maybe to help with certain other things like Investigation by having him spy on your enemies. If you want a more reliable source of information, you can round this out with a Mortal Stunt or two, so that your familiar also gives you a regular bonus to your Lore skill, say. If I were creating Bob as something my character has, for instance, I would probably do both, with an Aspect like Keeper of Bob the Talking Skull, and a Mortal Stunt like Occultist (Magical Theory (Potion Recipes)).

Does the book talk about Spirits at all? Bob is a Spirit of Intellect. We know that Lycanthropes channel spirits of rage. But those are the only “spirits” we’ve seen. Monsters from the Nevernever, sure, but not straight up “Spirits” that just encompass concepts.

There’s close to two pages of discussion on Spirits in the Goes Bump chapter, and a very detailed write-up on Bob specifically in the Who’s Who chapter. Probably a few more, but I still haven’t made it through both books. Stupid day job.

Fred has said that spellcasting can create an “infinite” amount of spells. So, how is this done? Is it more “Effect based spellcasting”, or what? For instance, there are several elements out there for specialization we’ve not seen used (or barely used). There exists Water magic, but the only “Water” spell we’ve seen was the Water Bubble that Carlos cast in White Night. So if I wanted to play a Water-specialized mage, how would I make my spells? How would I make them on the fly?

Okay. There’s two flavours of spellcasting in the game, just as in the books. Evocation tosses around energy and elemental forces – this is Harry’s use of fire and air and Carlos’s use of water. There is a detailed discussion of the different elemental versions of Evocation, including talking about how water magic was also what Carlos was using to shoot out his bolts that turned the targets to dust (using the erosive properties of water). There are limited things you can do with Evocation – attack, block, maneuver, and counterspell. That said, there’s a good discussion of determining the visuals of the spell, and how you can use such bits of colour to your advantage. For example, it talks about Carlos’s water bubble shield that he then turned into an attack, using it to disintegrate an attacker.

It’s Thaumaturgy where you really get into the infinite variety of spells. This is very much effect-based magic: you figure out what you want to do, the GM sets the complexity based on how the effect is modeled by the game rules, you prepare the spell, and then cast it. It’s a very flexible system that becomes pretty intuitive after you’ve worked through it a couple of times.

Bosh says:

On the Jim Butcher boards, Fred Hicks said that damage can be situational (knives are better in some situations than in others) how does this work with what you’re talking about here? I’m very curious about what they’ve cooked up for the weapon/damage system since that’s been either not addressed or been implemented in ways that I’ve had some problems with in other FATE games.

Huh. I’ve just reread the section on weapons, and I can’t find anything like that. Indeed, the advice is to avoid getting bogged down by creating detailed weapon and armour lists, and make subjective judgments based on the situation. The combat system, as in other FATE games, leans toward the rules-light, high-trust, cinematic end. Really, with the structure of the Ladder, there’s not a whole lot of room for lots of minor variations on weapons and armour that are meaningful. That said, it’s perfectly reasonable for the GM to adjust things on the fly, or for characters to make Declarations about the weapons or armour of themselves or their opponents to gain advantage.

That’s it for tonight, folks. If you’ve got more questions, I’ll get to them tomorrow evening.

Just one set of questions today:

Iorwerth says:

How do weapons and armour work? Do they just add stress levels / subtract stress levels?

Yup. The system is pretty chunky – what I mean is, there aren’t extensive weapons and armour lists. Each has four categories, rated from one to four, that tells you how many stress levels it adds or mitigates. Given how much difference a single level can sometimes make, this is about as detailed as you really need in the game. And with the idea of setting up the kinds of cinematic, rollicking action scenes you see in the novels, that’s about the level of detail you want to keep things simple and fast.

As to magic, when drawing down power do you need to roll, or do you just draw down a level equal to the relevant skill, whatever that skill is?

Once you have drawn down the power I believe you roll your control. Do you need to get a score above the power level to control it? if you don’t, I presume it spills out and has unforseen effects, and may do the caster damage?

With a stress inducing spell, does it do the power level in stress points, or the level of control you have, or something else?

Okay. Quick-and-dirty breakdown of spellcasting. First, you decide how much power you want to use. If this is an evocation, you take one point of mental stress for drawing up to your Conviction skill rating, then an extra point for each level above your Conviction.If this is a thaumaturgical ritual, you don’t take that first level of mental stress, so if you stick to using power equal to or less than or equal to your conviction, actually calling the power doesn’t give you any stress for thaumaturgy.

Then, you need to beat that power down with the strength of your sovereign will and force it to do what you want. This is a Discipline roll, where you have to equal or exceed the levels of power you have called. If you don’t, you either take the difference as backlash (hurting you as either mental or physical stress) or give it to the GM as fallout (hurting the environment and maybe your buddies – this is how Harry manages to burn down buildings). How things are split up is your choice – you can be selfless and take all the damage, selfish and take none, or somewhere in between.

There are, of course, other factors, like focus items and preparation and taking extra time, that can come into the mix, but those are the basics. Basically, even a minor spellcaster with plenty of time to research and prepare can accomplish a great deal safely, while even a fully tricked-out badass wizard caught offguard can push himself over the edge pretty quickly, wearing himself out and melting his brain.

Just like in the novels.

That’s today’s questions. Keep ’em coming.

First off, a clarification from Chad Underkoffler, one of the authors of the game:

Point of fact: Chicago is not fully game-statted as Baltimore is, but it’s got a METRIC TON of cool, real-world (not necessarily series-based) weirdness in it.

My bad, folks. I was skimming the sections for the previous post, and missed this. Thanks to Chad for setting me straight.

Now, on to questions:

Lanodantheon says:

Question: Does the magic section talk about the limits of magic’s interaction with technology?
What I’m talking about is the magic items/foci/whatever-they’re-called that interact with technology to work.
(Specifically, Elaine’s chain thingie that she charges in a light socket.)

Well, there are rules for hexing, which covers the basics of magic and technology interacting. Elaine’s chain would be an enchanted item, like Harry’s force rings, I believe. There are no explicit rules for how it charges up in the light socket, just like there are no explicit rules for how Harry’s force ring charges from him moving his arms, because really it’s just jazz. Looking at the guidelines in the section on hexing, though, I would rule that it might cause problems around sensitive electronics, but not more than Elaine herself would. That is, unless I was using it to throw a complication at the player, in which case I’d give him or her a Fate Point to go with it.

Rechan says:

Hey Rick! I lost the URL for your site, I’m really glad to be back.

Welcome back! You’ve been missed.

The DM chapter, does it talk about how to make adventures? To be honest, the DFRPG scares me in terms of GMing, because coming up with a cohesive mystery every “week” is really daunting! I know “Tie it to your players aspects”, but for instance if they smoke one PC’s nemesis, that aspect – that avenue – is gone. Same thing if they shut down something one player is very concerned about, then it’s hard to bring back. Not to mention other matters of maintaining a good Noir/Mystery/whatnot feel to the game, like clues and how to make things not obvious, does it address this well?

Lenny Balsera actually posted a really good answer to this in the comments of the post. Thanks, Lenny! About all I can add to what he says there is that, at the end of the city creation process, you will have so many good locations, themes, threats, and NPCs that ideas for adventures are fairly squirting out of your ears. And if you get the players involved, then they’re going to have a lot invested in those things, and their own agendas – more rich and fertile ground for adventures. Also, the section on advancing cities talks about how to deal with changes to the established environment like killing off a nemesis or solving a major problem in the city. In short, the advice in the book is very good on this subject, but the rest of the book supports the idea of making good stories so well that really it’s just the icing on the cake.

Are Pure Mortals the only ones that can take mortal stunts?

Anyone can take mortal stunts. They’re called that because there’s no supernatural powers involved. Having said that, supernatural characters are less likely to have mortal stunts because they’ve spent their Refresh on supernatural powers instead.

How is Sponsored Magic different? Is it a template that can be dropped onto any PC? Or access to new stunts/powers? It handles stuff like deals with Fey too, right? Or is that just “Hey, look at Emissary”.

Fluff-wise, Sponsored Magic is different because it’s something that originates with an outside power source, like an angel, demon, dragon, magic talking sword, or, yes, one of the Fey. Emissarys are one of the templates that have the option of taking Sponsored Magic, but Changelings and Knights of Faerie also have it. Crunch-wise, you get a little extra oomph in some of your spells, but you are subject to the whims of your patron – if they don’t want you to work a spell, it just don’t work. And they can attach any strings they want to it. For example, if you’re the Winter Knight, and you want to use your Unseelie Magic in a manner that your Lady disagrees with, she can just not let the magic work. Or, she may allow it to work, but demand a favour in payment.

This is also a general question for you. You talk about multiple character creation sessions. How do you deal with players who want to Get to the Game RIght Now? A lot of people I know would not be patient enough for spending more than x hours doing that sort of thing. And, doing City AND character creation simultaneously sounds very… ADD. How do you organize that?

Good questions. There are options for quick play, when you don’t want to spend the time up front building the city or the characters. In these cases, the characters and city get built during play, on the fly, adding Aspects and Skills and whatnot as they come up in the story, and paying any Refresh cost then. If you’ve seen the quick play options in Spirit of the Century, then you’ve got the basics.

Now, as for the time involved, character creation goes pretty quickly – the sessions I’ve run have all taken less than three hours, and that includes explaining the system to the players. And the character creation system is fun, in itself; in fact, the game takes the point of view that making the city and the characters should be part of the play, and as much fun as all the other parts.

Doing city and character creation together would be a little taxing, I agree. The way it’s spelled out in the book, you work it in stages: once you get to a certain point in creating the city, you have enough of a framework to build characters that really fit in with what you’re doing with the city. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in a single session, either; I can see doing portions of the city creation (like, say, research) independently, getting together in a session to work up to the point where you’re ready to build characters, then having another session to build characters and finish off the city stuff. Two sessions.

James Cartwright says:

Great write-up, can’t wait for these books.

Thanks! I’m anxious to get my hands on the physical versions, myself.

Are there stats for ‘Mouse’ in the books and is there the ability to make your own temple animals like ‘mouse’?

thanks

Yes, there are stats for Mouse. There’s also an extensive write-up – almost a full page – on Temple Dogs, that would make it very easy to create other Temple Animals. There’s also a note in the in-characters notes that, as statted, Mouse is a viable player character, if you choose the right power level.

Jon Hammersley says:

So how are enchanted items handled? Some (potions) are obviously single use items but how do you limit something like Harry’s ring that stores kinetic energy?

Each crafter has a number of slots allowed to them, based on the kinds of powers you’ve taken, which they can fill with enchanted items. By default, enchanted items have a limited number of uses per session. You can remove that limitation by having it take up more than one slot. Expending extra slots can also increase the power and flexibility of items.

Does using a specific created foci (ritual knife, blasting rod, staff, etc) decrease the difficulty of controlling magical forces and how does it do so?

Okay. Magic is comprised of two phases: gathering the energy and controlling the energy. When you create a focus, you choose whether it will help you gather energy or control it. If it helps you gather energy, then you can safely call in one more level of power than you would otherwise be able to. You can still exceed this amount, but then it starts causing problems, like fatigue. If you choose to make a focus that helps you control energy, then it gives you a bonus level to the skill that you roll to control the power. And if you fail that roll, bad things happen to you, your surroundings, or both.

So, that’s all the questions I’ve received so far. I hope the answers are helpful.

Let me know if there are other questions I can answer, but I won’t get to them before tomorrow evening.