Greetings and questions

[Amu]

I’ve been lurking this board for a few weeks, while keeping an eye on the blog, and a few questions have occurred to me. Firstly though, I’ll give a bit of background.
Though I’ve read a little online I’ve never actually played a tabletop rpg before. I’ve defiantly had to desire, and thanks to the internet getting hold of the materials wouldn’t be too difficult, but I’ve never been able to find anybody else who was interested. Attempts to start-up with some friends were laughed off, and my social circle wasn’t exactly the most mainstream.
So yeah- plenty of incentive no opportunity.
I have however been playing Warhammer for a couple of years, mostly thanks to the school club (considered trying to introduce them, but I’m leaving in a few weeks). Maybe some stuff from that is transferable, I’m not sure.
Anyway, after reading Harry Potter as a child fantasy novels had me hooked. Combined with an interest in the occult and dusters it doesn’t surprise me that I fell in love with Dresden before I finished the blurb of Storm Front.
I figured I might get a more positive response to something more “modern” than say DnD less of a stigma perhaps. Already I’ve got a few people interested, and the best thing is that I’ll be going to school in the city next year. Plenty of new people to meet, and a great candidate for the setting of any Dresden game we can eventually set up.
So, I’m in pretty high spirits about the RPG, and I’ll defiantly be getting my hands on a copy as soon as I can. As I said though, a few things confuse me. I have read Spirit of the Century, and for the most part I could follow it.
1)   Classes. First off, are these set in stone or are they closer to templates? Are they Final Fantasy-ish classes, solely determining what abilities you can access? Or are these more like labels, ie “the skills determine the class” rather than “the class determines the skills”

2)   One of the things in had in mind was keeping a continuous story and characters with a group, but using time-skips ala the novels. One problem I noticed with setting stories about six months apart is that the characters could get “old” pretty quickly. So to delay this a little the PCs could start in their late teens rather than as adults. Now the apparent issue is classes, I really can’t see a full-fledged white-council wizard at age 17. Starting such characters off as “last few years” apprentices is one of the solutions I thought of.-which is why I asked the question earlier about classes. Would it do to take the Wizard class and use “apprentice” or something along those lines as an aspect? Initially I thought of using the Sorcerer class instead but that struck me as a little odd because the training seems to be the real factor distinguishing wizards from other practitioners.

3)   From one of the podcasts (and sotc) I got the impression that places have aspects, including the whole setting (like Detroit, or Chicago in the canon). While the concept seems fairly simple I’m not quite sure how to put it into practice, because surely traits like “dark” or “dangerous” are going to be tied to particular areas, rather than something as large as a city. I guess something like “Fancy architecture” could work, but then again there are always going to be places that don’t have very “fancy architecture”.  The city I have in mind is more or less defined by the most impressive cathedral I’ve ever seen, but it still has its dirty modern bus stations and its bland indoor shopping centres.

4)   Am I thinking about this far too much considering I don’t even own the game yet? xD

[vampmike]

well maybe i can help but im no expert, and luckly enough you have a few on this board reguarly, including the writers of the RPG hehe
1)www.dresdenfilesrpg.com, this has a lot about the types of things you can play and might help explain them abit more. but from what ive read they will be like templates. therefore if you want to play a knight of the cross you need these supernatural abilities [supernatural stunts]. and a hight concept [aspect] explaining the character background.

2) remember that most of the supernaturals harry encounters including wizards all have an extened lifespan, so sticking with a bunch of characters over a long time wont be a problem. of course there are a few exceptions like knights, while Shiro was old he was still a mortal with a normal life expectancy, as would mortal practitioners, and maybe were-creatures

3) ive looked into this myself and a few people are posting their city building on RPGnet. i believe you would give aspects to the important parts of the city. while in not american, chicago is the hub of a massive transportation network and why many see it as important, and it is used by wizards for their meetings, as well as the base for other supernaturals. that might have an aspect, but that it is big and dangerous might not, im sure in cities thats a given. try here [http://spazingames.blogspot.com/search/label/Dresden Files]for his take on london.

4) nope! hehe. most of us here cant wait as well. i have players that want me to make up the system so they can play in the dresdenverse lol

well i hope ive helped a little, but with this board more than likely someone in the know and with more of a grip on things than me will post hehe.

[TheMouse]

Classes versus templates:

Classes in the D&D/Final Fantasy sense tend to be quite restrictive. You have X power that improves at Y rate, and you can choose one of A, B, and C. This can be a little restrictive on what types of characters you can build. On the other hand, it tends to speed things up by presenting you with a short flow chart of choices, and it can help to make sure that every character has something that they can do well that no one else can.

Templates, on the other hand, are a bit more flexible. You must take A, B, and C Stunt and have a high concept related to X, but you can do whatever else you want. It's sort of like they have a buy in cost rather than a narrow range of choices. While you might have to work at it a bit more than with classes, it's more likely that you'll end up with what you wanted.

The final bit to it is that different templates have different levels of required buy in. Council Wizards and White Court vampires, for example, have a pretty high buy in. So you're not going to be able to have something like a White Court vampire who can also use magic unless you start the game with rather advanced characters. The flip side is that if two templates have a very low buy in, you could potentially stack them. So you might be able to get a changeling focussed practitioner and stack the two templates. (Note: I have no idea if the two templates I noted are actually stackable at the default power level, because I don't know how much their Stunts cost. I'm just tossing out theoreticals based on a relatively small number of required Stunts for those two.)

[finarvyn]

I’m a playtester, and maybe can toss a few ideas your way. 

Though I’ve read a little online I’ve never actually played a tabletop rpg before. <snip> I’ve never been able to find anybody else who was interested.

You might try to join an online game. There are often message boards where you can post once every day or two and a Game Master guides the group through an adventure.

I have however been playing Warhammer for a couple of years, mostly thanks to the school club (considered trying to introduce them, but I’m leaving in a few weeks). Maybe some stuff from that is transferable, I’m not sure.

I think in general any experience with miniatures and role playing games is transferable. The terminology used in Warhammer won’t match DFRPG, but the general approach and tactical expertise will.

Classes. First off, are these set in stone or are they closer to templates?

I think of them more like templates. They certainly aren’t “classes” in the traditional D&D sense, anyway.

One of the things in had in mind was keeping a continuous story and characters with a group, but using time-skips ala the novels. One problem I noticed with setting stories about six months apart is that the characters could get “old” pretty quickly.

I really never worry about this sort of thing. How many adventures to you plan on running? Twenty adventures set at 6 months apart is still only 10 game years. Twenty adventures set 4 months part is under 7 years and set 3 months apart is only 5 years.

From one of the podcasts (and sotc) I got the impression that places have aspects, including the whole setting (like Detroit, or Chicago in the canon). While the concept seems fairly simple I’m not quite sure how to put it into practice, because surely traits like “dark” or “dangerous” are going to be tied to particular areas, rather than something as large as a city.

There are quite a few aspects to work from, and in general they aren’t “tied to” any particular area or setting.

Am I thinking about this far too much considering I don’t even own the game yet.

A tough question. I’d say there is nothing wrong with thinking about the game and/or the setting, even though there is no concrete release date. I’d say find a system you like (such as FATE, which is what DFRPG will be based upon) and put together a few ideas of your own for your group. Don’t worry about being “official” until the game actually comes out, and at that point you can decide how to adjust your game to fit the game rulebook.

That help any?