First of all my first language is Farzi so forgive any bad english grammar.
Hi everyone, I am a avid reader of Jim Butchers work and I am also a extreme fan of his Wizard Novels, The Harry Dresden Files. I have been reading the posts on the Dresden RPG webpage with great interest, however the latest post about the Characters: Red Court Infected inflammed my opinoin somewhat. I have interesting approach to gaming in that I do NOT restrict character class's based on morality or if a character is "evil", in many many roleplayng games as soon as some one is evil then they are no longer a substantiated character and can not be portrayed. To make specific my reference, here is the passage to which I refer "if at any point the character kills another human and drinks its blood, she must immediately “upgrade” the character to a full Red Court Vampire. This invariably results in turning the character into an NPC, and an evil one at that". Why is it turned into a NPC? The first Red Court Vampire we encounter is in the first novel and she is emotionally upset and damaged just because Harry saw her true form, clearly they are not 2 dimensional characters, they have complex thought patterns, feelings and goals and WERE human once so they have a reference point so you CAN roleplay one. In the first time we run into a Vampire, its a Red Court Vampire in the first book Storm Front, Book one of the Harry Dresden Files. and of course Harry Biance are able to come to a detente, again indicating they are not 2-dimensional creatures, I like this qoute from the book "She (been refering to Bianaca) didnt move quick enough for me to miss seeing a tear streak down one cheek, Id made the vampire cry, Great I felt like a real superhero, Harry Dresden Breaker of Monsters Hearts.
In addition to this and with even more conviction about the ludicrous nature of this statement that vampires are npcs, is Harry's Brother Raith a FULL BLOWN white court vampire, who constantly helps harry out and also FEEDS his demion as well, again not a 2 dimensional badguy but a fully in depth character (see a novel focusing soloing on a Raith called "backup"). This brings me to what I see is the reason, the reason you cant play a vampire (red court or any court) is that they are Evil.....becuase its still the same person I see no GOOD reason at all for a player not been able to play a vampie, Because this defintion of evil is westernized and if I were to follow my own cultures definition of Evil (we do have Farzi Role play games btw) only devout holy men are allowed to cast magic (they would bind and entreat with Jinn who were also created by Allah) on behalf of muslim society and any practioner of magic that isnt a holy man would be totally evil, so from that point of view every character in the Dresden RPG is a NPC only. I am assured there might be a question of Power, but tbh clearly Vampies arent not more powerful then wizards, infact based on the novel it seems Wizards are more powerful then vampires.
So why are you making a decision in your game over what can be a NPC and what cant be a NPC
espicially as we can see that non human creatures like vampies (Raith from the white court and Bianca from the Red court) are clearly viable characters with real personalitys, feelings and thoughts that you can portyary. Now having had this discussion with people in conventions in the USA I am aware that many saw go play World of Darkness if oyu want monsters...the problem their is I despire the World of Darkness games and anyway 99% of the time I am running games for my extended gaming group. Again why not include character rules for all the wonderful things in teh Dresden universe, why restrict us? Please to be remembering this is not my first (or even second) language and our RPG group tends to want to follow canon of theese games at conventions so if you say in the book these can not be PC's then the same is applied to a whole convention resulting in no playment for me or my group.
Frustarted and Confused
Ahazil
PS-Please remember my english is not fantastically and I am not wanting a argument but a peaceful discussion.
PPS-I am aware after posting there is some posting invovled with allowing white court vampires, but my argument and consternation still stands why dont you allow Red Court? Black Court? Demon Worshippers? Bearers of the Black Denari? Why do you make this decision for your fan base on what PCs are allowed and what isnt? Red court vampres, Black Court Vampies, Necromancers all seemed viable players with real roles and personalitys (again I repeat myself but I am frustrated with the large number of RPGs that do this).