We had our first Session and...

[Ink Slinger]

...it went pretty well.  We spent about 3 hours doing character creation.  (Not a solid 3 hours, my guys chit chat worse than my girlfriends)  Everyone seemed to understand fairly easily each character Template, even the two people in our group who either haven't read or just started reading the series.  Aspects were a little tough, but we think we've got them figured out.  We decided to take the week and look everything over decided if we like what we called them and nail down what they'll do for our characters. 

If you have people in your group who are not used to giving their character backgrounds this could well take a lot longer.  We had to pretty much coach everyone through each step.  For instance, coming up with the stories was easy for me, but picking aspects and abilities was not.  However for another guy in the group the technical stuff was easy and stories were really hard.

We tried to do a throw away combat, just to get a feel for it, but we all got too confused to really do it, but we think if everyone reads the pdf over the next week then it will be smoother. 

So has anyone else tried it with your group?  How did it go? 

[Enjorous]

I was supposed to try it today, but two of my players had to back out last minute because of a guitar festival, but we're going to try to do some character creation tomorrow. But just to get the feel of things I've been making a host of characters on my own that are all interconnected. In case someone show's up late I can just pick up four or five finished character sheets and tell them to pick one.

When we get to it I'll post how it actually went!

[LCDarkwood]

If you have people in your group who are not used to giving their character backgrounds this could well take a lot longer.  We had to pretty much coach everyone through each step.  For instance, coming up with the stories was easy for me, but picking aspects and abilities was not.  However for another guy in the group the technical stuff was easy and stories were really hard.

Keep in mind that via the on-the-fly stuff (YS p. 69, har har), you have the option of entering play without a background and developing your aspects and other abilities as you go. If that's your hurdle, don't sweat it. Leave whatever you need to blank.

Advice-wise, I tend to find (though I'm not assuming this is your group) that people's biggest obstacles to good aspects and background stuff is overthinking it. Simple but evocative works best. There are only so many plots in the world, right? Don't worry too much about cliche. A wise video game once said to me, "Nothing is a cliche when it's happening to you." It's your roleplay that's going to bring the character to life and set them apart anyway.

For aspects, the thing to look for is, "What is the most significant thing the events of this phase tell me about who this character is?" And then, "Is that a double-edged sword? How?"

And if you find out that doesn't work, you get a chance to review and make changes at the end of every session anyway, via minor milestones.

[The Codex]

You know the phrase

"is that a double edged sword" is screaming aspect all by itself!!!!
 

[Ink Slinger]

I think makes a great one for a Champion of God.

[LCDarkwood]

We tried to do a throw away combat, just to get a feel for it, but we all got too confused to really do it, but we think if everyone reads the pdf over the next week then it will be smoother.   

The quick reference tables on page YS 410-411 are totally your friend.

[Mal_Luck]

I'm extremely envious right now. I wish I had a group to play this with, my group would rather play DnD and I think it would be nigh-impossible to get them to play Dresden.

I'm hoping for some online Dresdening soon, I'm itching to play my Magnetomancer.

[Carabas]

The quick reference tables on page YS 410-411 are totally your friend.

What I am kind of missing is a quick reference sheet for magic. It is all over the text and having a handy one page summary as handout for the players of sorcerers and wizards would be nice. Then they could quickly construct their own spells without guidance by the GM.

[LCDarkwood]

I feel you. It's possible we may have to do that one as a download - I don't think we have room to increase the page count of either book at this point.

[Ink Slinger]

That would be a great thing.   While reading I've been trying to take notes of my own but I get distracted with all the great commentary and just end up laughing.

[void]

A set of quick reference sheets as a separate download would be awesome anyway. Great for linking to a member of an online play group who can't lay their hands on the books.

Could we get THESE in printer-friendly format?

[iago]

What I am kind of missing is a quick reference sheet for magic. It is all over the text and having a handy one page summary as handout for the players of sorcerers and wizards would be nice. Then they could quickly construct their own spells without guidance by the GM.

What's missing, specifically, from the magic stuff on YS411? Is it the details necessary to *construct* rotes and suchlike? The intent was for 411 to cover 90% of what you'd need in-conflict, in-play, at least.

[iago]

A set of quick reference sheets as a separate download would be awesome anyway. Great for linking to a member of an online play group who can't lay their hands on the books.

Could we get THESE in printer-friendly format?

Eventually, yes. But that comes after a few other things in my timeline.

[Carabas]

Is it the details necessary to *construct* rotes and suchlike?

Yes, exactly those details. For a couple of reasons. Without a summary, you have to hunt down the rules in the rules section. That's not very handy for players without the rulebook (And in my experience, usually there is only one book to go around at the table. Fact of live if the majority of your gamers are casual ones). Also, it would be nice for the GM to have an at a glance summary for use with his NPCs. There is no "at a glance" summary for constructing rotes and thaumaturgy spells in the whole book. Charts in the appendix would remedy that.

My players will not be relying on rotes very much, because they are used to Mage and thinking about potential spell effects on the flight.

The intent was for 411 to cover 90% of what you'd need in-conflict, in-play, at least.

Well, I'd say it covers about 30%. Because the actual mechanics for casting your spell are quite easy to remember, as soon as you have determined the difficulty. And determining the difficulty relies on constructing the spells in the first place.

Since yesterday, I am speaking from experience. Because appropriate to the subject of the thread, we ran our first DFRPG scenario. It went rather well

[iago]

We definitely don't have room for that summary in the book itself, but if someone cares to write it up and toss it at us in a Word document or something, I can make it all pretty for downloadability.