Advice please - Trouble Aspect and Character Creation

[Stormraven]

As an experiment - and to have a ready character if I can ever find a PbP game - I've been thinking up a Wiccan Sorceress.  I decided on Sorceress because I don't think I could create the character as a Wizard, but maybe a GM would let her eventually grow into her Wizardness...

I already figure that she'll have Bless this House, and as a Sorceress, will need Evocation and Thaumaturgy, with the rest of the Wizard stuff coming later, and probably a couple of the Conviction Mortal Stunts.

But I was wondering if, in the context of the Dresdenverse, 'The Wiccan Rede' would be a valid Trouble.  I can see it being somewhat restrictive - in the same sense that the laws of magic are - but I'm not sure it's at the level of a Trouble.

For those who don't know it:
Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill.  An it harm none, do what ye will.

[Deadmanwalking]

It's your Trouble if you want it to come up as a problem regularly. Anything is. My player's Troubles include: "Yeah, I Guess That's My Responsibility", "Why Did I Have To Look?" "Sucker For A Pretty Face", "Never Leave A Man Behind" and "I Believe In Free Love", just for example.

[Stormraven]

Yes, I know - but I also know that it's the GM's job to bring it up.  And as a GM myself, I wouldn't allow a Trouble that I couldn't get my head around as far as making it Trouble.

So I thought I'd see if anyone here could help me figure out how it would be Trouble, of if it would be difficult to make it Troublesome.

[Ophidimancer]

It can be a trouble if it is something that sticks with the character and causes conflict, be it external or internal.

I can see a couple of ways the Rede could be used as a Trouble Aspect:

Maybe she violated the Rede sometime in the past in a sufficiently horrible way that it haunts her.  This is like any of the various characters haunted by dark pasts ... Batman, for one.

Maybe she has the tendency to want to break the Rede, but feels constrained by it.  This is like Harry's Tempted By Power Trouble.

Maybe she's constantly confronted with violators of the Rede and has to enforce or police it.  This is like the Trouble of an overworked Warden faced with a world full of Warlocks.

Maybe, and this is a bit of an odd one, she has trouble with the do what ye will part of it and is someone with crippling inhibitions, unable to do anything for herself or achieve her full potential.

[MijRai]

I'd like to point out that if you drop Bless This House, and pick up the Sight, you would be able to be a witch/wizard (albeit a weak one at the moment). Wizard's Constitution and Soulgaze are free when you are a wizard.

The Rede could be a Trouble, maybe if you do as Dead said, and have her tempted by power or protecting it or somesuch.

[Stormraven]

Thanks, Ophidimancer, that's exactly what I was looking for.  I was thinking there had to be some Troubles from it, but I was having difficulty figuring any out.

The basic concept is more a Religious Type who has strong magic / magical potential, so the Rede would definitely be part and parcel of any Religious type powers, but I wasn't sure whether to put it in the 'Holy Writ' part, where it's the law of her belief based powers, or as a Trouble, or even just a normal Aspect.

[Ophidimancer]

Maybe if you tell us a bit more about the character we can make suggestions as to a Trouble?

[Morgan]

Specifically the character's High Concept, I know my group was having a little trouble coming up with our character's Troubles until we went back and read the section the last italicized sentence of the first paragraph was a huge help. It defines exactly what the Trouble is, it's the answer to what complicates your high concept? So having the character's High Concept is key to figuring out their Trouble.

[GruffAndTumble]

"Harm None" seems like an exceptionally nasty Trouble to me. And "Do what ye will" is ripe for compels tempting you down the Quick and Easy Path to the Dark Side (TM)

[CMEast]

I totally agree with GruffAndTumble, 'An it harm none, do what ye will' is a fantastic trouble.

1. It's the rule that you live by, even though it seems like a good one it's a different rule than others live by (laws of magic, human law) and so you can use it to justify anything as long as you don't think it's hurting someone. Molly thought she was helping when she used her magic on her friends, she certainly didn't see any harm. As a witch you might need certain illegal ingredients, drugs or dead body parts or whatever, and while you might source them ethically (in your opinion), in human law you might be confused with a drug dealer, or breaking the 3rd law with love potions and stuff.

2. You can't hurt people at all, you can bind them, using manoeuvres and blocks, but you can't actually hurt them at all either physically or mentally. That's a major trouble in most conflicts. Depending on your interpretation of the rules it may even limit your social attacks to persuasion and manipulation.

[Stormraven]

Well, her High Concept is right in the first post.  Wiccan Sorceress.  Like I said, it would have been Wiccan Wizard, but looking over the refresh costs of both Wizard and 'Faith' based Powers/Stunts, I couldn't have both in even a Submerged campaign.

Thinking on it with some of what's been posted has given me some ideas.  For instance, the Wiccan Rede doesn't preclude self-defence (as most Wiccans understand it, anyway) but say it did.

There's still bindings that redirect force used upon them - Mirror shields, they're called - and if someone's silly enough to send an attack against them, and gets hurt, the usual view is that it was their action that caused the harm.

That, of course, would likely get her in trouble with the Laws of Magic, as well as the Wardens. 

And, yes, the Rede allows for a lot of low-discipline behaviour, as long as it brings no direct harm to others.

So, thanks for all the replies.  I'm only going to work her up to Stage two - saving the first Story until I can find a game for her, so her story fits in - but when I've got that done, I'll consider posting her, either here or in the PbP section.