Need some GMing help

[vonpenguin]

Hello. I’m finally getting a Dresden game off the ground and I’d like a little help for an introductory adventure as I’m a new GM. The game is Waist deep and set in the pregen Baltimore and the characters are as follows, a True believer that works directly under Sister Ann and has the high concept “Modern day Paladin”, a house cat that can turn human that works as an information broker of sorts and has the high concept “Feline Casanova”, a Stage magician that accidently attracted a native American based fire spirit to himself and has the high concept “Reluctant Emissary”. There’s also a magic user of some sort that hasn’t been written up yet and possibly a White Court Virgin psychologist working for house Raith to gain a foothold against the White Court in the area.

I was thinking of having them deal with a rogue Black Court or a mortal gang war that would lead into something bigger but I’m not sure on the best way to do any of that.

[MWKilduff]

Well depending on the group dynamic you could do this a couple of ways.  The True Believer and the Information Brokers are the simplest answers.  Black court is at direct conflict with the Paladin's ideals and the Information Broker can have just about any kind of current mission drop some added information into his/her lap.  I live in Baltimore and think that the information provided is pretty good for giving even an outsider a great point of view for the cityscape.  I want to throw out some other cool concepts that might interest you.  Wereravens to stick with the Poe and nevermore theme or a Vampire that has an affinity with Ravens and can control the creatures to a certain extent.  Either one would be a great long term adversary since they have the opportunity to gather information at will using what are common creatures in the area as spies.  I hope this helps.  Good luck!

[Papa Gruff]

As I understand it you are struggling to arrive at an interesting plot, yes? My advice for you is to take an other look at the chapter in YW where scenario creation is described. It might help you a great deal. I know it helped me a lot when I first tried it and I wouldn't call me a novice GM.

Basically what you do is take some aspects of the campaign, some of your party members and from the possible opponents and try to look for connections between them. Some of them will be tension based and some of them will be have the possibility of cooperation. Try to draw out as many connections as you can find and construct the scenario around them. It may sound silly at first, but if you try it you will find that there are tons of plots hidden in the aspects of your party members alone.

[sinker]

It also helps if you really know everyone's motivation. Your PCs, Villains, even various other NPCs. When you know the why it becomes way easier to figure out the how, at least it does for me.

[crusher_bob]

Black court vamps are actually quite powerful, and you may not want to use one of them right  away, especially if everyone is learning the system.

How's this for an intro:

Someone has been killing the local cats.  
Who?  
The local little folk.  
Why?
In retaliation for a cat killing them.  
What?
A local minor talent (who can turn into a cat) has declared war on the local little folk.  
Really? Why?  
Because one of the little folk though it would be funny if the shapeshifters mom's heart medication was replaced with Folgers crystals, or something, and the shapeshifter blames all the local little folk for this.
Wow, what are we going to do about it?

So notice that you have plenty of things to fight with, should you be interested in fighting, but none of them really have the ability to grab you and rip your spine right out that BC vampires do.  And if you want to throw in some bigger fights, you can  pull out some fae (ogres, gruffs, whatever) which you can justify as having (whatever) combination of abilities.

For example, if the party if trying to find the little guy originally responsible for switching the medication and put his head on a kebab stick, the fae can be owed some favors by some bigger fae...

And if the PCs are having trouble taking the little folk seriously as an enemy, have them find, I dunno, half an earth worm or something in their food, that one of the little folk put there.  Point out that the little folk are everywhere, and almost unseen.  If would be horrible if one of them slipped some Candiru into your bathtub one day, wouldn't it?

[Professor]

Got a good chuckle from the Candiru...never mind where the little guys got 'em...love the idea of a war that could be stopped cold with a large pepperoni pizza!