Non-Standard Settings?

[TheVengefulKoala]

New forum member here, and I was just curious: has anyone used the DFRPG outside of the Dresden Files setting? How well did that work for you?

I ask because I'm planning the same thing, and would appreciate some examples. Especially since the well of inspiration is getting a mite dry.



---Venge

[Haru]

Well, it is targeted at an urban setting, mostly. Would help to know, what you have in mind, if you want some help.

Or you might want to look at http://www.faterpg.com/

I believe the rules are more broad there and can be adjusted to any setting. I haven't read them yet, though.

[TheVengefulKoala]

What I was planning on doing was using it for a custom-made setting, primarily inspired by Hellboy/BPRD, Hellsing, and similar series. I figured the DFRPG had most of what I wanted to do, new stuff would be fairly easy to cobble together, and the fact that I'm a Fate junkie helps.

But yes. Primarily urban in physical locale.


---Venge

[Haru]

I don't know very much about those settings, so I'm no help there.

But as little as I know, shouldn't it be pretty straight forward? Just use the rules as written and maybe adjust a few powers.

[Valarian]

I think the DFRPG game would lend itself to the Supernatural (TV Series) setting or a setting like that of the Eden Studios games (WitchCraft, Armageddon). That said, there are the other RPG games for those settings and it'd depend on how wedded you and your group is to FATE. The Hellboy and John Constantine comic book settings would probably work as well.

[Wolfwood2]

I have toyed with the idea of doing an "open magic" urban fantasy setting where the existance of the supernatural is known and accounted for by the general human population, even if they may be ignorant of the details of supernatural society.  Examples would be the True Blood tv series (and its source material in the novels), Anita Blake (before the series descended into erotica), the Kitty Norville books, the Hollows series, Anno Dracula (for an older example)....  It's not that uncommon in what they're now calling the paranormal romance genre.

Could be a different feel.

[evileeyore]

What I was planning on doing was using it for a custom-made setting, primarily inspired by Hellboy/BPRD, Hellsing, and similar series. I figured the DFRPG had most of what I wanted to do, new stuff would be fairly easy to cobble together, and the fact that I'm a Fate junkie helps.

But yes. Primarily urban in physical locale.

It ought to be fine for those settings.  You might want to look at how Magic is put together a bit more closely, but it wouldn't take much to fit it flavor wise into BPRD.

[Crion]

I think the DFRPG game would lend itself to the Supernatural (TV Series) setting or a setting like that of the Eden Studios games (WitchCraft, Armageddon). That said, there are the other RPG games for those settings and it'd depend on how wedded you and your group is to FATE. The Hellboy and John Constantine comic book settings would probably work as well.

This. I've actually designed some Constantine/Hellblazer-like characters and scenarios last summer, and it seemed to fit rather well. Also, I think it would work better than the Unisystem for settings like WitchCraft and Armageddon, but I could be wrong (and a bit biased, since I like my open-ended magic).

I actually just started using the mechanics of The Dresden Files to power my game of Victoriana. Victoriana is a game now owned by Cubicle 7 Studios and is powered by the Heresy Gaming Engine. It is set in an alternate version of London in 1867. It carries some of the popular aspects of steampunk (airships, clockwork limbs, etc) with a heavy dose of fantasy (magic, fantasy races, etc). The core mechanics seemed clunky, and became rather bothersome, clunky and limiting for my players and I, especially when it came to the magical side of things.

Instead, we began implementing the mechanics for magic from The Dresden Files, and my party has not only changed gears, but they are wondering what they can't do with magic while loving the Aspect and Manuever systems.

Currently, I have five players at the table, four of which are spellcasters (Kinetomancer, Ectomancer, Thaumaturgist with Pyromancy, and a Thaumaturgist with Spirit magic very much like Molly's). During the first game session, the Thaumaturgists were having a party determining the different things they could do to their target, the Ectomancer felt more comfortable with her chances of success, and the Kinetomancer loved the idea of the descriptive magic that doesn't cost stress. I think it's a success so far.

The only major changes I really implemented were removing the Resource skill and replacing it with a small Refresh Cost based on social standing (as the original mechanic required you to purchase your income) and removing the major parts of the Lawbreaker Stunt (as the "Laws of Magic" from the setting are MUCH different). The other thing I did was allow certain "creature features" to be purchased by "Pure Mortals" that are of different races (such as a Wolf-Beastman having Echoes of the Beast).

Otherwise, the game is running as-is, and it has met with success for game one, and everyone is looking forward to game two. My final player (missing due to finishing teaching elsewhere, will be joining in a few weeks once we find a place) also enjoyed the DFRPG approach to character creation over the original Victoriana mechanic.

If you ask later, I'll let you know how the next game goes. Game two with the new rules is next Friday. ^_^

--Crion

[admiralducksauce]

I'm doing Supernatural with a large dose of Dresden bestiary and it works great.  BPRD should fit very well and be a ton of fun!

[TheVengefulKoala]

Good to see that other people have had such success with alternate settings.

Magic is going to have be tweaked a bit to work, but most of the other bits should work well. Right now, however, my primary problem is finding a suitable anme for a secret government agency dedicated to protecting the world from supernatural threats.

I'll likely post a "setting production journal" once I begin in earnest.




---Venge

[admiralducksauce]

Right now, however, my primary problem is finding a suitable name for a secret government agency dedicated to protecting the world from supernatural threats.

FEMA? 

[TheVengefulKoala]

I find your jab at FEMA humorous.

But no.

[Crion]

Good to see that other people have had such success with alternate settings.

Magic is going to have be tweaked a bit to work, but most of the other bits should work well. Right now, however, my primary problem is finding a suitable anme for a secret government agency dedicated to protecting the world from supernatural threats.

I'll likely post a "setting production journal" once I begin in earnest.




---Venge

Ya know, not everything has to be an abbreviation. You could have it named after a family or an estate, especially if said family/estate actually founded it and has a public face and does all this in the background. Just saying ^_~

--Crion

P.S. Yeah, been watching too much Dr. Who, and you can only hear "The Torchwood Institute" so many times before you want to throw that idea out there ^_^

[MorkaisChosen]

Alternatively, if they're sorta policey, something riffing on Special Branch (which may be a UK thing, actually).

... no MC's brain Special Investigations has been used think of something else please.

Task Force [One/Three/Seven/Nine/other significant number], the Normalisation Division...

(I also though the Nonlinear Crimes Department, but that sounds like more of a time travel thing; I may just use it myself...)

[ironpoet]

New forum member here, and I was just curious: has anyone used the DFRPG outside of the Dresden Files setting? How well did that work for you?

I ask because I'm planning the same thing, and would appreciate some examples. Especially since the well of inspiration is getting a mite dry.

I ran a no-prep session of DFRPG a few weeks ago.  I basically skipped city creation and used the quick-start character rules (pick a name and a pinnacle skill, then assign skills and powers as they come up in play).

Plot and universe was established by asking questions as the story went along.  As a result, the characters ended up in a sci-fi space adventure, in a universe primarily based on organic tech (similar to Farscape) with some cybertechnology thrown in as well.  The PCs were space couriers who had lost their original fleet of ships to mutiny.  During the course of the first session, they:

• Nearly had their cargo hijacked by a previous employee (one of the mutinous captains)
• Fed and befriended some orphans in a bizarre and awesomely unnecessary ploy to avoid suspicion
• Delivered their cargo only to discover it was actually a bomb that destroyed a city-skyscraper full of hundreds of thousands of people
• Got consripted/blackmailed by a mysterious (Amanda Waller-inspired) woman into finding out who was responsible for delivering the bomb
• Tracked down the squid-faced guy who hired them, only to have him get shot before they could get any information out of him
• Got blamed for squid-face's death by his shark-faced cousin, the interplanetary ganster, and then killed some of his men while escaping

Haven't had a chance to play a second session, but the first one went pretty well, all things considered.  DFRPG is a good, stream-lined system for making stuff up on the fly.  None of the NPCs were statted up ahead of time - I was able to decide on the fly what approximate skill levels they should have.  We were also able to come up with some decent Powers on-the-fly.  The captain was a mostly-machine cyborg with a "skill-jack", that allowed him to spend a fate point to swap in different Scholarship specializations.  The engineer was a genetic modification specialist, who could spend fate points to add temporary upgrades/powers to any organic technology (like their ship).  Plus he could survive in the vacuum of space.

I didn't get a chance to run any social conflicts, but we ran a decent space conflict between the PCs ships and three smaller craft trying to steal their cargo.  I basically ran it as a straight conflict with the engineer (+4 Piloting) and NPC gunner (+2 Guns) vs. three enemy pilots (+2 Guns/Piloting).