Author Topic: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?  (Read 19330 times)

Offline SoulCatcher78

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #15 on: April 19, 2007, 10:47:42 PM »
House rules are looking to be the following:

1) No Knights of the Cross
2) No Wardens
3) No full fledged vampires of any court.
4) No senior council wizards


Seems totally reasonable to me.  Part of the fun of an RPG is to find ways to do things you wouldn't normally be able to do without an unlimited amount of power *kinda takes the fun out of it to be super powered*.   Same sort of thing goes for items of power as well...limit their use or the game will spiral out of control rapidly.  Harry's been around for 9 books and change and he doesn't have an unlimited arsenal of magical gizmos so what makes you think a "from scratch" character would have access to them.  To much power ruins a game *for those of you familiar with the term Monty Haul Campaign, you know what I'm talking about*.

Offline Brodie

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #16 on: April 20, 2007, 12:01:27 AM »
As for the Wizard and apprentice scenario. You really have to have two players really willing to roleplay that situation fairly. I'm always hesitant to put my players in a situation where one person is in charge of another, or the whole group. I usually find that a leader type character naturally evolves in the party, but you can't always predict who that leader will be. I've found that when I've assigned a leadership role to one person they either aren't interested in playing the leader or try to take advantage of the position.

I'm lucky to have gotten to know my friends/groupmates' role playing capabilities, so for me, it isn't too much to worry that they'll cry foul and hang me upside-down while they make off with my comics. :) Speaking seriously, though, they would go for that, especially the two players that haven't read the books and don't know how magic works in the Dresden world. One player's brother will be rejoining us when he comes back for summer break from college, and would likely take the apprentice role if his brother's the full-fledged wizard.

But yeah, it definitely comes down knowing the group's habits and nature. I'm lucky to be in a group that's diverse and has the "combat wombat, one skill monkey, one social monster, one reality-defying freak, etc" like Samldanach's group, as well as a player that's a jack-of-all-trades and can pick up the slack when needed.
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Offline Rock Me Asmodeus

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #17 on: April 20, 2007, 07:33:18 AM »
I don't think I'll ever get to play the game IRL.  But if I did, I think my house rules would involve a Burger King crown and accepting bribes for small favors.

Offline Brodie

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #18 on: April 20, 2007, 07:42:50 AM »
BK crowns are easily ripped/crushed/burned/destroyed. Get something made out of metal, if possible. Oh, and a scepter of sort for bonking unruly players on the head. :)
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Offline Rock Me Asmodeus

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #19 on: April 20, 2007, 08:36:22 AM »
Oh, I do have a "Wand of Player Control".  It's a dagger that's about a foot long.   ;D

Offline Samldanach

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #20 on: April 20, 2007, 11:45:46 AM »
BK crowns are easily ripped/crushed/burned/destroyed. Get something made out of metal, if possible. Oh, and a scepter of sort for bonking unruly players on the head. :)

I really recommend against the chain mail shirt, though.  It gets very uncomfortable after a couple hours.

Also, beware this scenario....

Offline jtaylor

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #21 on: April 20, 2007, 01:41:48 PM »
I really recommend against the chain mail shirt, though.  It gets very uncomfortable after a couple hours.

Also, beware this scenario....
It sounds like you have a cheap set of maile. Chainmail can be very comfortable for long periods if you are using more historically accurate flat riveted maile. It is much lighter than a shirt made out of the more standard 18 gauge butted maile. It also helps if you are wearing a gambeson under the maile.
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Offline Samldanach

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #22 on: April 20, 2007, 06:31:01 PM »
I don't really want to wear a gambeson for six hours, either.  Besides, sitting on the chain shirt that long isn't good for the chair, either.   ;D


Offline jtaylor

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #23 on: April 20, 2007, 06:44:05 PM »
I don't really want to wear a gambeson for six hours, either.  Besides, sitting on the chain shirt that long isn't good for the chair, either.   ;D
No, but it's great if you have been in melees for six hours. Chainmail doesn't really protect against rattan without one. :)
A noble spirit enbiggens the smallest man.

Offline Corbin DeBec

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #24 on: April 21, 2007, 03:09:19 AM »
I think one house rule that should be inforced is, have fun.

as far as limiting what the players can be, well i'd have to see the game first but I was playing with the Idea that maybe the white council would want a small team of trouble shooters to investigate possible paranormal activities, they wouldn't send a full fledge wizard seeing how they are at war, so maybe some young bucks can go look and report back.  Of course things won't go smooth and they'll sometimes have to deal with the problem first hand.  but it would give them room to grow as chacters and you wouldn't have one powerful character hogging the glory or bailing the others out, not to mention having a balanced situation where it would be a challenge to the powerful player as well as the weaker ones not getting slaughtered, so I'm sure they'd be some basic starting aspects/stunts "limit" that each player can use, and as pointed out a good mix of both wizards and mortals would be able to work as a team and back each other up.  And again till I see the actual game in print I can only speculate what to do with the players. 

And since like Spirit of the Century the GM'ing will be swinging between a couple of us so we can play a character at times we'd have to come into agreement on what the role of the players should be. 

my 2 cents.
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Offline Brodie

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #25 on: April 21, 2007, 05:18:46 AM »
What I like most about the way magic works in the Dresdenverse is how it's really only limited by what the user is capable of thinking up and channelling. When I'm a magic user (very rare), I tend to be like Harry, using a handful of tried and true standby's and the occasional different spell.

A team dynamic for a group of casters - with this in mind - is golden, as everyone is coming in with their own arsenal of ideas. Then, everyone is subconciously taking notes and getting ideas for themselves. It's definitely something worth me considering if everyone in my group wants to be a wizard.
Wile E. Coyote, Suuuuuuuper genius!

Offline Phoenix Talon

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Re: What will be your Dresden Files house rules?
« Reply #26 on: April 21, 2007, 04:53:28 PM »
I haven't had many GM-spots (my first horrendous game is to blame) in my group since I'm mostly a player, but I will be GM-ing this RPG for sure.

Rules will probably be something along the lines of:
1) A preference of not highly powered characters.  Dresden has said that there are lots of lower powered people in the city, as is evident in WN - lots of dabblers with good intentions.
2) White Court/Order of St. Giles will be allowed with a VERY good back story.
3) Humans need an even BETTER back story than the Vamps.  they are not supposed to know in the first place.  It'll be like running a Call of C'thulhu game without a good back ground.
4) Group input on the characters.  I like some balance, but overlap can work well occasionally...

They'll probably evolve while we actually play the game and the players get a better grasp of the system.