Good day to everyone. This is my first post on these forums, and I hope to make more as I have more questions to ask.
Today, I had participated in my first ever session of the Dresden Files RPG, and also my first ever session under a FATE-based system too. I had never read any of the Dresden Files books, so I was playing from the disadvantageous position of relying solely on Your Story and Our World for setting information. My GM was totally new to both FATE-based systems and the Dresden Files too, so we were both operating from that position.
I had encountered some rules confusion during my first session that the other players were kind enough to help me understand, but afterwards, I realize that a few things were still left unclarified. So, I would like to pose the following sets of questions.
1. Page 230 of Your Story mentions that "some beings—especially those of pure spirit—cannot cross a threshold, since they're usually using their magical power to hold their material world body together." What beings would these be, specifically? What is the general guideline for whether or not a particular type of creature can physically cross a threshold or not?
2. Page 230 of Your Story mentions that "a significant source of running water ... 'shorts out' magical energies that try to cross over or through it." How exactly does this work as a threshold? What happens if a supernatural creature crosses a bridge over a wide river, for example?
3. Page 231 of Your Story explains that places of worshipare considered thresholds. Some time before my first session started, I had asked my GM if weekly Mass was an invitation into the church's threshold; the GM said that yes, it was. During my first session, my character was brought to a synagogue by the party and an allied rabbi. Inside, another player initiated social conflict with me, and I had to accept. I used one of my powers in defense, but then the player interrupted and said that I was in a threshold. I had asked the GM if I was invited into the threshold of the synagogue; the GM said I was.
Then, the player brought up that there was no such thing as an invitation to holy ground, and that it would take a personal invitation from the White God to lift the threshold. Therefore, I should take a significant penalty to the usage of my supernatural powers. The GM agreed.
I can understand the logic behind this, but is this the case within the rules? Page 187 of Your Story says, in reference to the Bless This House power, which bolsters the rating of a threshold, that "Multiple individuals who have this power can stack the effects, making a den of the faithful potentially very safe from supernatural incursion—unless someone’s so foolish as to invite a powerful supernatural creature in." From this, I understood that an supernatural creature being invited to a place of worship is free of any penalties from the threshold. Is this indeed not the case?
4. Pages 230-231 of Your Story explain that a threshold inhibits supernatural powers. How does a threshold affect the defensive aspects of supernatural powers? For example, Supernatural Speed would grant a creature a +2 bonus to an Athletics roll made to dodge. How would that be affected within a threshold? What about the extra physical stress boxes from a power like Supernatural Toughness?
5. During my first session, I had wanted to use my Incite Emotion (Sorrow) power to block all of the actions of a Summer Court fae that we were engaged in physical conflict with, by overwhelming it with hopelessness. Two of the other players contested it and said that I was wrong and could not do so. I pointed to page 173 of Your Story, which says, in reference to Incite Emotion, "You may be able to prevent the victim from taking other actions as well if you do this as a block (page 210) instead of as a maneuver." I also pointed to page 210 of Our World, which states, "Generally speaking, if the block can affect more than one person, it can only prevent one type of action. If the block only affects one person, it can prevent several types of action—up to all of them—as context permits. You can’t use a block to prevent someone from making a defense roll."
The other two players still said I was wrong and could not use Incite Emotion to block that way. So, I just used my Incite Emotion power for a maneuver instead. What was I about to do wrong by using Incite Emotion to block all actions but defense rolls?
Thank you in advance for any rules clarifications.