Urban Fantasy FATE 2.5

[Sanctaphrax]

It's not a terrible idea, but I don't see the point.

Setting aside the silliness of charging for retractable-ness, this will do nothing that I can see to make DFRPG more applicable to other Urban Fantasy settings.

In fact, I still can't think of anything that DFRPG doesn't do that other Urban Fantasy settings demand. You still haven't explained what about the system makes it not usable with other settings.

PS: Are you serious about the lack of power creep? By what I've seen, Harry goes from having 10 Refresh to having over 20 over the course of the series.

[ways and means]

It's not a terrible idea, but I don't see the point.

Setting aside the silliness of charging for retractable-ness, this will do nothing that I can see to make DFRPG more applicable to other Urban Fantasy settings.

In fact, I still can't think of anything that DFRPG doesn't do that other Urban Fantasy settings demand. You still haven't explained what about the system makes it not usable with other settings.

PS: Are you serious about the lack of power creep? By what I've seen, Harry goes from having 10 Refresh to having over 20 over the course of the series.

Well as a kid Dresden clearly had more than 10 refresh considering

(click to show/hide)

he fought an outsider and killed a high level warden who I have a sneaking suspicion was possessed by Kemmler. 

[Sanctaphrax]

Luck.

Or something sinister...

Seriously, Harry later speculates that that was a set-up.

[Locnil]

PS: Are you serious about the lack of power creep? By what I've seen, Harry goes from having 10 Refresh to having over 20 over the course of the series.

Over the course of 13 books. By most standards, that's pretty slow.

And if you're counting the power boost in Changes, it was because of a pact, bringing with it significant downsides.

[Richard_Chilton]

In fact, I still can't think of anything that DFRPG doesn't do that other Urban Fantasy settings demand. You still haven't explained what about the system makes it not usable with other settings.

PS: Are you serious about the lack of power creep? By what I've seen, Harry goes from having 10 Refresh to having over 20 over the course of the series.

I answered that in another thread.

As for power creep.  Over roughly 10 - 12 years of play, a PC gained 20 major milestones.  He has been in 13 major campaigns and gone on countless one shot adventures.  That's a slow advancement - considering he was one of the top 100 wizards in the world when he started.

Anita Blake went from:
I can raise the dead (as long as they haven't been dead for more than 50 or so years) and I have a few powers that come from an icky vampire marking me.
to
As above, but I'm now linked to a werewolf and have funky werewolf powers
to
Just killed something that was immortal, can raise the dead even if they've been in the ground for more than 100 years.
to
As above, and now can control vampires like they were zombies.  Oh, and really old zombies now.

After the first couple of volumes, each book brought her to a new plateau of power.   I think in the space of three books, Anita goes from barely surviving meeting a godlike being to fighting off a godlike to being able to kill a godlike being.  From hiding in fear of prehistoric powers (i.e. ones that have been growing more powerful since the saber tooth walked the Earth) to destroying them.

If Harry followed that level of power creep then by now he would have broken the White Council (or made it his slave) and told Mab "You my bitch" - then maybe smacked around Mother Summer and Winter just to prove he could.  Or to invite them to a foursome with Mab.  Invite? Nah, he would have grabbed them by the hair and dragged them to his bed.

Seriously, for a while I was calling Harry the anti-Anita because he doesn't gain a major new power every book or have sex with everything that moves (and a few things that don't).

Richard

[Sanctaphrax]

I answered that in another thread.

Where?

Not being deliberately obtuse; I've been looking for something like that, and I haven't found it.

Can't comment on Anita Blake, but Harry becomes one of the world's movers and shakers as the series goes on. A series where a guy goes from "can hardly pay rent" to "wipes out a world power" does not seem low in power creep to me. Maybe Anita Blake is more power-creepy, but...Harry seems to get a major milestone more than once every second session.

[Richard_Chilton]

Where?

Here:

I am so sorry that you've missed the posts I've made where I've said that homebrew is encouraged or the ones where I've said that since I'm not at your table I don't know what you've done to the world - just as you don't know what I've done to mind.  You see, I have said in various posts that since we don't know each others changes the only common ground we have to discuss things is the DV.

And perhaps you've missed my attempt to start a thread dealing with how the DFRPG can be adapted to other Urban Fantasy worlds - because they would have to be adapted to some extent to play outside the DV.  Jim's setting elements would have to be abandoned and new ones added - which require changes to the rules.

And Blake seems to gains 3 - 5 refresh per novel.  Where as Harry (at the end of Small Favors):
By this point, Harry’s gained at least five to six points of refresh (making him a base 16 character!) and a solid handful of about ten more skill points, making him as scary an opponent as many of the creatures you see in these pages.

So I'm not sure where you're getting the 20 refresh number.

Richard

[Tsunami]

Well as a kid Dresden clearly had more than 10 refresh considering

(click to show/hide)

he fought an outsider and killed a high level warden who I have a sneaking suspicion was possessed by Kemmler. 

Harry most likely has a hidden aspect

(click to show/hide)

"I am the Outsider Bane"

or something along those lines. His player simply spent a fate point and declared that he satisfied the catch. No major refresh boost needed.
The second opponent was defeated by using lots and lots of sponsor debt to Lea, and probably some form of temporary sponsored magic. Again, this could be done by a very low refresh character.
Not that he necessarily was very low... he probably was at about 8, seeing that this is the minimum for full wizards, and winning this fight counted as his trial to be judged a full wizard.

General commentary:
Sex:
Anita's, or anybody's, extensive sex rituals are easily modeled by the ritual rules in the DFRPG... (lots and lots of mini scene declarations describing the various practices probably, plus consequences and...) if it's truly necessary to include those, which i think it is not, but that's besides the point.

Power progression:
I have not read the Anita Blake novels, but a friend of mine who really enjoyed them in the beginning, dropped them due to precisely the two aspects that were mentioned here. Too much sex, and too much power.
Harry has gotten stronger and stronger over the course of the books, but luckily he has not gotten too strong.
Also, Harry's increased power is often due to, how did Jim put it... "becoming less stupid" though his personal power has increased as well.

Personally I like the progression speed that the Fate system offers.
If your game requires a quicker progression, simply hand out more major milestones, though i can't think why it would be necessary.

_{So, after writing this i realized it's nothing particularly useful, or even new information... but i'm gonna post it anyways, because i don't want to have been typing it for nothing *g*}

[Sanctaphrax]

20 Refresh is from the thread where Deadmanwalking stats everyone up. OW says he's got 16ish Refresh by Small Favour, too.

Anyway. You said:

I am so sorry that you've missed the posts I've made where I've said that homebrew is encouraged or the ones where I've said that since I'm not at your table I don't know what you've done to the world - just as you don't know what I've done to mind.  You see, I have said in various posts that since we don't know each others changes the only common ground we have to discuss things is the DV.

And perhaps you've missed my attempt to start a thread dealing with how the DFRPG can be adapted to other Urban Fantasy worlds - because they would have to be adapted to some extent to play outside the DV.  Jim's setting elements would have to be abandoned and new ones added - which require changes to the rules.

But that doesn't actually answer my question.

What elements of the system would need to be changed?