AAARG! Help I've painted myself into a corner and I can't get out...
I have a group that I have been playing Pathfinder with every Friday for the last year and a half. Two GMs alternate games so neither one will get burned out and they each get to play as well as GM - 2 weeks ago they both felt a little burned out and decided they needed a break at the same time soooo - having bought the Dresden Files RPG books and itching to play I decided to volunteer to GM a game and try out the system...Yeah, I'm not sure how that went.
Everyone had a good time (at least there were no complaints at the end) but I'm pretty sure I didn't use the fate points appropriately - I never got a chance to invoke an aspect and only one person used a fate point to increase a role. We were Playing the free write up called Night Fears
http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/2011/04/26/casefile-night-fears/ and pretty much NOTHING went as planned. For those of you who don't know this is a 'feet-in-the-water' level game with 13-14 yr olds who stay in a haunted house on a dare and encounter ghosts.
After exploring the house and finding various clues, instead of sitting down to tell scary stories these kids decided to use all their abilities to start investigating the murder - so they skipped the entire 2nd act and just to throw in a little flavor I had Maggie's diary implicate a White Court Vampire; Skavis (hired as a gardener while Jerome was away at work) as the reason for the couples extreme despair reactions of murder and suicide.
Well the night ended with them giving rest to the murdered baby and mother and the character who talks to ghosts found out from the father that it was the fault of the white court Vampire and tasked them with finding the fiend and making sure he didn't do this to anyone else - I threw that task out there - thinking this was a one shot and we would never see these characters again...
The Gm who's week it would have been this week has been in a motorcycle accident (he's okay but recovering - and without health insurance it may take him a longer time) so the players have asked me to run again - with the SAME 14 yr old characters...taking on a white court vampire...
I figure I can lead them a merry chase through some LESS deadly enemies on their search for the vampire - maybe some more ghosts - but I also want to play the game with more of use of the mechanics that I don't seem to be using correctly.
help help help... the game is Friday
The PCs are:
Andy Drabyk, Jock in the Making
Chris Stein, Trickster Changeling
Donny Disney, Rich boy
Jaimie Collins, Psychic Bookworm
Mike Ng, Troubled Medium
Nicky Hamonic, Steadfast Best Friend
Terry Jefferson, Devout Follower of the Shepherd (good natured cultist)