Introducing Newbies

[NutJobismyJob]

Hey everyone, I've never played the DFRPG, but I'm thinking of starting up a game and I have a couple of questions.  Both my questions stem from the fact that none of the people I game with have read the Dresden Files books.  Given that, do you think they could still get into the RPG in its own right?  And also, if they did read the books at some point after starting to play the RPG, could just looking through the rulebooks spoil anything major for them?

[Mr. Death]

Hey everyone, I've never played the DFRPG, but I'm thinking of starting up a game and I have a couple of questions.  Both my questions stem from the fact that none of the people I game with have read the Dresden Files books.  Given that, do you think they could still get into the RPG in its own right?

Yes; the rulebooks provide a very good baseline for understanding the world.

And also, if they did read the books at some point after starting to play the RPG, could just looking through the rulebooks spoil anything major for them?

Yes. The rulebooks spoil pretty much everything of significance that happens in the first 10 books.

[NutJobismyJob]

Ah.  Well that's a relief and a disappointment at the same time.  Thanks for the quick answers though.

[Haru]

Hmm, there are some hints at some scenes in the novels, but I think they aren't really that bad. Of course something like this is always a bit spoilerish, but more in a "Hmm, that sounds interesting, I should read more" sort of way. Then again, I have read the RPG long after I started reading the novels, I might be totally wrong. Our World however definitely spoilers out the wazoo, since it describes every character and beasty Harry ever ran across. If you fear you might spoiler your players, just keep the books to yourself and give them an abbreviated version of the rules. There is a cheat sheet in the back of the book, that contains short rules and tables all on 2 pages, which can easily be copied on one piece of paper so they have the most important things at their disposal.

The RPG can be played in a lot of different styles, and as long as your group is into contemporary fantasy, you should be fine. If your players have never played an RPG before, you might want to start slow (feet in the water), and only allow pure mortals to get the ball rolling. You can introduce a number of powers and templates gradually over time, either as an enemy or as an ally. If they are experienced players, you can pretty much start with anything, the aspect rules need some getting used to, if you come from other games, but once you get into play, they start to come pretty natural, I think.

[InFerrumVeritas]

Hmm, there are some hints at some scenes in the novels, but I think they aren't really that bad. Of course something like this is always a bit spoilerish, but more in a "Hmm, that sounds interesting, I should read more" sort of way. Then again, I have read the RPG long after I started reading the novels, I might be totally wrong. Our World however definitely spoilers out the wazoo, since it describes every character and beasty Harry ever ran across. If you fear you might spoiler your players, just keep the books to yourself and give them an abbreviated version of the rules. There is a cheat sheet in the back of the book, that contains short rules and tables all on 2 pages, which can easily be copied on one piece of paper so they have the most important things at their disposal.

The RPG can be played in a lot of different styles, and as long as your group is into contemporary fantasy, you should be fine. If your players have never played an RPG before, you might want to start slow (feet in the water), and only allow pure mortals to get the ball rolling. You can introduce a number of powers and templates gradually over time, either as an enemy or as an ally. If they are experienced players, you can pretty much start with anything, the aspect rules need some getting used to, if you come from other games, but once you get into play, they start to come pretty natural, I think.

I think Your Story is generally a safe read, maybe some spoilers (specifically to Storm Front, Fool Moon, and with the Thomas stuff), but many of them aren't recognizable as such.  Our World is very much not safe at all.

[Deadmanwalking]

By my memory (and quick skim), Chapters 1-10 and 16 of Your Story (the rulebook) doesn't spoil any plot elements beyond Book 4 (and not even many of those...mostly just the existence of Billy and the alphas, the very first scene of Summer Knight, the War with the Red Court, one mention of a mimic showing up in Grave Peril,...and, sadly, the entirety of Storm Front, if you read the character creation example). Though there are a few other context-less hint-y things I wouldn't call spoilers (Harry mentions 'getting to keep my hand' with no context, for example). These are coincidentally the chapters that you need to make and understand a character who isn't a spellcaster. Chapter 11-15 are quite a bit more spoiler-y, though it's usually utterly devoid of context. And, of course, Our World (the setting book) is made out of pure compressed spoilers.

[Richard_Chilton]

A quick, this is what the world is like, setting can be found at:
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,22372.msg966827.html#msg966827

Richard

[Magicpockets]

Make sure to NOT read the example characters under the templates. Some of them are pretty major spoilers.

[Deadmanwalking]

Make sure to NOT read the example characters under the templates. Some of them are pretty major spoilers.

Ooh, good point. I missed those.

[NutJobismyJob]

Some excellent advice, thanks everyone.

[Orladdin]

... none of the people I game with have read the Dresden Files books.  Given that, do you think they could still get into the RPG in its own right? 

When I announced my Dresden game, only one other person had read it, but they trusted me as a GM, and as I wrote some introductory narratives for their characters, a few of them got excited enough to read the books.  By session one, 2/3 of the group had read them. 

By our first major milestone, everyone was either in the process of reading them or finished. 

I got 6 other people to read a 13-novel series and love it.  Jim should be paying me comission.  ;-)

[Deadmanwalking]

When I announced my Dresden game, only one other person had read it, but they trusted me as a GM, and as I wrote some introductory narratives for their characters, a few of them got excited enough to read the books.  By session one, 2/3 of the group had read them. 

By our first major milestone, everyone was either in the process of reading them or finished. 

I got 6 other people to read a 13-novel series and love it.  Jim should be paying me comission.  ;-)

This is not a unique situation. I only got, I think, three or four of my six players to read it...but it was definitely the game that did it. Though there were only eleven books at the time...

[finarvyn]

I think the best thing to do is have your players watch an episode or two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and of Charmed.

(1) Both shows give players a feel for what a supernatural campaign is all about. Buffy shows a lot about vampires and Charmed gives hints about magic. You might warn them that these shows are not canon, however, and that some things will be different in the game than shown on TV.

(2) The advantage to doing this is that you avoid spoilers. If they read the books or the rulebook they get ideas that could spoil surprises in your game. A new group is the best to play with, becasue you can "borrow" stuff from Jim's books and the players think that you are brilliant.

[Deadmanwalking]

Neither of those tell them anything about the world though, just the mood. So that's fine if their characters know nothing of the supernatural...but less so if they should actually know how, say, magic works.