Cognitive dissonance? It's never what you expect the game to be.

[Mrmdubois]

If you strike him down...

[Theonlyspiral]

It's something of a genre-savyness that makes players choose the 'kill' option. In almost every story a bad guy that doesn't get double-tapped comes back to wreak havoc again.
They most often aren't Batman who lock the Joker back in Arkham Asylum knowing very well it's a revolving door prison.

I've seen this start an escalation at table play. You get a rep for taking out everyone you fight then eventually the bad guys learn to do the same. They come at you hard and for blood. In one superhero game it got 4/6 of the party killed. I think in general letting people concede and coming up with something that's good for everyone is the way to go.

It might have come of stronger than I intended it to sound. Basically, ask yourself this: Is the concession appealing enough from an IC perspective? Do the PCs involved benefit more from letting the NPC live? If I can say yes to both, then I am likely to accept the concession.
[snip]

Or, as the books did it:

(click to show/hide)

There's a reason Harry broke Cassius' legs

Part of the problem is concession takes place OOC often. It's a matter of the players at the table coming to a reasonable consensus so that everyone continues to have fun. Otherwise why should bad guys in a fight ever let members of the Party concede? Like you said:

I will talk with the players involved to find a solution that is fun for all involved....

Emphasis mine obviously.

[JDK002]

I think a lot of players forget that the GM counts as a player too (crazy talk I know), and they are playing to have fun just like the PCs.  So when a plot-centric npc get curb-stomped because the players happened to roll like gods in a conflict, concession!  The mechanic is there for the GM just as much as it is for the players.

[Theonlyspiral]

I think a lot of players forget that the GM counts as a player too (crazy talk I know), and they are playing to have fun just like the PCs.  So when a plot-centric npc get curb-stomped because the players happened to roll like gods in a conflict, concession!  The mechanic is there for the GM just as much as it is for the players.

How can people forget this? When I was reading YS for the first time and found concessions I was like "Oh! Hey! Now they won't be able to kill every NPC with a name!"

[InFerrumVeritas]

How can people forget this? When I was reading YS for the first time and found concessions I was like "Oh! Hey! Now they won't be able to kill every NPC with a name!"

This.

[JDK002]

How can people forget this? When I was reading YS for the first time and found concessions I was like "Oh! Hey! Now they won't be able to kill every NPC with a name!"

Haha you would be surprised.  I've seen at least a couple threads about people asking "how to I make a recurring villain who doesn't get killed the second he is in a scene?" or "my players killed my long-term villain earlier than they were supposed to.  What do I do!?". xD

[Magicpockets]

Personally, I would never use an NPC in combat that I wouldn't be comfortable loosing. Going into combat with the expectation that NPC XY is going to survive no matter what due to Plot armor is something that should be used sparingly at best, lest it turns into a railroad fest.

[Mr. Death]

Yeah, don't put someone in combat you're not ready to lose. That said, when I offer a concession, I'll also occasionally point out that them winning the fight next round isn't a sure thing either, and another round of combat could go badly for them just as well, particularly if the one offering the concession is a magic user.

[Lavecki121]

There is also the thing where a character might not be going for a fight and an NPC gets attacked before the GM intends them to be. The only time I have killed an NPC early we used four fate points as a group, when some of us aren't even in the scene to keep the NPC from running

[Tedronai]

The enemy of the Concession is the Alpha Strike.
Because, remember, you can't Concede after the dice have been rolled until you've suffered the consequences of that roll.
When, as a player, I REALLY want a target to be dead, I do it in one hit.

[fantazero]

The Only Problems I've ever had with Dresden Files Games are Lack of Awesome or the Murder Mystery Stuff

Harry Dresden is a Chandler-esque Detective. So I feel GMs feel they HAVE to have a Murder Mystery with Dark Magic Ties.

So GMs want you to SOLVE the Mystery while you might not want to or have no reason to as a character.

As for lack of Awesome. Harry gets shot at, blown up, throws the scales that balance power into mayhem.
So when you're IN GAME sitting around having a Tea Party, it's not as awesome. It's a FATE game your CHARACTERS are supposed to be Badasses. Even if they're the "bad guys" you PCs are supposed to be bigger than life.

To OP, tell your friend he is over thinking things, and that Harry is Important but he isn't THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE WORLD.

While Harry is goofing around with Zombie T-Rex's whose taking care of the Big Foot Problem in Little Rock? Who is stopping the "UFOs" in New Mexico? What's Harry doing about the Werewolf Biker Gang in Belfast? Your PCs thats who.

Also I've stated, I HATE meeting the Stars of the Novels. It just feels Cheesy to me. Harry coming in at the last minute to save the day makes your characters less important.

[blackstaff67]

It's something of a genre-savyness that makes players choose the 'kill' option. In almost every story a bad guy that doesn't get double-tapped comes back to wreak havoc again.
They most often aren't Batman who lock the Joker back in Arkham Asylum knowing very well it's a revolving door prison.

Please.  I just got done running our monthly session a few hours ago and since all but one Adversary was mortal (and that one a House Malvora WCV), the party has a lonnng list of mortal foes with good reason not to love the party: Wealthy businessman, crazy militia "colonel", gun dealer, a husband/wife wizard/shooter team, a less wealthy businesswoman that dabbles in sex magic, and to top it off: Claire B., a warlock that they inflicted an Extreme consequence upon but survived...whose also the lover of Anna Raith, owner of Club Zero in South Bend-Mishawaka.  Said WCV retaliated (for starters) by relocating her establishment across the street from the party's favorite hangout a sports bar which is 1) located next to a river (as in sitting almost practically atop if with nearby bridge) and 2) the Michiana equivalent of McAnally's. 

Mortal enemies are fun!

[madvogon]

Four points,     all over the place, although all are relevant:

One of the more interesting Dresden games I have encountered was at Origins two years ago.  The concept borrowed from the old game  Nightlife where the characters were all members of a band and all changelings, set in set in NYC.  This demonstrated to the players  a path other than a Chicago-centric campaign.

As far as canon campaigns go, I am reminded of another Origins experience where I played in a GURPS game based on Gardner's Expendable universe.  Other than the GM, a close friend, I was the only one of 8 players who had read the books.  Thank God I ended up with the Explorer and the overkill suit! 

The canon vs non-canon campaign is something I have been wrestling with for 2 years.  The setting I have finally chosen to develop is sort of a hybrid.  The players are the trainees under Ramirez' tutelege.  This campaign has had its scope expanded by the last two books rather than the standard problem of a canon campaign where the next book can kick the underpinnings of an existing campaign out from under a GM.

Finally, I have been working on an Anita Blake conversion for the past 10 years.  The format I have ultimately decided upon predates Skin Trade, but was validated by this book.  Basically,   other major cities are forming their own versions of RPiT.  This allows continuity across different geographical locations as well as guest appearances by several major characters from the books.  This also solves the major power creep problem of someone wanting to play Anita.  I was truly concerned about this, as the same issue exists in the Sailor Moon RPG when someone insists on playing Usagi.

[Orladdin]

I suspected this might be an issue when I started my game, so I started out by setting two ground rules: 1, Harry died at Bianca's party.  2, It is a year after that event.  From there, everyone else contributed as normal.  Setting such a major event as a founding "truth" to the campaign allowed everyone to accept later changes as they came, since it wasn't assumed to be the exact world of the books.

For my part, I've only included three cannon characters, and only in bit parts. 
Thomas showed up at a vampire party as the House Raith representative, but in a world where he failed to save Harry's life, he's a bitter ass.  The players got to outshine him.  They loved it.

Morgan appeared once to stress The Laws to our budding magus.  He was basically all *intimidate, spell out the letter of the law, threaten, leave*.  It was enough to warrant no further Council intervention.

Finally I had Maeve show up at a ball.  The one player who was ballsy enough to introduce himself got snarked at and insulted (as politely as possible)-- as you'd expect from someone of her stature.  He snarked back of course, in courtly fashion, and everyone got a laugh.

These visits cement to them that, yes, it's the same world with its own internal consistency.  The book characters also don't stick around after serving this purpose, which allowes them to get out of the players' way and let their characters be the awesome ones.


YMMV, but it's worked really well for me and my table.

[fantazero]

These visits cement to them that, yes, it's the same world with its own internal consistency.  The book characters also don't stick around after serving this purpose, which allowes them to get out of the players' way and let their characters be the awesome ones.

this a thousand times this. Nothing sucks worse than having to take back seat to Pet Npcs, Characters from the book or anything thats not a PC being awesome