White Wolf Forum: The Dresden Files

[Mickey Finn]

Good point on the players...I so rarely Table Top these days, I forgot what it's like with bad players. Ugh.

[Mickey Finn]

I should also point out, so it doesn't look like I'm calling a previous posted stoopid...I've heard that before, where people can't figure out Mage because of the system. People's heads are wired differently.

[Jeremy]

Someone mentioned in this thread that they were unhappy with White Wolf because Changeling went away. Well, just so you know Changeling is evidently getting the New WoD treatment and the book for it comes out next year.

Also, if you are interested in a Changeling the Dreaming chat game PM me.

  Take care,
      Jeremy

[Wyrdrune]

I should also point out, so it doesn't look like I'm calling a previous posted stoopid...I've heard that before, where people can't figure out Mage because of the system. People's heads are wired differently.

it's a hell of a system... people either have a knack for it, or a lot of problems. it's one of the best magick-systems for RPGs I know...

[Kali]

I could be completely wrong on that, but I thought it went Pern/Dune, then Amber, then a pause, then Masq and GarouMUSH, then Elysium/Amaranth/City of Darknes, then a sudden deluge of WoD MUSHes.

Post necromancy!

Mickey, wasn't Dark Gift open pre-GarouMUSH?  Post Masq, natch, but it was a splinter offa that one.  Also was my first WoD mush.  Then Whispers and Tartarus (yes, really) and a bunch of others and then Avalanche and... I lose track.  I think I apped on Monaco but never played there.  I was wiz staff a buncha times, but I soon learned that nothing would make me hate the game faster than dealing with the playerbase.

[Mickey Finn]

Dark Gift was post Elysium, because Ely was originally designed to be set in the same world as Masq, and characters could go back and forth...but then there was an argument between some staff, and that was that. I *think* Garou was around  before Ely, because I remember a friend getting rejected from it on an ap because he mispelled *a* word.

But again, I could be wrong. My memory's spotty.

[Willowhugger]

Not to take away from the Dresden Files RPG that is being done up but some good ideas for adapting Harry Dresden to magical central is this...

(note this is for old WoD)

Harry Dresden

Avatar: Primordial
Tradition: Order of Hermes
House: None
Nature: Martyr
Demeanor: Jobsworth

Harry Dresden is the son of a human stage magician and a believed Nephandus of the Order of Hermes or Verbena.  This has permanently colored his relationship with the council as his first teacher was a Order of Hermes Barrabi.  With no less than two direct associations with the black enemies of all magicians, Harry Dresden has the Infamous flaw.  His relationship with his Tradition is conducted with a -2 penalty due to his utter isolation from the rest of the Council.  Harry also suffers from "Static Burn" that causes any mechanical or electronic device in his presence to operate with a botch on a 1 and a 2 roll for its use.  Harry formerly had an enemy in the Warden Morgan whom was convinced he was a threat to mankind.  Like all wizards of his bloodline he ages only 1 year for every ten years since maturity and regenerates one health level a day with aggravated damage healing at a rate of one health level per five days. Harry has some help with his 4 point Mentor in Ebenezer, his familiar in Mouse, and Allies 3 his White Council (Toreador) half-brother Thomas, Karen Murphy, and the noble warrior Michael (Mortal Hunter with True Faith 6+ and Oracular abilities).  Harry's avatar is powerful with 4 points bonus that manifests routinely as a embodiment of himself and his darker thoughts.  Harry is implied to have a destiny and has 3 points of it reflecting his occasional ability to get out of an odd spot.  The talisman Bob (or more precisely Fetish) is a bound air spirit with access to vast amounts of magical information and the ability to go spying for him. 

Arete: 6
Spheres: Spirit 3, Forces 3, Prime 2, Correspondence 1, Life 2, Mind 1, Matter 2

Special Rotes: Spirit 1/Mind 1/Prime 1 "Soul Gaze"

[trboturtle]

I'm on the mailing list and might play test if Iago wishes...problem is, I don't live near them, so that would put a crink in things.


Longwinded explanation:
MY RPG experience is weird, anyways.  I was actually hired as a writer for FASA's Shadowrun division...2 weeks before the suprise announcement that they were closing their doors. I never even got my first assignment. (I did, however, get paid...every single  rulebook in the library was sent to me for research purposes. They didn't ask for them back.)

Have you contacted FanPro? They have the Shadowrun and (Classic) Battletech games. They've been working hard on CBT, but they are working on SR . There's been several SR novels published recently. They are trying to get a SR site up and running, simular to BattleCorps....

Craig

[Mickey Finn]

Nope, my contact (Michelle Lyons) didn't get drafted by them (or Wizkids, sadly...she's still working alot as an independent contractor, though. Wrote a huge chunk of the the new Vampire rulebook for WW, did several anime RPGs such as Trigun & a few other popular titles I can't remember.)

As I never actually wrote anything for FASA (never had time), I can't see FanPro being that interested.

[Upuaut]

(note this is for old WoD)
Harry Dresden
Avatar: Primordial
Tradition: Order of Hermes
House: None
Nature: Martyr
Demeanor: Jobsworth

Arete: 6
Spheres: Spirit 3, Forces 3, Prime 2, Correspondence 1, Life 2, Mind 1, Matter 2
Special Rotes: Spirit 1/Mind 1/Prime 1 "Soul Gaze"

Nice breakdown. That was pretty much my thoughts on it as well.

I saw it mentioned earlier that GURPS wasn't the first system to come up with the multiple genre angle.. I do believe though that it was, and possibly still is(I haven't picked up a new system in years, but try to keep my eyes open) the best try at it. The point was that you could realistically play military vs magery and the systems would have a workable hit&damage system. In addition, though the other systems were set up to take you into different genre, GURPS was the only one that would let you work out your own genre if you could come up with it, without any reworking of the rules. You want to play rats fighting in Nim? GURPS could do that, you want to fight with toons in toonsville, GURPS could do that, want to play, Chtulu? Watership down? Cyber assassins? Prince's of Amber? etc etc etc.. GURPS had rules in the core book that could cover almost any angle conceived of.

[The Last Bean]

I'd agree with that Harry writeup, except on the spheres. I'd say he needs at least Correspondence 2. He's demonstrated his ability to work magic outside his perception range on multiple occations, and he's tracked a one of Marcone's thugs across Chicago using blood as a correspondence link. Also, I think he'd need Prime 3 to create magic potions, and Spirit 4 to bring other people into the Nevernever (Umbra). Possibly needing Matter 3 also. That trick with the blood-into-fog in Fool Moon was a state change, which Matter 2 can't do, and I don't think Harry knows enough science to change it into something that would evaporate at room temperature.  Just my 2 cents.

[Amberyl]

I could be completely wrong on that, but I thought it went Pern/Dune, then Amber, then a pause, then Masq and GarouMUSH, then Elysium/Amaranth/City of Darknes, then a sudden deluge of WoD MUSHes.
When I joined Amber, the RPG wasn't out yet.

I am reawakening a long-dead thread, but I can clear the timeline up, since I was involved in all of it. 

PernMUSH was founded in January of 1991. AmberMUSH was founded in November of 1991 but did not open to players until the spring of 1992. The game opened after the DRPG was published (the DRPG was published in 1991), so Finndo et.al. and your play of the game definitely post-dates it.  Dune post-dates AmberMUSH by quite some span of time. (Belgariad MUSH, where Javelin/Paul got his start, dates to February 1992, and if I recall correctly, Dune was founded in early 1993, as it post-dates the closing of Belgariad in November 1992.) Masquerade and GarouMUSH developed independently of one another around the same time. Elysium came next (mid-1993), and then everything else.

Sadly, AmberMUSH is functionally dead now. But there's a new game, Chronicles of Amber (amber.genesismuds.com 8810), http://amber.genesismuds.com/ that has quite a few players.

I thought there was a Dresden Files MUSH around somewhere, too. Whatever happened with that?

[Willowhugger]

I agree with the assigned power boost.

I also tend to think the High Council is easily substituted for either just the Order of Hermes or the Traditions as a whole.  I'm inclined to just the OoH.

[The Doctor]

I also tend to think the High Council is easily substituted for either just the Order of Hermes or the Traditions as a whole.  I'm inclined to just the OoH.

I tend to think of Harry as OoH ex Miscellanea, or an Orphan that had nontraditional Hermetic training.  Some of the things he uses in his rituals would not fly at an 'orthodox' Hermetic rite, such as using Play-Doh.  Also, his lack of grasp of languages would probably get him censured because he was not as dedicated to the art as the rest of the Council.  An Orphan would not have had the restrictions placed upon his training like a formally trained Hermetic would.

[Fineous]

Hey, I am glad that I am not the only one to hate Mage - The Players Handbook.  Feh, lists of spells.  I hate em.

Anyway, I kinda like the idea of creating Harry as a Mage, but you all seem to be forgetting that he creates his own Foci, so he is going to need at least Prime 3.  His blasting Rod is nothing to be sneered at, nor is his Shield Bracelet.  Which just goes to show that you should never try to turn a character from an unrelated book into a Mage character, or you will have a MASSIVELY overpowered Mage as you try to compensate for each time he demonstrates a power that works in the book, but not by the spheres he has shown.

As for someone else's comments about the best attempt at a truly universal game, there is nothing better than Hero system.  I have yet to find any other game that I cannot run off the cuff with one single Hero rulebook, the core rules.  And I have run a star trek game, a star wars game, a battletech game, a shadowrun game, a d&d style game (by which I mean classic fantasy), a spy/thriller game, and of course super hero games all with one rule book.  Yeah, I have a couple of supplements that give me ideas, but I have never actually needed them to run the game.  I have never found another product that can even come close to the versatility of Hero system.

Now if only it didn't take 4 hours a calculator, reams of scratch paper, and the GM sitting there to say 'yes/no' to every ability you take, to make a character.  Oh well, no game is perfect.



Umm, what was this thread about again?

*Wanders off back to the beginning of the tread to see what the point was for posting here in the first place.*