Stunts for a Pure Mortal 'hunter' and tying Changelings to a Court?

[LeviathanZero]

Hi all

So, my Dresden game is finally starting this weekend, and I've got a couple of questions for people.

First up, one person (as yet unstatted) is playing (and I quote her) "Genderswapped Dean Winchester", so pure mortal who hunts things that go bump in the night.
She's never played Dresden before and I've never done anything with Pure Mortals before (nor GMed DFRPG), does anyone have any Stunt suggestions for us?
I was thinking of a Lore stunt something along the lines of Always Prepared: Spend a fate point to have on you/be able to improvise from the scenery a weapon that meets the Catch of any creature that you've just IDed.
Maybe even a weapons one for being able to leave the Catch weapon stabbed into the creature in order to lessen their powers/cause ongoing damage or something similar?

The second one, three members of the group are playing Changelings (one Pixie, one Goat Gruff and one Redcap) and they're all going straight for "As Fae as possible", spending all of their points on Powers (they wanted to play full Fae but that's not really doable).
What do people think of the idea of making them all choose a Court (Summer, Winter or Wyld) that they are in some way tied to ("All those powers of yours, must be tricky to live in the Mortal world, how about we provide you with money, a refuge, that type of thing, and in exchange you do odd jobs for us" type of thing), since it's pretty obvious which way they would Choose and so the courts will no doubt want to get their hooks in early.

Reasonable idea, or just imposing unneeded restrictions?

[moireth]

Hi all

So, my Dresden game is finally starting this weekend, and I've got a couple of questions for people.

First up, one person (as yet unstatted) is playing (and I quote her) "Genderswapped Dean Winchester", so pure mortal who hunts things that go bump in the night.
She's never played Dresden before and I've never done anything with Pure Mortals before (nor GMed DFRPG), does anyone have any Stunt suggestions for us?
I was thinking of a Lore stunt something along the lines of Always Prepared: Spend a fate point to have on you/be able to improvise from the scenery a weapon that meets the Catch of any creature that you've just IDed.
Maybe even a weapons one for being able to leave the Catch weapon stabbed into the creature in order to lessen their powers/cause ongoing damage or something similar?

Since she's a hunter and one of her aspects (probably her HC) would reflect that, you can use that as a justification for these stunts. Because I'm going to assume she has at least a decent lore score. These two stunts are one from the 3rd Book, the Paranet Papers:

I Have Just the Thing (Lore):
Buttersis prepared for just about anything. When he makes a Lore assessment to determine something’s Catch, he happens to have something on hand made of that material, as long as it isn’t a one of a kind item or something intangible like True Love. If he spends a fate point, he’s found some way to weaponize even intangible Catches like True Love.

Find Weakness (Lore):
Butters adds +2 to any Lore roll made to assess a Catch.

Substitute her name in there and you have two awesome Lore stunts for a hunter.

The second one, three members of the group are playing Changelings (one Pixie, one Goat Gruff and one Redcap) and they're all going straight for "As Fae as possible", spending all of their points on Powers (they wanted to play full Fae but that's not really doable).
What do people think of the idea of making them all choose a Court (Summer, Winter or Wyld) that they are in some way tied to ("All those powers of yours, must be tricky to live in the Mortal world, how about we provide you with money, a refuge, that type of thing, and in exchange you do odd jobs for us" type of thing), since it's pretty obvious which way they would Choose and so the courts will no doubt want to get their hooks in early.

Reasonable idea, or just imposing unneeded restrictions?

Considering these players asked to be full Fae I would make their powers be tied to one of the courts and have to deal with whatever obligations that court would expect from them. Especially if they have super low adjusted refresh. They don't have a lot of "free will" (which is dictated by a PC's refresh) so it makes sense.

[jackbythesea]

I was thinking of a Lore stunt something along the lines of Always Prepared: Spend a fate point to have on you/be able to improvise from the scenery a weapon that meets the Catch of any creature that you've just IDed.

I, personally, wouldn't allow a stunt like that. It's more or less All Creatures Equal Before God, and that costs -3 refresh in addition to the fate point requirement. I know there is the caveat of needing to identify the creature first but its still not balanced enough in my opinion.

If you want something similar I'd go with a stunt that gives a +2 to Alertness Declarations when identifying a possible Catch material in the environment, and take Occultist with +1 to finding monster's weaknesses and an additional +1 to identifying a monster's Catch. Similarly still take the Occultist stunt and add something like swap out Resources for Guns or Lore to declare you have a certain Catch already on hand. I think you get a lot more mileage out of those stunts, cause no matter how much you look around the woods you aren't going to find a token of True Love or inherited silver (both actual creature Catches) but you can Declare you snagged either of those before you met up with the creature.

Maybe even a weapons one for being able to leave the Catch weapon stabbed into the creature in order to lessen their powers/cause ongoing damage or something similar?

I'd say just a full Weapons:2, the general rule for any stunt that augments an attack skill is it either increases accuracy +1 in a specific situation or increase the weapon rating by 2 in a specific situation.

The second one, three members of the group are playing Changelings (one Pixie, one Goat Gruff and one Redcap) and they're all going straight for "As Fae as possible", spending all of their points on Powers (they wanted to play full Fae but that's not really doable).
What do people think of the idea of making them all choose a Court (Summer, Winter or Wyld) that they are in some way tied to ("All those powers of yours, must be tricky to live in the Mortal world, how about we provide you with money, a refuge, that type of thing, and in exchange you do odd jobs for us" type of thing), since it's pretty obvious which way they would Choose and so the courts will no doubt want to get their hooks in early.

Reasonable idea, or just imposing unneeded restrictions?

In general, its a good idea not to make a player do anything unless they are blatantly abusing or breaking the rules. But when playing a changeling, it is very interesting potential plot hook to see how their Court relates to them. Usually, its a case of their parents trying to influence them into making The Choice but it can also be a more benevolent friendship depending on the type of Sidhe. Its confirmed in dresdenverse that redcaps are Winter, gruffs are Summer and pixies have no particular allegiance, many are Wyld but there are Summer and Winter of both. So discuss it with your players, maybe ask if they would be interested in making it one of their aspects or if its relevant enough to them, their trouble.

[LeviathanZero]

Since she's a hunter and one of her aspects (probably her HC) would reflect that, you can use that as a justification for these stunts. Because I'm going to assume she has at least a decent lore score. These two stunts are one from the 3rd Book, the Paranet Papers:

I Have Just the Thing (Lore):
Buttersis prepared for just about anything. When he makes a Lore assessment to determine something’s Catch, he happens to have something on hand made of that material, as long as it isn’t a one of a kind item or something intangible like True Love. If he spends a fate point, he’s found some way to weaponize even intangible Catches like True Love.

Find Weakness (Lore):
Butters adds +2 to any Lore roll made to assess a Catch.

Substitute her name in there and you have two awesome Lore stunts for a hunter.

Those are pretty awesome. I think the first is likely a bit *too* awesome, I'd probably reduce it to "Happen to have something of that material on hand as long as it isn't super rare or unique. Common materials are weaponised, for a Fate Point more uncommon or rare materials are also weaponised" or something similar.

Considering these players asked to be full Fae I would make their powers be tied to one of the courts and have to deal with whatever obligations that court would expect from them. Especially if they have super low adjusted refresh. They don't have a lot of "free will" (which is dictated by a PC's refresh) so it makes sense.

They're all down to -1 Refresh, and planning to spend all gained Refresh on more powers the moment they get them (though they've been told that if they hit the "I have all the powers of my Fae parent" stage they'll be written out due to lack of free will.

I'd say just a full Weapons:2, the general rule for any stunt that augments an attack skill is it either increases accuracy +1 in a specific situation or increase the weapon rating by 2 in a specific situation.

Hm. So something like "Right to the heart: Whenever you attack a creature with their Catch, increase the Weapon rating by 2" ?
Or perhaps "Stuck in the wound: Whenever you hit a creature with their Catch, you may leave the weapon in the wound (disarming you if it's a melee weapon), applying the "Burned by the Catch" sticky aspect" ?

In general, its a good idea not to make a player do anything unless they are blatantly abusing or breaking the rules. But when playing a changeling, it is very interesting potential plot hook to see how their Court relates to them. Usually, its a case of their parents trying to influence them into making The Choice but it can also be a more benevolent friendship depending on the type of Sidhe. Its confirmed in dresdenverse that redcaps are Winter, gruffs are Summer and pixies have no particular allegiance, many are Wyld but there are Summer and Winter of both. So discuss it with your players, maybe ask if they would be interested in making it one of their aspects or if its relevant enough to them, their trouble.

I'll definitely discuss it with them and make sure that they're not dead against the idea. It's just that even the ones who have read the whole series just don't seem to *get* the whole "Fae have no Mortal free will" thing, they keep bringing up how "Toot is just loyal to Harry and does whatever he wants" and such, so I was thinking that having them already Bound in some way may make them realise what's going on.

Though if someone else has suggestions on how to hammer home that point, please share!

[Cadd]

It's just that even the ones who have read the whole series just don't seem to *get* the whole "Fae have no Mortal free will" thing, they keep bringing up how "Toot is just loyal to Harry and does whatever he wants" and such, so I was thinking that having them already Bound in some way may make them realise what's going on.

Though if someone else has suggestions on how to hammer home that point, please share!

Toot can be a good way actually.
He and Harry have (unwittingly) tied themselves together.
Remember in SK, how Toot and the gang are actively fighting being drawn to any of the courts? Then in CD, Toot is all "Go Winter" with the blue facepaint and the instinctive knowledge of Winter Law. What has happened in between? Harry becoming the Winter Knight.
So, with absolutely no input from Toot or the rest, the entirety of the Za Lord's Guard has turned from Wyldfae to Winter because their Lord (Harry, by dint of supplying them) has become Winter.

They did not choose to become Winter. At the very most, they maybe chose to become Vassals of Harry. When Harry became an actual part of the Winter Court, they automatically became so as well.

And of course, you can also refer to Mab telling the story of the Scorpion and the Fox.

[LeviathanZero]

I had completely missed that. Good thought! Thanks

And I guess in Game terms, if you become full Fae you stop getting Fate points since you have no control over your destiny, which means every single aspect is useful only for the GM Compelling whenever they feel like (or there's a case to be made for their aspects being *continually* compelled), with no benefit to the player...

[moireth]

I had completely missed that. Good thought! Thanks

And I guess in Game terms, if you become full Fae you stop getting Fate points since you have no control over your destiny, which means every single aspect is useful only for the GM Compelling whenever they feel like (or there's a case to be made for their aspects being *continually* compelled), with no benefit to the player...

In game terms if you become full Fae you become and NPC.

[Quantus]

Since you have three Fae all taking a very similar tack, Id  suggest trying to make each of their court situations as distinct as possible.  Maybe one has Summer recruiters trying to bait them into the court, granting favors and/or knowledge for odd jobs and whatnot (that gives you the DM an information Mouthpiece that is overtly sympathetic but not Free by their nature).  Maybe the Redcap one is instead actively /trying/ to join the court and being rebuffed (ala Ace and his pops).  Maybe the Wyldfae one was somebody's Firstborn and was traded to a Fae who has now come to collect, regardless of the Players wishes, and so is a looming threat wherever they go, showing up from the shadows to derail things at the worst possible time.  Maybe one of them is running/hiding from Winter, and accumulating obligation to Summer in the process. 

And of these roles can fit any of the factions, of course, and they are just examples.  But encourage your players to develop a clear idea of how their relationship with one (or more) faction is currently, but also have them know bother where they Hope and where they Fear it will go; have a best and worst case scenario in mind for each.