At what point in the series....

[TMW]

Really, I am in the camp of "No timeline", cause, at least in our group, we won't be playing the main characters, or probably even in Chicago.  More than likley, we're going to just play in the universe, which is still a great setting.  The White Council, Denarians, trolls and faeries and vampires and just...yeah.  Kind of like WOD only without the angst. 

[finarvyn]

TMW -- I hear what you are saying on the "no timeline" thought, but I suspect that some of the timeline events may be significant in your campaign even if you don't use Jim's characters, etc.

For example, your characters are in Baltimore and are doing their own thing. Suddenly they find out that a war has broken out between the White Council and the Red Court. Not through anything that they did, but because it fits the timeline. Maybe this way the players will feel like events are taking place around them, and that they get swept into the "big picture" without their consent (sort of what happens to Harry at several times along the way).

Without some of these events taking place, you may find that your campaign has that "generic" wizards'n'vampires feel and not so much a "Dresden" feel. Otherwise, you won't need a Dresden Files RPG -- just pick up a random RPG and make up magic rules and play.

Just a thought.

[eldrwyrm]

As long as the background is properly written and developed it would be very easy to set a game just about anywhere in the timeline and world.  A good example of this would be FASA MechWarrior game.  It built the game on the assumption that you would play at a particular point (depending on the version of the game played) but the background and technological advances were such that you could play at pretty much any point in time, on any world.  This is what I am hoping for.  NPC stats could be handled for broad categories (Susan: pre/post infection, Harry before and after Lasciel) but the timeline itself is fluid.  Any system that gives more power to a GM for control of his own setting is better.
FWIW, my group would probably base our campaign in our home town so that I can use known landmarks and groups for adventures.

The Elder Wyrm

[Valiar Marcus]

A good example of this would be FASA MechWarrior game.

Woot!  A fellow MechWarrior!   It was nice to be able to completely ignore some of the lame things they did later on.

[KnightKD]

Someone who did this well IMO is Eden Studios and the Buffy RPG. The core book contains Season 1 characters and then uses a page to list character improvements throughout the following seasons of the show.

In our case it would be...

HARRY DRESDEN fully statted out as he appeared at the start of Storm Front.

The next page would have a synopsis of the book plots with interjecting points showing where stats were upped. (i.e. Harry's Potion Making increased from 2 to 3 as a result of his many hours spent in the lab with Bob, concocting various brews.)

Its a good system and doesn't take up much room in the book. Granted, since the books aren't finished, they would have to continue the character advancement in later supplements but I'm okay with that. The Buffy RPG added the update into later releases of the core book.

Likewise, a timeline displaying the basic sequence of events of the books would be a page well spent.

[iago]

Appreciate the suggestions.  Thanks!

[M T Fierce, h.d.]

At what point in the series will the RPG be set? (Since some characters tend to change somewhat as the series evolves.)

One other note is that, well, this is the age of the Internet.  It's perfectly possible to say, "As characters change, write-ups may be found at our web site."  Although, if I recall correctly from what has been revealed of the system, that's not going to be a major issue anyway, depending what plot points on which you're basing the characters.  New talents and/or creatures are the stuff of supplements, anyway.

[Socrates]

Just as a throw-out, some games I've played that're based on ongoing series use a trick of being based on a book or two prior to the currently available book, in which the DM will work in immediate events of the books, while the characters are stuck trying to deal with the events without knowing why they're happening. That way, you feel like a part of the series, and bend the gameplay in a way to guarantee the characters are in the proper position for the next book.

For instance, say you're running a Dresden game now. You've got a wizard or two, maybe a Red Court vampire, and an ectomancer based in Montreal. The DM could work into the ongoing story side-events from Dead Beat (consequences of events in book, etc.), but offer no reason for these events to the characters beyond what they can figure out from their own abilities and make sure that the storylines that are developing can flow freely into events based around Proven Guilty.

The last one I was in actually crashed, because it was based on Jordan's Wheel of Time, and it's hard to keep the timeline frozen for the five years between books! Not a problem with Jim coming out with a book a year (And keep them coming, Jim! I'm already having semi-naugthy dreams about White Night).

[WonderandAwe]

I don't think it matters when the game is set in the series.  I think the RPG will provide a basic set of rules on how stuff works and a bit of storybackground on the basic fractions.  In most games like this, the novels will be considered source books.  The only thing I think that the RPG writers will have to update are characters sheets for changed/new characters, which could be done in online supplements. 

I am assuming that there will be two characters sheets for harry.  A suggested PC character sheet (probably based on book one) and a NPC characters sheet (up to date to current book at the time of writing). 

You also have to remember the Golden Rule:  The storyteller can change anything they want as long as the players will let them get a way with it.