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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Ryan_Singer on March 20, 2011, 10:45:39 PM
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Hi Everyone!
Thought you might be interested in hearing about the new campaign I'm playing in. We're using the DFRPG system, but it remains unclear as to whether the game is set in the Dresden-verse.
It all started as a one-shot. The GM said: "We are going to start a game using DFRPG. There are no limits to character concept, and we are going to do on-the-fly character generation. Everyone pick a high concept and a trouble." One of the players, eager to test the "no limits" part, said he wanted to play a duck with genius-level intelligence in a robotic human-suit. The GM said yes. I decided to return to a character I loved in my first play-through of Mutants and Masterminds, and chose a retired God of Destiny/Fate, who was now walking the world in human form. The last player in our group chose a Zen Stoner like the main character in The Big Lebowski.
This is when the GM threw us a curve ball. He started us in a 1950's style diner/cafe, in a free-floating space station! The space station was soon under attack by insectoid hive-minded aliens, and we had to survive. I blew them up with a complexity 17 ritual that we paid off by burning many, many fate points, and we escaped the devastation aboard the Duck's ship, The Errant Fowl.
Session 2 is on Tuesday.
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Mallard Filmore
Template: Duck
High Concept: Duck
Trouble: Bit sad...
Aspects:
The Smartest Duck Is Smarter than the Smartest Human
The Suit Makes the Duck
Give Me Something, I Can Make it
No Opposable Thumbs
The Errant Fowl is a Damn Fine Ship...
Destined for Greatness (Per Cassandra's Tears)
Powers:
-1 Aquatic
-1 Flight
+1 Robot Suit (Item of Power)
-4 Supernatural Toughness
+3 The Catch: Electricity
-5 Modular Abilities (3 refresh in powers, full action to reconfigure)
Skills:
Superb (+5):Craftsmanship, Scholarship
Great (+4): Rapport, Pilot
Good (+3) Empathy, Guns
Fair (+2): Alertness, Conviction, Athletics
Average (+1): 5 Undefined Skills
Base Refresh: 10
Adjusted Refresh: 3
Current FATE Points: 3 (after Minor Milestone Refresh)
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John Coase (Not his real name)
Template: Custom
High Concept: Fallen God of FATE
Trouble: Old-Timer doesn't begin to describe it
Aspects:
Centuries Preparing
Cassandra's Tears
Contemplate slowly, Act quickly
Powers:
-3 Thaumaturgy
-1 The Sight
-0 Soulgaze
-0 Wizard's Constition
-0 Cassandra's Tears
-? Unknown unrevealed powers and stunts
Skills:
Superb (+5): Lore, Scholarship
Great (+4): Discipline, Conviction
Good (+3) Alertness, Endurance
Fair (+2): Presence, Athletics, Rapport
Average (+1): 5 unknown unrevealed skills
Base Refresh: 10
Adjusted Refresh: 6
Current FATE Points: 6 (after Minor Milestone Refresh)
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The Dresden Files RPG is pretty rules-light when it comes to equipment, but a spacefaring game requires some stats. Let's see what we can do:
First thing, lets agree that a ship is a vehicle. A small ship should cost Resources 6, a large ship should be resources 7, and any special ship should be a characters aspect and have a history. Ships are assumed to have life support systems and artificial gravity.
Ships are piloted and navigated using the Pilot skill, which is the same thing as the Driving skill, but in space. All long range warships have Armor:4 hulls, some very few might have tougher hulls, but it's rare. Short range ships and freighters have Armor:2 hulls. Ships take consequences as characters do, and a taken out ship cannot support passengers.
Short range fighters have Weapon:2 guns, fired using the guns skill, and restricted by the Pilot's skill in Pilot. Longer range warships can have up to Weapon:4 cannons.
Magic can be used to augment ships in various ways. Most importantly:
Shields: A Ward laid on a ship. Long term wards need special conditions to allow passengers on and off ship, whereas temporary wards intentionally don't.
Weapons: An enchanter can create enchanted cannons for the ship using the normal enchanted items rules. Note that Evocations need to be cast from outside the ship to have line of effect, whereas enchanted cannons can have the firing mechanism outside.
Warp: For moving faster than zone-by-zone with the Pilot skill, casters can create a portal into warp space. This is like World-walking, and there are interesting and strange things in warp space. Navigate Warp space with Lore.
Burst of speed: A ritual can take the place of a pilot check for the purpose of moving in a straight line.
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Spaceship Conjure: 5 shifts, Life support 5 shifts, extended duration: 1 year +8 shifts.
Conjuring the Ship to last 1 year: 18 shift ritual.
Shields: 10 shift ward, extended duration: 1 month +5 shifts. Allow people who have one of these 25 signet rings to board and leave, +2
Shield ritual: 17 shifts
Cannon: Enchanted Attack item, 1 enchanted item slot. Shifts as normal for enchanted item.
Propolsion: Moving is it's own ritual cast in combat time, 1 shift per zone. Warp speed as world-walking.
Ship itself has two zones: Main deck and Underdeck (underdeck has bedrooms, bathrooms and supply rooms). Self destruct ritual would be +10 attack ritual in 2 zones for for 17 total complexity.
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Take a look at Diaspora for ideas on how to use FATE for a space-based game. I've been having quite a bit of fun with it.
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This is utterly ridiculously awesome. When the character writeups alone deal mental stress for reading them you know it's a good time. :)
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A really awesome campaing idea. The duck character is pure genious :)
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At first I hated his high concept, but the more I think about it the more it's kinda awesome (though mechanically his IOP doesn't fit his high concept :P ).
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I love that immediately after a character whose Template is "duck" you have one whose template is "custom".
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All i can think is duck dogers in the 21st cent........
and the ship is shaped like the bill of a duck....
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All i can think is duck dogers in the 21st cent........
and the ship is shaped like the bill of a duck....
I will suggest this.
BTW, second session was last night, I'll post the session notes soon.
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That sounds f-ing awesome.
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and we escaped the devastation aboard the Duck's ship, The Errant Fowl.
What? was the name Millenium Fowlcon already registered?
This thread is now dedicated to Duck Puns.
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I'm pretty sure that if hijacking a thread isn't entirely out of bounds, it's at least a fowl.
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The Comet Wyrm
* Michael managed to shut down the ship's air circulators by smoking too much, causing the other crew members to get a little loopy.
* This accelerated Mallard's depression to the point that he decided to crash the ship into a comet, forcing John to lock him down in a ward with the ship on a crash course.
* John attempted to spell his way out of trouble by blasting the ship away from the comet. He succeeded, but then a Rock Wyrm dived out of the comet in pursuit of the ship.
* Out of the ship's cargo box, through a rusty vent, popped (Sean's character) Bingham, from the crates, managed to hijack the ship's weapon systems and blast the wyrm, hurting it with the ship's proton cannons.
* The wyrm chased after, focusing on how delicious the ship looked.
* Michael noted how distractable the wyrm was.
* Mallard's expert piloting got us further from the wyrm, but it was still in pursuit.
* Bingham glamoured the ship into an unappetizing rock.
* Mallard then cloaked the rock. (overkill FTW)
* John decided to blow up the wyrm, which due to Michael's observations was an Easy Target, and in a state of Despair.
* The wyrm pursued the ship due to the trail of weed-flavored gasses exhumed from it.
* John blew up the Space Wyrm to the point where it had an explodd squiggly spooch, and it ceased pursuit.
The Space Castle - like White Castle... innnnnn spaaaaccceee!
* We arrived at the Space Castle, seeking munchies from our extended hotboxing in the Errant Fowl.
* The owner called Michael's dad, the failed Space President candidate (Sir Castius Deganj), who sent some goons to find him.
* Michael attempted to talk his way out of the goon squad, eventually succeeding after Bingham disguised himself as Jesse Jackson and cut in half one of the goons screaming "Reparations!!!"
* He eventually succeeded, convincing the goons that the appearence of Jesse Jackson was indicitave of drug use and that they were bad at their jobs and should go home.
* Michael re-stocked the music collection for the Errant Fowl, and John went shopping for random things.
* John received a vision of Cressen patting his back on a garden world, for unknown reasons.
* John did some research on the Errant Fowl, and located a planet he had a vision about, and suggested it to the group. We went along with it.
* John used his Soulgaze ability on Bingham, gaining insight into his character and seeing a man in a great horned helmet on a massive steed alongside the baying of wolves and the mewling of a baby, followed by the sound of a rapidly beating heart, police chatter, and a crate of guns clacking together. John's soulgaze in turn stunned Bingham with a vision of his rule alongside others among a line of iron and marble thrones, followed by the explosion of a sun and a naked body collapsed in a field surrounded by farmers, stunning Bingham with the glory of his vision.
The Warp Space NeverNever
* John guided us into the NeverNever, where we ended up on a river of bile. We then encountered some strange fey riding lizard mules and bearing a standard of the Malk god of trade, whom John was able to communicate with using magik. Through negotiations we learned of Hobic, the ruler of this hinterland in the Malk version of the Nevernever.
* Michael traded them for some mind-slugs, a unique nevernever sort of drug.
* Mallard attempted to trade them a bunch of random earth stuff and some mechanical repairs for a bunch of random ship parts.
* We greeted and left the species of Malk fey, on good terms in trading.
* Ended up in the ruins of an ancient civilization, amongst walls of flesh, in what we called Wichita Falls, and John realized the great fey civilization hear had been destroyed in an echo of the destruction of the real world civilization of Malk they were psychically linked to.
* We encountered the Corps, but evaded them due to careful piloting from Mallard.
The Forest Moon
* Due to John's description and Mallard's excellent driving, we found an area with what looked like John's friends (bipeds) on horses giving some creature(s) chase. John got them to notice the group with some skywriting then embraced his old friend Cressen, a fellow god of his pantheon.
* While Michael was trying to get the group high, John negotiated as to what his fate was. This resulted in a feast for the group.
The Feast
* At the feast, an extremely loud noise interrupted the group, forcing Mallard back to his ship, and John to use a potion to reach Cressen as the camp lay in chaos from the deafening bellow.
* Bingham managed to join John, Cressen, and a few goblins in Cressent's tent.
* Michael was busy chowing down due to his epic munchies.
* Mallard flew over the scene in the Errant Fowl, and discovered a large boar heading straight for Cressen.
* The boar attempted to break John's barrier around Cressen's tent, but didn't do it one round. Cressent donned his armor, and John attempted to attack the boar.
* John started a force lance spell to kill the boar in the traditional hunting fashion.
* Michael attempted to use on the of the mind-slugs he had traded for to poison the boar, but it didn't work since the boar had no mind. He did notice several items about the boar and the environment, however.
* Mallard attacked the boar with the Errant Fowl's electrical harpoon gun. The wound caused no harm but it did sink hooks into the beast's flesh which allowed him to haul it up into orbit, dissolving it to nothing but ectoplasm, a far smaller boar's corpse, and a few magical trinkets.
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I'm pretty sure that if hijacking a thread isn't entirely out of bounds, it's at least a fowl.
Fowl, indeed! If you keep this up, I Mallard have to tar and feather you! Well, defeather, as the case may be!
-EF
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Please keep updating, this is amazing.
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How would you describe your character (Physical Appearance)?
Just your typical Khaki Campbell duck. Occasionally wearing a robotic suit that just makes him have arms and legs. Also, occasionally it has a human head, but he can make the head look like anything really.
What about family and childhood?
Was a duck. Hatched from an egg. Swam in lots of lakes. Didn't really exhibit any real higher brain functions. Then one day woke up with a genius level intellect.
What is the character’s Main Motivation?
To find out why he's the way he is. Also, to keep his technology out of the hands of The Corps.
What is the character’s greatest strength?
His mind. He's probably one of the smartest beings in the galaxy.
What is the character’s Weakness?
After being alive for so long, he tends to attempt suicide a lot. Also, since he's a duck people don't tend to take him very seriously.
Does your character have any prejudices?
Not particulary fond of rednecks, hunters, that sort of folk. Dogs. Chinese people.
Is your character married; if so, to whom?
Never married. Ducks are too dumb, and human women are not attracted to ducks.
To whom does your character owe the most loyalty?
If any, John Coase (Not his real name), he's known him a long time.
Does your character have any recurring mannerisms?
Occasional head twitches. Also honks sometimes.
How would you describe your character’s psychology & personality?
He's pretty quiet, likes to only speak when he has to. Tries to let other people figure stuff out before he involves himself. Plans before he acts, and tries to be at least 2 steps ahead of everyone else. He's pretty depressed so he has occasional fits where he contemplates suicide, but he probably won't do it.
How would your character’s parents describe your character?
Quack Quack!
What are your character’s highest ambitions?
At this point he's not sure.
How religious is your character?
Not very.
If you could, what advice would you give to your character?
Cheer up.
What is the character’s secret, if any? And what will happen if it’s discovered?
He built The Errant Fowl for the The Corps, but found out they had sinister intentions with it, so he stole it. Most people panic at a mere mention of The Corps, so finding out he's someone they're looking for tends to make it hard for him to make allies.
What does your character think of the political climate?
He invented the Republican party. He's kind of scared by what it's become.
What does the Character do to relax?
Makes things.
If the character were given a financial windfall, what would they do with it?
Upgrade his spaceship. Probably forget he had it after a while.
What is the characters view of the various social classes?
Not really any to speak of. Could care less.
What reward would the character most want to receive?
Answers
What is your character’s favorite possession?
The Errant Fowl
Who is your character’s closest friend?
Again, probably John Coase because he's the only person who's still around.
What does the character Love, Hate and Fear the Most?
He loves open space and building things, he hates duck calls and hoisin sauce, and he fears his own immortality.
How will the character most likely die?
He's decided it'll be at his own hands, er, wings.