ParanetOnline
The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: RevengeofTim on May 09, 2012, 01:14:48 AM
-
Last session, my character, William Wescott, successfully took back Lasciel's coin, which had been taken from him. In the process, the top floor of a casino-hotel was utterly trashed, and the list of casualties included; a winter court ambassador, the leading Matriarch of House Amon of the White Court, a necromancer by the name of Jack Napier, who is dead in flesh only, and several attendants, bodyguards and of course, the sorcerer who took my coin, Nathan. Also lost to the conflict was William's right arm up to the elbow, courtesy of a 13 shift hellfire blast that annihilated Napier. Notable other points included a friendly practitioner drinking a 'hulk' potion and nutting said Matriarch to death, a friendly air mage throwing a ninja around with air spells that rely on martial arts stances, and a demon in semi mortal form punching everyone in the face.
tl;dr my party killed two Faces of the city in one huge 12 hour session, gained 2 refresh, got my denarius back, damn it feels good to be a gangster.
What have you guys done lately?
-
Was the necromancer intentionally named after the Joker from Tim Burton's Batman?
-
I'm running a game that is inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It takes place in high school in a quaint tourist town on the coastal northwest I call Pleasant cove.
In my last session my players had to deal with the fallout of a White Court Virgin experiencing her awakening during the local high school's Valentine's Day Dance. The next day they overheard a bunch of asshole jocks planning on taking her "v-card" and showing her (a presumed lesbian) how "real men" do it.
They hurried to rescue her, but ended up having to rescue them from being eaten at a local sleazy motel. On top of that they had to deal with a pure mortal (new character) fencer who knew nothing about the weirdos and freaks at his school.
-
Was the necromancer intentionally named after the Joker from Tim Burton's Batman?
I hope so, man. :)
Last time my group played, two of the party's nemeses literally combined forces (one taking up the denarius of the other), chasing the key to the gates of Hell across Texas. There was a near-constant state of car chase, and Austin got hammered with hellfire. Nic Cage was there too.
-
(We play online, so all of this was happening in an IRC chat.)
Nothing terribly exciting in the last session, just your typical weresharks trying to eat seals while the town's local wereseal pleaded with us for help. Though there was a wereorca in the NPC group that almost brought the pier down on our heads. That was noteworthy.
The session BEFORE that, though, was a laugh riot. One of our group members "accidentally" got ****-faced drunk (claims he only meant to drink this much but ended up drinking that much and was totally blitzed) and it somehow spread to the group, since two other members started acting totally smashed, too. One of them never mentioned liquor and the other was in the room with me at the time so I KNOW she was sober but she was still acting like she was hammered. It was really weird.
Started with us going to help rescue our half-elf's friends from a goblin prison in the Nevernever on the flip side of our town. We get there and are scoping the place out, and the drunk player (a weredog whose Alertness is so goddamn amazing I can never slip anything past him) notices that the front gate is made of a very thick, but rotted wood while there's a stone sewer grate around the side they could maybe sneak through.
So he starts telling people the side grate is made of cheap wood that can be knocked down and I'm like "wait no what are you on?" He and I debated in both private chat and the main channel (seriously I'm not sure he could keep track of which window he had open) and it turned out he never noticed a distinction between "gate" and "grate", and this somehow spread to the rest of the group with me yelling the whole time,
"No, no! The GATE is wood! The GRATE is stone! The GATE is in the front guarded by goblins, the GRATE is on the side!"
They finally got that figured out and our tanking-type character, a holy man with Toughness powers and various benedictions, announces he's going to storm the front gate to draw their attention while the rest of us sneak around the side. Sure, so our powerhouse says he's going to stay with him to help thin the herd, and I choose to have my character stay there, too, since he won't be much use in the rescue and this makes it three people in one group and three in the other.
But the second the side group starts slipping through the grate (not gate :-P ), the powerhouse has some family things come up and he needs to disappear the rest of our session. Leaving the holy man and my character (a focused thaumaturgist plot-o-mancer with literally zero combat skills) to face off against a horde of goblins and, later, three giant ogres in full body armor (statted specifically so the powerhouse with his steel katana wouldn't blow past their Catch completely).
Meanwhile, the side characters try to use the Elf's Glamour to veil and hide, but his roll abysmally fails, so they're sneaking around a castle totally visible and completely drunk. They get to a hallway, at the end of which is the room with the jail cells. So suddenly our drunken dog is AT the bars trying to wrench them open and probe for weak spots (no, no, you're still in the- ah, **** it, here come the guards!). They fight the guards while me and the holy tank struggle for our lives (actually turning two ogres against each other for a short while), and eventually kill them off.
At that point the weredog is so blitzed that he actually says to me, in private chat:
"afk a bit... have to hit the porcelain throe"
So he's suddenly gone for the rest of the session, while the elf and human are struggling with the bars, trying to free the captured elves. They try smashing them down, picking the locks, jimmying the hinges, everything, until I finally roll my eyes and call for an Alertness or Lore roll. The elf makes the Lore roll, and I tell him:
"You vaguely remember reading somewhere that guards to prisons typically have keys with them."
He's like "OH! Hahahaha!" and grabs the keys and lets the prisoners out. They make their way back out through the sewer and come around the corner to see, and I swear I didn't plan this, two ogres blindly searching the woods with the third trapped in an enchanted hula hoop, while the holy man and my character are trying to break back INTO the castle.
And all this time, this was the session I'd invited another forum member to hop in and see how we do things >_<
She would log in, not quite know how to work the program, log back out just as we all finished saying "hi" to her. Then she'd log back in and get a few more drunken welcomes, and log out. Then she logged in, said a few words that half the players all thought came from another player, then told me "thanks, I totally get it now!" and logged out for the night. I was like, "Really, wha- No, no, GRATE, not GATE!!"
The session ended with the prisoners massing on the ogres and taking them down, GM-fiat-style, before finishing off the frightened goblins in the castle. And that was the most organized we'd been all night.
-
The session BEFORE that, though, was a laugh riot. One of our group members "accidentally" got ****-faced drunk (claims he only meant to drink this much but ended up drinking that much and was totally blitzed)
I maintain my intention was just to get a bit buzzed. It'd been four week since we'd actually played!
I... miscalculated how strong the particular drink I was having ended up being.
-
I maintain my intention was just to get a bit buzzed. It'd been four week since we'd actually played!
I... miscalculated how strong the particular drink I was having ended up being.
Don't worry, in a completely separate game half of the group passed out drunk including my character (who woke up in a bathroom with her face in a toilet). As Forest Gump said, "It happens."
-
Don't worry, in a completely separate game half of the group passed out drunk including my character (who woke up in a bathroom with her face in a toilet). As Forest Gump said, "It happens."
I suspect they meant that the player unexpectedly got sh'faced, not the character.
... which is hilarious.
... and has happened to me as GM once-- though, the players still had a riot. My NPCs got more interesting, is all. Damn overstrong mixers.
-
Was the necromancer intentionally named after the Joker from Tim Burton's Batman?
Yes, I believe so...
Also, oh god wat, my group have a few drinks at sessions, but I don't think either our players or characters have ever been that drunk...
-
I don't think either our players or characters have ever been that drunk...
I GMed a campaign where one of the PCs had "Drunken Blackouts". That was, bar none*, the best adventure starter I have ever had.
*I'm sorry! I couldn't help the punning!
-
I GMed a campaign where one of the PCs had "Drunken Blackouts". That was, bar none*, the best adventure starter I have ever had.
Sometimes I wish we could +1 other folks' comments.
-
What have you guys done lately?
Let's see...last session the group got caught rifling through a necromancer's home. They knew it was going to happen - had heard the apprentice on the phone when they broke in.
Initially they tried to run but the overconfident necromancer sacrificed his apprentice to fuel a trap spell keeping them on the grounds. The following ensued:As you rush towards the back window and the ladder waiting below, the sensitives among you feel a large amount of power being drawn extremely fast. As you exit the window and start down the ladder a haze appears between you and the neighboring yards. Valencia sprints into it...and comes running out of the haze back towards you. Chance follows with the same confusing result. Seeing this, Bart heads to the corner and peeks around with gun drawn.
Cornelius pauses at the window to take a good look at the hazy barrier then climbs down the ladder. As he reaches the bottom, Rosenberger steps out the back door and send a blast of Fire at Cornelius. It's poorly directed and part goes into the house - siding begins to smolder. The rest of the blast bends around Cornelius harmlessly.
Valencia changes shape and disappears in the shrubbery. Don calls power and sets the wind to ripping unpredictably through the yard. Chance fires towards Rosenberger making him dodge warily into the doorway. Bart also fires, Rosenberger flinches back and loses his balance. Taking advantage of the moment his target is off balance, visibly framed by the door, and covering his eyes from the winds - Cornelius sends a blast of intense fire into Rosenberger's shoulder giving him severe burns and crippling his right arm.
Shocked and in pain, Rosenberger retreats into the house and out of sight. When the others regroup and carefully follow him in, he's nowhere to be found. The front door's swinging back and forth is the only evidence of his trail. Looking out you see Anna Stowe's body in the front yard, obviously the source of the massive stream of power you felt putting the veil up earlier.
They took the concession rather than risking continued combat. Went through it very quickly with just the one exchange of actual combat. It would have been a different story if they hadn't worked as a team. Of course he will be setting up for round two now... ;D
-
My group (I'm GMing) is trying to unravel this nasty demonic plot to destroy New Orleans in fire and water but they haven't figured out who the actual power behind the demons is yet. Our last Significant milestone was... interesting.
It started off with all the PC's having a meeting where they tried to figure out their next step. Two of them (the more wizardy pair) had summoned a minor demon the night before and beat a bunch of useful information out of it. The resident holy guy blows a cork when he finds out his friends are "demon summoners" and leaves, but they've got a pretty good idea who the next target is and they're all ready to go.
Now I like to be spontaneous, so when the holy guy gets to the Warden's office (My DMPC, he's been working with the party when they ask him to) I have the Warden running around to the back and popping a portal to the NeverNever. Why? Because one of the ally NPCs has just been attacked and his niece is kidnapped. (The demons want to ransom the little girl for a super strong magical artifact that will let them power the whole city-destroying ritual.)
Now it's like a 30 minute drive to the place so the Warden is just going to use the Ways which should take 3 minutes. Of course the holy guy asks to come along and the Warden says sure. It ends up sticking them in a narrow tunnel and eventually they come out on a deep winter death swamp, but there shouldn't be any monsters. Except the fact that the holy guy is basically a cowboy who got buried alive for 120 years (long story, time magic involved) and he's terrified of enclosed dark spaces. So of course being in deep winter this attracts a pack of fetches (which manifest as ghostly indians.) While the warden and the cowboy fight off the indians, one of the demon summoner wizards (he's a Japanese guy, and basically a ninja. Lots of shadow magic,) followed them because he wanted to make things right over the whole demon-thing and he's not quite so good with portals so he ends up landing in a tree.
Which then starts moving. Because all the noise from the fighting woke up this giant hibernating Ent and it's pissed. So they finish off the fetches, and then the Ent (lots of fire involved in that one, but the ninja guy stabbed both it's eyes out too and the cowboy shot it to pieces.) And eventually they all emerge from behind the liquor store across the street from the NPC's location.
Meanwhile the other three PCs get the news from one of the pixie payroll (one of our characters is a minor 'za lord, he has one pixie on staff at all times and he called in a bunch more since they were combing the area for demons at the time.) and they just drive over like civilized people and get there at the same time.
So everyone meets up and talks to the NPC, Andy, who's still got the Artifact but his niece was kidnapped. One of them does a tracking spell and figures out the girl is down at the marina. They head over in two cars. When they get there the ninja wanders off and the Warden chases after him, (he's in a bit of a funk since trying to apologize to the cowboy didn't go so well) while the pixies scout out the place. One of the pixies gets captured by something and the kid who hired them leads the charge down the dock, towards this huge party yacht where there's music and dancing and BBQ.
The 'za lord is actually a 10 year old kid (who's actually a former Warden that body jumped, long story) and he just runs through the crowd on deck while the cowboy chases after him, ostensibly looking for either the captured pixie or the kidnapped girl. The yacht pulls away from the dock. The other two PC's steal a rowboat and chase it, fishing out poor uncle Andy who didn't make the jump from the dock. (he's like 60, he wasn't very athletic.) They hex the yacht's engines so it can't get away.
There are two male skavis WCV's hanging out on the back of the yacht (one in a speedo and one with a very fake orange tan) and they give chase. Eventually cowboy and 10yr old end up on the front of the boat where two Rath girls are hanging out. The Raith girls are distracting enough to stall the search long enough for the Skavis boys to catch up, and a fight breaks out between them and the PCs. The Raith girls just sit and watch as cowboy and 10yr old make short work of Orange Tan (fireball to the face gave him the severe "Now THAT's a tan!" consequence. heh.) Speedo is a lot tougher though, and cowboy eventually hits on the idea of just throwing him off the front of the boat (sploosh!)
While this is going on, the girls and uncle Andy are sneaking in the back way. One of them decides to go help with the commotion on the prow while the other takes Andy belowdecks. They find the kid, but a huge fat man (obviously a disguised demon) blocks the only exit. Some quick thinking and a bunch of lying give the PC (a spirit/force user) a bunch of tags and she blows the demon (angled upward) out of the yacht, and it lands in the water and immediately disintegrates.
Back on the prow, Speedo climbs back out of the water and the fighting resumes. He calls for his sword and ends up duelling the 10 year old for a while, dodging bullets from cowboy. But when the third PC shows up he concedes, and says they can do whatever they want. The demon blows out the side of the hull around this time, and the WCV's all look at Orange tan (who is cooked and croaking miserably on the floor) and basically ask him what the hell that was doing on the yacht.
Police sirens sound and the PC's decide to get the hell out of there, since they've got the girl and they find out that the pixie that went missing has just been trapped under a glass cover (that used to contain a cake...) the entire time. Oh and the 10yr old manages to get one of the Raith girl's numbers. ;)
Meanwhile the ninja and Warden had a whole OTHER adventure... did some underwater diving, got attacked by a giant crab, fought a scion of Hecate and stole her sacrificial knife and chalice, broke the Warden's sword in half, and ended up escaping through the NeverNever into Hades... where they chatted with Charon for a bit before running the hell away and ending up behind a Gyro place.
And the day was only half over.
-
So much wat.
Admittedly the entire destruction from the OP was my fault. Our demon was offered one of the coins in a deal, we go upstairs to see it, it's Lasciel's coin, William botches his roll to conceal the *GASP*. The room contains the current host in a greater circle and every part of the room is mirrored, amplifying the spell effect.
Except that the demon and another party member look like their true selves. Now for the demon, this isn't bad. Everyone knows what he looks like. But the cool, MJ looking guy? Now he looks like a walking, rotting corpse. Napier, the necromancer, gets halfway into 'Are you Michael Jackson, because ze resemblence is-' before William makes up his mind and hits him with 6 shifts of Hellfire. A horrific close range battle ensues, in which I spend plenty of fate points to draw upon 120 years of experience in dodging swords and angry vampires.
Napier's response is a 12 shift attempt to rip my soul from my body. He nearly succeeds, I take plenty of consequences.
My response? 13 shifts of Hellfire, 8 of which were enclosed in an extreme consequence. Will, for fear of losing the coin again, flips out and throws a blast of hellfire so prolonged and intense that he burns away his right arm up to the elbow, using it to fuel the spell. To everyone's surprise, it's successfully channeled, with no backlash or fallout! Napier burns alive, and...do you know how he spends his death curse? 'WITH MY DYING BREATH....I CURSE DUCARD!' (the demon of the party, just because he's the buttmonkey of the group!)
So now I have the coin, but I'm unable to use it, as it's sustaining my life and keeping my soul in my body (not enough refresh to use it either) Ducard is haunted by everyone he's ruined and killed, and now everyone hates us! :D
-
After the posts in my thread: "How many people actually interact with NPC's from the novels in their games?"
I am apprehensive about sharing much from our game regarding such things. People are either extremely obsessed with canon, or afraid to use such characters, even many of the villains.
The game has been long running and frequent and is relatively high powered now. When ai read about high powered characters i tend to get disinterested or roll my eyes at the rediculousness of it all.
I'll see if I can find some stuff that won't get much flaming. Till then I think I'll pass.
-
We had Ramirez show up as a Warden investigating a law violation at one point. Other than that, just an off-screen conversation with Lara Raith and a cameo by Maeve in or campaign.
-
Our GM has a rule that Dresden doesn't exist and that the canon novels are kinda over there somewhere, let's not bother looking. It's all still from canon sources, we just try and ignore the events of the books. For example, I have Lasciel's coin, not Dresden. Muhahahaha.
-
Are you in chaos necromancers game or is that just random chance? Never mind.
-
My Character broke into the vatican to retrieve a document about the White Councils involvement in trying to turn a Fae into a Human a few hundred years ago.
This has led to the Fae pressuring the White Council to recognize one of our Party Members claim as Rightful heir of Atlantis (the Fabled Lost Sea Court"
Also our Warden turned a Black Court Vampire that was in mist form, into a block of ice, and dropped it from 30 stories up
-
I GM over IRC, which means the pace of the game is a little slower than what happens in a normal, face-to-face game.
In our last session, the group faced off against a monstrous demon that was burning contracts with some kind of devilish power, as well as attacking a Church, the local Fae power and the local Black Court Vampire - saving the Black Court Vampire and his White Court brethren from almost certain death. Better the devil you do know, eh?
Then, after that, my lone remaining Pure Mortal agreed to allow the vampire to possess her so that he could show her to the last member of a pact established 500 years ago that is somehow related to this spate of attacks. He takes them to the church and says that the nameless, soulless third party is inside, when suddenly the party hears that their impenetrable fortress of holy solitude has been broken into and the mortal they stashed there for her protection is under attack.
Keepin' them hoppin'.
-
My group's been smashing everything I throw at them, including that which I meant to be a challenge.
So last night I hit them with three Master Black Court Vampires, one of which was also a Wizard.
Total party wipe. Whoops!
Um... bonus fate point to everybody for the wipe?
-
At least one of us remembered to concede! I think, long term, that will end up being a worse decision for the character though.
-
My group's been smashing everything I throw at them, including that which I meant to be a challenge.
So last night I hit them with three Master Black Court Vampires, one of which was also a Wizard.
Total party wipe. Whoops!
Um... bonus fate point to everybody for the wipe?
they ALL died?
-
Taken out, yeah.
I'm spinning this in with the Red War and giving a reason for them to live through it, but at the cost of story-relevant complications down the line.
-
Huh, that one's a surprise to me. Master BCVs are kind of paper tiger-ish.
How did the fight go down?
-
Ghsdkgb didn't take them directly from the book, but varied their powers. So one was a Wizard, and one had Supernatural Speed and Supernatural Toughness. The third I'm not sure of. They took out our heavy hitter with one shot early in the combat, and then the one with SS and ST was really hard to take down from there for the remainder of us.
We also rolled REALLY badly in several cases, which cost us a lot of Fate. By the end of the combat, we'd all used between 3-6 Fate each, and it was a close finish. A few rolls that were better and we would've won (especially if we hadn't lost our glass cannon fighter so early). There were a few things that probably should've gone differently in both directions that might've had an impact, rules-wise that we discussed afterwards.
We also are only one refresh up from Feet in The Water (Well, two after Tuesday's Major Milestone).
-
Did you guys do all the cheatsy stuff?
Naval Gazing?
Placing Aspects on them?
That thing where you try to determine their aspects?
Anything like that?
Hell we had a member of our group beat a BCV with Social Attacks
So while I was shooting him or our werewolf was biting him, this guy was yelling "your mother never loved you" and WON
-
So they were buffed, you were playing low-level characters, you got unlucky, the rules were accidentally misinterpreted to their advantage, and you didn't have the Catch.
Okay, it now makes sense that you lost.
PS: All BCVs have Supernatural Toughness.
-
I know they all have ST... it was the combination with SS that made it impossible. He was hard to hit AND resistant to injury. None of us have any Toughness, so if we don't dodge... *squish*
And yes, we did all the tricks. Like I said, perfect storm of bad stuff (rolls and such) sucked away our Fate. From what I understand, one had a single physical stress point left and one had a stress point and one consequence left. The third was dead.
If my successful maneuver to knock one into the ocean had the effect I wanted, we would've won -- I didn't want to argue it during the session, though.
-
I have had my character run like a little girl, and let the party fend for themselves. Aspect:Live to Fight another day!
-
That's actually exactly what he did. Only the Aspect he got was "I Abandoned My Friends and It's Killing Me".
-
I ran a game for a few months. It was based in Baltimore (all my games are, it is the place I know best). I had several players, among them, a wizard stage magician, a paramedic, a winter court fae (bent the rules a bit here), a white court outcast, and a full mortal that was working to expand Marcone's influence into the east coast shipping industry.
I decided to key in on the tensions between the white court in Baltimore and Marcone's operations and the group kind of latched onto that. The player of the Mob guy (we will call him Jay) ended up hiring the other players (more or less) as consultants. After a few skirmishes against White court operations, I unveiled the big twist.
The White court ruler of the area decided to give over responsibility and control of the inner harbor area to Marcone, and in turn to Jay as regent. She met with him in his offices after describing the deal and getting everything hammered out, he agreed. Turning to leave, she placed a chess piece on his desk and lightly said "Check". What the group eventually discovered was that in relinquishing control of the area to them, she also transferred all current contracts with the supernatural community to them. Figuring them out and renegotiating everything, while keeping order in the area was the major theme of the rest of the game.
-
My last experience with the game was when I just took over as GM from our previous GM, who had to drop the game because of reasons. Which meant, for me, a crash course in his NPCs, what he'd planned for the plot, and downtown Los Angeles, a city I've never once been to.
I managed to get most of that together (Yay Google Maps), and spent most of my inaugural game sorting out the disjointed previous sessions, and getting the party (who'd been broken up into 4 different locations) all back in the same place (save my character, who'll now be a GMPC)...only for them to promptly decide to split up (though in only two groups, now). Ah well.
So now we've got a hot-headed junior wizard and a blind wizard private eye negotiating with the Summer Court over an artifact of doom, while a cop and his pixie companion investigate a reporter who appears to have been Rip Van Winkled in from the early 90s and has some connection with a Black Court plot.
In an effort to make the Driving skill (and, more specifically, one PC's driving stunt) more relevant, I played out the aforementioned GMPC's encounter with a Black Court nest, and its sire, and marked off each round with a shift value--the higher that one PC rolls Driving, the earlier he'll get to show up. A 0 roll will have him arriving just as things start to turn against the GMPC, a +4 will have him popping up just as the fight's getting started, and a -4 will have him arrive just in time to pull the GMPC's battered and bleeding body out of there before she gets killed, with other notches along the scale in between.
I'm not usually a fan of the Worf Effect, but I figure the players will really get the message once I point out it was purely numbers, and not narrative contrivance, that left the physically-strongest member of the group just barely limping away with her life. She's the party tank, and the adversary--one of the Big Bads--fills up her entire Physical track and all the consequences short of Extreme if the fight plays out to its conclusion.
Next game should be fun.
-
In our Emerald City campaign (see signature) we are gearing up to face a Denarion demon who had possessed my character's lost love. In fact she was possessed because of him as part of his back story and nearly destroyed his whole family leaving his father in a coma and nearly sacrificing his little sister. Needless to say my Warden is a bit distraught by the whole thing and is doing his best to hold it together.
Meanwhile he has been tasked by the White Council to host and referee a poker game between a bunch of supernaturals (vamps from the Red, Black and White Courts, the local Winter Fae, a Scion of Loki playing for a prominent businessman, a scion of Odin PC who works for his dad at Monoc and a rep from the Venatori) with the prize being a coveted statue that is the "stuff of dreams". He has to remain neutral as a representative of the Accords in this matter but his friend has been tasked by a Winter Fae who owns him with gaining the prize no matter the cost. He has agreed to help if he can but only AFTER the game is over.
-
All of these sound awesome and so much closer to what would fit in the Dresden Files reality than my game. Note that I am a first time player of the DFRPG and so far have only read three of the novels so I am still learning about the world. Oh, and I apologize if this turns out to be a bit long. Lots to explain and such.
Anyways, a bit of setup. My game plays a little fast and loose supposedly and is somewhat anime influenced at times. The game was originally supposed to be a Magical Girl game set in Moscow, but we ended up with:
- Agata - A 12 year old Pure Mortal Russian Mafia Princess. She provides support in combat via maneuvers.
- Sasha (Boy) - A 14 year old Hero of the Ages(modified Sword of the Cross template). He's the tank by far and away, though that doesn't mean he can't do some major damage when he wants to.
- Celino - A 14 year old Magical Boy. Offensive spellcaster, specializing in Spirit spells. He is the glass cannon.
- Sergei (Me) - A 13 year old Scion of Fenrir, the Ragnarok Wolf. Hand to hand specialist with Supernatural Strength to back it up.
And with this group we, through various coincidences and contrivances, ended up fighting against a group of evil spellcasters/magical beings wishing to destroy the wall keeping the Outsiders out. To reach that goal they use corrupted dream spirits called Nocnamoras who use the host's soul to take physical shape where they proceed to steal souls and gather other various energies needed to complete the ritual.
Yesterday's session had us meeting with a group of spellcasters, minor talents, and unknown quantities that had been working towards a goal we had just partially completed. Revealing the world of supernaturals to mortals and beginning to educate them. We had asked them to come because we sought their assistance in furthering this goal. The meeting had not gotten very far when Sasha noticed two of our friends from school (Focused Pyromancers) were behaving strangely. Upon his investigation he realized they were in the process of having Nocnamoras made from their souls. We tried to prevent it, but ultimately failed thus leaving us two Phoenix Nocnamoras to fight.
It was a pretty brutal affair. Between bad rolls, and good rolls by the enemy we were down two by the time we defeated the first Noc leaving only myself and Sasha to take down the other one. Of course, seeing its companion taken down enraged it and as I had landed the final blow on it (a devastating 14 stress uppercut) the other one was pissed at me. After one round of fighting it got tired of the interference by Sasha and sent out a massive blast of flame that pushed Sasha to the brink and left me in a ring of flame to face it alone. Sasha, using the last bits of strength he could muster tossed me his blade to use as it beat its catch. That lasted me one round before a really bad roll for me and a decently good roll for it left me with all my stress boxes filled and a moderate consequence.
Now before I go on let me explain an idea the GM and I had worked out for my character. As the game progressed I would 'evolve', slowly becoming less and less human in appearance till the final point of more closely resembling a WoD werewolf in Crinos. I had already evolved once leaving me with wolf ears, a wolf tail, and lacking normal human ears (thankfully, otherwise that would have been creepy). As you can guess from the setup this predicament triggered another evolution. But instead of a more controlled evolution I went full on dire wolf and due to the shift my mind was overwhelmed leaving me acting on instinct. One attack later and the second phoenix was no more. After leaping out of the flames my friends tried to calm me, but being lost in my mind and in a lot of pain the wolf struck out and severely injured Sasha who had just started to get up and had imposed himself between me and the rest of the group. That, along with a mental attack, snapped me out of it and horrified at what I had done I ran off. The session ended with my character being consoled by a former enemy turned ally, a new ally, and Sasha after he found me.
And Sergei still has to go to school... oh what fun will come of a like 6 or 7 feet long, 4 or so feet tall wolf on all fours navigating a school of teenagers. Certainly going to make an impression.
-
I'm the GM for SergeiVolkov and company. We've had a lot of wild adventures thus far.
The most recent session was one meant for impact rather than action. With permission from Sergei's great-grandfather Odin, he was allowed to speak before the gathered warriors in Valhalla. He told them how Ragnarok is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and all the tactics the Aesir have used to prevent it actually bring it about.
Before this, Sergei met his father for the first time, so he had set up a cue with Loki to walk in with Fenrir at a dramatically appropriate time in the speech. As soon as Daddy Fenrir and Grandpa Loki entered the scene, Sergei told the gods that Fenrir was only destructively violent because he had been bound in an attempt to stave off Ragnarok. To prove Sergei's point, Fenrir apologized to Tyr for the hand thing and pledged his service to Odin as the great hunter.
The rolls for this were amazing, and Sergei's words, along with his father's actions, convinced Odin that they were speaking the truth. Odin declared that they would cast aside prophecy, rather than fulfilling it unaware.
Of course, without a Ragnarok occurring, all those Einherjar that were to rise for the final battle needed another purpose. So Heimdall gave the summoning horn to Sasha, along with a Valkyrie retainer to keep the horn safe until it was needed.
-
we Wrapped up our Miami game. A Year and then some of Dresden fun.
-
My group got to have a little fun last night. We fought Smurfs!
We have a quartet of pixies in our employ who we saved some time ago and are using to keep an eye on things. But they've been captured! And the place they're being held is far too small for us to get to (the cave entrance was only three apples tall!), so we had to be shrunk down, temporarily, through pixie magic!
(I didn't give anybody "diminutive size," though, since everything was small so the sizes were all the same).
The "smurfs" were Blue Court vampires, who incite emotions of gaiety and revelry, feeding on that the way Whites feed on lust (the Catch was true happiness, i.e., complete contentment in one's life, the kind of thing you only get as a new parent with a well-paying job and a loving spouse sorta thing; nobody in our group). And when the energy has been siphoned, instead of dying, you become one of them.
There was also a red-hatted vampire leading the village, who had sat invisibly atop one of the "mushrooms the size of houses" during our fight with his elite guards.
One of the guards was a wizard who, through a quick series of invocations and lucky rolls, ended up with me having to say: "The vampire screams and tumbles from the tree, dead before he gets to cast any of the cool spells I've written up" :(
Another was a weresquirrel. A gigantic squirrel the size of a mammoth with ursine paws and teeth of a tyrannosaurus. Seriously, I statted up the weresquirrel with the Hulking Size power.
It ended with us negotiating a prisoner return, on the grounds that there were hundreds of them in the village, but they'd take a great toll on their numbers trying to take us down before they finally overwhelmed us.
So they let the prisoners go, and one of our characters went back the next day and bug-bombed the whole place.
(I did warn them, though, that the Blue Court story wasn't over, and we'd someday meet Gargamel).
-
My group got to have a little fun last night. We fought Smurfs!
We have a quartet of pixies in our employ who we saved some time ago and are using to keep an eye on things. But they've been captured! And the place they're being held is far too small for us to get to (the cave entrance was only three apples tall!), so we had to be shrunk down, temporarily, through pixie magic!
(I didn't give anybody "diminutive size," though, since everything was small so the sizes were all the same).
The "smurfs" were Blue Court vampires, who incite emotions of gaiety and revelry, feeding on that the way Whites feed on lust (the Catch was true happiness, i.e., complete contentment in one's life, the kind of thing you only get as a new parent with a well-paying job and a loving spouse sorta thing; nobody in our group). And when the energy has been siphoned, instead of dying, you become one of them.
There was also a red-hatted vampire leading the village, who had sat invisibly atop one of the "mushrooms the size of houses" during our fight with his elite guards.
One of the guards was a wizard who, through a quick series of invocations and lucky rolls, ended up with me having to say: "The vampire screams and tumbles from the tree, dead before he gets to cast any of the cool spells I've written up" :(
Another was a weresquirrel. A gigantic squirrel the size of a mammoth with ursine paws and teeth of a tyrannosaurus. Seriously, I statted up the weresquirrel with the Hulking Size power.
It ended with us negotiating a prisoner return, on the grounds that there were hundreds of them in the village, but they'd take a great toll on their numbers trying to take us down before they finally overwhelmed us.
So they let the prisoners go, and one of our characters went back the next day and bug-bombed the whole place.
(I did warn them, though, that the Blue Court story wasn't over, and we'd someday meet Gargamel).
This. This is... my mouth is hanging open; that's what this is.
-
He left out the fact that my character, the were-dog, was being chased around by the were-squirrel.
-
That entire thing is beautiful, but this:
So they let the prisoners go, and one of our characters went back the next day and bug-bombed the whole place.
Is perfection.
-
Tonight's game was one I've been waiting for for a while. A little background...
About a month or so ago, I took over a campaign from another GM who just wasn't feeling up to it anymore. I was the party tank, a valkyrie, and when he had last left the game, she had been compelled to investigate a scourge on her own, and the last in-game thing she did was head inside. I took over the game, learned what the previous GM had planned, and set about tying up the threads the other characters were on. For about a month's worth of games, my tank was offscreen (about a day passing in-game).
Then, tonight, they finally caught up with her. The vampires had gotten into a thresholded house, meaning one pure-mortal PC was fine, but the two wizards and pixie were crippled. Long story short, one wizard's nearly burnt out by the time the house is mostly cleared, but they get an invite and head upstairs to find the valkyrie, who's grappled by a badass vampire.
There's a bit of parley, the valkyrie wiggles loose, and the wizards and cop all let the vampire have it. Invoked gunfire, and triple-invoked fire spells slam into the vampire--who dodges the gunfire, and proves immune to the fire (Item of Power grabbed as a compel of one wizard's Terrifying Reputation aspect). Then skewers the valkyrie on her own sword before making her way out, leaving the others to attempt a risky thaumaturgic ritual to keep the valkyrie from bleeding out.
But the real kicker came in our OOC room just after they'd stabilized her (Brenda's the valkyrie, Roman's the cop, Helen and Maria are the wizards):
<Mr_Death> Also, FYI: What happened to Brenda was entirely by the numbers. A few weeks ago, I busied myself rolling out her whole encounter. THe Queen ended up filling up all eight of her physical stress boxes and -all three- of her consequences. Without Brenda ever laying a finger on her.
<@[Helen]> Yikes
<[Roman]> Holy christ.
<[Maria]> Jesus fuck
<@[Helen]> Whelp, we're boned
Priceless.
Another note about the session I'm still grinning about is what became my new signature, as one character briefly filled in another on what was going on at a crime scene.
-
I killed my game. :)
I made a number of mistakes in getting the game up and running. First and for most, no one other than myself had ever read the Dresden Books. We wanted to try FATE but I Was the only one willing to run and THIS was the flavor I wanted. Then there was trouble with Character Creation. We were all more than a little unclear as to how to tie the characters together. Add to the mix a bunch of players more used to Burning Wheel and with no good working knowledge on how to drive a story in FATE.
After 4 GAME sessions, I looked around at my players and no one was having fun.... least of all me.
But we do want to try this again. I think we can all see where we went wrong and what needs to change. I think the characters my players came up with were interesting and would still work with a bit of tweaking. I just wish I could get ALL of them to read Summer Knight first. :)
-
I think what helps is playing the one Shots first.
Give people premade characters, story ect, and then let them see how the system works.
I'd say Read Small Favor first. Its the first book I started with. It gives you all the good stuff (Thomas, The Knights, Denarians, Fae ect) and then Butcher does a good job of explaining it without Info Dumping.
-
We wrapped up a long campaign set in Los Angeles where we had been framed for the murder of our mentor by a rogue warden. One great moment, we were ambushed on Sunset Blvd. by some Red Court infected gang bangers. My sorcerer had taken a car door to the face and was down. The sink hole I'd opened up with a failed discipline role was growing and Getting closer. Morgan's wizard had fried himself pretty bad with his last big spell. The Red Court hitters were coming for me machine guns in hand. It was clearly concession or taken out time...and then I smile at the GM.
Flashback to a couple sessions ago, when my character was glibly chatting with Nuada the Summer Lord of Hollywood who would offer us protection if I promised to find his lost Sword of Light. While leaving one of the Summer Ladies gives me her favor, a handkerchief that bore the lipstick impression of her kiss, and a pledge to come if I called...
So, in rides a Lady Knight of the Summer Court alternatingly on a supercharged motorcycle or powerful warhorse to save my bacon. And now I'm indebted to Summer. Unfortunately I had earlier pledged three favors to Winter for their help in saving a friend of mine and, wouldn't you know, their first request? Lord Nuada's golden sword.
-
I think what helps is playing the one Shots first.
Give people premade characters, story ect, and then let them see how the system works.
I'd say Read Small Favor first. Its the first book I started with. It gives you all the good stuff (Thomas, The Knights, Denarians, Fae ect) and then Butcher does a good job of explaining it without Info Dumping.
WE talked about doing this exact thing. Our group is going through one of those "no one can get together" times. But hopefully in the next week or so. :)
-
I think what helps is playing the one Shots first.
Give people premade characters, story ect, and then let them see how the system works.
I'd say Read Small Favor first. Its the first book I started with. It gives you all the good stuff (Thomas, The Knights, Denarians, Fae ect) and then Butcher does a good job of explaining it without Info Dumping.
What?.... WHAT?! NO!!!
Spoil ALL of the surprises and suspense up to that point? Seriously?
Never, EVER suggest this to someone. Start on book 1.
-
WE talked about doing this exact thing. Our group is going through one of those "no one can get together" times. But hopefully in the next week or so. :)
I killed my game. :)
I made a number of mistakes in getting the game up and running. First and for most, no one other than myself had ever read the Dresden Books. We wanted to try FATE but I Was the only one willing to run and THIS was the flavor I wanted. Then there was trouble with Character Creation. We were all more than a little unclear as to how to tie the characters together. Add to the mix a bunch of players more used to Burning Wheel and with no good working knowledge on how to drive a story in FATE.
...
Where you guys not clear on the guest star phases? That's the biggest deal. My group has actually been doing it for years without even realizing it. Rather than drop it in the storyteller's lap on session 1 when everyone is trepidacious about the new campaign, everyone just "already knows" eachother. Straight to the action. Straight to the cool.
Did your storytellers not understand how to use compels? It can be a little daunting at first, but generally after reading through Your Story it should be pretty clear. Those make getting the party together so trivially easy I almost didn't need the Guest Star phases. 5 minutes of "candy-lined" story hooks and everyone's together.
-
What?.... WHAT?! NO!!!
Spoil ALL of the surprises and suspense up to that point? Seriously?
Never, EVER suggest this to someone. Start on book 1.
Actually Book 2 is a better Starting point. I've lost more people with book 1. Book 2 seems to be a better starting point for Newbies.
But if you want them to just "get the game" Small Favor is a good place.
A lot of people dont have the time/energy to read a new series. Then there's the burn out factor. If your reading Dresden and playing Dresden you might just get sick of it.
We just wrapped up our Year and a Half long Dresden Miami game, we had a couple of people who were not familiar with the book, and they got it, after a fashion.
As for why Dresden games fail.
1. Social Contract
-Make sure everyone is on the same page. if you want to do a loosey goosey Vampires of the Masqurade-esqe Dresden and someone else is your group is looking for Munchkin Crunchyness, then you gonna clash.
-If you arent comfortable with Torture, Rape, or __________ Make sure people know that. Because Dresden can go from my little pony, to Pulp Fiction Gimp scene pretty fast
2. Not getting Compels/Aspects/ The Magic System
- Aspects took me forever. FOREVER. To get. You gotta come up with something that 1. Defines your character 2. Has to be worded in such a way that you can compel it and it can be compelled. 3. Has to be more than just a positive Aspect (i.e. I've seen "Lucky" used too often) 4. Some Older Gm or more Traditional GMs arent used to the player having so much Feedback/Influence /Control over the world/their character
3. Not engaging people
- This gets worse with larger parties. If you 5 people and 3 hours to play thats not much time per person.
- Your story stinks or is too on rails. Sorry that happens.
4. Motivation
-Why would be Policeman character risk everything to help some wizard do something that benefits no one but that Wizard?. This goes back to character creation/ city set up. Give your group a REASON to work together. Also. Stick together.
---We had a character in our group who basically just kept wandering off or avoiding our group, which is fine I guess but basically he was just wasting his time, and not letting us further his story.
-
Where you guys not clear on the guest star phases? That's the biggest deal. My group has actually been doing it for years without even realizing it. Rather than drop it in the storyteller's lap on session 1 when everyone is trepidacious about the new campaign, everyone just "already knows" eachother. Straight to the action. Straight to the cool.
Did your storytellers not understand how to use compels? It can be a little daunting at first, but generally after reading through Your Story it should be pretty clear. Those make getting the party together so trivially easy I almost didn't need the Guest Star phases. 5 minutes of "candy-lined" story hooks and everyone's together.
In short... yes...
I'm not saying this flavor of FATE is "bad" or anything. I'm saying I (as the GM) had trouble with a different style of gaming. I've mainly run 3.5 and Pathfinder with a smattering of Savage Worlds. I've played a LOT of Burning Wheel and some Fiasco. None of this helps me get my head around Dresden Files RPG. I get a LOT more out of "How To Run A Game" by paying in one. I've unsuccessfully attempted to get into a Dresden Game at GenCon for the past few years. And THAT is the extent of my ability to get into such a game. But I REALLY wanted to play Dresden and felt my only shot was to run the game myself... and I wasn't very good. It wasn't all my fault and I think we will come back to the game. But we are going to get back on our feet, cleanse our gaming palate, and then see what can be done. I THINK we will have to re-do Character Creation (at least one new player and a better handle now on the system). i think we will do a one-shot to help me get INTO running a game without worrying over storylines. And then we will see.
-
In short... yes...
I'm not saying this flavor of FATE is "bad" or anything. I'm saying I (as the GM) had trouble with a different style of gaming. I've mainly run 3.5 and Pathfinder with a smattering of Savage Worlds. I've played a LOT of Burning Wheel and some Fiasco. None of this helps me get my head around Dresden Files RPG. I get a LOT more out of "How To Run A Game" by paying in one. I've unsuccessfully attempted to get into a Dresden Game at GenCon for the past few years. And THAT is the extent of my ability to get into such a game. But I REALLY wanted to play Dresden and felt my only shot was to run the game myself... and I wasn't very good. It wasn't all my fault and I think we will come back to the game. But we are going to get back on our feet, cleanse our gaming palate, and then see what can be done. I THINK we will have to re-do Character Creation (at least one new player and a better handle now on the system). i think we will do a one-shot to help me get INTO running a game without worrying over storylines. And then we will see.
Ah, yeah. I get'cha. The biggest problem with d20 games is they only teach you to play d20 games, and d20 games aren't all that unique or complex.
The downside with uncommon RPGs is finding an experienced group to play with and learn from. I was lucky to have gone to a major university that had a huge gaming population to learn from and network with. I'd recommend you try a local university's gaming group. You might have some luck.
-
last game i played ended in a major fight in the nevernever.
the sesion rounded out to our characters, a caboomomancer warden, a weresnow leopard warden, a formerly vanilla mortal turn partial wendigo(from supernatural, that was later dubbed the winnebago spirit after a slip of the toung), a monster hunter with the blessed gun of teh Rosevelt... (not mispelled ... and another story), and an npc murphy xp cop, raiding the wearhouse hideout of a paramilitary conspiricy group that believed the grey cloaks...(wardens) worked with aliens that were trying to take over the earth.
we busted in at the same time a group of red court vampires did and turned things alittle crazy, after several round we started to get a measure of control just as a skinwalker in zenomorph...(aliens) fashion and cut through most of the remaining opposition, we managed to draw the skinwalker into the nevernever before the cops could raid the building and took the fight there, minus the npc cop, we called on a fae queen of the midnight court that we had dealings with before and that my character... the caboomomancer had to offer to become her knight to get to join the fight, we ended up with an almost total party kill sans my character but it was a really good fight all around.
-
...we called on a fae queen of the midnight court that we had dealings with before...
Midnight court? I'd like to hear more... ;)
-
Midnight court? I'd like to hear more... ;)
Yeah.. sounds cool! visceral... imaginative.. simple... I LIKE!
-
Midnight court? I'd like to hear more... ;)
the midnight court was a good case of our gm playing off our aspects to further his story, my character had a connection with the little folk and often called on two nicknamed google and beltaine, they were pranksters and a little perverted is some cases, at one point in the game the leader of the local little folk called scoot scoot (who we thought was one herself) called in a favor owed to...i think it was google, we had further dealings with her throughout the campain and later found out she was a lesser queen (less powerful than even the ladies of summer or winter) i cant remember what her real name was anymore. most of her followers were... think bob mixed with toot toot, and add prankster to the mix and youve got the followers of the midnight court, but they played a good sized role in several of our campains.
-
My last session was a mixture of side-sessions that ultimately ended with our characters getting the aid of the Yeti (and Sasquatch, and Big Foot, and etc) and a group of Tibetan Monks and with my character getting a Temple Dog puppy because I can speak dog thanks to Echoes of the Beast. His name is Vagabond if anyone is curious.
-
The last session was amazing.
Our group is a pure mortal (venatori probationary member), a fledgling member of the White Council, a Harbinger of Morpheus, and a were-hawk ex-military member. Remarkably, that last character tends to be the peacemaker of the group.
Morpheus showed up (in a dream, naturally) and told his Harbinger to, essentially, throw a party. His 'siblings' were getting together for a meeting and all of them would be represented by a mortal servant, avatar, or other representative. The harbinger needed to pull together security, refreshments, and a location -- Accorded Neutral Ground, of course. Not being much of a social butterfly, the Harbinger pulled in all of his friends.
While they mulled over the guest list (Death, Despair, Delirium, Dream, Destiny, Dream, and possibly Destruction) and the bizarre method for letting each guest know the location, they researched methods for finding ANG in Dallas. There were a couple of locations possible, not to mention the option of going to the fairies to either temporarily or permanently get a place declared ANG.
But the real gem of the session -- and not something I could have planned for -- was the Harbinger making a thoughtless remark to the Wizard. She's the prime financial backer of the group, an orphan who considers them her family and supports many of their endeavors from her own pocketbook. She also has the wonderful Aspect of "Nice when Needed, Bitch when Necessary". One quick compel later and the Harbinger was trying (fruitlessly, his dice HATED HIM) to hold his own in a social conflict within the group.
We probably spent an hour and a half dealing with a social conflict and the resultant fall-out. The roleplaying was brilliant on all sides, with the other players either helping or hindering as they saw fit.
...We'll see how things go next time, with the Harbinger of Morpheus potentially on his own in setting up this party with only eight days left on the clock... ;D
-
Our last session was rather quiet but no less interesting.
The Knight of the Cross (me), Ectomancer Cop and Apprentice Wizard with confidence issues went to go find out why Bounty hunters where offering an obscene amount of money to get the Emissary of Winter (Who's a very low refresh Sidhe) Pc and the NPC/minion Spirit of intellect in the group.
This is while there's downtime in the investigation on discovering who exactly stabbed the mission control NPC with a cursed Claymore, so of course they where on a time limit.
The cop failed at looking threatening, The knight finally got good use of the 4 Rapport I gave her back when she was just a pure mortal and the Apprentice's long silence almost had the hunters walk off before telling us the information we needed.
Some quick words later, The bounty hunters explain that the Spirit and the Sidhe managed to cause a Jail break and the Ectomancer Cop told them that they hung around at the address of the old base of operations which is no longer in use due to being trashed due to the events of the last chapter.
Naturally this jail Break was in the Never Never, The prisoner was a monster even Fae decided to imprison. Ecto cop is furious.
The spirit (cursed into the body of a puppy after he and the wizard PC pissed off winter too many times..)
My Knight swore to protect the Spirit as it has been helping her learn about the Real world and er new duties. (Only been aware of the supernatural for three months and just got her sword the near end of the last chapter) and naturally of course had a bargin to complete with the Side in order to protect a child.
Naturally the Knight sujjested they find the monster themselves, the Cop is giving the Side and spirit 24 hours to spill or he'll turn them in.
Then the session ends on a tense note after both Knight and cop explain their promises.