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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: TheMouse on July 22, 2008, 08:46:09 PM
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This is sort of the offspring of the "what would you make" and "what's your first story" threads. The basic idea is this: What do you think your group will make for its first round of characters? Do you think they'll all end up with the same character type? For the GMs out there, do you plan to try to convince your group to play a certain thing, and if so, what?
My game group is really dynamic, so I'm not sure who's going to be involved. As such, I can't really answer my first couple of questions. For the last, I'm going to try to convince them to play humans with whatever degree of magical potential. Whether that be wizards, focussed practitioners, or emissaries of power, I'm not too picky.
So, how about you?
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Hmmm... let's see. My group is pretty tight, and we've been playing together for years. I think I can give a good accounting.
- One will be a changeling, I can say that for sure.
- Another will likely be an PI of some sort, probably without powers.
- One will fight and fight to be the upper limit of whatever she thinks is "cool" at the moment with no downside and as many powers as she can possibly squeeze in. (a la http://www.angelfire.com/rpg/michelle/ (http://www.angelfire.com/rpg/michelle/), and yes it's worth going to look. Funny!) She will be disappointed; I'll make sure of it.
- Another will probably also be a mundane PI/Agent... possibly government agent
- One will be some form of Warrior of God, possibly who is an elementary or Sunday school teacher... lots of good options when there are kids around. BWahahahaha...
Of course, any of them may spontaneously decide to be a mage instead, or throw in a minor talent or something, but I'm pretty sure the above is a close approximation to what we'll get. :)
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so far in the home version of sotc that I've compiled and am running online on a forum (I'm also using dark inheritance's titan legacies for plot reasons):
- A white court vampiric sorceress
- A strongly prescient wizardress (unknowingly of the Hidden Key legacy)
- A Valkyrie
- A Void Phoenix legacy with the shadow of a denarian in his head
- (maybe) A red court infected who "can make big boom booms with lightning"
- (maybe) An ectomancer who is a former surgeon
- (maybe) A true believer/Warrior of God type
- (maybe) "Something mundane, like a cop, hacker, PI, or the like"
yes I may or may not end up with a big group, and the majority of players are female.
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My group has started to play around with the Dresden universe using the Spirit of the Century Rules. So no heavy magic. The game kind of centers around the down town homeless shelter at this point.
We have:
An ugly semi-brick with unusual powers (the usual for this player) He is a changeling that looks like the kid from the movie Mask. 16 years old and homeless, he does what he can to help his friends.
A screwed up high class hooker with powers that frighten her; she can’t control and does not want. (The usual for this player) A high class hooker has a near death experience and since then she sees dead people who plead for her help. Sometimes she sees how people are going to die.
A social outsider who heals people (the usual for this player) A Native American who was raised in the white world until his parents died and then given to his medicine man grandfather who taught him of the magical world. Not at home on the reservation because he likes the conveniences of the white world. Not at home in the white world because he knows too much of the old magical ways. He has unwanted visions that lead him to action.
A gumshoe investigator that sometimes has headaches that lead to visions. (not the usual for this player)
We are waiting for the magic rules so that these characters can grow some into full powered characters.
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Out of curiosity, what are the point totals you used for char-gen? That is, how many skill points, what distribution for them, how many Stunts, how much refresh, and do Stunts reduce refresh?
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*chants an incantation of threadcromancy*
I plan to have a big character pool instead of staying with one group of characters. For instance everyone makes a wizard, White Court vampire, a mortal cop, a werewolf, a minor talent and so on, then they show up in different combinations as our mood or the story takes us. This way the players get to try out various character types and each group will have some kind of balance and reason for that particular grouping.
Plus, having different characters for different adventures will make for a broader, maybe even epic, story. Different sessions could flesh out different sides of a conflict or plot, the play could flash to a cut scene (meanwhile, in Baltimore...) with the players actually forming the cut scene, and so on. Another benefit is that it's fairly easy to bring on guest players, since I often have an irregular player or two who is unable play regularly but likes to join in the fun when s/he has time. I'm also thinking about having off-screen growth in the form of player-written short stories, and will be shutting up now because I am way too excited at the prospect of my future campaign using a game that's not out yet. ;D
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*chants an incantation of threadcromancy*
I plan to have a big character pool instead of staying with one group of characters. For instance everyone makes a wizard, White Court vampire, a mortal cop, a werewolf, a minor talent and so on, then they show up in different combinations as our mood or the story takes us. This way the players get to try out various character types and each group will have some kind of balance and reason for that particular grouping.
I love this idea. :)
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That actually sounds pretty cool. It's like Ars Magica style troupes, but taken up a notch.
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You're right, it's inspired directly by Ars Magica. I've experimented with various forms of troupe play the past few campaigns, and this form is both closest to its original roots and the largest in scale.
And Fred likes my idea? I just may have to go die of fannish cardiac arrest...
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You're right, it's inspired directly by Ars Magica. I've experimented with various forms of troupe play the past few campaigns, and this form is both closest to its original roots and the largest in scale.
And Fred likes my idea? I just may have to go die of fannish cardiac arrest...
It also vibes with some of what we were trying to do with Spirit of the Century. That's a good vector to take, especially if you're approaching your game with the notion that the *setting* is the real star here. :)
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. . . if you're approaching your game with the notion that the *setting* is the real star here. . .
With a bestselling novel series as your setting I'd be afraid to try to make anything else the star.
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With a bestselling novel series as your setting I'd be afraid to try to make anything else the star.
Oh, I wouldn't. We put some real time in the game into making it clear that folks are supposed to take over the setting and make it their own. If you have to run around dodging the events that Harry's undergoing at the same time, it can feel like a straitjacket.
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Hmmmm, knowing my group:
-An insane wizard.
-A drunken shaman named Gary.
-Something well-meaning but ineffectual.
-Something serious who tries, with varying success, to keep the rest of the group pointed at something vaguely resembling the correct direction.
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I was looking over an internal playtest report today. This was the group's composition:
- A were-fox trickster
- A former lucha champion
- Knight of Thorns
- Hard-Boiled Vampire Detective
- White Council Summer Liaison
- White Council Warden to Seattle
- A Rhyming Troll of Summer (possibly a changeling, possibly a faerie, hard to say from the sheet right now)
I thought that looked pretty hot.
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I'm curious Fred. Is Warden status going to be an official title, skill, or stunt, or just taken as an Aspect?
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I'm curious Fred. Is Warden status going to be an official title, skill, or stunt, or just taken as an Aspect?
It's just a job. :)
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What is the reccomended group size? At what point do you think it would become difficult to run a game?
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At least for previous iterations of FATE, in my experience you tend to want a group that's a little smaller than for some other RPGs, since each player can do so much stuff through the Fate point economy. I'd prefer 3-4 players, I'd be fine with 2 (Fate works great with small groups) and I don't think I'd be able to pull off GMing more than 5 (even that would be a bit of a stretch for me), but I'm sure other people have different preferences.
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What is the reccomended group size? At what point do you think it would become difficult to run a game?
5 or 6 players is about the most I'd want in the way of moving parts.
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Hmm, I plan to start of as a GM but then switch off in the process after we get used to the system.
So...
from what I can tell I'll be getting a
WCVirgin/Vamp, couldn't tell with this one immediatly, vamp fans are very fleeting when I bring the multiple types of DF to them, but I think the 'sex -crazed' idea finally reeled her in.
Most Definately a Were-Wolf, basicly an Alpha/Billy clone :-\
A vanilla, heavy-guns merc
and, some type of light-magical talent human, not a full blown wizard, but there is a lot of space inbetween that and vanilla
and then there is me, I plan on being a city-wise, street pally, gunning for a Sword of the Cross, here!
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Unfortunately, more than half the people I may be playing with when TDFRPG comes out haven't read the books or seen the show :(
In all I should have 2 groups of players and will be able to play as a PC...eventually.
My best estimate of characters by my estimate will probably be thus:
Group 1
1. The Last Disciple of Thor (Emissary of Power)
2. A White Court Vampire of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (A major group in Magical Spokane)
3. Maybe a Were-form
4. A Champion of God
5. A Magic-User of Some kind
6. A Spokane Special Investigator
Group 2
1. The Emissary of the new God (The Internet ala Neil Gaiman) featuring the Aspect "Pirates vs. Ninja"
2. A Panwere of most likely Bear, Moose and whatever animal is the silliest
3. A Wizard or 2. I remember rumblings of a Wizard/Sorcerer who makes stupid amounts of money as a Product Liability Lawyer.
4. A Warden with an aspect like "I AM THE LAW!!!" who uses a lot of gray magic because he (the player) doesn't fully understand the Laws of Magic or care about them and expects to get away with it.
5. A Changling child of a Big Bad Wolf (A type of Fairy that wears skin suits like Red Court that hunt in packs) or at least I hope I get one after I spring it on them and kill one of the PCs. Hopefully that stupid Warden.
6. A focused practitioner of something that never occurred to any of us.
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A Changling child of a Big Bad Wolf (A type of Fairy that wears skin suits like Red Court that hunt in packs)
That sounds cool. My son was bouncing a similar idea off me a couple of days ago. I put him off hoping to do a little research first. Is this based on any 'real' stories or is this something you're making up right now. Do you have any ideas on how you want to do it?
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An Emissary of Power representing the internet, god I love this forum.
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An Emissary of Power representing the internet, god I love this forum.
The collective conciousness as a developed power. Talk about gods having a sense of humor, lol. I think this might trump Bob as a spirit of intellect though.
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The collective conciousness as a developed power. Talk about gods having a sense of humor, lol. I think this might trump Bob as a spirit of intellect though.
Maybe not, if you considered the intelligence of the couciousness to not be conjuctive and instead use the mean of all the intelligences that make it up, if you look at it this way, Bob is a much better alternative.
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The collective conciousness as a developed power. Talk about gods having a sense of humor, lol. I think this might trump Bob as a spirit of intellect though.
But very distractable and prone to angry outbursts... ::)
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Hmmm...
My gf (an avid fan of the series but an inexperienced gamer) wants to be a white court vampire dressed in rubber... with a pet ewok.
A friend is considering a spell caster of some sort
The other said "could I be a wild mage?!?"
And the fourth one I have no idea.
... this is going to be an interesting game...
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That sounds cool. My son was bouncing a similar idea off me a couple of days ago. I put him off hoping to do a little research first. Is this based on any 'real' stories or is this something you're making up right now. Do you have any ideas on how you want to do it?
This comes from the G-men, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Specifically Little Red Riding Hood and similiar stories. It was only logical that they would be fairies and have some disguise feature similiar to to the stories. In one of those stories they would dupe goats by covering their claws and fur with chalk, so i.e. they make their own disguises.
The skin suit thing is partially inspired by The Village and partial by the Red Court. Why should vamps get all the cool powers?
Why don't they just use Glamours?
To scare the S&#% out of my players with Predator flashbacks....
I want them to be like the Wolves in the story, disguised as long as possible to lure in their prey and then to wolf out and pounce. Looking at the stories you could run them so they prefer Virgins and probably rape them and wait until they give birth to a "litter" before they eat them.
You could also run them as just Fairy Bipedal Wolves with a disguise feature if you don't want to go that dark.
The hunting in packs comes from logic also. The stories are traditionally about Lone Wolves, but if you want to scare players you use packs since wolves hunt in packs.
But you can also make them scarier....
I toyed with the idea that their skin suits can also be like body armor and the suits are only vulnerable to stone rather than cold iron. This comes from the stories that always ends with someone getting eaten and then the food getting rescued from the stomach and the stomach being filled with stones so the wolf would drown in the well when he went for water. Though if you think about it, if it's a fairy, its ectoplasmic body in the real world would dissolve if it was thrown into a body of water which keeps with lore.
An Emissary of Power representing the internet, god I love this forum.
This idea came from Neil Gaiman's American Gods which has new Gods emerging like The Internet, Johnny Appleseed, etc. My brother thinks that old gods are always becoming dormant and new gods are always being born.
Though the collective unconscious and the Akashic Records would also work.
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There are a lot of cool ideas in "alternate" comic books...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Hawksmoor_%28comics%29 the "king of cities". He can walk around barefoot because there is never any glass where he happens to step, masonry will fall on his enemies etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Sparks : the spirit of the 20th century (... oh yeah...)
etc etc.
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It seems at this point for my group we are going to have-
-A wizard hiding his true talents from the white council due to a 'darkside'
-A red-court infected who is tortured with guilt and hates his desire to feed on people (possibly religious before infection)
-A changeling with lieange tied to the Winter Court. The player has expressed a strong desire for 'Sparkly Wings' :D
- A magic sword toting, gun wielding, human mercenary who cares for little beyond payment.
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I'm very interested to see if my group picks up TDFRPG. I know at least half the group wants to (the ones that have read the books, though our normal GM doesn't want to be GM all the time for it. He wants to play and not know the details of what we'll face ahead of time) and the other half the group is apathetic and not readers.
But, knowing our group...
-pretty much all the characters will be snarky
-at least one wizard
-oversexed Sidhe female
-a member of law enforcement
-a young wizard or vamp(probably white court) still new to their abilities and learning to use them (probably my character there. I never do anything the easy way)
-a Tank-ish character whose player we always have to remind of the fact that he is not God.
-a shady magic user that you never quite know which side they're playing for