In spite of the M&M thread and a couple of others, I was never reallly certain that Dresden Files could be done using the d20 system. Too mathematical, not loose enough for my liking.

Then I bought a copy of Monte Cook's World of Darkness, which takes the familiar lines of Vampire/Werewolf/Mage and puts them together in a 3.5E format. I'm not a fan of 3E but really like the way this book reads so far, in terms of the way the levels are charted out (the classes essentially become "Vampire" or "Werewolf" or whatever) and the magic system is nice because it allows for custom spells (ala SAGA system) and exhaustion rather than a pre-determined number of spells per day. There are special feats for each class/race, as well as general feats for all characters. It just seems to be well written overall.

So why post this on an DFRPG forum?

Well, we've had a few discussion threads about using different systems (like HERO and M&M) to run Dresden campaigns, and the first two settings that immediately popped into my brain when I saw MCWOD were Amber and Harry Dresden. I have no plans to run MCWOD in the actual WOD universe, but now I think that it would be possible to create a d20 Dresden rulebook in a way that could actually be fun to play. I'll bet that feats could be generated for each major group (wizards, vampires, weres, fairy courts, and so on) and the individual groups could correspond to classes.

The spell-casting system in particular just screamed "Dresden" with the rules for exhaustion, etc.

Just thought I would share my enthusiasm. I'm still waiting for the official DFRPG to come out, but in the meantime this may be a nice fit.

There's another thread a lot like this one here and some of the information there might help you out.

The best wayto learn how to play RPGs is to have someone there to show you. The game store group is nice, or a friend is better. Without some of those resources, you might try joining one of those play-by-post message boards to get in the spirit of telling stories with each other.

The tricky part of tabletop RPGs may be the rules. You should look for a game that is light on rules rather than an encyclopedia to try to read through. I have some personal preferences as to games, but one to try might be Spirit of the Century because it's pretty narritive (rather than number crunchy) and is the core rules which the Dresden Files RPG are being built upon.

Often, early versions of games are more simple than newer versions becasue as people play the games they add to them and the game slowly expands. If you want an "old school" game you might look for any Dungeons & Dragons rules set publlished before 1999, or Tunnels & Trolls of 5th edition or earlier. Both are simple enough to figure out by yourself. These can often be found cheap on e-bay. I can give you more exact titles to search for if you have interest in these products.

Another option is to search google for "RPG" and "free" and find some stuff that won't cost you anything to read over. The downside of this is that the quality control doesn't exist and you may end up more confused than you began. Some free RPGs are better than others, however, and you might look for Fudge or Fate, both of which are excellent games.

Tabletop RPGs are all about story telling with each other, and the rules just help us avoid the "did so / did not" arguments. If you find the right game for your personality, you should find RPGs to be an excellent hobby.

I'm not so good at RPGs. Most of the gaming I've ever done was via CCG or simple board games like Zombies! So for the RPG challenged, how easy is it?

There is an entire spectrum of RPGs out there, and I would advise you to do some research before buying many of them. On one end of the spectrum you will find rules-lite systems (or some with essentially no rules) which are designed to get people telling stories together. On the other end are rules-heavy systems, which are designed to be more "realistic" simulations of a particular setting. I find that 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons, for example, is a very popular game but is very hard to learn by yourself.

The secret to any RPG is having trust in the person running the game. That person invests a lot of time creating a situation for the players to experience. However, with that power comes the responsibility of running a game where the players can change events. (Many Game Masters seem to enjoy a process called "railroading" where an adventure is linear like a book or movie, and no matter what the players do they will arrive at exactly the same ending. Most players hate this and would rather read a book or watch a movie.) If your players trust you to run a good game, you can probably run any rules system in any campaign world and people will have fun.

Dresden Files is going to be released using the FATE game system, and you can get free information from http://www.faterpg.com/dl/. If you’re new to RPGs you might find someone who already plays to teach you (it’s much easier to learn by example) or download free RPGs like FATE and read about it yourself. Give it a try and don’t worry about messing up the rules too much. Go in to have fun. I’ve been playing RPGs since 1975, have read and/or played dozens of game systems, and have been a playtester for several games. It’s a great hobby and one you can enjoy for years to come. I’m teaching my children about RPGs and they love it, too.

Good luck, and if you have questions be sure to ask.

Good reading. I like the overall philosophy of writing articles first in theory and then in specific to the campaign. That style certainly combines the best of both worlds, as it gives a general Dresdenverse resource as well as campaign-specific thoughts and suggestions.

It's stuff like this that makes me certain that the DFRPG will be a big hit.

I think part of the problem is that it's hard to discuss something that doesn't actually exist yet and we haven't seen. *shrug* Only so many "wouldn't it be cool if..." posts one can make )

Oh, I'm quite aware of this issue as well. That's why I suggested some options of discussion on (1) Spirit of the Century, since it has a similar mechanic, and (2) ideas for Dresden role playing in other game systems. That way, we can still discuss the way magic works, relative strengths of characters and critters, or other aspects of Dresden gaming that might actually be useful down the road when the official game is finally released.

Again, apologies if I come off grumpy on this issue. It's not my intent to discourage enthusiasm.

I based it off wikipedia...

Anyway, the cost of artifacts in Amber is way too low.  Multiplying it by five or ten would be a good idea.

I'm familiar with the ADRP rules, and certainly the Wikipedia synopsis is right on track for the way things are in Amber. My thinking was that Amber level attributes cost zero points because they are considered to be "average" for the campaign. Since humans are average in the Dresdenverse, I thought that basically adding 25 to each score would put them more in the right range so that zero would become average for the campaign. Clearly, that's why our numbers differed.

As far as artifacts go, I suspect you're right about them being too cheap but I don't know yet what is a logical scaling factor. After all, Harry has a staff, silver pendant, anti-missile bracelet, and quite a few other magical items which one might argue would "cost him points" and I'm not entirely sure how many points should go into items. In the ADRP the vast majority of points go into attributes and powers, but in a Dresden version I'm just not sure...

The werewolf belts in Fool Moon, for example, seemed pretty powerful and gave typical humans some fantastic abilities. On the other hand, Harry managed to defeat them so maybe those items weren't so hot against REAL powers.

That's cool. Looks like the mods got it moved for you. 

You didn't say in your original post how you're running the game -- is it somewhat freeform or are you running it using a particular RPG system?

(Guess I'll have to wander over to the website to find out....) 

Actually, the second edition is so much smoother and better than the first.  It fixed a lot of problems with some powers and how things were bought, and it's also nice.  Plus power level no longer determines how many ranks in a power you can take (though it still does if the power does damage, as damage rating is still mostly capped by power level, unless you trade off attack bonus for damage bonus).

I highly recommend the second edition.

Argh. So I picked up a copy of Mutants & Masterminds at a bookstore and now realize that it is 1E. Is the 2E version different enough that I should spend even more money, or can I get by with 1E?