There's a section on Dresden Role Playing. This should have been posted over there....

Oh, I agree as long as your group is willing to cooperate and doesn't get all hissy about some players wielding more powers than others.

I've GM-ed for both kinds of groups and sometimes you can't tell which kind you have until you try.

Well, I think that ADRP is great for weapons combat (particularly for melee) but I've always been a bit hesitant to get too into missile combat becasue it seems so random.

What I like about melee is that it's kind of like playing chess with move and counter-move. Magic always troubled me as well, since it seems to lack the back-and-forth the way melee does, but I'm hoping that having offensive and defensive options rather than generic spell lists may allow magical duels to play much like melee.

In most RPGs, a person casts a spell and there isn't really a counterspell. The spell just fires and everyone ducks or makes a saving throw, or whatever. What I want is a system where I can simulate the ebb and flow of magical combat with attack and counterattack of spells rather than rapiers.

I'm going to try my system out this weekend, unless someone can give me some suggestions on how to make it better before then.   

Personally I like going as 'diceless' as possible as a GM outside of combat.

This got me thinking. What about running a Dresden campaign using something like the Amber Diceless RPG?

Four main attributes: Psyche (mental combat), Strength (athletic actions), Warfare (weapons combat), and Endurance (how long you can last).

Spellcasting ability costs character points to buy (similar to buying Power Words, Sorcery, and Conjuration, but maybe only one "Magic" stat to represent training).

I notice in the books sometimes that Harry will compare notes with other Wizards, perhaps finding that they are better at certain types of spells while he is better with others. This could be simulated by combining Psyche (power) with Magic (training) to get some sort of spellcasting points which could be divided among magic "schools" or spell groups.
* Offensive (player picks special effect of fire, ice, lightning, water, whatever)
* Shield (player picks special effects)
* Telekinesis (moving and pushing stuff)
* Sensory (ESP, Sight, and so on)
* others I've missed?

The rules would be similar to ADRP, with each magical "school" acting a lot like an ADRP attribute. For example, a combat could be one wizard's lightning blast versus another wizard's shield and if one is stronger he is victorious, but using Endurance to resolve similar power levels.

Anyone done anything like this?

It might also be worth waiting for the TV series to have a couple of seasons before spending too much time trying to make a sourcebook. Many TV shows have a growing period before they hit their stride, and it's possible (assuming that DFTV continues for a while) that the show might evolve such that later shows have a very different direction than earlier shows.

For example (from the books) Susan plays a big part early but fades into the background a few books into the series. Early books are more noir detective while later books have a somewhat different epic plotline.

The TV series may have similar growing pains as the writers try to follow their own path that isn't just a rip-off of the books.

Just a thought.

I think that the secret to running a good RPG campaign is to surround yourself with people with the "right" gaming philosophy. My present group is a bunch of people who are not rules sticklers and they are more interested in playing a role and having fun then they are trying to lawyer their way through a game session.

Many of my games end up as "just roll a die and we'll see what happens" and are in this way very loose and free with the rules. While not all players are comfortable with this type of play, having players trust the GM is half the battle -- they have to trust that we're all trying to spin a good yarn and have a good time.

I have SotC in hardback and to me it was worth it.

I plan on buying DFRPG in hardback as well. 

It's much more important to not be an ass, than it is to be considered competent at the rules.  Think about the principles of good sportsmanship you learned as a kid, and apply those to the game.  That will get you a lot farther, in the long run, than knowing how to get the most use out of your kewl powerz.

Exactly. If you get confused just ask and probably someone will help you out if you're a nice person about the whole thing. If you have a neat power, other players may offer ideas and suggestions on when and where to make best use of them.

Above all, enjoy the experience!