Session 1 of what will be 5-6 total sessions all based on this Halloween occurred today and as a first I let players bring in both of their PCs if they wanted to, so we had 14 PCs running around at our peak in the scene? Let's see...

- Part of the population (humans + animals) began going berserk. Some threw themselves out of buildings, some dashed their heads against hard objects over and over, others attacked anything that moved nearby.
- A several-thousand strong brood of immaturely-born vampires from a 5th Court that had been 'lost' for several months showed up again after spending time maturing and mutating thanks to leftover radiation from the Manhattan Project and Outsider corruption.
- Outsiders apparently broke the tentative lines formed around the thousand-foot breach in the Outer Gates, as thousands of them began crossing over into our world at any weak spot in the Veil.
- The nature of the chaos and Outsider-infected humans in the power structure scattered the police and rendered them nearly ineffective. The three above events occurred more or less simultaneously.
- Some one called the Wyld Hunt up into the city, which only added to the confusion.

The PCs called allies within:
- The White Council
- The White Court
- The Red Court
- The Army, Air Force, and National Guard
- Interpol
- Various private security/paramilitary organizations and other freelancing mercenaries
- Valkyries and the Einherjar
- A large network of ghosts

They also:
- Successfully impersonated the Mayor to issue a TV broadcast to help organize civilians
- Civilians by and large were evacuated (via mirrors to a Sidhe's demesne who they bargained with for guest rights for all the civilians), had protection arranged for them, or were inspired to rise up against the enemy
- Wrestled control of the Wyld Hunt from the Elking to set it only on their enemies and not on the city or its defenders
- Stole explosives from the city's version of SI to proactively collapse a trio of tunnels beneath the city that could have been used to free a vampire god and/or trigger an East-Coast shattering earthquake. Because Eris said so.
- Rescued a kidnapped PC
- Closed a portal linked directly to The Outside
- Protected the majority of New York's (mainly Manhattan's) bridges and tunnels to contain the worst of the 'invasion'
- Activated a Ley Line and used magic to supercharge Edison's abandoned power grid in the Lower East Side, used to generate enough power to charge a larger thaumaturgy to wipe out all of the remaining 5th Court similar to the Bloodline Curse in Changes
- After accomplishing all this and taking a brief break while their allies continued to secure the city, He Who Walks Behind aka Sharkface appeared at the PCs 'home base' (his third time on screen), after he's already been 'killed' once already by the PCs. Sharkface also showed up with a 6th- (and other numbered- ) Lawbreaking warlock that many of the PCs know because they'd already killed him twice.


And the day's only half over.

No. The rules talk about not being able to do research higher than your research space, but honestly, it's a terrible mechanic in concept and barely explained.

Don't bother. I don't know a single person that uses them. Don't EVER take a stunt based on a workspace, don't bother with the concept at all.

I find it absurd that you can't get any practical research done unless you ALSO have really high resources, spend refresh on stunts, or spend a lot of in-game time working to set up a space.

That said, Resources in general is totally a useful skill and comes in all kinds of handy. If your GM isn't careful you can also get away with skill-replacement thaumaturgy-style rolls all day by saying "Contacts? I don't have them, but I can buy them." <-- I do not like this style of play, mind you, but a decent GM will realize money can grease wheels but not solve every problem--especially in Dresden. What's money to Mab or Donar? Nothing.


((I posted basically the same answer on reddit))

This is all in city and character creation.

PCs should be dynamic people with previous relationships and experiences that can be used to create story lines.

Your city creation should have generated different factions with interests in maintaining the Status Quo or rocking it. So...rock the status quo and send the PCs after the source.

EDIT: Look to the books. They're a (not surprisingly) great source of ideas; take some of the antagonists from the books, twist them enough to make them new, and toss them into your city.

I love ghost stories, personally they always provoked thoughts as to how it would to be a ghost, i think it would be fun to do a cursed item game, one where somebody under its influence who needs to be separated form it.

I wrote up a False Lance of Longinus for a plot going on in RagnarokNYC; one that isn't the actual spear but has gained power over the years of people believing it is the genuine article. Of course...the majority of those people were lusting for power and pretty Bad People, so it's pretty tainted by now. It's not intended to be PC-held in the long term, but it makes a great plot tool. I could see it mixing with Halloween well. Note that getting rid of the Curse as described below was just something I came up with at the time, and wound up going with an Extended Conflict instead when it came to actually exorcising someone of the curse. I described the curse as something more like a virus than anything else; it worms its way into you and takes over. The PC afflicted with said curse wound up facing her own version of Harry's Id; her Id was the part of her that allowed in the curse in the first place (and is why everyone human falls under the curse if they lay hands on the Spear...their own Ids betray them).

A False Lance of Longinus
One-Time Discount: +2
It Is What It Is: An old but sharp spear tip. As an improvised short sword it does Weapon: 3 damage, or Weapon: 4 damage with a haft attached. Has aspects [Power For A Price] and [One of the Greater Relics].
Indestructable: Exactly that. Not many things can actually destroy this weapon.
-1 Demonic Co-Pilot: Being a False Spear, this weapon has had faith placed in it by many. Unfortunately, far too many Bad Men have held this weapon and intended evil with it, tainting any possible purity within. It desires the obtainment of power and engaging in war, strife, and death above all else. You may also take Sponsor Debt for any roll falling within the Spear's agenda with GM approval.
-1 Marked by Power: You are not Marked by anything specific, but rather carry an aura of power about you (effectively a self-sponsored Mark).
-1 True Aim
-6 Mythic Recovery
+2 The Catch: Sources of True Holy power--not just any boardwalk preacher can bypass this recovery; only objects and acts of True Faith will work.
-0 Undying
-0 Cursed Bearer: The spear is cursed. All those who lay a hand to it (accidental bumps do not count, but purposefully holding, etc is what matters) are inflicted with the aspect [Obsessed With the Spear], and feel they must possess it all cost, which must be removed with the equivalent of an exorcism by a Higher Power or someone with Righteousness (or equivalent), and a separate Conviction roll by the cursed person to relinquish the spear, each versus a difficulty of 10. Even looking at the spear too long may cause the same affliction. You do not have to be holding the False Spear to draw on its powers, but must have control over it to do so. That means if it is locked in a safe at home, you could be on the other side of the world and benefit from its power--but if a thief takes the blade, it immediately becomes his and you lose all of it's powers--but not the curse, unless removed as described previously.

Maybe a mastery of Weak Force lets you transform a Real World object back into primordial ectoplasm?  Maybe with Strong Force you can for all intents and purposes Create matter from nothing, limited only by size and energy source?

Truly ridiculous energies involved here. To create matter from pure energy you can't just create an electron--you have to create an electron/positron pair. This follows for all matter; you must create your matter's antimatter equivalent in the process...and you'd need to make sure your matter and antimatter stay separate, contain the antimatter, then convert the anti-matter back to pure energy, and dissipate that energy safely...And you'd have to put in a huge amount of energy to do that. Even the most powerful wizards would likely come close to killing themselves just to create tiny amounts of matter. And if you lose control once, the resulting matter-antimatter reaction would keep you from trying a second time.

I think such a wizard would be really limited. Earth already covers gravity, electromagnetism, and more. And the nuclear forces seem kinda useless for anything other than disintegrating things, blowing them up, or soaking them in radioactivity.

Electromagnetic waves could carry information long distances at the speed of light.

Magnetic fields could be amplified to the degree that they deflect anything through diamagnetization (not that Earth or Air doesn't already cover this).


But yeah, I'm with Haru and Sanctaphrax. Probably not the most useful paradigm. If you were to go along this route I like Haru's suggestions of Electricity, Magnetism, Gravity and maybe Light. I should also note that few people in the Dresdenverse seem to learn magic as an adult (if they haven't learned by then, they've probably lost their power like Charity), after the point where you'd even have a chance of grasping these concepts reasonably; most people are learning their evocation basics in their teens. Interesting thought experiment, though!

An argument could be made for Fine Thralls to be rescued/returned via the use of Holy Powers and what-not; granted, I'm assuming that there is still some vestige of divine spark/personality still present that the Blampire can't afford to snuff.

Fine Thralls can come back from their issues, eventually, with enough willpower and counseling and luck; remember that Elaine was a Fine Thrall. Renfields, however, aren't Fine Thralls...they're very violently turned into those monsters.