http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Laveau
http://lafayettecemetery.org/ which has some very interesting info about the next link:
http://www.saveourcemeteries.org/

and at least one http://www.hauntedhistorytours.com/

I think there's something cool to be done with the concept of people profiting off of the area's roots in the occult.  Like, maybe the ghost tour guy actually has telekinesis and uses it to create ghostly happenings. Then he somehow channels the fear of people.  Basically he's using "ghost tours" to create areas of power by imbuing them with fearful people. He starts off like this, but eventually (if not stopped) he will work up to really wanting to maximize that fear, like creating his own SAW situations.

Or, he's a real magician who tries to keep everything on the DL by putting on these obviously FAKE ghost tours.  You leave feeling kind of ripped off, but more confident that magic DOESN'T exist.

Anyways, I think someone like that is a good face for whatever aspect or threat about magic you create, because his job makes it very easy to interact with him.  Like, the PCs might take the tour to recon something that they know to be more dangerous than other people think.  Then they notice this guy acting funny.



 

Given the holy powers that allow people to show up where/when ever needed, you can totally just have a dude walk up, hand out a cloak, and say "you're going to need this."

Of course, you could totally just Deux ex machina it and have an archangel come hand it over, which might make the character feel that much more special.  Especially if the angel says something weird like "I hope it fits, I really didn't know what size you'd be now back when I made it."  And then it fits perfectly of course, despite being 300 years old. 

I was contemplating the idea of the Nevernever, but the party is sticking to their guns for a D&D-esque game, so having it in another dimension of the modern world wouldn't exactly help the case.

There's nothing wrong with setting it our past, either, in whatever time and place you find interesting. If you visit the oft-referenced (for good reason) http://www.rickneal.ca/, you'll find that he did just that for his DFRPG game.  If you just say that there was a time when creatures from the nevernever felt free to cross over and cause chaos (before the white council solved it? before the accords?), you get a DnD style game pretty easily.

System-wise, you don't need to change much. Unless the players are all against "guns" on their sheet, you can leave it as it already covers archery. (there's a stunt for it, maybe?). Just make the stunt the default, and make them take a stunt to use guns if some type of flintlock or such is available in your era.  Scholarship can stay the exact same, just limit the knowledge and stunts to era-appropriate, and even drive can stay (wagons, boats, ect).  So nothing has to move at all.

As for your Fate Point for Evocation: I think it would be a rather steep cost, especially if they are going for a Rote spell or something that is only causing one point of stress. I don't have a solution for this just yet either, but a Submerged Wizard should be sitting on 4 Mental Stress, and possibly a second Mental Consequence, so I haven't seen a problem with it in theory (note I haven't had the chance to get a game off the ground, so everything on my end is just theory).

I wouldn't increase the cost of casting. You're already tapping an evoker out at 4 stress before he's "out of spells".  The solution to this is two-part:  one is when you change scenes (clearing stress tracks), the other is for evokers to take some potion slots and use those for easier, often used spells.   You don't really even need to increase stress tracks if you are cutting scenes more often (one battle doesn't have to equal one scene, even if it usually does in our minds.  I have cut-scene in the middle of a battle specifically to empty stress tracks for dramatic reasons).  This clears all stress tracks, so you lessen damage as well.  

Ultimately, if you go DnD-style, or if you have smart players, they'll get armor or armor spells, plus shield spells, and you'll be amazed at how much damage gets negated by that.

When it comes to the stress vs consequences: by leaving the stress as-is, characters may be forced to take Consequences over smaller conflicts, which detracts from the heroic fantasy. While the Minor consequences heal quickly, it's those moderate ones that can leave you out for a bit. With more stress, a character can shrug off a bit more in a fight, have less of a chance for those consequences in a minor skirmish (still possible, though), and still be bruised up. If anything, perhaps a combination of the two would be in order? Minimum 3 stress, add another minor consequence (as they go away quickly enough)?

If you feel it's necessary.  I run a pretty solid combat game with rules as written (RAW). The first extreme consequence finally happened, but it happened in the epic story-arc resolving battle. Again, I'd see what you can do with armor, shield spells, and scene cuts. Plus, adding healing....

As for healing: a part of me is thinking of taking elements of Elaine's Reiki "spell" and the general theories of biomancy and tack it on to Sponsored Magic [Deity]. Keeping it base base Complexity 4 + Level of Consequence to be Lowered (2/4/6). Even a someone with a +5 relevant skill will be taking some pretty heavy mental backlash from this, not to mention the need to RP the debt with the sponsor. The Instant-Heal thing, or even resurrection in some settings, would be even bigger, meaning if a player is doing it, they may need to worry about how they'll manage it, and if it is placed at the feet of an NPC, there may be the need to expend Fate Points to "compel" the event to occur.

Healing is actually really easy.  That person with sponsored biomancy gets four freaking focus slots. So discipline 5, conviction 5, and a "healing wand" of (+2 biomancy complexity, +2 biomancy control, make sure they have requisite lore for the bonus), plus usually the sponsor gives some bonus that for a healer you could call (+1 biomancy complexity, +1 biomancy control), gives them, with no refinement, a total of +8 biomancy complexity and control.  That's all at just -4 refresh for sponsored magic. That's your mild and moderate with no backlash (assuming an even roll).  AND, that's assuming you even USE it as evocation, which you aren't obligated to do.  Post battle? Say screw it, use regular thaumaturgy, pay no stress... or take the stress as it clears when you start the next scene. Mid battle? Run around the corner, throw a circle around your buddy, and thaumaturge it for no stress. Or use potions for it (buying refinement for crafting to up potion strength, and buttloads of potion slots).

Also, consider that the group "Tank" doesn't have to be a mortal wizard.  Call it a changeling, or a god-child, or w/e, give them inhuman toughness and recovery. Extra stress boxes, clears a mild consequence for free.. ect.  

-2 inhuman recovery, -2 inhuman toughness (catch, 0 points, "inherited silver arrow once owned by Achilles to the heel" or something equally hard to obtain), +5 endurance = good group tank at -4 level. Make the catch worth more to free up refresh to buy stunts (like an extra physical consequence).  Hell, put those powers on a suit of magic armor (giving a discount to them) and a catch of "A holy weapon wielded by a righteous man" and you could end up with them costing you only 1 refresh, or giving you a better level of protection.  PLUS you could, as the ST, "enchant" the armor so that it is armor 3 or 4 all the time.  Or, armor 6 three times a session, or whatever nonsense you want to add to your item of power.

Now, that does nothing about your wizard with no endurance, 2 physical stress boxes, and all... true.  But he's a wizard! In dnd, he could die from a cat fight if it went by hitpoints.  He needs to look elsewhere (other than system changes) for his protection.

Another quick example:
Evoker/Thaumaturge (specialize spirit control +1, specialize crafting item use +1) = -6 refresh
Lore 5, Conviction 5, discipline 4 (unless limited to max of 4 due to your power level i guess)
4 available focus item slots
crafting wand = +1 item power, +1 item use (2 slots)
2 open slots = 4 enchanted item slots
slot 1 = strength 6 shield three times a session
slot 2 = armor 3 three times a session
slot 3, 4 = open for character development OR increasing armor/shield use/power

That's a pretty basic protective set-up, using just the free stuff with your two types of magic.  Now if someone hits you for over 6 stress, you absorb 6 of the attack strength on the shield, then ignore 3 of the damage due to the armor... so if someone with an arrow (weapon 2?) shot you with 8 successes (they were a master +5 archer and rolled 3 pluses), 2 get through to add to damage, so 4 total stress, you ignore 3 of it, and you take 1 physical stress before you melt him into nothingness with your magiks.  You can go pretty toe to toe with a physical opponent (not a monster, though) and probably not hit consequences beyond mild before you've killed him.

It kind of depends. My group is all new to the system (as am I, as is everyone, I guess, since DFRPG is new. But we have no prior FATE experience, either), and writing up characters is a great way to learn. So we're set to have sessions where they will draw up NPCs - lovers, enemies, informants, everything.  So they'll know the stats for those npcs, which will be on google docs.


They know all of the aspects for the city, and themes and threats.  But, they know about the white court presence (one of the theme faces), with no stats.  So they don't know for sure that the Duke isn't also a sorcerer, ect.

Generally, if it's an ally, i share stats. If it's a bad guy, they know if it is a face or something, but no stats... i actually keep blank sheets and write in stats as they discover them.   Once the guy dies or is rendered moot, i share stats.

because we're playing up the detective angle of DF, i kind of can't tip my hand without ruining a mystery.  


Still, in the last battle (w/ a -19 refresh necromancer and his two -6 sidekicks) i openly had their sheets exposed so we could show how damage is tracked, ect.

If you took a mild physical consequence, and then got into a debate and would take a mild social consequence, you would not be able to do so. You'd have to take a moderate social consequence.

Stress tracks are separate, consequences pile together.

I'm not sure of the game design "why" on this, but the only real in-game justification I can come up with is this:

You got scraped up in a car crash (mild consequence).  You probably already feel like hell, even though it's minor.  So now, when you go to that debate and lose, instead of taking it somewhat gracefully, you really blow up and lose your cool.

Well the block strength, even if they overcome it, should detract from their total shifts of power for that one thing that punches through it.

So you do a block of 10.

Bad guy shoots 15 points of fire at you.

5 get through, and you have to dodge it at a 5 instead of a 15.  Honestly, I don't know if this still hits if it's actual weapon rating is 15 or 5, but I think it's the higher of the two.  Still, your dodge roll is much easier!

Harry's statement regarding Earth Magic isn't actually a claim that HE finds it harder, but that the magic is harder in general.  I'd love the exact quote, to see if he really is talking about it through his experience, or if he mentions it being less used by other wizards due to the difficulty.  

If it's his own view - "It's harder because you have to do X instead of Y" can still be his own view, as he isn't thinking about his own trained powers in Y" - that's pretty easy to cover with the refinement differences.  If he's talking about others, well, I still don't think that's a good enough reason to make it more of a bitch for anyone to take Earth over anything else... there isn't a real mechanical benefit  to earth, so why penalize it?

As for the player who wanted to be able to shut off people from him: if he raised a wall it should be treated just like increasing a border, which I am pretty sure there's a spell strength for (isn't it just a block, really?).  Logically, yes, if he threw up a wall that's block 4 and you stated that this means it's a solid wall 10 feet high, then he has cut off line of sight and the bad guy shouldn't be able to fling a spell at him or fire a gun until he is back in sight.  So the bad guy jumps on a garbage can and now he can see you. Or he blasts through the wall with magic (overcoming the block strength with a spell) or gets you by targeting the entire zone that the wall is connected to on your side (hey, he can see some part of that zone; above your head is legit.) The werewolf just scales it.

Plus, that wall you throw up is evocation, so it literally justs lasts one action unless you pump some duration into it.  I mean, if he rips up the cobblestones and stacks them in a wall, they may not topple instantly but they will be super easy to kick down once the magic fades (no mortar).  If he summons raw earth to put there "I make a big stone", then his big stone crumbles into dust pretty easy if hit. There's no reason earth magic SHOULD get a permanent benefit (like permanent walls) that another element wouldn't get. You could be generous and leave an aspect up over the area, that can be tagged as needed and give a potential boost to the block strength there.

Hrm.. compare that to fire... you could make a block 10 wall of fire. A round later, the wall just poof, dies out, but now the ground and walls around it may have caught fire.  You can give it the famous "on fire" aspect and can that be tagged to make passing it harder.

Really, you're being generous, because his block action isn't really a declaration so he's not really creating an aspect, and he could be charged an extra 4 shifts to have a sticky aspect hang around.  But I kinda see treating the damage/long term effect as an aspect as working pretty well.


Anyways, he can block of pursuit or block line of vision.  It's just very short duration, and all he's doing is forcing the opponent to take some other action to get to him.  Seems legit.  The only issue I see is just making sure he knows that he isn't creating a permanent object, because that's not what evocation - even earth evocation - does.