Counter-spelling, by the book, can only be used against an on-going magical effect. It does not prevent use of evocation, and the book suggests that you cannot use it reflexively to end an evocation as it is cast.

From my example, counter-spelling is what my PC is doing when she shuts down magic in an area (meet the complexity of the spell to counter) - I'm just giving her a bonus to do so for using "salt water". 

The question, then, is how to you prevent evocation from being cast by using water?  While I am against this being done from character to character, I would like a system for modeling the effects of casting in the rain and the like, to fit the rules of the novel. (Again, Harry says it's possible in some rain, impossible in other circumstances).

Well, not quite.  Anyone who gets ambushed doesn't get an action in the first round of combat.  They can only defend.  In the second round, initiative proceeds as normal meaning the ambushers may well get to go twice in a row.

Is this your interpretation, or can you cite that? 

This is precisely what I am debating; whether or not you should always dump an extra shift of duration into such an item to cover a condition where you'd still be unable to act.  What you quoted is exactly how many other games (dnd, ect) work, but the games vary on if that first shot negates further surprise or not. If you are surprised until you can act, you need two actions of coverage.  If you act before the snipers go again, always, well you're okay. if you act after them, but shooting you broke their surprise, you're okay (you can use your defense before your initiative normally.) That's what I'm trying to suss out.

i remember that movie! lol but before he throught the fence post didnt he try and through his hatched/ tomahawk only to have it blocked by the circle around the church so wouldnt this translate into weapons say brought over by fae (rhym not intended) from the nevernever are also block  so for example an elf archer who brought hus own bow would have his arrows blocked by the circle

Yeah this is a chauncy's glasses case... in game terms, his own weapons are constructs made/summoned along with his form, so they can't penetrate the circle. Thus he picks up some scenery and BLAMO!

As I have nothing but a mac and mac version of office, along with the technical savvy of Grape Ape if he dropped acid, can someone please explain to me why the evil hat forms (character and city sheets 1.1) will save my info just fine, but the one that a kind fellow here edited so beautifully to ONLY have the 2 page character sheets - and with better boxes - will let me type everything in and save, but then it won't keep that data.

I would love to use that sheet; it's perfect for what I need, can someone make it so it will save?

Yeah, honestly, pretty much throw out the idea of experience, cash, and treasure as a reward.  Throw out the idea of a reward.

DFRPG (I read this from someone else, most likely Rick Neal's amazing blog) sells itself on emotional investment in the characters. Not in their cool shiny powers. It really is a game about a created story, and I think it is most enjoyable when it steps completely away from the video game mentality of D&D or pathfinder.  The reward is time spent with your friends, creating this story together.

As I am running it for a bunch of power-gaming LEZ BrEAK EvURYthING! people, I am myself working on how to do just that.  Stealing heavily from Rick Neal along the way lol... but here are some suggestions.

Make them care about NPCS... Rick's post on his upcoming campaign asks people to design NPCs.  He also wants to link them into the PC's aspects.  Honestly, I have 2 (of 7) PCs linked to NPCs, and they seem to care the most... so this is prolly a great idea.

Make them care more about their characters... I've found that some basic character sketch ideas work great here. Use the "10 thinks your character would carry at all times" idea, but ask them specifically to NOT include their item of power, focus items, ect. Just say "I know those will probably be on you, and I will want a detailed description of each later, but not for this."

And when someone says "car keys", say "Tell me more about your car keys. What other keys are on your keychain? What type of key-chain is it? Who bought it?"

You'll probably get at least 1 story or NPC idea just from that. Say, if it's an ex-girlfriend, what happens later when the bad guys try to hold her ransom to get at your PCs?  "Dude, you kidnapped Michelle?  Go ahead and stab that beotch."  (And then you bring her back as a vampire, seriously pissed at the PC for leaving her to suffer.)

Speaking of that, flat-out ask the characters who they want to be sacrosanct. Many times (and I'm sure you found this in D&D) people will make their characters unattached orphans to avoid the "bad guys after my family" storyline.  It's totally cool (if unrealistic) to just tell your players "If you'd prefer to not have to deal with the emotionally sensitive subject of bad guys coming after your certain members of your family or friends, I can totally just make it so that never happens. That person will always be able to escape or hide on their own."

This may sound weird, but you really want emotional buy-in, and you're not going to get that if your NPCs kidnap the younger sister of a PC whose player actually had something like that happen, or is just uncomfortable with it.

My group sided with the key word being "roll".  Thus, if you attacked someone with fire and intent to kill (given 5 conviction, 5 discipline), you'd end up with a base of 5 shifts for power, with essentially a 6 base for discipline to control it, as well as a 6 base for discipline to aim it.  It gives you less points than refinement (because you'd get two +1s), but is possibly broad enough to justify it.

The Maze is a great idea. How long in advance would I be able to prepare such a thing? I am thinking of a kind of thing like Harry has around his apartment, when he lights that one candle. Seeing as the chloromancer lives in a shed in the tree nursery she works in, it wouldn't be a problem to set it up in advance all the way around her home.

The duration of thaumaturgy is 1 day, with 1 extra complexity per time shift on the time chart.  So, technically you can set it up "several lifetimes" in advance (for +13 difficulty)... though it probably makes more sense to redo it every season or year (lower difficulty, plus, better fits the gardener motif). I forget the scale there, but that's probably only 5 or 6 extra shifts.  Which you can easily pick up with declarations (resources: excellent quality seeds; scholarship: thought-out puzzle; endurance: cast completely through without stopping (as it will take several hours minimum to draw the lines of seeds around a structure)... that gets you 6 right there (each declaration is an aspect that you tag for 2 shifts of power; look up declarations in the book for more info).

Also, props if you avoid the "gnarled staff" motif and instead get yerself a magical watering can as your focus item.