St louis has a prominent Blood Gang Presence. This group uses Hellhounds for motorcycles.

BloodHounds.

Dresden vs the 'Barbed-Wire Spell'

My memory is Harry removes that more through a counterspell than through pulling it off simply by being strong.

Yeah, this lets you take down the wide variety of intangible spells by punching them.

If this doesn't make sense, then neither do Warden swords. It's the same basic effect.

Is it? The warden sword is a counterspell at a fixed value, no? You touch the warden sword to a spell and it dissipates, not you cleave through it, using your weapons skill and it shatters.

Not saying it's a bad power. Just saying, Not at my table, cause I can't see how it makes sense in the Dresden Universe. Makes plenty of sense in other worlds

One of my characters (a Valkyrie) also has the mistletoe catch. When I first came up with her, the GM mentioned that a weapon soaked in the juice/oil from the plant would also work. I think his suggestion at the time was soaking bullets in it.

Interesting. I had never thought of that. When my player took it I couldn't think of a way to weaponize it, so I made it a +0 on that option, since it would require something like a god forging a mistletoe spear to make it work against them. But yeah that probably would have worked too. Oh well. Potent catch is way more fun. Christmas themed games are going to be a blast.

If setting is an issue, set the game in the never never.

Other than that, It sounds like typical frustration with new players. IF the game is still running try and focus on one element of mechanics per week. Master that element. Bring it up as often as possible. Then if the players are getting it, move on. If not, repeat the next week.

Also I have no idea about refining the elements. Those first few posts were impossible to read.

That's would work, but generally if you're dragging a character into the plot, it's not going to end well. at least in my experience.

Sounds like you have player problems, not game problems. I suggest the link in my sig for all types of handy advice. Also check out Happy Jacks, RPPR, Gnome Stew, Postcards from the Dungeon, and any Kicked in The Dicebag episode that has Chad on it.

For this specific example, I have a few questions. the 3-4 players, had they played anything besides D&D? Your earlier post leads me to, no. Which D&D have they played? Have they ever GM'd?

City creation. Well that has it's own pitfalls. I haven't done it enough to really have good advice for traditional players, especially, the munchkin types.

Phase 3 bit with Joe and Steve, even though this game has built in character ties, Designing characters that work together is still crucial, especially with a players from a D&D style background. Group Template and  group template questionaire are two great tools for this.

Also, if they can't figure it out, help em. Well, Joe, you don't know how you got in the Monster hunting buisness? How about your brother was killed? And guess who your brother was? A member of Steve's Bike Club. Viola, connection.

For the stuff during the game, never assume you're players are going to read the book. Instead, listen to what they want to do, and tell them how to do it, explaining the mechanics as you go. If they don't try to learn, get better players.

For Mike calling the cops every time, you pull him aside and ask him why he's doing it. If it's an in character reason, tell him his character probably shouldn't be a PC then and he should make a character that will actually do something interesting.