Introducing the RPG to a non-Dresden group

[JayTee]

Pretty much what it says on the tin. I'm trying to get my GM to try out the Dresden Files RPG, but he's never read any books of the series, neither has anyone else in our group.

How would the best way to go about doing this? I am hoping to keep it as close to canon as possible without actual story book events getting in the way of our groups games. What should have priority when I tell them about the series? I've warned them that the books are spoiler-heavy, so that wont be an issue.

On another note, one of the people who I hope to have join has expressed interest in playing Call of Cthulhu. Given the Social and Mental Stress, how would you go about adapting DFRPG to a CoC-style game? Outsiders have already been mentioned as being the thing for HP Lovecraft's series, but what would the mechanical adaptions be like?

Thank you for your time!

[Katarn]

For the GM, I'd suggest he read several of the books, or else you take a crack at GM'ing.  If you have experience GM'ing any game, or your present GM is very good with multiple RPGs, things should be fine.  There's also a non-spoilery thread that sums up the Dresdenverse, but it's not in-depth enough for a GM (I'm hoping someone remembers the link so you can see it regardless.)  Personally, I'd stress the following:

*Why no one knows about supernatural.
*White Council- its structure, positions, rules (and members if there's time)
**Harry Dresden- for the lolz, and to quell any general questions
*Vampire Courts- Explain the 3 main Courts (mention Jade or if you're feeling super-spoilery you can tell them how many Vampire Courts there are in total, including the currently undescribed minor ones)
*True Believers- How faith magic works, examples like Shiro Yoshimo.
*The Fae- especially the 3 divisions, Knights, iron/steel weakness, and deal-making
*The Unseelie Accords (this will prevent power players from killing off a scourge nilly willy)- LETTER of the law, Archive (if there's time)
*Were-Form- someone will want it.
*The WAR (if the game's time frame applies)

*Supplements (bring up ONLY IF NECESSARY to gamplay): Denarians, The Circle, specific names



*For the record, I'm definitely trying some CoC once the BAT gets here.  Lots of Mental Rolls, I'd expect.  It'd be a lot of saving rolls, repeatedly- I'd either invest in characters that have some kind of protection, or high mental/social tracks.

[Richard_Chilton]

Here's a link to a spoiler free overview that I wrote - it covers most of the basics without giving away plot info
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,22372.msg966827.html#msg966827

Back when the game first came out there was a great blog that went through the magic system and explained it in detail.

It's a bit long - but this is the best overview I've seen:
http://www.rickneal.ca/?p=628
http://www.rickneal.ca/?p=629
http://www.rickneal.ca/?p=632
http://www.rickneal.ca/?p=639
http://www.rickneal.ca/?p=642
http://www.rickneal.ca/?p=654

As to when the set the game in relations to the books, I see the main options as:
1) Pre Red Court War
2) While the Red Court War is raging hard
3) Starting now, after the events of Changes, Aftermath, and updating the world when the next book comes out.
4) setting the book after Small Favors - which is the point that the game currently goes up to.

The timeline of the Dresden books is kind of elastic.  There's a timeline that someone has posted in another forum that dates everything as plus or minus Storm Front.  Going SF - 2 years, SF + 3 to 4 years - that sort of thing.  In theory if you want to push things you could say that the war doesn't start until after 2011 or you could set the game the late 90s or early 2000s. 

Of course if you want to ignore the events of the books you can set it anytime, but those are the main options I see.

Hope this helps!

Richard

[JayTee]

Thank you for your advice and suggestions, I will reply to them further in-depth with additional questions when I have the chance, however it is 3 am and I have work in four hours so I will be going to bed.

I should however mention that this is going to be an online game, with no face-to-face interaction. The GM's main concern is updating the maps every time someone takes an action and moves to a different location. I am not 100% confidant in my knowledge of how the movement system works, however if such a thing as a grid system is needed and requires updating, where would a good place be to find one that multiple people can use? Likewise what advice can you give us for playing our game through MSN or other such chat systems?

Likewise many of us are used to, or prefer, medieval-style RPGs. While DFRPG is meant to be used in a more modern setting, what steps would be best for optimizing such an game?

[devonapple]

Pretty much what it says on the tin. I'm trying to get my GM to try out the Dresden Files RPG, but he's never read any books of the series, neither has anyone else in our group.!

That doesn't sound like a good combination. You may want to take up the mantle of GM for this one.

I had to take a crash course in order to run my own game: I finished the first ten novels. In retrospect, I'm not sure it would have worked otherwise.

[JayTee]

Reading the posts in the thread over again, I feel there has been a miscommunication on my part which has lead to a few assumptions. I have never been worried about the RPG books spoiling things, as that has been discussed and accepted (by my understanding, I hate speaking for other people), likewise even if we play a game that has nothing to do with The Dresden Files series itself, I would be fine with that so long as everyone is having fun and enjoying themselves.

My main worry is that, having not read the books, the people in my group wont get some of the more subtle aspects of how the game is meant to reflect the series mechanically. If all else fails and we decide to build our own world, are the mechanics in the game books robust enough for such a game?

Also regarding my prior comments on canon, I am less concerned about any of the events that happened in the book series as I am concerned about some of the background information that isn't covered in the RPG books impacting gameplay somehow. While this is a moot issue if we decide to simply make things up, I would like to at least TRY to have fun in Jim's world.