Out in the Cold in Sunny So Cal

[noclue]

Los Angeles. Morgan's wizard and my sorcerer are out in the cold. Sold out by our mentor to the Los Angeles Red Court, who have their narcotic saliva infected gangbangers out hunting us, framed by the local warden for murdering council wizards. We were just returning from the Nevernever where I traded three favors with a lady of the Winter Court in return for our friend's freedom, and the Red Court infected are their waiting for us. They open up with AKsMac-10s and Morgan blinds them but goes down due to a GM compel (Morgan had a moderate consequence from using too much magic in a previous battle). I open up a sink hole on Sunset Blvd to stop their car. but can't control it and the sink hole is growing, under the influence of some malevolent force.

We run for our car, but Morgan has an aspect about sacrificing for the art and takes Colin's compel to stay and try to counterspell my sink hole, so I try to hold off the leader of the gang, Supe, with a spirit shield. He rips through my shield like a knife through butter and throws a car door into me with superhuman strength, giving me the moderate consequence "everything hurts." Morgan gets the sink hole stopped, but has to take a consequence. "Exposed psyche."

We run for the car and I barely make it by tagging the Blinded aspect that Morgan had placed on the scene, when Supe tags my "Everything hurts" and grabs me as my aching body gives out on me. We're both out of magic, with only a couple of consequences left a piece. It looks like I'm about to be Taken Out, when I reach into my pocket and pull out the handkerchief given to me three sessions ago by a lady of the Summer Court with a promise that she would be there if I called. I press my lips to the imprint of her lipstick left on the handkerchief and see her riding toward me up Sunset Blvd. astride what looks at first to be a charging destrier but resolves into a big italian mortorcycle. Supe leaves with a "This is not over!" And I'm left owing an undefined debt to Summer, having accepted a favor without negotiating the price.

I really like this game.

[Becq]

You left out what is, to my mind, the single most important factor.  Which is: "Is this game about the Dresdenverse Los Angeles being run in real life Los Angeles?"  And if so, "Where in Los Angeles?"  Depending on those answers, there might be followups involving the desireability of another player in your game, game schedule, and suchlike. 

[ColinJ]

Yes we are playing in actual Los Angeles, Eagle Rock to be precise. Do you attend any of the local Strategicons? I ask as one of our players Morgan runs a plethora of Dresden at the local cons.

- Colin

[Morgan]

Yeah I'm the one who runs a bunch of DFRPG at the Strategicons, but hopefully with the book being out for a while now, there will be some more people running the game at the cons. The next one is Orccon in February on President's Day Weekend.

One of the really neat things that this game has taught me besides that yes Dresden is really fun to play as a player, is that the wonderfully fragile yet powerful nature of spellcasters in the DFRPG really comes through in the rules. Wizards really are proverbial eggshells armed with sledgehammers, add that to the fact that they really only have enough juice for a couple of swings and it really matches the fiction almost perfectly. Of course that Colin doing his damnedest to keep us battered, bruised, and well and truly buggered only helps to drive home that wonderful Dresden Files feel to the game. 

[noclue]

Yes. That scene definitely felt like the books. We had multiple problems going on at the time: a girl to save, dudes with Mac-10's shooting up the joint, an out of control sink hole, a supernaturally strong RC infected dude with glowing tattoos throwing car doors.