Just getting started in RPG's....and have a few questions about Dresden Files

[HairyDresden]

I live in the Seattle area, and have a couple of friends who are going to start a game with me.  We have never done an RPG, so this is our first and I was elected to be the GM.  Agh!  Anyhow, I figure since none of us have really played one, it can't be all that intimidating if I make a mistake.  lol  They asked me to come up with the city and story arc for our first game since they are on vacation until next week.  I need someone to run my ideas by and see what more I need to add in order to make this work.  Hopefully someone out there can help me out

City Name: Seattle
Campaign Title: "The Stranger Inside Me"

*Theme
  *Idea:  Everyone's polite, but not friendly
  *Aspect:  Mind Your Own Business
  *The Faces: 
    *Mark Emmert - UW president
    *John Shorb - Dean of Student Affairs
    *Sara Fleischman - Public Relations for UW
    *Georgette Ward - White Council Witch

*Threat
  *Idea:  Violent ghost attacks on university campuses
  *Aspect:  This Town's What It Used To Be
  *The Faces:
    *Ross Johnson - Campus Security
    *Sam Clark - Professor of Sociology at UW
    *Missy Renez - Reporter from Seattle PI
    *Fr. Daniel Syverstad - Blessed Sacrament Church in the UD
    *Linda Ann Healey - Warning Ghost

*Threat
  *Idea:  Seattle Secrets
  *Aspect:  Much Goes Unnoticed
  *The Faces:
    *Phil Lipson - Cosmic Librarian
    *Brett Standley - Collector
    *Edgar August Grimm - Head of BAM and wizard - Brotherhood for the Advancement of Metaphysics
    *Callista Boone - Ectomancer

Status Quo:
*The Supernatural Status Quo:
  BAM is working toward bringing awareness to the general public of those threats that go bump in the night as, the White Council is working to discredit them.
*The Mundane Status Quo:
  Negative attention is death.  Deal with things internally and nothing bad can happen.  Secrets are key.

Movers and Shakers:
*In the Dark/Maintain Status Quo:
  *City Government - Mayor and Cops
  *Mark Emmert - Pres of UW
  *John Shorb - Dean of student affairs
  *Sara Fleischman - Public relations for UW
*In the Know/Maintain Status Quo
  *Ross Johnson - Campus Security
  *Georgette Ward - White Council Witch
  *Brett Standly - Collector/Owner of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop
  *Sam Clark - Professor of Sociology UW
*In the Dark/Rock the Boat:
  *Missy Renez - Reporter for Seattle PI
  *Friends and families of the victims - I haven't thought up these folks yet
*In the Know/Rock the Boat:
  *Philip Lipson - Cosmic Librarian/Curator of Seattle Museum of Mysteries
  *Blessed Sacrament Church - Fr. Daniel Syverstad
  *Edgar August Grimm - Wizard - Head of the BAM
  *Callista Boone - Ectomancer

That's about it so far...I have places identified and faces that go with them too.  The overall arc of the story is that someone is possessed by the spirit of Ted Bundy and is tormenting the spirits of his past victims. 

A couple of questions:

1. Is this too specific at this point?
2. Can you take a character from this story and play them in a different story if that story calls for it...so can NPC's become PC's in other stories?
3. It is a bit bigger than I intended and am wondering if it's too big and if it is, how do I scale it down?

Thanks for all the help folks
 
  *

[Archmage_Cowl]

1. Is this too specific at this point?
2. Can you take a character from this story and play them in a different story if that story calls for it...so can NPC's become PC's in other stories?
3. It is a bit bigger than I intended and am wondering if it's too big and if it is, how do I scale it down?

1. Nope not at all. Infact that's a very impressive stating of the city. Having your city well fleshed out before you start gives it a sense of Realism and Accuracy to play, and will ultimately make for a much more interesting story. My only recommendation here is dont trust that all to stay the same for very long. An adventure or two can change alot depending on how things go down.

2. Yes, Npc's can totally become pc's if the situation calls for it. As long as they have a positive adjusted refresh and would have free will (like a mortal would) then they are playable as PC's.

3. I dont see it as a being to big, as if this is the city you'll be playing in for a while it really helps to have a fair list of people as "the cast". If you do feel this is "a bit big" Then simple cut down on the number of faces for each theme or threat, and that'll make it feel considerably smaller.

Hope those help some (if that didnt just say so lol)

[HairyDresden]

Thank you so much for the input.  I greatly appreciate you taking the time to answer for me.   Is there any great nuggets of advice anyone could give me about being the GM?

[TheMouse]

My first piece of advice for a new GM is that you should try to work with your players as much as possible.

First, they're a source of creativity. A group of people working together comes up with more ideas than someone working alone. So use them as a resource, and you'll all find the game to be a more interesting place.

There's a bit that flows from that, which is not to overplan. If you try to plan every little thing out, you're not only not using your players for their creative input, you're actually fighting against it. It's cool to have a general idea of what's likely to happen. It's cool to come up with scenes you like that you'd like to include. But remember that a role playing game is a collaborative thing and that everyone gets to contribute.

Another thing that can come up is that characters are not their players. It sounds silly to need to say it, but it's an important concept for you and your players to understand. The reason that this is important is that it's often interesting and fun when characters suffer, but it's rarely fun when a player suffers. So you need to have a quick chat with your players to make sure they understand that you're going to make trouble for their characters but that doesn't mean you're trying to be a pain to them. Conversely, they need to tell you when you're pushing things too far for their fun.

Since I've mentioned chatting about things, it's worth mentioning that communication is one of the key elements to a fun game. You need to say what you want, they need to say what they want, and you all need to figure out and implement how to work toward that.

Oh, and remember to have fun. (:

[Arcteryx]

Lots of great advice in the Gamemaster Notes. I also love Spirit Of The Century's game-mastering section, if you have access to that, grab that chapter and read through that as well. Also, rickneal.ca is a blog with lots of DFRPG content, there was a recent post about game-mastering that you might want to check out.

[KOFFEYKID]

While its a really good idea to flesh out your setting its not a good idea to overdo it. You dont have to go into super fine detail on every aspect of the game because chances are you would be writing up allot of material that your players wont ever see, and the info might become outdated rather quickly by events in your world.

Everything looks good though, just figured I'd warn you about that common pitfall.

[Bubba Amon Hotep]

One thing to note for you as well. 

When the group is generating player characters, take advantage of the phase 4 and 5 option of passing the story around so that everyone has a chance to add to them.  The stories in our group became quite twisted and in-depth.  It allowed me to take elements and BBEGs from those stories and loop them back into future adventures, and subplots.  Which makes the players feel like they have created the world, and thus have an investment in it.

[Cipher]

As a GM a few things to remember:

1.  Have fun

2.  Bribing the GM with snacks is an ok rule

3.  Don't plot out every detail, leave options - I have had many a game where a player kills (once sniped from a distance and blew up the clues) my plot hook - be ready to improvise.

4.  Have fun (when it starts to feel you would rather have a root canal then play it is time to take a break or retire)

[crusher_bob]

One of the things that can help you out with a large cast is to come up with a list of (several) mannerisms that each cast member has.  Then, every time they appear, you pick one or two of these mannerisms to use in the scene. 

It really helps to have more 'mannerisms' per character than you use every scene.  This keeps them from becoming stale.  So, for example, Murphy is short, but it's not mentioned every time Murphy shows up in the scene.

This also helps the players keep the characters separated.  A large cast can easily run toether.

[HairyDresden]

Wow, thanks everyone for the great advice. 

Since the players I'll be playing with are on vacation, they asked me to do the City work so we could play when they got back.  I decided to stop the progress for now and spend some time really working on it together.  It seems that that is a key point to doing this stuff well, as well as a major part of the fun.   

I also like the idea of the mannerism bank.  That really made sense to me!

Thanks again!