My Birmingham, AL DFRPG

[arsieiuni]

Hi guys!

I started up a game around a year ago set in Birmingham, AL and had some fabulous help from this forum in working out the plot for my first big scenario. It went great in general, but I had one player of 4 who really wasn't into the game and he kinda drug it down in general. A little poor RPing on a few people's parts later and the game died before I even finished my awesome plot. I was very sad. It seems that half my players wanted me to go back to running a game I'd been running before the DFrpg and as such they really didn't give the game or system a chance.

So a couple weeks ago, I offered to run a DFrpg for a couple of other friends and ended up bringing back my SO's char from the first version and one other player who was in that version is rejoining with his character, but otherwise we have two new characters. I'm really loving where it's going so far. I figured I'd make this thread to discuss this game and maybe bother you guys for ideas here and there. I think I'll share some story as well because I hear you people enjoy hearing stories from the game.

So to start off I'll say that we're local to Central Alabama so we set our game in The Magic City, Birmingham, AL.

The city's main themes(Aspects) are: Haunted ( High Supernatural Presence), Holier Than Thou ( Racism and Bigotry), and The Magic City No More (Decayed & Deluded)

The Campaign is titled "Alabama Ghost Stories" Because if you don't know, Alabama is kinda famous for a lot of ghost stories and spooky folklore.
I based a ton of the locations and faces off real people in Bham, many that I even know personally and can roleplay really easily as such. The players really enjoyed City-genning and since one of them works in Bham, I got a ton of good locations down with a lot inside knowledge on how things really run out there in the big Metro.

The Supernatural Status Quo is: Heavily entrenched Red Court with White Court Rivalry. Lots of Rogue Necromaners and practioners are drawn to Bham by the strangely thin veil. Thin Veil explains excessive ghost sightings.

The Mundane Status Quo is:  Decay, Depression, Religion, Corruption, Repression, and Control.

Not going to list the whole movers and shakers block, but a few important ones include:

Drummond Company (One of the most major companies in the state, who run way too many things and everyone knows their name) is Red Court vamp presence. (Ironically, the company is actually secondarily based in Columbia so the story nearly writes itself.)

The White Court presence divides into a Raith family presence which runs the local prostitution scene as well as the underground bondage scene (which is pretty big here) and they have a nice brothel based out of the Winfrey Hotel at the Galleria (biggest mall in town).
The Skavis family owns the DEA. :/ Explains those horribly ineffectual "anti-drug" ads in the schools.

Alabama has a strong history of having lots of hitmen, and they're a little in the know, a little in the dark, some rocking the boat, some maintaining.
We actually have a decent Voodoo community, go figure.

We also have a huge pagan organization called Magick City Pagans which I've essentially copied wholesale into our game included many faces, and essentially, the lady who runs the group is actually a practitioner and uses the local pagan scene to attract any actual practitioners so she can help spread awareness and keep everyone off the Wardens' lists. So the local pagan scene is where you also find the REAL wizards. Not that there's many full-blown Wizards in central Alabama. So far, we're only aware of one or two. (one is a pc) But we have a lot of minor talents and practitioners.

The Botanical Gardens are accorded Fey grounds and a former PC lives there who was an Emmissary called 'The Botanical Guardian".

Now, it's important to note without listing all my locs, that a lot of places in town have "Extra Thin Veil" as an aspect. Things HAPPEN there. Its so real that even the local mundanes know it. No one goes to Sloss alone at night. (True to life). It's too damned eerie. Etc. So there's a strong sense of reality in our game where we all know how it feels to stand in that spot and look up at that one statue or hang out under that overpass at night... we can really get it into our characters to feel the shivers that should be there. I think we did well with our City-gen honestly.

So my cast of PCs :

Charles Christian: A Wizard Apothecary (Also a Warden as of the first version of the game)
Ashley (Ashes) Carrigan: A BCV who doesn't want to be a monster (Some house rules and special stuff going on here, but its what she wanted to play. She's awesome at it. Very well played.)
Rain Garribaldi : A 14 year old boy who is a Were-Coyote and runs around town with his best friend Jason, another Were-Coyote, getting into trouble like Broyotes do.  (Term was coined during Char gen. It is well-loved.)
Catherine "Kitty" Allain: A mulatto musician and DJ who doesn't know yet that she's a Changeling with Leanansidhe heritage (First time player, wanted to be a little surprised and learn about the world organically)


My main NPC is a White Court Princess named Tamara Raith whose HC is "Rebel Royalty" and her main trouble is "Caged Bird". Her family is forcing her to act a little more like a Raith should and have bullied her into opening a club of her own (therefore, a respectable business venture that introduces a social scene) and so she has... but she's doing it her way.

As Tamara is well tied in with all the PCs, her place is kinda a breeding pot for plot ideas. I threw in a minor hook on opening night as a RCV came in and tried to threaten/intimdate Tamara out of doing business int he area (and Ashes still regrets not hitting that RCV with a chair) which leaves open lots of possibilities for later.

I'm working out a bigger plot but right now I'm really focused on party unity and getting every really well tied together.  I have had issues with parties splitting over lack of property party cohesion in the past.

One thing I'm playing with is putting a denarian behind the overall "fallen from grace" and "decaying" status of the city. Bham used to be "The Magic City" now most of the magic has faded... even really well known venues are closing and the money is all leaving town. Failed projects are the order of the day. A new business is never expected to last a year.
A Denarian seems like a good potential idea for a big main villain.

I'd enjoy any feedback and ideas. I'll post more details later and offer some more story. Right now heading out the door to do another session as my group has requested a third night this week o_o which is just... so flattering as a GM. 


Arsh

[wyvern]

Sounds like fun.  And yes, we (or at least I) enjoy reading about existing games; it's always kinda neat.

[HumAnnoyd]

I grew up in the "Magic City" and I think it would make a great place for a DF game.  Although we usually just called it the "Tragic City".  There are so many opportunities for a good game there.  There is Vulcan (largest iron statue in the world), the Fountain on South Side with the pagan sculpture right in front of the church, Sloss Furnace, tons of old abandoned mine shafts on Red Mountain, the intense urban blight of West End and not far from there one of the richest neighborhoods in America in Mountain Brook.  The city is a study in contrasts and ripe for a good game.  I look forward to seeing what you come up with. 

[arsieiuni]

HumAnnoyd: Yes, I will use the Vulcan for something. Not sure exactly but I may have to have it somehow animated and tromping across the city at some point
The fountain at South Side is actually already an accorded neutral spot (though the five points area leading up to it is considered "questionable").
Sloss has been a major site repeatedly already and will be more so.
I will lookinto the mine shafts on Red mount! Thanks for the tip. I'd love to hear more about the West End stuff you were mentioning. I'm actually from just Northwest of Bham so I don't know that one.
And it is a great study in contrasts. So far, enjoying the setting. My players are too. In fact, they bullied me to hanging out all this holiday weekend and running more sessions o_O



That said I'll do some writing up of what's happened so far after this weekend is over. But for now, I'm going to toss down this write up of my current main behind-the-scenes villain... a Denarian.

Malachi or "Malik"
Host of Mashael the Soul Eater (My idea of a Demoness who devours souls and encourages her host to find her lots of lost souls (and encourage others to "become" lost) so she can eat them.)

HC: Soul-Trader Nicklehead
T: Enjoys His Work a Little Too Much
Aspects:
Sadist
Always Immaculate
Mashael's Coin
Meticulous & Professional
Well-prepared


-1 Ghost Speaker
-2 Sponsored "Soul Magic" (Can convince Mashael to lend power in exchange for mortal souls)
[+1 Coin of Mashael:
-1 "Emotional Vampire"
+1 Feeding Dependency: Souls
-3 Incite Fear (Potent, Lasting Emotion) (Deceit vs Discipline)
(As Maneuver, Block or Mental Attack. Weapon 4)
[+4 Catch: Sadism/Playing to his Dark Desires (Anyone could easily get access to, and could find out with successful assessment) or Has No Souls to Burn
-4 Supernatural Stoicism (Armor 2 Mental, +4 Mental Stress)
-3 Supernatural Recovery (Clearing a Mild Physical Consequence as a supplemental Action twice per scene costs a Soul each.)
-2 Inhuman Speed
-2 Inhuman Strength]]

-12

Suggests that almost all of his abilities come from the coin and thus from Mashael. I see him as a host who has not been around terrrrribly long, but at least long enough to get comfortable in his skin (or with having her in his head rather).

He is a behind-the-scenes man. The main thing he wants right now is to kidnap my main party-joiner NpC, Tamara (The WCV) and force her to help him lure in corruptible individuals so he can capture more "fuel" for his power. As such, (I'll give more story later) he recently kidnapped one of the PCs (through his Red Court lackies) and tried to get info out of them, but when the team responded way quicker than he expected, he left in a hurry (one PC still got a great description of him). When the Wizard sought him out through thaumaturgy, the team ended up jumping right into a trap (a setup ambush) because he's always so "well-prepared". Now they realize they are dealing with serious nasty.

(And feedback on his writeup would not be disliked. The party is -8 refresh atm. I don't intend him to face them in person for some time. He's a boss. lol)

[arsieiuni]

So my last week was interesting. The players ended up recognizing Malik as a Denarian (one character has a really good alertness and remembered the coin which he had a habit of flipping over his knuckles). They put their heads together and the Wizard was able to research the coin to find it was Mashael's. Everyone was put on alert, but unfortunately, the BCV (Ashes) forgot one angle that could be used against her and soon got a call from her girlfriend, Lori, who had been nabbed by Malik who then told Ashes that he would kill Lori outright if she didn't show up at Sloss and bring Tamara to trade with him. He effectively used a mental attack against Ashes to terrify her and Tamara agreed to go with Ashes to help her get Lori back.

The rest of the party decided to follow and try to jump him after Lori was to safety and Rain ended up bringing in some major backup by asking his father, Mitchel Garabaldi, (who is the head of the local Mafia presence) for help. Garabaldi brought a nice slew of armed men to help in the fight and Rain got to see a side of his dad he's never seen before (making for some really amazing roleplaying!).

Malik did NOT play around. He had Lori strung up between two smokestacks about 80 feet up when they arrived. Ashes and Tamara were stopped dead by his threat to kill her before they could get to her (he was on a high water-tower calling down to them). He hit Ashes with a powerful Incite Fear (using that Potent/lasting and ranged) and ended up giving her a Severe Panicked consequence and a mild afraid. To help Ashes keep it together, Tamara assured her it'd be okay and started to climb the water tower as per Malik's demands. By the time she got mid-way up the calvary rolled in and the rest of the team began to pin Malik down (with gunfire and magic) and Charles (The Wizard) cast an earth spell to catapult Ashes into the air toward Lori. Ashes made her Athletics and caught one of the upper ropes and began to cut Lori free. Unfortunately in her terror, she forgot a few intelligent things she could have done and rather than say... swinging to the nearest tower with the last rope still intact, or side-stepping into the Nevernever (which she could do here due to the presence of a Thin Veil and lots of Death) (which she later KICKED HERSELF both in character and out of character for forgetting...) She decided instantly to just drop to the ground and using her great strength, throw Lori into the air just before impact so Lori would break velocity and only fall about 10 feet. Ashes did this without really even thinking about having recently become undead and the fact that she wouldn't be killed even if taken out. She was afraid but didn't care. She wanted to save Lori and was willing to sacrifice anything for it.

So Ashes tossed Lori into the air before impact and then hit the ground with 80 feet of falling damage and was TAKEN OUT. She was CRUSHED and Crumpled.
This had a great impact on the other characters as most of the party became instantly concerned with Ashes and yelled for her/ screamed, and made endurance checks in some cases not to vomit. (a splatted body is not pretty )

Meanwhile, Malik appeared to attempt to touch Tamara with the coin. The party reacted by trying to cause him to drop it, and he had to concentrate on not falling off the ladder/dropping the coin for a while. Tamara got to the ground and he fought for a moment, shocking some of the party members with some mental damage before enough of his stress tracks were taken out that he ended up deciding to bail before anyone could call in all those consequences and really hurt him. This was after he burned up a Soul that he pulled out of his pocket to soak some damage from them. (Everyone was like OMG THAT BASTARD! This had a great effect on the characters realizing that he was feeding a soul to the demon.) (which btw, I handled by giving him a separate pool of points "Soul Points" aside from his fate points that he'd gotten by corrupting people enough he could steal their soul for Mashael and then he held onto them to use to coax Mashael to give him extra power. It worked well and helped me limit how much aid Mashael threw into the fight.) At this point, Malik grabbed Tamara and vanished into thin air and everyone was surprised and didn't know what to do for a moment until Charles pointed out he probably sidestepped into the Nevernever and began the ritual to tear open a rift to follow. Kitty and Rain (with his companion, Jason) decided to go with Charles after Garabaldi agreed to take Lori and Ashes to his home to take care of them.

Once in the Nevernever, the party began to go careful down a long cavern corridor (after the Wizard schooled the two supernatural newbs on the Nevernever and its dangers). As soon as the other two began down the path ahead of him, the wizard suddenly felt someone grab his arm from behind with a cool metallic touch in the center. He found himself suddenly in an area of blackness (this scene was carried out away from the rest of the players). A voice began to speak to him and offer him a way out of the situation he was in. He knew immediately who was speaking to him. He addressed Mashael and discussed her deal with him. He asked her to give Tamara back to them. She offered to trade him Tamara... for himself.  He agreed without hesitation. She seemed surprised and he explained to her "She is my friend." (An interesting turn of attitude from Charles who usually seems more detached to the party but who has the aspect  "Responsibility is a Bitch". heh) He then demanded the condition that the Demon return his friends safely back to the real world and that Tamara be returned unharmed.  I gave his player 3 fate points for good roleplaying and for what felt a fair trade for him accepting the coin combined. Charles then gained a stress track for fighting the Demon's will and wrote an aspect for her coin.

So Charles snaps out of it and the other three have realized he kinda just stopped in mid-stride... they start asking questions and he blows it off easily, saying he realized they should handle this another day. After some suspicion from his friends, he begins a ritual to open the portal back to the material world and they argue over it until suddenly the floor falls out from beneath them and they fall through darkness and land in a garden. They are now in an outlying town north of Birmingham. They realize this and start hiking back toward town when a friend of Kitty's from college just "happens" to drive by and offer them a ride (Denarian keeping her promise btw). They end up back in Bham. At this point they get to find out that they've been gone for 3 days.

Meanwhile, in Garabaldi's house, Ashes slowly came back together. Lori has been mentally traumatized and has been kinda unresponsive and afraid for Ashes. Ashes woke up late on Day 2 and was still very hurt. I let the player transfer the Severe "Panicked" consequence to a severe "Broken" physical consequence because the player felt she really couldn't play Ashes as Panicked for a whole story arch (it just wouldn't fit the character. I fully understood this... and she deserved a severe Physical just as badly. She swapped her moderate for a mental "Disgusted with self" and moved to severe "broken") She spent a little time assuring her girlfriend and trying to make her feel better about things (then accidentally started popping bones back in place and scared/nauseated her human girlfriend very badly) (Lori is "in the know" btw. She was a White Court Virgin and was "Saved" from her vampirism by Ashes who she found love with. She has since been through some really bad things tho and had not wanted to have anything more to do with the supernatural stuff if she could avoid it...she's got some mental scars, I should say). At a point, Ashes ended up deciding to go look for Tamara. She left and went to Sloss first to regain Tamara's vehicle... and found Tamara sitting in her car all snuggly and out of it. (Read: Drugged to hell and back with Ecstacy). Surprised, but glad to find Tamara, Ashes drove her back to Garabaldi's place while Tamara just kinda happily spaced and cooed at her. After getting Garabaldi to help Tamara get into the house, Ashes sat down with her (Tamara and Ashes are like best friends) and tried to talk to her about what happened (but Tamara was too drugged and just kept giggling and trying to snuggle Ashes' thigh). Garabaldi got a call meanwhile from some of his informants and ended up taking Ashes aside and letting her know that while Tamara was missing there had been a report of a mass murder at a local night-club, at least two dozen dead of unknown causes. Ashes figures Tamara was used to lure a crowd in for the Denarian to eat their souls. She checks Tamara terrifiedly to make sure she doesn't have the coin... which she didn't.

So Day3, the rest of the party finally makes it back to Garabaldi's house and have decided (mainly Charles, but..) to check Ashes and Tamara for the coin.
(Since Garabaldi told Charles over the phone about all they'd found out and that Ashes had checked Tamara for the coin)

Charles' thinking was "If Tamara had the coin and Ashes had been the only one there when she looked for it, if the Demon wanted, she could make Ashes forget she'd found it. Or worse, Ashes could have it and then they'd have a BCV with a Denarian riding along." So they could take NO chances.

Charles had the group plus Garabaldi help him arrange a very thorough search of first Ashes then Tamara. This got interesting. (I love my players so very much. Their roleplaying is so thorough.)
Since it was day-time and Ashes was in an interior hall hiding from the sun under a blanket, Charles had Garabaldi get some of his men to grab a couple of large mirrors and stand so they could, at a moment's notice, turn them to throw sunlight on Ashes. Charles then took the blanket off Ashes who was very out of it because of it being daytime and explained what he was doing and why and was VERY apologetic toward her. He had Rain hold up a blanket to give her some privacy and made her strip. Then Kitty was instructed to give Ashes a thorough search (they went for cavity searches and everything. My players must think I'm really mean. lol I just thought it was a little funny that they were afraid that the Denarian might have made Ashes shove the coin up her ass or something to hide it... that's pretty hilarious honestly. I'm glad I have them at least on edge enough that they think nothing is sacred!)

So after Ashes turned up clean, she was allowed to redress and Charles informed her that SHE would be searching Tamara since Tamara and her were friends and since Tamara can't eat Ashes (She has no life force, so I've long since ruled that White court get nothing off her. Can still seduce her, but she's not as tempting to  try to eat. She's empty more or less.)

So the hall empties into the bedroom where Tamara is laying on the bed all comfy and snuggly and drugged... And Ashes tries to explain to her what she's doing, but it's useless. So she just asks Tamara to take her clothes off (And Tamara's been kinda gently "after" Ashes for a while now so she's like 'OKAY!') and starts shrugging out of her clothes readily. All the guys in the room plus Kitty start getting rather ..uh.. interested. (Discipline checks are made!)

Kitty shakes out Tamara's clothes and finds no coin. So Ashes looks Tamara over.. and since there's no external hiding places... she decides to be direct and just go ahead and check out Tamara's cavities.
So when Ashes touches her, Tamara screams in pain and recoils. Ashes pulls her hand back and sees there is some burning going on where she touched Tamara. (This is where the player realizes I've ruled her as having True Love since she was readily willing to sacrifice herself for her girlfriend and basically traded her life for her as far as she knew.)

Everyone is kinda 'Oooww..." and Garabaldi gets Ashes some gloves so she can finish the job. (Why the characters didn't think of gloves for this to begin with is beyond me... but...) So They find no coin and Tamara curls up on the bed and cries a bit. Charles throws a blanket over her and apologizes. She lays there all whimpery and the party tries to discus what this means... Then they start to talk about getting some rest. Tamara, still drugged and very out of it purrs "You could just sleep here with meeee..." (completely not like her. She's the rebel white court who tries not to ever ever burden her friends with seduction... but remember, Ecstacy.. and she's very out of it now.) All the people start making Discipline checks. Ashes makes hers. Kitty barely meets it. Charles, Rain and Jason (Rain's companion, another were-coyote) fail it. Jason failed it VERY BADLY (like a - - - - roll lol) So basically Rain and Charles both take a few steps toward her and Rain's all "She's talking to me.... *GRIN*" and then Jason snaps the two of them out of it by more or less attempting to DIVE onto Tamara (and does some amazing athletics check to not be caught by his friends who are trying to stop him. He ended up shiting to Coyote form, bounding between them, bounding off the wall and sshifting back to (naked) human form to try to jump into bed with Tamara. They managed to grab him at the last minute (I think someone spent a fate point actually lol) and they literally teamed up and drug him out of the room (to much yelling) and then all the men just kinda stayed outside. Kitty backed out looking a bit edgy and ... finally Ashes and Tamara were left alone in the room. Garabaldi (who'd been smart enough to not go in the room in the first place) then locked the door and slid the key under it. lol

Now all the uncomfortable guys decided to go separate ways and ruminate on the possibilities and get some rest.

Charles goes home, Rain and Jason get a handle on themselves and go to Rain's room to chill, and Kitty leaves to check on her work and go get some rest.

This is where I left them last time.

Ashes had a conversation with Lori later and Lori agreed to see a supernatural therapist to help her with her mental scars which are getting worse.
Then Ashes talked with Tamara after she "sobered up" so to speak... and Tamara and Ashes were both kinda upset to find they couldn't touch anymore. (Still working on some story ideas around this since Tamara wants Ashes lol Also because I have some ideas for what Ashes might be... as in she's not necessarily what she thinks she is.)

What my players liked about this was the roleplaying-heavy environment, the mystery and the fact that it didn't just open, roll, and then close. They don't know what the Denarian wanted. They don't understand her plans. And they didn't catch the bad guy. He got away. (That's what they all know as a group. of course, Charles has some other problems... but he hasn't had a chance to really chat with Mashael yet.)

So some really interesting things are possible in the future...
But all that aside... next going to post my idea for next plot.

[arsieiuni]

So I have a bit of plot idea for next session (which is tomorrow and I'd LOVE any feedback on this before I do it):


In the aftermath of the Denarian's presence...

Garabaldi would most likely be the one who would notice Tamara's face plastered on the news as wanted for murder.

Unfortunately it comes up right after Tamara left to check on her club.

The worse thing is that she got pulled over on the way, since she was speeding to get there on time and has now been arrested.
The police recognize her as the "wanted suspect" and she is now being held at the Birmingham City Jail  425 6th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL.

This is generally not good on several levels. Tamara being placed in confinement with a large number of other female prisoners... well...

On top of this, her family is silent and refuses to come to her aid. They apparently don't want to be connected with her at the moment.

---

So... thoughts? The local Raith presence runs the Bham Prostitution industry and runs a very high-class brothel out of the Winfrey hotel. There is also a slightly smaller Skavis presence that runs the DEA. Essentially, Tamara's High concept is 'Rebel Royalty" and her trouble is "Caged Bird" because her family is TRYING to make her be a REAL Raith and act right by their standards. They pushed her into a business venture to get her to contribute something useful to the family. She decided to open a club (Abyss) and has been being fairly successful with it, but unfortunately, this bad press is kinda speaking louder on her right now than her recent success. My thinking was that they would want to just sweep this under the rug, but would it be easier to do that by bailing her (which would immediately catch some press since a rich family is bailing out a murder suspect) or would it be easier just to leave her there?

I'm just trying to get into the Raith's mindset. Her local family is her older sister Leandra Raith and a visiting sister from Atlanta (where Tamara was mostly raised) named Gloria. Gloria is not really in charge in Bham and Leandra kinda dislikes Tamara who has been a pain in her side for years. If she could "Get rid of her" in a nice clean way that she could justify up the chain in the family, she'd be kinda glad of it.

So ... I'm thinking this could be interesting because the party will probably try to find a way to get her out of jail. I was thinking her bail would be a million tho (if not more?)

And so they're probably going to end up trying to sneak her out of jail before she eats a bunch of people and things get worse (I mean... that's my guess what they'll think to do.)

So if/when they get her out of jail, they will need to figure out ways to keep her from being re-arrested, and the best way would be to find a way to prove her innocence, or at least destroy the evidence. So now there's plenty of ways they might go with this.

I will find it entertaining to see what they do... I hope they'll like the plot. Any thoughts and feedback would be highly appreciated.

[Katarn]

Sounds like fun.  And yes, we (or at least I) enjoy reading about existing games; it's always kinda neat.

Agreed.  Sorry if I miss anything important, it's early morning where I am.

I like it when people create their own Denarian.  If you're canon-happy like me, you can easily have this Denarian be an unnamed one Nico uses if he gets away, or one of the ones the Church captures, depending on your timeframe.  They are the perfect, dangerous, merciless EVIL you can inflict.  There's not usually a redeemable quality (aside from perhaps the mortal inside).  Also, your statting of Malachi/Mashael is well-done; it's unique but balanced (I might've statted it a little higher as a Denarian, since -12 comparable to Harry around DM or so.)

Onto gameplay itself:
*Dynamic character development (such as Rain and her Mafia dad) makes for a great game.  It's rare PCs do this (of the dozen-or-so DnD characters I've played, perhaps 2 or 3 had it- and only one of my DFRPG characters did, and that was with DM help).
*I'm "glad" to see a character get TAKEN OUT when appropriate- in most games, it's hard to get PCs to concede this, no matter what circumstance arises.  It's a question of how realistic you want your game to be. Since Ashes is a BCV you could conceivably survive (albeit CRUSHED- is that a severe or extreme consequence?) without much suspension of disbelief.
*I like the concept of Soul Points.
*Be careful with PC kidnapping- make sure the player still has something to do (in this case, she could've been offered the coin again)
*More good roleplaying on Charles's part (and actual giving a player a Coin is always convolutedly fun  )
*Ashes: see, good roleplaying.  I like Lori's backstory as well.
*Did Charles take the coin? I'm a little confused.
*Discipline Checks ftw  I've totally done this in DnD and sometimes DFPRG.
*Is there a love triangle? I couldn't follow who satisfied Tamara's "True Love" Catch.


For the future:
*I like this disowning family- it can be fun and changes character dynamic.
*Decide how connected your villains are- do any WCVs have connections to the Denarian.  If so, how?
*Careful with jail- some things (like mass murder) don't get ANY bail, or an astronomical one.  Innonce-proving is probably more operable (if you go this route, find something for the PC in prison to do meanwhile- visit from the Denarian again? depends on the coin's status, or if the Denarian is trying to feed....)
*Raiths vary person to person.  Overarching, I'd say- Scheming. Predatory. Cat's Paws. Familial (to a point).  Lara is the epitome of Raiths, in my opinion.

In short, roleplaying seems to be your strongest point; play and pander to that.  Keep up the good work.

[arsieiuni]

Katarn,

Oh wow.. I love how you replied to this. Itemization is such a wonderful thing for long posts! I wish I had made it a little more clear however that Tamara Raith is an NPC and... Let me reply to you as such. (I see I mentioned that she is my main NPC in the first post, but it's not really mentioned again in the latter post! Sorry!)

I like it when people create their own Denarian.  If you're canon-happy like me, you can easily have this Denarian be an unnamed one Nico uses if he gets away, or one of the ones the Church captures, depending on your timeframe.  They are the perfect, dangerous, merciless EVIL you can inflict.  There's not usually a redeemable quality (aside from perhaps the mortal inside).  Also, your statting of Malachi/Mashael is well-done; it's unique but balanced (I might've statted it a little higher as a Denarian, since -12 comparable to Harry around DM or so.)

The characters are only -8 at this point. It was a matter of creating something with a limit such that I could know I wasn't going to walk in and CRUSH them if he encountered them directly. At the same time, I wanted to be able to USE his powers and make it feel very POWERFUL but not such that they couldn't actually contest him. The story elements were given very thoroughly so they could KNOW that he was not a THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD host. Mashael's coin had been last recorded with the church around 60 years ago and after that it'd gone missing. So they could presume that there was no way Malachi had had his coin for more than 60 years. He was a youngish host. This explained his being not too immensely over-powered, but he was still a VERY deadly threat with a Demon backing him. My players reacted well to this. Charles (his player is so hilarious when a big situation comes home... He looked at me out of character and said emphatically "ARE YOU CRAZY? Oh... we are so screwed..." which was hilarious because one of the players (Kitty's player) has never read the books... so she has no idea what a Denarian really *is*. It all got very funny watching the reactions to my throwing something that bad at them.) Charles was the only one that really could tell them anything about what the Denarian was as he was the Wizard and the most supernaturally experienced of the party. They asked him what it meant/what they could do and he was more or less like "What can we DO? ... Kiss our ass goodbye?" and freaked out for at least ten minutes before getting it together and making a gameplan. He was so funny.

As for Malachi/Mashael... I had a few interesting thoughts there. One important thing is that essentially... Because Mashael was of the specific concept "SOUL EATER" I had imagined her (the demon is female) to be able to potentially grab more than one host due to this unique nature (and do to that alone) making her a little unique in that respect amid the Denarians we know of. As such, in my mind, Malachi, when he escaped, essentially is still out there doing her work. He just passed the coin to Charles. On the other hand, Malachi is corrupt enough as an individual now that Mashael doesn't really NEED to keep constant contact with him. He gladly accepted his bargains with her by now.

Onto gameplay itself:
*Dynamic character development (such as Rain and her Mafia dad) makes for a great game.  It's rare PCs do this (of the dozen-or-so DnD characters I've played, perhaps 2 or 3 had it- and only one of my DFRPG characters did, and that was with DM help).

My players are wonderful. I've been playing with this group since highschool for the most part. They are really good roleplayers above everything. Which is great, because I personally have a "Roleplay first" attitude at the gaming table.  Rain is a teenage boy (all the pcs' vague descriptions are way up at the top post. Sorry I should have reiterated them! I'm going to post all their aspects soon hehe) and a coyote-were. Rain's development with his Mafia dad has been a joy to all involved. (Ashes' player is actually mainly roleplaying Rain's dad and his best friend Jason for me because Ashes more or less created both of those NPCs in a game we played a couple years ago where Rain's player first played Rain... essentially, she reused Rain as a character, but he was adapted into Dresden world fun and we've all really enjoyed his reappearance.) All of my party are definitely undergoing Dynamic character development. My group loves this sort of thing exactly.

*I'm "glad" to see a character get TAKEN OUT when appropriate- in most games, it's hard to get PCs to concede this, no matter what circumstance arises.

Do you want to know I honestly forgot the Extreme consequence at all? *laugh* because I've never had an opportunity to use it before... lol will talk with Ashes' player about that and see what we decide.

It's a question of how realistic you want your game to be. Since Ashes is a BCV you could conceivably survive (albeit CRUSHED- is that a severe or extreme consequence?) without much suspension of disbelief.

I want my game to be... not "realistic" necessarily because it's a supernatural setting.. but I do want it to FEEL REAL in that there is REAL danger and thus the threats involved can not be ignored. This was honestly excellent that something this extreme happened because my players now have NO DOUBT that I WILL take them out if they do something that justifies it such. They won't forget that. Trust me. And it's good because it makes the world's threats more real to them.  Ashes did survive obviously, and I imagine she'll be cracking bones in and out of place for the next story arch, not to mention that enemies WILL tag her consequences repeatedly.

*I like the concept of Soul Points.

Thank you. I did too. As a way to handle that specific thing. I've used this before in several kinds of games actually just usually it equates to more of a "me keeping track of how many <insert name of power source> here the villain has so I can determine how many mean little tricks he has up his sleeve" essentially. He did this more or less to do something that was beyond his sheet's capacity but definitely not beyond his Demon's capacity.

*Be careful with PC kidnapping- make sure the player still has something to do (in this case, she could've been offered the coin again)

As per the above, I didn't kidnap a PC. She was an NPC. But I have already kidnapped an NPC during this game. Kitty got kidnapped second session by a Red court vampire that was lackying under Malachi so he could try to get the information out of her of where Tamara laired. Kitty being a fey changeling had not  yet really accepted that she was a fey changeling or that the supernatural stuff wasn't just her going crazy... So it ended up being really interesting. She wasn't bored! She got to have a few special scenes just with her in them because the Red Court Vampire tried to intimidate her into talking and she (made me so very freaking happy as a Gm because her player is brand new to the setting and to the system and she SUCCESSFULLY employed the social attacking rules without needing to be prompted to go that route!!) socially took the RCV out. Malachi entered the scene directly at that point and he didn't play around at all. He used a cold iron chain and dragged it around her face while demanding answers. When none were forthcoming he just signed and dropped the chain on her face and began to make his get away (since the party had arrived by then and were just outside his door fighting the RCV guards he'd left). Kitty did really great then and guessed an aspect of "Sadistic" on him, handed me a fate point and tagged it and social challenged him, playing up her pain to get him to stay and watch. She kept him distracted long enough that Charles entered the room (via his own magically burned in doorway -_- lol) before Malachi managed to get away and so Kitty wasn't the only one who got a look at him or a chance to Assess on him. Clever girl.

*More good roleplaying on Charles's part (and actual giving a player a Coin is always convolutedly fun   )

Charles' player is like that. I adore him at my table. He can be difficult because he tends to take my plot and completely run away from it sometimes (in any game I run... he completely destroyed one game of mine because he just RAN from what I was trying to lead the party toward over and over until I ran out of justifications to get them to their next scenario enough times I had no idea what I was doing anymore. lol! But it was just him being his character. He's just GOOD at it.) And yes... I'm going to have fun with this. I spent the rest of the session writing little notes of what Mashael said to him in his head... it was fun. And got a lot of reaction from the player. (I know he personally really enjoyed Lasciel as a story element, so I know he's going to enjoy having a demoness of his own if I play it right)

*Ashes: see, good roleplaying.  I like Lori's backstory as well.

Ashes is played by my mate. She's an absolutely fantastic roleplayer and the best story-teller I've ever known.  Lori's backstory was my work... something I surprised Ashes' player with completely after the first story arch (one played around May last year in which Lori had been kidnapped by a creature that was helping some BCVs to fuel their magic and it was then that Lori had been able to tell Ashes about her history because Ashes had become a BCV... and they obviously had to chat it out about their true natures if they were going to last. Lori was a model and that was what Ashes really knew about her. Why she was that gorgeous made a little more sense of course hearing her bloodline... I also just really liked having a WCV-Virgin that had managed to "escape" due to true love. It was what Ashes felt that saved her and I had a really powerful character dynamic to play with. Of course people wouldn't leave the PC's girlfriend alone. Ashes is going to learn the hard way about Spiderman Syndrome, I'm afraid...

*Did Charles take the coin? I'm a little confused.

Yes. He did. Malachi slapped the coin to his flesh to force an encounter with Mashael and in his mind, speaking to her, he accepted her bargain of HIM for Tamara. She gave Tamara back (as per them finding her in her car) but not until she was done with her... since Charles failed to bargain that aspect. :3 I'm evil, I know.

*Discipline Checks ftw   I've totally done this in DnD and sometimes DFPRG.

Oh me too... me too. I love Discipline checks. In fact it was hilarious in this game when Kitty (fey changeling with Leanansidhe heritage who is a Dj and lounge singer... Incites "Inspiration") was playing at Tamara's club (Abyss) and Charles came in looking for them and failed his Discipline check to start dancing. He was SO stiffly tapping his foot across the room and going "Why is this music so .. catchy..." (lol because he's just kinda stiff like that)

*Is there a love triangle? I couldn't follow who satisfied Tamara's "True Love" Catch.

Kinda. Yes. Ashes has a girlfriend, Lori. Her love for Lori was proven "True" by her self-sacrificing act at Sloss in which she severely risked her own destruction to save Lori. Ashes has really liked Tamara since they met tho, and Tamara *wanted* Ashes. So while nothing's really ever happened between them (because Ashes hasn't really had the nerve to talk to Lori about it even tho she thinks Lori would be okay with her having a friend with benefits) Tamara and Ashes have an emotional attachment if nothing else. Ashes satisfied Tamara's catch because of the EXTREME show of her love for Lori that she'd just had a few days previously. (I'm honestly playing with the dynamic of that in my game. Since Ashes isn't a human or even a living creature technically, I'm not sure she can really BE a satisfying point for the catch. But in the past, I'd played it as... any time her mind was really on Lori or her emotions were flared, she couldn't touch Tamara without burning her a little.) So this just makes things interesting. (Doesn't hurt that Ashes is my mate so I can play some more "close relationships" with her like that without worrying about crossing lines. )

For the future:
*I like this disowning family- it can be fun and changes character dynamic.

I'm just trying to decide how far they'll take it. WC tends to like to control their own. And Tamara's Trouble is Caged Bird. I dunno.

*Decide how connected your villains are- do any WCVs have connections to the Denarian.  If so, how?

Good point... and will need some consideration. Thank you!

*Careful with jail- some things (like mass murder) don't get ANY bail, or an astronomical one.  Innonce-proving is probably more operable (if you go this route, find something for the PC in prison to do meanwhile- visit from the Denarian again? depends on the coin's status, or if the Denarian is trying to feed....)

Yeah that's part of why I made sure to get this post out here. I honestly don't know enough about the judicial system to confidently say what would happen (and my pcs are good for stopping me and saying "Well... actually this is the reality." So that I can go "Okay we'll go with that" or "Okay intentional inaccuracy!" which I love ...) but I don't want to base a scenario that won't work at all. I totally expect them to end up having to break her out of jail in the end and that being just... great -_- because she'll have to do a lot to avoid the windfall from that.  And since Tamara is an NPC I don't have to worry about her having something to do. It's all good!

*Raiths vary person to person.  Overarching, I'd say- Scheming. Predatory. Cat's Paws. Familial (to a point).  Lara is the epitome of Raiths, in my opinion.

Yeah I know this, but I'm just trying to decide if she COULD justify disowning Tamara completely. Because Leandra would probably use this particular instance of "disgrace" as a justification for that. I just have to think of how that will affect the NPC's Trouble aspect as well. She's not a Caged Bird if the family opens the Cage and says screwoff. Yknow? At the same time, a disowning would be kinda interesting as Tamara has still lead a semi-sheltered existence and is used to throwing money around like it was nothing... etc. Could make some interesting scenes as she copes with that her friends undoubtedly help her.

In short, roleplaying seems to be your strongest point; play and pander to that.  Keep up the good work.

I have the fortune of a group who consider a session excellent if all we do is character interaction that doesn't get broken up too much. They like roleplaying above everything and are enjoying the system pretty well so far in that it allows for a lot of skipping over ROLLplay (like ... you have a 4 Athletics? No, don't bother rolling to make that jump. It's not that hard.) etc. They are great as a group. I'll try  to sit down and post all the PCs aspects later!

I AM glad someone is enjoying reading this. I like keeping a thread that tells a story.. its just hard to make the time to fully update it. lol I'll do my best to edit the original post and add in what happened early in the game at some point.

And thanks again for your reply. Helped me think some things out.

[HumAnnoyd]

I'd love to hear more about the West End stuff you were mentioning. I'm actually from just Northwest of Bham so I don't know that one.

I lived in West End back in the late 80s/early 90s and hopefully things have gotten better since then.  Right before I moved out of the South I saw a news story about how West End was the poorest Zip Code in the USA.  Poverty always leads to crime and drugs and that was certainly the case in West End.  There was so much gunfire going on in the neighborhood that we used to play "guess the caliber": 

"Is that a .45?"
"Nope. Hear that high pitch wine?  Obviously that was a 9 mm."

It was a crime ridden area with cocaine and meth sold out of the drive through window at the local hamburger chain, crack houses almost seemed more common than other residences, EVERYONE was carrying a gun (including me) and the police would not go into the area in groups of less than 3 squad cars.  I found needles in the gutters right across the street from grade schools, burnt out houses covering several blocks making some areas look like a war zone (which I suppose it was), a 12 year old girl once showed up at my door asking for money so she could get an abortion because she had been raped.  It was a mind numbing, scary place that tried to suck the life right out of everyone there. 

All that said I met some truly amazing people there who remained unbowed despite the surrounding despair.  People of faith who after one of their congregation was stabbed over 50 times for the money in her purse at the church who showed up at the crack house he retreated to en mass and shamed him into turning himself in.  A little boy was hit by a bus and the gangbangers across the street immediately took action stopping traffic on a busy street while one of them ran to the local hospital 4 blocks away to get a doctor.  The boy lived.  It was a helluva place.  I am glad I made it out of there but I don't regret my past because I learned a lot about how the world works and how special people can be. 

[arsieiuni]

@HumAnnoyd

Wow... that's some harsh stuff man. I don't really know if it's still like that. I'll ask my player who works in Bham. He brought up "West Side" as where to go for some of the darker stuff last night in a session so maybe he knows more about this than I did at least.

Just... that sounds so harsh. I grew up poor in a poor area, but it was a poor country area. I've never really known there was such an element like that nearby... Kinda scary.
Then again.. I didn't know until a year ago that my county is FULL of meth and other drugs. The things you learn as you grow up. -_-

Thanks for sharing your story with me.

[dger]

I'm planning on starting a game within a month or so.  I live in Auburn AL (with about half or more players from Montgomery) and am going to try to sell my group on setting the game in Auburn.  It would def be a good place to start weaker PCs, and the collegiate air is fine for wizards and such. 
Any way sorry, got off track...
I foresee statting up the surrounding cities (B'ham, Montgomery, Atlanta, etc.) to have issues coming from there since Auburn doesn't make sense to have a huge enclave of anything.  I would like to be very lazy and borrow from your group's vision of B'ham.  Obviously changes would be made,  but the general themes could remain. 
Do you mind me totally bogarting your city?

[JustADude]

All that said I met some truly amazing people there who remained unbowed despite the surrounding despair.  People of faith who after one of their congregation was stabbed over 50 times for the money in her purse at the church who showed up at the crack house he retreated to en mass and shamed him into turning himself in.  A little boy was hit by a bus and the gangbangers across the street immediately took action stopping traffic on a busy street while one of them ran to the local hospital 4 blocks away to get a doctor.  The boy lived.  It was a helluva place.  I am glad I made it out of there but I don't regret my past because I learned a lot about how the world works and how special people can be.

Reminds me of a bit from Good Omens (by Gaiman and Pratchett, of course) about how humans can only rise to true goodness if they also have the chance to fall into absolute wickedness, and how the lower you start the more chances you get.

[zakmo86]

Love it! I ran Dresden for a group of friends (we all lived or worked in Birmingham at the time) and it was so much fun. We called the campaign, "The Magic City." Not horribly original. We had a werewolf (cursed with a Hulk-like loup-garou spirit), an ectomancer (she used Spirit magic to be an expert surgeon at UAB), an occult bookstore owner and thaumaturgist (his store was located on 2nd Ave North where What's on 2nd is located), and a Grey Court Vampire (a Court we invented for the game).

I can't remember the Themes and Threats, but we used Vulcan whose Emissary of Power was "The Shadow of Vulcan" because the statue overlooks the city (the Emissary was a Shadowmancer). The PCs were also childhood friends with the Emissary and a girl who was Vulcan's love interest because the Greek gods were always falling in love with mortals. Vulcan's sponsored magic involved transformation, metallurgy, purification, "soul forge" magic, etc. Right now I'm running a game where an Emissary of Hades is trying to track down an artifact that was stolen from Vulcan. Maybe Birmingham will come up as a road trip.

I LOVED that game and wish I could run it again.

Z

[Trum4n1208]

I've read a bit of this, and I just have to say, your game sounds fantastic! Good luck, and I hope it continues to do well. I might have to bounce a few ideas off you for my New Orleans game.

[Shaft]

This game was played back in 2011.  I would love to find out how it went down.  Are you still around, arsieiuni ?