Mundane and the supernatural

[McNulty]

 I'm not familiar with the novels, so forgive me if this is silly question. But how does the mundane world stand in regards the supernatural? Are most of the people totally clueless? What if they see someone (ie the PCs) doing magic, how do they react? What about government entities? This is something that the rulebooks doesn't really cover toomuch (or if they do, please do point me to the right page)..

[blackstaff67]

Since mortal magic usually gremlins higher technology, not much is recorded (and you shouldn't be doing magic in front of them, anyway).  Most mundanes usually engage in self-delusion, telling themselves they saw something other than what happened.  And calling mortal authorities in is almost always a no-no...an unwritten understanding, if you will.

[UmbraLux]

I'm not familiar with the novels, so forgive me if this is silly question. But how does the mundane world stand in regards the supernatural? Are most of the people totally clueless? What if they see someone (ie the PCs) doing magic, how do they react? What about government entities? This is something that the rulebooks doesn't really cover toomuch (or if they do, please do point me to the right page)..

It's mixed.  There's a significant minority with their eyes open who know, at least in part, of the supernatural.  Those in power also appear to be aware of it - and take active steps to keep the believers looking like a lunatic fringe.  (Videos are changed, evidence disappears, people are committed to destroy their credibility, etc.)  At the same time they're suppressing evidence they also fund various governmental and NGO organizations meant to contain the supernatural.  This leaves the ignorant majority believing what the media and government say:  "There is no supernatural."

[JDK002]

The general public by and large is totally in the dark.  It's been suggested that there are government types that keep incidents under wraps, but that they don't typically get involved with the supernatural world at large, at least not directly.

The supernatural community isn't quite so big on the conspiracy angle.  They take some precautions to not draw attention to themselves, but they more so just bank on the general public's inability to accept the truth, and that they will just make things up to cope.  "That wasn't a zombie I saw, it was just some homeless guy on drugs.", "That couldn't of been a bunch of werewolves, it must of been a pack of wild dogs or wolves that wandered into the city limits."

It's also worth noting that It's an unspoken rule of the supernatural world that you NEVER intentionally get the mortal authorities involved on any large scale.  That It's considered to tantamount to launching a nuke at an opposing nation.

In short, the PC's (and GM) should be mindful of the vanilla population, but they shouldn't let it hobble them either.

[Sanctaphrax]

I imagine that a pretty sizeable of the public believes in supernatural stuff. That doesn't mean they're clued-in, though. The magic they believe in might not bear any resemblance to the magic that exists.

There are a lot of people in the real world who believe in ghosts and witches and the like, after all.

[UmbraLux]

It's been suggested that there are government types that keep incidents under wraps, but that they don't typically get involved with the supernatural world at large, at least not directly.

Someone makes a certain video from Fool Moon disappear.    As for direct involvement, Murphy's squad is directly involved - they get the "weird" cases and are used when superiors need something deniable.  If Chicago needs deniable investigators, so will other government entities...

[JDK002]

Someone makes a certain video from Fool Moon disappear.    As for direct involvement, Murphy's squad is directly involved - they get the "weird" cases and are used when superiors need something deniable.  If Chicago needs deniable investigators, so will other government entities...

Oh their are absolutely government entities in the Dresdenverse that deal with the supernatural.  What I was getting at was that based on the books and what JB has said about it, they have a very "us vs them" mentality.  That they are VERY covert and don't make themselves known to anyone of the supernatural community.  The closest thing we see is Denton and the other feds in Fool Moon, and even that seemed to be a special circumstance.

I know I can't be the only person who noticed that through the entire series, Harry never once says he knows or has ever met a government agent that is clued-in.  No one else he knows seems to either.

[Tedronai]

The closest thing we see is Denton and the other feds in Fool Moon, and even that seemed to be a special circumstance.

That wasn't anything like a 'government entity'.  That was a handful of rogue agents acting of their own accord after being manipulated, probably by the Black Council.

The closest thing to a government entity dealing with the supernatural that we see in the novels is Special Investigations, and they don't really report to anyone regarding their dealings, so it's questionable as to whether or not they would actually count as a government entity in that regard.  It could be argued that SI is, instead, a rogue department, acting with neither the knowledge nor the approval of their superiors (who at least outwardly refuse to acknowledge the existence of the supernatural, and burden SI with the cast-offs of more reputable departments).

[blackstaff67]

Most government intervention is strictly on the local level by local agencies/departments.  Outside WoJ, I'd bet most mundane countermeasures are ad-hoc city or county (possibly tri-county) squads.

[Quantus]

WOJ has it that there is a Special Collections branch of the Library of Congress that is clued in and not to be trifled with.  But even odds that the rest of the Govt is unaware of them or their work in any specific way

[sqlcowboy]

No doubt there are supernaturals involved covertly in government positions of various kinds.  I've been toying with the idea of the Black Court having a hand in the Vatican.

[Quantus]

And we know from CD that Lara has been gaining ground in that sector. 

[Wordmaker]

Yeah, while there's no Masquerade in The Dresden Files, the public at large either delude themselves (Because really, vampires and magic? Yeah, right) or if they do have an inkling about the truth, they keep it to themselves and don't talk about it (Because really, who would believe them?).

[Quantus]

And those with the courage to speak up about it tend to get locked up on a psychiatric hold (poor Butters).

[McNulty]

Yeah, while there's no Masquerade in The Dresden Files, the public at large either delude themselves (Because really, vampires and magic? Yeah, right) or if they do have an inkling about the truth, they keep it to themselves and don't talk about it (Because really, who would believe them?).

That's the logical point of view, but this then leads to another question which the DFRPG books doesn't cover too much, eg how common are supernatural entities (and their actions)? If you have one wizard and a few vampires/other supernatural beings in a city full of millions of mundanes, no one will notice them, but make that a party of PCs with considerable powers and 20+ supernatural NPCs, it's a different story.