a couple of questions from a ST new to the game.

[Walker_In_The_Mist]

So I'm a ST who has a fair amount of experience with running other systems, but am pretty new to the Dresden Files / Fate system and I have a couple of questions about it.

1:  The Character Creation chapter stresses that a template is critical, why?  If someone wants to play something that doesn't fit in any of the existing templates, why shouldn't they just be able to choose what powers best represent their ideas, choose a fitting High Concept and be good?

2:  If you can grow from one template to another (Focused Practitioner -> Sorcerer -> Wizard)  why bother to separate them at all?  I guess that it helps to establish guidelines, but seems somewhat arbitrary.

3: I guess what I'm really coming down to is I'm considering throwing away templates as restricting what things people can take and using them simply as a starting point (the average X will have Y and Z).  Is this use as intended or does this break something?  I'm not quite sure why templates are important, and don't want to mess something up due to ignorance.

4: The City Creation section says to come up with faces for Themes, Threats and Locations, including their motivations and aspects as a part of group character/city gen.  How much of this stuff should be secret from the players?  I will admit my group hasn't done anything like the city creation before, so the way I'm handling it is to come up with 2 themes and half a dozen faces to hang the pre-written parts of my plot on and then incorporate what the players and I come up with, but I'm trying to figure out how much info the players should be given out of character about the motivations of X, or the reason that Creepy place Y is the way it is. 

Any advice would be helpful.  (Alternately any advice for someone new to the Dresden System in general).

[Quantus]

The templates help keep things balanced to some degree, I'd probably say that's their biggest help.  I've certainly seen liberties taken, but I might suggest keeping them in at least until you get used to running the system (which is a pretty wide break from the sorts Id been exposed to before, so for me at least there's a learning curve).  If they bug you or you/your PC's are feeling restricted, maybe tell them up-front that they'll get a chance to rebuild there characters before too long, thus they can get comfortable with a standard build and then delve into customizing. 

Re #4, that really all depends on the type of characters and the type of game/story you intend to run.  If they are all locals that will be dealing with city factions and things then ya you'll need to a relatively detailed city and you'll probably want them to be familiar with it ahead of time.  Especially if you want it to be more investigative; the more they know about the city, the more vague and/or abstract the clues can be, letting them feel like they are figuring stuff out rather than being led by the nose.  On the other hand, if they are all blow-ins that happen to cross paths in this town for some shared (party-forming) reason then they wouldnt be expected to know much about the town at all, so the details you need ahead of time is more just along the path you plan to take them. 

[Taran]

#1,2,3:  Templates just give you the base powers for what you might have in the novels.  They help you to build characters within the setting.  You want to be a Wizard, you need to have those powers at minimum.  With that said, representing a biomancer with a toughness power is perfectly legal.  Most people eschew the templates, use them as guide-lines and take the powers they want that represent the character they are trying to build.

What is important when buying powers and maintain balance is this: 
What is the character's High Concept?
How does a given power fit the concept?
Does the character have an aspect that covers a given power?

Remember that many powers need an aspect to go with it.  Toughness powers, are one of them because they involve catches and compels.    Why does your pixie thief have Supernatural toughness?  It has to make sense.

#4  City building is very important.
City Aspects can be invoked or compelled at any time and the players should have a say.  It's the equivalent of asking your players, "what kind of game do you want to play?  exploration, investigation, dungeon delving?"  City themes and threats frame this question.

Typically, I ask every player to create at least one NPC and one Location, along with aspects.  More is o.k too.  It gives them an NPC to tie their character into the 'city.'

I then add a few others but it's never an exhaustive list.  There are always unknown NPCs and locations.

Example (using Fantasy D&D - Ravenloft)
Your players want to play freedom fighters in a country that's been taken over by a tyrannical Necromancer.

City Theme: Uprising against the Rising Dead
NPC: Emperor Zulu the Undying

Threat: Undead
Aspect: Beware the Night

Locale: tavern
NPC: Bob the Bartender
Aspect: refuge against the Dark

There's a super rough outline.  The Players come up with a few villagers, a Fence, a Good Cleric in Hiding etc...

Meanwhile you outline a few organizations that the players would run into: Evil Clerics, Emperor's guards etc..
You don't need to outline the underbosses and stuff.  Those things are secret.  But the players have enough with the City aspects to compel the underbosses if a fight comes up.

Maybe they are wanted and they run into a Head guard underboss and are about to be arrested.  They invoke 'beware the Night'  to say that zombies shamble out of the alleys forcing everyone to run away, allowing them to escape.

Anyways, sorry about the long post - I hope you get the idea.  Also, welcome to the boards.

Edit:

but I'm trying to figure out how much info the players should be given out of character about the motivations of X, or the reason that Creepy place Y is the way it is. 

I don't think you have to give it all away.  Creating a place for them to explore and putting an aspect on it is usually enough.  But sometimes the player will come up with a super-cool idea for a place or NPC that you never thought of.  Or they might hang a juicy plot hook for their character on it.  These are the kinds of opportunities that city building creates.

[blackstaff67]

I would be wary of some of the powers from the powers list of the wikia resource page--there's a good reason it says "not play-tested for balance."  Otherwise, what everyone else said.   

[Taran]

You know, thinking about it more, I've been in games that have had no city building.  They work fine to as long as those broad aspects have been identified.  It really depends on how much player input you want.  I like letting the players give their ideas.

I would be wary of some of the powers from the powers list of the wikia resource page--there's a good reason it says "not play-tested for balance." 

This

[Sanctaphrax]

Welcome to the forum, Walker.

I've never payed much attention to templates and it's never been a problem. They're really just guidelines...a bit arbitrary, but guidelines are good to have.

When it comes to city creation and the like, I think it's best to err on the side of telling the players more.

For general advice...

Try to keep the game moving. There are ambiguous rules in the book and plenty of judgement calls to be made (especially when Aspects are getting used heavily). In both cases, making a workable decision quickly is better than stopping the game to get things exactly right.

Custom Powers can be tricky balance-wise. And the game works fine without them. Might be best to avoid them until you've found your footing. If you want recommendations, though, here are mine.

Custom Stunts, on the other hand, are a good idea for everyone. I really don't recommend sticking to the book list.

Rebate Powers are abusable. Don't go too wild with them.

Thaumaturgy is balanced mostly by the understanding that the GM is keeping an eye on it.

Feeding Dependency and Demonic Co-Pilot are probably best avoided.

Compel often. It's easy to Compel too little and hard to Compel too much. Keep the points flowing and the problems plentiful.

If your players start showing initiative and driving the plot, embrace it. Not just a DFRPG thing, but especially a DFRPG thing.