The Dresden Files RPG

So, we’ve been teasing out details of other chapters in the Dresden Files RPG as we build up to the release of the game. That’s all well and good, but we thought it was time to give you a preview with some real heft to it. We’d like to take you on a visit to a dark and dangerous little burg we’re using as our sample campaign setting in the book. A place we like to call Nevermore… though you may know it by a more familiar name. But names, as we’re so often told, have power…

Here’s the Baltimore chapter from The Dresden Files RPG: Your Story. All 39 pages of it: PDF Download (Approx 13MB) — you can save us a little bandwidth by downloading it from DriveThruRPG instead!

What story will you tell on the streets of Charm City?

General baltimore, setting

Hey, everyone! Ryan here. As promised, we’ve got some updates on the progress of The Dresden Files RPG to share with you all.

For those who haven’t been a part of our alpha runs, you might not be familiar with one of the big design elements in DFRPG: mortal stunts & supernatural stunts. If you know Spirit of the Century, then you know stunts – those are pretty much what we think of as “mortal stunts” around these parts. And all those wicked awesome creature & wizard abilities are, of course, “supernatural stunts” (which we sometimes shorten to “powers”).

I mention that to say this: Lenny & I spent a couple weeks going over every single supernatural stunt, taking in alpha tester feedback and further observations, and tweaking the language to make it clearer and to consider some unexpected combinations of powers. Some of them were little things, but there were a couple that unexpectedly turned into multi-day conversations – the Toughness stunts started as a “eh, this’ll be quick, we’ll slam it out of the park” ideas that turned into a four-day conversation between Fred, Lenny & myself about how the various limiting factors (or “catches”) should work.

We’re pretty happy with the changes there, but it has eaten up more time than we expected. Along with that, Lenny & I have worked out applying Adam’s redlines on the Spellcraft chapter and working up text on “Sponsored Magic” – how the rules work when the magic you’re wielding comes from another power, like, say, the Summer or Winter Queen.

But, there’s a lot more to this project than just what Lenny & I have been working on!

Read more…

General baltimore, chicago, ken, lenny, playtest, setting, status, system

One of the things I find most useful when adapting a real world city for use in the Dresden Files universe is simply, take a drive, take some pictures. It also helps when you have friends who live there. Recently, one Baltimore friend of mine snapped this photo from his roof, of a fire happening at night:

There’s something about that image that makes me say, yeah, that’s the Baltimore where I set my scene. And I also ask: so, in the Dresden universe, what’s the story behind it? What caused the fire? Is it covering something up? Is it the sign of a supernatural presence, or a well-known wizard? Who’s going to be investigating it, and what sort of thing is that going to draw them into?

Just yet, I’m not posting my own answers here, because I don’t want ‘em. Games for me are about the surprises in discovering what someone else has thought of. What does this image say to you? How would you answer my questions?

General baltimore, setting

(This got a bit too long in writing – thus, the delay – so I’m breaking it up a bit, and starting with the foundation.)

Start with the map. On a national map, we look at Baltimore and can infer a few things. It’s coastal mid atlantic, which suggests a certain amount of colonial history. In the three main bands of US immigration (religious in the north, criminal in the far south and mercantile in the middle) it’s firmly in the mercantile stripe.

Zooming in a little further, it’s clear that Baltimore looks a little squeezed into things, between DC, Philadelphia, and Delaware, all in the shadow of New York. The natural harbor of the Chesapeake Bay seems like a natural city location, but the protection of the harbor is probably a double edged sword, since it takes traffic further out of its away than just going up the river to Philly. This points me to a question: how did Baltimore develop?

Read more…

General baltimore, dev, setting

For some context, I’m Rob Donoghue, and I’m writing the RPG along with Fred. For our sanity, we split up certain tasks, and as I was recompiling some notes, I started writing some of the design process for my own sake, and Fred pointed out that it was the sort of thing that might be worth sharing. As such, I’ll be posting about elements of the design process as we continue to work on the game.

I suppose it’s best to begin at the beginning. When we started designing the Dresden Files RPG, setting was a key question. The novels take place in Chicago, so it will be necessary to provide some setting information on the windy city, but the books also pretty much dominate that city, which means two things. First, if you want to run a game in Chicago, the novels will already do you pretty well. Second, if you want to run your own game without taking Harry and friends into account, you’re going to want another city.

With that in mind, we decided we’d pick another city and give it a proper writeup, both as an alternative setting and as a guideline for GMs looking to magic up a city that they’re already familiar with.

It’s to that latter end that I’m writing this now. When I finish, I’ll distill it into bullet points of wisdom for the game, but there’s some utility in making the process a little transparent.

So that comes to the question: what city to use? As the resident research monkey, this one ended up in my lap.

Read more…

General baltimore, dev, setting