The Dresden Files RPG

Hey folks, and welcome back from the holidays!

Fred Hicks, Chad Underkoffler, and Leonard Balsera got interviewed recently by RPG Virtual Tabletop. We say a few things about the Dresden Files RPG in the interview, so run on over and give it a read.

In playtesting news, we’ve gotten over 600 (not-spam!) applications since the we opened up the door for it in late 2007. Thanks very much to everyone who submitted an application — and rest assured, even if we don’t end up selecting you at some point in the process, we’ll be doing what we can to show our appreciation for you taking the time & effort to fill out those applications as we get closer to publication.

Of those 600+ folks, we’ve narrowed the field down to less than 5% (about 30) applicants to get an opportunity to participate in our first phase: the “bleeding edge alpha”. These folks are the ones who are going to get an experience most like seeing how sausage gets made, and honestly we don’t envy them their jobs. The documents are still messy and occasionally disorganized, not to mention incomplete, and we’re going to be relying heavy on these folks’ familiarity with Spirit of the Century so we can shorthand some parts of the system for them (“like SOTC, only something nasty can eat your face as follows!”)

This is just the first step of many we have planned. Eventually we’ll get past the bleeding edge and on into an alpha-test proper. Once we get past the alpha stage, we’ll start one (of possibly several) beta tests. How long will it take? We aren’t Cassandra, people — and besides you’d never believe us!

Still, if you put in an application and haven’t heard from us, *don’t despair*. We may yet have use for you in the months to come. And regardless, as I said, we will be saying *thank you* in some way once we’re past all of this, whether you end up as a playtester or not!

General chad, fred, interview, playtest

A short while back we brought Chad Underkoffler on board to help us out with the project. Chad is an award-winning RPG author and game designer (see his company website, Atomic Sock Monkey Press) and collaborated with Fred Hicks (with Fred playing Layout Guru) on the fairy-tale RPG Zorcerer of Zo. He’s written for Pyramid Online and GURPS (Steve Jackson Games), Unknown Armies (Atlas Games), Gamma World (Sword & Sorcery Studios), and many other companies. On The Dresden Files RPG, he is serving as resident Loremaster of Minutiae, design kibbitzer, and contributing author.

Why do we bring Chad up, other than to let you know he’s on the job? Well, much like Fred’s Livejournal, Chad has one too, and has been posting updates and glimpses of what he’s been working on for the Dresden Files RPG as well as other projects of his.

We thought you might be interested!

(And before you ask, we know we still owe y’all the final installment of the Laws of Magic series. That will be coming soon, never fear!)

General chad, setting

Fred Hicks cannot contain his flabberghastitude at the output of collaborator Chad Underkoffler’s work on the Dresden Files RPG setting bible. Check out Fred’s post on his LiveJournal blog. Explicit lyrics!

General chad, fred, setting