That said, we wanted to call your attention to a series of podcasts over on Narrative Control. These guys were part of the Burning Alpha and give the game some good attention. (That said, a lot of our playtesters got caught up in city creation more than anticipated — something we’re working on in our current revisions — so you’ll be seeing a fair amount of that in this round, too.)

Here’s a guide to the Dresden Files Burning Alpha episodes on Narrative Control:

Title: Episode 3: City Creation – Part 1
Topics: Picking a City and Themes
Link: http://www.narrativecontrol.com/index.php?post_id=380416

Title: Episode 4: City Creation – Part 2
Topics: People and Places
Link: http://www.narrativecontrol.com/index.php?post_id=382891

Title: Episode 10: Actual Play Report
Topics: Compels and Fate Chip Economy
Link: http://www.narrativecontrol.com/index.php?post_id=400612

And here’s where they talk with Evil Hatter Fred Hicks:

Title: Episode 13: Interview with Fred Hicks
Topics: Points of Tension, System and Setting Integration, Advancement System, Stunts and Damage
Link: http://www.narrativecontrol.com/index.php?post_id=407242

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!

http://masterplan.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=205740