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!
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Good news! Evil Hat has inked a deal with Kenneth Hite to have him write the Occult Chicago chapter for the Dresden Files RPG, blending the locations and events of the novels together with Ken’s real-life research into Chicago, where he currently resides. We’re (somewhat obviously) thrilled to have Ken on board for this.
If his name sounds familiar to you, that’s because you play RPGs. 
You might have even heard about a little game he recently worked on titled Trail of Cthulhu.
Welcome aboard!
The Seventh Law
Never Seek Knowledge and Power from Beyond the Outer Gates.
The universe is infinite, and contains within it multitudes: The world. The Nevernever. Hell, and perhaps even Heaven. Every being and thing within those bounds has its place, even if that place may be horrible beyond mention. But there are Things outside of this universe. To say that they hate the world would be to assume that we can even understand them. It is more accurate to say that they are antithetical to the world. They do not want to destroy the universe any more than a ball you drop wants to fall—it is simply the outcome.
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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!)
Hi folks! Sorry for the major delay in getting the Sixth Law posted up. We were busy running around as part of Evil Hat Productions at a number of summer conventions—and we even managed to come back with some awards under our belt for Spirit of the Century: the Ogre Cave 2006 Best RPG award, the Indie RPG Awards RPG of the Year 2006, and the Silver Ennie for Best Rules. We’re psyched!
But enough about us, here’s…
The Sixth Law
Never Swim Against the Currents of Time.
So far in the Dresden Files, we’ve seen precious little of this Law in action, in great part because if someone is breaking it, he’s doing so in a way that fits right into Harry Dresden’s non-time-traveling story.
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The Fifth Law
Never Reach Beyond the Borders of Life.
Necromancy has all sorts of applications, from keeping someone from crossing over Death’s door (or pulling them back from just stepping across the threshold), to reanimating a host of corpses as your bodyguards, waking the ghosts of the Civil War for one last assault, or wrapping ectoplasmic flesh around the bones of a dinosaur and taking it for a ride to save the city. It’s all bad news, and most of it clearly breaks the Fifth Law (the dinosaur might not, thanks to the humans-only technicality of things, but Warden Morgan wasn’t wrong when he called such an act an abomination).
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The Fourth Law
Never Enthrall Another.
A close cousin of the Third, the Fourth Law goes beyond the simple invasion of another’s mind to outright mastery over it. Here, enthralling is any effort made to change the natural inclinations, choices, and behaviors of another person. And due to its cousin Law, it’s pretty easy to see the Fourth as an extension of the concepts there—a case of more equals worse.
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The Third Law
Never Invade the Thoughts of Another.
The Third Law, though it might seem to be about a relatively harmless act, recognizes a single, simple principle: a violation of the mind is as much a crime as violation of the body—by some lights, it may even be worse.
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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!
The Second Law
Never Transform Another.
The image of a witch turning someone into a newt is a popular and even amusing notion, but in the eyes of the White Council it’s a deadly serious matter—emphasis on deadly. The Council views such transformations as tantamount to murder, and they’re pretty much right on the money for one simple reason—human minds like to stay at home in familiar human brains. Transform someone into a newt, and you’ve just tried to cram a human mind into a newt’s brain; such an effort (if you’re even bothering to attempt it) usually ends in near-total destruction of the target’s self. Even if you could manage such a feat, the psychological shock the victim undergoes is bad enough that it would make no actual difference.
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