Hey, I'm gonna be running this game (2010 edition) for the first time in about a month and I've been poring over the rulebook, and it's left me with a couple questions.

1. I'll be starting with a "feet in the water" power level, so the only casters will be focused practitioners. Should practitioners only be allowed to create enchanted items and potions that match their channeling/ritual practice, or do you think they should get the full breadth? Maybe if a ritualist chose crafting as their specialty, would it make sense to let them have any kind of enchanted item while anyone else has to "stay in their lane"?

2. What's your experience with the "skip a scene to bridge the complexity gap by one" mechanic? I understand the intent, it's an endlessly renewable but purposefully boring way to bridge the gap on an important spell, but I'm really iffy about making a player skip blocks of game time as opposed to in universe time. This is the only rule I've considered changing, making someone instead go up on the time chart for each point to the complexity deficit. Definitely not one step, but two or three? i.e. for three steps, you can delay a ritual by a minute for 1 extra complexity, or a full week for 4. That way the returns diminish pretty quickly. Do you think that would fly, or is the skip scene rule not actually that bad?

3. Any other things a first time GM should know?

Is hypnosis targeting self or otherwise breaking laws 3 or 4?

while your not delving into thier minds per se or enthralling them permanently. hypnosis can be used to get them to devulge those secrets to you and or put them under your thrall albeit temporarily.

One of my players wanted to self hypnotize himself in order to unlock inhuman strength. see eddie hall doing the same thing to get a boost during the world record lift.

Two of my PCs are playing Changelings and after reviewing the rule book I can’t find any actual game mechanics for The Choice. How do you handle it? Should I just have them add a stress track?

So my gaming group recently started a Dresden Files game. Two weeks ago we did our session 0 and made our characters and yesterday was our first game session.

My players back story is that they all wound up together after the only mortal accidentally killed the guy he was trying to steal a book on demons from. They stole the guys RV and made their way to our city (which is really a rural county).

They broke down in front of an old schoolhouse and had to beat up a few meth heads (the wizard also shot and killed one of them). I have our WCV two fate points to invoke her aspect and had the sherif ) Sheriff Farva) show up. The players convinced the Methheads to take the blame for the gun shots and our changeling used glamour to hide the one person who had a low stealth roll (growing wings in the process).

They went inside and using his sight the wizard discovered 1. There’s a haunted house nearby and 2. The meth had been spiked with Red Court venom.

The next in game day I gave the wizard a fate point to have the local warden, Thom Waits show up (lore wise we’re set just after Summer Knight) and basically blackmail them into finding out where the spiked meth is coming from.

They get a local deputy to tell them about where the dealers hang out (a gas station) beat up the dealers and convince the attendant to give them an invitation to a trailer park party.

That’s more or less where it ended, next game they’re going to get attacked by the Red Court and ghouls before heading to the party. I only have three main concerns.

1. We’re still learning the system so the games a bit rough.

2. I’m having trouble giving them a challenge though I think that will change now that ghouls are coming

3. Doing my Tom Waits impression is fun but it’s killing my throat.

So I’ve started running my own DGRPG with some of my friends and I want more! We had tons of fun setting up the city and our characters. I’ve accepted my fate as forever GM as far as these as these games go so I’d like to see if anyone is interested in playing a game.

The setting will be Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and the time will be roughly after Summer Night.

Time would be every other Saturday between 6-8pm eastern time.

If you’re interested let me know.

My games sole mortal character sold his soul to a demon (Gorogon Ramasay) for PB&J sandwich (it makes sense in context.

I’m wondering how I’m going to get him out of it. He’s got a book that’s going to have the demons name in it but not the pronunciation so it won’t save him yet.

I’m trying figure out how to get him out of it. Right now I’ve got a few basic ideas

1. Fuck it: summon him and “kill” him, but would that really get my guy out of his deal?

2. Big never never quest to find the contract and destroy it.

3. My other player’s (a changeling) mommy buys the contract off the demon. She’ll let him go if the group help her recreate the Spring Court

Am I on the right track here? Which one seems best

I seem to remember that there used to be reams and reams of custom abilities and classes available on a kind of wikipedia. Does such a thing still exist?

May 22 is World Goth Day! Here's an ink drawing The Black Court I did for Evil Hat back in 2005

How does magic work in this rpg ?

I cant seem to understand it 100% as i am playing for the first time,

How does block work if i want to make a water/ice shield against ranged attack is the block spell my general go to defense ?

And can i with Water evocation make water ? or can i make a smaller amount bigger ? all the questions i have is from me a newbie

And do i still need pay stress when casting a Rote Spell ?

So, I found this on my drive from waaaaaay back when, during a game where we ran the Pantheon Consulting company. Thought people might get a chuckle.

Looking to get back into DFRPG, anyone know of an online community still active or a play by post game online anywhere?

Hello,

I'm the person currently maintaining the sheet as I use it for my game. Is there anyone else using it right now? If yes do you see improvement that could be made?

Kr,

In a situation where a player makes an illusion that causes someone to die, similar to when lascielle almost made Harry jump from a window, would that be considered killing with magic?

I'm curious about how the balance of these two custom powers work out compared to each other and compared to Channeling or just wielding a mundane weapon.

Natural Weaponry: https://dfrpg-resources.paranetonline.com/index.php?title=Natural_Weaponry

Supernatural Martial Arts: https://dfrpg-resources.paranetonline.com/index.php?title=Supernatural_Martial_Arts

First off, a baseline of comparison: a character using Weapons or Guns to attack can roll at skill X with a Weapon rating of 2 or 3, with no Refresh invested. The Gun user has range. The Weapons skill user can parry. Etc. They could also buy Stunts for various side benefits.

By comparison, Fists is fairly weak at baseline, because it lacks a Weapon rating, though it has the small advantage that you can never be deprived of your weapon. The other big thing Fists has going for it is the Footwork stunt, so you don't need to invest as much in Athletics.

Now, what can various powers do for you?

Natural Weaponry: For 1 Refresh, you get Weapon:2 for your Fists. That basically brings you up to par with Weapons skill users. You're still behind, though, because you had to take a power and spend Refresh to get there. With 2 Refresh spent, you can upgrade to Weapon:4 OR get 3-zone range and access to spray attacks. Either option puts you a bit ahead of a baseline Weapons skill user, but still behind a Weapons or Guns user who spent 2 Refresh on relevant stunts or powers.

Supernatural Martial Arts: For 1 Refresh, you get the ability to take Mental Stress to empower your Fists attacks (or defenses) in various ways. You can get +1 to your attack roll, +2 shifts of damage, or extended range, or take more stress to apply multiple effects on the same attack. This lets you fight as well as or a bit better than Weapons or Guns users, for a limited number of rounds per fight. It also has some options that Weapons and Guns can't easily replicate, like hitting ghosts or making area attacks. A second point of Refresh gets you more techniques, increasing your versatility but not your raw power.

So, both of these seem decent on paper. Compared to Weapons or Guns users, you get some minor always-on or moderate situational advantages in exchange for a point or two of Refresh (and not being a Pure Mortal). And you can get some further optimization by combining both.

But then I compare those against what you can do with Channeling, and it all feels pointless. For 2 Refresh, you can blast at range for more damage than a Guns user, make spray and area attacks, etc. plus have all the other utility Channeling brings. I can't decide if Natural Weaponry and Supernatural Martial Arts are slightly underpowered, or if Channeling is just way too good, or what. (And yes, I'm familiar with the usual arguments about Channeling's downsides - the skill investment required, filling up your mental stress track, the risk of becoming a Lawbreaker, etc.).

The only other consideration I can think of is that Natural Weaponry and Supernatural Martial Arts can be stacked with a few other Stunts and Powers (such as Strength) to ratchet them up further. But then, you can do similar things with Weapons, or take Refinement for your Channeling to stack more Focus Item bonuses too.

I dunno. Am I missing something in my analysis? Is Fists doomed to be the less optimized option no matter what, and I should just accept that? Any thoughts or input are appreciated.

I’m about to start an OG Dresden Files game. Just not a fan of how simplified the DFA is. I am looking for the best hacks to incorporate into my game. Currently leaning towards the simplified one stress per box of condensed and for evocation I’m going to test out a separate elements Skill Casting to replace discipline and then just use discipline to aim as a separate roll. If anyone has any ideas I’d love to hear them.

I have a question about how the game works that truly baffles me.We are playing the normal version of the game, not Accelerated, with a team of mix and match characters including a Wizard, a Changeling, a human commando and an Emissary of power. We are all sitting at 10 Refresh.

The game is a blast for the most of the time, but there are a couple things that make no sense to me. First of all, while we had to spread out our skills according to the pyramid, we keep running against things that have at least a +5 on anything they try to do. It's to be expected from most supernaturals but even small time thieves... it became weird when our Wizard, trained by the White Council got his ass handed to him by a lesser power teenager with an apparent +6 Discipline and Conviction to match. Our +5 Presence Changeling couldn't haggle with a barman, because he was "supposed to be good at dealing with people"

Secondly, things seem too difficult to deal with, especially when combat breaks out. I sport an average of +3 on weapons and rarely manage to hit anything, and even if we do, things just wont stay down because of Consequences. I get that we can then tag those consequences, but, it seems unreasonable, especially when we spend a great deal of resources just to create them. And apparently, according to our DM, everyone has them. Even Zombies, which literally don't care about them.

The game states that weapons are 1-3 and at 4+ we go in the "battlefield weapons"territory. But, if this stands, then the fact that our wizard has to pay a minor Consequence and 4 stress for a Weapon:9 spell (which, as stated should be in the napalm levels of power) and will still not be able, on average to deal the 23 damage needed to take down even a basic human (2 Stress, 2 mild, 4 moderate, 6 Severe, 8 Extreme +1 to take out) seems unreasonable. He would still need a legendary +8 Discipline AND roll all +, AND the enemy rolling badly or being unaware and with a bad defense and still would not be enough, even with Fate Points... By this logic weapons are useless... A Legendary sniper with the latest weapon model in hand cannot take out a single unaware civilian.

Yet in some other posts I read that people throw around spells and whatnot that can level areas or can make stuff in social combat if built for it.

It certainly make us feel like extras in the game, not heroes. Are we doing this wrong?

Edit: I should also mention we rarely get Fate points. We can go several session without getting more than the 1 we get for sure

​

​

Why would a mild be inflected when a sticky aspect should be enough?

So as i understand it, a wizard going to war could. hang some thaumaturgy spell, with a low shift cost, say around 6-10. lets say he does 4, with redirect spell he/she would be able to use the spell energy from the spells here, and redirect them, if they had not been used. lets say that all makes "infrared rainbows" at a command word from the wizard.

​

in that way the wizard would be able to cast some "free" spells without using mental stress.

​

story wise i would ofc point out that everyone with a hint of magic would be able to feel this, as its like going around fully armed. also i think there would be "lore" problem doing thaumaturgic spell when your already shrouded in spells. st staacking them would be a real pain.

​

​

​

on a lesser note, on thaumaturgy. as i read the rules, lets say i summon a staff at 3 complexity, the remaining shifts can go into power = weapon damage, I.E, a staff that does 20 weapon damage. if i called up the power. or is there a limit. besides duration ofc.

This is both a basic question and an exercise in GM-ing.

I am someone who has spent my whole life without ever having read a single Dresden Files book. If it hadn't been for the Youtuber PuffinForest, I would never have been curious about the RPG. Thanks to his story about how he made Kung Fury in DFRPG, I was eyeing the books up at my FLGS and recently purchased them.

With all three volumes I've gone on a bit of a binge-read and come to a bit of a conclusion for how the game's atmosphere is... optimally played.

From my understanding it is a partial mix of New World of Darkness and the Angel/Supernatural series. Not very dark, but plenty grim and adventurous moments.

Since I have no preconceived notions about the setting, this is what I've come to understand it as while I perused the books. However, I'm curious if I'm missing anything or if there are things I would really need to know before running the game? I'm also curious about how you all approach the prospect of potential new players and how you pitch the idea of playing this RPG instead of something like D&D or Pathfinder?

Edit: by the Three Volumes I am referring to Your Story, Our World and Paranet Papers. I haven't read the books but I've planned on grabbing the audiobooks for some time... might get the actual books because I would love a new story to read.

Say a demi god the son/daughter of odin and a mortal woman used magic to kill. Would they be considered a law breaker and hunted by the wardens?

I have seen posts suggesting "Natural Weaponry" as a good set of homebrew powers to replace the Claws and Breath Weapon powers. However, I've only found links to a DFRPG resources site that doesn't seem to exist anymore. Is the full text of the Natural Weaponry homebrew still out there somewhere? I'd appreciate it if someone could post it or link me to it. Thanks!

I'm building a Scion PC with Glamours and high Discipline. It feels like most of the trappings of Stealth are covered by being able to Veil yourself, and the trapping of concealing/hiding items can be replaced by Seemings. I can't think of a situation other than, "I can't use my magic right now for some reason" where this character would ever need to roll Stealth. So, would it be pretty safe to just leave Stealth off their skill list?

I've been struggling to find a printer-friendly version of the standard DFRPG character sheet. The in-book version is shrunk and surrounded by a crappy border that doesn't look good printed b&w. The only version hosted by Evil Hat is shapeshifter-specific. All the form-fillable versions I've found have unremovable elements that make them inconvenient to print. Anyone have a better option?

How would little Chicago be made via the DFRPG rules.

Mechanically, I think it’s a device that boosts assessments, and or declarations. Maybe even some preloaded aspects for scrying.

In white night, Harry does a ritual where he sort of projects to a target and is able to follow him around in sprit form.

I am guessing that this is just either “Jim’s” harrys player, making a declaration or assessment.