labcats | Dresden Files Rules Areas to Note

Character Generation: Numbers

Once folks explained to me that Aspects and the Fate Point mechanic are the heart of the system, everything made much more sense.

The Stunt / Skill thing still confuses me when I'm not paying attention. I think this may have to do with midlevel crunch confusing me because I'm expecting either much more or much less crunch. I understand no skill lists, ala Over the Edge, minimal skill lists, and exhaustive skill lists. Stuff that's in between minimal and exhaustive sometimes makes me go "Huh?"

I think that this is because my brain is thinking, "Wait, there are 25 [or 36 or whatever -- generally some number between 15 and 36 for it to be mid-crunch to my mind] skills, no more, no less. Well, okay, maybe except for something like Craft: Specify. But... does this mean that all of them are vitally important? Like, if I don't take Survival, am I hosing myself? Or are we supposed to specialize, and if so, how do I figure out how to pick skills?"

Here, I got cut a bit of a break. I asked point blank about Lore, one of the spells Thaumaturges should have. But, in my case, getting a low Lore score actually does make sense, and becomes part of the character. Driving is not actually an essential skill for a game set in NYC. I believe that my PC is the only one who actually took the skill, and I did that because I was feeling whimsical and I liked the irony. Survival? Well, it might come up in the Nevernever, which might well come up, but in NYC proper? Probably not.

But, I still don't think so well in terms of minmaxing, not the way

agrumer thinks. He's got a definite character, with personality and history and all. He's fine at the roleplaying. But, he also was careful to pick a combination of skills and stunts that work to generate a steady flow of Fate Points, something I'm just not naturally good at. I think my aspects are varied enough to mean I'm not screwing myself over, and I've got someone fairly flexible.

Character Generation: Backstory

I've gotten used to the indie idea of Develop in Play, and it was a bit startling to take a step towards the other end of the continuum. The Dresden Files character generation rules involve making up a lot of backstory -- but without bumping into the problem of "play before playing". Part of this is because Evil Hat's position on character generation is that it is playing.

Part is also, I think, that it offers an outlet for the out of character neeping about character generation that a lot of us really love doing. It's now built into the system in ways that push getting the entire group invested in each member's character. Getting an aspect out of each step involved is the juicy carrot for doing what we probably enjoy doing anyway.

First Session: The Sight

I'm not quite sure how contests involving the Sight are meant to work. This only involves

mnemex's PC, as that's the only full wizard in the group. As I understand it:

Using the Sight is dangerous, and it's a challenge to stop using it once one has started.

Nevertheless, it is intended to be an information gathering tool. PCs with the Sight are expected to use it, rather than to avoid using it.

First, one rolls to get information via the Sight. Then, one rolls to stop using the Sight. If that second roll is failed, the PC takes damage on Stress tracks, and must continue to use the Sight for another round. Repeat each round.

A character can be Taken Out if he or she continues to lose the conflict to turn off the Sight. I'm not sure what that means for the character, or how that differs from Concession.

The wrinkle with Concession, Dave said, is that one shouldn't merely be able to stop using the Sight. That's a Concession that says, "I do what I wanted to do to begin with" and is, thus, no Concession. He's right.

But, how does one make a Concession in a conflict involving trying to turn off the Sight in ways that don't unduly hose the PC? Having the PC go permanently insane is a bit harsh. Having the PC lose consciousness for a full day is theoretically reasonable -- but if it involves the player having zilch to do for an hour or three, that sucks.

I think that some kind of consensus on how to handle this was reached over dinner, and we're all aware that we do not have the full rules for the game. What I'm most curious about is whether the authors expect PCs to use the Sight often or rarely.

There was some other area I meant to write about, but, of course, I'm already forgetting what it is.