labcats | Random thoughts on Dresden Files RPG

So, before the Dresden Files RPG was actually out,

perldiver ran a campaign for

kokoinai, and me. It was fun. Not perfect, but there was a lot to like. perldiver nailed the bad-to-worse pacing of the novels, had great NPCs, and a well done sturm-und-drang conclusion to the final session before he switch coasts.

We worked from the various bits released on line, the playtest files perldiver had from previous playtesting, and some extra crucial bits we wheedled from Evil Hat. The rest we patched together. It was fascinating seeing the differences between playtest and published rules, and between our guesses and the reality. The things I most noticed:

-- My PC is can no longer be built for 8 Refresh / 30 Skill Points. The Thaumaturgy / Evocation / Fae magic discounts are one point smaller or the stunts one point more. As I felt I was vaguely getting away with a bit too much, this may be just as well.

-- All of us except agrumer were wrong about consequences. We were convinced everyone got one Mild, Severe, Major, and Extreme consequence for each stress track, whereas it is one at each level of severity, period, regardless of stress tracks. This means that not only could I not have built my PC legally; he would not have survived the final session, where I took two Extreme consequence. The rules are extra clear about Extreme consequences: One can only have one of these at a time, ever. Mind, if we'd been clear on this, perldiver would have calibrated differently, so no harm done.

-- The experience rules are very different from what we cobbled together. Oh, what we had worked for what we were doing, but the actual experience rules are cleaner.

-- The rules for Cassandra's Tears and Psychometry are now much clearer and cleaner, explaining in mechanical terms what to do, rather than requiring the GM to, oh, come up with a vision every session. perldiver's visions were very cool, but I know they took a lot of prep work.

-- The city creation rules are even more awesome than the previews indicated, although I do miss the hymns of praise to librarians and encyclopedias.

-- There is a ton of really useful advice on creating scenarios.

-- I love the way double compels are explained. See, one of the problems I'd been pondering is that there are games where what everyone wants, genuinely wants, is for PCs to make moral choices between things they sincerely value. But, the mechanics for this often penalize PCs and players, with the end result that the players avoid the drama they want, because it just makes their PCs hurt mechanically.

So, if I'm playing Michael Carpenter, there's an example in the book of a double compel:

Knight of the Cross: Michael has to stop a wizard from summoning a demon at one end of town. Otherwise, Bad Things Happen.

Family Man: But, the wizard's minions have kidnapped his family and are holding the family at the other end of town.

So, I look at that and think, "There's no way I can do both, so, I don't get any Fate points for making a dramatic decision. That really sucks." However, that isn't the way it goes.

Instead, the example shows the player saying, "Okay, I must commend my family to God's care and deal with the wizard. Once I have done that, I will be back to rescue my family and to punish those who kidnapped them." This earns the player both Fate points because both issues are being addressed.

Yes, a choice is being made. Yes, one thing comes before the other thing. But, the player is facing the decision head on. There's no shrugging and saying, "Well, obviously, the plot requires me to deal with the demon," no ducking the fact that this is a difficult choice. The player dang well deserves to be rewarded for acknowledging the dilemma, playing it out, making a choice, addressing both sides, and doing it not merely well, but quickly enough not to make the game drag without rushing through the drama.

This saves so much annoyance of players freezing the game while they try to figure out how to do two things at once so that they don't get nothing for their trouble. And, if they somehow manage to find a way to save family and stop demon simultaneously? Heck, give them an extra Fate point for sheer cleverness!