I feel like a parishioner confessing before a priest..."It has been one month since my last..." and then from there I go.  Due to work, family illness, timing, weather, elections, whatever I have been unable to keep up with running the play test and worse off posting about what was done.  In the last 4 weeks we have been able to do some work but my end of things...the posting and the commenting on it...has fallen by the wayside.  I aim to catch up.  So I will. 

This IS the blog-o-sphere and while this Blog was dedicated to the discussion of all things Dresden RPG, I had to throw a plug in to the greatest band in the world.  I just saw them last night at the House of Blues in Cleveland.  Gogol Bordello is a great night of music, though exhausting for this old man.  It's pseudo-mosh environment (mostly shoving and leaping into the air) is great tiring fun.  Anyway, if you don't know them, find them.  This is the finest example of gypsy punk that can be found on earth.  Hyperbole, thy name is fil.

This came to me when I was reading some posts on the RPGnet.  The City Creation tool as currently written makes for a fun night of world/setting creation that one would think would lead to more deeper character creation and involving role play sessions.   What I wondered about, though, is whether this system could be easily adapted for creating fictional cities?  The rules assume and encourages doing the city you live in or a city you know.  If you don't know it, the rules have prompts and tools for researching an existing city to get ideas.  So I wonder if you just started with no city in mind but maybe a general idea for one.  "Mid-20th Century coastal tourist city" and just left it at that.  Create one whole cloth.  Or maybe 19th Century city?  Or a city in a fantasy setting?  Or futuristic sci-fi setting?  In all cases,  do it for the Dresdenverse, too (as that IS the game).  What was the Dresdenverse like in a different time period or how would it be to create a city new to fit into that universe?  What will the world of Dresden look like 500 years from now?  Just a thought.  It would be a neat exercise to try out one night if time allows.

Here is the "final" version of Cleveland for use in our Dresden Files RPG game in the very near future. Thanks again to Craig, Chris, Ben, Tate and Clint for the fun night creating it.  I hope this shortened version holds some of the truths we wrung out of our fair city last night.  I will update as folks think of ideas.  Stacey, I am stealing the format of your CityForm for our in-home game.  I haven't figured out how to do it in-Journal.  Good stuff!


Thanks!

fil

Thanks for continuing to read about our first night with the Dresden Files RPG rules (City Creation).  I promise to write less in upcoming discussions of this process.  I tend to ramble instead of edit when I am excited about something.  My friends will attest, even a simple invite to see a movie takes two or three lengthy e-mails.  Mostly.  Anyhoo...

The next section of the City Creation process we tackled followed the headings as listed in the DFRPG rules and like Part 1, I will list them with some discussion underneath but again I have to point out that while listed this way, we went back and forth among the various points as new ideas came up.

Last night was my gaming group's first night with the Dresden Files RPG rules, in particular the City Creation portion of the game. While I posted some initial thoughts last night while my mind was racing, I wanted to slow down a bit and break the process down into hunks and try to capture the frenetic conversations and discussions in a way that can be understood by folks who weren't there. At the end, I will put down some thoughts we had after tackling our first city but I sincerely hope that my comrades will take the time to post some of their thoughts now that they have had some time since trying it out. Onward... What follows will use the headings of the Creation chapter and some ideas and discussions. Note, while I am listing these linearly as in the chapter headings, there was a lot of back and forth with this process.


Later,

fil

"You can talk about religion and politics but PLEASE do not talk about Sports."  This was a quote from my first session running a piece of the Dresden Files RPG.  When discussing Cleveland, Ohio, it is easy to drift into talk of sports but the fact is such a discussion rarely leads anywhere happy.   We are the fairy tale story that ends with bleeding feet on the dance floor, not the sweet romantic finish.  Oddly enough after a declaration of "no sports!" at the outset of our first night playing the City Creation rules for the Dresden RPG that we ended up hip deep in the mystical, magical history of the Cleveland Browns.  

Being new to a) Live journaling and b) Alpha testing anything (unless you count testing dinner before it is done...I didn't sneak a bit, I was alpha testing it) I find myself excited about the prospects of doing both. Well, the testing will be exciting. Blogging about it? We will just have to see. I plan to post updates on how my crew is doing with the material, the new content and so on. I look forward to comments and questions and ideas from anyone who reads this. And from those who don't, too. You know who you are. Anyway...onto the blogging!

Bloggily yours,


fil