fil was here

Dresden Files: Return to the Table

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 05:00:56 GMT

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.

Unrelated: Gogol Bordello is the Best Band in the World

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:08:20 GMT

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.

City Creation thoughts, a week later

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:03:48 GMT

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.

Burning Alpha City Creation: Cleveland, Ohio

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:47:31 GMT

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!

CITY: CLEVELAND, OHIO

Cleveland was once a booming industrial city that ruled the early part of the 20th Century. It had it all. Commerce, culture, and a quickly growing population. It has been an important hub of steel, shipping and manufacturing. It made John D. Rockefeller a rich man. The accidental discovery of the monumentally huge salt mine that sits under multiple states made Cleveland a hub of supernatural activity. In 1863, the Whiskey Island Salt Mine officially began business, providing some salt to the tables of Americans to keep its cover but in the supernatural world, it was recognized as the greatest place to imprison those creatures and items deemed to powerful to even simply banish. Alive and banished meant a creature could return. Kept locked away surrounded by caverns of salt and under a giant freshwater lake meant threats could be removed forever. Thus the beginning of Cleveland's unique position in the metaphysical world would begin. Years of growth in industry all seemed to collapse in the waning days of the 1960's when the Riots tore the city apart, the River Burned and a Prophesy came to light.

THEMES (ASPECTS):

City on the Mend
"There's Always Next Year"
Burning River
Emerald Necklace
Dumping Ground of the Supernatural Sort

PEOPLE:

Bart Wolvenstein- Legendary urban developer. Deeply involved in both the mundane and magical worlds. Eyes are always on the money and he will do anything to get more. Suspected member of the Hermit Club.
Glen Kusendwitch (holy moley I need a better name)- Infamous Representative of the US Congress for a District in Cleveland. He is a glamour covered Fairy Folk, possibly a Changeling. He is the public face of the Druidic movement.

Who Cares About the City?

White Court Vampires- A particular brand of White Court Vampires love to feed on the dual nature of Cleveland citizen's emotions. Hopeful with the despair. Joy and the agony of defeat. For this reason, they opened a chain of Sport's Bars called the Winking Wizard to host an impressive amount of sports fans every week. It is a buffet where the food pays to stop by. They protect their city lovingly as a farmer protects his cows and sheep before the slaughter.
The Cleveland Browns- Formed in 1946 following WWII to act as Cleveland's mortal defenders, these Knights of the Gridiron (again, I can't believe I am using this) keep a public face of a football team to keep in peak physical condition and allow them access to all levels of local society, never once letting people in on their true nature to protect the city from the ever weakening border between the Nevernever in the Emerald Necklace to acting as Warden's of the Salt Mines. The Prophesy prevents them from even being a winning team but they still deeply care about their City.
Hermit Club membership- These "faceless men in suits" form the backbone of the civic leadership. They look out for their pocketbook first but if the City falls, so do these men.
The Druids- A loose coalition of hedge wizards, fairy folk and interested mundanes work to return the city to its green splendor, tightening the Necklace as it were.

Who Keeps the Peace?

All of the above, in their own way.
Various Old World practitioners from cultures all around the world. Their numbers are dwindling as the newer generations forget the old teachings.
Sisters of Poor Clare (Militant wing)

How Do Mortals Cope?

"Cognitive dissonance" (my favorite that Chris suggested, I think...it explains why Browns game still sell out years later, too).
Cleveland Browns (though imbued with some magical artifacts, these guys are purely human)]

What Interests Supernatural Tourists?

Salt Mines Prison- This is a storehouse of huge proportions. As Tate I think pointed out, it is the Area 51 facility from Indiana Jones (if this is a spoiler, you are too late...it is out of theaters!) but for magical creatures and powerful artifacts. Though nearly impregnable, its contents are too tantalizing to those of a supernatural persuasion to ignore.
Weak Gateway to the Nevernever- The Emerald Necklace forms a powerful ring around the city and is infested with Brownies. Many Fairy Folk find it a starting off or ending point between our world and the Nevernever. The fact that a once powerful Steel City has began to Rust, makes it all the more appealing.

Locations/Factions:

Location/Faction
Aspects

Druids
-Reclaiming the blight
-Grassroots effort

Emerald Necklace
-Brownie Infestation
-Weak Gateway to the Nevernever

Slavic Village
-Old world magic
-Depressed neighborhood

Winking Wizard
-Sports Fans Make Easy Prey
-Gameday Accords
-owned by White Court vampires
-World Tour of Beer...and Blood

Hermit Club
-Faceless men in suits
-Captains of Industry
-Secret society

Little Italy
-Cursed the Cleveland Indians Baseball team
-Heart of Diocese
-Murray Hill Mob
-Dolce vita

West Side Market
-Anything for a Price
-No Faction can Claim it- unofficial neutral ground

Abandoned Trolley Line
-here there be trolls

Coventry (Coven Tree)
-Accorded Neutral Ground (located in the center of Tommy's)
-Big Fun (only a local will understand this reference)
...and so on.

We need to add more "Faces" to this. That would flesh out the various Locations and Factions. There is a lot more detail on some of these things that I didn't include. This is definitely the thumb-nail sketch to begin using to play a game. One Face could include someone like "Barney Hosar" (gads... my fake names are getting worse), an ex-Knight of the Browns who attempted to protect the city during the dark days when the town went without its defenders. Will flesh out more in the coming days and weeks of the Burning Alpha!

Thanks!

fil

BA Night #1- City Creation. Part Two- Finalizing the Process

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:14:36 GMT

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.

Who Cares About This City?

This was one of a number of sections in the City Creation process where specific characters, organizations and so on are put into context. Their relationship to the city is established.   There was a bit of redundancy between the sections as someone who fits one section might easily be in another (or both). Yet, we also saw the subtle differences between the sections. Someone "who care" might not be someone "who keeps the peace" but one would assume the opposite is likely true...well, even that can have a different take. Maybe a White Council junior Warden is attached to the city to defend it but would rather be in Miami sunning himself. It is a good question to stimulate discussion and it surely did.

Samples of stuff that came out of this: White Court Vampires deeply love Cleveland. For a city so often treated to the highs of euphoria (Cavs made the playoffs!) to the lows of depression (...and they sucked) , from hope (maybe THESE elected officials will do what they promised) to despair (...and they sucked), it would seem this town would be the buffet of choice for creatures who feed on emotions. And it is. We took a real local sports bar franchise and slightly renamed it (one letter) called The Winking Wizard and put it in the control of a particular strain of White Court Vamps who feed especially off the rollercoaster of emotions on game day. In fact, one Aspect out of it was "Game Day Accords" which prevents anyone from intending shenagins to enterthe Winking Wizard at feeding time. Fans essentially feed these vamps for free but few die from it since they can sample all game day without taking too much from anyone. Granted, some do die but it usually gets marked up as the usual Cleveland maladies that done 'em in.

One can see where this was heading, though. Sports was making a serious play for our attention in the design process.

Other who cared were the already mentioned Druids, Faceless Suits of the Hermit Club, Brownies, Witches of Coven Tree, the ones Chris called "Babushka Moms" who were the old-world magic...gypsies, hedge wizards, etc.   And of course, the Cleveland Browns.

Who Keeps the Peace

We all immediately agreed on this question: "certainly not the police or politicians." Cleveland is rife with corruption at all political levels. In real life, the police force (mostly good guys...I know a few) was thought to have 1/3 of their officers "on the take" at any one time. People so into this were likely pawns or denizens of the magical realm but hardly the defenders. Cleveland had to look elsewhere. Such as the Browns.

To be fair, the discussion of the Browns popped up throughout the night but it was in this section that we really addressed the question about their lack of any Superbowl wins (since changing from the National Championship...which they did win...quite a bit).   The answer was simple: If the Browns win the Superbowl, Something Horrible Would Happen.   There was an enormous amount of discussion around this and we settled on the idea that the Browns, established in 1946, were put together and mystically armed (with help from the Brownies of the Emerald Necklace) to stand watch over Cleveland. We don't know why they chose to do it in the form of a Football team. We only know that they had to have a cover and what other possible reason could such a football loving town be devoid of a single Superbowl win since the 1960's? This latter question addressed the Burning of the Cuyahoga River. The reality was (don't read a wiki on it...it will only give you "facts") was the river burned in 1969..the same year the Browns won their last NFL Title. It was the prelude to a Prophesy that if they were to leave the City again for a championship, not only the River will burn, but the entire city would.   At this point, one of our group posits, "If people read this they will either giggle as we did and get the joke or they will likely think us a bunch of fanboy 12 year olds." Can't it be both? This is only a sketch of what we discussed and hardly breaks the surface of the different iterations of why but in short, the Browns keep the peace more than any other group in the City. They are the Knights of the Gridiron, if you will (gads, I really typed that).    Seriously, it sounds so much cooler in person.

The cool part came when we discussed their real role in defending the series. Dresden makes a point in his books about the folklore around common salt and its properties as a defense against things that go bump in the night. How cool is it then that Cleveland sits on top of a gigantic salt mine that stretches under multiple states, whose main entrance is a neatly named "Whiskey Island" (which sits at the mouth of the River That Burned).    Suddenly, the decision was made that the Salt Mines near Cleveland weren't really for salt...it was now the mystical equivalent of Alcatraz. The Accords have strong words about how creatures of various Nations can be treated and the Browns, signatories to it, have to follow them. Imprisoning instead of destroying creatures and evil artifacts seems more in line with the Accords and it was thought that, like the Ghostbusters storage facility, Cleveland would be the "dumping ground" for all level of nastiness. Could this be what the Prophesy was talking about?   It certainly seemed cool.

How Do Mortals Cope?

This was an interesting section and a great question but one that even the rules kind of answer already. The Dresdenverse posits that most mortals don't know what is really going on around them when it comes to magic. Some of the answers fit other sections and this became an area where much of the Salt Mines (no cool name yet for it as a prison) happened even though it didn't fit the topic, necessarily. They cope with Sports.   Oddly enough, with even the Browns being horrible much of the time (even when they are really good) they still sell out and the city finds comfort in their misery.    The Browns are mortals and, like Karrin Murphy's SI crew, they tend to be the mortal response to magical threats.   "Old Babushka" moms, the old world magical folk help defend their cultural boundaries. This we posited would be a part where the different cultures would express their magical heritage.

What Kind of Supernatural Community Is There In Town?

This one again had a bit of redundancy. We "skipped" this section in particular because so many other areas addressed this with Druids, Brownies, Browns (as mortal agents with access to mundane and magical weaponry), Witches, etc. fit this area.

What Interests a Supernatural Tourist?

Clint made the point at the start of this process that this heading was his "favorite sentence ever."   He perused the rules quickly and this jumped out at him. It is a neat idea. What brings outsiders to the town to cause trouble for the players (I would hope)? This was fairly easy at this point.   The Supernatural Salt Mine Prison has much to be desired within. Age old creatures held for decades just waiting to get out, relics or artifacts too dangerous for mortal or magical creatures to safely wield and the promise of total chaos if the doors are flung open (for creatures who get into that kind of thing).   We added "Weak gateway to the Nevernever" for Emerald Necklace as another point in favor of supernatural tourists stopping by.

Tying It All Together

Here is where we did a lot of backtracking. We then went back and took highlighted Locations and Faces and Organizations and created one or three Aspects to define them for future use. This will be noted in more detail in an entry devoted to just laying out the final "City Creation" format.   This was fun and very easy because so much of the "work" was done in hours of discussion.

And that was that. We covered the basics of City Creation. The first "draft" of Cleveland took only about an hour. We moved through the various sections speedily, paper flying. As Tate noted in another post, though, it didn't take long away from the discussion that we would slowly drift back to the Creation and blammo...another 30 minutes gone to decide if Art Modell (dang...fake names...ah...Bart Nodell...yeah...) was an evil mastermind or a dupe when he took the City Guardians from town for 3 years in the 90's (and like that, we have one easy roleplaying hook...who watched the city then?). Or whether or Blue Simmich really looks like that or if he is even more elfin when the glamour falls.   Why do the Cleveland Indians never win? That was easy...years of curses laid on by the Italians (look it up) in the past and more recently the Native Americans who protested the names. It went on and on and drifted into character creation discussions which we backed out of a bit until we get more information on how that will go (and how it might differ, if at all, from the Fate method).

Commentary:

I will post some final thoughts that we shared last night but I hope that Chris, Ben, Tate, Clint and Craig will throw down with their own thoughts on the process.

What worked?
- It was freakin' fun. No matter how chaotic it might have felt, the ideas and laughs flowed freely throughout the evening. This hearkened back to my first time creating characters in Fate (for Spirit of the Century). It was the hook that got me into Fate and I could see this City (or Setting) Creation portion being the hook for Dresden.
- Free association- With a group of smart and creative players, one idea stacked neatly (or not so neatly) on to another and the process, though listed with "headings" in the rules, allows for easy interplay between them.
-City created will have lots of play potential and for the most part contains ideas from everyone. Meaning that as GM, I have a better chance of hitting the kinds of stories and situations that these players want to experience.
-Collaborative- Needs to be stressed. This would not be nearly as fun to run this process by myself. Boring. It has to be done as a group and that is wonderful. I like that it is stressed in the current rules BEFORE character creation. Keep that in.
-I liked that the concept you start with is NOT "magical" in nature. Look at the city as a real place first and then give the "magic touch." There was a bit of discussion about how different it would be if we started with the magical concept first. I think it would have been different and not necessarily better but others liked the idea.   I think by avoiding that we actually avoided the easy folklore targets for Cleveland. So far, no mention of city classics like The Torso Murder (which, prior to this game night, was a likely candidate and it didn't even get a nod), Franklin Castle (haunted), Lake Monsters, Canadian Pirates (vicious, eh), Church of the Subgenius, etc.
-Couldn't stop. We could almost just do this for weeks instead of actual role playing. Almost.

What might have worked better or differently?

- Creation (or City) Sheet- While the majority of the crew seemed to dig the format, they also almost to a person said it would have been nice to have the hinted at "City Sheet" to use as a guide for the process.
- Jumped around a lot. It was fun for me but I don't know if this is a system thing or a me-thing but with so much crossover of ideas, it was tough to keep on track.   This was compared to the Fate character system that had distinct phases and moved smoothly from one to the other. It was a bit more "orderly." Again, I liked it but not everyone wants that level of creative chaos.
-More examples.   While the examples listed for the sections were helpful to those who read the books, more generic ones might have been nice. Also, there was a request for an Archetype for Cities as there looks to be for characters. Maybe "Urban Renewal City" or "Old World European City" or something along those lines. Not necessarily to use in game (though it would be nice to use if folks leave Cleveland in an adventure) but it also gives an idea what folks are looking for with the rules.
-it was very abstract- Someone posited that it would be interesting to do this more formally as in the Fate Character creation process. As example: Phase One: The City is Settled Phase Two: World at War, etc. How would it look, then?
-As noted above, someone points out that it might work better if we start with the story arc and build the city to fit it.
-Couldn't stop. I kind of kid because it was fun but I wonder if a more solid end point would be better? I have pages of notes I have to now put into a quick-read format (until a City Sheet comes around). Will it still work for those who contributed so much to the process?
- Not having the rest of the rules...in how this will tie-in with other rules, etc. This is a minor quibble. We know this is only a starting point. But Butcher's world aside, knowing how the magic system and other bits work might shade things differently. Maybe not worse or better but still.

Overall, we had a blast. I did, anyway. I will let my comrades make their own points about that. I have a ton to work with and I really can't wait to start in on the character creation process.

Thanks for reading this far. I hope it is helpful.

Take care!

Phil

PS For those wondering about why the other major sports franchise, the Cavs, haven't won...we couldn't come up with anything mystical so we are sticking with "they just suck."   :D

Burning Alpha Night #1: City Creation. Part One- Witness the Creative Process

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:17:28 GMT

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.

Choose Your City

This was the easiest part. We live in Cleveland, Ohio and the designers pointed out that doing the familiar might be the best way to start off. It wasn't necessary to choose it but the group was happy to look at the mystical side of Cleveland as our game setting.
For me personally, I always had in the back of my head that if we do Cleveland we have to answer a couple questions that address these Aspects: 1) Why did the River burn? and 2) Why can't Cleveland Sports teams win a championship? I was surprised by the answer.

Familiarize and Discuss/Sketch It Up

We didn't use an actual map for this portion. We are all familiar with the city (well, most of us) to discuss highlights of the town. This section suggests it, though, and it would be interesting to know how the process would be different if looking at an actual map. Though we didn't use one, I later started Google Map that will eventually contain some highlights of our discussion. It is mostly blank now but contains some of the ideas we touched on last night.   I will post it later along with the finalized description of the City (a separate entry).

The next steps call for some more detail, starting with "themes" for the City as a broad point moving down with more detail to actual locations, NPC's (or "Faces") and so on. At this point the discussion was mild and some weren't quite engaged. Some just started throwing out things that describe Cleveland and as noted in the rules these can become Aspects of the city. Ideas like "Rust Belt" and "Mistake on the Lake" were quick to come out followed soon by the more hopeful sounding "City on the Mend" and "City of Rock and Roll." Quirky Aspects that would mostly be known only to locals like "Cleveland +" and "Cleveland is a Plum" (from a failed PR campaign when a couple of my groups were kids and Cleveland wanted to compare itself to NYC...the Big Apple) started coming out followed by what would end up becoming the oddly appropriate theme for the evening, sports. "Cleveland Sports Teams Can't Win" was quickly followed by "There's Always Next Year." The list ended with the classic misstep in Cleveland history, "The Burning River."

While it started slow, the momentum of the group picked up by the end as ideas started to flow.   The rules next ask the players to pick out interesting Locations. This was a quick list of highlights of the area such as "The Flats" or "The Warehouse District" or "Tower City" or "Public Square." Some were more regional in flavor, like noting the "Amish Country" and "Shaker Square" vs. the more Cleveland-centered locations like "The West Side Market" and "Slavic Village." This section was quick and easy to digest and benefited from people having strong familiarity with the town. It would be interesting to see how fast this would go doing a town not known as well.

Concepts/Local Themes/Faces

This is where the discussion really took off and I found myself scribbling fast and furious to keep up. This was one of the first speed bumps in the process, too. At this point, the rules ask the players to discuss the "concept" of the city.   This was a tough idea to spin out as it seemed very similar to the overall Themes/Aspects we first discussed or the Local Themes we would dig into next. More on this at the end. Needless to say, we didn't do "Concepts" as written in the rules, per se.

Easier to discuss was "Local Themes." While we didn't approach it exactly as the rules suggested (not purposeful, it was more how our conversations flowed), we discussed Local Themes as more over-arching themes for the Region. The first my guys threw out was "Cultural Diversity and Segregations." Over time in Cleveland, the City's Poles, Slavs, Italians and Irish made way for today's influx of Asian cultures, Middle Eastern and Latino families moving in and setting up shop.   With few exceptions, many of these cultures stay fairly distinct and neighborhoods take on the look and flavors of these cultures.   The next was "Hidden Culture" which some pointed out was a defensive reaction to the mostly ignored local cultural highlights.   The Cleveland Orchestra is known the world over but most cities don't realize the depth of culture in the City that includes one of the largest collections of theaters outside of NYC or Chicago, world class museums and so on. "Rebuilding" was the first strong Local Theme that spun the conversation in the most directions at first (see below in "Touch of Magic").     The idea that a dying steel town like Cleveland has to rebuild and re-task itself to a new era and the conflict over this would create some of the more interesting discussions, both mundane and magical. The last Local Theme discussed was Sports. I quoted my friend Chris last night who basically said he would rather have heated religious or political discussions than talk Sports in Cleveland and at first we respected that idea. But the door was open and we soon elbowed our way through it.

Faces

This was a tough section for us to get through. We could (and did) talk Themes and ideas around them all night but coming up with "Faces" as discussed in the rules was tougher.    The rules state that they would like to have each "location and/or theme (to have a) face- an NPC or, less preferred or additionally, an organization that embodies the theme at that place."   Since we were still talking larger themes it was tough to bring it down the character level. We also wrestled with the idea of using publicly known figures with their real names (and we are protected by slander/libel since as public figures they can't fight the satire...I think...) or should we cloud their names in public to protect their...well, innocent they are not but still. I think I will err on the side of caution in these discussions. It also fits with Jim Butcher's world. I have read all the books and while he uses real locations here and there, he also shies away from politics, current events (for the most part) and actual people's names (outside of historical context). It is his world and we are invited to play in it so let's try his rules. At least, in discussion. Actual play may vary.

But back to the point of this roadblock. For us it was hard to jump from the larger picture and even some specifically cool locations to get to anything as small (but significant) as a playable NPC. I think that might come another night as we flesh these ideas out further or maybe even as a part of Character Creation (soon, Fred?? :-) ).    For now, we have some "Organizations" and a few larger-than-life faces who may have more to do as the game progresses. This is where we would jump back and forth to future sections of this chapter (see Part Two of the discussion...this is getting long...I need an editor...). So for here we have The Hermit Club (a real place) which we now made as a haven for a bunch of Faceless Suits who are essentially the embodiment of the leaning towards rebuilding a technological paradise at the expense of all things not money related. They would be, like Johnny Marcone in the books, aware of the magical world but not necessarily practitioners. The public Face of this would be a larger than life developer based on an actual larger than life developer who we decided to call Wolvenstein (closer to his real name than you might think).

On the side of the more eco-centric take is a group we are now collectively calling Druids who look to rebuild the city in ways more suitable for Fairy Folk (who already were happy to see a cold steel city like Cleveland begin to rust). Their public face is a local US Representative who we haven't found a name for yet but it rhymes with "Blue Simmich" and yes, we are thinking he really is an elf or some such fairy folk.   I mean, seriously. It's pretty obvious.

Touch of Magic

And this is where it all got unhinged. I have piles of yellow note paper that I hastily scratched words and phrases upon for the evening.   Here is where we backtracked to "Locations" and beefed up the various spots with some more history and context (which we would return to one last time at the end when Aspects were applied...kind of reverse engineering from the set rules).     The joke (or reality) is that I am basically Captain Chaos (Ben's word for me) when it comes to running games. Or gaming in general. This is why Fate has always been a favorite since Tate introduced it to our group last year. It doesn't concern itself with tables, charts, graphs, or supplements and focuses on the stuff I find most interesting such as character development and storytelling.   The fact that Dresden adds the bonus creative process to actually develop the setting in the same manner was heaven. But that doesn't change the fact that I sometimes conduct sessions like Bugs Bunny conducts an orchestra.   So I feel we came up with wildly creative ideas but at the same time lost more of the focus that some in our group might have appreciated. The substance is what is important, though, and as a game master for the game I feel that the process worked to get a) an interesting setting and b) the ideas of the entire group to work with. It also sparked at least two of the people to already have character concepts to play on.

But with this section, we "magicified" (yes, that is now a word) Cleveland and it took on a new shine that made a city we already loved into one we now wanted to explore anew (for me, anyway). Magical sounding names that already exist in Cleveland, like our Metropark system called "The Emerald Necklace" took on new meanings.   The park system which rings the entire region like, well, its namesake, is now infested with brownies of the Nevernever who made a deal with the city leaders in 1946 that allowed them free run of those woods. The necklace is a weak point between our world and the Nevernever and while the Brownies run free, the rest of it requires watch. Coventry, a cool artsy hipster part of an inner ring suburb now has a name taken from an old gathering place of local witch covens to gather peacefully to barter, negotiate, parley and meet with White Council Wardens as needed (to show they follow the 7 Rules of Magic). This once remote location called the Coven Tree (an enchanted Oak which was considered Accorded Neutral Ground) was overrun by the ever expanding city. The ground is still Accorded Neutral to those in the magical craft.

And so on. It just flowed (and still does...some of the above I have changed a bit since last night, interpreting and expanding it a bit to include more Dresdenverse references).   It was at this point in the story where Sports, the forbidden topic, reared its ugly and awesome head. It was here that we answered the two big Questions: Why can't Cleveland Sports teams Win a Championship and Why Did the River Burn.

Next time, though. My fingers are achin'. Part Two pretty soon.

Later,

fil

Burning Alpha: Pre-show. City Creation Introductions

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:56:17 GMT

"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.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Being one of the lucky Burning Alpha folks tasked to test and write about our experiences in this new game, I was excited to find that step one, a sort of pre-show event, had started. Our 6-week journey to play test the game hasn't "officially" begun but in the ways that matter most to my gaming crew, it certainly did tonight. To begin with, I need to talk about that crew. This is a group of guys that I have had the luck and joy to game with over the past half dozen years. Like many such groups we have been meeting nearly weekly to play a variety of game ranging from D&D 3.0/3.5, Warhammer, HK Action Cinema!, Shadowrun and even a smattering of some home-grown games. Of late, we fell in love with Fate with the introduction of the Spirit of the Century rule book and have been playing it much of the last year. Our last GM, Ben, has even posted his rules for a homespun Superhero campaign on the FateRPG Yahoo group (check it out!). We were just tying that game's last story knots and moving on to a new medieval fantasy game when the chance to partake in the Burning Alpha was dropped in our laps.

Our group is made up of two gents (self included) that have read all the Dresden books, one who has read one and three who have no idea what Dresden is or why he has files named after him. In fact, one our crew didn't get to read the e-mail that the game for tonight had changed since the City Creation rules came out so he was totally surprised at the new direction of the evening. But here is the great deal about it: it really worked. I tend to run a chaotic style RPG. I don't run the regular games and when I do I find (to me) that the games are fast and loose with an emphasis on spontaneity. This has led to some very fun sessions and others have led to disjointed and unsatisfying sessions. As a GM, I am still honing my craft and thankfully have a great group of players to try out new ideas, some that really fly and some that sink like the proverbial lead balloon.

I am going to follow with more detailed look at the process and finally with a rough draft of the collected creation called Cleveland. I am hoping my guys will post more thoughts along with these comments on this here journal. But the short and quick comment that I think encapsulated the night: "We can't stop!" What started as a quick exercise to work through this new rule ended up taking the entire session. Even when we paused to collectively chat about the process, we would tentatively bring up another small idea, a slight alteration of a concept and wham...another 30 minutes of the session was eaten up. For fans of the wonderful and deep character creation process in Fate/Spirit of the Century, this was a treat. We had a lot of questions and hit some speed bumps but for me, the guy who will end up having to run a game in the City of Cleveland, the possibilities from it are staggering. More soon (after some sleep, perchance to dream).

Later!

Alpha Testing: Feel the Burn (Dresden Files RPG)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:38:51 GMT

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