Dresden Files RPG

[sabrinathecat]

Sorry if there was already a thread on this, but I didn't see in in the first 3 pages.

The Dresden Files RPG: How is it? Any good? What's the die mechanic? Play well? What's the set-up? Does it suppose any basics for scenery or chronological placement within the series? Character Types? Templates?

In short, how does it work? (Does it work?)

I'm a big fan of the WEG D6 system for fast&loose games, and enjoy the 4E (NOT essentials) D&D. Nightlife had a good world, but clumsy mechanics. Champions was great for accountants.
Where does this one fit?

 

[Crothian]

The game is very good, but it is different. I used it for running one shots for over a year and some people caught on fast and it was great and other people struggled with it and then it was not so great.

The die mechanic is fudge. There are aspects for building characters, physical mental and social conflicts. I imagine a google search will find someone who has summarized the rules as there are plenty that are unusual. There are for instance city building rules that everyone playing the game should take part in so that the setting is a combined effort of all.

It does not assume anything in the books has happened and does a good job of staying spoiler free though it does have some NPCs and monsters from the books presented in the RPG.

 

[MarkB]

Character creation is also a collaborative process, which uses formative experiences from the character's past to generate Aspects, and creates links between characters in their backstories.

I've played several one-shots and am in my second campaign with the system, and it plays well. A single unified game-mechanic backed up by plenty of options in character customisation.

 

[Treebore]

The game is very good, but it is different. I used it for running one shots for over a year and some people caught on fast and it was great and other people struggled with it and then it was not so great.

The die mechanic is fudge. There are aspects for building characters, physical mental and social conflicts. I imagine a google search will find someone who has summarized the rules as there are plenty that are unusual. There are for instance city building rules that everyone playing the game should take part in so that the setting is a combined effort of all.

It does not assume anything in the books has happened and does a good job of staying spoiler free though it does have some NPCs and monsters from the books presented in the RPG.

It would be more accurate to call it FATE now, since it has evolved a lot since it was commonly called "fudge",

As for the rules you can get a god idea looking up the FATE SRD for Spiriit of the Century. In fact, since I have it bookmarked, I'll give you the link that directly opens a PDF:

http://www.faterpg.com/dl/sotc_srd.pdf


It is very good and does an excellent job of evoking the atmospheric feel of the book series. Its been lots of fun to play.

 

[Shieldhaven]

My gaming group very much enjoyed the two sessions of Dresden Files we played. (It was only ever intended to be a short-run game - it was not because we were not having fun that it ended at two sessions.)

My two blog posts reviewing it are here: Harbinger of Doom: Dresden Files RPG: Eyewitness Testimony

and Harbinger of Doom: Dresden Files RPG: First Combat.

Haven

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I've been in a fairly long-running Dresden FATE game. We were already familiar with FATE (including group character and setting generation), but most of us were not familiar with the setting, creating the usual problems. I've read 5 Dresden books in total, and only one before we started play.

As for the rules, I think they worked pretty well. We ran into two issues:

1) Thaumaturgy was far more complicated than any other part of the rules system, and required a tremendous amount of DM fiat. I recall the rules for a future-seeing spell as requiring as many shifts as the numbers of successes needed to make a skill check that could give you the same info. Fairly reasonable; thaumaturgy was powerful, but you had to pay for it. How many successes do you need to get info that you can only get by seeing the future? (Good thing we weren't into that.)

2) The number of refresh points was ... odd. We were given 10 points to spend, and virtually everyone spent 8 or 9 points on character abilities and so only got one or two rerolls or fate points per session. I honestly felt it would have been better if the DM had said we could only spend 5 refresh on abilities. (I think the wizard package was 5 or even 7 points though! Only one of us was a wizard at start. Another character was a "sorcerer" who drew a lot of White Council attention.)

 

[Dragonblade]

I'm going to disagree with some of the prior posters. I think the Dresden Files RPG is an unplayable train wreck.

The world, of course, is awesome. But I hate FATE and I think it doesn't work for the Dresden-verse at all. The first major issue with the game is the layout of the book. Its sort of designed to explain the game as you read it. But then they start referring to stuff you haven't read about yet which makes it so confusing I think their approach fails.

And the layout of the book is a nightmare to find anything if you need to reference a rule in play with critical information buried in the text and scattered throughout the rulebook.

My other issue is the system itself. You need Fate points to really be effective at anything because everything in the system depends upon you spending them and spending them frequently. And thats one of the big problems.

In theory, you are only supposed to need them to boost yourself from competent to good, or even awesome. In practice, you need to burn through fate points just to even be competent at things you should be able to do, let alone spending them to be awesome. Even with the GM letting them flow like water, the players felt like they were barely competent for about half a scene before completely sucking for the rest of it.

The FATE dice also adds too much variability. Now matter how good or bad you are, a roll can take a 1 to a 5, or vice versa. And once again, you need to burn through Fate points just to keep the dice from screwing you over, let alone actually spend Fate points just to be cool.

Then there is the damage system. Way too binary and way too deadly. A hit is either totally inconsequential, or your are staring at your entrails on the street in front of you. In the books, Dresden regularly takes on and survives foes tougher than he is. In the game, a single ghoul can TPK your whole party in no time. Its just ridiculous. And yes, that happened in our game.

Finally we decided we had enough and converted our game to True20, a ruleset that is vastly more suited to the Dresden-verse, than FATE, IMO. And we had a lot more fun after that.

 

[Treebore]

I'm going to disagree with some of the prior posters. I think the Dresden Files RPG is an unplayable train wreck.

The world, of course, is awesome. But I hate FATE and I think it doesn't work for the Dresden-verse at all. The first major issue with the game is the layout of the book. Its sort of designed to explain the game as you read it. But then they start referring to stuff you haven't read about yet which makes it so confusing I think their approach fails.

And the layout of the book is a nightmare to find anything if you need to reference a rule in play with critical information buried in the text and scattered throughout the rulebook.

My other issue is the system itself. You need Fate points to really be effective at anything because everything in the system depends upon you spending them and spending them frequently. And thats one of the big problems.

In theory, you are only supposed to need them to boost yourself from competent to good, or even awesome. In practice, you need to burn through fate points just to even be competent at things you should be able to do, let alone spending them to be awesome. Even with the GM letting them flow like water, the players felt like they were barely competent for about half a scene before completely sucking for the rest of it.

The FATE dice also adds too much variability. Now matter how good or bad you are, a roll can take a 1 to a 5, or vice versa. And once again, you need to burn through Fate points just to keep the dice from screwing you over, let alone actually spend Fate points just to be cool.

Then there is the damage system. Way too binary and way too deadly. A hit is either totally inconsequential, or your are staring at your entrails on the street in front of you. In the books, Dresden regularly takes on and survives foes tougher than he is. In the game, a single ghoul can TPK your whole party in no time. Its just ridiculous. And yes, that happened in our game.

Finally we decided we had enough and converted our game to True20, a ruleset that is vastly more suited to the Dresden-verse, than FATE, IMO. And we had a lot more fun after that.

1

Wow.

Do any of you guys go to conventions? If so I suggest you get into a Dresden Game there.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Ok, the character creation detailed in that link has me just cringing, wondering what the hell the writers were thinking. Looks like I'll save my $. Thanks.

 

[Dragonblade]

Ok, the character creation detailed in that link has me just cringing, wondering what the hell the writers were thinking. Looks like I'll save my $. Thanks.

If you are a hardcore Dresden fan, like me, its worth having the books to sit on your shelf next to all your Dresden hardbacks and paperbacks. The character and city creation process are fun, and if you live in any sort of decent size city, I strongly recommend setting your game there. Its more fun when supernatural hijinks ensue in a place all the players are intimately familiar with in the real world.

But yeah, I recommend ditching FATE and using another system of your choice. Something rules light like True20 or Savage Worlds are both good fits for Dresden, IMO.