Dresden Files: The City of Lost Sleep

Hey folks, thinking about running a game set in the Dresden Files university using the DFiles RPG system put out by Evil Hat. I've picked up the source books for which and it's a pretty neat system with a lot of flexibility and some interesting approaches to game design and play. There's going to be investigative aspects to the game, and probably a fair amount of action, but frankly I want this to be a Role Playing Game first and foremost, and if the entire "party" ends up spending a month having meaningful character interaction around a bar table at the New York equivalent to MacAnally's I'm fine with that.

***POSSIBLE SERIES SPOILERS AHEAD. PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE SERIES UP TO SKIN GAME

Setting: The game takes place in New York City, shortly after the events of Skin Game (not that a random heist in Chicago will affect the game or anything, no, it's just for chronological context). I'm still laying out the details of the setting (DFRPG has a REALLY detailed City Creation mechanic that can involve the players themselves, that I'm sitting down and working with now)

Characters: For anyone with a passing familiarity with the system, we'll be using the Up To The Waist Power Level for the game. Player characters are either vanilla mortals who have recently cottoned to the supernatural, or relatively weak or inexperienced members of the supernatural community, either from the Big Apple itself or having recently arrived in the city. It's assumed your characters have a passing, if recent and incomplete, familiarity with the weirder side of the world. DFRPG has rules to make this a collaborative process, in the sense that players are encouraged to work out character details together so that linking points between different characters can be created, to form a common and shared history, and if that's what people want to go with I'm completely down, and we can add in a bunch of players and then sit down in the game forums to actually make characters, rather than having you submit characters in advance.
Ideally, I'd like for us to be able to work out a shared backstory that lets you all know each other in advance, even if in passing.

Plot: Players will be dealing with a recent bout of chronic insomnia, having kept you all up for the past few days and unable to find meaningful rest. Several other members of the supernatural community local to NYC have reported similar sleeping problems, though anyone with access to the Paranet can tell that the problem seems localized to the Big Apple so far. While this has so far had no major adverse effects other than some impairment and an increase in general irritability, if it keeps up it could start to cause real problems for you.

Please post if you're interested, and I'll start setting the game up if there's interest. It'll likely be a Custom game for now, until such time as Gamers Plane sets up Dresden Files character sheets.

Double Post, don't know how to remove this, but Ro if you see this please delete.

You know I am in. Already forged a concept.

Name: Jean-Paul LaCroix
Template: Emissary of Power
High Concept: A witch-doctorate in Anthropology
Trouble: Everyone's a Critic

Short Summary: A professor of Anthropology at Pace University who has a fascination with the occult and primitive religions. In the early years of his career this became an obsession. Having grown up in New Orleans Jean-Paul's primary interest was Haitian Vodou and as such he traveled to Haiti while doing his doctorate to study the religion. In his time there he came into contact with an otherworldly entity that offered to teach him true magic in exchange for its freedom. He believes this to be the Loa Baron Semidi but the truth is far more sinister and unknowable. The character has since learned Thaumaturgy using Vodou has his methods. The character specializes in crafting, specifically potions and enchanted items. Jean-Paul has no evocation ability, but does posses The Sight. The "loa" remains trapped in an artifact in Jean's office and acts as Jean's primary connection to the occult. Jean continues his research into Thaumaturgy guided by the "loa" who ultimately seeks true freedom. He is unaware he is being manipulated. The character is weak in combat and physical activity but has a high lore skill and is a fairly skilled Thaumaturge considering his current "level". The total refresh at this point is -4. As can be expected many of his colleagues believe he has gone off the deep end. Jean spends much time in his office surrounded by strange artifacts and books and spends more time studying the occult than Anthropology. His interests have crept into his lessons and he has a following of students becoming dangerously interested in the occult. He also is a fairly attractive young man with a more than approved closeness to his female students who make up much of his following. His career is beginning to suffer and many skeptics and critics are pushing to terminate him despite his tenure.

I also have to take Marked by Power which is a -1 refresh so my character's final refresh will be 1.

Sounds good!

I'll need to post an in-depth description, but for now I'm thinking I'd like to become a Venator at some point. I'll need to think more about my powerset.

Note, gonna see if GP gets the DFRPG sheets up by Tuesday. If that happens look for the game as a DFRPG game. If not, it'll still go up Tuesday night as a Custom game, and we'll worry about migrating over if we have to.

Looking forward to it. As long as you are ok with my concept I will start creating the actual character

Oh yeah. I'm down for that. When we sit down to nail down character details I'd like to work with you guys on the city creation and chargen so that we've got some connective tissue between the characters. I'm also toying with the idea of reworking the plot (I picked it because I really liked the name, but I'm having trouble developing a really good hook for how or why you'd all be investigating this), but I'm less sure on that.

Oddly enough, while we won't be able to use this in the near future, an announcement came out last week on Jim's site that they're publishing an expansion called the Paranet Papers in early 2015.

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So uh, looks like game creation is broken, at least for Custom games. Until that gets resolved we'll keep discussion on characters and such here.

Game's up as a Custom game. If you haven't already and are interested in playing, please post here with your intention to play prior to applying to join the game.

Applied and ready for city generation.

Oh, Azz, quick thing I just wanted to point out, and I'm only nitpicking this because I'm in Academia myself, but if your character's got tenure as a professor, he's pretty much guaranteed to be at least 35.

Was the intention to be about so. In the modern world 35 is still young.

Granted, I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.

Also, woot, now I feel young.

Same page indeed, and now that we are climbing the old age ladder I thought you could use a reminder of your youth.

Not seeing the forum for this game. Is it intentionally hidden right now or is it bugging?

It was a bug, I fixed it.

Name: Riley Dangerfield
Template: Sorcerer
High-Concept: Hero for Hire / Anti-Hero
Trouble: "Family" Ties

Riley Dangerfield emigrated from his family in northern NJ after barely graduating high school. He has since been servicing and taking advantage of various immigrant populations around the boroughs of NYC. Riley is always on the move and finds forging new relationships outside of his extended family difficult. Riley has a gift with persuasion and getting his way, honestly or otherwise.

Posts have been up in the game forum for a few days now. Take a look, guys.