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A brief intro to the Dresdenverse and the RPG...

The Dresden Files RPG is based on a series of urban fantasy novels of the same name. The setting is a world much like our own but with various fantasy elements added. Unlike many urban fantasy novels the Dresden ones are plot, not porn, driven.

The vast majority of people in this world are normal humans. They don't believe in magic and when they see it they rationalise it as something else. Post a film of a battle with a werewolf on youtube and people will comment on how lame the special effects are. Show them magic and within a week or two and they will have convinced themselves that they were conned. There is no supernatural force behind this, merely humanity's need to see the world in rational terms. In theory the mortal authorities could be told about the supernatural, but this would spell disaster for the supernatural characters as humanity declares war on them. Getting normal humans involved in the supernatural struggles is often called "going nuclear" because of the risks involved. That said, in most cities there are a handful of cops (or other people) who know about the supernatural and deal with how it affects the rest of the world.

In this world there are full-blown wizards, sorcerers, and people with minor talents. Some, otherwise normal, people have faith to the point that they have Faith driven powers. Along side them are at least three different kinds of vampires (a fourth has been mention but not defined), ghouls, werewolves, and countless other monsters.
Note: all "full powered" wizards are part of the White Council. This council has declared that there are seven laws of magic and enforces them on all humans that use magic.

There is also a magical world that exists along with this one - called the Nevernever. The Nevernever can be entered by wizards, some sorcerers and minor talents, some monsters, and occasionally by accident. The real world doesn't map directly to the Nevernever - unless you experiment you don't know what is on the other side of the barrier. In this other world there are fairy kingdoms, spirits, monsters, demons, goblins - if you can imagine it then odds are it exists there.

While most of the fairies live in the Nevernever, some minor ones live in the real world. Fairies are basically broken into Summer Court, Winter Court, and "Other" (called Wyldfae) and the most powerful of them can't harm you unless you've entered into a deal with someone from fairy.

Virtually everything that lives in the Nevernever can interbreed with humans. The majority of these offspring are fairy half-breeds (called Changelings) who at some time in their life will have to make a choice - live as a normal person (giving up all their fairy powers) or become a full fairy (giving up their humanity and the bulk of their freewill). Others are descendant from other Things and are call Scions.

One of the reasons that humanity can remain ignorant of the various things out there is that most of the powerful groups of creatures have agreed to follow something called "The Unseelie Accords". These basically say that each group has total say over its own membership and define how they can peacefully co-exist. Most of it boils down to ignoring each other and letting every group get on with what they do. There are rules in there for duels, self defense, paying a wergild to settle transgressions, and what is a legitimate reason for war. An important thing to remember is that there is no spirit of the rules, only the letter, and some beings will twist the accord anyway they can. Both fairies courts, the White Council (a.k.a. the wizards), three vampire groups, and several Dragons have all signed on to the Accords.

As an example of how the Accords work, in the early Dresden books the hero (Harry Dresden, a wizard of the White Council) knows that there is a group of vampires in his city but cannot do anything about it unless they cross certain lines. He knows that he could battle them but if he attacked them outside of what is allowed by the Accords he would risk starting a war between the vampires and the White Council.

Oddly enough, most of the 'refined' monster types (vampires, fairies, etc) respect what could be called "Old World Manners". If you are an acknowledged guest they won't attack you and if they give you their word then they will keep it. Often you can avoid a fight with such a creature as long as you are polite and don't make a point of standing in their way.

Into this mix comes your PCs. You get to pick your template and powers and then join in the fun. Odds are you won't want normal people to know about any powers you have, but there are enough weird things out there that you won't feel alone. While some gaming groups might have a different focus, the setting assumes that you will be one of the people trying to keep the world safe from dark forces while keeping humanity ignorant of the things that go bump in the night.

A bit about the FATE system:
The FATE system isn't about dice rolls. While you make your characters (it's a group effort) you assign them Aspects. Aspects are hard to describe - they are kind of like Metaskills. They define who your character is and if an aspect says you can do something then odds are you can do it without dice rolls. If dice rolls are need you can 'tag' an aspect for a +2 bonus or a reroll. You can tag multiple aspects for every roll and you decide whether or not to tag them after you roll (and after rerolls), but every aspect can only be tagged once per roll. The first time you tag it you tag it for free, but after that you need to pay a FATE point to tag them.

FATE points drive the game. You start with so many of them (the more powers and stunts you buy the fewer you start with) and gain others during play. FATE points can be spent in many ways (gain a +1 for a roll, tag an Aspect for a +2, declare that you have something that you normally wouldn't have, etc) and are gained in various ways.

During play you can make Declarations - either through using a skill or paying a FATE point - which are things that add to the game. The GM has final say over what you can declare but generally speaking as long as it's interesting and adds to the story the GM will allow it.

Skills all have a word associated with them - something like Average, Good, Epic - and they basically describe how good you are when you use that skill. For example, if you have Investigation at Great you're at the level of the people on CSI.

During play you can (with GM permission) gain more powers and stunts, but this will cost you refresh points (which means starting play with fewer FATE points). But beware - refresh points are tied to the concept of freewill and should you ever reach zero refresh your character entered NPCdom.

1. Power Level

This part is pretty straight forward, power level determines templates that you have full access to, the number of skill points you get, and your skill cap.

For the sake of allowing the most flexibility with ideas you may have for a character I’m going with the power level of Submerged. This will give you 10 Fate points, 35 skill points, and a skill cap of Superb. Here, all the standard templates are available, and anything I would allow should fit into this with relative ease.

2. Your Idea

The standard templates are as follows:

Pure Mortal
You’re supernaturally mundane. You’re not going to turn into a werewolf, sport nine inch claws, or throw a fireball. Even though you don’t pack a supernatural oomph you can still be quite a force to be reckoned with. You get an addition two refresh, so by taking the template you have a base refresh of twelve. Though you don’t get to take any supernatural powers, you got plenty of places to spend your refresh with the mortal stunts which I’ll cover in a later post.

Champion of God
These individuals are rare mortal humans, whom actively are called into the Almighty’s service. Usually limited to the three Knights of the Cross, so you’ll have to make a case if you want this template. If your looking for faith to be the source of your power—which in this world is a 100% viable source of said power you make want to look at the True Believer template. If you take this template, your High Concept must make reference to it.

Changeling
These folks are half-human, half-faerie people and for the moment you’re living a mortal life. But for these individuals there stands a Choice. There is no real balance between the two, because the more you draw on your faerie heritage the closer you get to becoming a full fledge faerie. The more powers you take, the more you use your powers you change; you become more like your faerie heritage and at some you’ll lose your grip on humanity and fully change. Any time up to that final transformation, you can make the decision to become a full human and essentially swap this template out for the pure mortal one. Often, because changing into a full faerie and turn your character into an NPC if the refresh cost is high enough. This also means you’ll have the same weaknesses as your faerie heritage, but we’ll get more into this if you take this as your template. Furthermore, your high concept will need to reflect your faerie blood.

Emissary of Power
This template means that by some bargain a major power in the supernatural world has saddled you up with responsibilities and some of the power they represent. Normally, this takes the form of an item that allows you to tap into the power of their patron and bring it to bear for themselves and on their patron’s behalf. These characters can be in some pretty bleak circumstances depending on their patron, because while essentially being the help, often times the patron themselves can exert near total control if they wish over you. This makes them an active player in your own characters lives. With this template you must have a high concept that reflects your position of emissary.

Focused Practitioner
These are the minor-league practitioners as it were. These casters have—for one reason or another—a specific aptitude of spellcraft that they practice to the exclusion of all others. More often then not there understanding of magic is an intuitive one rather than a trained one, sometimes it’s a matter of a ‘mystical blind-spot’ that there focus is so narrow. The important thing is each focused practitioner is different from the next with spellcasting abilities focused around a particular theme. Pyromancers for example only do magic involving fire. Another example is Kinetomancers whose spell ability is focused around the use of force. Alchemists are another example of this template. It’s all a matter of what you want to focus on. So it’s pretty much coming up with an idea and figuring out how to define it. You’ll need to take a high concept that references this template in some way. The rest we’ll take care of.

Knight of a Faerie Court
Firstly I’ll just start off by saying typically; there are only two of these, one for each court. Winter and Summer Court, both have their knights and the position isn’t typically a long lived one. The only way out of it, is death. These mortals are bound body and soul to adhere to the world of the Mother, Queen, and Lady of their respective court. These positions exist merely because humans have one thing that those of the Faerie Courts don’t, free will; so a court’s knight can simply do certain things that the court simply can’t. Your high concept will have to reflect your status as a knight and you’ll have to make a case to me to actually take the position, because both slots are currently filled in the Dresdenverse. It isn’t however out of the question.

Lycanthrope
These are not werewolves; they do however share some traits. Where werewolves change their bodies, lycanthropes only change their mind. Essentially a Lycanthrope aligns their thoughts and senses with that of a beast. While not necessarily as scary—at first at least—as someone wolfing out in front of you, these guys tend to be serious for lack of a better term badasses. For the most part a majority of their powers aren’t at full strength except for five days out of the month—starting at two days before the full moon, and ending two days after. Know that you will have to have a high concept that reflects this template. Oh and if you want a real example of one of these guys, think of Viking berserkers. Some of them at least were likely Lycanthropes.

Minor Talents
Whether from long forgotten inhuman bloodlines, exposure to the supernatural, or the right combination of willpower and belief, these individuals possess small, limited powers. Basically, these individuals don’t have a lot of mojo, but can be very affective with the right individual. This is good for someone who wants a little supernatural trick up their sleeve. Your high concept must reflect this.

Red Court Infected
Red Court Vampires are nasty; they are bat-like beings inside a flesh mask (typically a beautiful one) with narcotic saliva and feed on blood. They can infect a human being with a bite which usually sets that individual on an inevitable path towards becoming a full fledged vampire, but that doesn’t happen to they kill. If a person can control the almost uncontrollable hunger for blood, they can lead an almost normal life…at least for a while. If an infected is particularly lucky, they find their way to the Fellowship of St. Giles—a secret organization who uses magical tattoos to help their members control the urge to feed. This organization, however, tends to be very demanding of its members. As you might guess, your high concept must reflect this template.

Sorcerer
This is the term the White Council uses to describe full fledge spellcasters who are self-taught. These guys are usually dabbling in some gray if not outright black magic, which is a major no-no to the White Council and could leave you dead if caught. The important thing is to keep your nose clean and since you aren’t a member of the White Council, you have some extra freedoms. High concept must reflect this template.

True Believer
Faith has power, and your one of the individuals who can harness this and if applied correctly can turn the tide when matched up against the forces of darkness. Your high concept must reflect this and remember; while these characters may not be supernatural heavyweights, they can still give pause to a lot of beings from the Nevernever.

Were-form
As you might be able to guess, these characters (human or otherwise) can turn physically into a beast of some kind. Someone with a were-form is usually totally in control of your power, so there is none of the full moon business. Your high template must reflect this.

White Court Vampire
Though they may be the weakest of the different vampires, they are no less dangerous. Where other vampires feed on blood, these guys feed on emotion. Also worth noting, your born this way, a character can’t just be made into one. Though the emotion they feed on can very, the most common one known is lust, and these vampires can incite the emotion in people that they feed on. It’s also worth noting that if they feed long enough, they can kill you. Your high concept must reflect this.

White Court Virgin
This is what a White Court vampire is when they’re born and they don’t fully turn until they kill. Thus, most are kept in the dark about their heritage so when the time comes that their hunger kicks in, they don’t know enough to stop. There is an escape clause though, if they fall into true, deep, and reciprocated love, the curse of their heritage can be broken and they can become full humans. Must have a high concept indicating their heritage, whether they know it or not.

Wizard
Yours in an ancient bloodline, heir to the magics of old and able to command their full array, given enough time and education. With enough preparation and belief, there is very little a wizard cannot do. However, you’re a part of the White Council, and they keep tabs on their wizards making you practically walking contraband. If you step out of line the full weight of the council can come down on you, usually at the end of a Wardens (basically magic cops) sword. Every wizard is different as they approach magic in unique ways with different aptitudes and focuses. Your high concept must reflect this template.

Note: Each template usually comes with a set of musts other than just the high concept requirement and I’ll go over them with you when you choose which you’d like to use. Also note, if you have an idea that doesn’t necessarily fit in with these templates we can work on it to make it possible.


This is essentially taking your template and renaming it to fit your unique character. This is the what and who your character is. It is also an aspect, one of your first and most important ones. Think of this aspect as your job, your role in life, or your calling. Do that and you should be able to come up with a good one. Just remember, a aspect is supposed to be a boon and potentially a hindrance, and don’t over complicate it.

Example
Harry Dresden, template wizard. He is a private investigator in Chicago. Thus, his high concept is Wizard Private Eye.


Every character has a trouble, and it can take many, many forms. They do usually take the form of an internal struggle for your character or an external one, plus it could be a mixture of both. Just remember, this aspect is supposed to be what basically complicates life for your character. In short your trouble will ultimately make your character a stronger person as troubles leave you vulnerable and cajoled; it also has no easy solution to be rid of it. Sometimes these are about your darker side, perhaps your loved ones, or even something you’ve brought down upon yourself.

Example
Harry Dresden’s trouble is Temptation of Power.


If you haven’t already named your character, now is the time to do it. It’s whatever you want, but don’t overlook the fact that names can have a kind of poetry to them saying a little bit about who you are.




The section is about covering your characters youth, and if your character will be in his 20-30s it’ll also cover some of your young adulthood. This is the time of your life that in an abstract sense, grounds you as a normal person. Consider answering these questions when working on this section: What nation is your character from? What region? What culture? What were his family’s circumstances like? (Rich? Poor? Scholarly? Isolated? Pious? Political?) How big is the family? (Small? Average? Large? Very large?) What’s your character’s relationship with his family? (Loving and close? Volatile? Non-existent?) How was your character educated? What were your character’s friend like? Did your character get into much trouble in his youth? If your character is supernatural, how early in his history did he learn this? Did it cause problems?

When you’re done writing the summery your going to have to come up with an aspect for this section as well. Now, consider—when coming up with this aspect—looking the important events that happened during this time for your character, or look to his upbringing, his family, his culture, etc.


Consider this phase your middle history, when your high concept comes to the forefront. Your character comes into their own during this phase and starts to realize their potential, their purpose. Maybe this is when your supernatural powers awaken. Maybe during this time you’re faced with your first serious situation where you have to choose between right and wrong. Here are some questions to consider answering: Who were the prominent people in your character’s life at this point? Does he have enemies? Close and fast friends? How did your character’s high concept and trouble aspects shape him and the events around him? (Assuming your character came into his high concept and trouble by this point.) What were the most significant choices your character made? What lessons did this time period teach your character? After your done with the summary come up with an aspect for this section.


This is your characters first adventure. Title it and come up with the basic details for it. This doesn’t have to be fancy with lots of details, just a few sentences because two other characters are going to co-star in it. You'll come up with an aspect for this section as well.

Example
Storm Front
When a series of grisly supernatural murders tears through Chicago, wizard Harry Dresden sets out to find the killer. But will Harry succeed when he finds himself pitted against a dark wizard, a Warden of the White Council, a vicious gang war, and the Chicago Police Department?



So in the last phase you came up with your first adventure, in guest starring one and two we’ll swap stories with another player where they’ll throw in their own addition to the story. For each part you play, you’ll come up with another aspect. Keep in mind supporting roles follow a similar trend; either they complicate things, solve a problem, or both. No one stars in the same story twice, but we’ll sort out all that when everyone is on the same

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