Dresden Files RPG: Initial Glance

I am going to begin this with a few disclaimers so you understand can better understand my perspective with regards to my initial glance at these books, starting with the disclosure that before buying these, I knew almost nothing about the series.

I spend a lot of time on EN World, and it (Dresden Files info) came up from time to time there (more frequently recently, I assume this was due to the release drawing near). From what I gathered/skimmed, there was a detective in Chicago who knew magic and fought some evil stuff. I knew there were novels, and an RPG in the works that people were excited about. I even recall seeing (I think) a page or two released in PDF form as a preview. This was the extent of my knowledge before buying the Dresden Files RPG books yesterday.

My second disclosure is that I am a D&D fan to the core. It is just about all I play. I have played all editions, and like them all for various reasons. I have no real favorite edition, and WoTC pretty much has my money as long as they put “D&D” on it. I have never played anything using the Fate system (though I pulled “Aspects” into my D&D campaign – more on that another time if anyone is interested).

My final disclosure is that I am not a “reviewer”. I do not and in fact have not really reviewed any RPG product in the sense of the word I am accustomed to. I’m not very thorough when it comes investigating books for strengths and weaknesses. I am easily distracted by shiny things, am quick to overlook problems, and am generally excited by anything new to me from the RPG world. So as you can see, I would be a terrible reviewer.

With that said, I’m going to let you in on my first glance at these…

Two Books, That’s It

There are two books to be had and they seem to serve the usual purpose of any RPG’s initial books.

The first book is called “Volume One: Your Story” and essentially has all the stuff you need as a player and as a GM. For you D&D players out there, think PHB and DMG mashed together (in fact, imagine them together to get an idea of the size of this book as well).

The second book is called “Volume Two: Our World” and it covers various factions, creatures and information on Chicago. This is the setting book essentially.

After taxes, the books came to $98, which I think is pretty fair for an “all you need” kind of thing (I paid more for D&D after all).

What I’m Diggin’

I haven’t had a ton of time to go through these yet – I have read some sections entirely, and skimmed others, so for now I will just mention 3 items that I have really liked or think will come in handy for me. They won’t be new to many people familiar with the system, but they are to me for the most part…

…Aspects

I really enjoy Aspects, and as I mentioned I pulled them into my 4e D&D campaign already. However, the first book has almost 20 pages dedicated to the subject! Aspects were something that a few of my players had some trouble wrapping their heads around. In fact, in this book they address freezing up when trying to think of Aspects (it’s addressed a few times) and how to help in that situation which is really cool.

Example Aspects always help, and there is a lot of them to see not only in this section, but throughout the books.

This section also talks about Aspects you can “create or discover” in a scene which was intriguing. For those more familiar with the FATE system, this might be old news, but I don’t recall seeing it before. It could be just that I took only what I wanted for my D&D game and disregarded/forgot the rest though, I can’t be certain.

Along those lines, Aspects seem to be things that can be applied to someone as a ‘consequence’ to taking more ‘stress’ (Damage for us D&D people) than they can handle. For example, a consequence could be “Broken Ribs” that the one inflicting them can ‘tag’ (invoking for free the first time).

Very cool stuff, even if I am not 100% familiar with it all yet.

…Co-operative Character Creation

I saw some of this when looking into FATE a while back, but seeing it again was really inspiring. The idea of using the first game session as a co-operative character building game is really cool. It jumps you right into the game and establishes real connections that are experienced, and not just noted.

This is done across 5 phases

1. Where did you come from? (Background). In this phase, you establish what occurred during your character’s youth.

2. What shaped you? (Rising Conflict). This phase covers what they call the “middle history” of your character – the period where he/she starts coming into their own.

3. What was your first adventure? (The Story). Here, you determine what your characters first real adventure was… yea, you probably got that already.

4. Whose path have you crossed? (Guest Starring). This is where things get interesting as this is a phase where you connect yourself to other players. They suggest passing your “Story” (#3 above) to the player to your left (or drawing them randomly etc). You then discuss the story you were handed with the player who it belongs to, working on ways in which you might have been involved – how, when, why etc.

5. Who else’s path have you crossed? (Guest Starring Redux). This is the same as step #4 except that this must be someone other than the one who “crossed your path” in step #4.

This process is an excellent exercise in character building, and really it’s something you could do in any RPG.

…The Nevernever

The Nevernever is another realm or dimension that is connected to our world. I immediately thought of the Feywild here as far as the relation between this other realm and the material plane. This realm is home to many creatures including Faeries and more.

The possibilities are endless here, and in fact I could not find much information on the realm at all, thought there was a brief bit about how GM’s should “stuff her own personal Nevernever to the gills with” whatever she chooses, no matter how bizarre.To Conclude

I am very stoked about this game. I had one of my D&D players bring it up recently and all I could say was, “yea, I have heard of it – and what I am hearing is good, but I don’t know much”. So, when the girl at the counter mentioned she really loved the books, I had to admit that I really didn’t know much… that I was simply spending $98 on what I hoped would be cool, but I would at least read through for ideas if nothing else.

I’m glad to say that I do indeed plan on putting together a game very soon.

More to come.

DISCLAIMER #4: One more note – I typed this up quickly on my father’s relic of a computer. It’s not edited, I didn’t give it a read-through, and I’m sure it’s full of mistakes in grammar, spelling and even knowledge of the game itself. I apologize in advance.