Dresden Primer

[TheUdjat]

Okay, I'll put it in novel terms.

Wizards do tend to have 'rotes', or pre-planned spells that they use frequently. Mechanically, they get a slight advantage to using these preset spells, namely that the mental stress is fixed at 1 point and they don't need to roll to control (this is set at their Discipline in shifts of power, I believe, meaning the player is assuming a +0 effort on the roll; average). In Dresden's case, this would include the famous Fuego, his Shield spell, and Ventas Servitas. His Lore being Good (+3), I believe he gets 3 of these rote spells.

Now, there are many situations where Dresden's going to need more than these three spells. They cover basic combat and such, but he will have to wing it on the fly--and does so on many occasions. At those times, he's basically throwing together a spell in the heat of the moment, perhaps using one of his rote spells as a template, bending it to work, and then letting the magic fly and hoping to control it.

And that's magic in DFRPG. You figure out description-wise what you want the effect to be in the game world, then you piece together the mechanics. But everything boils down to a small, neat list of mechanical possibilities that can be applied to an infinite range of circumstances, providing for a very flexible and very simple system of magic.

[Ogremind]

So, a single "spell" (or rote, of which a wizard has a number equal to his lore), is basically defined by it's Type, which is some selection of its element, and whether it is offensive or defensive, an attack, a block or a counter. Except that some of them are able to be more than one of those -- does that mean it is technically more than one rote? Is the number of shifts free, or does being able to change that on the fly take up another rote?
Additionally, any spell can be made up on the fly, with no rules making this easier or more difficult from one wizard to the next.

It occurs to me that I've gone rather far afield from what I necessarily need to know for an item creating character. Would each item be treated as a single rote?

[Deekin]

Dec 8, 2010 12:20:51 GMT -5 Ogremind said:

So, a single "spell" (or rote, of which a wizard has a number equal to his lore), is basically defined by it's Type, which is some selection of its element, and whether it is offensive or defensive, an attack, a block or a counter. Except that some of them are able to be more than one of those -- does that mean it is technically more than one rote? Is the number of shifts free, or does being able to change that on the fly take up another rote?
Additionally, any spell can be made up on the fly, with no rules making this easier or more difficult from one wizard to the next.

It occurs to me that I've gone rather far afield from what I necessarily need to know for an item creating character. Would each item be treated as a single rote?

Yep, you have the basics of spellcasting.

Nope, that's a side rule about redirecting magical forces, and Carlos's player being clever. With a rote, you get a number of Shifts of power equal to your Conviction (Lore for magic items)

You can't change the power of Rote. When freecasting, you can call on more power, but you take an additional point of mental stress for each power over your Conviction.

And some spells are more difficult, due to full wizards having specialization in various elements, and difficulty with other. The Evocation power doesn't give access to all 5 elements, after all. Just 3, and a specialization bonus in one.

The GM can also compel aspects that might indicate that you don't have full master of an area, like Dresden'sNot so subtle, still quick to angeraspect to make his Veils not work out so good.

[Ogremind]

All right. Now, how would that apply to item creation?
And what are the 5 elements?

[Deekin]

Dec 12, 2010 13:12:32 GMT -5 Ogremind said:

All right. Now, how would that apply to item creation?
And what are the 5 elements?

It doesn't really. Items are items, and while mechanicly the same as spells, in that you have a number of shifts of power equal to your lore.

However, with items, you can do near anything, so you arn't limited to 3 elements

The elements Dresden uses are the hermetic Fire Earth Wind Water Spirit.

Other Traditions may vary.

[Yakumo]

Waiting on theudjat to see if he has an extra open slot for me, but my character concept so far:

Reginald Brandt III
Pure Mortal Template
High Concept: Mortal-Blooded twin from a family of wizards. (As in his twin got all the power and he got shafted)
Trouble: What I do is never enough. (Something of a inferiority complex as well as a drive to impress)

I'm thinking for the background he'll be the blacksheep of the family/disinherited.
I'd like to make him some sort of small time criminal for the supernatural world with a day job as like a librarian. Keeping his contacts from the supernatural world while trying to compete with his twin in anyway he can as a mortal.

Ideas/thoughts/etc?

[TheUdjat]

Ogre: An item is a spell-in-a-box. To avoid getting further confused, that's really the best way to think of it.

As Deekin suggested, your list of 'Element' can vary depending on tradition. Magic isn't so rigidly defined. For the purposes of the rpg, it's probably easiest to stick with the traditional Western hierarchy of elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Spirit.

Yakumo: I don't really have 'slots' so much as 'attention span', but it kinda varies anyway. Welcome aboard. The concept sounds neat. A full mortal from a family of magic, using his know-how to find a niche in the criminal underground, essentially using experience and knowledge to inform others--for a fee. Is that the basic gist of it? I can give you more info on how a magical lineage might work--it gets tricky with things like wizard lifespans, but certainly not prohibitive. Although there'd probably be some danger being even 'clued in' from one's family, if the character's not a wizard. The Council would not approve of family doing that (but, hey, no reason they couldn't have gone against the grain there--gives them more reason not to do anything about their wayward child, as simply admitting he knows so much would get them into trouble).

Fill me in on what I'm missing.

[Yakumo]

I was thinking that he would be both informant and hands on - I'm thinking my first adventure will be one of his more hands on jobs.

I'm not 100% on how the lineage stuff works, but I thought a good excuse would be the twin sibling - If the twin was a wizard or had significant magical talent, perhaps it might follow that in the development stages as a fetus when the embryos split one got the magic and the other didn't.

As for the council approval and him being clued it, I feel like I read somewhere that magical talent doesn't start showing until early adolescence - in which case perhaps the family jumped the gun in that they started training the two early, or just educating them, and when only one twin showed supernatural powers the other was shunted out.

What do you think?

[menatkhufu]

Hello people. =) I was slow to read all of this, and I cannot swallow all the data contained within at a time. So, I will start with answering your first post here, dear Udjat. As always, I will shape my character according to (your) suggestions. That is, if you want another player.

1- Novels: I don't like novels. My favourite story is "The Young Prince" from "A House of Pomegranates" from Oscar Wilde. I like it for its outlandish and sensual descriptions of beauty.

2- Movies: My favourite piece of art is "Oldboy". followed by "V for Vendetta". Oldboy is unique for me because of showing how void moral values and social norms can be, when compared to overwhelming feelings. There's the untraditional vengeance concept which I highly favor. My favourite character in the film is Woo-Jin Lee and my favourite motif is "Be it a rock or a grain of sand, in water they sink as the same.".

3 - Characters: All of my characters tend to be talkative. They are impulsive in terms of speech (kinda fork-tongued), commited, appreciative, not overconfident or preaching. They tend to be on the good side of the scale, and they aren't fond of laws. They are merciful, however harsh they may seem to be. They believe in fate.

In real life, I like beautiful, but different-looking people, so I always try to put some element of weirdness in the physical features section of the character sheet. On the other hand, I don't like to personify characters that are emotionally weird or kafkaesque, which are lost or unfocused.

What next? =)

[TheUdjat]

Yakumo: Nothing so scientific is involved with lineage. Magic tends to be matrilineal, but it's not a hard fact or rule. Feel free to exercise some creativity. The ban on magical knowledge is similarly vague, but a bit more hard line--the White Council takes serious issue with too much dangerous knowledge in the wrong hands, mostly for that individual's 'own protection' (yeah, there are some flaws with this logic). They can be assholes about this. That's not to say wizards will never clue in a non-wizard; it happens all the time. But discreetly. So this would be an instance where, educating their offspring, the family is ostensibly doing it to better inform them and give them a notion of what's out there, and are perhaps assuming that their whole line will have magical talent of some kind, even if it's not wizard-level. Clearly they were mistaken.

So basically, I think your concept works fine. What do you need from me to get started?

Menatkhufu: Yeah, don't worry about the bulk of this. To get started on character generation, some of the other threads will be useful, particularly Deekin's quick overview of the system (which is considerably more trimmed down than my attempts so far). Whether you are going for supernatural, spell-casting, or completely mundane will affect the complexity of your character, and many of your options. We appear to be angling for a lower-power game, which rules out full-scale wizards and sorcerers, but has left most of the players going towards focused practitioners. There's a Geomancer (Deekin), an item-crafting specialist (Ogremind), and a girl haunted by her own disassociated subconscious (at). Also Yakumo's mortal black sheep know-it-all. The field's wide open for you. I advise you to read over the Maxims thread to get an idea of the setting's tone, and if an idea hits you, lay it on me. This game is a lot looser and less-defined than D&D, so any idea has merit and can probably be worked into things. Just tell me what kind of character you want to play.

Good to have you aboard.

EDIT: Oh man, I forgot Candi's Refugee from the Faerie Realms. I feel terrible, now.

[candi]

Don't feel terrible, I've been pretty silent these last few weeks I may have been quick to post a character thread but he hasn't made much progress in his defining features since! I've the ideas, just need to find the time to sit down and lay it out.

[Yakumo]

I'm not so sure my character isgoing to be a know it all exactly- more I work on him it's coming up more so sneaky/crook type for hire just with a good amount of contacts. Going too know it all might distract from the telepath info broker I made for a dark sun game on here

[candi]

A thought about the lore of the game, are Truenames held in special power? I know some of the lore of Faerie from various cultures held that if you knew the real name of a Fey you could get some control over it (sometimes it was the only way to get rid of a particularly nasty Faerie).

I was thinking of making Thaer, who'se all fey-warped and confused, on a quest to find his true name.. but he's a bit confused on the matter and keeps just appending things to his name. Thus he might be known as:

Thaer Chaos Mischief the Troublemaker -- and as the story progresses he would continue to add elements to his name. And to some extent (perhaps), the parts of his self-defined Truename are tied to his various Aspects.

Later he might call himself:
Thaer Unwieldy Chaos Mischief the Troublemaker

[Deekin]

Dec 15, 2010 12:34:35 GMT -5 candi said:

A thought about the lore of the game, are Truenames held in special power? I know some of the lore of Faerie from various cultures held that if you knew the real name of a Fey you could get some control over it (sometimes it was the only way to get rid of a particularly nasty Faerie).

I was thinking of making Thaer, who'se all fey-warped and confused, on a quest to find his true name.. but he's a bit confused on the matter and keeps just appending things to his name. Thus he might be known as:

Thaer Chaos Mischief the Troublemaker -- and as the story progresses he would continue to add elements to his name. And to some extent (perhaps), the parts of his self-defined Truename are tied to his various Aspects.

Later he might call himself:
Thaer Unwieldy Chaos Mischief the Troublemaker

Yup, True Names, as pronounced by the owner, grant great power over them.

[TheUdjat]

And that's key--as pronounced by the owner. One's own true name--full true name--freely given, from one's own lips are the parameters needed.

Supernatural creatures tend to have a static 'identity', in terms of true name, and tend to guard them protectively for obvious reasons. Mortals have a slightly easier time, since they're prone to reinventing their own identities (as you've demonstrated), so true names often have something of an expiration date. It's loosely defined, though. It could very well be that poor Thaer had his true name compromised at some point and is now, rather than trying to find it, trying to ensure that it is never found again. Part of that could be creating new names and identities like mad, constantly guarding and hiding what one's true name is.

Just a thought. Unfortunately, the notion of actually not knowing one's true name isn't really possible, as each person essentially creates it themselves.

Though, that's not to say that your character necessarily knows that.

Yakumo: Crook-for-hire works fine. It's all about the Aspects. I wouldn't be too worried about eclipsing your Dark Sun character, though, what with it being hopelessly buried in the archives. Feel free to take a crack at some character building whenever you find the opportunity. The existing characters should provide a good starting point, and some of the primers in the Out of Game board have the general info you'll need.

[Ogremind]

Yakumo's Crook for hire sounds like it would work well as a guest star in my character's first story.
They might actually end up trading a lot, magic items for information or materials.

[Yakumo]

Yeah i was actually looking at yours as a potential guest starring. I wanted to take a magic item or two, but Im not sure I can as a pure mortal. How would that work for me? Do I have to take something in particular to do it? I have most of my skills and whatnot hashed out so I figure it would be a good time to figure that out before i post up.

[TheUdjat]

Short answer: as a pure mortal, you can't.

Long answer: He can still 'owe' you magic items if you want to link backgrounds that way. The trouble here is that, setting-wise, magic is uncertain, chaotic, and enchanted items are generally on a time limit. They need a practitioner to maintain them properly and keep them functioning. Potions have indeterminate sell-by dates, as do other creations. So, Ogre could have items on hand that he's capable of giving out for the duration of the adventure (or until used), which is factored into the cost of items. Your guy, however, is not a magic user.

That said, there is the 'Item of Power' supernatual power, which is meant for substantially more potent magical items (e.g. Excalibur), typically of legendary caliber, that can be taken by a character. The downside is that you cease to be a 'pure mortal'. While you may descriptively be a pure mortal, you're mechanically not, and lose the bonus Refresh. So that's the tradeoff. I'd be willing to jury rig an 'Items of Power' for your character to have onhand, on the basis of things he has accumulated and acquired through seedy dealings and, perhaps, theft; but it will change your template/starting refresh a little.

There may be other ways to work the mechanics, too. But what do you think so far?

[Yakumo]

I like that idea. How much refresh would that take from me for an items of power - power? -1, -2? That would leave me at 3 or 4, and I could still take a few stunts. I'm fine with that as long as by all rights in the other aspects of my character I'm still mortal.

And if you want to come up with the items I am in possession (since that would be easier, plus you get to piece together a great item for my character like you did for the dark sun people) we could make that into my first adventure, and it would be a great opportunity for you to come up with some side story/useful compels for later. I was thinking about making my first story to be taking a job to steal a magical item or potion and having it go wrong - that would work out well i think.

[TheUdjat]

Dec 17, 2010 12:13:33 GMT -5 Yakumo said:

I like that idea. How much refresh would that take from me for an items of power - power? -1, -2? That would leave me at 3 or 4, and I could still take a few stunts. I'm fine with that as long as by all rights in the other aspects of my character I'm still mortal.

The 'Item of Power' options works as a discount for the supernatural abilities tied to it. It's 2 less Refresh for those powers (assuming they cost at least 3) if the item can be taken away fairly easily (liek a sword). It's a 1 Refresh discount (assuming it costs at least 2) if the item is harder to remove, like an amulet. I think. Again, running off of memory; no book today.

Regardless of whether you have multiple items or one, we'll use this static mechanic. So additional magic items will not result in a greater discount (though it could, through play, make it more difficult to remove them all--or to bring them all to bear. It should work both ways).

And if you want to come up with the items I am in possession (since that would be easier, plus you get to piece together a great item for my character like you did for the dark sun people) we could make that into my first adventure, and it would be a great opportunity for you to come up with some side story/useful compels for later. I was thinking about making my first story to be taking a job to steal a magical item or potion and having it go wrong - that would work out well i think.

I don't want to, really. That's more work for me. I do like the notion of tying the item(s) into your initial adventure, perhaps as part of a collection of things you were supposed to acquire/steal, or as payment for the job. However you want to go with it. Did you sneak out something for yourself? Did Farber pay you an item for your assistance? Or possibly just help you identify it? It's your setup; work in angles you find entertaining to work with.

But I do realize it's harder for you to create a magic item from scratch with no idea what you can take. I'm trying to work through precisely how I'd want the ability to function, since minor enchanted items like potions and scrolls and wands aren't typically something you buy that way--they're a part of your magic (Evocation and Thaumaturgy). Let me think about how to rig it. It may wind up being something as loose as 'Items of Power' that allow you to mimick the effects of Evocation within a certain range. But... ick. That seems like a cheesy work around, and doesn't work well with the Evocation rules, so no.

Maybe I can use it to give you the equivalent effects of Refinement used solely for additional magic items. Though at that point, I'd just let you take Refinement flat-out for that purpose (it seems silly to give a discount on it). Then perhaps tack on a stunt to allow 'Contacts' to substitute for your effective 'Lore' for magic items (which makes sense, given that you're relying on people you know rather than personal magical know-how).

It's a thought. Still working this through my head, but I'm warming up to the idea. I'm open to suggestions from the rest of you (Looking at you, Deekin).