Deeper underground

I’ve finished reading Turn Coat.  So turns out Edinburgh is the HQ of the White Council, at first this looked to be a problem.  The White Council, the body that all wizards are supposed to be part of, the place where some of the most powerful people in the world are and their headquarters are in the city I was going to be using.

However necessity is the mother of innovation.  There is a body of supremely powerful wizards in the town, what does this mean?  Any major supernatural threat would be met with swift action, there should be little to no overt Red Court action.  The Rules would be heavily enforced.   It could allow for a high powered campaign with a number of the players being a member of the council; however that would limit the player choices a little.

How about something very low powered instead?  Threats would be equally low powered (or at least seem that way), beneath the attention of the already stretched White Council.  Indeed the White Council could easily be considered a threat, with the war against the Red Council anyone that DID catch their attention would be wishing otherwise.  It should also be considered that the White Council having their base of operations in the city would not be common knowledge of those not big enough players in the supernatural world.

So far that gives me two things:

Refresh level – low (how low?  Will have to look over the supernatural advantages to see what’s available.  I want there to be the option of playing magic users and other creatures – with the possibility of growing to their full potential as the game continues)

Locations:  The Hidden Halls – Who would be the Face?  Whilst the Merlin or another senior council member would certainly be there the players are unlikely to ever meet them.  How about Edinburgh’s Warden (Think magic police, but more Judge Dredd) or an apprentice?  The Warden is a useful adversary and ally depending on the situation, but one you can’t rely on being there when you need them OR being there to help you.  The apprentice would be sufficiently low powered to be of little aid in direct conflict but they could be a useful source of information and insight into the workings of the council

I also have an idea for at least one other location, something like the Vaults or Mary King’s Close as a location for a small sect of Black Court vampires.  The Hidden Halls are also underground, so there could be a direct link, though I should think not as the Red Court would have taken advantage of that!  Why Black Court?  Because the Red and White are all over the books!  Creepy underground lairs also seems to be their thing.

I’ll go over some locations and overall city concepts and aspects in my next post.

Setting the first stone

Following the suggestion of the book I thought it best to set the game in my hometown.  I have a few ideas floating around in the back of my mind; however I had been looking over the Wikipedia article to remind me of the places the characters had been in the series.  I saw that Edinburgh was in Turn Coat.

Turn Coat was the last book of the series I had attempted to read, but I’d given up less than half way through.  There were a few issues: first of all it’d been a while since I’d read the series and secondly it felt like too big a jump.  There seemed to be HUGE jumps in setting, I was confused.  The reason for this became clear when I looked over the books I had: I’d bought Small Favor but hadn’t read it… oh… that’d explain the apparent jumps; I’d missed a whole book!

So I’ve been reading through Small Favor in order to re-read Turn Coat.  Next problem: I’ve lost my copy of Turn Coat.  That was easily fixed, I’ve grabbed a kindle copy.  Probably just as well really, I had a hard back copy of it and they are a pain to read in bed.  Also turns out I’ve lost my copy of Storm Front, the first book in the series – which is a pity as I was going to lend it to a friend.  Still my search for the books has led me to tidy up my book shelves.

I should have Small Favor finished on the way home from work and then Turn Coat read in a day or two – after that I can get down to setting preparation and going over why I’m doing it solo rather than in a group as suggested.

File this under D

I recently picked up a copy of The Desden Files RPG.  I remember reading about its development on RPG.net and was somewhat interested, mostly for the presentation.  I’m a sucker for a well presented book and that’s not just lots of pretty pictures.  At this time I was reading the Dresden Files books which added to the interest.

I should note that while I enjoy reading the books I also think they are terrible.   They are predictable and the characters are shallow, it’s all very pulpy.  This is also why they are enjoyable; they are easy to get into, a guilty pleasure of sorts.  The setting is one that’s rather common these days, urban fantasy with wizards, monsters, vampires, werewolves, etc messing around our world.  Mix into that the main character, Harry Dresden, a wizard PI with connections to the cops and you’ve got the pulp detective angle too.  Anyway take a look at Wikipedia and pick up the first book if you can.

So back to the RPG:  There was one thing that put me off, Fate.  This dislike was completely irrational; Spirit of the Century/Fate was the darling child of RPG.net at the time.  I was fed up of hearing that it can and, indeed, should be used for everything.  I’d taken a look at the FATE wiki and wasn’t any the wiser.  I listened to a podcast of a SotC actual play, and it was terrible – though this was more down to the podcast than the system, but it added another mark against it.  So my interest wasn’t really that high.

Fast forward to last year.  I won a copy of Starblazer Adventures in a tombola at my local games shop.  Starblazer is a Fate system book too, and is HUGE.  Seriously.  So I read it a bit and got a much better insight into FATE and began to appreciate how it could be cool.  Didn’t have much interest in the setting and the size of the book just makes it unusable.  The presentation was also very cold and didn’t encourage reading.  It’s been gathering dust on my shelf ever since.

Last week I stopped by my local shop and there in the middle of the shelf is the Dresden Files.  Instant impulse buy.  This book is also huge but has much better presentation.  The idea is that the RPG is being written by one of the characters from the books and in the side lines there are comments from them, going over the design decisions and clarifying the rules.  These really help make the book more readable and help in understanding how the rules reflect the reality of the books.

So with this giant book I’ve decided I should get back into table top RP.  Don’t want to let my money go to waste and to get some gaming – not played since my DnD group broke up after our DM moved to Australia.   There is a nearby games club that I used to be a member of so I’m thinking of running something for them.  I’ll try and outline my preparations and ideas here, hopefully some examples of play once I get rolling.