Character Creation: Dresden Files Accelerated

First character of 2018. Yay!

So, in 2017, I made 39 characters for the project. My goal was 52 (one per week), so I fell a bit short. In particular, of course I went from late October to late November without doing any (some personal issues interfered, plus I went to three cons in as many weeks), and of course during the school year it's easy to go weeks without doing one because I tend to game and sleep on weekends.

I'm gonna set the same goal for myself in 2018: One character a week, for a total of 52. As a point of interest, there are presently 258 games on my list, and that doesn't count games that I've Kickstarted and just not received yet or games that I'll buy in future. If I managed to do 52 games a year, and assuming I only add 20 games per year to the list, I'd be caught up by the end of 2026. For context, I started this project in June 2008, right about the time Cael was born. He'll be 18 when I get caught up, assuming my math is right.

(hahahawheee i really do love this though)

Well, maybe this year I'll try and be better about blocking off time every week to read a game and make a character. What the heck, it's more likely than weight loss.

The Game: Dresden Files Accelerated
The Publisher: Evil Hat Productions
Degree of Familiarity: A decent amount. Michelle ran a game set in Baltimore wherein I played a kinetomancer, and I ran one set in Lexington. They weren't using this ruleset (except for the very end of Michelle's game), though.
Books Required: Just the one.

So, of course I made a character for the first version of this game some time ago (some time ago. More than seven freaking years ago). Anyway, the essence of the game hasn't changed much, just the mechanics have.

The first thing that I'd do if I had a group would be setting creation, but I haven't got that. There's a handy example right up front, though:

So I'll use that! I love New Orleans, anyway. First thing I do is choose a Mantle. Last character I made was a White Court vampire, and the character I played is a focused practitioner. I don't want to make a wizard, I don't think. Hmm. Suppose I make a changeling? What would it look like to play a Winter Court changeling in a town that doesn't get "winter" the way other places do...especially since the climate is changing now? I like that notion.

OK, to make a changeling, I pick a Pure Mortal mantle and then add changeling on top of it. I have an idea.

Bartholomew Griggs (please just call him "Griggs," not "Bart", for the love of god) is a forensic pathologist. He works in the shittiest hospital in New Orleans, and that means he pulls bullets out of bodies and compares wounds to weapons a lot. I'm taking the Medic mantle and then adding Changeling, too. So I get Medical License as a Condition, and then First Aid and Medical Care as stunts. I can choose one more for free, so I'll take Forensic Pathology.

For Changeling, I get the Called Condition (I can mark it to use Fae stunts, but if I fill it I have to choose to become fae or human, or abstain from magic for a while). I also get one Fae stunt as a core stunt. I'll take Cloak of Shadows - I can see in the dark and, once per session, hide perfectly. Griggs hears "holy shit, Griggs, how long you been standing there?" a lot.

Next up: Aspects! High Concept is easy enough, that's just Shadowy Changeling Coroner. Trouble Aspect is a little tougher, though, and requires that I think about Griggs a little more.

OK, so, Griggs is a doctor, so why is he this kind of doctor? I think he figured out he was a changeling while in his residency "upstairs." He was doing a psych rotation and they brought a guy in raving about "the Cobblers." He saw Griggs, stopped, gibbered, pointed, screamed "You! You're one of them!" and then ripped out his own eyes. Griggs isn't sure why, but in that moment he knew. He was one of the Cobblers, or at least, he half was. He took his next rotation in pathology and found that it fit.

See, death is very much a part of the Winter Court, but it's not about killing, it's about remembering the dead and paying them their tribute. Griggs has always felt that memento mori is important, and now as a pathologist, he helps the dead gain justice, peace, and closure. The trick is, though, that he's not a wizard dealing ghosts or ectoplasm. He's a changeling dealing with death on a much more story-focused level. He closes the books on the story of a person's life, and it's often inconvenient for him if they don't know when to leave. He often concludes autopsies by saying "Thank you for being here," and he considers that the end of it.

So what's his Trouble? His Trouble is that the dead don't always start quiet. I think that'll work as an Aspect, actually: The Dead Don't Know Their Place.

And then a third Aspect. I like the idea that Griggs is spooky, but regarded as wise. I'll take Basement Sage as the Aspect - other doctors come down here to ask him questions, if they can work up the nerve.

Next is Approaches. One Good, two Fair, two Average, one Mediocre, standard FAE allotment. The names are a little different, but they work more or less the same way.

I think Grigg's Good should go in Intellect. I'll put the Fairs in Haste and Focus, the Averages in Force and Guile, and the Mediocre in Flair (Griggs is, obviously, not a flashy guy).

I get 3 refresh, though I can spend some on stunts, if I want. I want to pick up Ghostbane, which lets me interact with ghosts as though they were incorporeal. And, oh heck, there's one under Medic called Psych Rotation, which lets me use my First Aid stunt on emotional or mental conditions. Shit yeah.

And then about does 'er. Griggs would be an interesting character because the thrust of the character's conflict, at least at the beginning, isn't on the Choice, but on some of the kind of knock-on effects of him being a changeling. I think the Choice would come up in play, but in a different way than I've seen it happen in other games.

RPGaDay Catchup

Been lax on this, but now I have a little time.

Most Impressive Thing Another's Character Did: Wow. Lots to choose from. OK, not that I want to give +Matthew Karafa a swelled head or anything (since one of this moments showed up on +Michelle's list, too), but the finale of Edge of Midnight was fucking superb. That was a long and really awesome game, ending in a totally noir way with Karafa's character shooting another dude in the head and letting his body fall into the swamp.

What Story Does Your Group Tell About Your Character? Oy. I don't have a character; I play occasionally but mostly I run games, I have several different groups, and I don't think anyone tells a particular story about my character. I'm sure Dylan, my kinetomancer professor in Michelle's Dresden game, could develop a story or two, given time, but at the moment I'm gonna have to take a pass on this one.

Most Amazing Thing a Game Group Did For Their Community: You know, it's a few years old at this point, but the Haiti bundle on DriveThru RPG that raised six figures for Doctors Without Borders was pretty awesome.

What Aspect of RPGs has had the Biggest Effect on You? Well, they've been my career since 1997, with varying degree of emphasis. I was full-time from 2001-ish to 2006-ish. I'd go back to writing/developing full-time in a hot minute if I thought I could pay all my bills that way.

Hardcover, Softcover, Digital, what's your preference? I'm not particular about hard vs. softcover; hardcovers are nice and sturdy, but they're heavy. I prefer to have a digital copy available for actual play; much easier to search.

Beyond the game, what is involved in an ideal session? Focus. My ideal session involves everyone putting their goddamn phones away and paying attention. (I was saying the same thing before smartphones were a thing, though, just with books.)

Largest in-game surprise you have experienced? I think "surprise during a game session" has to go to +Jessica, but I don't think that's what this means. Let's see. A loooong time ago, I ran a Chill game which involved a story arc with a character and his wife-turned-vampire. When I finally ran the game that ended that arc, all of the players showed up dressed in character. That was pretty cool.

The Race is Run

Yesterday was the final session of my Dresden Files game, Let It Ride. Let's watch, shall we?

The day of the race, everyone prepares. Lou, his job nearly done, relaxes at the casino. Georgina Valentine approaches him and asks for, effectively, early access to the race, to check out the horses. Lou, knowing something's amiss, denies her, but eventually tells her when the horses will be presented and when the security folks (Rusty and Clive) will be around.

At the race, Opal puts a contract together, stating that the signatories will not interfere with the other contestant and that everyone's to keep it sociable. Lou tells the security boys not to admit the Valentines, and folks start arriving. Alice is in the stables with Bo, who's nervously awaiting his jockey (and his transformation).

Billy Ray arrives just after sundown, and cheerfully signs the contract (it protects him as much as anyone). The Fae Ladies arrive from the NeverNever at the same moment, and glower a little at each other before signing, but they do. Albert, Leroy, Jeannine, and Anthony Lucredi arrive, one by one, and signed (Jeannie obviously out of her element).

Arthur Bingham arrives...with the Valentines. Opal tells him that they aren't allowed in, and he effectively threatens to pull his horse from the race. She calls Lou, who eventually says that if they sign the contract, things should be OK. They do, and things proceed.

In the stables, Leroy arrives, and Alice recites the incantation and turns Bo into a horse. She heads up to the VIP booth, with the other folks, and the horses take their marks.

The starter pistol sounds, and bang! The Fae Horses take a quick lead! As the horses run up to the first turn, Clive, who's there watching for shenanigans, feels Phobos urging him to stay visible (trying to spook the horses). He doesn't fight it, and the horses shy away a little. Warden's Wings (the White Council horse) and April Showers (Arthur Bingham's) falter and back off, losing enough ground that they're effectively out.

But then Phobos gets more aggressive. He wants Fireball, the Black Court's horse to win, because that will put the fear into Lexington. Clive decides this is quite enough, and fights the spirit's attempt at possession. The spirit beats up Clive pretty good, mentally, giving him the Tempted, Confused and finally Ridden consequences, but Clive literally punches himself in the head and stuns the spirit long enough for the horses to ride on.

Now on the second half, Alice sees Bo start to falter...and change back into human form. Knowing that he'll be crushed if that happens, she runs up to the announcer's booth and yells into the mic, "The bridle, the saddle, the bit in your teeth!" and changes him back. But he's stumbled, and lost too much ground. (Fun fact: If she'd spent a Fate chip for another +2, she'd have kept him in the race. She chose to let him lose, to keep him safe.)

Now rounding the third turn, the horses run toward where Lou and Rusty are standing. But then, Shuck, the giant fae-wolf, leaps the fence and charges at the horses. Rusty changes to wolf form and runs at it, but doesn't quite make it before it reaches the horses.

It bites and guts Veni Vidi Vici (the White Court horse), and the others scatter around it. Rusty slams into it, and bites at it, but it bites at him right back. Lou shoots it, and Clive runs down from the other end of the field and grabs the wolf in a big bear hug, and the heaves it over the fence.

Lou, having had enough weirdness, activates the circle he set up earlier. Magic stops flowing into the place. The Winter Court horse has lost enough ground that it's effectively out - now it's down to Derek's Fall (Jeannine), Sleipnir (Albert), Inferno (Summer Court) and Fireball (Black Court).

Derek's Fall and Inferno fall back, suddenly, as their jockeys clutch their heads. The fairy ladies turn to Opal and glare at her. Clarence, furious, asks her what's going on (but Opal doesn't know what Lou did). Clarence says that without magic from the NeverNever, the fairy horses don't have the power to race. Opal, thinking quickly, opens a gateway into the NeverNever herself, and lets magic rush in.

Lou, seeing, this, figures she's got it under control and breaks the circle.

The last four horses race for the finish line. I made some rolls, but let the players spend Fate chips and tap aspects to affect those rolls. Opal pushes to Sleipnir, Clive for Fireball, but Rusty pushes for Derek's Fall and the other folks push Fireball back. Derek's Fall races across the finish line.

The fairy ladies are pretty pissed off. Opal tells them they're welcome to file a complaint, but they're not amused. Albert gets his father and the other mortals out, figuring things are about to get nasty. But the fairy ladies just leave, perhaps each secretly glad that the other didn't win. Billy Ray, too, doesn't look too hurt. And the Valentines bet on Derek's Fall (so did Rusty), which is a nice payout.

Jeannine realizes that she's won. Shuck, over the fence, collapses into fur and dust. Every tree around the track bursts into bloom. The 99 Year Race is over.

The characters go out to the Horse & Barrel for whiskey and dinner, and Jeannine asks what she should do. The characters mention that she could probably improve her own station a bit, at the very least. She says that, otherwise, she just wants things to change.

And on that note, we leave the characters, toasting Jeannine with bourbon (apple juice, in Alice's case).

And that's a wrap! We may revisit these folks again, as the players were interested to meet Alice's kid and follow that plotline.

Game Prep!

Changes in gaming afoot!

John got a real job, so he'll be dropping out of the Monday group (working nights). That'll mean changes for Promethean, but I've got a few weeks before it becomes relevant.

Today should be the exciting conclusion of Let It Ride, so that's really what I need to focus on. Let's do that!

Lettin' it ride (Dresden)

So! Yesterday we played us some Dresden.

Recall that the last session ended with Rusty getting a call from Clive's phone. And now we flash back.

Clive left Rusty at the Horse & Barrel because Phobos, the fear-spirit that lives in him, wouldn't stop hounding him about that car wreck he saw. So Clive went and investigated. There was a dead guy in the back seat, bitten open on his neck, leg and wrist. Clive goes around to the trunk and opens it, thinking maybe someone's inside. No one is, but he hears the vampires sneak up on him.

He whirls around and finds himself face-to-face with two crazed-looking vampires, and Ian Blake. The young vampires jump at him. He throws some punches, and Ian tries to put the Overwhelmed Aspect on him but fails. But Clive is outnumbered, and unlike Rusty he's not willing to take this all the way to conclusion. His player decided to concede, and said that a large amount of the herb that makes Phobos weak (we decided it was a wild onion, like a ramp) was growing nearby. The vampires defeated Clive, stuffed his mouth with ramps, and manacle him in the silo. The herb saps his strength so he can't break free. During the day, he sees the door open and Rusty's head appear, then the vampires yank Rusty in and kick his ass (this all happened last time).

So back to the barbecue. Rusty's phone rings; it's Clive's number. A voice - decidedly not Clive - rasps, Help me.

The characters gathered round and listen (amid some Cabin in the Woods "am I on speaker?" jokes). The voice says it tastes "the bane" and it smells "wolf blood." And then the connection is lost. This, combined with Clive's conspicuous absence, makes them think Clive is in trouble. Lou asks Clarence, the Warden, to listen, but someone mentions that Clive is prone to playing pranks to scare people and the White Council officially gets less interested.

Lou turns the party over to the Valentines, and he, Alice, Bo, Rusty and Opal get in his car. They start to head to the Horse & Barrel, since that's where Clive was last seen (and they figure Cyrus might know something), but a closed exit (as luck would have it) forces them to take a different route...which takes them right by the accident scene.

By this time, the car has been cleared away, and all that remains is the damaged tree. But Alice (who swapped out This is My Blessing, Not My Curse for "I've got a bad feeling about this" at the beginning of this session) has Lou stop. They get out and look around, but Alice sees a ghost.

The ghost is a young man with bite marks on him (probably the same guy whose body Clive found). He jumps up, looks at Alice, and grows fangs. He charges at her, hissing for blood, and she screams and hides behind Bo. Lou draws a circle to keep him out, but it becomes obvious that he's not going to hurt the characters (personally, I find the idea of a ghost that thinks it's a vampire pretty darned Dresden-riffic). Rusty starts getting twitchy (and I compelled Blood Thirsty to make it worse), and he Changes and runs off toward the Horse & Barrel.

The characters leave (during which Alice felt the ghost bite her, which pleased her none too much). No one thinks to pick up Rusty's clothes.

They get to Horse and Barrel and find Rusty sitting by the parking lot in wolf form. Lou gives him a blanket, but berates him for running off. The characters (less Rusty, who goes trotting back to get his clothes) go inside and sit down with Cyrus.

Cyrus mentions that Phobos was haranguing Clive all night about the car wreck, and figures it might have been Phobos that made the call. Since he mentioned "wolf blood," and he called Rusty, maybe he's somewhere that Rusty bled a lot recently? That clicks for Lou - the vampires have Clive at the silo. They discuss options, and Opal decides that she'll just claim Clive as an assistant for the race so Billy Ray can't hurt him.

They leave Bo and Alice at the restaurant, and Alice takes this opportunity to tell Bo that she's pregnant. Bo is not entirely thrilled, but Alice makes it very clear that she's keeping this baby and she wants him to be involved. Bo eventually relents (a little bit of social combat, here), but does raise the point: When was the child conceived? Before or after Bo became a horse?

Lou and Opal arrive at the silo and knock. Billy Ray answers, and initially refuses to give up Clive, but when Opal claims him, he goes and releases the big dude. Lou also asks that Billy Ray not go after Rusty until after the race; Billy Ray agrees not to go looking for him. Rusty is sitting nearby, watching this.

The characters reconvene at the Horse & Barrel, and head back to Lou's house so Bo and Alice can get their car. Lou decides he's going to head up to Churchill Downs and cast a spell of prophecy to make the card. Opal goes out to the Kentucky Horse Park to scout it as a location. Clive goes with Lou as backup. Alice and Bo head home. Rusty goes the hell to bed.

Opal decides that this place will work nicely and she has enough pull with folks on the board (including Arthur Bingham). She decides to wait to hear from Lou to set a date.

Lou, meanwhile, goes out to Churchill Downs, bribes a guard to get in, goes out to the middle of the track and casts his spell (in which might be the first use of Thaumaturgy in any Dresden game I've been involved with). Based on that, he makes the card:

• Waters of the River Styx (Winter Court): 2:1
• Inferno from the Embers (Summer Court): 3:1
• Fireball (Billy Ray): 4:1
• Warden's Wings (White Council): 10:1
• Veni Vidi Vici (White Court): 10:1
• Bo (Leroy Francis): 12:1
• Sleipnir (Albert Market): 25:1
• April Showers (Arthur Bingham): 25:1
• Derek's Fall (Jeannine Kemper): 100:1

The next day, Lou has breakfast with Opal and discusses the card. Opal approves, and decides that the race is tomorrow night. No sense giving folks a chance to plan and plot. 

Next time: The exciting conclusion to Let It Ride. 

Game Prep-a-go-go

Of course. I start posting more on Blogger because I can get to it from work and update when I have a minute, and what happens? They update their firewall and I can't anymore. Blargh. So that's why you haven't seen me around as much. Ah, well.

Well, I'm running Dresden today, Night's Black Agents tomorrow and Promethean on Monday, so I'd best get started.

Dresden, Dresden, Dresden

Yesterday was our March session of Let it Ride, so let's ride. Lou changed his "Vampires are Sore Losers" aspect to "Everybody Knows Me," since he and the White Court seem to have made peace. No other shifts in Aspects...yet.

We didn't have Clive (family emergency), so as we open, Lou is asleep at home, Opal and Alice are getting drunk and watching National Velvet, and Clive and Rusty at getting drunk at the Horse & Barrel. At some point during the night, Clive leaves (but covers Rusty's tab, so that's nice). Rusty gets a cab home and winds up crashing out in his foyer.

Opal, about midnight, feels that someone in the race has died and then not-died. Concerned, she starts making phone calls. She calls Lou first, but Lou has no data and figures it can wait until morning. She calls Leroy, who's fine if dazed, doesn't try and call the Fairy Courts (because gah), calls Lucredi (fine), calls Clarence (fine but concerned and not fooled by her claims that all is well), calls Bingham and gets an employee, calls Billy Ray and gets voicemail, calls Jeannine and gets voicemail, and finally (amidst urging from Alice and a compel of I am Switzerland) calls Albert. He's also fine, but wants to know if Opal called him first or last. Opal, shyly, dodges the question.

The next day, Lou called Rusty and let him know that he couldn't come with him to check the Bingham horse, but wasn't sure why. Rusty got a little paranoid (maybe he'd killed someone close to this guy?), but couldn't come up with anything. Opal called Lou and then Rusty and let them know about the weirdness last night, and asked them to look in on Jeannine and maybe Billy Ray. They headed out to Todd Park and found a dude there wanting to buy meth, but said dude hadn't seen Billy Ray all day. Then they headed to Shady Pastures and found that Jeannine wasn't home. Her son Cody was, though, and he told them that Jeannine was working at the Love's down the street.

The silo at Shady Pastures used to be boarded up, but now it was open. Rusty wanted to go check it out; I compelled Lou's Work is For Suckers Aspect and he left to go talk to Jeannine, saying he'd be back to pick up Rusty.

Rusty went to the silo and smelled blood. He opened the door and I compelled Are You Gonna Eat That? He leaned in...and something grabbed him and yanked him in.

Rusty wasn't sure what was happening, but he knew bad shit was in the offing. Something clawed him, and he whipped around and ran for the door. He grabbed the door and yanked, but something held it closed. He got clawed up pretty badly (gaining Leg Wound as a moderate consequence, Grazed as a mild and Scalped as a severe). The next shot would have killed him; he shoved away the person holding the door and grabbed it again, but something bit him.

Now, this would have killed him, but the player decided to take an extreme consequence. He changed his Are You Gonna Eat That? Aspect to Blood Thirsty.

Meanwhile, Lou went to Love's and talked with Jeannine. She had nothing to report, just that she'd worked a double shift. Lou left to get Rusty, and when he go there, he found blood. He nudged the door open and Billy Ray called out to him.

"Why don't you come into the sun?" said Lou.

"Don't think I can," said Billy Ray. "Skin cancer, you know."

They talked a bit about why the vampires shouldn't just kill Rusty (and why Lou, as a representative of the race, shouldn't interfere). Lou said that he didn't necessarily mind getting out of town, and bringing the silo down would maybe ruin the vampires' day. Billy Ray agreed, and tossed Rusty out, after getting Lou to agree that Rusty wasn't under any special protection.

Lou loaded Rusty into his car and took him to the hospital, letting Opal know that Billy Ray had joined the Black Court (and letting Jeannine know there were vampires in the silo near her home).

Opal, meanwhile, had gone Leroy's stables and asked Joshua to check in with the Winter Lady (she was fine). Bo was there, working in the barn, and Alice went to go and "help" him. Opal, figuring there wasn't much reason to hang around, left when she got Lou's call, and met him out at Bingham's stable.

Lou used the Sight on April Showers, Bingham's horse, and noted that there was a connection between it and another being somewhere. He looked at the horse's lineage and saw it had a brother named Sleipnir somewhere. That done, he and Opal went out to see Arthur Market and his horse.

His stables were much lower rent, but serviceable. They got there and Arthur introduced his horse: Sleipnir. Lou went to use the Sight on the horse, and Opal and Arthur went inside and made awkward small talk until Lou joined them.

Arthur let Opal know that Sleipnir had been a family gift, kind of a peace offering. He got the horse and enough money to keep the horse cared for here. Lou rolled in and asked when Arthur was going to ask her out, and then left (he'd driven himself, after all). Arthur, embarrassed, said that he had in fact been planning on doing that, so...? Opal was receptive, but the problem was that Arthur was in the race and Opal was the officiate, so the "out" would have to wait until the race ended. They agreed to that, and parted ways (and Alice, BTW, was texting Opal all this while, trying to find out the dirt).

That night, Lou invited everyone over for barbecue, including most of the racers (he didn't invite the Fairy Ladies or the vampires onto his property, and that's probably just as well). They all noticed that Rusty wasn't eat his hamburger, um, cooked, but generally folks got on. Alice took Lou aside and asked if she was pregnant; Lou used the Sight and confirmed that she was (a note: I do not allow female PCs to get pregnant unless the player asks, and I probably don't need to explain why). Alice, a little abashed that she'd gotten drunk last night, eschewed beer for the party.

Next up: Opal needs to find a race track, Lou needs to make the card...but during the party, Rusty got a call from Clive's phone. Where has he been, indeed?

Dresden Notes

So, lots of exciting stuff happening last time. I actually remembered to take some notes on not just what happened, but what I wanted to do. So in the interest of masking this all from my players:

Dresden: Race to the end of the Race

Not quite yet. First, dinner!

Collard greens, hoagie buns, pork chops, caerphilly cheese.

Well, actually, dinner was after game, but y'know.

So, I put a few of the buns in the food processor and turned them into crumbs. I breaded the pork chops with those and pan-fried 'em. Nice and crispy.

I took the rest of the buns, put some strawberry jam and a little of the cheese on 'em and baked them for a little sweetness.

I heated some milk, melted the rest of the cheese, cut up the greens and stirred them in. I think in retrospect I should've used more milk and maybe some butter, but I wanted to keep it from getting to heavy and it turned out quite tasty, I thought.

Now, game!

Last time was quite a while ago (illness and weather and all kinds of crazy crap delayed us). So this time, the characters had gone to bed after the blood-soaked events of last time. The consensus, though, was that they needed two more entrants for the 99-year-race. Was that their responsibility? More to the point, Opal wondered if it was hers.

Next day, she met with her father and asked. He said that while it wasn't really their job to make sure the race went off, there was a time limit and it was within their interest to make sure it happened. Opal asked if he had any thoughts about who else might join up. He suggested talking to Cyrus Walker (the regular fixture at the Horse & Barrel), mentioned that there were probably a few changelings in the area that would be interested (but he didn't know of any other than Leroy that owned horses). She called up Lou and talked to him.

Lou revealed that Cyrus Walker (whom Lou and Rusty had dealt with a bit in Lou's novel, Double Down) was in fact a bourbon spirit. That didn't disqualify him from entering, of course. Opal decided to head out to the Horse & Barrel to talk with him. Lou, meanwhile, called up Clive and asked him to come to Spring Valley Country Club and try to bully some rich folks into entering.

Rusty and Alice, meanwhile, wanted to go to see Fitch, the gargoyle at Pike Library, but he doesn't animate until sunset. They went anyway, Rusty wondering what to do about Jeannine Kemper and her entrance into the race. Was she just doing it to get back at Rusty? (Context: Her older son Derek killed Rusty's mother in a gang drive-by, and his sister was sent into foster care and never seen again. He later killed Derek and his crew as a werewolf, and Jeannine apparently knows it.) Unable to let that go, he found her on Facebook, created a profile, and messaged her, asking her to meet up at the Horse & Barrel.

Alice wanted to get into the rare books room upstairs ("Special Collections," which also contains books of magic). Rusty asked at the desk and was told that the fellow who worked that room (Albert) would be in soon. And indeed, he arrived, and took them upstairs.

Opal got to the Horse & Barrel and talked with Cyrus (she noted that his bourbon glass tended to refill itself when she wasn't looking). After learning about the race, he said he'd consider it.

Lou and Clive got the country club and muscled their way past the "security", and into a poker game with a high roller named Bingham. Lou used magic and cheated and quickly won all their money - only him and Bingham remained. He gave Bingham's money back, and said really he was here to talk about the race. Bingham, being Lexington old money, had heard of it, but didn't know the particulars. He took Lou's card and said he'd give him a call.

Alice went with Albert into the stacks to find books on magic and pregnancy. A ghost appeared and whispered something, and Alice reacted, leading Albert to note that she could see the ghost. He also made Rusty as a werewolf, and after that charade was dropped, he helped Alice find what she needed - which he did by splaying his fingers to the room of books and then walking over to the one that "called" to him ("Libramancer?" "Bibliomancer."). The book was an account of a Warden of the area, a member of an old family who was still around, but for whom magic had kind of abandoned the line. This lady, though, had five kids and all of them inherited some kind of magic. She talked about fertility and birthing and such things (she'd been a midwife as well as a Warden), and Alice made a list of crystals and herbs and whatnot that were supposed to help with fertility.

They left and went to the Horse & Barrel, and Clive and Lou showed up shortly thereafter. They sat together and talked about the day; Rusty sat at the bar in case Jeannine showed up. She did, and with a sigh she talked to Rusty. He asked if she was just in this because of Derek, and she said that it was more that something had to change. Rusty told her what Derek had done, and she was hurt, if not shocked. She hoped, she said, that by winning this race she could change some things for the better, and Rusty, touched, said he really hoped her horse - the blue horse - won. She left, and Rusty joined the others.

Bingham called Lou, and told him that he was in. He arranged with Opal and Lou to come to his stable the next day and see his horse, but asked Lou not to bring Rusty Cromwell. Lou asked why, and Bingham said it was personal; Lou agreed.

Cyrus, at this point, joined the group (and suddenly they all had bourbon), and told Opal that he wouldn't be joining the race, not after hearing Jeannine's speech (he was on her side, apparently). It was now after dark, so everyone but Lou headed to the library (Lou's player had to head out early). They met Fitch there, and Albert, and talked about the race and the Bingham family - when he heard "Bingham" was in the race, Fitch asked if it was Arthur. Opal wasn't sure; it was the older Bingham. "That'd be Arthur, then," said Fitch. Apparently the family used to be very involved in the magical scene, way back when. He had a son, now, but couldn't remember his named (started with an A). Fitch perked up at one point and went up on the roof, to fulfill his "protect the library from evil spirits" duties.

Albert asked if anyone could enter the race. Opal said you had to have a horse; Albert said he did. He asked to join, and after Opal made it clear that he needed informed consent, she got the info for his stable, too.

The characters split up, then. Alice and Opal went to Opal's house to look in her closet and find something for her to wear tomorrow for her "date" with Albert (which Opal insisted was not a date, just part of her duties as Keeper of the Race). Rusty and Clive went to the Horse & Barrel to watch sportsball on the TV.

And then at midnight, Opal felt someone in the race die...and then be not-dead. Clive's fear-spirit passenger showed him a vision that made him gleeful: A car, veered off and smashed against a tree, the men inside dead from throat wounds. And another man on the ground near it, also bleeding, contorting and changing into a fanged monster.

Billy Ray.

Apparently the Black Court isn't willing to let this go yet.

Gaming, and then more gaming.

Yesterday was Night's Black Agents. I really need to put some prep time in before the next session, as we are well and truly off the map provided in (S)Entries. Which is fine, I'm really looking forward to the game, but prep. Fortunately I have like five weeks to do it.

In irritating news, one of the players brought a CD which contained a song for my Changeling soundtrack...and it confused my computer to the point that it can't find the D drive anymore. Meaning I'll need to take it to Best Buy and hope they don't want to keep it for a week. Sigh.

Anyway, running Dresden in about half an hour (the game days tend to bunch up) so I'd better get on this.

Well, last time, the characters were going to the drop point to hand their stolen laptop over to Anton Dedopovic and get their money. They checked out the drop point - it was in a cemetery, one way in and out (and a back road, but it wasn't accessible from their side of the line and they didn't feel like trying to cross in Serbian territory), so Smith and David went to the point the night before, trekked up into the hills in ghille suits, and camped there over night to snipe as necessary.

The next day, Anton and his crew drove in (Anton in a sedan, the crew in a Jeep). The characters realized that they were sweeping for radio signals, so they texted the others (Lockwood, Rousseau and Hanover) to stay quiet. The three of them arrived, and on the way in, Hanover noted a scope up in the mountains, but figured that Anton must have had the same idea as they had - put a sniper in the hills to cover the meeting (this would prove not entirely the case). They met Anton, Hanover handed over the laptop and Anton gave him a briefcase. Lockwood (using Bullshit Detector) saw the thugs tense up...and then someone shot Hanover from the mountain.

They fell back, trying to get away from the five men armed with automatic weapons. Smith noted that three of them were standing in a line, and shot them, killing two. Rousseau shot another one from the car, and Lockwood shot Anton, but only wounded him. David, quickly dead-reckoning where the first shot had come from, took off through the woods, but saw a scope pointed at him. He fired his weapon (AK-47; Smith had defined an arms dealer as a Contact before this) and heard a cry.

Down at the meet, Anton ran to his car. Hanover, using Preparedness, stated he'd put an explosive charge in the laptop - not enough to kill anyone, just enough to destroy it if anything went wrong. He tripped it, and Smith shot the engine block of Anton's car to keep him from driving away.

David heard someone running and shot again, and the running stopped. Rousseau, Hanover and Lockwood got in the van just as a thug shot at them, but only succeeded in taking out their headlights. Smith shot him in the back and killed him. Rousseau, seeing Anton run around the shack to get to the Jeep, used her MOS (Driving) and pinned him against the shack with the van.

David, meanwhile, found the enemy sniper, dying in the woods. He asked why Anton had tried to screw them, and the sniper said that Anton was screwing the buyer, because he wanted to live forever. Confused, David joined the others at the bottom of the mountain.

They didn't sweat cleanup too much, figuring that the local authorities would see this as a deal gone bad - judging from the bullet holes in the tombstones, it wouldn't be the first time. They did, however, interrogate Anton. He raved about traded the laptop for eternal life, and then died. David, when he got down there, noted puffiness around Anton's eyes and decided he might be ill, so took a blood sample.

The characters took the thugs' Jeep, and found a bushel of wild roses in the back of the car. Rousseau noted that in Balkan and Swiss legend, a rose would keep a vampire out...maybe Anton really was crazy? In any case, the characters knew something was up, so they left and went to a safe house.

They tried to contact Rudek - no luck. Rousseau went back to her contact, Ivana, and she told them that Rudek had left for Beirut. David ran the blood test, and determined that Anton was dying of some kind of kidney failure. Figuring that things were getting hot and strange, they decided to get out of Sarajevo and headed for Switzerland for a while (Smith has a hunting cabin in the Zurich). First, Hanover tried tracing the money that they'd been paid with, but he got as far as a shell company on the Isle of Man before the security got too intense (it's three Tests, and he failed the last one). The characters headed for the train, figuring they'd do more digging from Zurich.

Character Creation: Dresden Files

Vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, oh my.

The Game: Dresden Files
The Publisher: Evil Hat
Degree of Familiarity: A goodly amount. I've never run Dresden, though I have run Spirit of the Century and I've been playing Dresden for some time now.
Books Required: Just the core. 

 
OK, the first thing you do in Dresden is design a city, but that really requires a whole group. What's funny is that the example in the book is Baltimore, and we completely independently decided on Baltimore for our own campaign. But for purposes of this character, I'm going to go to the Baltimore as described in the book, both to differentiate it from our game and so you, if you've got the Dresden Files RPG, can follow along. Ain't I considerate?

Anyway. The book lists the town's trouble as "We're looking into the Abyss and it's looking back." I just read Blood Rites, and the notion of playing a White Court vampire is intriguing to me. It would also dovetail nicely with that theme. I think we'll set this at "Chest-Deep," since doing a vampire any lower than that would be difficult. I also need to find a character sheet. Hang on. OK, got it.

High Concept: I know I want to play a White Court vampire. I don't want to play a virgin, because I'd rather have the struggle be between me and my Hunger. Except...hmm. I don't want to play Thomas, and so I'm wondering if I want to play a WCV from a family that feeds on an emotion other than lust? I don't want despair or fear, mostly because I know those exist and I'm sure they get some face-time in later books that I haven't read. How about wrath?

I've been listening to this song by Eminem lately (if you don't like him, that's understandable, but I really like this song, mostly because it shows some self-awareness on both his and Rhianna's parts). The notion of making a character who's grappling with anger control, who can start a bar fight and then soak up the life as people beat each other to death, is really, really appealing.

But then, this guy has to be a PC, so he can't be an utter dick. According to the example city creation in the book, the White Court is having some power play stuff going on. The Lagios family is mentioned, but not much is really said about them. What is said, though, doesn't make them look real wrathy to me, so let's do this:

The Brannagh Family of the White Court is probably the smallest. They feed on wrath, and that means they are always spoiling for a fight, just like Thomas is always seductive. When you're among the supernatural, that paints a target on your head, and the Brannagh haven't been able to hold onto power that way the Raith and others have. They don't do manipulation as well as other White Court families do (though rumor has it their Indian cousins, nicknamed Rakshasa, are better at it). They're scattered across Europe and the US, and they typically show up as hired muscle or enforcers. Seldom leaders, and seldom bodyguards, because they're trouble magnets. In fact, more sophisticated vampires call them "lightning rods."

In fact, that's why the Lagios like having my character, Aidan Brannagh, around. His High Concept is White Court Lightning Rod.

Trouble Aspect: Well, obviously Aidan's biggest problem is that he's a vampire that feeds on people getting killing mad, and he's got no real problem with watching people fight themselves to death. Aidan's getting jaded, though, and he's tired of listening to abusers and thugs make up excuses. His Trouble Aspect (and it applies to him, too) is Everybody's Got an Excuse.

The Phases: Now, here again we'll run into some issues with not having a group, but it's actually easier here than in Spirit of the Century.

Phase One: Where Did You Come From? I think Aidan is a local product. Born in Baltimore and raised by his mother (his father, a White Court Vampire, died in a firefight with the cops, and is still a local legend in the area), Aidan got into fights at school, got suspended, got expelled, and finally said "screw it" and took up with a gang. He found, though, that the cops took a special interest in him (and still do), so he realized it was in his best interest to stay clean. My Aspect here is Daddy Was a Cop Killer.

Phase Two: What Shaped You? Obviously, here's where the "vampire" thing comes out. Aidan, working on the docks, ran afoul of the sons of one of the cops his Dad killed. Aidan ran, not wanting to take on all three of them, but they cornered him near the water. Their rage suddenly gained substance and flavor, and Aidan drank it down and left all three of them dead. He dumped them into the water and ran home to his mother. His Phase aspect here is I Always Have a Home With Mom. His mother's name is Colleen Brannagh, by the way.

Phase Three: The First Story. Title: Bloody Knuckles. Aidan discovers a bare-knuckles boxing circuit, and enters so that he can drum up enough money to pay off the corrupt detective, Jackie Monaghan, who's been threatening to investigate the three deaths on the wharf a little more. He wins a major bout against an opponent who's far stronger than he appears - and who threatens Aidan afterwards.

You know, as I think about it, it really seems like Aidan's major trouble is the problem with the cops. I'll change Daddy was a Cop Killer to his Trouble Aspect, and I'll make School of Hard Knocks my phase one aspect. For this story, I'd like to give him an Aspect he can tag in a fight. I'll make it Fight Till I'm Burger.

Phase Four: Next Story. Normally I'd guest star, but y'know. This story is called: Russian Roulette. Aidan joins up with a Russian mob cartel moving drugs into Baltimore Harbor. His mother kicks him out when she finds out, and Monaghan offers him the chance to become a CI, which would wipe away his problems with the BPD. Aidan refuses and sticks it out with the mob, knowing that sooner or later they'll fall to infighting and destroy themselves. And they do - with the participation of the ghosts of the young men he killed. Aspect: Baltimore Harbor Muscle.

Phase Five: Last Story. Again, should be a guest star. I think I want to give Aidan a love interest. Taking my inspiration from the video for that song, my girl is a minor talent, a low-grade pyrokinetic (so I can just stand there and watch her burn). Her name is Emma Desmond, she's a Baltimore harbor rat like Aidan, and they met at a church function (Aidan was attending again to get back in Mom's good graces). They're very much in love, but it's not peaceful at all - they fight, they fuck, they break up, they get back together. Secretly, Aidan suspects this isn't going to end well, but they've moved into her place together. The Aspect here is:  Everything Burns if You Get it Hot Enough.

Skills. OK. I like that there's a nifty chart that tells me how I can break these out. Let's do this for Aidan:

Fists (Superb)
Intimidation, Endurance (Great)
Presence, Might (Good)
Stealth, Craftsmanship, Burglary (Fair)
Contacts, Athletics, Alertness, Empathy (Average)

Easy-peasy.

Stunts and Powers. OK, as a White Court Vampire, I have to take:

Emotional Vampire
Human Guise
Incite Emotion
Feeding Dependency
Inhuman Recovery (Catch is True Peace)
Inhuman Speed
Inhuman Strength

And I can't do anything else, really, because I'm out of Refresh. Which sucks because I'd like to be able to Incite at range, but whatchagonnado?

I fill in my stress boxes, and that's me done!