Dresden, pt. 2
Having read about 2/3 of the Dresden rule book (called "Your Story"), I've come to a few conclusions about it. Hopefully, these will be of use to those who are thinking about buying it.
1) This was made for experienced players. The way it is written assumes that the reader already has an understanding of role-playing games, and doesn't need to have the basic stuff spelled out to them.
2) It's a collaborative storytelling exercise as much as (or more than) it's a game. You wont find intricate mechanics inside, nor will you find charts or long lists of stackable modifiers. Instead, you'll find much more text devoted to how a GM can guide a conversation with his players about how to create the best story. The mechanics of the game are all designed with that purpose in mind, making them much less about what's fair and much more about how to make the best story possible.
3) The players (and the GM) are in charge. At first blush, that's not special. All games say that the players and GM can ignore the rules if they want. What makes Dresden different is that there are rules that say that, and they're all over the place. Everything that happens in the game happens for a reason, and it's all designed to push the story forward. Nothing is an accident, or a consequence of weird rules - it all happens because the players (and/or the GM) want it to happen.
4) There are elements in it that could help any game. The collaborative process for designing a city, and the process for making a cast of characters, are really awesome. They could be applied to any game to get a positive result. Hell, I wish the Cam made VSSes that way and recommended the process to anyone making a new character.
1) This was made for experienced players. The way it is written assumes that the reader already has an understanding of role-playing games, and doesn't need to have the basic stuff spelled out to them.
2) It's a collaborative storytelling exercise as much as (or more than) it's a game. You wont find intricate mechanics inside, nor will you find charts or long lists of stackable modifiers. Instead, you'll find much more text devoted to how a GM can guide a conversation with his players about how to create the best story. The mechanics of the game are all designed with that purpose in mind, making them much less about what's fair and much more about how to make the best story possible.
3) The players (and the GM) are in charge. At first blush, that's not special. All games say that the players and GM can ignore the rules if they want. What makes Dresden different is that there are rules that say that, and they're all over the place. Everything that happens in the game happens for a reason, and it's all designed to push the story forward. Nothing is an accident, or a consequence of weird rules - it all happens because the players (and/or the GM) want it to happen.
4) There are elements in it that could help any game. The collaborative process for designing a city, and the process for making a cast of characters, are really awesome. They could be applied to any game to get a positive result. Hell, I wish the Cam made VSSes that way and recommended the process to anyone making a new character.