Fate & Dresden Files RPG, Part 1 - Intro
Originally published at A Singularity. You can comment here or there.
So I talked a little bit about roleplaying games in my last post which you can find here. I briefly talked about what they are, what I’ve been playing, what I’ve wanted to play, and why it’s been hard to play what I want to play.
One game that I’ve been wainting to play is the Dresden Files RPG.
The Dresden Files RPG is based off a series of books known as The Dresden Files (a shocker I know) by Jim Butcher. It is produced by Evil Hat Productions. If you’ve never heard of The Dresden Files or have but haven’t gotten around to reading the books, let me highly and emphatically suggest them right now. They are an excellent read and by the fourth book you will most certainty be hooked. Let me warn some of the books can easily robe entires nights of sleep from you by their sheer awesomeness.
But I want to talk about The Dresden Files RPG, not the series.
The Dresden Files RPG is based off a roleplaying game system called Fate. Fate is a free RPG system, meaning that you can use it, download it, print it, as much as you like because it is released under the Open Gaming License, which is like the Creative Commons License but for games. The Fate used in Dresden Files is actually one of the first versions of the 3rd edition of the Fate system, modified slightly to better create Dresden Files like stories.
As soon as I started reading about the Fate system I found it an incredibly interesting from a mechanics standpoint. Roleplaying games grew out of miniature war games and as such, tend to have a focus on being a simulation of real life (even if real life in this case contains fantastical elements such as magic spells and dragons), and have a focus on combat. There are exceptions but even those exceptions have mathematical rules which are not very supportive in terms of story creation.
Fate, on the other hand, has an interesting mechanic called Fate Points and Aspects. Every character has a pool of fate points and during character generation, derives a series of statements which act as their character defining aspects. In the Dresden Files, you have what is called a character phases worksheet because character generation goes in phases. You define a high concept, a trouble, your early background, your recent background, your last big adventure, and two “guest stories” or background that you have in common with two other players in the game and from each of these sections, you define an Aspect that represents your character based upon what you define in these sections.
Still confused? It was a confusing concept to me at first but once I realized it what it did, it seemed an amazing storytelling mechanic. Let me give you some examples. I was making a character the other night. He is an unusual character for a Dresden Files game but the GM allowed it. He is a normal mortal man who happens to have two supernatural powers due to something random he doesn’t quiet understand. He a supernatural sense that allows to know whenever he is being observed and he has the ability to conjure a flesh mask, which is basically the ability to look like someone else. No one specific. Just a different person. So with a character like that I still needed a High Concept and really it seemed obvious. His high concept is “Man of Many Faces”.
So the second phase of character generation I have to choose a trouble. Troubles are something that create conflict for your character, that help motivate them, and that come up continually, if not constantly. They can be internal, external, self inflicted, or just about anything. It seemed to me that my character, if he had these abilities, would probably be something of a criminal. I mean if you can look like anybody and you know when people are watching you, those two together can make for great combination but what would actually drive him to crime? Perhaps a compulsive curiosity? I ended up deciding that his trouble aspect was “Impulsive Investigator”.
So already, using aspects and the character generation system, I have a somewhat fleshed out character with motivations and definition. Something for the game master to use as guidelines for how my character might act in order to craft a better story.
But Aspects play a big role in the actual game as well but I’ll explain that in my next post. So after these messages we’ll be right back!
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