My own thoughts on the Dresden Files RPG
Good afternoon.
So, I had a chance to look at the books (the Dresden Files RPG) over the weekend and have some thoughts.
To put this in perspective, I was lucky enough to be a part of the playtest group for the game, so I got to see an earlier version that was still in the process of being edited and adjusted as they went along. So I know there are a lot of changes from when first saw this information back a while back. It is also going to be two seperate books.
The first book is called Volume One: Your story.
The look and the feel of the book is amazing. It is a very clean and the art is amazing. We had seen from time to time a bit of the art they were going to use, but it definately comes out well. The type is very easy to read and there is no issues in regards to how easy it was to read. I say that because I have read books that try to be clever with their art and it is not easy to read.
The first thing I really noticed about most of the book is how much cleaner it looks. The addition of graphs, images, quotes from Harry and Bob and Billy are amazing and make it seem different from anything I have ever read before. It was such a cool thing to actually see and it made reading it more fun that usual.
They do such a great job of explaining things to the reader. Whether it is talking about making a character or how to run the game. I have never come across a company that does a better job of how to run a game. I have read that section from Spirit of the Century so many times because the info works not only for the game, but just about every other one I have run. Evil Hat does an AWESOME job in that regard and the game great information is in this book as well.
After reading the book, I want to play a campaign in Baltimore. That was very well done. Not only in the city creation, but when you eventually got to its own chapter. That chapter floored me with all of its information...which included mini character sheets for every single person they created in the city. Locatrions, people, plot ideas, characters to play. Wow. Awesome stuff.
The magic chapter was one that I really wanted to see how they fixed and it is much easier to read now. The magic is probably the part my group had the most trouble understanding and that has been cleaned up quite a bit. Great examples and clearer definition of how to do it, to the different types of magic that you can have. I cannot wait to really dig into these chapters more. Cannot wait to see someone try to use Thaumaturgy.
Also getting to see examples spells such as Victor's heart exploding spell from Storm Front was very interesting. It has quite a few from the books.
Getting to see Harry's character sheet? That was very cool.
I also like how they handled the advancement section, which was the other big issue. It is handled in a very straight forward manner.
The city creation chapter was also cleaned up quite a bit and looks much faster to do now. This was the most fun we had, was making a New York City in the game. It is very cool to get to personalize your game by where you live. You will love that.
Volume two: Our Story
This to me is a thank you to the fans. There was quite bit talking about the supernatural world and how it works. From the the Unseelie accords to talking about the different factions.
Then came the what goes bump in the night section. This is a crucial element to running the game. To be able to find stats of the enemies you want, want, want to throw at people. This was fun to just look at.
But not as fun as getting to see Murphy, MIchael, Charity, Nicodemus, and others. Just getting to see the aspects and skills for these characters we love so much. Compleltely rewarding.
Index, yeah!
Overall, I am giddy with excitement and cannot wait to get these books in my hands!
So, I had a chance to look at the books (the Dresden Files RPG) over the weekend and have some thoughts.
To put this in perspective, I was lucky enough to be a part of the playtest group for the game, so I got to see an earlier version that was still in the process of being edited and adjusted as they went along. So I know there are a lot of changes from when first saw this information back a while back. It is also going to be two seperate books.
The first book is called Volume One: Your story.
The look and the feel of the book is amazing. It is a very clean and the art is amazing. We had seen from time to time a bit of the art they were going to use, but it definately comes out well. The type is very easy to read and there is no issues in regards to how easy it was to read. I say that because I have read books that try to be clever with their art and it is not easy to read.
The first thing I really noticed about most of the book is how much cleaner it looks. The addition of graphs, images, quotes from Harry and Bob and Billy are amazing and make it seem different from anything I have ever read before. It was such a cool thing to actually see and it made reading it more fun that usual.
They do such a great job of explaining things to the reader. Whether it is talking about making a character or how to run the game. I have never come across a company that does a better job of how to run a game. I have read that section from Spirit of the Century so many times because the info works not only for the game, but just about every other one I have run. Evil Hat does an AWESOME job in that regard and the game great information is in this book as well.
After reading the book, I want to play a campaign in Baltimore. That was very well done. Not only in the city creation, but when you eventually got to its own chapter. That chapter floored me with all of its information...which included mini character sheets for every single person they created in the city. Locatrions, people, plot ideas, characters to play. Wow. Awesome stuff.
The magic chapter was one that I really wanted to see how they fixed and it is much easier to read now. The magic is probably the part my group had the most trouble understanding and that has been cleaned up quite a bit. Great examples and clearer definition of how to do it, to the different types of magic that you can have. I cannot wait to really dig into these chapters more. Cannot wait to see someone try to use Thaumaturgy.
Also getting to see examples spells such as Victor's heart exploding spell from Storm Front was very interesting. It has quite a few from the books.
Getting to see Harry's character sheet? That was very cool.
I also like how they handled the advancement section, which was the other big issue. It is handled in a very straight forward manner.
The city creation chapter was also cleaned up quite a bit and looks much faster to do now. This was the most fun we had, was making a New York City in the game. It is very cool to get to personalize your game by where you live. You will love that.
Volume two: Our Story
This to me is a thank you to the fans. There was quite bit talking about the supernatural world and how it works. From the the Unseelie accords to talking about the different factions.
Then came the what goes bump in the night section. This is a crucial element to running the game. To be able to find stats of the enemies you want, want, want to throw at people. This was fun to just look at.
But not as fun as getting to see Murphy, MIchael, Charity, Nicodemus, and others. Just getting to see the aspects and skills for these characters we love so much. Compleltely rewarding.
Index, yeah!
Overall, I am giddy with excitement and cannot wait to get these books in my hands!