The Dresden Files RPG
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The Dresden files RPG is a roleplaying game from Evil Hat productions. The game is set in the urban fantasy world of the popular Dresden Files books written by Jim Butcher - the World of Darkness, if folks decided "Fuck brooding! Gimme my bourbon, I wanna sock the bastards!" The game was released on June 23rd, 2010.
The game mechanics uses the FATE System, a riff off of the FUDGE generic rpg system, already make popular by Spirit of the Century. The Dresden Files RPG is the first official "version 3.0" instance of the FATE System.
DFRPG is maybe the most popular FATE adaption. Its main drawbacks are the generally overpowered magic-users (vanilla mortals FTW!) and the fact that every mention on /tg/ causes a very special avatarfag and his army of hateboys to appear.
City Creation
Probably the best-kept secret of the game, the city creation rules are a great toolkit allowing for players to collaboratively build the kind of city they want to adventure in.
The Actual Dresden Files
They're pretty awesome, seriously, go read them. Private Eye/Wizard Harry Dresden takes on the forces of evil with his magic, his wits, and a near endless supply of old pop culture references. I'll try to summarize them without spoiling them, if it seems that i'm putting in the most exciting bits, i'm not, they're just that great.
- 1) Storm Front: not the author's best work but not terrible. Involves curses, a drug ring, and naked battles with a demon (its less kinky than it sounds).
- 2) Fool Moon: widely regarded as the worst book in the series but still pretty passable. Has werewolves out the wazoo (totally not furries, trust me).
- 3) Grave Peril: this is where shit gets good; Vampires (WoD variety, not Twilight shit, you'll learn to hate them for completely different reasons though) and a scary-ass powerful ghost.
- 4) Summer Knight: Faeries (the old folklore "Steal Children and Mutilate Livestock/People" kind, not the Disney kind). Its got badass Dark Eldar-type Faeries, slightly less badass Craftworld-type Faeries, and everything in between. Also, the sobering after-effects of losing a loved one and emotional crap like that. Also, don't call them faeries to their faces (its like a racial slur).
- 5) Death Masks: to sum it up, atheist warriors of heaven, conquistadore vampires, Fallen Angels, and a villain so evil that he makes Honsou look like Sanguinius. Seriously, he's so evil, that a Fallen Angel literally older than the concept of time thinks that he's one of the most evil things ever.
- 6) Blood Rites: a pretty good read despite the ridiculous premise. Two different flavors of vampire and porn stars. Manages to be pretty awesome.
- 7) Dead Beat: one of the best if not the best book in the series. Dresden fights necromancers and rides a zombie T-rex,if that does not sound awesome you are very clearly disturbed. Also, theres's a Warhammer Fantasy easter egg that rhymes with Shmeinrich Shmemmler.
- 8) Proven Guilty: tracking down monsters that feed on fear at a horror movie convention.
- 9) White Night: most of the details are spoilery, but basically, something's hunting magic users and framing Harry.
- 10) Small Favor: the villain from Death Masks comes back and tries to start the apocalypse again AND Harry has to deal with Faeries again. Includes dolphins, a hostage situation, and a donut, don't worry, it'll make sense.
- 11)Turn Coat: this one's bad guy might second closest thing to pure evil since that guy from Death Masks, it may be even more evil than him. Also, there's a magic cop who was framed for a murder he didn't commit and now he's on the run from his former allies while he tries to clear his name. Will he find out who's responsible? Will he get revenge? Will I stop trying to make this sound like an 80's television show? MAYBE.
- 12) Changes: a whole bunch of spoiler, like paradigm shift, next level spoiler. It's a bit more of a thriller than a mystery but this is where shit gets real in the series. Do Not start with this book, or any one that comes after it. They're amazing but they'll ruin the whole series for you and they usually require some prior knowledge of the series to fully appreciate.
- 13) Ghost Story: Pure unadulterated spoiler, sorry. But it recaptures some of the noir atmosphere from the earlier books and sets you up for the next story arc.
- 14) Cold Days: an assassination/training montage, followed by ballroom dancing, followed by investigation, followed by H.P. Lovecraft references, followed by more investigation. And insane Faeries throughout the entire books. Also, Santa's there, which is awesome, except when you learn that Santa is inspired by Odin, who also happened to be the inspiration for Khorne (which might actually make it even more awesome).
- 15) Skin Game: tied with Dead Beat for the best book. Imagine Oceans Eleven, but replace breaking into a casino with breaking into the Underworld, and replace a buttload of money with the Holy Grail.
Factions
The world of The Dresden Files is pretty diverse and expansive so Player Characters can be pretty diverse themselves, but here are some major factions for inspiration.
- The White Council: a collection of the most powerful mortal magic users on the planet (wizards) that's existed since the Dark Ages (maybe even before). Is extremely powerful but is ridiculed by the other factions for being obsessed with tradition and inflexible (which it is, to an extent). What most of them don't seem to realize that without the Council acting as an Inquisition for magic users by upholding the Laws of Magic, the rest of them would be forced to contend with insane black magic users breaking reality left and right, shattering the masquerade and burning the alive from the inside out for shits and giggles. Also, the Council would have phenomenal political and destructive power if it weren't constrained by the very Laws it upholds and if it weren't run by conservative geezers obsessed with the status quo. If a human breaks the Laws of Magic, the Council's grey cloaked Wardens drag them to a random black site and cut their head off, no exceptions, no second chances (mostly). Since mortal magic users exude a murphyonic field around themselves, complex electrical devices short out around them (shit breaks when they're nearby). This isn't that much of a handicap, since they only short out stuff built after WWII and then only if its complex like a computer, and even then it mostly happens when they actually use their magic. Most of them have found magical work arounds. This EMP effect is actually relatively recent, wizards have a probability effect that changes from time period to time period, it used to give them warts or cause fires to burn weird colors.
- Venatori Umborum: the Hunters in the Shadows or the Hunters of the Shadows depending on the translation. A secret society composed of humans with a lot of knowledge about the supernatural but not a lot of magic power. Dedicated to fighting monsters that prey on humans and pretty good in an actual fight, but they mainly specialize in preventing the (complete) corruption of human government and laws by supernatural predators, hoarding knowledge, and distributing knowledge to others in order to be able protect themselves. Basically lawyer/librarians with flamethowers.
- The Fellowship of St. Giles: named after the patron saint of outcasts and lepers. These guys are composed mainly of half-vampires who hate full vampires, but they take all types of outcasts. If you're a fugitive from the White Council who thinks they can still do some good, they'll take you. If you're a monster who hates your own kind, they'll take you. If you want to be a weird edgy and an underdog with a sense of justice, you're basically these guy's. The catch is, a lot of the stuff they do in the name of fighting evil is pretty shady itself. They're not as powerful or well entrenched as some other factions so they rely on the underworld(the criminal one) a lot more. As a result, its not very hard for their enemies to have them branded as terrorists by mortal authorities.
- The White Court of Vampires: psychic vampires that can walk around during the day. They can inspire a specific emotion in mortals which they use as a conduit to extract their life force. They mainly inspire and feed off of lust but they can also eat fear and despair. Very pale and very beautiful on the outside, but their souls are bound to a hideous demon called the Hunger, which provides longevity and super strength in return for life energy. They cannot create more vampires from mortals but when they have actual children (the old fashioned way) they don't tell them about their heritage until they grow up and lose their virginity. Upon having sex for the first time, the dormant Hunger awakens and completely devours their partner's life force, leaving the new vampire traumatized and confused. The vampire parent then swoops in and tells they child of its heritage and how normal this is and that it was okay to kill the human, after all, it was only food. Needless to say, they all have massive psychological baggage, creating a self sustaining cycle of trauma. The only way to escape this fate (if they naturally feed on lust) is to lose one's virginity to one who is in True Love with the young vampire, as White Vampires who feed using Lust are harmed by True Love (which is actually pretty fucking hard to find), a dormant Hunger will be killed by the first exposure to True romantic Love. They mainly inhabit first world countries since they prefer refinement and sophistication (being the physically weakest of the types of vampire), where they try to use their influence to create an atmosphere of zero inhibitions, zero limits, zero restraint.
- The Red Court of Vampires: mesoamerican blood sucking vampires. They can create a beautiful disguise or "flesh mask" over a hideous bat-like body (without wings), but the flesh mask combusts in direct sunlight. They are physically stronger than the White Court and they pacify their prey with narcotic saliva (no, really). They reproduce by turning people into half-vampires. The half vampire then gains an insatiable thirst for blood and super strength, but retains their human appearance and mind(well, most of it). Upon killing a human by draining their blood, the transformation completes and their strength increases, turning them into a deluded blood addict with an unjustified god complex (they actually have to kill someone by feeding off of them, its a metaphysical thing, so no, they don't get full powers but drinking a body's worth of blood from blood banks). They're mainly concentrated around Central and South America, where they use their connections to the cartels to benefit from human trafficking.
- The Black Court of Vampires: Classic "Bram Stoker's Dracula" vampires. They have all the folklore weaknesses, garlic, crosses, running water, etc. They compensate by hitting like fucking trucks, being nigh un-killable by conventional means, and being able to create more vampires extremely quickly (no half or dormant stage). The more powerful ones can walk around in sunlight freely, like Dracula did originally. In fact, the novel "Dracula" was written as a secret guide to killing them, as a result they are almost extinct, with the survivors being extremely good at being hard to kill (which means not popping up and making more vampires whenever they want). Most of them are hiding all over the world.