Another distinction the world of the Dresden Files makes about magic is about the kinds of people who practice magic. Anyone who has the talent for it can become a practitioner of magic, and they are referred to generically as mages or sorcerers or any other such term.
The distinction comes with the capital W, as in Wizards. A Wizard is someone who has taken the professional track to study magic and joined the White Council of Magic. This is the secret brotherhood of mages who police the world, protecting us normal people from all the things that go bump in the night. They also abide by and enforce the Seven Laws of Magic, which basically state that you can only use magic for good, can't use magic to kill a normal human, can't bind a being's will to yours (mind control), and that you cannot practice necromantic magic. There's more to it, but you get the idea.
Along with membership in the White Council comes professional training (every Wizard has a mentor), a knowledge base to draw upon for research, and a potential pool of allies and back-up, should you have good reason to call upon them. The downside is LOTS of beauracracy, more experienced wizards sometimes meddling in your affairs and telling you what to do, and the possibility of being called to fulfill some duty or other. Basically, plot motivators.
And if you're familiar with the Savage World rules, you might notice that membership in the White Council sounds very similar to the description of the Wizard edge. And that's how I'm going to use it. Any character wanting to belong to the White Coucil needs to take this edge.
Most of the time the converse will also be true: if you have the Wizard edge, it normally means you are a member of the White Council. But I'm not going to paint myself in a corner. It's highly possible that there are other schools or societies out there with a similar degree of training and support. For example, that mysterious "Black Council" that Harry Dresden is always theorizing about could very well be larger than anyone realizes. Or maybe the Wiccans become a professional force in the world. Who knows?
By and large though, I'm using the Wizard edge to represent membership in the White Council. And I think that will cover that topic. Up next: factions and groups.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
How to handle the magic
One of the first things I decided is that this game will not be a literal interpretation of the novels. Not every person who uses magic will have it function exactly the way Harry Dresden's magic works. There's precedent for this in the books: Molly doesn't need a physical focus to cast her veils. But on the other hand, very few people will be as powerful as Harry. Similarly, those with the Arcane Background (Miracles) will probably be able to cast more overt spells than we ever saw from Michael.
So, what kind of characters can we expect? Mages and wizards, certainly. Perhaps a werewolf or other forms of shapeshifters. Street-saavy cops, ex-military snipers, or hardboiled detectives should all be capable characters. That's one reason I decided to go with Savage Worlds as the game system - it's specifically designed for characters of differing abilities to be able to work together. I'll talk more about other character options in a later post.
Let's start with mages. I'm using the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition rules, and not much else, so I need to be able to duplicate the types of things we see with the core rules. Harry's magic seems to follow two different routes: either he channels his own energy through a focus item (blasting rod, shield bracelet, etc.), or he uses items that have their own supply of stored energy (like his force rings).
When I first began this conversion, the first thing I had to figure out was whether Harry had the Weird Science background, or straight Magic. I mean, he uses lots of magic items, right? But the power for those items comes from Harry, not the items themselves - that's clearly Magic rather than Weird Science. The items represent added flavor to his powers, more specifically, his need for these external foci sounds a lock like some kind of Hindrance to me.
So, Harry would have the standard Magic arcane background, but with a Focus Hindrance. This was suggested by one of the smart people (Noshrok Grimskull) on the Pinnacle Entertainment message boards. Here's how I'll define it:
Arcane Focus - the mage requires a physical item to focus his magic. Without the focus, channeling magic is more difficult for him; spells are harder to cast or drain more power then normal. As a minor hindrance, the mage receives a -2 penalty on his Spellcasting skill rolls OR the spells cost 2x the power points. As a major hindrance, both versions of the minor form apply (-2 on skill checks AND 2x point cost), OR the spellcasting penalty is increased to -4, OR the caster cannot cast at all without his focus. The player may choose how the hindrance affects his or her character.
In Harry Dresden's case, each spell requires its own focus for best control, but we've also seen him use his staff as a multipurpose focus when his preferred item wasn't available. And when he doesn't have the focus, his spells are less accurate, more difficult to cast, and use up more of his energy supply.
Magic items have their own internal power supply and work just like items created by someone with the Weird Science arcane background. Other characters could spend an advance to purchase a magic item, although some in-game explanation is required too. To play a character who relies on their own arsenal of magic items, I'll use a magic version of the Weird Science arcane background. I'll call that the Artificer or something. I'll let someone else come up with a name for it.
So as I mentioned, this was the first hurdle I needed to cross in order to feel like I could successfully pull off a rendition of Butcher's world. In my next post, I'll discuss the different kinds of mages that'll be showing up in my game.
So, what kind of characters can we expect? Mages and wizards, certainly. Perhaps a werewolf or other forms of shapeshifters. Street-saavy cops, ex-military snipers, or hardboiled detectives should all be capable characters. That's one reason I decided to go with Savage Worlds as the game system - it's specifically designed for characters of differing abilities to be able to work together. I'll talk more about other character options in a later post.
Let's start with mages. I'm using the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition rules, and not much else, so I need to be able to duplicate the types of things we see with the core rules. Harry's magic seems to follow two different routes: either he channels his own energy through a focus item (blasting rod, shield bracelet, etc.), or he uses items that have their own supply of stored energy (like his force rings).
When I first began this conversion, the first thing I had to figure out was whether Harry had the Weird Science background, or straight Magic. I mean, he uses lots of magic items, right? But the power for those items comes from Harry, not the items themselves - that's clearly Magic rather than Weird Science. The items represent added flavor to his powers, more specifically, his need for these external foci sounds a lock like some kind of Hindrance to me.
So, Harry would have the standard Magic arcane background, but with a Focus Hindrance. This was suggested by one of the smart people (Noshrok Grimskull) on the Pinnacle Entertainment message boards. Here's how I'll define it:
Arcane Focus - the mage requires a physical item to focus his magic. Without the focus, channeling magic is more difficult for him; spells are harder to cast or drain more power then normal. As a minor hindrance, the mage receives a -2 penalty on his Spellcasting skill rolls OR the spells cost 2x the power points. As a major hindrance, both versions of the minor form apply (-2 on skill checks AND 2x point cost), OR the spellcasting penalty is increased to -4, OR the caster cannot cast at all without his focus. The player may choose how the hindrance affects his or her character.
In Harry Dresden's case, each spell requires its own focus for best control, but we've also seen him use his staff as a multipurpose focus when his preferred item wasn't available. And when he doesn't have the focus, his spells are less accurate, more difficult to cast, and use up more of his energy supply.
Magic items have their own internal power supply and work just like items created by someone with the Weird Science arcane background. Other characters could spend an advance to purchase a magic item, although some in-game explanation is required too. To play a character who relies on their own arsenal of magic items, I'll use a magic version of the Weird Science arcane background. I'll call that the Artificer or something. I'll let someone else come up with a name for it.
So as I mentioned, this was the first hurdle I needed to cross in order to feel like I could successfully pull off a rendition of Butcher's world. In my next post, I'll discuss the different kinds of mages that'll be showing up in my game.
Friday, August 28, 2009
So...what is a Savage Dresden?
I currently have two fanboy loves: the Savage Worlds roleplaying game and the Dresden Files series of novels and short stories by Jim Butcher. My goal for this blog, as mentioned in the header, is to share my notes and thoughts for making my homebrew Dresden Files game setting using Savage Worlds as the rules.Because both are so awesome.
The first thing I'll make note of is that I don't want to set the game in Chicago. Chicago and its environs are amply covered by Butcher's works. There's no room for a group of player characters to show off there. Rather, my plan is to set the game in a different city, quite possibly Charlottesville, Virginia, since that's near where I am. At least one of the PCs will be tied into the Paranet (a loose network of occultists, sorcerors, hedge mages and other people keyed into the supernatural).
For a while, I was very tempted to set the game in 12 to Midnight's Pinebox setting because it's a great setting, it has the mood I want my game to have, and they have a lot of high-quality adventures and source material. I hesitated and finally decided not to use it because I'm afraid the setting might be too rural and it's really designed for a horror game, where I'm looking for an urban fantasy setting. Once I put my finger on that distinction, I quickly realized Pinebox wasn't right for this game. So, while I won't be using the setting, there's a good chance I'll use a couple of their adventures. But if I were looking to run a modern horror game, I'd go to Pinebox in a heartbeat.
So that's the plan: I'm putting together a modern fantasy game set in the world of Harry Dresden. I'll be incorporating a lot of the factions and groups, character types, and magic styles from those works. And hopefully I'll be able to channel some of Butcher's detective-noir stylings as well. Wish me luck.
The first thing I'll make note of is that I don't want to set the game in Chicago. Chicago and its environs are amply covered by Butcher's works. There's no room for a group of player characters to show off there. Rather, my plan is to set the game in a different city, quite possibly Charlottesville, Virginia, since that's near where I am. At least one of the PCs will be tied into the Paranet (a loose network of occultists, sorcerors, hedge mages and other people keyed into the supernatural).
For a while, I was very tempted to set the game in 12 to Midnight's Pinebox setting because it's a great setting, it has the mood I want my game to have, and they have a lot of high-quality adventures and source material. I hesitated and finally decided not to use it because I'm afraid the setting might be too rural and it's really designed for a horror game, where I'm looking for an urban fantasy setting. Once I put my finger on that distinction, I quickly realized Pinebox wasn't right for this game. So, while I won't be using the setting, there's a good chance I'll use a couple of their adventures. But if I were looking to run a modern horror game, I'd go to Pinebox in a heartbeat.
So that's the plan: I'm putting together a modern fantasy game set in the world of Harry Dresden. I'll be incorporating a lot of the factions and groups, character types, and magic styles from those works. And hopefully I'll be able to channel some of Butcher's detective-noir stylings as well. Wish me luck.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
