Generating Aspects

Each character will begin the game with five Aspects and gain an additional Aspect with each rank advancement. While the number of Aspects is fixed, individual Aspects can change over time. A character could gain or lose a group affiliation, incur an injury that makes him no longer "Dazzlingly handsome," etc. An Aspect may or not be tied to game stats; some will, some won't.

On the other hand, if the character has a Hindrance that is meant to be roleplayed and not directly represented by mechanics, like Overconfident, Curious, or Connected, then that Hindrance needs to be reflected in an Aspect. So, if your character has the Addicted Hindrance, he should have an Aspect like "Stoner," "Loves the bottle," or just plain old "Drunk all the time." Whatever best describes his situation.

I think it's time for an example using real characters. Let's try Harry Dresden himself. Some examples we could consider are:

• Hard-boiled detective
• Warden of the White Council
• The only wizard in the phone book
• Impulsive smartass
• Chivalrous to a fault, Knight in shining armor, or Old fashioned boy
• I have a fairy godmother
• I've seen the Dark Side and I spat in its face
• Guided by my conscience
• My dog is smarter than me
• Friend of the little people (this one can be applied both figuratively AND literally)
• Honor demands it!
• Dysfunctional family
• Electronics hate me
• I have powerful friends…and more powerful enemies
• Underworld ties (again, this could be used to refer to his ties to Marcone or to the Nevernever)
• Can't keep a good man down
• Hard to kill

All of these statements can be applied to Harry. The better ones for our purposes are those that can be used to create interesting situations in the game, or to pull into play when the character is stuck. So how would we use some of these Aspects? I'll start at the top.

"Hard-boiled detective" could be used to introduce plot elements. Say Harry is very busy thinking about his current difficulty, when the GM holds up a bennie and says, "A distraught woman approaches you. She has one of your business cards." If the player accepts the bennie, then he and the GM play out a quick encounter.

If he turns it down, the woman excuses herself with a promise to call him later or maybe he quickly takes her name and number with a promise of the same. Point is, if the player accepts the offer, then it becomes an interesting scene, possibly at the expense of distracting the player and the character from matters at hand. If he doesn't accept, then the situation dissolves.

From the player's standpoint, say Harry is in the same situation as above, trying to put together the pieces of his current mystery, and he's either stumped, or needs something done that he doesn't have time to do. He could spend a bennie to invoke "Hard-boiled detective" and suggest that he calls in a favor to get information or have someone run an errand for him. Either way, this idea helps move the game and story forward, so the GM would likely accept the suggestion.

My favorite of Harry's Aspects is probably "Impulsive smartass." We can all see how the GM would invoke this – the same way Butcher does in the books: by having Harry mouth off in the most inappropriate way at the worst time, insulting the person he really needs to favor. The player could use it to have the perfect comeback when facing an annoying NPC or to bait someone with a verbal distraction. Personally, I highly recommend this as an Aspect.

Personality Aspects

Here is where I've decided to do something different. I'm adding my favorite mechanic from another game, Spirit of the Century, to this game. It's an easy add-on that won't change how Savage Worlds works, but I think will add to the roleplaying.

Aspects are short, descriptive phrases that convey something about the character, like "Smarter than the average bear," "With great power comes great responsibility," or "Hunted by the Red Court." These Aspects are used in the game in a couple of ways, beyond describing the character.

1. The GM can use aspects to award bennies to the players by bringing an appropriate aspect into play at times when embracing that aspect would present the player character with an interesting or troublesome roleplaying opportunity. This is called "tapping" or "invoking" an aspect.
     For example, say a PC is trying to break into a necromancer's lair and needs to sneak past a guard to do so. Say the character succeeds in making his Stealth roll, but the GM thinks this is good opportunity for more action and recalls that the PC has "Two left feet." So the GM, while holding up a bennie, suggests that the PC stumbles into a table, sending lot of stuff clattering to the floor, spoiling the attempt at sneaking.
     This doesn't mean that the PC gets caught, but it does present him with a more exciting situation. Of course, if the player decides that it's more important to successfully bypass the guard, he could just say no thanks to the bennie, and all goes according to plan.
     Naturally, this works both ways. In the same situation, the player could be the one suggest invoking the aspect and make things more interesting in exchange for a bennie from the GM.

2. Players can use aspects to assert some narrative control over the story. Say the PCs need some info aobut the eccentric and reclusive scientist outside of town, and so far, they've hit a brick wall. One of the characters has the aspect "Hardcore Wahoo" and suggests that maybe the guy with season seats next to his works in the college science department. And just maybe that guy can give them some info.
     If the GM thinks this is a reasonable idea, the player can spend a bennie to invoke the aspect and gain some useful information from his stadium-neighbor.

3. Finally, players can spend a bennie to tap an appropriate aspect and receive a +2 on a trait roll. Say a thief is trying to pick a lock. He could tap his aspect "Steady hands" to get a +2 on the attempt.This being Savage Worlds, bennies can already be used to reroll a failed action, so at first this might not seem all that useful. But consider that you could tap several aspects, each giving a +2, so long as they are appropriate and the player has the bennies to spend.

The purpose behind aspects and using them in this game is to give the GM (me) a more straightforward and balanced way of handing out bennies, while also giving players opportunities to have their characters shine. Going back to the source, here are some examples of aspects and how they could be used. Be sure to page down to the big chart!

Coming next: Character generation and choosing aspects.

Factions & Groups

All of the below is just political flavor for the game. And a bare-bones encapsulation of Jim Butcher's sweat and tears. But any of these groups are excellent fodder for stuff in the game.

1. White Council – already covered and full members get the Wizard background edge. But I wanted to add that it's the only mages guild we know of. There could be other smaller, less official guilds that just haven't registered on the White Guild's radar. Or guilds/covens that are avoiding the White Council's radar…


2. Black Council – this is a group of powerful wizards and/or monsters that are trying, for whatever reason, to subvert the White Council's world dominance. At first, only Harry Dresden believed they existed, and he coined the term. But as of the events in Turncoat, at least some members of the White Council were willing to believe his crazy theories.

3. Paranet – This group figures heavily for us. Most likely, the PCs are, or will be, a local cell. This is an underground, laymen's organization of practitioners who act to alert Harry to suspicious occult activity. (Harry's responsibility as a Warden of the White Council includes policing most of North America, so he created this network to assist him in his duties.) If something local happens that the Paranet cell can't handle, the call Harry. Similarly, if he needs to spread word about an invasion of the fey, he sends an alert down the line.

4. The Vampire Courts – I might cover this in more detail in a separate post. Vampires come in three colors of political and biological persuasion: Red, White, and Black Courts. They are ALL evil with only one exception that we know of. I am not going to run an Ann Rice "touch me, I'm ambiguously oriented" vampire campaign. If you encounter a vampire of ANY shade in this game…kill it.

5. Denarians – Fallen angels, now demons. What more do you need to know? They give a mortal incredible power at the cost of his soul. Move along. Seriously.

6. Alphas – A local group of werewolves, and a good example of a Paranet cell. They also represent how superheroes could work in Savage Dresden.

7. Nevernever – Jim Butcher's only failing as a writer - don't hurt me; I recognize that he chose this name very deliberately. It's the faerie world where all the monsters come from. Also used as an in-between point for dimensional travel and teleport. And it's dangerous. Things there don't like things from here. It's controlled by two opposing forces: the Summer House and the Winter House. And each house has three rulers who aren't necessarily aligned with one another. Lots of infighting and use of mortal pawns.

I have to say that what I'm really looking for in this game is something that's easy to prepare for, easy to run, and set in the modern day. Savage Worlds certainly gives me the first two criteria, and using the Dresden Files as a setting amply provides the third. All of the people in this group, except for one guy, have absorbed the books and short stories. I've probably read nearly all of the short stories, and am working my way through a second reading of the novels. Everyone else in the group can boast more than that. Except of course for that one guy, but he is the hardest-core gamer of all of us, so he'll adapt.


The real question is when am I going to run the game? This blog is supposed to be a way to help me dispense my thoughts and pre-game prep-work. But if I'm not careful, it'll just be a way of postponing the game.

To my players, I want to give this list of responsibilities:

1. Given what you know of the game world, or in Rich's case, the generic modern supernatural genre, think about what kind of character you'd like to run.

Like most games set in the modern world, this game is scaled to modern human norms. Yes, you'll encounter supernatural stuff, but not necessarily anything that Karl Kolchak couldn't handle. Do you want to play the psionic noob, the hard-boiled detective/reporter/conspiracy blogger, the college co-ed witch, the soldier just back from overseas, or the normal guy just getting caught up in his friends' situation?

2. What sorts of things would you like to see in a modern day, supernatural game?

Do you want to meet (or be?) Sam & Dean from Supernatural? Prefer to recapture the horror of your Buffy-style high school days? Or do you want to be a military clean-up crew who sweeps this scary stuff under the rug so the norms don't have to worry about it? Or, do you want to be part of a biker club who, amongst other bikery things, looks out for the well being of your town?

3. Bitch at me to run the damned game.

Seriously, without YOU motivating ME, it's not going to happen. I need to know that you guys want to play this thing.