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.

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 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.