The Independent Insurgency

05:03 pm - [Dresden Files] PoliCon session 2

The Game Master Show has released the second episode of the AP recordings I made of my Dresden Files playtests at PoliCon. This is the full 3 hour and 48 minute recording.

Thanks, guys.

11:11 am - Dresden Files AP on The Game Master Show

The Game Master Show just released an episode where they played AP recordings I made of my Dresden Files playtests at PoliCon. I'm not sure whether this episode has one of the two sessions I ran in its entirety or if this is an amalgamation of the two sessions I ran with excerpts. It's three hours and 18 minutes long.

(PS: Thanks to Phil for letting me know about this.)

EDIT: I just listened to some of this and it sounds like it's going to be the complete audio of the first of two sessions I ran on that day.

10:48 am - [Dresden Files] PoliCon AP report #1

So last weekend I ran two sessions at PoliCon instead of the one I was scheduled for. I was really excited about the characters I'd written and I wanted to see more of them used. Plus, I had no slot in the morning and nothing that looked that interesting to me. I'll talk about the first session first and write about the section session later.

05:08 pm - Darren Milardo, Werecoyote Cabbie

Last character for the PoliCon session this weekend.

Darren Milardo

High Concept: Werecoyote Cabbie

Personal Struggle: Duty to Teach Fools vs. Duty to Family

Aspects: Werecoyote Cabbie, Duty to Teach Fools vs. Duty to Family, Mouth Writes Checks Ass Can't Cash (Fools), Pay Any Cost, Bear Any Burden (Family), I Got So Many Problems (Fools/Family)

03:22 pm - Kenya Hintzen, Foster Kids' Half-Ogre Champion

Another character for the PoliCon session this weekend.

Kenya Hintzen

High Concept: Foster Kids' Half-Ogre Champion

Personal Struggle: Dodging The Choice vs. Taking Down Bullies

Aspects: Foster Kids' Half-Ogre Champion, Dodging The Choice vs. Taking Down Bullies, Living Under Star-Eyes' Loving Glare (Dodging), Sydok's Legacy of Righteousness (Bullies), Wizards Are Liars (Bullies)

08:46 pm - Javier Woltman, White Court alt-porn Impresario

Another character for PoliCon.

Javier Woltman

High Concept: White Court alt-porn Impresario

Personal Struggle: Indulgence or Enlightenment?

Aspects: White Court alt-porn Impresario, Indulgence or Enlightenment?, Ascension is Possible Through Love (Enlightenment), People Are Tools, Useful and Easily Broken (Indulgence/Enlightenment), The Darker the Pleasure, the Sweeter the Taste (Indulgence)

07:11 pm - Ericka Trivette, Wizardly Social Worker

Continuing in the series of characters for the PoliCon game in Philly this weekend:

Ericka Trivette

High Concept: Wizardly Social Worker

Personal Struggle: Do-Gooder or Slumming Aristocrat?

Aspects: Wizardly Social Worker, Do-Gooder or Slumming Aristocrat?, Poor Little Rich Girl (Slumming), I Can Change the World (Do-Gooder/Slumming), Everyone Deserves Respect, Damnit! (Do-Gooder)

04:35 pm - Annabelle Lambdin, PI Savant

The first of 5 (or 6) characters I'm planning to bring with me to PoliCon this weekend. Phases 4 and 5 will happen on con day. Commentary is very much welcome.

Annabelle Lamb

High Concept: P.I. Savant
Personal Struggle: Excellence vs. Connection

Aspects: P.I. Savant, Excellence vs. Connection, Smartest Girl in the Room (Excellence), Haunted by Nita's Ghost (Connection), Careless When Friends Are Endangered (Connection)

Skills: Investigation (Great +4), Contacts (Good +3), Scholarship (Good +3), Alertness (Fair +2), Guns (Fair +2), Intimidation (Fair +2), Athletics (Average +1), Burglary (Average +1), Resources (Average +1), Stealth (Average +1)

Stunts: Ear to the Ground (Contacting, p. 6), I Know Just The Guy (Contacting, p. 6), Shot on the Run (Guns, p. 3), Interrogator (Intimidation, pp. 10-11), I Know Just What Happened! (Investigation, may make Declarations per Scholarship while investigating a crime scene, gains a +1 bonus when doing so.)

Refresh: 5

Phase One: Annabelle grew up lower-middle class in one of Newark's white suburbs. Her family was working-class and devout, but Annabelle always had an inquisitive and questioning mind. She spent much of her youth taunted for her height, braininess, and lack of social graces. Aspect: Smartest Girl in the Room

Phase Two: As Annabelle entered high school and began college, her proud streak deepened into arrogance. At the same time, she became self-aware enough to start to realize what this was costing her and began to yearn for more human contact. She found it in her roommate, Nita Manjarrez, a carefree, tough-talking young woman with whom she eventually shared an apartment. When Nita went missing one day it devastated Annabelle. The police seemed disinterested in the case and Annabelle began a Quixotic search for the missing, presumed-dead girl. Aspect: Haunted by Nita's Ghost

Phase Three: Book Title: "'Belle of the Ball." When a gruesome clue is left on her desk weeks after she opens Lamb Consulting, Annabelle abandons all caution. She finds herself unable to maintain her careful, methodical ways and plunges headlong into the occult underworld of Gateway City. Deep in the city's transgressive underworld, she becomes entangled in a twisted sex cult, convinced she'll uncover the mystery behind Nita's disappearance. Aspect: Careless When Friends Are Endangered

01:07 pm - [Independent Insurgency] 007: Evil Hat on SOTC (+ some Dresden Files)

On this show I interviewed Rob Donoghue and Fred Hicks of Evil Hat Productions about Spirit of the Century. We also touch on some previewey stuff for the Dresden Files RPG as well.

This episode is 93 MB big and 1:07:40 long. 

Closing music is Skins Don't Cry by The Hub City Stompers.

Logo courtesy of Daniel Solis: http://danielsolis.com/

11:13 am - Spirit of the Dresden Files

So I'm playtesting the Dresden Files RPG, but all of it isn't done yet (unsurprisingly). I would like to run the "full" thing, and so in the meantime, I'm reading the files, preparing, and our group is running Spirit of the Century to familiarize them with the rules.

On the drive to Western MA I got an inspiration. The group has made vampires a huge part of their back stories. I thought, "Why not make them Dresden vampires?" Percolate, percolate. I thought, "I'm going to introduce Dresdenny stuff here." Percolate, percolate. I thought, "That could be lame, some Dresden stuff won't work in SOTC mood." Percolate, percolate. I thought, "There's a guy in Dresden's Newark (where our game is going to be set), a bisexual Brazilian trickster-type guy, who's writing pulp 'fiction' as a way to disseminate information about what's really going on in the world to a public who won't process it."

I'm pretty excited by this idea.

02:02 pm - [Dresden Files] Gateway City: Newark in Dresdenverse

So I have been honored to be invited into the "bleeding edge" Dresden Files RPG playtest. The first official task we were given was to Dresden-up a city using the city rules. This is at about the 75% done stage, but I'm excited and want to share. I should note that I have not read a single Dresden book and only watched the show a couple of times, so some of what I have here might not be totally in theme for Dresden. Please take such failings as my own, and not as those of Evil Hat. Here it is: