Quick and Easy Guide to Playing The Dresden Files RPG

1. Dice: 4 Fudge dice (yeah, I’d never heard of them either) or 4 6-sided dice per player. Fudge dice have 2 sides marked with a +, 2 sides marked with a – and 2 sides blank. If you use 6-sideds, 1 & 2 are treated as -, 3 & 4 are treated as blank and 5 & 6 are treated as +. You roll the dice to generate a result between -4 and 4.
2. Setting & characters: City and character creation are intertwined, and collaborative
a. Choose your city
b. Agree on basic facts about it that you’d like to play with–a reputation the city has? Public figure? Geographic feature? Neighborhood? Subculture? Recurring event?
c. Figure out the sorts of problems the city is facing (1-3 total themes & threats)
i. Themes–problems that have been around a long time, firm and hard to get rid of (examples: corrupt politicians: “If he’s a politician, he’s mobbed up”; college town with a notorious fraternity of wealthy troublemakers: “If the Beta Alpha Chis want it, they get it”; cautionary tales like “If a pretty girl wanders alone at night, don’t expect to see her again”)
ii. Threats–person, monster, group or even a condition or circumstance that makes or wants to make life in the city worse for the mortal inhabitants (examples: people or other beings with no clear agenda: “A new warlock is breaking the Laws of Magic”; an idea of their agenda: “The Red Court is expanding their territory into this city”; bizarre or more metaphysical than real threat: “The Summer and Winter Courts are using this city in their machinations.”
d. Decide how the supernatural intersects with the city: who cares about the status quo? Who wants to rock the boat? How do mortals react? What’s the local supernatural community like?
e. Come up with various locations within the city, everyone making 1-2 each, where individual problems are fleshed out: neighborhoods and points of interest
i. Locations that seem to have their own story or character
ii. Locations that have a little action or conflict built in, even when PCs aren’t there
iii. Locations that tie in with the city’s themes and threats
iv. Locations emblematic of factions and organizations above
f. Come up with people for those locations: high concept and motivation (high concepts: White Court entrepreneur, monster hunting cop, dabbling sorceress); tie them together somehow
g. Make player characters (see additional page)
h. Finish the city, turning themes and some threats into aspects–game mechanics that can affect the PCs