The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game, Vol. 1: Your Story

This is perhaps one of the most well written, amusing, and well thought out RPG books I've ever encountered in 20+ years of pen-and-paper role playing. The FATE system it is based on is light, yet crunchy where it needs to be. Its easy to learn but there are lots of subtleties to master. The setting is exciting, I started reading the Dresden series AFTER I bought this game. Most impressive to me was how complete this book is. If you had to buy one RPG book to start playing with, I'd recommend this one. It has an amazing setting creation system, excellent characters, and all the rules, gear, powers you need to make all the monsters, NPCs, and players you could want. This is really a gold-standard book here folks.

This book contains the rules for a FATE RPG variation based in the world of the Dresden Files novel series. I have read the books, and this rulebook in particular, and they are all an excellent and interesting read. Your Story takes things a step further by allowing you (and your friends) to step into the world of the Dresden Files and play your way through your own story. The book itself is well-written, with hilarious annotations and notes on almost every page. The illustrations are similarly gorgeous. In short, LOVED IT.

Let me get this out of the way first--I have yet to play this game. Having said that, I think this is a fascinating rules system and I can't wait to try it out. The book itself is set up as the rough draft of an in-universe roleplaying game being put together by Billy Borden (the idea being that it will subtly clue in the vanilla mortals to the supernatural happenings around them, similar to how "Dracula" allowed mortals to recognize Black Court vampires and their weaknesses); assorted comments and clarifications from Billy, Harry, and Bob have been included in the margins. These add to the realism of the system and often help illustrate the intent and/or finer points of some of the rules. Plus, page 61 has a fairly obscure reference that absolutely made my day :) Players are expected to take a more active role than in some other games, suggesting ways that their character's Aspects (phrases that represent distinctive traits) might influence the story. They can also take advantage of other characters' Aspects, utilize Aspects of the scene itself, or even make up such Aspects on the fly when the rules and GM allow it. One possible sticking point is that actions are resolved using special dice, called Fudge dice; if you'd rather not shell out for extra dice, the game suggests a couple of ways to use regular six-sided dice instead. As far as character creation goes, you have a nice selection of archetypes--your "class", if you will--and options; you can make pretty much anything you want, within reason. (Nothing inherently evil, like a Red Court vampire, or powerful beyond mortal understanding, like a Faerie Queen or archangel--but Red Court infected, Sidhe Knights, and Knights of the Cross are among the player options.) Players are also encouraged to work with the GM to create the setting and assorted character hooks; in fact, the rules suggest making Character Creation one of the later steps of group City Creation. All in all, it seems like a solid little game. If you and your friends are fans of the Dresden Files, and want to have your own adventures in the setting, this book is a must. Even if you're not familiar with the setting, it would make for a good modern fantasy game (although the aforementioned commentary probably won't do anything for you).

The Dresden Files RPG is a great game and it uses a great system, however, it is flawed by being way to convoluted in some aspects and the thamaturgy rules are incredibly complex. I played Fate Core first then moved on to the Dresden Files RPG even though I got the DFRPG first because the rules were getting a bit over my head. To be fair, this is because the DFRPG is using an older version of Fate that, by Evil Hats own admission, was a little TOO indepth and complex For example, in Fate Core, you start off with a high concept aspect (what your character is all about), a trouble aspect (a running theme of problems for your character), and a regular aspect (just something about your character flesh them out a little) and you can get up to two more as the game progresses. Aspects are invoked for all kinds of reasons by the player as long as they are relevent in some way to the task at hand. For example, if my high concept was 'Internationally known strong man' I can invoke this aspect to a bonus to get into a crowded bar because I am famous, I can invoke it to perform a feat of strength, or the DM can use it against me by making it difficult me for me to not call attention to myself because so many people know me. With 3 aspects it is great for beginners to learn the basics of how to invoke these aspects and it limits all the stuff the GM has to keep up with for random invoking and such when he is new. 5 is solid for advanced players who are into a pretty epic game with established characters and DM who knows what he doing really well. The DFPRG STARTS with SEVEN aspects per character, NPC, location, and enemy (yes, locations and items have aspects to for example a back alley can be 'slippery when wet' and 'well hidden' with a trouble being 'rats everwhere' and those can come into play during any encounters, investigations, etc that goes on there). It continues until players have a total of NINE aspects. If this is your first outing with Fate, DFRPG is a meaty, meaty game that takes time and patience to learn for the GM and the players, however, if you get the hang of it, understand the rules, and it clicks with all the players you will be hard pressed to find a more rewarding and enjoyable RPG experience.