Harry Dresden Diceless

[finarvyn]

What about running a Dresden campaign using something like the Amber Diceless RPG?

Four main attributes: Psyche (mental combat), Strength (athletic actions), Warfare (weapons combat), and Endurance (how long you can last).

Spellcasting ability costs character points to buy (similar to buying Power Words, Sorcery, and Conjuration, but maybe only one "Magic" stat to represent training).

I notice in the books sometimes that Harry will compare notes with other Wizards, perhaps finding that they are better at certain types of spells while he is better with others. This could be simulated by combining Psyche (power) with Magic (training) to get some sort of spellcasting points which could be divided among magic "schools" or spell groups.
* Offensive (player picks special effect of fire, ice, lightning, water, whatever)
* Shield (player picks special effects)
* Telekinesis (moving and pushing stuff)
* Sensory (ESP, Sight, and so on)
* others I've missed?

The rules would be similar to ADRP, with each magical "school" acting a lot like an ADRP attribute. For example, a combat could be one wizard's lightning blast versus another wizard's shield and if one is stronger he is victorious, but using Endurance to resolve similar power levels.

I was thinking of running something where zero would be "human standard" level so that I wouldn't need to have all of those negative numbers. I also was looking at using the system but not all of the Amber NPCs -- the point would be to run a Dresden campaign and not simply insert Harry into an Amber campaign. With "human" level at zero, "exceptional" (Chaos) might be at 15 and "supernatural" (Amber) wold be more like 25+.

To set up characters, one would need some sort of baseline:
I would put most Wizards with "exceptional" to "supernatural" psyche = 15-25 (so Harry's would likely be more than this).
Vampires would have "supernatural" strength = 25.
Weres would have "supernatural" endurance = 25.
Mercs like Kincaid might be "exceptional" in Warfare, maybe 15.

Pretty much all of the ADRP powers would be gone, as they are not part of the Dresdenverse, but some system for spellslinging and shape shifting would clearly have to remain. Many of the item costs (for things like Michael's sword) could remain, and the basic conflict resolution process would remain intact as well.

So ... just some quick off-the-cuff thoughts for generic NPCs:
* Vampire = P 10, S 25, E 15, W 0. (50 point template)
* Loup Garou = P 0, S 15, E 25, W 0. Shape Shift 35. (75 point template)
* Generic Warden = P 20, S 0, E 10, W 5. Power Words 10, Sorcery 15. (60 point template)
* Better Warden = P 25, S 0, E 10, W 5. Power Words 10, Sorcery 15, Conjuration 20. (85 point template)

Anyone done anything like this?

[joewolz]

Nifty Idea, but I'm waiting for the FATE Version myself.

[finarvyn]

I'm quite aware of the FATE 3 version and will buy it as soon as it gets released becasue I know Fred Hicks and his stuff is very well done. I even have Spirit of the Century which, other than the magic system, is mechaniclly identical to the Dresden Files RPG.

I'm just a little impatient and have been trying other game systems for Dresden in the meantime....

[joewolz]

I'm quite aware of the FATE 3 version and will buy it as soon as it gets released becasue I know Fred Hicks and his stuff is very well done. I even have Spirit of the Century which, other than the magic system, is mechaniclly identical to the Dresden Files RPG.

I'm just a little impatient and have been trying other game systems for Dresden in the meantime....

Actually, from what I hear it's not going to be mechanically identical, it'll actually be quite different since Dresden Files is not heroic.  Or at least no as cinematic as pulps.