My Review: The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game

One of the most anticipated roleplaying games to come out recently was the Dresden Files RPG. The RPG is based off of the novels written by Jim Butcher. After watching me keep an eye on prices for months, my wife bought me the two books – “Your Story” & “Our World” – for an anniversary gift.

Most game groups will have one person – the Game Master (GM) or Dungeon Master (DM) – run the players though a story they’ve created, using Player Characters (PCs) created by the players themselves. Each group determines which setting they will use either as a group or from the GM coming to the group, saying, “I really like the XYZ setting, what do you think about me running a game with it?”

Typically, a GM will run the players through his or her game until they get tired of running the show or until they reach the end of their story line.

In the game group I’m currently in, the four of us had all been eyeing this game system and setting. When we started talking, we all had an interest in playing and running our own games, based in the Dresdenverse and we came up with a plan for our weekly game nights:

• Rotating GMs - In order to let all four of us take turns running our own devious plots and get some good playing time in, we decided that we would take turns running a game session once per month. Player 1 is the GM for week one. Player 2 is the GM the following week, and so forth.
• Same city - One of the brilliant aspects of the Dresden Files RPG is that, as a game group, you create the city in which the game will be run in. This helps everyone feel more connected to the imaginary setting. In our case, with the rotating GM schedule, all four stories are still based in the same group-created city. This means we get to piggy-back off of each other’s ideas. For example: A main character or PC in GM 1′s game might make a guest appearance in GM 3′s story line.

The Good

The entire gang involved in the Dresden Files RPG did an amazing job bringing the feeling, tone and concepts of the stories written by Jim Butcher to at-whim life as an RPG.

Artwork
The artwork in both books are stunning. There isn’t a whole lot else to say, other than, like a little kid, I really like the pictures.

Character Creation
The way characters are created is much different than other systems I’m used to. With all other games I’ve played, the players create their characters on their own and the GM is responsible for making them all come together in some semi-reasonable way to band together. With the Dresden Files RPG, characters are created collaboratively, with each player getting a chance to write his-or-herself into the other characters’ stories. If done right, before the first die is even rolled, you’re excited about what will happen to the characters you’ve all created.

The RPG Books Are Fun
These are the first RPG books I’ve read where I actually had fun reading them. In the margins of the books are “handwritten” notes from three people – Harry Dresden, Bob the Skull and Billy. The RPG books are written “by” Billy and the notes are made on the assumption that Bob and Harry are editing Billy’s ideas and work. Jokes are cracked and words here and there are scribbled out. All of this make the book fun to read and also carries through to players and GMs the basic idea that these games are supposed to be fun.

It’s Flexible
The novels (and therefore the RPG) have a lot of supernatural and magical components, such as wizards, schools of magic, vampires, werewolves, faeries and faerie courts, demons and the like. If, like our group, you have no interest in playing games with vampires or faeries, you can omit them. Our group decided on some house rules that no player characters would be vampires, faeries, or the like but they could be non-player characters (NPCs) “if really needed.”

Not all groups will shy away from some aspects of the Dresdenverse, but if, like ours, you opt to skip some aspects of the setting entirely, it won’t hamstring game play or your fun.

The Bad

There are only a couple of things I didn’t particularly like about these books:

Spoilers Abound!
If, like myself, you read the RPG books before you finish reading all of the Dresden Files novels, tread carefully!

The RPG books, especially “Our World,” is chock full of spoilers. Most systems, such as Serenity and Pathfinder, have iconic character examples that serve only as that: examples. In the Dresden Files RPG books, however, there are a ton of spoilers without warning. You can still enjoy the books after inadvertantly reading some details you’d rather not find out about just yet, but it is what still keeps me from looking through “Our World” with both eyes wide open.

No Dice
Good luck finding a set of Fudge/Fate dice. The Fate system uses 6-sided dice (d6′s) with a plus sign (+) equalling +1, a minus sign (-) equalling -1 and a blank side equalling zero, instead of traditional numbers or dots. When I was looking to buy this RPG, I found a severe shortage of Fudge dice anywhere I looked. Months later, the Fudge dice supply has not improved very much. Online stores were sold out. Local gaming stores were also sold out. This doesn’t have to kill your gaming opportunities, though, because you can use regular 6-sided dice in the following way:

1s & 2s = -
3s & 4s = Blank
5s & 6s = +

The Bottom Line

Go buy it. Whether you’re a fan of the Dresden Files novels or RPGs with a modern setting, you’ll enjoy the flexibility and depth of the Dresdenverse. Right now, IndiePressRevolution.com has Print+PDF bundles of each of the books – “Your Story” & “Our World” – for very good prices. You’ll not only get to download the PDF copies of both books right away, but soon afterward you’ll receive your physical book versions, too.

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