Dresden Files RPG Volume One: Your Story is published by Evil Hat Productions and is the official role playing game based on Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series of urban fantasy novels. It is based on the FATE system, also developed and published by Evil Hat, and the book is covered by the Open Game License and therefore some of it is considered to be Open Game Content. There is a companion volume, Volume Two: Our World, which is really needed for playing in the Dresdenverse.
The supplement is available as a 418 page PDF from DriveThruRPG. The regular price of the PDF is $25, but it was purchased at the discounted price of $15. The book is also available as a printed book from places such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed. Of the PDF, two pages are the full colour front and back covers, two pages are front matter, one page is the Open Game License, three pages are the Table of Contents, seven pages are the Glossary, five pages are the Index, which covers this book as well as Volume 2: Our World, two pages are adverts for other Evil Hat products and seven pages are the Reference Sheets, which are the various character and worksheets and quick table references.
The Introduction, which is essentially only two pages long, has some in-universe notes about the book, a standard “What is a Roleplaying Game?” section, a list of the Dresden Files books in chronological order, including some short stories, and a quick look up box referencing various questions and book locations.
Harry’s World is an overview of the world of the Dresdenverse, the supernatural, mortals with power and knowledge, and the current world situation – the latter being, by now, completely out of date.
The Basics is an introduction to the game itself, such as the various concepts of a Fate game, including the ladder, Fudge Dice (Fate evolved from the Fudge system) and Fate Points, as well as the character sheet.
City Creation is on how to create the place where the game is set, assuming it isn’t set in Chicago. The setting is assumed to be a city, although the precise definition of a city can vary. This starts from the overall city concept and organisations down to locations and people (NPCs).
Character Creation is on creating a character, a method which is quite different to D&D derived games. This chapter also references several others that are used during creation.
Types & Templates gives a number of different character templates to use as a base for a character, from a vanilla mortal to a White Council wizard to a supernatural entity, and shades in-between.
Advancement is how a character changes over time – this is not an experience-based, levelling-up system – and how they work. The city changing as well over time is also covered.
Aspects are important parts of a character, and used to define them. They can be invoked or compelled, or added temporarily through actions of the character and others, and are generally short phrases. Locations have aspects as well.
Skills is a compilation of the skills in the game, and which have trappings that are how the skill works in certain situations.
Mortal Stunts are various tricks that are based on skills, but are different (they do have some similarity to feats). Although mortal, supernatural creatures can have them, they just aren’t powers. There is a limit to how many can be taken, as each as a cost; too many will make a character an NPC and large amounts can cause difficulties to counter the benefits.
Supernatural Powers are the supernatural abilities possessed by pretty much anything that isn’t a vanilla mortal. As with mortal stunts, too many supernatural powers can reduce a character to non-player character status.
Playing the Game is, of course, on actually playing the game. Combat may seem complicated, but it actually isn’t; it’s just different to those coming to it from D&D derivatives, and it is probably a lot simpler than D&D 3.x/Pathfinder. This chapter focuses on actions and conflicts, in the latter case including mental and social, and how the results of these interact with important elements such as aspects and consequences.
Living With Magic covers matters such as a wizard’s longevity and ability to heal damage, which basically has no game effect, senses, including the sight and Soulgazing, and the tendency for wizard’s to break technology. One of the important elements in this chapter is the Seven Laws of Magic, the breaking which can land players in potentially fatal trouble – and this includes fantasy staples such as killing with magic (i.e., no fireballs for killing people), polymorphing other people, mind reading and charming others (some of these are banned because they are handled with rather more realism than is common in fantasy games; polymorphing and charming really aren’t as easy as is typically made out).
Spellcasting covers actual spellcasting, and a player often first decides what wants to be accomplished from a spell, and then fits it into the game mechanics. Spellcasting is divided into three main types, Evocation, Thaumaturgy and Sponsored Magic, although each also has subdivisions. Evocation is the quick use of magical power, Thaumaturgy is more ritual magic, which can be more powerful but takes more time. Thaumaturgy also includes the crafting of focus items and potions, as well as various thematic approaches (such as necromancy and ectomancy), many of which skirt dangerously close to the Laws of Magic. Sponsored Magic has power from outside the spellcaster, usually for a price, such as the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, as well as Hellfire and Soulfire, but also including places of power. Finally, Examples of Magic has different examples for evocation, thaumaturgy, focus items, enchanted items and potions, often based on magic and items used in novels.
Running the Game is about, as the title suggests, how the GameMaster actually runs the game. One notable point here is that the system is very concerned about story, and there are suggestions on how to make even failed dice rolls advance the plot. There are details on building non-player characters of different levels, from those that are essentially background scenery to the major ones, especially foes.
Building Scenarios is a bit different in some ways to building adventures in other systems. The methods rely heavily on Aspects, especially those of players but also those of NPCs and locations, and building scenarios around those aspects.
Nevermore/Baltimore is finally an example city, based on the real world Baltimore (the “Nevermore” part of the chapter title is a reference to Edgar Allen Poe, who lived for part of his life in Baltimore, with a house he lived in currently being Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum; Poe’s legacy lives on in this version of the city). This city includes various characters, who have been used as frequent examples in the book, both NPCs (friends and foes) and three that are suggested as being suitable for players, as well as descriptions of several useful or interesting locations in the city.
Finally, there is an extensive Glossary, followed by an Index which covers not only this book but also Volume Two.
Dresden Files RPG Volume One: Your Story in Review
The PDF is pretty well bookmarked, with the major sections linked, although it could have been slightly better by linking the more minor ones as well. The Table of Contents is also decent, covering the same level as the bookmarks, and the Index is thorough, all making this one of the better books to navigate.
The entire book is designed to look like a work in progress. The pages look to be those from a spiral-bound notebook, one which has been damaged by being exposed to various substances. There are comments from Harry, Will and Bob, each in a different style of text, and these comments that respond to each other and are a primary source of humour for the supplement – the novels, despite there often being quite a lot of bad things happening, do contain humour. These notes are sometimes apparently written on the page – and include various irrelevant jottings – and sometimes look to be stuck on with Post-It notes. Some areas of the text are highlighted, and the margin notes help explain a point better. Many of the illustrations throughout also appear to have been stuck on with tape. Together with the colour page backgrounds, this is not a PDF that is very printer friendly, although it does look very distinctive.
The book is extensively illustrated, with many full colour illustrations up to a page in size. The illustrations feature various characters, and scenes, from the novels, especially Harry Dresden, of course. This is especially true as the book is written in an in-universe style, as the supposed intention of the game is to help people in the Dresdenverse understand the supernatural.
There isn’t a huge amount of material available for the system; there are several free adventures and a major expansion, Volume Three: The Paranet Papers, as well as Volume Two: Our World. The novel series has moved on quite a lot since the game was originally created and there doesn’t appear to be much as yet published to consider these, other than The Paranet Papers; Small Favor is the last novel on the list in the Introduction, although there is a mention of the aptly-named Changes. The book really needs to be paired with Our World, which is probably not absolutely necessary, but there are enough references to the other volume in this one to make it a useful companion.
There are quite a few references that will probably only make sense to readers of the novels – who are, admittedly, probably the primary market for the game – but it does mean that those unfamiliar with the stories may have trouble fully understanding the game. As such, familiarity with the novel series will help.
Those unfamiliar with either Fate, or Fudge, the system it was evolved from, or other related games (such as ICONS), may find the system rather different, especially if they come from a Pathfinder/D&D background. There is a much greater emphasis on story in these games and rather less in the way of earning experience, and experience does not exist as such. There also seems to be a greater emphasis on, to an extent, ignoring the actual dice rolls if they might halt the plot, or even kill a character. This, and the use of Aspects – which are used for both people and places – may seem more than a little odd. Aspects allow players to actually decide how they affect areas and NPCs, or be affected themselves – they can be used to alter places to make them more useful, and reduce, to a degree, the impact of failure. This makes the system seem very tame in some ways. Dresden Files RPG Volume One: Your Story is a book that looks nice and stays pretty true to the novels, but the system itself is probably variable depending on just what a group is used to playing.
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