Since the Vicar put up such an awesome character I thought I'd try to feebly follow up his work of genius.

This is the first character for the new Dresden Files roleplaying game, that I've gotten to play myself. I GM two games in the same system though... The GM is a Canadian immigrant living in Denmark, so the game is set in his hometown of Calgary and all three PCs are connected to the University of Calgary.


Character: Darren Gambrell
(full name: Darren Aldous Rainbow Starshine Leary Gambrell)
Player: Onkel Thorsen
Template: Focused Practitioner (Ectomancer)
High Concept: Reluctant Medium and Exorcist
Trouble: Heir to Great power & Responsibility

Power Level: Chest Deep (Skill Cap: Superb (+5), Refresh: 8)

Brief Description: A student of Visual Arts and Folklore at the University of Calgary,
financing his studies by performing as a spirit medium and exorcist.

Appearance: The archetypal starving (or at least ramen-fed)
artist / student, in campus life Darren doesn't distinguish himself
much from his fellows except when he is trying to make ends meet.
Typically dressed in the traditional attire of the chronically
destitute, when working however he puts on something more showy:
a threadbare formal swallow-tail coat over his cleanest painter's smock,
and sometimes even a ratty top hat with small bones in the hatband.
He also carries a particularly sturdy Shillelagh as part of his working
"costume" but unless he's actually expecting to use it, it's usually
concealed under the long coat. When taking on a particularly challenging
task, he may even apply face paint in imitation of the Voodoo deity Baron Samedi...
partly also to mask his own identity.
The only common thread among his guises, is his ever-present backpack
of art supplies, measuring tape, small bottles of this and that,
tubes of canvasses and paper that form the backbone of his magic as well as his art.

Peculiarities: For some reason everywhere Darren goes a murder of crows follows.
They don't really do much, beyond what crows normally do, except get upset when
something dangerous happens or is about to happen. They tend to be hanging out
where he's been, or already be where he's going, only occasionally do they
obviously follow him around.

Skills:
Superb (+5): (none)
Great (+4): Discipline, Lore, Performance
Good (+3): Conviction, Empathy, Scholarship
Fair (+2): Alertness, Stealth, Weapons
Average (+1): Contacts, Craftsmanship, Presence

Powers & Stunts:
* Channeling, Specialized in spirits (Ectomancy)
* Ghostspeaker
* Ritual [Ectomancy]
* The Sight
* Art Supplies: Ritual Focus Item (2 slots) +1 Wards & +1 Binding
* Shillelagh: Channeling Focus item (1 slot) & Enchanted Item (1 slot) +1 Offensive Power; Weapon:2 against corporeal & non-coporeal spirits; Weapon:4 in the Nevernever
* Empty Enchanted Item (1 slot) (meant for a Spirit Trap or some Psychic Bird-seed)


Phase one (Background: Where did you come from?)
Phase Aspect: Oh goodie, this isn't stupid at all
Grew up in an extended family of granola girls, latter day hippies, hipsters, Jesus freaks, beatniks and the flakiest of the flaky. Rapidly became the black sheep of the family.
Darrens Mother knew very little about his father, and never brought up the man's "proud" and terrifying legacy.


Phase Two (Rising Conflict: What shaped you?)
Phase Aspect: What's up with these crows?
With his predominantly new-agey background, Darren took seeing and talking to ghosts and spirits to be something entirely natural and normal. It never occurred to him that others didn't really see the things he did.
Only once he realized that the murder of crows that constantly seems to be following him was unique to him, did he realize that something unusual was going on.


Phase Three (The Story: What was your first adventure?)
Story Title: Dawn of the Eaters of the Dead
Guest Starring Professor Jack Windsor & Casey Smith
Phase Aspect: Aw, Crap!

Escaping his family by attending The University of Calgary - Darren pays his college tuition and living expenses by selling his services as a medium and occasional exorcist. Was offered an apprenticeship with an important Ectomancer, but decided against joining the White Council, deeming it a cult.
During an exorcism at a Suburban mini-mall Darren ran into trouble when the problem turned out to be not ghostly but ghoulish. And unwilling to swallow his pride, Darren couldn't call the Council for help. Instead his Professor of folklore and a friendly werewolf rode to his rescue.


Phase Four (Guest Star: Whose Path Have You Crossed?)
Story Title: The Truth Shall Set You Free
Whose Story Was This? Casey Smith
Who else was in it? Jack Windsor
Phase Aspect: Right! that's enough!

Hired by the family of a deceased hockey player to speak with her restless soul, Darren discovers that the opposing team has been systematically turning players into werewolves in order to gain an advantage.
Bringing the consequences of this "cheating" to the attention of a classmate on the team, triggers a mass revolt against the Coach which leads Casey to ultimately leave the team.


Phase Five (Guest Star Redux: Who Else’s Path Have You Crossed?)
Story Title: The Wandering Wizard
Whose Story Was This? Jack Windsor
Who else was in it? Casey Smith
Phase Aspect: Damnit, I'm an artist not a Ghostbuster

On a Folklore class field trip to a First Nations reservation, Professor Windsor discovers that a medicine man he meant to visit has been murdered by a Skinwalker.
Hoping to gain some information on how to defeat the monster, Darren strikes a deal with a Faerie for two of his six names in exchange for the knowledge.

Having never played a FATE game, I have not idea what most of that means. But I can't wait until I can get my hands on that game to find out.

Ya, I was thinking the same thing given my dearth of experience with the system, but the Crow-Groupies are brilliant!

The system is actually surprisingly simple, even if the book is humongous.
I intend to write up a review here on the forum as soon as I can pull myself together... ^_^

One of the coolest facets of the system is the "Phases" part of character creation, where you connect your own character's backstory to those of the other player characters. And those stories also define key Aspects of the characters' abilities and personality. In the case of this campaign there are only two other players, so we show up in all of each other's stories, but normally you'd go clockwise around the table so that every character is connected to only two of the others.

How did the game go?

I FINALLY finished reading the main book after numerous times of stopping and starting. The basics of the game seem pretty simple, but the rule books is very dense with explanations and examples (a good thing!). I imagine Spirit of the Century is a much easier read without all the new rules for Evocation and Thaumaturgy. I really think I need to see/play in a game of this before I tried running it, though. Assuming I can get my group to play.

Character creation looks really fun. I really want to use it even if I have to hack it up and cram it into another game system.

Well, does it say anything that I'm now GMing three different Dresden Files games? :p

That particular game was a learning experience - even moreso than the game I'd run myself over the summer.
I find that some of the Thaumaturgy rules are very easy to misinterpret and give too much power over to - some traditional RPG challenges are almost TOO easy to solve with Thaumaturgy. Like tracking someone down - you really have to enforce the difficulty of doing so without, say, a sample of the target.
And you need either extremely honest players or a GM who's got the rules down much better than the players, 'cause there are some very tempting avenues for abuse.
My own character, as an example, was given pretty much the same powers as a full wizard (as opposed to a focused practitioner) by my GM - my "Spirits Only" attacks were allowed to affect Fae for instance, and I could do tracking spells as easily as any others by giving it the trappings of summoning the ghost of a dog - simply because I could easily argue how it could be done.

I'm still struggling with compelling Aspects and rewarding players who obey their Aspects voluntarily - but I figure it's a question of practice. And now that I'm basing scenarios around PC Aspects, that should change at least a little for the better.


My love for the system is based first and foremost in the character creation, but FATE in the DF model is going (come hell or high water) to be my system for the future. (Even if my regular group has descended into the madness that is Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay 2nd Edition)