![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mithriltabby
I think the Fate system finally hits its stride with The Dresden Files RPG. The folks at Evil Hat took their time putting this one together, and it was well-spent. This is nicely polished, with an advancement system that looks like it should stand up well to campaign play, a magic system that can handle the split between adventurous spellslinging and occult ritual, and a flexible vocabulary for describing a broad variety of characters.
The books are written as if they come from within the world of the Dresden Files; in that universe, Dracula was secretly a manual for taking down Black Court vampires, and these gaming books are putatively a late draft of a roleplaying game created by Billy the Werewolf to serve a similar function for cluing in new entrants to the supernatural world. The book is thus full of marginalia conversations between Billy, Harry Dresden, and Bob the Skull, providing extra exposition, a good deal of humor, and a number of “get rid of this or at least change the names before publishing” notes to show that some of the details really are secret within that gaming world. (When Billy uses a writeup of Harry as an example, he describes him as being played by a guy named Jim. About whom Harry grouses a great deal.)
The rules and examples are set up to be able to describe everything within the storyline of the Dresden Files tales, up through Small Favor but not Changes. (What we know as novels and short stories are what Harry calls “case files”.) It includes a system for quickly writing up locations and faces around town for a campaign, making it possible for a group to collaboratively create a setting, and fleshes out Baltimore as an example. It doesn’t go anywhere it doesn’t have to, but it fulfills its goal of making Jim Butcher’s novels into a playable setting well enough that a gamemaster can use the rules as a basis for telling their own kind of story. (It would be easy to stat out cybernetic upgrades as comparable to supernatural powers, for instance, and use the system for Shadowrun.) The rules include guidelines for gaming at different power levels, ranging from Feet in the Water (when it comes to the occult) all the way up to Submerged.
Your Story is the first Fate book I would hand to any prospective player.
