There is a really long draft of [Do] waiting to be edited by the inestimable Ryan Macklin when he gets a free chunk of time. I mean long. Like, 80,000 words. It's intentionally too long, so Ryan would be able to cut out all but the best 10% of valuable material. I mean, you can read it if you're crazy, but I didn't think anyone would be insane enough to actually play the game from this draft.

Obviously, I underestimated the enthusiasm and pure grit of the Italian gaming scene! Fabio and his friends created the following characters:

Fabio Succi Cimentini (me): Pilgrim Ikuna the Resplendent Puppy
Ariele Agostini: Pilgrim Lani the Mercurial Falls
Bruno Capriati: Pilgrim Kaki the Sincere Koala
Francesca Giacomini: Pilgrim Matareka the Dignified Arrow
Mario Bolzoni: Pilgrim Taranga the Judicious Mosaic

The group decided to answer the following letter (written by Ben Lehman!):

Dear Monk(s)
Hi how are you! My name is Melanie. I come from a very small planet.
There is me, my house, my cat, and two trees (see drawing).
I am not so good, because my planet has been eaten by a whale.
It is a very small planet. I woke up and I was inside a whale. I don't want to get (more) eaten.
Please help!

your freind
Melanie (age 8)

P.S. Drawing is on the other side.
P.P.S. I will make you cookies.

Fabio translated the following AP from Italian, so forgive any quirks of grammar, but really it makes about as much sense as any average session. :P

Note: The abbreviation ST stands for "Storyteller," a role that passes from one player to the next on each turn. The abbreviation TM stands for "Troublemakers," who are any players who are not presently the Storyteller. The number of stones the Storyteller keeps on her turn determines whether her pilgrim gets In Trouble. Other pilgrims can, if they draw and keep the right stones, get that pilgrim (or themselves) Out Of Trouble. I can explain the rules in more detail, but this is a long post as it is.

ROUND 1

FABIO: 2 Black Stones
ST: Ikuna is the first Pilgrim to enter the belly of the whale, lighting the way with her glistening gold body.
TM: But before she reaches Melanie's planet, she is bewitched by the luminous baleens of the whale

ARIELE: 3 White Stones
ST: Lani takes a stroll upon the whale's gastric acid, then swims into the soft palate to force the beast to cough

BRUNO: 2 Black Stones
ST: Kaki lands on the cavo orale of the whale, bandages Ikuna whole with his meditation bends and carries her away, saying “You want the beast to keep eating the planet?”
(Ikuna out of Trouble)
TM: The coughing of the whale launches Kaki away, who ends up being tangled up between baleens.

FRANCESCA: 1 White Stone
TM: Matareka reaches the planet, Melanie hugs her pleading her to save the cat. “He just flew away!”
ST: But she literally reaches the cat on the fly and brings him back to the girl.

MARIO: 2 Black Stones
ST: Taranga throws himself in the blowhole, just as he glances Melanie's house
TM: But he's blown away by the pressure

ROUND 2

ARIELE: 1 Black Stone
TM: The whale keeps on coughing, and Lani is violently knocked from one side to another
ST: He swims upwards and reaches the whale's palate

BRUNO: 2 Black Stones
ST: As whalebone is not so different from tree branches, Kaki can wrestle his way out and lands on the planet.
TM: But he's instantly recognized by the trees on the planet... and he's quite notorious among vegetables, so they're not really happy.

FRANCESCA: 2 White Stones
ST: Matareka begins to navigate the planet across the puke streams towards outside.
TM: But as the planet's weight unbalances, she falls in the stream and is carried onwards.

MARIO: 2 White Stones
ST: Luckily Taranga bound himself with elastic cords to the whale's mouth as Matareka taught him, so he's brought back to the start
TM: But the backthrust is too strong... and he lands on the house's roof. Smashing it.

FABIO: 2 White Stones
ST: Marching on with eyes still blindfolded, Ikuna ends up hanging from the mouth of the whale, who starts to follow the Pilgrim-emitted light turning downwards and pushing the island in its throat close to the outside.
TM: But she's struck by the downflowing streams and covered whole with a disgusting green patina which freezes her in horror.

ROUND 3

BRUNO: 1 White Stone
TM: The trees are Whomping Willows!
ST: But Kaki knows their weak spot: so he throws them Mel's star-shaped cookies, which they love, with a “soporific cookie throw”

FRANCESCA: 2 Black Stones

ST: Matareka grabs the cat's tail and manages to reach the bank.
TM: But the angry cat assaults her,


MARIO: 1 White Stone

TM: As he wakes up, Taranga sees an enraged Melanie attack him with a rolling pin
ST: The beating causes Taranga to blow up over and over, until he begins to lift the planet up


FABIO: 1 Black Stone
TM: As seaweed attaches itself to Ikuna, she draws the giant hungry plankton emerging.
ST: Crying and all pissed, she blindly beats up everything in the path so she can give vent to her frustration and then calm down.


ARIELE: 3 Black Stones
ST: Lani can see everything. He then swim even upwards to force the3 whale to the ultimate sneeze.
(Here we had finished all the Goal Words: but no-one reached 8 words yet. So we went on.)

ROUND 4

FRANCESCA: 1 Black Stone
TM: The cat enlarges everytime it angrily blows at Matareka
ST: But as it reaches the size of cow, she eventually knows how to deal with it and calms it down.

MARIO: 3 White Stones
ST: Using the elastic cords Taranga manages to ferry the planet out of the puke stream.

FABIO: 1 White Stone
TM: But Ikuna is still near to the plankton, and the whale is still hungry.
ST: She is falling asleep, though, and seeing her all curled up ready to slumber softens the whale... which ends up placidly following the planet.

ARIELE: 1 Black Stone
TM: But the cords are too dry and Lani is slipping down
ST: He rubs them on whale mucus, so he's manage to climb.

BRUNO: 2 White Stones
ST: After striking the trees Kaki takes care of them until they blossom.
TM: But the planet may be too small for a third tree..!

8 Stones are reached. All GW weres marked.

END GAME – PARADES

MARIO: Taranga binds the whale in the elastic cords.
ARIELE: Carrying bucketfuls of building material, Lani repairs the roof.
BRUNO: Kaki puts the newborn tree in a vase, then he greets Melanie goodbye and begins to depart.
FABIO: Ikuna cuts off her hair so she can weave a shiny golden flag to direct the whale so it can drag the planet everywhere Melanie wishes to go
FRANCESCA: And Matareka teaches Mel how to cook plankton sushi. Every hunger issue is solved!

And then they played another letter after this! Fabio hasn't translated that story yet, but I'll post it as soon as he does.

To those of you who have offered their support, my debt to you is immense.

To those of you who naysayed... enjoy your crow.

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

Rob Donoghue, my business partner at Evil Hat, has been writing one hell of a blog of late over at Some Space To Think. You should check it out in general, because it’s fantastic.

You should check it out today, though, because he talks about his perspective on the crazy five-year project we’ve been working on called The Dresden Files RPG.

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

Evil Hat Productions is partnering with Daniel Solis to publish Happy Birthday, Robot! Now that the kickstarter funding drive is over, you can still preorder it (with instant PDF) at the Evil Hat webstore: http://www.evilhat.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68_73&products_id=199

I’m bringing this up (again) because I got the proofs in from the printer today. Here’s a peek and Dan’s gorgeous layout:

@Jonathan, I should hope so, seeing as we’ve been talking about Origins as our big release event for months! More origins-related posts, here: http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/tag/origins/

I live in Columbus, Ohio and will be at Origins. Will you have copies of the 2 DFRPG books available for sale there?

WOOOOOOOOOOOT! Running it will be easier with physical books– I’m old school, I guess, but I hate “paging through” a book on a computer.

Excellent! I can’t wait. Already printed out a copy of V1 at work, and had it spiral bound at staples… Hopefully we’ll start our game up next week.

Looking forward to this. Tabletop roleplaying games have nearly disappeared from the shelves of our local hobby store, and I had to pester the boss there to get in a preorder. At the time being it’s the only copy he has ordered, but hopefully my gaming group will tell his gaming group (they overlap) how awesome it is. You know, if it turns out to be awesome, that is =D

Glad to hear it. We are already working on our Dresden game, but it won’t take off until we have actual pages to flip and books to read at the table. Having a couple of months headstart to think about everything has been nice though.