We’ll be collecting links to various downloads here as we release them. Enjoy!
Resources
- City and Character Sheets for use in your game.
- A shapeshifter character sheet.
- A hunger stress character sheet.
- Spellcasting record sheet.
- Printable background-free quick reference sheets from the back of Your Story
Fiasco Playset
One-shot adventures
Sneak Peeks, Wallpapers, and Miscellany
- Nevermore. Dresden Files RPG preview
- Harry Dresden’s character sheet. (Read more in our January 2010 Status Update)
- The Baltimore chapter from The Dresden Files RPG: Your Story. All 39 pages of it: PDF Download (Approx 13MB) — you can save us a little bandwidth by downloading it from DriveThruRPG instead! (Read more in our late March sneak peek.)
- If you’re looking for some swanky desktop wallpaper, check out our cover art post.
- Check out the powers list from the game. Or, if you’re looking for that data to be organized differently, check out this post from Four-Color Criticism.
The Magnificent Rick Neal
Rick Neal has written a lot of good, in-depth stuff about the Dresden Files RPG. Here are links to his articles, all of them worth a read.
Power Level and Setting Creation
- Wading In: Power Levels for DFRPG Campaigns
- When Magic Comes to Town: City Creation in DFRPG, Part One
- When Magic Comes to Town: City Creation in DFRPG, Part Two
Character Creation
- Birthing Pains: High Concepts, Templates, and Troubles
- Tell Me A Story: Character Creation Phases in DFRPG
- The Lightning Bug and the Lightning: Aspects in Dresden Files RPG
- Look What I Can Do: Mortal Stunts in DFRPG
Combat
Spellcasting
- Mystic Theory 101: Magic in DFRPG, Part One
- Evocation, or How to Blow Stuff Up: Magic in DFRPG, Part Two
- Thaumaturgy, or How to Break the Rules: Magic in DFRPG, Part Three
- Getting Ready, or A Thaumaturgic Preperation Cheat Sheet: Magic in DFRPG, Part Four
- How to Build Spells, or A Practical Grimoire: Magic in DFRPG, Part Five
- Math and Miscellany: Magic in DFRPG, Part Six
- The Real Story of the Spell: Cooperative Thaumaturgical Preparation in DFRPG
General and Wide-Ranging Q&A
Not Specific to DFRPG, But Still Maybe Useful
- Let’s See What Happens: Emergent Campaign Storylines
- Let’s See What Happens, Part Two: The Secrets Deck
Fan-Created Resources
- Reference sheets for our Spanish speaking players courtesy of Zonk/PJ – Demonio Sonriente
- Two-sheet powers reference handout from Brian Sniffen
- Spellcasting reference sheet from Chris Czerniak
- Spellcasting reference sheets from Shawn Craig: Evocation Sheet and Thaumaturgy Sheet.
- Some German-speaking resources
- Adam McLaughlin’s form-fillable-ified sheets: Dresden files 2 Page, Dresden files 5 Page, City (Locations), City (High Level), City (Faces), Shape Shifter (2 Page), Hunger Track 2 Page, Spellcasting
- Jeff Bradley’s Fate/DFRPG reference sheets
- Wraith808’s FATE Action Cards and Foldable Character Sheets
- Adam Rinehart’s “Sleepy Hollow” DFRPG scenario for Halloween
- ToonStore, an online resource for storing your character sheets
Hey, all, I’ve created some worksheets to make the creation of spells easier on the fly. They’re designed to be printed out and filled in.
http://www.srjoshinteractive.com/downloads/EvocationWorksheet.pdf
Evocation spell sheet – one spell per half sheet of paper.
http://www.srjoshinteractive.com/downloads/ThaumaturgyWorksheet.pdf
Thaumaturgy spell sheet – one spell per sheet.
I don’t know how to play. Could you start at the beginning, explaining? Don’t assume I know ANYTHING (except that I’ve read the series, of course).
That’d be a pretty long answer not suited to blog comments — I’d heartily encourage you to drop by the Jim Butcher forums over at http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/ and hit the Dresden Files RPG board there, and pose this question. I’d bet the community would be happy to tackle this question — or point you at where it’s already been answered!
Cool idea seems complicated rather read the books. Maybe a mmorpg game would be cool or a game like heavy rain with a entire story deciated like a book to the game. As for a mmorpg it.should
As for the mmorpg it should play like city of heroes and champions online with the player creating their character apperences and their strengths like harry uses raw power in his magic and molly has a talent for delicate magic so those could be how the classes are made. It could take place in chicago and the nevernever with NPC’s like Morgan and the whire council. Murphy, Rawlins in SI for the police or Michael and Sanya. Traveling around in chicago players could use cars and in the nevernever with mounts like horses. Missions could be based off the books fighting the vampire courts and the fallen.
Hey, just a FAQ; my local rules litigator noticed that the Tower of Faith stunt allows you Armor 1 against mental or social stress in a scene, provided you pray. I am ruling that that will not cancel out the minimum 1 stress for evocations, but I thought I’d ask just to make sure. It seems like too much of a good thing. Please let me know what you think at your earliest convenience. Thank you kindly.
Armor doesn’t work against stress you inflict on yourself. So no cheats to get around Evocation or Hunger based stress sources, etc.
Cool, thanks and the Resilient Self Image mild consequences are just against torture/interrogation, correct?
Should I make up a new stunt for one mental consequence against all mental stress or just use those as general mental stress consequences ?
Quick question that has been bugging me a bit. If a wizard in training has Evocation and then Ritual(Wards), can they have any focus items? They do not have the Crafting ability from Thaumaturgy, which would suggest they cannot, however it seems a bit crippling. This is assuming no one else creates an item for them of course.
There’s a (potentially unwritten) assumption that focused practitioners who still have item slots have at least the limited ability to craft those focus items within the scope of their limited-theme powers.
These are excellent resources. Our group has enjoyed Dresden Files for near on a year worth of gaming now, and I have found these indespensable, especially as a non-mortal characters. I can’t think of anything that could expand this or help, but if I do, I’ll drop off an idea.
Thanks Robert, we’re pretty delighted that the content for the game (both ours and from fans) keeps growing. As new things come up we’ll be sure to link them here.
Something I couldn’t find anywhere, even a hint: How would D&D style healing magic work in this system? Would it be an “Attack” Evocation to remove stresses instead of inflicting them? A transformational thaumaturgy to grant one of the Recovery abilities?
Also, is it possible to have a combined maneuver and attack? Something that uses three shifts to inflict an Aspect on a target, and then as many extras as you like to do damage?
At my table I’d support a spell that does that kind of combined effect (maneuver/attack). I’m not sure every GM would.
D&D style healing magic doesn’t exist much outside of some supremely powerful faerie mojo. Shy of that, you’re at best doing the equivalent of advanced technologically-possible medical care with magic.
BTW, I was wondering if you can change a rote from a maneuver to an attack or vice versa, depending on description. For Example, my mage Jason Knight has a rote attack “Brizinka!” which he uses to hurl a exploding fireball. Now imagine he’s trying to help out a Knight of the Cross against a Denarian. Could he use that same rote to give the Denarian the Aspect “Distracted” or “Off-Balance” or something of that sort?
Well, considering it begins as an attack, assuming you did enough damage, the Denarian might be forced to take the aspect regardless, if they intend to roll the damage down to a consequence. It’s of my opinion though, that any attack can be a maneuver, if your intent isn’t to cause direct damage but to set the enemy up for something bigger later. You could easily just down the shifts of power to be negligable so you aren’t burning yourself out on a maneuver.
BTW, what skill does regular healing (first aid and so on) fall under. Best guess I have is Scholarship, but that doesn’t really fit.
Do buildings (and other inanimate objects) have stress tracks or consequences? My characters are trying to whip up a ritual to smash a nearby abortion mill to bits and I’m looking for some frame of reference to set the complexity.
I don’t see why not. The consequences you inflict could easily become scene aspects (“Let’s Burn This Mother Down!” or “Busted Foundations”). Alternatively, another idea might be to the GM select a stress track, but the blocks are only filled by creating scene aspects, so as they are fulfilled, a stress box is filled in. That way, if you create enough detrimental aspects, it all comes down. Just some thoughts.
Also remember, it can simply be up to the GM, given what you’re inflicting. A molotov cocktail might not be enough, but a few well-placed shaped charges just might do the trick (or maybe each charge is equivalent to setting up a maneuver?).
Is it possible to grant bonuses to a spell in exchange for special restrictions? Specifically, my mage character is a devout Christian, and one of his four rotes channels God’s power to sear and destroy demons, vampires, and other unholy creatures while leaving humans and angels and such unaffected. Now, it’s easy enough to rule that it doesn’t work accept against those foes, but is there any way to give it extra damage or something in exchange?
How does using a cross or other symbol of faith to ward off a blampiere (or whatever) work? I couldn’t find any rules for that. Is it a Conviction attack?
I’d call if a stunt to use holy object with Conviction as an attack against things that should be susceptible. Otherwise, if the monster (not looking at the books right now) has holy items as a weakness I’d allow conviction to creat an advantage that activated the weakness and still gave you a free invocation for when you get stabby.
Sean
Ok, I think I understand. I’m having a lot of fun with this game!
Sweet! Very glad to hear 🙂
Though I have to say that the way the book portrays the First Law is completely ridiculous. I can understand the idea that murdering with magic is particularly bad, because magic is the pure expression of what you believe, but how is it possible for doing something in itself necessary or even good to make you evil? That just feels so ludicrous.
Tl;dr. The First Law makes sense as a numinous Sixth Commandment, but the book seems to be portraying it as a command to pacifism.
Well, consider a few things. One this is based off the source material from the novels. Jim has some VERY specific reasons why breaking any of the laws are bad, and only some of them have to do with morality.
Also, one cool thing is that in a conflict, the winner gets to decide what happens to the loser. So, if you blast away at someone, you can decide to leave them unconscious and injured, but not dead.
Finally, it’s an important distinction that this doesn’t apply to supernatural baddies. Vampires are open season as far as the First Law is concerned. Changlings (part human, part fey), White Court Virgins, etc. are probably a grey area to discuss in your group.
Seam
BTW, I was just rereading the section on Sponsored Magic, and I noticed the whole clause about Unseelie Magic being particulary hard on Summerfae. Shouldn’t that apply to Outsiders as well, since that is one of the main reasons Winter exists in the first place? And by the same token, wouldn’t it make sense to make Winger magic satisfy the Catch for Outsiders? What would you think of these as house-rules?
Question: How many points of Hunger-dependent powers do you regain and how much Hunger stress is removed for feeding without killing? The book doesn’t seem to say.
Hi Daniel, a great resource for suggestions on Dreaden and all things Fate is the Fate yahoo groups: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/FateRPG/. Also, on the Jim Butcher site there is a forum for the RPG here: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/board,5.0.html?PHPSESSID=v17hnv3ffjpkb3vs45hj36go70
I guess the link to the baltimore chapter no longer works.
Hi Joshua, I’ll look into getting that link fixed, but in the mean time you can download it using the second link off Drive Thru RPG.
I’ve been having trouble with the drivethrurpg link as well. When I try to download it from them, they say it doesn’t exist. It’s ok though. I will wait until I get home and look up the info in my book.
Hmm, strange. I’ll poke around and see what I can find. Thanks for the heads up.
I re-uploaded the file and fixed the link. I also checked Drive Thru and was able to download there, so all systems are a go!
Is it possible to get Evil Hat postings WITHOUT the RPG postings? I always want new info about links to the Dresden Files stories + Jim’s talks, but the RPG stuff is just spam.
Hi Wordwizard, this page is for the Dresden Files RPG (downloads specifically), so RPG stuff is most of what will appear here. The Jim Butcher site however, should have all the news you’re looking for: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/
I’m wondering if there are any plans to make an Android app for Fate or DFRPG? Character management and GM tools for tablets/phones would be very handy!
They sure would, but that’d need to be something done by a fan.
are there any quick start rules? i’m running a Learn to Roleplay session for Dresden Files at an upcoming convention (as well as several sessions of Neutral Grounds), and something like that would be handy to use both in the game, and to give out after.
There are not, alas!
I was surprised when I went hunting and was unable to find a good skill calculator for character creation within the DFRPG, so I went ahead and threw together a quick google spreadsheet to do just that: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NKta0aS-YcOw6CoG7R570xfPfKLsh9QI51g7uQRN7qA/edit?usp=sharing
It’s not overly complex, and it’s not a substitute for character creation, but I think it’s a reasonable way to play around with different combinations of skills without having to worry about things like “whoops, I have too many skills at great, and too few at good.”
Feel free to use, distribute, recreate, whatever this spreadsheet as you wish.
Hi all. I created a fillable PDF of the City and Character sheets. I think you may find it to your liking, especially for online games and digital distribution. If there are any “glitches” in the PDF, please let me know and I’ll try to fix it if I can!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17761199/City-and-Character-Sheets.pdf
Enjoy 🙂
I’ve been playing around with the magic system a whole lot since I got started with magic in this game. My main is a White Court Vampire who practices in Spirit Channeling and I’ve been playing around with it a bunch. At one point I thought of how kinetic energy worked and thought “If I’m stopping all of that energy with a kinetic barrier of sorts, could I store that potential energy for something?” So I created my Kinetic Drain spell which blocks incoming projectiles and stores their potential energy as a modifier for controlling my next KE based spell. As someone who came into tabletop RPGs and thought the only working method was the DnD method, this game has been nothing but amazing for me and my group. The combat system is so versatile and the magic system is so innovative and I love every second of it.
So ive been debating with my gm about evocation maneuvers im playing a feet wet kinetomancer/geekomancer and i want to do a manuver on the zone that creates “shakey footing” aspect on the zone i have a 4 conviction and dicipline and would like to make it a rote can someone give me an official number breakdown of how that works for me and the npcs in the zone so i can stop haveing the argument
Hi Todd, sorry this is a bit late. I’d take the question to the Dresden Files RPG G+ forum: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103044538408330345444
I’m curious as to what font is used for the cover logo and chapter/section headers in the books, and whether it’s available for public use. I’ve looked around a bit, but haven’t been able to find anything.
It’s a professional/pay font called Newcomen, with some OpenType alternative characters & ligatures enabled.
Is Goodman Grey half mortal or pure Naagloshii? And if he is in fact half mortal, would that allow for half Naagloshii player characters? And on a broader scale half monsters in general, other than Fae Halflings? I wanted to ask the creators of the game to get a more “official” ruling on the matter because I am planning on being a GM for a local group in my area.
I don’t know the answer to the first question. What’s “allowed” in a game is up to a GM. In my own games, were I having the time to run them, I wouldn’t allow it unless everyone else was playing someone similarly super potent.