Dresden D6 Gamemastering

Players Will Be Players	Experience Calculator
Maxims of the Dresden Files	8 Useful Things to Remember
Difficulty Chart	Translating Between Dresden Fate and D6
Random Dificulty Chart

The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule is to make sure everyone has FUN. Including YOU! If you and the players are having a good time, nothing else matters. If you are not having fun GMing, change how it is done to accommodate your style! 

When you gamemaster, you have three basic jobs:

• Referee

• Storyteller

• Mood setter

Referee

As the referee, you have to know the game rules and interpret them during play. The players can have their characters “try” to do almost anything; the rules tell you how to determine if they succeed or fail.

It’s a three step process:

1. Determine how hard the task is and pick a difficulty number. 

2. Determine which skill is used for the task and have the character roll their skill dice. (If the character doesn’t have the skill, they roll their attribute dice.)

3. If the character rolls higher than the difficulty number, they succeed. If they don't, they fail.

The rest of the rules build on this idea, with tips on how to pick difficulty numbers for different tasks. There are also plenty of examples to help you out. 

The D6 Rule of Thumb. The next few sections give you rules covering just about everything — fighting demons, jumping from buildings, and dueling with vampires— but don’t let all the details slow you down.

When in doubt, fall back on the D6 rule of thumb:

“Pick a difficulty number. If the character’s skill roll is equal or higher, they succeed.”

Don’t Let the Rules Get in the Way of a Good Story. You only have to use the rules you want to use. Ignore the ones that slow things down. Instead, let the characters and the action move the game along.

Keep the Game Moving Quickly. Dresden D6 is supposed to be exciting. Magic hurls fast and furious, vampires dodge around fae, and technology suffers from hexes. Keep the game moving as fast as the Star Wars movies! Keep it flowing!

Use Your Judgment. You have to use your judgment to decide what is and isn’t possible in the game. You have to decide what’s “reasonable” and “in the spirit of Dresden File,” making sure that no one takes advantage of the game system.

Every game system — including Dresden D6— has a few “holes” that some players will exploit. It’s your job to decide what’s possible.

It doesn’t matter if the player argues that if they roll well enough, their Wizard character can throw cars around. If you think that’s taking advantage of the rules, then don’t allow it— your decision is what counts.

Interpret the Rules. No set of rules can cover every situation. It’s expected that you’ll make up new rules to suit the needs of your game — create whatever rules you need to make your game fun and exciting for the players.

Sometimes you’ll also have to “fudge” the game results to strike the right balance and make the game challenging. The players should be rewarded for smart decisions. They shouldn’t succeed just because of great die rolls, especially if they make a lot of bad decisions along the way. Remember, you can award Action Dice for good roleplaying!

For example, it’s not very satisfying if the main villain is killed off right away just because a player rolled exceptionally well. Instead of killing the villain, maybe he’s injured but escapes — the players get a sense of accomplishment while you get to bring your villain back later for a dramatic conclusion.

(And now he’s going to have a grudge against the characters!)

Sometimes the players will come up with a great idea, but roll poorly: a character shouldn’t die just because of a bad roll— you can “fudge” the results, rewarding the player for his ingenuity.

Be Fair and Impartial. In your role as referee, you’re not trying to beat the players. You shouldn’t fudge results just to frustrate them. Rather, interpreting the rules should be used as a way to make the game more exciting.

Play fair when you referee. If the players are defeated in an adventure, they want to at least feel like they had a fair shot. They shouldn’t feel like they couldn’t succeed no matter what choices they made.

Treat the player characters and gamemaster characters equally,and keep the game fun. If you fudge a rule to benefit a gamemaster character, give a player character the same break in a similar situation.

Your Word is Final. If the players feel you’ve made a bad decision, you’ll certainly hear about it. You should listen to their arguments, but also use your own judgment. Once you’ve made a decision, it is final.

Storyteller

Each game you run is called a Session or an Episode. These Sessions or Episodes, when strung together can form a Season or cumulatively a Campaign or Series. Think of the player’s characters as the stars of their own Dresden Files show and you’ll start to get the right idea. Campaigns focus on the player characters and what happens to them: where they go, who they meet, and what they do.

Tell a Good Story. In each Episode, you present a story. Published Dresden Files Campaigns have all the  details worked out — you’ll just have to figure out what happens because of the player character’s actions. (And have to translate Fate rules to D6 rules, oy vey!)

If you write your own Campaigns, you’ll need an interesting plot and a good “hook” to get the characters involved. You have to figure out what kinds of obstacles the characters are going to face — do they have to chase fae through a forest in the Nevernever, defeat a team of sorcerers or tromp through dangerous jungle forests to discover the cure for a lethal disease? 

Make sure your game is fun to play. Your players will want menacing villains, chases, puzzles, traps, scary encounters and epic battles.

Make the Characters Important. The players need to have choices. Their decisions should matter. Present the players with situations, let them choose how their characters respond, and use the rules and the adventure to figure out what happens as a result of their decisions. Because you’re the gamemaster, you’ve read the entire adventure, if pregen, and you know what’s really going on, so you get to decide how the villains and other characters respond to the actions of the player characters (if the villains even know about them, that is).

Add Some Perspective. The world is a big place and there are always exciting and dramatic things going on in other places as well. Your games should suggest to the players that their characters are living in a world that has many things going on in it. 

Keep it Fast. The game has to be fast-paced and thrilling to keep it interesting. While games shouldn’t feature nonstop battles, there should always be something exciting happening to hold the player’s attention.

Illusion of Free Will. People have lots of choices in their lives — you can visit different places, go over to a friend’s house, open a business, change jobs, choose schools, whatever. The players need to feel that their characters have those same kinds of freedoms; they have to feel that the Dresden Files universe is as real as our own. If the players want their characters to go somewhere, you have to tell them what they find there — or come up with a good story reason why they can’t get there.

Example: Levi’s player wants to hunt down the artifact known as Jabir Ibn Hayyan's Grimoire, having recently found a lead in Egypt. Excitedly packing his gear for a trip through the Nevernever, he gets ready to go. However, Heather, the GM, wants Levi to stay in Cleveland for a planned scenario. So she has Levi’s friend, Harry Katsu, a Asiatown Restaurant owner and NPC, come by asking for help, his girlfriend was kidnapped by the Four Storms Gang. Levi’s player sighs and then tells Harry he’ll help out, while longingly looking at his travel bag…. 

So by knowing Levi’s character and how his player plays him, Heather was able to use the carrot of a friendly NPC to lure Levi in for another Cleveland adventure.

Improvisation aka ‘Player Will Be Players’. You’ve presented the situation and planned a great adventure — and then the players decide to do something completely unexpected. It’s time to start making up new characters and scenes on the fly. Maybe you’ll be able to steer the players back into the main adventure — or maybe you’ll end up creating an entirely new adventure off the top of your head. Don’t panic; often improvised games are the most fun to play and run…

Jay Says: HA HA SURE, improv games are greaaatttt.! Frickin Players! Yeah, instead of creating characters and alla dat, just remember if they are pros, 5D to skill checks. If they are high end, toss some more dice in there, 8D or so. If they are supposed to pose a major challenge, up the dice some more. 9D, 10D. If they’re Joe Average, 3D. You can also look at Player Character sheets and crib some of their rolls, especially if they are supposed to be Rivals or something. Oh yeah, also make sure to have copies of player sheets so that you can make scenarios that fit their skills and skill dice levels. It can help.

Players Will Be Players Any adventure, pre-made or self-created, is only a guide for the gamemaster. Players are far more fiendishly imaginative than we can anticipate. We can’t write every possibility into an adventure, not only because it would take too much space to do so, but also because we can’t always predict what players will do. So any adventure requires a certain amount of inventiveness on the part of the gamemaster.  One of the maxims of war is, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” You can never know what the other guy has up their sleeve. In the same way, when designing adventures or running a canned one, there is always the possibility of a group that will do something way off the norms. It’s one of the charms of gamemastering, seeing what your players come up with.  An example from the Star Wars RPG:  Gamemaster: Of course, the Ewok may have difficulty passing for a stormtrooper. After all, the armor is built for someone 6ft tall.  Ewok: Kvark! Tyeht donti? Smuggler: No Problem. We build him an R2 suit.  Gamemaster: What? Smuggler: We take the exterior of an R2, and we put a compartment in it for the Ewok to sit in. We give him pedals, so he can move the R2 shell around.  Ewok: I take flute. Make beep and whistle. Tootle tootle! Gamemaster: Uh…. Smuggler: No one ever pays any attention to Droids. I bet it’ll work.  Gamemaster: Hmm. Okay…. Don’t Panic! Remember, you are just as imaginative as the players: you can manipulate the environment more than they can, and you can be just as sneaky as they are. If the players find a neat short cut, go with it. The least elegant and most frustrating way to handle player cleverness is to make it fail. “Nope. No R2 parts in the entirety of the space station. Guess that idea isn’t going to work.” This kind of manipulation is extremely annoying to the players.  On the other hand, nothing is ever easy. Building an R2 shell takes some effort; make them make a Droid repair skill roll or two. Maybe the R2’s movements look a little jerky, or the Ewok’s tootles are a little unconvincing; even if the stormtroopers never notice, you can make your players sweat a little:  Stormtrooper: “That’s a pretty sick sounding Droid. What’s wrong with it?” Player: “Ah, nothing, nothing. Ah, maybe the servomotors need servicing.  Stormtrooper: “Okay. Your ID checks out. Move along.”  Maybe the players run into a bunch of Imperial technicians who are fighting a fire and want to commandeer the R2 to open and close security doors to control the blaze. Or maybe another R2 shows up and wants to chat.  You can always use the player’s improvisations as hooks for your own ideas, or to create new obstacles later on –but you should always reward player cleverness. After all, dealing with problems creatively is part of what the game is all about.

Mood Setter

When you run your games, you have to make the players feel like they’re in a Dresden Files story. Your games have to capture the “tone” of a world filled with creatures, magic, strange realms, and all kinds of other fantastic elements.

Use All Five Senses. Describe to the players what their characters see, hear, touch, taste and smell. Keep your descriptions interesting and animated so the players can picture what’s happening to their characters and get excited about the game. Give the players plenty of details when it’s important; when what’s going on isn’t essential, don’t bog the game down with overly-detailed descriptions. 

Be Consistent. Keep the universe consistent and rational. This is a very important part of getting the players to believe in the Dresdenverse setting. If the players are told that there is a summoning circle in an old factory, that summoning circle better be there later for them to destroy. Unless the baddies were on to them and mostly erased it or removed it… Things change in the Dresdenverse — people get older, gain and lose power, and battles take place — but there are reasons for why things happen.

Use Elements from the Books. Populate your games with creatures, organizations, problems, magic, and locations from the books.Why use a human character when the characters’ contact can be a Fae or a Demon? Why have the characters drive around in a plain car, when they can have a WW2 Cargo truck? Use magic like fireballs, constructs, cones of cold,  and trips in the Nevernever to show how the Dresdenverse is different. Have familiar characters make “guest appearances'' in your games to help make the players feel like they are in their own Dresden Files story. Conversely, don’t “overuse” elements from the books. While it is fun to visit the Stone Table occasionally, starting each adventure there can get pretty dull. Try to strike a balance between the familiar and new elements...

Exciting Settings. Incredible settings — places, mundane and supernatural, make the game special. Don’t set an adventure on a bland Wal-Mart when you can use a place with “towering crystal spires five kilometers tall.” Unless the point is to start with a bland Wal-Mart with Staypuft Marshmallow Men 3 inch tall walking around….

Jay Says: Tone can be everything. Watch HOW you say things sometimes. Or change a few tonal shifts around and it can set a different tone.  “It was a rainy fall night in Cleveland, where the bitterness lingered on Levi’s jacket like little drains on his spirit. He approached the shiny happy Wal-Mart in Steelyard Commons.”  “The bright fluorescent lights inside the store contrasted heavily with the tableau before Levi. Several shoppers ran past him, some screaming, some looking very very lost. Beyond them, he sees several 3 inch marshmallow men steering a roomba around.”  Descriptive text and tone can also HELP players with them gaining insight into how their characters might react internally to what is happening around them. Levi’s player may decide to be in a sullen mood and then, when seeing the Staypuft guys, may make him even grumpier, since he came to buy toilet paper. It also adds to the fun, when done correctly.

Invent New “Stuff”. You can create new items for your games, like artifacts, spells, creatures, and realms. Encountering strange creatures and fighting them are all part of the Dresden Files fun. You have to make sure your inventions “fit” the universe, but if you do your job well, your players will accept your creations as being just as real as the characters and elements from the stories.

Memorable Characters. The players each play one character — you get to play everyone else! Villains, shop owners, employers, pick-pockets, dangerous thugs in a darkened alley, strange creatures... The list goes on and on. You play everyone who makes an appearance in your adventure.

All of these other people are called “gamemaster characters” and it’s up to you to act out their roles — speaking their lines in different voices, making them interesting, knowing their objectives and deciding what they do during the course of the adventure.

Jay Says: This is kinda key to keeping it fun. The Dresdenverse is filled with all sorts of personalities and characters. But why stop there? Depending on the Tone you are going for, you can pull from all sorts of media sources. Books, TV, and Movies all have personalities and profiles you can use.  One way I try to make my main bads (GM characters) or near-main-bads, which I call Foils, I create a backstory for them. Where they came from, what motivates them, why do they do what they do, and so on. If I get stuck, there are sites and books out there that give random suggestions on some of this, so I’ll use them to get the juices going. Many times, I’ll watch or listen to some show or podcast and that will spark an idea. So keep a journal or paper around to sketch it out. Inspiration comes from anywhere.

Music. Music in a game can be a great mood setter. Depending on your Tone, you can use music to build it for you. Slow Jazz for a rainy day, Rock n Roll for a car chase, European Techno Disco for a White Court Vampire club, and so on. Try to keep the volume at a level not too loud or too quiet. Check with the players on what works for them. Sometimes you can even use music that is against the Tone of the scene, just to make it weird. 

Grabbing the Players. This is the key, next to having fun, how to keep the players engaged? The answer is both simple and complex: Find what the Players like, Know what the Characters are motivated by. So when you get the Players together, figure out what type of player they are. Are they motivated by combat? Do they like a good storyline? Are they a curious player? Are they a rules lawyer or a min maxer or a meta player? Based on this, you can figure out the carrots and strings to pull to get them to follow you. Same with Characters. This requires a little track-laying when you are setting up your game and building the PCs. So when you have everyone together to build their characters, make sure each one has something that motivates them, along with a reason to be there and with the other PCs. These bindings can then be used to manipulate and cajol the characters into action.  

Humor. Hey, you may not be very funny, but that doesn’t mean your games won’t have some irony in them. The Dresden Files are full of humorous moments in otherwise grim settings. A lot of times the Players themselves will be the ones bringing the laughs. Besides, a 1 on the Wild Die can lead to a humorous moment via a complication. 

Heroes. Remember the PCs are not ordinary people. They are uniquely equipped to deal with strange situations. (Especially if the GM makes sure their characters are set up to do so.) While the characters can act heroic in any adventure, this is very different from having the characters actually be heroes. You, the gamemaster, will have to orchestrate plots to allow the characters to become true heroes. To do this, you will have to keep in mind several facts about heroes.

Heroes are flamboyant. Not only are heroes willing to take significant risks in order to succeed, they are also willing to make those risks even greater if it will allow them to do something spectacular — in other words, heroes will show off.

Heroes should overcome great odds. For the characters to have a chance to be heroic, they should always have the deck stacked against them. Their opponents have to be strong, and their obstacles formidable. Real heroes will have sufficient skills and talents to find their way out of these situations. To give the characters the feel of the dangers that they face, you should take every available opportunity to emphasize to the players that their characters are only millimeters from death. Heroes may not die, but they should come very close.

Heroes have responsibilities to others. The characters shouldn’t always start the adventure with the fate of the world or a realm on their shoulders, but that responsibility will often be theirs before the adventure ends. Heroes are responsible for more than just their own lives. The lives of others — of helpless, innocent beings — depend on their successes.

An immediate way to emphasize this is to have helpless gamemaster characters tag along behind the player characters so that the characters have to consider the safety of those around them.

 Using this, you can then project on them the responsibility of protecting the faceless millions whose lives are depending on the success of the characters.

Heroes are remembered after their deaths. Survival is important to everyone, but reputation is more important to heroes. A glorious death that results in the salvation of millions of innocent beings could be more satisfying than continued existence. The death of a hero should be a significant event, and it should advance the story. It should be well-planned and, as much as possible, it should be a situation where the character, in an effort to save someone else, chooses a course that will surely lead to death.

Personal stakes. When generating characters with your Players, try to find out details about their life before the game started, get information about families or lost loves. All of these can be storylines brought in to make the stakes more personal. 

Designing Campaigns

Dresden D6 doesn’t have any planned adventures for it, at least not in the D6 system, so you have to design your own. Which isn’t too terrible, because you have full creative freedom, right? 

Some basic steps:

1. Are you Episodic or Serialized?

2. Come up with a good story idea

3. Develop an overall plot arc for the series

4. Gather the game mechanics around you

5. Game prep

6. Create PCs

7. Run the game, rinse, repeat.

Episodic Or Serialized

When developing an adventure or what some call a Series or Campaign, you should decide early on if it will be episodic, meaning a group of unconnected one-off episodes or sessions, where everything is resolved in one session, and little carries over to the next session. Serialized means that each episode carries over to the next, with plot building over a ‘Season’ of episodes. Most games are usually serial. 

Come Up With A Good Story Idea 

You want to develop something that both you, the GM, will find interesting, the players will enjoy, and you can run with it for a while. It has to have a good amount of twists and turns, but be simple enough to be remembered. Look at the world of Dresden and see what areas are not as fleshed out, or look at cities and find one that has some character to it, might be interesting. Or somewhere in the Nevernever that wasn’t explored or was hinted at. Another path could be answering philosophical questions, such as are Wizards still human? Are White Court Vampires? What if a Changeling doesn’t choose? What if they do? Faerie court intrigues are always full of drama or danger, so dealing with that could be fun. Dangerous Sorcerers, artifacts, and such could be a good combo too. 

Maxims of the Dresden Files

1. Monsters have Nature, Mortals have Choice 

Almost all beings that could be considered “monsters” are, one on one, far more powerful than the average mortal. They have great strength, implausible toughness, blinding speed, and unnatural powers. What they don’t have is choice.

A monster’s nature is oriented towards fulfilling its hungers. Vampires need emotion or blood or death, loup-garou need the hunt and the kill, fae literally cannot step outside their natures or break oaths. These entities have power, but they don’t have the option of saying no. They are what they’re made to be—and some things are simply made cruel, bloodthirsty, or just plain evil.

On the other hand, mortals have options: choice. That’s their great strength and their great responsibility. Only animals and monsters can truthfully say that they can’t do anything else, or that they can’t be other than what they are. 

Every human being can make a decision about what to do or not do, what to accept and what to refuse, whether to kill or not kill.

That said, the situation is often gray and not clear-cut. There are those few who are part

mortal and part monster: vampires who struggle to fight their hunger and do the right thing; werewolves who chose lycanthropy to get the strength to defend their community; wizards who accept help from dark sources, but hope to restrain the urges that threaten to engulf them. Choice is the overwhelming theme of these individuals’ lives. Will they retain their humanity or will they become monsters? And is there any way that those who are now monsters can perhaps regain some degree of humanity, some capacity for choice?

2. Things Fall Apart

The world is growing darker. Humans are choosing the worse over the better, and the

monsters are cheering them on. There are trolls under the bridges, vampires running businesses behind the velvet curtains, and ghosts sucking the life from babies in maternity wards. Organized crime is strong and getting stronger; gunshots echo in the night; some policemen take payoffs. Drug use is spreading; alcohol is an answer rather than a stopgap; people lose themselves in their searches for pleasure, power, or escape.

But there are those who stand against the rising tide of shadow. Whether they are ordinary humans, secretive wizards, individuals chosen by supernatural powers, or people empowered by some other means, they will not let the darkness win. Perhaps all the more obvious against the shabbiness of the world around them, perhaps stained or marked by their own errors and problems, they nevertheless hold their ground and work to protect, to support, to rebuild. They choose to use their power for others as well as for themselves. These people exist, and they haven’t given in yet.

3. Science Fails

The comforting rules of science and technology, the certainty that a better computer or a bigger gun will settle the problem—sorry, they don’t work ’round here. Wizards and some other monsters cause nearby technology to malfunction simply by their presence.

Monsters aren’t reliably affected by the laws of physics. They seem to treat them as “vague guidelines” more than laws. They can fly, walk through walls, tear apart steel doors, and deflect bullets (or ignore them entirely). All the carefully acquired handguns, sniper rifles, flamethrowers, computer security, and mobile phones in the world may ultimately be useless if pitted against the wrong sort of adversary.

Not only does technology not work around the wizardly-inclined, nobody can really explain why post-WWII technology doesn’t work. There aren’t any convenient rules. No wizard has yet attempted to catalog their effects on technology.

Furthermore, no monster is going to publish a list of ways that it can be hurt. However, others can. The most recent example of such a tome, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, detailed most of the significant ways in which a Black Court vampire can be damaged or killed. The Black Court still hasn’t recovered.

4. Belief is Power

Faith in itself is a form of power and a kind of magic. Strong faith in good (or evil) can act as a defense, an offense, a shield, or a guide, providing many effects which people would normally consider “magic.” This could include things like a glimmer of light from a crucifix in the darkness, burning a vampire’s hands as it grabs you, or a sudden burst of more-than-mortal strength. 

The exact details of the faith can vary. Religious beliefs are the mainstay here: a staggering number of people have faith in God (or gods). Some people have strong faith in more philosophical beliefs—for example, the fundamental purity and goodness of magic, Tibetan mysticism, or even Communism.

The important thing is that if the person has faith in something—true, sincere, pure faith—then miracles can happen.

5. Magic is What You Are

You can’t make magic do something that goes against your fundamental nature. This works on both the deliberate and the emotional levels. An utterly kind, sincere person will not be able to muster malicious hate and bitterness of a level that would allow him to summon demons or blast with hellfire—or, at least, not without very significant provocation. Likewise, a vicious and corrupt thanatologist practicing human sacrifice isn’t going to have healing magic at his command—or, if he does, it may require blood and pain to make it work and will probably be more corrupting than simply leaving the open wound to fester.

At least, that’s the theory. Practice has, once again, shown things to be a lot fuzzier than the clear-cut examples above. Again, it all comes back to choice and to the complexity of the mortal mind and soul. Even a kindly old grandmother has the seeds of hatred within her, and even a cold-blooded gangster has moments of tenderness and kindness.

Magic is an expression of the person who brings it forth. It comes from their beliefs, their morality, their feelings, their emotional connections, their way of seeing the world: in a word, their soul.

There’s a reason why the soulgaze is the ultimate proof of sincerity between many wizards. A soulgaze happens when two people (at least one of them a wizard) make eye contact long enough to look into each other’s souls and see what they truly are. In that moment, a wizard not only sees what a person is, but he also sees what their magic is—it’s one and the same. For instance, if you choose to practice black magic, you dredge up the corrupt parts of yourself and make them stronger. You are what you choose to become, what you make yourself into. (Luckily, if you’re mortal, you also always have the power to choose redemption after a slip.)

Whether it’s faith or magic, all power comes from the basic nature of the mortal or monster who is using it. Evil brings forth evil, and good brings forth good. We are what we do, and we do what we are.

Develop An Overall Plot Arc For The Series

What is your Main Theme? This also ties into the Tone of the series. Light, Darks, or somewhere between? Is hope a thing? And so on. From there, break the story down into chunks, three episodes or one, or more, culminating in a ‘Season’ of episodes or sessions. 

Example: Tim wants to have a game that is exploring the Nevernever with a group of people kidnapped to a realm, which they escape, and have to find a way back home. So some of the themes could be: Survival, On the Run, Exploration, and Self Discovery. So each Season, there will be a big bad pursuing them throughout, but then shorter arcs per episode or every three episodes dealing with particular realms and the power that be there. 

It’s good to write down what each player wants to do with their character for the season, maybe some aspects of them to explore or things to do. These can then become plots of episodes or an overall arc for the character to journey through. These character arcs can be interwoven with the overall arc of the season, or with the campaign’s arc, or laced with some of the bigger themes or so on. 

Also, any of the Big Bads of the game, what are they doing, what are their goals? What is their plan for the Season? Do our players discover it? And how? Write some of these ideas into a Season Idea document that you can grab these thoughts and parlay them into plots and episodes. Sometimes having a Synopsis document for the Season can be helpful too. Write a short description of the episode, so that later, you got the gist of what you want to do. Some ideas on Synopses: 

SWR_411	The Creche	Ru-Ok, Misshapen hordes, various bio experiments, failures, mostly. Clues to DKZ program, hints to Ark Hammer 2, Leads directly to the Body Shop. Shy gets mucked with, and Awakened….
SWR_412	The Body Shop	Sanguine-Twi’lek Cybernetist- augmented body, can open jaws wide, flexible, acrobatic - the body shop, where cybernetics can be installed, to make the perfect cyborg...more clues to DKZ and Arc Hammer
SWR_413	The Arcade	Zifty-Besalisk-Munitions - Bombs, lots of bombs. And Blasters. The Arcade - Basically a dungeon crawl from hell, with bombs and blasters. Each level is more deadly. Chap 1, chap 2, and so on. Ziffty is a bit off his rocker as well…!

Jay Says: I like to break my seasons into 22 or 24 episodes or sessions. I have an overall arc for the season and then I have character arcs for each player. Each episode is broken into 4 ‘Acts’ and there is at least one action/combat component. Each episode also has an arc and a theme to it that can either tie into the overall plot or a particular PC’s arc. I also design each episode to be collapsable, as in, I can pull an Act out or stretch it if necessary. At the end of each season, I ask each player where they think their character wants to go and I’ll note that for their character arc in the next season. I also have an overall theme(s) for the Campaign which are hinted at through a season, like a musical tone that beats in the background. It sounds like a lot of work, and it can be, but it also makes things more fun or real, and there can be a real payoff when the players are engaged.

So when you start breaking things into episodes, it’s good to think of what you want to happen, like 4 things, then flesh each one out, creating deeper and more detailed notes. Eventually, you get to the point where you have some things that need stats, and then get those things together. Maybe some images or creatures you want the players to see, so gather images to use for handouts. See if you have miniatures around that resemble the bad guys, and gather what maps you may need for the game. 

Jay Says: For each Session, which I call an Episode, I make an outline. I usually have 4 acts which I can collapse into 2 if needs be. I start with the Episode’s Title, which sometimes I don’t determine till I write the episode. Other times, the title comes first then the story. Next is the episode’s number. SWR is the abbreviation for the Campaign name, which in this case is Star Wars Rebellion, aka SWR. The Episode number indicates that we are in the 5th season and the 11th episode of that season. I also have a synopsis of each episode of the season written up earlier in the season, in another document, when doing the overall plot. So I copy that into this outline. It gives a brief blurb of what I’m trying to do here. After the Synopsis, I get into the writing, with Roman numerals for each act, then smaller scenes in each act are A, B, C, and then further details 1, 2, 3, and then even more drilled in details are a, b, c, and so on. Also note that I start out with a ton of detail and setup in the first act, this is rather typical. Start in with a lot of setup and you and the players will figure out the ending together. Usually. (I hope, LOL)

Gather The Game Mechanics Around You

So now you have your story and players. Now to get it defined in game mechanics. Luckily there are rules for that! Remember this maxim: only use the rules you want to! The Dresden D6 game works on a simple principle: everything, from shooting weapons, to launching spells, to trying to use medicine to heal someone, works in the same way. Pick a difficulty level and a difficulty number that corresponds to that difficulty (see the chart below). Then have the character roll the relevant skill or attribute against that difficulty. If they beat the difficulty they have succeeded at the task. If you want to make the difficulty really random, use the Random Difficulties Chart below. 

While there are many rules that add more detail and take into consideration all kinds of special circumstances, all of the rules boil down to this standard mechanic for accomplishing tasks. In other words, if you just pick difficulty numbers and have the characters roll their skills against tasks, you are using the core of the game system without getting bogged down with a lot of rules.

Difficulty Chart

Difficulty	Difficulty Number
Very Easy	1-5
Easy	6-10
Moderate	11-15
Difficulty	16-20
Very Difficult	21-30
Heroic	31+

Random Difficulties Chart

Difficulty	Random Difficulty
Very Easy	1D
Easy	2D
Moderate	3D-4D
Difficulty	5D-6D
Very Difficult	7D-8D
Heroic	9D+

Running Combat

One of the more intimidating aspects of Gamemastering is combat. But, with a little organization, you can run a pretty good combat round. 

Have a chart or a spreadsheet with each character’s name or designation, including PCs, NPCs, Foils, or GM Characters that are participating in the combat. You could also use index cards with a few stats or other important info on them. When combat begins, have everyone roll initiative, while you roll for all the NPCs. Then call upon each player to say what their roll was, then noting it on your chart or spreadsheet. If using a spreadsheet, you can put their initiative bonus in there ahead of time and just have them tell the actual roll. If using a chart or index card methods, have them add the bonus to the roll and tell you the total. When inputting the rolls on the chart, put them in numerical order, highest to the lowest. When using index cards or a spreadsheet, sort the numbers from lowest to highest after inputting them. Now you are all set, call upon the one at the top of the order, and ask what their two or more actions are, combat begins! 

Each player typically has two actions, unless feats unlock more. So each PCs, NPCs, Foils, or GM Characters, gets a turn to do something. Attack, use a Skill, and other things, as detailed in the Rules and Combat sections. Once they are done, go to the next and the next and so on. During each turn if they attack another, resolve defensive rolls, and resolve damage. It’s helpful on your chart, spreadsheet, or index card, a space for damage taken. Also useful to have combat/defensive skills listed and any armor. 

This is probably the toughest part, resolving actions. This is where the skills, weapons, powers, and other stat related things interact. Main thing to remember: Attack vs. Defensive Roll, then Damage vs. Strength+Armor roll. The difference between the two, take that number and look on the Damage Chart. Note the damage on your chart/spreadsheet/index cards. If it’s a spell or power, follow the rolls for that too. If the spell goes off correctly, then you can mark the areas on the map that the spell is affecting or who or what. Skills rolls are similar to Attack vs. Defense rolls, in the sense it’s Skill vs. Difficulty Number. Simple, right? 

Also keep in mind damage effects on rolls. Wounded 1 and 2, are -1D or -2D to rolls, while Incapacitated is even worse. If you have trouble remembering, keep the damage effects area bookmarked for quick reference. Or use index cards. (Old school!)

After everyone has gone, players and others, go back to the top of the order again and repeat  until combat is resolved. Or until everyone is dead. (IT COULD HAPPEN!) Combat is usually resolved by opponents being defeated or players being defeated or by both sides deciding to no longer fight and talk instead or a God shows up and smites everyone. (IT COULD ALSO HAPPEN. IT COULD!)

Jay Says: Yup, organization is everything! I use an Excel spreadsheet that I manage combat with, that also contains my GM Log, NPC Info, Experience totals, Experience Calculator,  and other important tracking information. In my combat tab, I keep track of: Character Name- in this field, the character’s name, but I also color code it, so I can tell PC from NPC. Red for bad guys, green for helper/friendly NPCs, Yellow for PCs, Creatures are usually Purple. Gray for faceless minions.  Init Bonus-This column is usually hidden from view. As PCs gain levels, I’ll update the number appropriately.  Init Total-This column is adding Init Bonus and Init Roll together. Once I have all initiatives noted, I’ll sort this column highest to lowest, giving me my order.  Init Roll-This column is where I note the rolls players and NPCs have. I’ll roll for the NPCs, of course, rolling several D20s at one and inputting the numbers here.  Dodge-I’ll notate the dodge roll here for PCs and NPCs. Such as 2D+2 or whatever it is. Blaster -Since this is a Star Wars game, I note the Blaster skill. In Dresden, could be Firearms Melee-Melee Combat skill here Brawling-Brawling skill here Lightsaber-Again, Star Wars game, so you could put Marksmanship instead, esp Spellcasters Mart Arts-Martial Arts skill here Percep-Perception Attribute dice here Will-Willpower skill roll, important in my games. LOL Str Roll-Strength Attribute dice here, if they have armor, I note the ratings, my shorthand: STR(P/E), so a Strength attribute of 3D with armor that is +2D physical, +1D energy is noted as: 3D(2D/1D) Status-Here I notate whether Wounded once or Stunned or whatever. (I abbreviate them: STUN, W1, W2, Incap, MW, Dead) Notes- here I’ll write things like weapons, claws, combat related special stuff, or any other relevant equipment So as combat goes along, if people real or imagined, (wait, they’re all imagined, aren’t they?) take damage, I’ll notate that in the Status column, while marching through the order of battle. If I need to look something specific up, like a non combat skill, or other information, I have their character sheets handy to look at fast.  I also have a Combat Data tab where I take out the rows from the Combat Manager tab and store them here, when those characters are not being used in the present combat. Later, if I need to add them, I’ll copy/paste ‘em back in. Why type more? ‘Smarter Not Harder’, Dad always said. He didn’t say anything about GMing. SIGH.

NPCs, Gamemaster Characters, Foils, and Gods

Ok, so to create the sandbox or environment for the players to run around in, you need to populate it with people or creatures that the PCs interact with. From a bookstore owner to the Erlking, you play them all. When it’s just a roleplay moment, you don’t always need stats. The only time you really need stats or dice is when there is an element of chance or challenge. 

Minor ‘Extra’ type NPCs or Non Player Characters, are your foot soldiers, faceless beings that work for someone bigger. Thugs, enforcers, and those types of beings. They do not warrant a full stat writeup. Their entry looks like this: 

Security Guard: All stats are 2D except: Reflexes 3D, Melee Combat: Nightstick 4D+1, Strength 4D.

Move: 10. Nightstick (damage STR+1D).

Foils are NPCs that are a little more prominent, could be an enemy or a friend or a rival. Usually a contrast to the PC. They are stated up a little more formally. 

Abby 

Template: Prescient Ordo Lebes Member

REFLEXES 3D

Dodge 5D, Marksmanship 5D

KNOWLEDGE 4D

Lore 6D

COORDINATION 2D

PERCEPTION 4D (5D)

Bargain 6D, Investigation 6D

STRENGTH 2D

Running 5D

PRESENCE 3D

Willpower 5D, Persuasion 6D, Persuasion: Toto 7D, Charm 6D

Level: probably 1

Feats: Magically Sensitive / Minor Talent

Supernatural Powers: A Few Seconds Ahead (Minor Ability) [1]: Abby can use her Perception skill to get a reasonably accurate picture of events 1-2 seconds ahead of now (limited to what she will personally experience in those moments). She may roll her Perception skill to defend against physical or social attacks. The power gives her +1D to her perception for this purpose. 

Initiative: +0

Mojo Points: 10

Action Dice: GM

Move: 10

Size: unknown, “Short”

Capsule: Abby is a mid-40s, short, prettily plump woman with blonde hair and rosy cheeks. She is usually seen carrying—or walking—her Yorkshire terrier, Toto. She is a regular patron of Bock Ordered Books. Mouse guarded her and other Ordo Lebes members during the Skavis’ “culling” project. During the White Night case, she was sheltered at a motel by Thomas Raith and Elaine Mallory, and she witnessed the final battle with “the Skavis.” Abby wears a medical bracelet detailing her epilepsy; Toto may be trained to warn her when a seizure is coming on.

Gamemaster Characters are the level bosses, the big kahunas, the big bad, the main man of the Campaign. So they get a full write up on a Character Sheet and are treated like a PC. Except they also have access to GM Action Dice and are pawns of the plot. They should also have fully fleshed out personalities and objectives and they probably will also need highly detailed backgrounds

Gods are infinitely powerful beings, more concepts than people. So for the game rules, they are pretty stat-less. With gods, assume they can roll 10D or 20D on things if you really need to roll. If anything, Gods set the difficulty number! Or ARE the difficulty number. 

Also remember that each of these levels of characters, from the faceless minions up to the Gods, they all have an agenda, or goals that they want to accomplish. From wanting to get paid to upsetting the balance in their favor to dominating life. So keep it in mind when playing them.

After that, the game mechanics that you will have to deal with are equipment, magic spells, and property damage. 

Jay Says: Don’t worry about the cost of attributes and skills too much, most NPCs will have fewer skills than PCs and that is as it should be. Heroes should be better than minor threats. Foils can have a lil bit more in certain areas, to vex the players. Gamemaster characters should be built like PCs. Just maybe a level or two higher. In my GM logbook, I keep a section on NPCs introduced. Here’s a sample:  Name Character Bio Stat Block Notes Zyl Pao Lh'Sratt 4th brother of Zehmi, less patient, less kind, and ambitious. Want's father's seat on the Ag'Tra.  Bureaucracy 8D, Culture: Coynites 8D, most everything else, 4D. Combat skills 6D. serves as father’s assistant and hopes to inherit his Ag’Tra seat and help to rule. Honorable and follows father’s lead at all times. So, when I need to play Zyl, I know basic personality keys and some idea of skill dice to throw.

Game Prep

Before you run the game, and this can be days ahead or hours before game start, make sure to prepare any handouts, stats, miniatures, maps, or terrain pieces that you may need for the game. If you are using a Combat Manager, load NPC stats in there along with PC stats. 

Create PCs

So now that you know what kind of Campaign you want to run and the general gist of some of the themes, tone and such, time to bring players in and build characters!

When having players build characters, try to have them get into motivations, history, and other aspects of these fictional beings so that you can better plot and write things for them to do/see/blow up. Ahhh property damage! Wouldn’t be a Dresden game if there wasn’t property damage. 

Some questions to ask players as they build their characters:

Why do they <occupation here>?

Do they have family? Brother? Sister? What are their occupations? Birth order?

What are some of the significant events of their life, before the game starts? 

Do they have friends/associates/organizations they are involved with?

Significant other(s) in their life? Past loves that still burn? 

What were they like as kids, teens, or young adults?

What mistakes still haunt them? Or what generally haunts them?

What stops them from sleeping at night?

And so on. All the answers to the above questions can lead to plot elements that can be something an Episode can tackle. Or add drama to a scene. Or an NPC or Foil that can come along and cause drama or comedy or action. It also colors and informs how the PC will respond to things and give you carrots or strings to pull. 

Another good resource if players are stuck, or if you are stuck making up GM characters, is the book Central Casting, by Paul Jaquays, Task Force Games (1988). It contains many random charts and other aids to help figure out the background on your character. 

Character Connections

One of the important parts of character creation is deciding how and why the player characters know each other. As a rule of thumb, each character in the group should know at least one other character. Talk about possible connections over with the players  and make suggestions on how the characters may know each other or have met. Get a feel for how the players envision their characters, and what kind of connections make sense. Work out a scenario with your players. 

Character connections do three things. First, they give player characters reasons to help one another. That’s important because the players must cooperate to do well in the game. Second, they give players a guide to how their characters react to others. Third, they help create the feeling that what goes on in the game is only a small part of the events in the whole Dresdenverse, and that the characters have independent histories and backgrounds. 

Some suggested connections: 

Relatives
Employees
Joint Ownership of a Business
Traveling Companions
Mentors
Rivals
Same Home Town or State or something
Classmates
Known by Reputation
Love

Record Keeping and Experience

Make sure that what the characters receive for their actions matches what they went through during the adventure. Characters may be awarded money, equipment and weapons for their activities. They may also make contact with an important gamemaster character — someone who can save their skins in a future adventure. Characters also receive Experience Points for their actions which can be used to increase levels. Once enough points are acquired, they can increase to the next level. At each level they unlock skill points, or gain feats, increase their initiative bonus, or increase attributes. 

Experience Calculations: 

How Well The Characters (and Players) Did- 6-8 or 3-4

How Well Each Individual Player Did-an extra 2-3

Whether They Cooperated-an extra 2-4

Did They Play In Character? 3-4pts

Did All Of You Have Fun? 3-4pts

If the player was awarded an Action Die: +5 pts

If you follow these numbers, PCs should increase levels every 3 sessions or so. Which happens to be a good cadence for progression. Just make sure the GM characters stay ahead by a level or two. 

Run The Game, Rinse, Repeat.

So at the end of every session, write down what happened. Keep a good GM log of events. If plot points get introduced or if the players introduce something that could become a plot point, mark it down too. This can all be handy to use later. If a particular villain or situation was a hit with the players, note that. You can do something later with that villain or situation. (Unless the villain was killed. But then you can make another or the miraculously evaded death. It could happen!) Then calculate experience for each player. Notify them when they level up and then get new copies of character sheets when they do. 

After the game, depending if you are Episodic or Serial, then plot the next session, sometimes adding new information or plots as you go, stitching in things as needed with your various plots. Prepare any handouts, write up stats if needed, load the combat manager, if you have one, and so on. 

Jay Says: Once a Session/Episode is over, I write an Episode Synopsis, calc experience, and then email the gamers all of that. I then go to my spreadsheet, update the GM Log, and add the Experience for each player. Any NPCs introduced that were a hit with the players is also noted, in case I want them to appear again, if possible. A few days later or the very next day after a game, I’ll start plotting the next Episode. Since I did a lot of leg work at the beginning of the season, it becomes a lot of ‘plugin various plot elements and character developments’ kind of thing. Many times each episode emphasizes one or two of the PCs and deals with character arcs or things like that. Along with at least one or two action components. So having a really good plot of the Season that can go in each or most eps is good, along with good Themes. Tone can vary from ep to ep. Example of my GM Log below Episode Number Ep Name Character Actions Plot Notes Time Passed Between Sessions Misc Notes Timeline SWR_511 The Gauntlet After repairs, emerging from the north polar storm of Ba’Har, Coyn’s gas giant 4th planet, the Red Dagger attempts to make it to the 3rd moon of Ba’Har BLAH BLAH BLAHHH Debut of the Tie Phantom None Virtual game, both Derek and myself have Covid.  37:12:12 Notice that I’m using the same Episode number convention as when I outline things. Along with the Episode name, Character Actions is basically the synopsis I send to the players via email, while the Plot Note refers to one of the plots I wrote in my Season 5 Notes document. Time passed between sessions is important to me, so that I know that the characters have had breathing room or other plot kind of information. Misc Notes is where I note external or internal things that don’t have to do with plot, usually noting if it was a good game or not or things I need to tweek on my performance or snags I hit, so I can avoid later. Timeline is for Calendar dates in-game, so I can see where, in this case, on Star Wars’ timeline we’re at, which can be important plot-wise.

Eight Useful Things to Remember About Gamemastering

1. You can’t learn everything at once. 

2. Understand the rules and talk them over with the players. If they ask you to describe something, do. Let them worry about whether or not what you describe is important. 

3. Expect to extend the rules. No set of rules can be as ingenious as players. Use your common sense to handle problems that arise, and keep playing. Don’t waste too much time looking up minor rules. Reserve the right to change your mind about rules judgements. (“This is my ruling tonight, but after I have thought about it, I may want to change my mind.”)

4. Expect to be wrong sometimes. Admit it. Say “Oops,” do an instant replay on the action if necessary and get on with the game. Don’t be a pushover, though. Sometimes somebody has to make an arbitrary judgment, and that person is you. 

5. Be fair. Earn your players’ trust. Players cheerfully ignore rules mistakes and hesitations, as long as they believe the gamemaster is not picking on them or playing favorites. 

6. Be impartial. When you are pretending to be the villains and the bad guys in your adventures, be as clever and resourceful (or bumbling and incompetent) as they would be. But when it comes to judging conflicts between the player characters and your non-player characters, as gamemaster you must be partial to neither side. 

7. Be Prepared. Organize your thoughts and adventure materials before your players arrive. 

8. The GM has Action Dice too. Don’t be afraid to use them!

Translating Between Dresden Fate System to Dresden D6

Translating from Fate to D6 isn’t too difficult. Powers should transfer directly, while the Fate Ladder can be used below to become Dice Value. Aspects do not translate. Chart is below for skill translations. If a weapon or a skill is +3, that would be 3D, and so on. If the weapon is a melee weapon, and is rated at weapon 3, then it’s a STR+3D weapon damage. If a Fate skill overlaps twice with a D6 skill, add some more dice to that skill or possibly double it. (Like a character has Endurance +2 and Discipline +2, then Willpower could be +4D)

Translation Between Fate and D6

Fate System	D6	Dice Values
+8 Legendary	Heroic 31+	9D
+7 Epic	Very Difficult 25-30	7D-8D
+6 Fantastic	Difficult/Very Difficult 20-25	6D
+5 Superb	Difficult 16-19	5D
+4 Great	Moderate 15	4D
+3 Good	Moderate 11	3D
+2 Fair	Easy 9-10	2D
+1 Average	Easy 8	2D
0 Mediocre	Easy 7	2D
–1 Poor	Very Easy/Easy 5-6	1D
–2 Terrible	Very Easy 1-4	1D

Fate Skill	D6 Skill
Alertness	Perception, Search, Tracking
Athletics	Strength, Any Strength skills, Dodge
Burglary	Security, Streetwise, Know-How, Tech, Investigation, Persuasion, Lockpicking, Forgery, Sneak, Sleight of Hand
Contacts	Contacts, Investigation, Streetwise, Search
Conviction	Conviction
Craftsmanship	Craftsmanship, Repair, Tech, Security
Deceit	Con/Deceit, Charm, Persuasion, Forgery, Sleight of Hand
Discipline	Discipline, Willpower
Driving	Piloting
Empathy	Persuasion, Con/Deceit, Charm, Presence, Bargain, Investigation
Endurance	Stamina, Strength, Willpower, Discipline
Fists	Brawling, Martial Arts
Guns	Firearms, Archaic Guns, Bows, Marksmanship, Missile Weapons, Thrown Weapons
Intimidation	Intimidation
Investigation	Investigation
Lore	Lore, Knowledge, Scholar, Know-How
Might	Strength
Performance	Presence, Artist, Scholar
Presence*	Presence, Charm, Persuasion, Conviction, Command
Rapport	Charm, Persuasion
Resources	Resources
Scholarship	Scholar, Know-How, Artist, Craftsmanship
Stealth	Sneak, Sleight of Hand, Hide, Search, Investigation
Survival	Survival, Streetwise, Stamina, Tracking
Weapons	Melee Combat, Bows, Missile, Marksmanship