Basic Action Super Heroes!

One day I'd love to play in or run a game set in the Dresdenverse. There's some serious rules questions that would have to answered first, so I thought I'd start a thread on how to get close to Butcher's novels without bogging down BASH! with a bunch of new rules.

Magic: Magic in the DFs is divided into (2?) aspects, Evocations and Thaumaturgy.

Evocations: Quick cast and short lived spells.
1) Evo's must fall within the five elements (Earth, Fire, Air, Water, and Spirit).
2) Evo's take a toll on the caster so you can't just fling spells around all day. The limitation Energy Cost seems to fit the bill pretty well.

So a couple of questions.
1) Should Evocation be a single power? Or should each element have its own power (ie Evo-Fire 3)? Harry seems to be better at fire and air spells, so maybe splitting up Evocations into five powers makes sense.
2) Could a wizard purchase additional Energy Points at creation without buying new powers? Maybe 3EPs=1CP, or something along those lines?

What else needs to be taken into consideration for Evo's?

PM me with your email address. One of the things I want to do with the new BASH! Fantasy is address "Urban Fantasy" and maybe we can have a conversation about that and my current draft of the rules if you're willing to give them a read.

There are several ways to do it. Just because Harry is better at one type of spellcasting doesn't seem to preclude him from learning others.

Maybe it is something as simple as Boost: Mind and/or Agility (Only with Fire/Air Evocations) or something to that effect.

Or you could break it all down into 5 spell colleges modeled after the ones in BASH Fantasy, and only be able to use spells from one or two of them.

I've run a few one shot urban fantasy adventures, so this topic is definitely of interest to me.

Okay, now that I've gotten a second Dresden novel under my belt, I think I can give a better answer to the question.

EVOs should probably be built as a separate power for each element. The effects of "vento" and "fuego" for instance are pretty different. One buffets / moves something with wind, the other scorches it with flames. Vento could probably be built with TK and Push in a multi-power. Fuego could be Special Attack and Continual Damage in a multi-power too.

You could also add more to the repetoire as time goes on. For instance, a smoke effect could be Confusion, etc.

Of course the BEST way to deal with Dresden I think is to look at the Fantasy section of Chapter 5- there is an advantage called "Grimoire": a spellbook- that is basically the magical version of "Gadgeteer". The updated printing (which should be on shelves soon) also updates this a bit- so you can develop new spells either as part of some research or on the fly for a Hero Point. Now, this does not mean you have to have a physical tome you carry around- you can reskin the effect to be something else entirely. Like in Harry's case, I'd consider 'Bob" to be more of a Grimoire than he is a Mentor.

Dresden's HQ would also be fun to build- since I'd also count Bob as a super-computer... a magic one.

Glad to see this thread draw some interest as I've knocked out four Dresden books in the last month and am itching to get Turn Coat and Changes. May be able to read all the books by the end of the summer (I think there's another due out this month)!

Back on topic...

I think I'd handle Evocations as seperate powers, using Boost (element) to reflect a wizard's proclivities. As to Grimoire, it almost seems to be more tied to ritual magics (Thaumaturgy) rather than evocations (Dresden really casts only a handful of spells on the fly; it's his rituals that change).

Thaumaturgy(rituals)
In the Dresdenverse, rituals allow wizards to create more complicated/powerful effects at the expense of time and material, as well as a chance for things to go terribly wrong.

I hate "fumble" rolls, so I think I'd leave spell failure as a plot device, or allow it if someone directly interferes with the ritual (ie breaking the circle is a common concern).

So, how would rituals work exactly?

The Limitation: Time is a great tool, but it really only knocks a power's cost down by a point.

Limitation: Single Use is another good model for Thaumaturgy as it limits the wizard to only using the powerful ritual once per issue and bumps the power's level by 2.

Limitation: Situational (must have proper focuses, a cleansing ritual, the old trusty wizard circle, etc).

So if every Thaumaturgy power has the three Limitations above, that's 4 extra points right there.

Thoughts?

I haven't read the whole series, but I just finished Dead Beat not long ago after a long hiatus.

I think by the RAW, no matter how many limitations you place on a power, it can only be reduced by 1 point total

As far as Rituals go some additional ideas might be:

Concentration (but this might already be covered by Time)

Maybe Energy Cost, as rituals don't seem to make Dresden give up any of his other spell casting abilities. But he does have to channel some of his personal magic/energy into the rituals. This would essentially give 10 Energy points to power the Ritual. This could take the place of Single use.

Make an Extended Skill Check for successful completion of the ritual ( this gets rid of the fumble aspect you were speaking of, but still make it dependent on the caster's Occultism/Ritual skill. The more powerful the ritual, the higher the target number (and the longer it takes, due to Time limitation)