Time to start gearing up for the Dresden Game. Now, I know that usually in a Fate game the idea is to start from scratch and work from them but I didn’t want the players to start off in a total vacuum. So I resurrected New Bay City from the old Mage game. I planning on using this as starting point and inspiration for players and hell if they want to go in a totally different direction. That’s cool too.
I chose to start off this way because most of the players are already familiar with the city and some of the NPC’s (which may or may not return. It’s up to them.) So in a way they already have some emotional investment in the city. Additionally, I still had some locations and NPC’s that never appeared in that game so no use wasting ideas.
The Mundane Stuff: New Bay City is either in eastern Texas or western Louisiana. (It really doesn’t matter for the sake of the game). Think of it as on the Gulf coast somewhere between Houston and New Orleans. It covers roughly the same area and has the same population as Houston.
The Hocus Pocus Stuff: New Bay City sits at the nexus of several ley lines. The boundary between the mortal realm and the Nevernever is thin. The area has always been a supernatural hot spot even before Europeans set foot on this continent.
Inspirations: Arkham, Sunnydale, New Orleans, Santa Carla, San Francisco. I tried to have areas of the city that would emulate what you would consider that standard modern urban environs and places that are just ready for adventure hooks.
What has come to pass: Basically, I’m Dresdenizing (and rediting) the events of the old Mage game as set up. A powerful Black Court Vampire and a renegade sorcerer hatched a crazy plan to plunge the city into an eternal darkness from the Nevernever. To fuel such a powerful spell, they needed sacrifices with incredible power. That meant pretty much every White Council wizard in the city was snatched up and prepped for sacrifice. The ritual was stopped but the sacrifice wasn’t.
Where are we now: The White Council had kept the balance and the peace in the city. With their numbers greatly diminished, every supernatural faction is making a move for power.
Overall Idea; The concept for the player characters is that they are college students and getting ready to get mixed up in this whole thing. I did this for a couple of reasons. One, the characters would still have all the adult rights and responsibilities while still having some of the awkward social and peer problems from high school. Also, it’s an easy way for them to to have something in common quickly and easily.
I know that no campaign survives first contact with player characters and due to the nature of FATE, I expect this. In a couple of weeks we’ll see how it turns out after the players get their hands on it.
Stay tuned. This is going to be fun.