Shadowrun
Off-topic => Off-off-topic => Topic started by: Mason on <11-18-11/2149:19>
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So I started reading the Dresden Files series two days ago. I am on the third book now. I can't stop thinking, you know, this magic system is awesome and possible to replicate in Shadowrun. I mean, most of Dresden's Karma goes to enchanting and a bit to skills, but still. I even have a character who is somewhat like Dresden in attitude in many ways (from before I read the books), or at least he is supposed to be (roleplaying glitches aside).
What do you guys think about the series?
Has anyone out there built a character based on Dresden? Did the character have any awesome adventures?
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I finished the first two tomes but since I got my 20th Anniversary VtM book, the rest are on hiatus. I also saw the TV series they made and I liked it too. I did create a character in the past resembling Harry but it wasn't in Shadowrun. I created it long before I even knew those books existed for a CJ Carella's Witchcraft campaign (which is also an amazing system). A wizard investigator with a clown attitude. I think there is a pen-and-paper rpg system for Dresden though.
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What do you guys think about the series?
It's not bad. Last couple books have really broken the formula, and have me intrigued. I hear Butcher plans to end the series with Armageddon.
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I actually really like the series becasue it started out as very easy to read series and became very dynamic and complex in both setting, characters, and storyline. I've put off buying the most recent book because my significant other forbade me...said she wants SOMETHING to get me for Christmas.
As for creating a character for SR, eh, not really. But I have heard good things about the Dresden Files RPG.
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What do you guys think about the series?
Awesome line of books, Butcher's writing is cleaned up by the end of the third book. You can really tell the first books were the first thing he ever wrote. I'm just about finished re-reading the entire series up to this point, and it's very catching. It's also very pulp, these are fast reads.
The TV series? Avoid. Avoid it like it's the plague. Butcher went up to the set, the director and the head writer apologized for what they were doing to his series. This was a case of the network execs messing with a good thing.
As for putting him into SR4? If you stuck with Early Harry he's a pretty good occult investigator. But only for the first four or five books. Stop there if you're trying to drop him in.
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What do you guys think about the series?
I love it. I got Ghost Story in hardcover because I couldn't wait for it to come out in paperback. (And I'm on a pretty strict budget.).Has anyone out there built a character based on Dresden? Did the character have any awesome adventures?
Apparently you already have his apartment. :P
And that would require me playing. :'(
No, however, I'd make my own character. I try not to rip off other people... Too much at least.
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They have a Dresden Files RPG that's pretty interesting. Because of game balance in old World of Darkness, I tell folks if they play a mage it will be according DF rules. DF and WoD can blend pretty seamlessly.
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They have a Dresden Files RPG that's pretty interesting. Because of game balance in old World of Darkness, I tell folks if they play a mage it will be according DF rules. DF and WoD can blend pretty seamlessly.
Another game I missed out on. The GM didn't show up for the Demo at the gaming con that was just on. :'(
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And just an observation out there...I forget exactly what book it was in but it was when Harry, Michael Carpenter, Johnny Marcone, and Sanya were battling Nicademous (sp) on a train or somesuch...But did anyone else think that it seemed too much like a classic DnD-ish party? We had Harry the wizard (duh), Marcone the rogue/thief, Michael the Paladin, and Sanya, while he would also technically be a paladin, acted more like a straight fighter...unless he blessed the bullets of his AK-47. And taking it a bit farther, Michael's wife Charity seemed very cleric-ish.
Anyone else notice? Just wondering. 8)
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Harry plays a Barbarian with the Alpha's RPG group. Yes, a gang of RPG-Playing Werewolves with a Wizard, and a Medical Examiner for a GM.
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I love the anthology/short stories Butcher's whipped up over the years featuring Dresden. Really fleshes out characters that would otherwise be 2-D in the main book-series. 8)
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I wonder if Harry is going to get back into the RPGing after the events in Changes and Ghost Story.
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probably not given how "Ghost Story" ends, but i have been wrong before. I understand that Butcher didnt like the TV series, and that the Director and SPW were appologizing all over themselves for what the TV execs did to it, on the other hand i enjoyed the series, they just seemed to bounce around the books so much it wasnt funny. Thankfully they never seemed to try and translate the books to TV, that wouldnt have gone over well
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Pity, his dice bag really helped against the Nickleheads. :P
As for the TV Series... Oh dear $Deity, what the hell were they thinking?
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Pity, his dice bag really helped against the Nickleheads. :P
As for the TV Series... Oh dear $Deity, what the hell were they thinking?
Saw a few episodes. Wasn't bad. Wasn't Dresden either, but it wasn't bad, per se.
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I just finished watching the TV show on Netflix -- got a few episodes in before I saw that it was based on novels. I thought the show was pretty good (stand-alone, not comparing to books because I didn't even know there were books...) and now of course I'm interested in finding the books :)
I used episode 4 (I think -- "New Blood"?) of the TV show as inspiration for a run last weekend and it worked pretty well...might write it up. (it doesn't resemble the TV episode as much anymore -- only as inspiration, the investigation was not occult at all, I actually used it as an introduction to cybermancy in a roundabout way though the players don't know it yet...).
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I'll admit, I'm partially upset that there was a hockey stick and no hockey involved.
Actually, honestly, was the budget so cheap they had to use a hockey stick and drum stick for a staff and wand???
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I dunno. I liked the fact that he had a hockey stick for a staff. It makes more sense for an urban wizard, who still would like to keep from announcing to the world that "Look, magic is real, and there's a drek-load of nasty things that go bump in the night that you might want to watch out for!"
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I dunno. I liked the fact that he had a hockey stick for a staff. It makes more sense for an urban wizard, who still would like to keep from announcing to the world that "Look, magic is real, and there's a drek-load of nasty things that go bump in the night that you might want to watch out for!"
But when you read the books Dresden does announce to the world he's a wizard and there is such a thing as magic, he even in the yellow pages under wizard. The real world just refuses to believe in the weirdness.
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There's saying you're a wizard in the yellow pages, and then there's walking down the street looking like someone out of The Lord of the Rings, Serious.
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I am not trying to sound rude, but have to read the books or did you just watch the TV show?
He walks down the street when he'd on the job with a staff and wand, wearing a Black leather mantled duster, cowboy boots, and I think he has a hate.... need to reread some of the newer stuff.
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There's saying you're a wizard in the yellow pages, and then there's walking down the street looking like someone out of The Lord of the Rings, Serious.
Actually, he looks like he just came off the set of El Dorado, even with the "Ozark Mountain Folk Art Walking Stick" (AKA: Staff.). ;) He hides the wand in his duster, along with a multitude of other magical gee-gaws.
The rings just look like really weird rings, although if it wasn't for friends on the police force, some overzealous cop might try to bust him for wearing knuckledusters.
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TV shows are free. Books cost money. So yeah, only seen the show.
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But when you read the books Dresden does announce to the world he's a wizard and there is such a thing as magic, he even in the yellow pages under wizard. The real world just refuses to believe in the weirdness.
In the TV series, he is found in the yellow pages by at least one "johnson" and he has 'wizard' in both the ad and on his storefront door.
However, it's one thing to say you're a wizard, and another to dress in robes with an ornate staff & wand. I thought it was really kitch to have the hockey stick & drumstick -- I was waiting for an explanation but then the series ended abruptly. My guess is that after the business with his uncle, he really wasn't looking for anything expensive & showy. When they flashbacked to his earlier days, I don't recall him using either the hockey stick or the drum stick -- They show him learning with Bob, and his final encounter with his uncle, but no wands or staves.
In the TV show he fled after killing his uncle, so he may literally have been a refugee when he picked those up. He had come back from a hiatus around the world, so he hadn't been in the mansion for a while, found the voodoo doll that was used to kill his father, confronted his uncle, his uncle died, and he fled. He wasn't exactly packing a bag... Then later he says he hadn't been to that mansion in 5 years when confronted with the fact that he could be living there. If his more fancy/ornate stuff was there, he wasn't fetching it...
Maybe the vampire babe who harbored him pulled them out of her bag of tricks and he ended up liking them? She owned a club -- so that might explain him lifting a drumstick out of some musician's bag or something....
I am not saying the TV show is better than the books, and for all intents and purposes they could be two nearly-completely-different things that share a title. I haven't read the books. I figure I'll see if the library has them. However in the TV-universe, the hockey stick & drumstick make sense given the character's impoverishment and such. But I wonder where he got the lab and stuff. He must have gone back to the mansion and took things -- oh yeah, he had at least burned one of his uncle's books at some point (mentioned by Bob). So he went back -- he got Bob, too! Hrm. Must have a thing for hokey props. Sure makes it much less expensive on the show set...shows nowadays don't have much budget for special effects, and this one chewed up a good bit of cash on that...it's no wonder they didn't renew it.
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Yeah, because Hockey Sticks are cheaper than some branch you pulled off a tree and carved yourself into a walking stick or a wand. :P
It fits if you're trying to blend in with the universe. It doesn't if you're advertizing "Wizard".
Also, why the hell did he have a jeep? Was a beat-up VW Bug too expensive for the Props department? And what happened with Murphy, where is she?
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Yeah, because Hockey Sticks are cheaper than some branch you pulled off a tree and carved yourself into a walking stick or a wand. :P
It fits if you're trying to blend in with the universe. It doesn't if you're advertizing "Wizard".
Also, why the hell did he have a jeep? Was a beat-up VW Bug too expensive for the Props department? And what happened with Murphy, where is she?
Lieutenant Murphy is in most of the episodes. Glad to hear she's in the books.
The hockey stick wasn't carved, but it did have glowy runes in it whenever he did big magic (more of those expensive special effects I mentioned...or just invisible ink & blacklight ;) ).
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Also, why the hell did he have a jeep? Was a beat-up VW Bug too expensive for the Props department? And what happened with Murphy, where is she?
That, at least, has a good explanation, Ray. Turns out there's a real Karrin Murphy working with the CPD, so they changed her name to Connie Murphy in the series to avoid the inevitable trouble.
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Sorry, where's the Murphy that's an Irish Cop and when did she turn Hispanic?
Why is Ancient Mai... I have no idea what the hell they did with Ancient Mai!
And why didn't we get to see the parking lot that Dresden magiced up in... Bah, never mind, I give up.
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Also, why the hell did he have a jeep? Was a beat-up VW Bug too expensive for the Props department?
Ease of filming. Same reason his lab was a much brighter place than what was portrayed in the novels, it's easier to shoot light than dark.
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Also, why the hell did he have a jeep? Was a beat-up VW Bug too expensive for the Props department?
Ease of filming. Same reason his lab was a much brighter place than what was portrayed in the novels, it's easier to shoot light than dark.
I assumed he had a Jeep because it was about as low tech as you could get and because it was rugged. That way his anti-techness couldn't screw it up much.
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I assumed he had a Jeep because it was about as low tech as you could get and because it was rugged. That way his anti-techness couldn't screw it up much.
And a VW Bug is high tech?
Also, the engine is in the back, so it's farther away from his Tech Bane.
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I assumed he had a Jeep because it was about as low tech as you could get and because it was rugged. That way his anti-techness couldn't screw it up much.
And a VW Bug is high tech?
Also, the engine is in the back, so it's farther away from his Tech Bane.
Herbie was high tech, or magic:)
Not sure really, I only know that MOST cars you put key in it goes VROOM and they need to be fed gas and oil or they don't work.
Quick wiki search puts VW older, JEEP is 4-wheel drive though.
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The Blue Beetle was Herbie's Trailer Park Cousin. ;D
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I read on the wiki page Butcher announced the TV show was SUPPOSED to be very different from the books, as it is an alternate universe.
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OH god, I could list all the differences, but most of them are spoilers. Except the SINGLE episode that was actually based on one of the books. But even that one got screwed up by the end of the episode.
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I read on the wiki page Butcher announced the TV show was SUPPOSED to be very different from the books, as it is an alternate universe.
After the series came out, finished it's first season (only a half season at that), and months after it was announced that it was not going to get picked up again. It's the sound of a man backpeddling.
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Now it's the sound of a man counting the hours until it's in his control again.
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Actually, the way they did the series did make sense. They had to firmly establish a very complex world in a short amount of time. I think that the TV show, while still inferior to the books, did a decent job of keeping the 'spirit' of the Dresden Files. I especially liked the twist on Bob.
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Actually, the way they did the series did make sense. They had to firmly establish a very complex world in a short amount of time.
Did they? Dresden is Our World + Magic. If the TV series kept the progression about the same pace as the novels then the real heavy magic wouldn't have been needed for a while. In my opinion had they done about a book's worth of stories in a season...and used the books as the frame for the season, then I think the series would have survived better.
I think that the TV show, while still inferior to the books, did a decent job of keeping the 'spirit' of the Dresden Files. I especially liked the twist on Bob.
Taking into account how...painful...the first novels were (they were his first novels published, it shows), I still feel they were superior to what was tossed up on screen. I guess I'm a bit spoiled with shows that like to tell a major story arch over the course of a season.
As for Bob, he's on my list of things that were changed for production reasons that don't bother me.
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I especially liked the twist on Bob.
I like book bob better
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Especially him in the RPG books. ;D
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Especially him in the RPG books. ;D
Yes, well Snark recognizes Snark. ;)
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I especially liked the twist on Bob.
I like book bob better
Book Bob? Did I miss something, I haven't gotten to the anthology, Ghost Stories, or the RPG yet...been bit busy. 8)
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I especially liked the twist on Bob.
I like book bob better
Book Bob? Did I miss something, I haven't gotten to the anthology, Ghost Stories, or the RPG yet...been bit busy. 8)
Book vs TV.
In the TV show he comes out of the skull every time Dresden needs to talk to him, and is played kinda like "Al" from Quantum Leap. Essentially, he looks and acts like a "normal", corporeal human until they decide to throw a special effect into the mix.
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Book Bob OTOH is a skull with glowing eyes and a perverted attitude.
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Book Bob OTOH is a skull with glowing eyes and a perverted attitude.
That is a real understatement. BOB is way more than perverted.
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Book Bob OTOH is a skull with glowing eyes and a perverted attitude.
That is a real understatement. BOB is way more than perverted.
He's also so powerful, I'll be nice.
He used to work for the guy that started world wars. (Yes, both of them!).
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He used to work for the guy that started world wars. (Yes, both of them!).
Not sure about the second one but the first was all Kremler.
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Yeah, Bob in the books was a spirit of air, that had a whole LOT of magical knowledge crammed into that skull house of his. Very swank inside that skull. But, TV Bob wasn't BAD. Just wasn't book Bob. I wanted perversion, and snarkiness, and how would they have turned TV Bob blue to signal bad things were coming?
Alsoo, they completely cut out Ebenezer, so they couldn't have gotten far into the series without retconning the hell out of the stories. Also, Murphy, no matter what her first name is, was supposed to be a petite, cute faced, blonde cheerleader looking cop, that could akido your butt into the ground while blazing away with a P90 she got from a demonic fling...
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Also, Murphy, no matter what her first name is, was supposed to be a petite, cute faced, blonde cheerleader looking cop, that could akido your butt into the ground while blazing away with a P90 she got from a demonic fling...
She's still petite and cute and cheerleader-looking, IIRC, just not blonde... and nothing in the show has lead me to doubt her attitude or ass-kicking ability. ;)
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Nothing re-enforced it, either.
We're talking about a complete, powerless mortal that supernatural creatures treat with respect. Ghost Story shows one of the finest examples of that.
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In all fairness to the TV Murphy, how many books did it take for Murphy to go from a sometimes pain in Harry's side to being a full-on ally?