People Behind the Game

Jim Butcher is the author of the popular Dresden Files series of novels which form the setting for the Dresden Files RPG. Jim enjoys fencing, singing, bad science fiction movies and live-action gaming. He lives in Missouri with his wife, son, and a vicious guard dog.

Genevieve Cogman is a freelance RPG author, who has done work for White Wolf, Steve Jackson Games, and Guardians of Order. She has contributed to the Exalted, Orpheus, Vampire, In Nomine, and BESM lines, and is the author of the forthcoming GURPS Vorkosigan. As she is a longtime fan of Jim Butcher's work, this project is going to be fun.

Leonard Balsera, aka Landon Darkwood, is an assistant developer for the Dresden Files RPG. He has worked with Evil Hat Productions on other products, most notably as a lead developer for the pulp-themed Spirit of the Century, which he hopes will build up a better Google result for his real name. He is also working on his own game, tentatively called Threads, and trying to remember where he put the money for the beer. He currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, which isn't good for his liver.

Chad Underkoffler is an award-winning RPG author and game designer (see his company website, Atomic Sock Monkey Press). He's written for Pyramid Online and GURPS (Steve Jackson Games), Unknown Armies (Atlas Games), Gamma World (Sword & Sorcery Studios), and many other companies. On The Dresden Files RPG, he is serving as resident Loremaster of Minutiae, design kibbitzer, and contributing author.

The World of the Dresden Files

The Dresden Files are a series of novels written by Jim Butcher, following the cases of Harry Dresden, modern-day Chicago's only openly practicing wizard (and private eye). Harry spends much of his time strapped for cash, surrounded by friends and foes both fierce and dangerous, and does what he can to carve out a little corner of sanity in the world. Occasionally this has meant saving the world. But more often it's just meant surviving long enough to get the check cashed at the bank.

Harry's world is a dark place, shot through with silvery veins of hope. Mankind is prey here to all manner of nasty creatures from beyond the world, out of the other-place called the Nevernever. But mortal humans also hold that most precious right of all -- the ability to choose their fates, truly and fully. And thankfully for all of us, some of them choose to fight back the darkness.

Would that it were so for the rest of humanity. Man, as a whole, is blind to the supernatural. It's not because of some strange and profound magic. Worse. It's because man uses that power of choice to its most insidious end: man chooses to ignore what he cannot understand. And so the dark forces of the Nevernever work their ways upon us all -- and few, if any, will admit to themselves that it's happening.

It's not just the wizards of the White Council who have chosen to face down the worst the Nevernever has to offer. You'll find them in all corners of Chicago, from all walks of life. The cops in Chicago P.D.'s Special Investigations may get the shaft on their beat, but they're some of the few who carry a badge and know what to do when a demon tosses a dumpster at their heads. In the criminal underworld, Mafia don Gentleman Johnny Marcone walks the middle line — sometimes he'll strike a deal with the forces of darkness, and other times he'll empty an automatic rifle into it, depending on what's good for business. And three Knights of the Cross take up the armor of faith to free the innocent from evil.

And it's not just normal people who fight on the side of light. A pack of werewolves split time between attending their classes at the university and keeping their neck of the woods clear of supernatural vermin. Half-faerie allies guard their own and draw the line against both Summer and Winter Courts. And not everyone in the vampire courts is purely a monster -- though trusting one of them is another matter entirely.

Characters in the world of the Dresden Files will face only the limits of your imagination. Players will be able to pick up the series characters and run games with them, or create their own characters -- wizards, vampires, werewolves, faeries, holy knights, mafia dons, occult cops, ninja librarians, and more.

You can learn more about the world of the Dresden Files at Jim-Butcher.Com.

The Books of the Dresden Files

In Storm Front, Harry's day starts with a missing man and a double homicide by sorcery. Soon he's up to his ears in black sorcery, mafia drug deals, demonic assassins, and the sex trade. It's a race against the clock as sky darkens over his head. Read some sample chapters here.

Fool Moon introduces us to werewolves -- all four kinds of them. And naturally Harry runs afoul of them all, from the straight-up werewolves to the devil-pact hexenwulves, from man-wolf beserker lycanthropes to the cursed wolf-demon loup garou. With the full moon on the rise, it's all Harry can do to hold his world -- let alone his body -- together. Read some sample chapters here.

Grave Peril takes Harry into the Nevernever, as the entire spirit world goes into chaos. Harry's investigation leads him ever deeper into the halls of power among the supernatural elite. We meet holy knights and all three vampiric courts, prophets and sorcerors, and maybe even the ghost of a demon... And did we mention that little problem he has with his honest-to-god Faerie Godmother? Read some sample chapters here.

Summer Knight starts with a simple case for Harry. Solve a murder. Except his client happens to be the Queen of Air and Darkness, and the job, which he has no choice but to take, puts him smack dab in the middle of a war between the Winter and Summer Courts. At stake -- the fate of the world. No pressure. Read some sample chapters here.

Death Masks pits Harry against the Denarians, fallen angels melded to human hosts, in a race against time to recover the missing Shroud of Turin. Plus there's this pesky issue of being challenged to a duel to the death by one of the most powerful vampires of the Red Court. Read some sample chapters here.

Blood Rites takes a break from the world-shaking stuff to give Harry a chance to ... show up on the set of an adult film, and try to figure out who's been dropping a death curse on the heads of all the women he meets. The answer leads him to an unexpected discovery that transforms his life forever. So much for taking a break. Read some sample chapters here.

Dead Beat drops Harry into the middle of a necromantic turf war, with only a disgraced coroner and a White Court vampire to help him through it. Why get involved? Easy. Blackmail. Read some sample chapters here.

Keep watching this space for further information on the game. We're still in the earliest stages of development, and we'll update this page as we get closer to a finished product.