[Sorcerer] Character creation went well; some demon type and ability questions

[Adams Tower]

This Tuesday evening we had our character creation session, and I feel like it went pretty well. We did it over roll20.net, which is a lot like google hangouts, but with some built in RPG tools like a shared whiteboard and dice rolling.

I brought the two look-and-feel statements, for environment, "An ancient town by the sea." For demons/sorcery "A demon is YOU, perverted and deformed; sorcery is old rituals involving penitence without repentance." Character creation went quickly and easily for Andrew, somewhat longer for Matt, who often has trouble making decisions quickly.

Andrew ended up with a chemist at a University (he named it Miskatonic University, I said that was ok, provided we had no more Lovecraft references), who bound a demon who could show him what directions of research would yield results, getting him tenure and a Nobel prize for solving the protein-folding problem. His Kicker is that his wife and kids have just left him, do to his self-flagellation, which is his parasite demon's need.

Matt created a librarian (I suggested that it be the university library, I'm now second guessing myself about that), whose daughter died in a car crash, so he bound a demon he found in the secret basement below the library, in order to not allow any child in this town to die before they reach adulthood. His Kicker is that a university student has discovered he is a sorcerer, and wants to be his apprentice.

Andrew created his character with very little prompting, but a lot of Matt's character is a result of suggestions from Andrew or I. I'm not sure if this is a problem. Matt said, at one point, that he might not like his character, but by the end of the session he said he was ok with it, and wants to play him. Late in the evening the idea occurred to him to create a "Dorian Gray style character", but he says he wants to play this guy, rather than make another one.

By the end of the session, we were very tired, and almost forgot to roll for Binding. We did, in fact, forget to roll the Humanity check for Binding, so we'll do it at the beginning of the 1st play session. Andrew and I played out a scene for his Binding, Matt by this point was too tired, so just described in more general terms what he did for the Binding. I gave Andrew a bonus die, but I don't remember why, there was something I particularly liked in his description at the time. I also gave Matt a bonus die, because when Matt described his character breaking his own leg by bashing it with his Object demon, a cane, Andrew outright said "That's cool, I like that."

For demon creation, I had both players describe what their characters wanted, that a demon would help them get, and then describe a demon that would help them get it, without looking at the demon creation rules. Andrew ended up with a parasite demon, that when outside of him, looked like a swarm of insects. I wasn't sure quite how to handle this, since he wanted it to spend most of its time inside him, like a Parasite demon, but when it was outside him, be able to fly or sting like a swarm of insects. I ended up saying that it could have certain abilities conferred on itself, like Travel and Special Damage, but only when it was outside of a host. This doesn't fit with the rules as written, but will it break anything about the game? His description also seemed to want it to have Hint, about the future, but the annotations say that Hint is limited to a demon's perception, so I let it have Perception: the future conferred on itself, even though it's a Parasite. Is this ok? Was there a better way to handle this within the rules?

Matt's character's demon was much simpler. It is just a cane (Object demon) that confers most of it's abilities on anyone touching it.

Character and demon sheets are here, a screenshot of character diagrams is here. I haven't yet elaborated on the diagrams to prep, yet. I will some time in the next couple of days, since our first play session will be next Tuesday.

[Ron Edwards]

Hey, I'm sorry I haven't been able to attend to this. Anyone else please feel free to help.

The good news is that my younger son (4) did go into the bathroom to throw up instead of staying in his bed, although he missed the toilet. Yes, that kind of weekend. Oh yeah, and my older son (6), upon overflowing the toilet the day before because he just likes toilet paper, tried to plunge it himself because he knows it annoys me, resulting in a truly impressive full-bathroom indoor lake.

And my students will wonder why I didn't get their tests graded ...

[Adams Tower]

Ugh, sorry to hear about your weekend. I don't mind waiting a while for a response. Real life is always more important.

[KarlM]

Yay Sorcerer play! I'm jealous. Let us know how it goes!

My own take on the Parasite/Passer demon "Drachmas Born El" is this -

(1) The Demons belong to the GM - you build them, you play them, you decide when they are in Need, etc etc. It's best to avoid negotiation about demon powers beyond clarification of what happens in-fiction, the player describes the in-fiction powers and you pick the powers.

(2) Ignoring the rules about demon types doesn't "break the game" but the different ways each type works give them each a different feel which is certainly fun and interesting. Most likely Ron will have something clearer than I to say on this point. The relevant annotations on p48 are good to read.

If it's a true Parasite then "their powers confer onto the host alone, except for Boost". No demon-conferred Perception, no Spawn, no Travel, no Special Damage.

I would call this an Inconspicuous demon, with Cloak when it is "inside" the sorcerer.

[Adams Tower]

@KarlM, thanks for the advice. These demons were built about half-and-half by me and by the players. Probably would have been better to just build them myself. I'll ask Andrew whether he envisions his demon as spending almost all of it's time inside him, in which case it's a Parasite and we'll remove most of those moves (I can't see getting rid of Perception: the Future, though. I don't really get why a Parasite can't have Perception? It's not very active.) If he envisions Drachmas as living in him, but coming out pretty often, I'll switch it for Inconspicuous, with Cloak.

[Adams Tower]

Have talked to Andrew and revised Drachmas. Drachmas is now an Inconspicuous demon with "merge into blood, usually inside someone's veins" as his cloak special effect.