[Sorcerer] the big fight: questions

[Moreno R.]

"Killer," "acrobat," "tactician," "athlete," "sharpshooter," and "panther man" are not valid Covers. I am beginning to think you are not quite getting what a Cover is. It must be a real-world human designation with well-understood professional and/or life-style memes.

Mmmm...  "well-understood" taken literally would cut out a lot of real-word professions (I have really no idea about the daily life of a Journalist, a Senate member or a Roman Gladiator, so I could not accept these cover at my table, for example) and all the fantasy ones, so I think it can be compatible with professions people know only from movie tropes or some description at the gaming table. like the ones I used as examples... I think they are all professions (apart one).

"Killer" ---> like Leon, from the Besson movie, or any hitman from any movie (I was not specifically referring to a "here, now" setting). Maybe it's case of a English word that has taken another meaning in common use in Italy: I considered it equivalent to "hitman", "killer" is the word commonly used here for the profession. If it's not in English, use "Hitman".

"Acrobat" ---> you can find some working in any circus.

"Tactician" ---> this could refer to a lot of professions, true, but at the same time I don't think it's impossible for the system to have a cover for that, without having to call that cover "commander of armies now in retirement and working as a tactician consultant"

"Athlete" can be professionals (even if they use nitpicking and rules-lawyering to get into the Olympic games)

"Panther man" is a particular case, being defined as part of a fantasy setting, it leave open what it is and what is not, without defining much better the setting. But it could be a profession, like "frog-man" in the Navy.

Apart from these specific examples, returning to the general case:  I think I get in general the use of Cover, the problem is one of color when used as a demon power: if my Sorcerer want to summon a demon that will turn him into somebody who will be followed by the masses,  "Cover: Demagogue" is much more apt than "populist politician able to write his own speech by himself", even if they would be equivalent for that character.

Anyway, I am seeing that question going more and more off the rail trying to imagine imaginary situation, so let's return to actual play: the real question, I realized, is my last one in the previous post:

"Did you even encountered a situation where you had the same character rolling two cover rolls for the same actions? Or in your experience is something that simply never happen?"

[Ron Edwards]

I haven't had to deal with two Covers being simultaneously used. I can answer any question about it as long as it names specific Covers, who the users are, and if you don't provide any guesses about the answers.

I wish you wouldn't fight my answers like that.

1. "Well-understood" in-setting. Cover is very much about what NPCs see, think, say, and do about the character. If you don't know enough about the Cover to handle playing the NPCs appropriately because of it, then either you should do research or you should not be playing with that look-and-feel in the first place.

Your statement about the movie-tropes understanding is perfectly valid. However, it might be useful to say so, so that the local table expert on Roman gladiators isn't instantly at odds with the fan of Spartacus: Blood and Sand and with the person who knows vaguely that Romans employed slavery, but only has tropes from the American South to associate with that.

This is one of the minor reasons I always, always recommend using "here and now" or something more specific but also rooted in familiar reality ("New York!" with exclamation mark), for first-time play.

2. None of your terms is a profession. There is a huge difference between "acrobat" and "circus acrobat." One is a vague, ungrounded, cheap try at being able to do stuff. The other is a useful way to invoke hundreds of skills, social connections, knowledge base, physical appearance, and more. The same goes for all your other points in the post. Especially "demagogue!" "Local politician," "congressman," are great. "Demagogue" is a particular behavior one does with power, not the professional description of the power.

I think you should be exacting and highly, highly specific above Covers permitted in your game, both for characters and for demon abilities. Your stubbornness about it makes me very suspicious that somewhere in here, there's a habit of GMing and of character concepts that you are unwilling to acknowledge or break.

[Moreno R.]

Preparing for this evening session, I just noticed one thing...

Now Selene has a object demon with "Hint"... and another demon that can boost her will. Her Will roll to use Hint can be boosted to 15 dice, against Slaneesh' power (13).

Not only that... if she can use that boosted will to "punish" Slanesh, she can reduce it to power 1...  and use 15 dice against 1 to use Hint.

The only limitation on her use of hint is the boosting demon's stamina (10) that can be easily recovered with rest... 

She was already a formidable fighter, now, thanks to Alessandro's mistreatment of Slaneesh, she could be unbeatable, knowing every secrets of the PC, where to attack, and their weaknesses...

OK, question time...

1) Selene can use the boosted will against the reduced (by the punish) score of the other demon?
2) She can use the boosted will to reduce the other demon at Power 1 before using Hint?

3): I am not sure I understand how to use Hint: in the annotations you say:
The first clarification is that Hint is a communicative ability, and hence subject to the demon's perceptual limits. With no special perception-enhancing abilities, the demon cannot answer questions outside the scope of ordinary human perception.

The second clarification is that Hint does not consult the demon but rather elicits a GM-knowledge answer, as if the demon had opened a reality-bending door. Therefore the answer has nothing to do with the demon's knowledge, opinions, or personality.

Aren't these clarifications totally at odds with each other? How can that ability be dependent on the demon's perception, and at the same time be not be dependent on its knowledge?

Example: Selene wants to know if Isabella has discovered where she is hiding, and ask that using hint. Slaneesh obviously don't know the answer, but that's no problem. But Slaneesh don't perceive the answer, and it's a big problem?

4) When "play the NPCs" is a way to add adversity, and when it's a massacre? Did you ever create a enemy for the Sorcerer and discovered that it was by far too strong for them? What did you do?

[Joshua Bearden]

Having lurked through weeks of your conversations with Ron I feel I can almost predict his answers to your punish then ask for a hint shenanigans.  But I wont. Instead I'll just share my opinion about the hint rules.

3): I am not sure I understand how to use Hint: in the annotations you say:
The first clarification is that Hint is a communicative ability, and hence subject to the demon's perceptual limits. With no special perception-enhancing abilities, the demon cannot answer questions outside the scope of ordinary human perception.

The second clarification is that Hint does not consult the demon but rather elicits a GM-knowledge answer, as if the demon had opened a reality-bending door. Therefore the answer has nothing to do with the demon's knowledge, opinions, or personality.

Aren't these clarifications totally at odds with each other? How can that ability be dependent on the demon's perception, and at the same time be not be dependent on its knowledge?

I don't see any confusion. "Perceptual limits" merely sets parameters about the type of knowledge the demon is able to communicate. It means it can answer a question that "could be perceived" by a hypothetical human being with normal senses in the right place at the right time.

Example: Selene wants to know if Isabella has discovered where she is hiding, and ask that using hint. Slaneesh obviously don't know the answer, but that's no problem. But Slaneesh don't perceive the answer, and it's a big problem?

"If Isabella has discovered" - if this is a question about what's in Isabella's mind then it should be outside all demon and human perception.  On the other hand if Isabella is taking obvious actions that demonstrate her knowledge of the hiding places, then I'd guess it would be perceivable and therefore hintable.

[Ron Edwards]

Joshua for the win.

[Moreno R.]

And then Ron ask why I post multiple-choice questions....

Let's review the situation:

Selene can punish Slaneesh without worrying about it rebelling (see the annotations about page 89 - even if it seems rather strange to me that punishing can't cause rebellion), and Slaneesh is a very well-fed demon (Selene LOVES writing about what she does...).
The only thing that is problematic is the name of the rite: she is not punishing Slaneesh, she is doing a rite that cause the demon to suffer and be weak, saying to it "sorry about this, but in exchange I will write on you all the juicy details of my slaughtering every one of them, afterwards...".
The demon hates it as one could hate a visit to the dentist, but it's doing that willingly.

From Ron non-reaction to these, I think that the answer to both these two question is "yes", right?
1) Selene can use the boosted will against the reduced (by the punish) score of the other demon?
2) She can use the boosted will to reduce the other demon at Power 1 before using Hint?

So yes, she can use "hint" rolling 15 dice against 1.

Slaneesh's stamina is higher than Abaddon, so it's the parasite stamina the limit to the use of the power (at least if she wants to use it rolling the full 15 dice). But Selene isn't in combat, she can take it slow, make the demon rest: she has to feed it, but she can do it at the end of the day, after asking dozens of questions... even with the limitation of a "yes/no" answer, that can go a lomg way... 

If Joshua is correct, then Selene can know anything the PC are planning: they are planning together, talking about what they will do...

What about the future? if something can be perceived (the rain, for example) but it still not there.. for example a question like "it will rain tomorrow in Chicago" can be answered by a Hint? 
------------
Thinking about it, the real problem with this NPC Sorcerer is not that she's too powerful - "powerful" is fine, and she got this last bit of power by the errors of a PC after all -. It's that the "NPC that can know everything and can predict your move and can know your secrets and can attack you every time she wants" works in fiction, but not so much in rpgs. In my experience, it tend to flatten the gameplay into a series of attacks, attacks, attacks, with the PCs relegated to a reactive mode. The PC in this case were PLANNING a combined action, having the NPC know everything beforehand risk producing a gameplay not too different from the one of a illusionist GM that "push the PC to follow his story" by attacking them whenever they go...

Ron, you didn't answer the last question: did you ever have similar problems with a powerful NPC sorcerer? What did you do? (from the annotations warning about NPC sorcerers it seems that you have, but you don't go in details about it in the annotations)

[Jesse Burneko]

It's that the "NPC that can know everything and can predict your move and can know your secrets and can attack you every time she wants" works in fiction, but not so much in rpgs. In my experience, it tend to flatten the gameplay into a series of attacks, attacks, attacks, with the PCs relegated to a reactive mode.

Hey Moreno, I hope this isn't derailing but I think I have a rather critical question.  I went back through the thread looking for Selene's motivation.  All I found was this:

The conflict center around Isabella (PC) and Selene (NPC), two ex-friends who collaborated for a time in occult researches, and now they are two rival sorcerers.

But why were Isabella and Selene looking into the occult in the first place?  What did they hope to get out of it?  Why did they have a falling out? 

I think you're having a problem with your game devolving into a series of demon fueled action sequences because the two principle characters don't have anything motivating them beside undefined "rivalry".

Since Selene is your NPC let's focus on her for a minute.  If Isabella were suddenly no longer an issue what would she go do with all her power?

Jesse

[Moreno R.]

Hi Jesse! Thanks for the question, it made me reflect on that character motivations, and the reasons for that. I was going to show that more in play... and then this evening session was canceled for Internet connection problems for a player (the Intenet situation in certain parts of Italy is so bad that heavy rain is enough to disturb it...  I am lucky to be in one of the well connected area...)

Let's look at Selene from two point of view, from the "game" point of view for the real people at the table, and in the character's head.

As a NPC in a game, Selene's real motivation is "the player who created her depicted her like that", but obviously that is only half the answer. Isabella's player used Selene as the direct motivation for Isabella's summoning and binding of a demon (until then, Isabella had only contacted them). So, the fear of Selene is a powerful character motivation (and this is the reason I made her...  fearsome. I needed somebody that could be a credible source of fear for characters that deal day-by-day with very high-power demons). And attached to Selene there were a lot of other themes, too: friendship betrayed, jealousy, the price of power, etc.

I had made a conscious choice, starting this saga, that I would be as faithful as possible to the player's vision of these character, so I probably even went overboard with this, asking a lot of details, backstop, etc (this, being my first true Sorcerer game after all, was designed by the beginning as a learning experience, and I have learned to avoid doing that again, it meant a lot more work for both me and the players that could have been avoided). All the backstory, the way they met, why they began to practice sorcery together, why they parted ways angrily, etc, is player-dictated, in writing.

So, what I had, for the game preparation, was this rather detailed back-story, and the impression I was getting from the players from this text and the way they talked about these characters.  So...  seeing that "fear of Selene" was a big character motivation, I had to make that fear justified, to build on that material. And Selene was depicted not as a "colleague" or "collaborator", but as a "best friend", so that friendship would have to be part of the character actions (the way at the start Selene was trying to get Isabella to be "her friend again"). The breaking of friendship ties (with Selene) and family ties (the kicker with the discovery of her mother's actions, the father that was away in another country) was another theme, so I made THAT (cut Isabella's ties with others) her true Demon's motivation (and its "cover identity" as her boyfriend was perfect for that)

Another point was that the break-up with Selene was about the summoning of a "terrible" demon and the loss of friendship and family ties aligned very neatly with my vague initial idea of humanity of this setting, and I liked the idea of having BOTH of these friends motivated by distrust and mutual paranoia.

So, at the end of all these thoughts, what is the result, in the fiction?

Selene is Isabella at the end of the road. Isabella is losing humanity, in her paranoia has summoned demons and has cut practically any tie with other friends and family. Well, Selene is the friend that was so behind, so "weaker", that when she got a chance to be the "powerful one" she took it and surpassed Isabella.. on the same road. Selene now is quite deranged (she is at humanity zero, she has to, or the fear of her parasite demon would not be justified: she can't control it, or Isabella's refusal to summon it in the first place would not be justified), She has no empathy or sentimental tie with anybody apart her demon, and satisfy its needs and desires has become her own objectives. She is paranoid like Isabella, only much more so, so she try to destroy what she can't control.

So, why Selene did what she did in the game? Well, at first, her real motivation was to try to mend bridges with Isabella: she asked forgiveness, and wanted "to be friends again", but in my mind I had very clear that she was only lonely, but was she no longer able to have a... human relationship. She would have tried to manipulate Isabella, use her, treat her... practically like a demon. But she saw herself as the noble one, like the sincere friend who is able to lower herself to ask forgiveness (even if she think she did nothing wrong) for her friend.  And when Isabella refused, refusing even to touch her (with a clear show of disgust)... well, "broken friendship" is one of the themes, Selene is Isabella turned to eleven subtracted humanity, so "same reaction, but bigger, harder, stronger, and no human empathy, decency or remorse at all". Isabella did summon a demon to defend from Selene. Selene did order a demon to kill Isabella. A deformed mirror.

A this point, begin the interference from other PCs.  First, Alessandro. Selene discover that there is a third sorcerer in the city. Someone who is talking to Isabella. Paranoia to eleven. She has Peter follow him... and Peter return, running away after discovering that, in some way, Alessandro's "dog" can sense Peter, and can hunt it when it travel from body to body. Paranoia to one hundred and eleven. Then, the same night, A 4-meters high monster resembling a winged fire-breathing werewolf with a scorpion tail rip apart the wall and ceiling of her home, break through her defensive contains easily, and try to kill her (She has no idea that Isabella wanted her alive). When Peter try to possess Alessandro on the roof, Alessandro simply order it to stop and Peter has to flee again to avoid being banished. Paranoia to one thousand one hundred and eleven...  who is this guy that is friendly with Isabella, this Sorcerer that is trying to kill her, and she can't even have him followed by Peter without being noticed and attacked?

She try to learn more about him. She already did, even before the attack, but she did find Alessandro instead. Another Sorcerer. That at first did seems like an ally, and she even cured him of his wounds... and then Alessandro betrayed her.

At this point, she don't trust any sorcerer. Alessandro has already paid for his betrayal (and it was a promise she had made to Slaneesh). No more miss nice sociopath demon summoner, now it's time to get real, and kill everybody!

This was the starting image I had of the NPC, and how it evolved during the past sessions (Selene could even have been allied with Isabella at this point, its the mutual distrust and paranoia that is causing this escalation). In hindsight I had less clear at the beginning the reasons why these two girls decided to study Sorcery, but even that got more clear seeing Isabella in action and playing Selene.

Something that did come up during the game, from another part of Isabella's background (the Kicker), was that her mother's demon house was pushing her (from "behind the curtain")  to embrace Sorcery: is was no simple chance that Isabella did found these old books, that did meet a Internet community of fans of the occult that treated her well and made her feel important, etc. [this part of the setting and backstory is full of sarcasm on traditional rpg forums, by the way: even the name of the demon/administrator/troll of that forum, "Darkustikan the Dark" is a nickname used in Italian Indie RPG forum to satirize the sort of nicknames used elsewhere. I coined that name in one of my (in)famous rants years ago, it stuck, and using it as a character in their diagram was a clear flag for "let's laugh at these guys again!"]

And why Selene did it? Because her friend did, of course! She was the wallflower, the quiet one that bask in the light of the popular one... of course she was interested in the same things that did interest Isabella!

So, as I hope I have shown...  I tried to mitigate the risk that Ron talks about in the annotations, by having Selene being a sort of reflection of Isabella... She did study Sorcery because Isabella did it, she did summon a dangerous demons (and lost her mind) because she was jealous of Isabella, and after that, it was a sort of "feedback loop" between her and Isabella, with each reaction fueling even bigger reactions from the other side. In this way, until last session, Selene's actions were always depending on Isabella's actions and reactions.

This was unbalanced last session: Alessandro's player was so passive, that his murder was totally GM-planned and executed, without him being able to change anything: it was the first time in this game that I really felt like I was following "my story", because I had a powerful, motivated character doing something very direct with a clear objective... and it didn't encounter almost no opposition at all. At that moment, Ron was right, I was practically playing with myself.

Now, the other two players aren't so passive, they are planning actions and precautions, but I am worried that this substantial increase in Selene's power and knowledge will turn the nest session, too, into me playing with almost no real opposition.

This, plus the very little willingness I have to pass a lot of time rolling dice by myself trying to come up with Selene's questions and answers, is making me plan to have Selene simply ignore that massive use of hint and use it only for a couple of questions: I don't like playing NPCs ignoring tactical options "for the good of the story", but in this case it's more "for the good of me not wasting a lot of time rolling hundreds of dice for a NPC"...

[Joshua Bearden]

I totally get this quandary now. And I sympathize. Rather than getting deeper into the details, why not resolve this with basic principles.  Here's the one that comes to mind.  Where there is a conflict: ROLL.  The players want to plan in secret.  Selene wants to know what the fuck they're up to. Looks like a conflict to me.

Only you know what makes most sense in your game, but the demon's power vs their lore makes some sense.  This would have the benefit of making the demon's current power very important in the 'hint' check. Sure Selene could punish him down to 1 to avoid the risky of will damage...

The conflict might need only be as simple as to determine whether or not the players can detect that they are being observed via demons/sorcery. Once they know this then it becomes their problem not yours.  In my reading of Sorcerer, the annotations, supplements, and Kubasik I don't recall a single admonishment about "balance".  Evil NPC/demon too powerful? Get a bigger demon. Don't want to risk the humanity loss?  Then go home. Problem solved either way and no more GM angst.

If I were you (and I'm half talking to myself right now and advising myself on my own campaign) I'd only feel responsible to remind players of these ground rules. Then let them have full agency over their players decisions.

[Moreno R.]

Ops, reading again my post, I used "Alessandro" (the name of the third sorcerer, the one killed in the last session) instead of "Antonio" (the one still alive that command the monster Igriph)

That paragraph should be corrected like this:

-----------
A this point, begin the interference from other PCs.  First, Antonio. Selene discover that there is a third sorcerer in the city. Someone who is talking to Isabella. Paranoia to eleven. She has Peter follow him... and Peter return, running away after discovering that, in some way,  Antonio's "dog" can sense Peter, and can hunt it when it travel from body to body. Paranoia to one hundred and eleven. Then, the same night, A 4-meters high monster resembling a winged fire-breathing werewolf with a scorpion tail rip apart the wall and ceiling of her home, break through her defensive contains easily, and try to kill her (She has no idea that Isabella wanted her alive). When Peter try to possess Antonio on the roof, Antonio simply order it to stop and Peter has to flee again to avoid being banished. Paranoia to one thousand one hundred and eleven...  who is this guy that is friendly with Isabella, this Sorcerer that is trying to kill her, and she can't even have him followed by Peter without being noticed and attacked?
-----------

[Moreno R.]

This evening we played the last session of this "saga". A big fight between all the remaining PC and demons and Selene and other people too (the wife and son of Antonio)

Too big, far too big: 3 sorcerers, prepared with a lot of defenses and traps (I counted 10 prepared contains, between protections, barriers and traps, in the scene of the battle), 6 demons (including Antonio's "son") with four of them at Power 10 or above, a lot of armor and protections that made killing characters difficult and turned the count of everybody's penalty a logistic nightmare (and I forgot to count the uses of the demon's power, I should have counted them too).  The fight lasted more than two hours, real time, with literally hundreds of dice rolled, and the details of the fiction obviously suffered from all that.

What I learned is that the complications scale up really fast with so many participants in a conflict: I made a lot of mistakes or forgot things, but I think that the situation was too complicated anyway. Next time I will scale down the number of demons and play from the beginning with only two players.

Final balance: PRO: I finally got to see how the mechanics works in a real game of Sorcerer (and it's not how it seems from reading the book). CON: it was not a very good game of Sorcerer, too many problems, errors, and at the end none of stories of the characters were really resolved. PRO: I have identified a lot of mistakes I made during the preparation and running the game, and I will avoid them next time, CON: I don't think I have really identified "how to play well this game" still, so probably even next time will be a trial run...

[Jesse Burneko]

That seems... crazy.

I've never had anything like that happen in my games.

Here's a diagnostic: Can you tell me what the fight was over without directly referencing anyone trying to kill each other?  Like did anyone in this have an objective other than "kill the other side"?

Jesse

[Moreno R.]

Here's a diagnostic: Can you tell me what the fight was over without directly referencing anyone trying to kill each other?  Like did anyone in this have an objective other than "kill the other side"?

Impossible: as I wrote a few days ago, the Kicker of one of the Sorcerer was "there is this other Sorcerer that want to kill me", basically. That one was there literally from the beginning....

The players all choose very powerful demons (they all had this sense - not from my writing, I didn't write anything because I wanted people who had read the manual - that the game was more "fun" if the demon was much more powerful than them, and two of them got in a sort of race to get the bigger demon), and after that they put in the kickers other sorcerer and demons that scared them.

Add to this that during the game in practice one player gave his own power-13 demon to the NPC Sorceress that at that point had three demons at 13, 10 and 7 power...

I can see, in retrospect, the choices of the players (and my own) that did lead to that result. Each one had motives behind, but the final point is: the players did not know how to use the system to get the kind of play they wanted, and ended up escalating more and more instead.

For my part, I think I took a too passive role. Even if I had seen some of the problems (not all of them) I still tried to do what the player wanted... even if it was not what they wanted.

In retrospect, the only way to avoid a ending similar to this would have been to "defuse" that kicker, having the fears of the Sorcerer made only of paranoia: make Selene a weak sorceress that had no intention to harm Isabella, or, better yet, not a Sorcerer at all, leaving the player to deal with a powerful demon that she could not control... and no enemy to keep it occupied.

I don't know if it would have been better, at the time of the first session I didn't understand even that I could do something like that, I thought that the kicker had to happen as described, verbatim.

[Jesse Burneko]

"This other Sorcerer wants to kill me" is a problem because it doesn't describe an actual moment?  How did the character come to learn this?  Was a threat made?  Did she right now just try to stab you?  Did a demon you recognize as here chase you down an alley?

Kickers should be concrete events understandable by an outside observer.  That helps nail down what the knowns and unknowns are.  If the Kicker is, "so my former occult partner just showed up at my house and threw fireballs at me" makes things very clear.  There's a Sorcerer and she's trying to kill me.  If the kicker is more like, "I just got a death threat from my former occult partner" then that gives you more room to play.  Maybe she is a Sorcerer, maybe she isn't.  Maybe it's forged or written under duress.

Another thing that seems very unclear is why these people want to kill each other.  "Because they have a bigger demon" is really bad motive.  Every character in the game NPC and PC should be able to describe their character's agenda without referencing demons or sorcery at all.  "I want her dead because she slept with my husband and he left me,"  That kind of thing.

Is this at least helpful for next time?  I don't want to be beating a dead horse or wallowing in hindsight.

Jesse

[Moreno R.]

This is the character with her backstory and the kicker. Sorry, it's in Italian, but google translate should be able to translate it into something readable.

It's the first draft, with all the data in order. It was changed before the game, with some corrections to the powers (the "protection from firearms", not allowed in the game, was changed into Armor, and "travel" was changed into fast, that was what the players really wanted) and after some questions from me about parts that weren't clear, but the changes were posted in bit and pieces, this is the post with the gist of the backstory:

--------------
PERSONAGGIO

Name: Isabella Vargas http://goo.gl/DEZr5Q           
Appearance: Anni 22. Capelli lilla lunghi e ondulati. Occhi verde chiaro e pelle chiara. Vestiti casual e corpo snello, alta sul 1,70m.               
Telltale: Tatuaggio con il simbolo delle fasi di luna all'interno del'avambraccio sinistro e capelli tinti di lilla. http://goo.gl/NS9kJO

Humanity: 4               
     
Stamina 2 = Clean living           
Will 4 = Zest for life and sensation           
Lore 4 = Solitary Adept           
Cover 4 = Fotografa   
   
Price: Spaventata (-1 a tutti i tiri quando Damian non è con me)           
Kicker: Io e Selene siamo alla ricerca del diario di una potente strega, ora sono nella chiesa di Santa Lucia ed è qui che era nascosto. Sto tenendo in mano il diario e c'è la firma di mia madre.   

Diagramma


DEMONE

Name: Damian   
Bound to: Isabella Vargas           
Type: Passing   
Binding strength:               
Appearance: http://goo.gl/M03Yrq   Sul metro e ottanta, sempre vestito con completo, oppure con camicia e jeans.               
Telltale: Tatuaggio di luna alla base della nuca, rappresenta la fase di luna corrente.   
                     
Stamina 6                 
Will 9                 
Lore 8                 
Power 9                 
                     
Desire: Sensual gratification                 
Need: Human blood   Solitamente beve il mio sangue.               
                     
Abilities:                     
Cover = È uno scrittore di successo. Usa diversi pseudonimi, ma ognuno di essi è molto famoso.               
Link = Sento qualcosa di quello che gli accade attorno, ma è sempre un singolo senso ad essere colpito; per lui è lo stesso.               
Perception = Conosce sempre qualcuno che mi può essere utile in una situazione, che sia una persona o un demone. Quando mi serve qualcuno Damian solitamente mi dice di conoscere la persona che fa al caso mio e se è umano tira fuori un cellulare e gli telefona. Per chi lo vede il cellulare è normalissimo, mentre gli stregoni notano che sembra fatto di ombre.
Protection = Armi da fuoco.
Protection = Magia.               
Special damage = Pistola che si forma da ombre concretizzate.               
Travel = Velocità superiore alla norma.               
Vitality = Le ferite si richiudono bevendo sangue, il sangue usato per guarire non soddisfa il Need.   


Descrizione del Diagramma:
- Damian è il mio demone, per il mondo è il mio compagno. Viviamo assieme in un appartamento.
- Selene era la mia migliore amica, abbiamo preso la questione dei rituali come un passatempo interessante, però lei è assolutamente negata. Abbiamo litigato perché voleva evocare Abaddon, io mi sono rifiutata conoscendo la pericolosità del convocare un demone e lei ha promesso di farlo da sola. Dopo questo ho convocato Damian e stretto il patto con lui.
- Casa mia è il luogo dove di solito faccio i rituali e dove soddisfo il Need di Damian, è un appartamento.
- La mia macchina fotografica è il mio principale strumento di lavoro e un modo per vedere il mondo, se posso la porto sempre con me.
- Antoine è il padrone di una galleria d'arte e mio principale datore di lavoro, ci conosciamo da 3 anni ormai e siamo in buoni rapporti.
- La galleria d'arte è il luogo dove sono esposte le mie foto migliori, le altre le vendo attraverso internet, come facevo prima di conoscere Antoine.
- Il forum "darkarts.net" è il luogo dove ho trovato altre persone appassionate di stregoneria, ma la maggior parte sono dei cialtroni. A volte mi è capitato di dare consigli, ma spesso i racconti che leggo sono terribilmente falsi.
- Tiger_Lily è il mio nick sul forum, molti mi conoscono solo così.
- La chiesa di Santa Lucia è il luogo dove è nascosto il diario.
- Padre Luciano conosceva mia madre e ha sempre saputo che era una strega, lei gli ha affidato il suo diario.
- Il diario della strega Cassandra contiene rituali, consigli, annotazioni personali e informazioni su alcuni demoni, soprattutto Abaddon. È il diario di mia madre.
- Cassandra è lo pseudonimo di mia madre come strega, così ha firmato libri e altri scritti.
- Abaddon è un demone potente, forse mia madre è l'unica ad averci avuto a che fare ed essere sopravvissuta,
- Theresa è mia madre, è il suo vero nome. Avevamo un bel rapporto noi due, purtroppo quando avevo 14 anni se ne è andata e in quel periodo sono scomparse molte persone. Finché non ho scoperto che lei è "Cassandra" le mie domande sul suo abbandono sono diventate ancora più importanti da risolvere.
- Michele è un membro del mio gruppo di amici, ci conosciamo dalle superiori. Da quando è arrivato Damian le sue speranze di avere una storia con me sono sfumate e la nostra amicizia ne ha risentito parecchio.
- Caterina e Ilaria sono altre amiche, è diverso tempo che non ci esco assieme, non mi piace molto stare in giro, soprattutto se Damian non è con me, senza di lui sono vulnerabile.


Isabella ha sempre avuto la passione per la fotografia, grazie a internet e successivamente a Antoine può tranquillamente mantenersi da sola, per questo quando il padre si è trasferito all'estero con la sua nuova moglie lei è comunque rimasta.
Theresa la madre se ne è andata quando Isabella aveva 14 anni, naturalmente lei si è sempre chiesta perché se ne fosse andata, ma non ha mai trovato una risposta soddisfacente.
Selene era la sua migliore amica dalle superiori e di solito uscivano con un gruppo di amici storico, sempre assieme dal primo superiore.
Nel momento in cui Isabella ha iniziato a interessarsi all'esoterismo e alla stregoneria in particolare, Selene l'ha seguita. Entrambe hanno iniziato a fare piccoli rituali, cercare libri e così sono anche arrivate sul forum darkarts.net, in cui hanno trovato altri appassionati.

La prima volta che Isabella ha contattato uno spirito lo ha fatto da sola, era a casa sua. Ha preso un gesso disegnando a terra un pentacolo inscritto in un cerchio, poi sulle linee tracciate ha messo del sale accendendo anche una candela blu al centro. Una volta finita l'invocazione in latino lei ha sentito una voce da uomo, che con tono dolce e amichevole le ha chiesto di se.
Quando Isabella gli ha chiesto chi fosse lui ha risposto soltanto "Mi chiamo Damian, arrivederci Isabella, spero mi contatterai ancora."

Sentendo poi il racconto Selene era entusiasta e voleva provare, hanno poi iniziato a prenderci mano, ma era sempre e solo Isabella a fare i rituali, perché Selene per quanto provasse non riusciva a farli funzionare. Nel frattempo io andavo avanti, provavo sempre cose più audaci e iniziavo a capire che solitamente quelle persone con cui parlavo non erano spettri, ma demoni, i quali a volte mi davano informazioni utili o bugie ben orchestrate per evocarli. Di tempo ne avevo dato che il mio lavoro me lo permetteva, mentre Selene doveva andare a lezione all'università.
Un giorno sul forum alcuni iniziarono a parlare della strega Cassandra, vennero riportate un sacco di voci a riguardo su quanto fosse potente. In particolare si parlava del suo diario e su dove lo avesse nascosto prima di sparire, dato che oltretutto in quel periodo scomparvero un sacco di persone. Selene mi chiese di trovare il diario, parlando con alcuni degli utenti in privato aveva saputo che in quel diario era scritto come evocare demoni molto potenti, come Abaddon. Prima di risponderle usai la stregoneria per contattare dei demoni e sapere chi era Abaddon, ma l'unica risposta che ricevevo era "Pericoloso". Cercai di convincere Selene a lasciar perdere, finimmo per litigare e lei promise che avrebbe evocato Abaddon senza di me.

Tutto questo succedeva un anno fa', Isabella iniziò ad avere paura, paura per Selene o per se stessa. Più di una volta aveva avuto a che fare con i demoni, ma non ne aveva mai convocato nessuno e non aveva idea di cosa sarebbe potuto succedere. E se il demone avesse posseduto Selene?
Per questo cercò consiglio e contattò Damian, aveva un qualcosa di karmico il fatto che chiedesse al primo demone con cui aveva parlato.
Il rituale era lo stesso, lei spiegò la situazione e lui le disse che così non sapeva come aiutarla, invece se fosse stato con lei avrebbe potuto fare molto di più. Ancora adesso Isabella non sa perché lo ha fatto, forse voleva qualcuno vicino visto che Selene non c'era più, qualcuno che la proteggesse e l'aiutasse. Con questi pensieri in testa Isabella si fece un taglio sulla mano sinistra, con il suo sangue scrisse il nome di Damian nel cerchio e facendo appello con una formula al potere del suo sangue lo chiamò al suo cospetto.
Finito di recitare la formula passò qualche minuto in cui la ragazza si chiese se aveva funzionato, o se si era immaginata tutto sporcando di sangue il pavimento. Quando sente bussare alla porta di casa e aprendo, si ritrova davanti un ragazzo, Damian.
Lei lo fa entrare e una volta seduti sul divano Isabella gli fa qualche domanda per essere certa che sia lui, Damian risponde, poi le chiede se davvero vuole il suo aiuto perché in quel caso dovranno legarsi se lei vuole che lui resti e non soffra. Isabella una volta scoltate le regole di Damian sul fatto che lo dovrà nutrire, che saranno connessi e che lui sarà al suo servizio, ma non come uno schiavo; lei accetta di legarsi a lui e gli dice "Io ti nutrirò, farò in modo che tu resti qui e se avrai delle richieste cercherò come possibile di soddisfarle, ma in cambio tu farai tutto quello che ti chiederò, mi proteggerai e per il mondo sarai il mio nuovo ragazzo."
Questi i termini del patto, il legame porterà vantaggi a entrambi e ognuno si impegnerà per aiutare l'altro.

Dopo il legame Isabella ha iniziato a passare molto tempo con Damian, hanno una relazione in tutto e per tutto, ma in quanto a sentimenti... l'importante è l'apparenza no?
Ovviamente le sue amiche sono rimaste sorprese per la novità, lui ha una certa fama come scrittore (Isabella non sa dove trovi idee tanto originali per i suoi libri). Antoine si augura che questa storia porti a Isabella nuova ispirazione, mentre Michele ha apertamente espresso la sua insofferenza per Damian, tutti ritengono che sia semplicemente geloso perché non ha trovato in tempo il coraggio per dichiararsi a Isabella e ora è tardi.

La ricerca del diario di Cassandra ha preso mesi, Isabella e Damian seguendo i contatti di lui, notizie in rete e altro sono risaliti fino alla chiesa di Santa Lucia. Una volta trovato il diario, Isabella è sbiancata leggendo le note in cui sua madre aveva scritto di aver scelto il nome Cassandra. Le prime note del diario risalivano a quando Theresa aveva 17 anni.

---------------------------

As you see, it's rather long and detailed, I encouraged this because I asked before for details, not understanding that I could change or add details myself.

The backstory describe the details of the rift between the two (ex)friends, with both searching for a book, and the kicker is that the PC get to read the book and discover that it was written by her mother, but the fact that the NPC is arriving and that she's dangerous is very clear.

If you read the backstory, you see that the PC is described as very scared of the demon that the other one summoned. The danger is explicitly that the demon could possess her and take control. 

The rift is personal, very very personal. Non only there are years of resentment behind it, but the book that Selene is searching was written by Isabella's mother. With that, Selene could even summon Isabella's mother as a demon (this bit is caused by another player's character kicker)

I don't know how the conflict between the two could be made more personal... 

The problem is NOT that Selene did not have motives to kill Isabella. The problem is that SHE HAD TOO MANY MOTIVES. Very good motives. THERE WAS NO WAY SHE COULD JUSTIFY NOT KILLING HER.

THIS is what turned the game into a tactical battle: there was no way to avoid a violent confrontation. It would have been BETTER if there were no motive, because in that case, they could have reached an agreement. Giving SO MANY MOTIVES blocked any other avenue apart combat.

No, I identified a lot of problems and errors, but NPC motivation was not really one of them, by far.  The amount of details, of motivation given by the PC in that backstory, instead, IS a problem: in game it was clear that it was too much.