[Sorcerer] finally started to work for us

[Adams Tower]

Cross-posted from google plus.

Sorcerer finally worked for my group on Tuesday. This is four sessions (plus character creation) into a story. Also after two Sorcerer games that crashed and burned in the first session.

The characters were Allan, an old librarian who had bound a demon in order to save the lives of children, after his daughter died, and Dr. Chambers, a chemist who had bound a demon in order to win a Nobel Prize, but his wife and kids had left him because of his demon's Need for him to self-flagellate.

In previous episodes, Allan had been saving kids, and dealing with a college student who wanted to become a sorcerer, who had now become possessed by a centuries old demon with a Need to be fed children. Dr. Chambers had been taking anti-hallucinogens and doing therapy in an attempt to get his wife to come back to him (he doesn't believe sorcery is real, you see, even though he uses it).

This session, the two of them finally met, when Dr. Chambers's daughter ran away from the hotel his wife was staying at, and Allan's death perception gave him a vision of her about to be hit by a car. He teleported there and saved her life (with the first conflict that actually convinced me of the power of the orthogonal conflict system), but was himself hit by a car. When Dr. Chambers came to his home to thank him, the two of them recognized each other as sorcerers, and have made an agreement that if Dr. Chambers helps Allan get rid of the child-eating demon, Allan will help Dr. Chambers get rid of his own demon.

Reasons it worked: The two sorcerers met and interacted with each other. The threat to Dr. Chambers's daughter was a bang for both of them. I was able to use my real experience of being in a car crash. I finally figured out how to handle "inanimate" conflict participants, like an out of control car.

I can see the story coming to a conclusion in one or two sessions. Once Allan has dealt with the child-eating demon, or been eaten by it, his Kicker will be resolved. Dr. Chambers's wife is considering moving back in with him, after her daughter almost died, and if she does, or decides definitely not to, his Kicker will likely be resolved.

[Ron Edwards]

Great!

My only advice: lose all thought of predicting when it will be over. You shouldn't front-load which precise conflict spells the end of the Kicker. Remember that the opening, even defining variables of the original Kicker may not be those which define the priorities of the character, or any character, later on.

You've already learned to jettison predicting the precise scenario and direction of the ending, which is great, but now I'm saying even to lose the when as well.

[Adams Tower]

Yeah, I'll try. It's hard, when the group wants to know what game they'll play after this, but I do understand the reason. If those conflicts resolve and the story's not over, we'll keep going.