(Sorcerer) Alchemist

[sirogit]

Before my Demon Cops game this fall, A friend and I wanted to get together for a game over a month or so, and something I definately want to run is this idea of a Sorcerer setting based on Alchemy, or more specificly, the transmutation of people.

The theme: Anachronostic, impressionistic horror. The world looks like anything from the Dark Ages, to the Victorian age, to the 1920's in different parts. Technology isn't quite consistant anywhere. Beautifully crafted cities house isolated families and timeless dirty secrets. The upper class play facists, the middle class escapes to the alluring, exotic theaters nestled in the worse slums. The threat of the horrifc, chaotic unknown seems to be creeping in on the world, but nowhere nearer than the edge of developing science.  

Sorcery: Or Alchemy, is a dangerous psuedeo science. It can't turn lead into gold, it can only transmute living things. It's not an accepted or acknowledged part of the world. It's based on ancient traditions and the occult as much as recent academia. It's the power to take a part of a living being, and turn it into something new. But these new things have a mind of their own, and their own myriad of desires. They are in all ways demonic.  

Inspiraions:
The Short story "Dark figure on the window." The books Frankenstien, The Invisable Man, Dr.Jekyl and Mr. Hide, Pet Cemetary, The Album "The Golden age of Grotesque" by Marilyn Manson, The Animes Full Metal Alchemist and assorted others, Assorted Fairy Tales.

Posting a follow up soon.

[Judd]

Posting a follow up soon.

What are Demons?

What is Humanity?

[b_bankhead]

Posting a follow up soon.

What are Demons?

What is Humanity?

Demons

Special abilities gained through alchemy

Humanity-The source literature is very pessimistic about the progress of the alchemist.  Most of the stories seem to chart descents to zero humanity.  It seems to be marked by loss of control of the gained abilities, accompanying an increasingly less compassionate view of 'lesser' beings.
Humanity changes are triggered by narrative crises in which the alchemist has the choice of expoiting/harming 'lesser' beings ,or otherwise.
Another good example of this type can the found in the second Kolchak pilot "The Night Stranger"

Needs : Weird Chemicals,Apparatus,Biological Components,Recharges
Desires: ????

Rituals

Psuedoscientific, horror movie mad-lab experiments, with bubbling beakers and crackling tesla coils, and visits from Burke and Hare....
Showy, irreproducible and often surpisingly expensive....
Mad lab science has a tendency to operate metaphorically rather than mechanically.  Players should be encouraged to create colorful 'scientific' theories about what they are doing....

[Nev the Deranged]

I ran across a minis game with a similar theme not long ago... something called Rippertech, I think, where monster parts were grafted onto human bodies to give them an edge in the battle against evil... except of course that the transplanted parts eventually corrupt the humans who host them, and the greatest heroes of the Rippers soon become their most fearsome enemies...

can't remember the exact name of the game (it might just be Rippertech) but if you have a FLGS you can probably check it out there for some nifty flavor injections.

[sirogit]

Humanity: Compassion, or a commitence to alleivate suffering and not bring suffering to others, espicially of the mysterious danger sort. Note that most Alchemy Rituals risk Humanity based on what you are doing to the subject, and this extends to rituals where you are operating on yourself.

Demons: Transmuted parts of people. Possessing a mind of their own, they need a mouth to talk, but are always thinking, listening and seeing.

Lore: Knowledge of the dangerous edge of science. This score may be used for the tamer knowledges of Chemistry, Medecine, Psychology, etc.

Descriptors:
Stamina:
Hulking
Tortured
Street Urchin
Aberrant
Trained Soldier
Scrapper
Unnatural Means

Will:
Fear
Vengeance
Zest for Life
Purpose
Doing the Right Thing
Aristocrat
Loathsome
Desperate

Lore:
Apprentice
Inhuman
Coven
Solitary Adept
Mad
Naive

Demon Desires:
Torment
Carnage
Villainy
Incomprehensible
Ruin
Despair
Inexistence
Decadence

Rituals:
Contact(Design):
Concieving and/or researching the Demon. The creative process can be done in any matter of ways. Note that while you may not be able to talk to Demons, you can ask questions of them in your Design. Note that demons may be based on Physical OR Mental properties of the subject.

Summon(Transmute):
Performing the operation on a subject so that a part of him turns into a demon. This is most effeicently done in a lab with the proper devices, but snapshots ae possible too, which usually take the form of hurling refined acids at the subject, making mysterious surgical alterations, etc.

Bind:
This is done by finding a way to exert control over the demon. With more human demons, this often is in the form of a formal relationship.

Contain:
Using something the Demon is averse to to seal it in an area.

Punish:
Using a Demon's weakness to remove it's strength.

Banish:
This is using a prepared method to kill the demon in case it would go out of control.

Rule modifications:
It is easier to design demons for someone who has sustained lasting damage. This is effective on the recently deceased who died violently. The dice are added as a bonus to the contact roll.

Sacrifices are present in the way of Organ Harvesting or any other use of someone's vital parts to aid in your rituals.

It is possible to transmute non-humans, but much less effective. On the Transmute(Summon) roll, subtract 3 dice if transmuting an animal, and subtract 10 dice if transmuting a plant. Human sacrifices are an effective way of increasing your chances of non-human transmutation.

Upon a successfull Transmute, the subject is healed a number of lasting penalties equal to the power of the Demon. By removing these lasting penalities, the recently dead may be brought back to life.

[sirogit]

b_bankhead:
I'd say the horror elements of the alchemic expieriments should be cranked up a notch... nightmarish surgical tools with a plethora of edges, inhuman things floating in eeriely lit aquariums, technology that looks dark, dirty and homemade... with alot of inidvidual taste inserted by the players.

Nev:
Sounds intriguing.

[Solomon]

I ran across a minis game with a similar theme not long ago... something called Rippertech, I think, where monster parts were grafted onto human bodies to give them an edge in the battle against evil... except of course that the transplanted parts eventually corrupt the humans who host them, and the greatest heroes of the Rippers soon become their most fearsome enemies...

can't remember the exact name of the game (it might just be Rippertech) but if you have a FLGS you can probably check it out there for some nifty flavor injections.

I think you mean Rippers from Pinnacle.  Preview | Downloads

[Nev the Deranged]

Yep. That's the one!