(Sorcerer) Questions of a newbie

[Mattes]

Hi!
I just purchased Sorcerer, and I have a question concerning the rules, I have checked the book over & again, but haven't been able to figure it out. Here goes:
The number of victories equal the dices of yours who have a greater score than your opponent's, right? And if you have 5 die and your opponent 3, your maximum number of victories are 3, and the rest goes to waste? - What if your opponent only has 1 dice and you have 6 can you then only have 1 victory (= a minimal one)?


Also I am used to play very story oriented scenarioes, have anyone got any tips on how to combine all the kickers of the different players as it seems to me as potentially very chaotic and hard to handle. How to incorporate and combine all the kickers in to one story and avoid all the pc's trailing of in their own directions?

Thanks

[TonyLB]

You don't have to bring all of the characters together.  Just make sure they're addressing the same premise.  If it turns out to be five stories of five different people in the city, each giving their different answer to the question "How far will you go to protect the people you love?" (for instance) what's wrong with that?

[Alan]

Hi Mattes.

If player A has 5 dice and B has 3, then player A can get 5 victories and player B can get 3.  Likewise, for 6 vs 1.  The player with 6 dice can get up to 6 victories, the player with 1 die, 1.  In this last case, you may want to apply the Total Victory rules - give the 1die player a better result that one victory would normally indicate.

As for creating story: be careful not to force anything.  Sorcerer, if player's are allowed enough freedom, will create a story for each player.  And like Tony said, they'll all be linked by Premise (for this and other terms see the Provisional Glossary in the articles section).

Putting players in a group is not the best way to play Sorcerer.  It undercuts the players' abilities to address issues of most importance to each of them individually.  Let connections happen - or not happen - as play unfolds.

Techniques for bringing player actions together include 1) the Relationship map; and 2) Crosses.  Both of these are explained in the Sorcerer suppliments "Sorcerer and Soul" and "Sex and Sorcerery."  You can also find information here by searching "relationship map," "r-map," "rmap," and "crosses."

I'll also explain here brielfy:

An r-map is a map of non-player characters and how they are linked to each other by sex, romance or death - with other links as secondary markings.  To tie this into everyone's kickers, simply look for NPCs in the players' kickers and interrelate them all.  Player character's are _not_ tied into the r-map.  But do create the r-map characters so each one wants the players involved in some way.  During play, view the r-map as the nervous system of the story - an action on this end causes a reflex through the map that may cause action elsewhere.

"Cross" refers to having an NPC interact with one player, then appear in another player's scene.

[Trevis Martin]

Hi Mattes,

One more thing I'd like to point out.  If you read the very front section about the dice mechanic and roleplaying bonuses.  Be aware that any player can earn bonus dice for roleplaying well and have those dice add to their roll.

Player A has 5 dice and B has 3 dice.  Player B makes something cool/atmospheric/clever/tactical about his roleplaying the action so you as GM award him 2 more dice making it 5 to 5.

best,

Trevis

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Wow, you guys answered all the questions before I even got here.

Mattes, thanks for considering my game! Post any other questions you'd like.

Best,
Ron

[Per Fischer]

Hi Mattes,

And do get in touch with me (PM or per.fischer@gmail.com) if you are interested in playing Sorcerer at a large Danish convention next year - I am also happy to answer questions about the game ;)

It does take a short period of "Huh?" to get used to Sorcerer if you are used to other more mainstream games - Sorcerer very simple in its complexity or vice versa.

Per

[Mattes]

Thanks to you all, think I got it now.
I guess I just have to get used to players not just following the story that the GM sets up. But it seems to me that this may force the others to sit passively while one pursue his own goals, as the GM can't talkto everybody at once. What are your experiences concerning this?

And thanks Per, I think I would like to participate in that convention.

Mads

[Jonas Larson]

I'm not very experienced concerning sorcerer and roleplaying theory, but i think I can answer this one.

I guess I just have to get used to players not just following the story that the GM sets up. But it seems to me that this may force the others to sit passively while one pursue his own goals, as the GM can't talkto everybody at once. What are your experiences concerning this?

What happens to the other players are ment to interest the players who ain't playing at the moment. They are in audience mode. If you want you can let the players who ain't playing play NPC's around the playing players character.

A bit confusing maybe?

/Jonas

[Alan]

Hi Mathes,

Indeed, Sorcerer does not work with a DnD style mob of players.  The ideal number of player characters is two or three.  More gets unwieldy.

At that level, like Jonas said, the other players participate as audience.

But the players aren't just restricted to being audience: they can make suggestions too and help in the interpretation of things.  The game rules DO NOT restrict who can make suggestions about what might happen.  Ron has said this was intentional, not an oversight.  Much of the traditional GM responsibility can be shared.

And scene cutting can be used to keep things interesting.  Each time a player comes to a tense moment, change focus to someone else.  Moments to cut are just after a revelation, arrival, surprise encounter, or just after dice have been assigned for a roll but before the dice are dropped.

[Ben Morgan]

Mattes,

And scene cutting can be used to keep things interesting. Each time a player comes to a tense moment, change focus to someone else. Moments to cut are just after a revelation, arrival, surprise encounter, or just after dice have been assigned for a roll but before the dice are dropped.

Also, the quicker you can cut back and forth, the better. Instead of dealing with each player in turn for 30 or 40 minutes, slice scenes in chunks of 5 or 10 minutes each.

It also makes for a nice effect if you have two scenes that are widely disparate, ie: PC1 is having a power lunch with a business client, while PC2 is slugging it out with a couple of street thugs.

And encouraging cheerleading among players definitely helps. Immersion is all nice and well, but not when it precludes one's ability to enjoy the other players' stories.

-- Ben