Hellfire--a Sorcerer narrative

[joshua neff]

I finally started running Sorcerer. The first run isn't complete yet, but so far, this is the best gaming I've ever done. So I wanted to post about it.

Set-Up & Premise: This particular narrative is meant to be like a TV show, some teen pop culture drama you'd see on UPN or WB (y'know, like Buffy). Fast-paced, action-packed, melodramatic, & sarcastic. The name of the "show" is Hellfire. This first run is "the first season", & the season will end when all the Kickers have been resolved. The narrative is set in Lawrence, Kansas, in & around the campus of the University of Kansas. I told the players I wanted the PCs to all be college freshman (allowing for one player to be something else if desired, as long as the character was connected to KU in some way). The Premise is "What will you do for love?". For the purposes of this narrative, I defined Humanity as "empathy". If you drop to Humanity 0, you're essentially a sociopath, unable to feel for anyone or care about anyone. The way to raise Humanity is to perform acts of love towards another person--vocal declarations, helping someone you love out of a problem, saving their life, etc. But they have to know that you're doing it out of love, it has to affect them, or you don't get to roll for Humanity to go up. As for Demons & Sorcery--I described it to the players as this: Sorcery works by ritual, generally based around ancient languages & ancient lore. Because rituals can cause Humanity lose & there sociopaths, Sorcerers in general don't play well with others, although some cabals & cliques may form for a short time. Demons are Buffy-esque scaly-skinned, clawed monsters with Old Testament-y names. (However, I told my players not to feel they had to stick too strongly to my definitions, & to feel free to make up what Demons look & act like, & what a sorcery ritual looks like.)

The Stars of the Show: So, my group of 4 players made up 4 characters. The players decided to make the PCs fit the archtypes of a dramatic TV adventure show. The cast of Hellfire is:

Kevin Ozeranski (The Hero, played by Barry). Kevin is from a farm family in Kansas, attending KU as a freshman on a soccer scholarship. He very much wants to be a Hero, defending people (especially women) from abuse. Kevin's Demon is a ring called Mal'Ahk, which confers on him the powers of Boosted Stamina & Vitality (allowing him to be a supreme ass-kicker). But it's Need is to be in the presence of blood spilled in a fight, which drives Kevin to get involved in more violence than he probably should. And Kevin's Price is that he thinks he needs the ring to be strong, so if he isn't using his Boosted Stamina, he takes a penalty die on Stamina rolls. Kevin's Kicker is that he's met the girl of his dreams, but she has a boyfriend (& being an honorable guy, he'll help her out & pine for her,  & try to get closer to her, but won't try to break up her relationship).

Lupe Gonzalez (The Brain, played by Colin). Lupe is from the poor & rough Kansas City, KS, the child of Mexican immigrants & the first person in her family to go to college. Lupe's grandfather taught her how to Summon & Bind a particular Demon that he had bound to him & used to help get the family to the US & living a better life. He told her it's now her responsibility to help the family, with the Demon's help. Lupe is bookish & nerdy, but she's also very confident & has a sarcastic streak. The Demon is a Passer that looks like a cat, called Wormwood. He goes wherever Lupe does, riding around in her backpack. Wormwood's Need is to have Lupe steal little things & give them to him. Lupe's Kicker is that her brother is arrested for stealing & she has to help him out (which pisses her off, because she feels he's perpetuating a stereotype of Latinos as thieves).

Ernie Conrad III (The Comic Relief, played by Chris). Ernie is a computer nerd who is horribly shy & insecure, to the point of being terrified of damn near everything. He comes from a small Kansas town where he was the smart kids in a family of blue-collar roughnecks who didn't know what to do with him. His uncle, however, was a sorcerer who taught him some Lore. Ernie Summoned a Demon, & has been even more unhappy ever since. His Demon is Mr Bones, a tiny skeleton in white coat, who constantly goads (& berates) Ernie into being more confident (to little avail), but his Need is to scare the living daylights out of Ernie, feeding off of his fear. Ernie's Kicker is that he's developed a huge crush on Lupe, but is terrified to act on it.

Nathan Zimmerman (The Dark Mysterio, played by Gregg). Nathan is the oldest of the group, a sophomore. He's the son of a rich sorcerer, Solomon Zimmerman, who also went to KU (the new business school building is named for him), but wanted his son (who he taught a bit of sorcery to) to go to an Ivy League school. Nathan chose instead to go to KU, to coast on his father's influence & money. Nathan is a manipulator supreme, but deep down he's got a good heart. He's also somewhat brooding. His Demon is a passer, who appears to be a gorgeous blonde woman named Tabitha. Tab's Need is to have Nathan fix her up with his friends, so that she can date them & then break their hearts. So Nathan goes through friends rather quickly. His Kicker is that he was failing a summer class, so he's blackmailed the professor into giving him a passing grade.

Behind all this is a small backstory I wrote up, involving a sorcerer who used to teach at KU, but died 10 years ago. His Demons are still Bound to him & are now loose, wandering around Lawrence. And a new professor has started teaching at KU--a woman who, as a grad student, was a disciple of the sorcerer. She's now looking for his Demons, to Bind them to herself.

I'll post again soon with the actual details of play.

[joshua neff]

Okay, so here's how the sessions have gone so far:

I decided to start the game before any of the Kickers had, um, kicked off, simply because I wanted to give them all "screen time". The first session began with Kevin's, Nathan's, & Ernie's Kickers all starting (with Lupe's Kicker starting at the beginning of the 2nd session). I decided (with player approval) to make Kevin & Ernie the proverbial odd couple dorm roommates (the Jock & the Nerd), & Chris & Colin agreed to have Ernie & Lupe already know each other (having met at orientation), thereby making the whole first meeting much easier. So, 3 of the PCs met & started hanging out together, not realizing they were all sorcerers. There was a bar fight in which Kevin got to kick some ass (as the Hero) & Ernie got his ass kicked (as the Comic Relief). And Nathan got to use his Manipulation skillz. Lupe sent Wormwood to check on Ernie & Wormwood saw Ernie chatting with Mr Bones, thereby clueing Lupe in to the fact that Ernie's a sorcerer. (Wormwood & Mr Bones knew each other from way back & didn't much care for each other. Wormwood warned Lupe to be careful of Ernie & Bones, while Mr Bones warned Ernie that Wormwood would try to push Ernie away from Lupe.) Nathan blackmailed his professor. Kevin met the girl of his dreams, only to find out her boyfriend is the captain of his soccer team (& a really nice guy). Ernie fell for Lupe, who seems to like him, but he's too shy to initiate anything, despite Mr Bones' pushing. Lupe got a call from her brother to bail him out of jail. Not having that kind of money, she came close to robbing a jewelry store, but was stopped by the other PCs, who lent her the money. Nathan introduced Tabitha to Kevin, & it looked like they might start dating, if only because Kevin wanted to make Amy (Girl of his Dreams) jealous. Nathan was surprised by a Demon in his apartment who cut his midsection badly, sending him to the hospital. Mr Bones pushed Ernie to the point where Ernie decided it was time to get rid of Bones--he decided to Summon & Bind a Vengeance Demon to subdue Mr Bones, so that he could easily Banish him. The 4 main characters all realized (in one of those TV coincidences) they're all sorcerers & have started working together on rituals. Kevin cut things off with Tab after he learned she's Nathan's demon. Ernie, with the help of the others, summoned Tiberath, a smoky snake Demon. They subdued Mr Bones & sent him back to hell.

Now, here's the cool stuff: every single roll of the dice has mattered & had effects on the narrative. Every single rule in Sorcerer has helped push the narrative.

For example: in the last 2 sessions, Ernie Contacted, Summoned, & Bound the Demon Tiberath. Now, because of a bad Binding roll at the outset of the game, Ernie only had a Humanity of 2. I let him put off the Humanity rolls until the end of the last session, after he'd Banished Mr Bones. Chris rolled, & he rolled badly. Ernie lost all of his Humanity & didn't gain any for the Banishing. This should make Ernine a sociopath NPC, but I put it to the group--should Ernie become an NPC, or should I let him float at zero Humanity, but only if he tries to gain it back in the next session, by declaring his love for Lupe? This led to a long discussion about what would be best for the story. "It would be cool if Ernie lost all his Humanity & became an antagonist, but it's too early in the 1st season for that. That's more of a 2nd season event," Barry said. Chris thought about it long & hard & decided to keep Ernie & have him declare his feelings to get Humanity back. This was a big decision, & either way Chris went, it led to great drama. The other cool thing is that once Ernie tells Lupe how he feels, his Kicker is resolved--except then Lupe's Kicker becomes Ernie's Kicker, as he becomes more involved in her life & tries to help her with her problems.

I've also become much better at scene framing (which has nothing to do with the Sorcerer rules). I've framed each session as an individual TV episode, & it's worked really well. The whole group has gotten in synch with moving characters in & out of scenes, cutting from one scene to the next, & players requesting scenes. It's been moving very smoothly.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this. This is the best GMing I've ever done, & I think the Sorcerer mechanics have helped with that.

[Valamir]

WOW, very very Cool.

I'm only disappointed at Mr. Bones.  Mr. Bones is one of the coolest sounding demons yet.  You MUST find a way to bring back Mr. Bones.

Maybe the banishment didn't *really* go off as planned (after all Ernie didn't get any Humanity back...so maybe that means <retroactive mode on> that it it didn't actually work.

Maybe Mr. Bones was merely sent away dazed and confused...to be found by the new disciple professor and bound by her.

Maybe this professor will intially start out as being a possible ally to the heros, until in some creepy classroom scene Ernie notices Mr. Bones peeking out of the professor's pocket.

You see, the banishment was only partially successful, and so the binding was only partially broken...Mr. Bone's need...is still to scare the shit out of...Ernie.  Heh, heh, and now he has a new more powerful Sorcerous master to help him do it, engineering all kinds of late night extra lab work for Ernie.

I'm envisioning all kinds of super freaky Teen Horror kind of stuff in a college chemistry lab (of course having to use a life size display skeleton from the biology department as an animated prop), which has Ernie just about totally fried, until his friends, laughing and talking, come to cheer him up for having to study so late...stumbling right into some surreal freak zone using plenty of lit bunsen burners for lighting

:-)

[joshua neff]

Yeah, Mr Bones is a lot of fun. His attempts to scare Ernie included leaving dead, bloody squirrels in his underwear drawer & popping out from hiding places with a "Boo!".

The last session was particularly cool. It was Parents' Weekend at KU & everyone's families came down (except Ernie's) to visit. Lots of moody angst with Nathan & his sorcerer father & other good characterization. But one of the defining moments of the session (& the run so far) was Mr Bones, hanging from the light on the ceiling of the dorm room, kitchen knife in hand, dangling right above Kevin's kindly farmer dad, trying to scare Ernie. Ernie just looked at Mr Bones, shook his head no, & then confidently suggested to Kevin that he take his family to the Student Union for some food, just to get them out of the room. It was a lovely little moment, as you see Ernie actually getting more confident.

(Chris' last character, in my Mage game, was a completely different character, but very similar in one interesting way: both characters started out as flippant comic relief who experience a major turning point, after which they become serious & moving dramatic characters.)

[joshua neff]

Oh, another cool thing: I got an email from Gregg the other day, in which he mentioned Tabitha hasn't had her need met since the first session. Gregg suggested Ernie as a target for Tabitha's "affections". "Add together Tab's need, Ernie's growing confidence, his need to raise his Humanity by doing acts of love for Lupe, & latina anger & jealousy, & you've got a slam-bang season finale," Gregg said.

This is why I love my players.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

I enthusiastically remind everyone that Banishing a cool demon is a sure-fire way to have that demon reappear later, having been re-Summoned by an NPC sorcerer. Or even better, as happened in one of my finest early Sorcerer games, the player-characters realize that they need information from that demon, so they Contact it and have to make all sorts of concessions ...

Banishing may seem like a great way to "kill" a dangerous demon, in the poof-you're-gone sense, but it really has its drawbacks, long-term.

So Mr. Bones may be off-stage for a while, but I betcha he's still in the story.

Best,
Ron