Sorcerer and Space demo

[Mike Holmes]

Well, I had a chance to run Sorcerer and Space for a fun group last night. Present were Ron, Josh , Jurgen, and Josh's friend Julie. Here's how it went.

The scenario is one from the book in which the PCs arrive at a resort in neutral space for various reasons. We realized right off that the Kickers for characters would be very much like strong reasons to go to Al Amarja in OTE.

Ron's character was an illigitamate knight who was looking for a place in the world and was accepting a flunky position in an organization by going to the resort to make a large drug buy. His demon was a staff object that he used to dramatic effect.

Jurgen's character was a monsterously powerful sorcerer with a parasite demon, who was on the run from Earth athorities.  He had heard that Ron's character was going to be at the resort, and he was going to get asylum with his organization (the one that Ron's character was no longer actually associated with), thus ending his flight.

Josh's character was a trainee in the organization that was after Jurgen's character, who had decided to take it upon himself to capture Jurgen's character to prove himself to the organization. The character was traveling with a girl who was also intent on the same goal, and whom he cared about a lot. No demons!

Julie's character was a freewheeling wandering sorcerer with an inconspicuous demon that took the form of the drug paraphrenalia that she carried. Her agenda was to come to the resort to make a big drug sale to (guess who) Ron's character, the proceeds with which she was going to further her capaign of understanding towards demons (yup, she was a demon's rights activist).

In retrospect I am glad that the players decided to link their characters kickers so, dorta like an Alyria Story Map. I gave them option, and they took it. Ron mentioned recently (and again at the game) that doing so is a powerful way to make a demo run in short order. Hence the format of the Lincoln High demo, I assume.

Anyhow, the players really didn't get too deep into the relationship map which just ended up as a somewhat surreal backdrop for thier own conflicts. Ron and Jurgen's characters met early, and Ron's guy decided to drop his idea of joining the new organization and to get back into his old one by bringing back Jurgen's character with him (a political coup). Head held high, he went through the rest of the scenario with a newfound (and dramtically obnoxious) sense of pride.

At the resort itself, Julie's character got Josh's a bit messed up using somehing akin to a daze of Confuse ability from her demon, and Josh's guy, addled a bit by drugs, wasted no time in confronting Jurgen's character entirely unarmed. The girl traveling with Josh knocked him out to save his life.

Later, after they had met some of the residents at the resort, they all met in the lounge where there was a sort of showdown between, well, everyone, and Josh's character. Who hardly stood a chance against the forces arrayed against him. It was only the appearance of a monsterously large demon (belonging to another guest who was alarmed at all the fighting) that distracted them all long enough for Josh's guy's friend to drag his nearly lifeless body away.

In the aftermath, Ron paid off Julie's character to never mention the drug deal (didn't even accept the drugs), as he intended to return with Jurgen's character to please his former masters.

This is where we ended. I had fun running it, and it seemed somewhat enjoyable for the players who all did a great job with their characters.

As a demo, I think that I'll make that format permenant, requiring the Story Map set up, and making the RMap just a backdrop for whatever action occurs. Given that and pregen characters, I think that it should work pretty well as a demo. I will, of course, get a chance to try this out at GenCon in the next few days. :-)

Mike

[Bailywolf]

So where was the "and Space"?  the sketch above (save for mention of earth authorities and neutral space) could have been any sorcerer game.. what elements of the play test were unique to "Sorcerer and Space" and derived from the special elements of that book which make it distinct from from-the-box Sorcerer?

[Mike Holmes]

So where was the "and Space"? the sketch above (save for mention of earth authorities and neutral space) could have been any sorcerer game.. what elements of the play test were unique to "Sorcerer and Space" and derived from the special elements of that book which make it distinct from from-the-box Sorcerer?

Hmmm. I kept the report specifically vague on those details. I was mostly concerned with it's effectiveness as a scenario or demo. Oh, the &Space elements came out in play, but I just glossed them over (part of why the report is a suscinct as it was). As you've noted, I've been very sparse with details on the project so far. I was planning to release the details as soon as the project was finished. Which it was yesterday, late, actually. The book kept on writing itself more and more until it got to it's current form at about 40,000 words.

Still, I want Ron to look over the details before I commit to anything. Also more playtesting will help me determine what works and what does not. So, expect more details after GenCon. I just don't want to peomise anything, and then have to axe it afterwards.

I'll let out one detail that's interesting. You might be able to infer it from the report, but Sorcerers in "& Space" are out of the closet, as it were. In a big way. In fact, they control almost all of the colonies outside of the Earth system, often imposing their rule over entire systems individually. How do they manage this? Very powerful demons...

It's all wrapped up with the mode of interstellar travel, and the definition of Humanity, which I've already said has to do with characters forging and keeping a definition Meaning for themselves in a very uncaring universe.

And mass destruction!

Thanks for your interest Ben,
Mike

[Bailywolf]

So you saw through my subtle attmept to squeeze some detail about SorSpace eh?  Have to try some more dasterdly schemes perhaps... ::twirls waxed mustache and contemplates train tracks and helpless maidens...::


;)



I'll get you yet MIke Holmes!

[Ron Edwards]

Whew! I finally got to reply to this post.

I enjoyed the game a great deal because, in the first five minutes, I was able to switch a character from "doomed, wandering, alienated exile" into "hot damn, I can go home now." After making him up, I was worried that play would be too standard, but that didn't happen.

I think that a demo run of Sorcerer and Space will tend to be a lot more like Fading Suns and Shadowrun than extended play of the game will be. Extended play, I think, will be more like the best of the adventure-space anime, or even approach more serious issues. A brief one-shot (never ideal for Sorcerer in any form) cannot utilize the relationship map method very well. At best, you'll get a lot more colorful NPCs, which is a good thing, but the "grabby" aspect of a great relationship map just doesn't have time to work.

Similarly, as Mike points out, the most functional version of play for a demo is an Alyria-style storymap, which might be seen as a relationship map after several sessions have occurred. Which is to say, if we the players come up with a storymap, then the game isn't well served by coming up with a relationship map - there's two guys in the doorway, so to speak. Either the storymap should include the GM's own back-story pretty explicitly (as in Alyria), or the relationship map should be central via player-hooking.

Mike, in our run, the only thing I'd suggest thinking about is that a relationship map won't grab people unless they get intrigued by something clearly unjust or wrong that is making someone in the map unhappy. At the resort, no one was really miserable - they were jumpy, sure, and there clearly was an unpleasant Something in the pool, but that was it, from this player's perspective.

Last thing: sorry if I got a bit too GM-like during the combat scenes. I was just so pumped up about playing in a complex combat, and so intent that people understood its unique aspects, that I kind of forgot that I was a player.

Best,
Ron

P.S. Benjamin, criminy, quit bugging people to provide more details on their products than they're giving out with. It's obnoxious, and not in a good way.

[Mike Holmes]

I enjoyed the game a great deal because, in the first five minutes, I was able to switch a character from "doomed, wandering, alienated exile" into "hot damn, I can go home now." After making him up, I was worried that play would be too standard, but that didn't happen.

Glad you were pleased. But that was an effect of the storymap creation.

Extended play, I think, will be more like the best of the adventure-space anime, or even approach more serious issues. A brief one-shot (never ideal for Sorcerer in any form) cannot utilize the relationship map method very well. At best, you'll get a lot more colorful NPCs, which is a good thing, but the "grabby" aspect of a great relationship map just doesn't have time to work.

And this was the problem with the scenario. I never even got to get to the point where the players even found out what was going on to the people in the map, or evenj had a chance to get involved. By that point they were all intent on each other's characters, as that's what the kicker's entailed. Which is fine. For a one-shot, that worked out well. For a longer game I wouldn't have allowed those sorts of kickers, and hopefully the R-map would have served it's purpose.

Last thing: sorry if I got a bit too GM-like during the combat scenes. I was just so pumped up about playing in a complex combat, and so intent that people understood its unique aspects, that I kind of forgot that I was a player.

I don't even remember any such thing. I'm sure if you were clarifying rules or anything that it was all for the better. I was pretty pleased at how it all turned out.

That demo, and the one at GenCon have given me some important ideas on how to tweak what I have a bit. But I'm satisfied with the majority of it. I'm going to do a little rewriting, and then get it off to you, Ron for the big edit. So, hopefully, it will be available in relatively short order.

Mike

[Ron Edwards]

Hey,

Josh, when you get a chance, I'd really like to get some feedback from Julie about whether/how she liked the game. (Pause) Oh, and any impressions you had would be welcome too ... I guess.

Best,
Ron

[joshua neff]

Gee, thanks, Ron.

*ahem*

Well, one aspect I don't think anyone has mentioned that I liked a lot was the Passions mechanic--at no extra cost a PC can have something (or somethings) that s/he is passionate about. When the Passions are relevant to the conflict, you get bonus dice. When the Passions are taken out of play, you immediately get the dice as negative modifiers. So, for example, my PC had an NPC, a fellow apprentice knight, who he was madly in love with (but too shy to reveal his feelings towards). Whenever she was threatened (like when Ron's PC was kicking her ass), my character got his Passions rating in bonus dice when trying to help her. But we had all decided as a group that the girl had to die before my eyes, which would cause me a negative modifier. (Sadly, she didn't die, so I didn't get to do the "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" scene.) The Passions definitely gave the game a Fading Suns feel, as well as the feel of a good space opera anime.

Other than that...as has been noted, Sorcerer isn't the best one-session game. But this was a lot of fun, we got a good example of Sorcerer combat, & the outre setting is very nice.

I'll check with Julie about her reactions.