New review up - actual play too!

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Our own David (kwill) has posted his actual-play review at the ... um ... Kwa-Zulu Natal Roleplayers site.

David, what the hell does "Kwa-Zulu Natal" mean? It certainly sounds cool.

Best,
Ron

[marcus]

It is that part of Natal that used to be called "Zululand", I believe.

Marcus

[Christopher Weeks]

It's the northmost South African province on the Indian Ocean.  And I think that Zululand is the NE region of KZN, bordering Swaziland and Mozambique.  It encompasses Durban, but not Cape Town or Pretoria.

I'm fuzzy on how much of the interesting history between the Zulu, Boer, and English happened in KZN.  

Chris

[marcus]

Yes, Chris, on checking the map you are right. The province seems, in fact, to be a merger of Zululand and the pre Zulu War Natal.

Marcus

[Ron Edwards]

So it's a place, not a mission statement or organizational icon ... oh well.

Let's return from this geographical tangent I initiated. David, what sort of prep or GMing notions have emerged from reflecting about your play experience?

Best,
Ron

[kwill]

yup, it's just the new (10 year old) name for the province; to answer the question specifically kwaZulu means "(place of) heaven/the zulu people" and when the portugeuse settled near christmas they set up Port Natal ("nativity"), anyway it should actually be "kwaZulu-Natal" -- I can't remember if it was just a name change or if there was a "black homeland" called Zululand that was merged with Natal when apartheid was abolished

we can discuss the zulu nation, post-colonialism and other stuff if I ever get round to an ancestor-spirit minisupplement :)

my executive summary of the review is simply that, for me anyway, sorcerer play is something to be learnt; this is partly taking on narrativism for the first time, but mostly getting a good idea of how the sorcerer machine works: it manages to be straightforward and nuanced at the same time

I've decided not to try and hold all four books in my head at the table: once I've got the basic rules and techniques down I'll focus on Soul and take it from there

in terms of prep I think I'll be reading some of the backlog on preparing bangs; as I mentioned, my bandolier was mostly in my head, obviously it would be better written down, and I'd like to see what directions people have taken bangs in and how they focus them on humanity issues

at the moment I can't envisage opening, let's say, 20-odd scenes in a
three-hour session and creating killer humanity questions for each one, is it just practice?

I'll have to run a short campaign (only next year feb+) to try fleshed out sorcerery/humanity definitions, which I'm sure will get things going in terms of meatier demon interaction and acts of sorcery, I'm sure such scenes lead naturally to the killer humanity questions mentioned above

hmmm... next time I run the demo (hopefully soonish) I'll definitely flesh out the cosmology(*) for myself beforehand; I didn't really think about the details before play which meant I just rolled dice (I know, I know!) for a contact, summon, bind procedure (getting a demon *back* so I felt a little excused) - with a cosmological springboard, like actually thinking about what each sorcerous act entails!, I can spend time on them, make them meatier (see above) and get some humanity rolls (see above above)

(*) is there a term for the not-the-setting-just-the-sorcerery/humanity/demon definition?

gosh, thanks for asking ron, I've just worked out where I need to focus
before running another game - anyone see something I missed? anything on bangs I should read?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi David,

Both of these concerns:

at the moment I can't envisage opening, let's say, 20-odd scenes in a
three-hour session and creating killer humanity questions for each one, is it just practice?
...
hmmm... next time I run the demo (hopefully soonish) I'll definitely flesh out the cosmology(*) for myself beforehand;

... offer grounds for further self-reflection, I think. I see a rather strong GM-centricity lurking behind both sentences.

In other words, you're right about the goals (meaning of sorcery, nature of Humanity, meaty scenario/scene decisions), but at the moment, you're leaving the players' input out of it.

And I don't mean players' input in terms of humble supplicants hoping that you, the GM, will hear their pleas and "put in" what they ask you to put in. I mean players as pre-character creation consultants, as Kicker creators, and as scene demanders during play itself.

Here are some threads to check out:

Sorcerer one-sheet: in his service
Demon antagonism
Leading the way
Backstory revisited
Hey Paul! Face-to-face chargen!
Character backstory (especially note the mention of the diagram on the back of the character sheet)

(*) is there a term for the not-the-setting-just-the-sorcerery/humanity/demon definition?

H'm ... usually I don't divorce this concept from setting. In Demon Cops, for instance, the glittering coastal city of Diablo Del Rey went hand in hand with the cops/crime issues of Humanity in that game.

Best,
Ron

[ScottM]

In this thread, Chris (Bankuei) and Mike Holmes go into detail with Peter on good bang construction.  It's a HeroWars example, but the process should work for any game.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi,

Good thread reference, Chris. I should disclose that Pete and I were having an extensive discussion about Bangs by private message during that same time.

Best,
Ron

[kwill]

I read you(*), I know this isn't about player's exploring the GM's fine-tuned world, *but* my next question is how to do this (game setup) with an all-new group; I see the basic steps as

-) motivate the players to read the book
-) invigorate them with the idea that this is their game/setting too!
-) get some discussion going and get defining

any details I should look out for?

(I just love the fact that I can still prep a relationship map and then tweak it to the setting definition that the group creates)

(*) still reading all those references though :D

[kwill]

what was I thinking? my last post leads into questions about campaign play which I'll leave for next year when I actually run a campaign -- (and I'll definitely return to all those references at that time)

this is about my actual play of the lincoln high demo and running it again

in the Demon Antagonism thread Ron wrote:
But I'm really starting to think that no one should ever run a Sorcerer
convention demo without having run the game in the long term first, so that he or she can decide what strengths to emphasize, and how techniques of play he or she can rely on even during the stress of creating stuff with new people.

that's true for any game, but especially in this instance when presenting new techniques (for this gaming community) as well as a new game (as opposed to, say, a new d20 setting) - but what about the eager retailer with little time on his hands? (me :)

seriously, I'm confident further demos on my side are viable, and that with the extra prep I described above I can offer more in the game; building on the referenced threads, for example, I completely missed using the PCs' demons as Bang material! duh!

Ron wrote:
you're leaving the players' input out of it.

reading your comment in the demo context, I can see group setting definition being demonstrated with lincoln high, and priming players for input in campaign play

obviously you wouldn't want to spend too much time on it, but it makes sense in light of my review comments about tweaking the setting to the south african school system ("at my school the prefects made us..." "hey, so why not define summoning as..." "yeah, and we can be, like, strict teachers treating demons like pupils..." - he he he)

demon punishment! lines, jacks, humiliation, the possibilities are endless!

(I am now going to bug the players to make some comments either here or at the KZNRP site - I've had lots of pre-purchase exposure to sorcerer on the forge, so their view of what was new/interesting about the game is important - hopefully they didn't come away feeling it was a just variation on the lines of CoC or UA)