Sorcerer game last night

[Eric.Brennan]

I received a review copy of Sorcerer from RPG.net, and after buying a copy for my buddy who's interested in something "different" we set up a game and got a few people together.  Last night we did character generation, and I had the rough idea of what I wanted sorcery, humanity, and the setting to look like.  Nobody had any better ideas (I was open to letting them pre-empt my own concepts.)

When we were finished, everyone's kickers fed into my plan for a set-up, and that's reflected below.  

Based on that, I created a one sheet like Clinton's (farther down in the forum).  Any comments would be welcome.  Keep in mind that although I've bought Sorcerer and Sword and Sorcerer's Soul, I haven't read them, since I want to base my review on just Sorcerer.

By the way, the title comes from an Elvis Costello song with evocative lyrics, and the idea for Humanity comes from The Prisoner--the closest we ever get to an answer for why Number 6 quit is:

Number 2: Why did you quit?  
Number 6: Peace of mind...

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Sorcerer One-Sheet: Complicated Shadows

Premise: What are you willing to do for the greater good?

Demons are:
Wicked. They come from somewhere /else/ and they're willing to work for you, but at every opportunity they will try to twist things and work some kind of mischief. Everybody thinks they can put one over on demons, but the demons have an odd way of turning everything to their dark ends.

All Demon Needs are "plot-movers--" none of them are easy to fulfill, and all of them place the sorcerer at a slight risk of discovery.

Sorcerers are:
Who knows what Sorcerers were before '38? Nobody. But Hitler and the Nazis tried to resurrect the art of summoning demons for their own uses. The British found out, and the Allies and Axis began fighting a covert, occult war throughout the '40s. When the war was over, the West and the Soviets struggled to gain the edge in occult power. For 40 years, both sides moved against each other in conflicts so shadowy that a bare handful of people were aware of what was going on.

Now the Cold War is over. Some sorcerers were let go, others terminated. But the cabal inside the US intelligence community still exists. New Sorcerers are appearing but whether they represent those trained by the cold warriors or something new, no one knows.

Sorcery is:
varied. There are several known ways to summon demons, from the hermetic method of invocation of True Names to sex rites to drug based experiences.

Humanity is:
Peace of Mind. The lower your humanity goes, the harder it is to believe that anyone around you is separate from the Great Game, and the harder it is to live with yourself for the lives ruined and ended in the name of national security.
When Humanity reaches 0, you kill yourself, burn out, or become immune to human feeling.

Player characters are:
Spies. Analysts. Assassins. Duplicitous, cunning, paranoid, and loyal, with all of the paradoxes, stress, and conflict that comes with those traits. PCs are also competent and one in a million. They travel in high-class circles, drinking martinis and using bound demons to break into high-tech facilities, but the PCs also get soaked in the rain and filth while waiting at a dead-drop.

The setting:
Modern day, post 9-11 America. The Cold War is back on, but instead of a monolithic threat we've got a nebulous paranoia blanketing the country. All of a sudden, the old spy machinery is turned back on, but when the lights get turned up it's become patently apparent that some of the birds have left the cage. Are they merely retired or have they joined the Other Side? Some of them are...were, your friends. What, who, are they now?

Influences:
Tim Power's "Declare." (I cannot recommend this enough.) Unknown Armies, the RPG. John LeCarre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." Ian Fleming's James Bond books, /and/ the movies, but keep in mind how different they are. Reruns of "The Equalizer." The current television show "Alias."

The set-up:
The players are all members or ex-members of INDIGO VOID, one of the projects that funded occult operations in the Cold War and still exists on a shoestring budget. In a matter of days, Control, the head of INDIGO VOID, has been murdered and each of you has experienced something that leads you to believe the project has been compromised (your kickers).
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--Eric

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Eric,

I was wondering why you bought that second copy. Thanks!

I like everything in your post, as how could I not. It sounds moody, paranoid, and full of potential "small human moments" as well as the slow-burning, deeply hidden passions of a LeCarre novel.

The only thing now is, let your players speak. Let them grow into it, take hold of it, and start to say things with it. Sure, it'll take Bangs on your part, even outright torment of their characters, and NPCs who blaze with their own light. But let the players take the lead ...

Best,
Ron