Toronto Sorcerer Demo from Indie RPG Toronto

[epweissengruber]

Sorcerer Demo
Date:   Thursday September 27, 2007
Time:   12:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Author:   epweissengruber
Location:   Ryerson Cafeteria (a.k.a. The Pod)

I need to work out my understanding the system before I start a campaign.

I will demo the demon-summoning, demon interaction, and combat mechanics in a Caribean/pirate setting.

If you are interested in trying this game, learning about a ground-breaking system, or are interested in joining the campaign, come on down.

RSVP as soon as you can. Max 4 players.

Erik

[epweissengruber]

We finally dun it!

I will try to post the characters later.

I lost my Pirate notes so we tried out the setting I created a while back.

http://roleplayers.meetup.com/boards/view/viewthread?thread=2928161&pager.offset\
=0

We had a Desecrator who had admitted a cyborg endoskelleton -- ENDO --
into his body, leaving him scarred.

We had a Beastspeaker who had subdued a blood sucking panther to his will.

We played out a scene where the Beastspeaker met a priest who had once
abused him. The priest was holding his wife hostage. He and his
beast charged as the wife struggled to get free. The priest was a
sorcerer (w.o. a demon) so he was able to hang on after getting
whacked with a whip by the Beastspeaker and tripped by the wife. The
wife ran away and the Beastspeaker -- Og -- had to attend to her.
Meanwhile the beast was thrown off by the resistance of the priest and
hesitated. The priest attempted an in-extremis Binding of the beast
and the beast chose that moment to try to break free of his distracted
master. The beast was punished and left somewhat impotent. The
priest tried to fling a dagger at Og, whose wife had sought to hide
from both him and the wicked priest. Og let the priest flee while he
attempted to get the Pthan back under his control and to locate his wife.

We didn't have much time to work on Tusk, Mark's character. I just
called for a scene where he was attempting to summon a crystaline
piezo-electric being with the help of his gibbering shaman buddy. It
took place in a chamber of forbidden tech. Some humanity loss, some
psychedelic colour, and soon Tusk was packing two demons.

I got the dice rules mechanics of Sorc. confused with DitV, but after an
initial mis-step everything started flowing faster.

Combat is leathal, every roll of the dice is decisive and affects
change in the situation.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Erik,

That's great news! I always liked that setting idea.

I agree with you about the dice mechanics during combat, in terms of every roll's significance. However, lethality is an interesting issue in Sorcerer - basically, if someone whips out a gun, or if a demon with Special Damage is involved, then yes, combat effects are horrific. On the other hand, character death requires a lot of layered effects in order to occur, and ultimately rests upon a certain degree of judgment about that specific situation.

So did any characters get killed during combat? Who, and how?

Best, Ron

[epweissengruber]

So did any characters get killed during combat? Who, and how?

Best, Ron

I initially had the priest be a creepy normal, to go with the Sorcerer vibe that official rites and rituals are one thing but real, honest-to-Beelzebub sorcery is quite rare.

The panther, whip, trip combo really did a number on the Priest.  I think he took 6 temporary and 1 permanent.  Og, Vex (the panther) and Og's wife would've have had him on the ropes. 

But then Dave Lucas (who normally GMs our totally rockin' Burning Empires game) said, why not make this guy a sorcerer.  So, he was able to make an emergency Will roll for some functional dice in the next round.  I messed with Og by having his wife flee from BOTH her captor AND her sorcerous hubby.  The priest used his emergency dice to try and pull Vex away from her master and came pretty close.

So -- a demonless sorcerer has access to: a) rituals; b) emergency dice.  Without those the priest would have been a meat bag in two rounds. As it was, he narrowly escaped the consequences of getting whacked in the first round, and made a lucky turnaround in the second.