Revolution 2 - first time sorceror prep

[Kaare Berg]

I've finally swiped the MC over at Paypal, and am getting set to bounce my first Sorceror game. Before I paste it all before your eyes here are the issues I am concerned about.

how to write descriptors . . . and out from the tekst below I'd love suggestions.

One sheet. brilliant idea, but never mentioned in either sorceror or &sword. nor have I found any helpful How-tos when searching the forge. Any pointers?

I've been trying to keep game-speak out of the following, but there is some.

Inspiration is from Half-life 2 (plenty of visuals and mood), Red Star, and my own childhood with the threat of the big bear and western propaganda. Not to mention the line about demons with serian numbers for name.

The Premise is: What Price Freedom?

Here we go:

Revolution 2

Imagine the east block before the wall came down. The huddled masses in line outside the stores, the Sekratariat Police in faceless masks patrolling the street, and the pervasive aura of hopelessness. Overhead the Kombine Citadel rises to the sky, while Dr. Petrov, the benevolent leader, speaks eternally on the Pravda Screens.
Picture the dissidents sneaking trough the cracks, always fearing the Protkol Kommisars and the SEP Kommandos. Feel the thirst for freedom. How far will you go to get yours?

Humanity:
The ability to Feel. To experience sensation.
Humanity Loss: when ever one experiences something that numbs the soul, too much killing, too much pleasure, too much drink, too much despair.
Humanity Gain: affirming freedom, the simple pleasures, embracing emotional pain.
Zero humanity is the loss of sensation, the loss of . . . oneself. The Protokols take over.

Protokols (demons):
They didnt know about us until we contacted them. High energy beings existing in a different spectrum than our universe. Only the Protkol Algorithm allows us to bring them here. And the Kombine controls the Algorithm, but who controls the Kombine?

Three sorts exist:
Passer Protkols: all appear as seven or eight year old emotionless children. Blandly, perfectly dressed.
Parasite Protkols: its inside your nervous system, a glitch in your system.
Posessor Protokols: Flesh puppets, the possessor claims others for your use.

Stamina:
Will:
Algorithm (Lore):
Cover:

[Kaare Berg]

Heres some descriptors I have come up with,

Stamina:

[*]SEP training,   one of the grey cadre, force and its application for the greater public good
[*]Laborer,   one of the thousands worked near death at the public projects
[*]Proletariat,   (stamina 2) poor food, poor housing, lining up for food coupons and soup, the backbone of the Kombine.[/list:u]
Will:

[*]Broken,   resistance seems futile and doomed
[*]Fatalist,   death is inescapable; choose how you go, on your knees or standing
[*]Dedicated,   you believe and you do[/list:u]
Algorithm (Lore):

[*]Physicist,   higher education, from the time before the Kombine or of the University (algorithm 3-5)
[*]Student,   old notes lead to new discoveries, but there is no passing grades here (algorithm 2-4)
[*]Kommisar trained,   you have passed through Nova Prospekt, you know the algorithm and the Protokols (algorithm 4-6)
[*]Protokol taught,   it needed a host, so it showed you how. It never mentioned the price. (algorithm 1-3)
[*]Self taught,   you know how to use the equipment but do not understand why it works. (algorithm 1)[/list:u]
Cover:

[*]Kommisar,   one of the terrors of the Kombine, now in rebellion to save his soul
[*]Black Marketeer,   where there is a need there is a way
[*]Criminal,   the Kombine provides, just not enough
[*]Kombine bureaucrat,   working within the system has so many perks[/list:u]

[Kaare Berg]

Expanding a little on the tentative one-sheet above I sat down with my players and we had our first chragen session and some play time.

To summarise the characters were:

Antonov - angry taxi driver who beats his wife. Gets an outlet for his frustrations in illegal boxing matches. Protokol: parasite with a desire for mayhem and a need for blood. Kicker: The SEK has arrested his wife.

Yuri- a steroid enhanced construction worker. hates his life and lives through the stories told by an old man called Ivan. Protokol: passer with a desire for mayhem and a need for screams of pain. Kicker: The SEK arrests Ivan before his eyes

Kommisar 1416 - a scarred kommisar struggling with the horrors of Nova Prospect. Dreams of the sea (general escape from City 17). Protokol: parasite. Desire Domination, need Humiliation of others. kicker: while arresting an old man he  finds a picture of a house by the sea taken only a month ago.

It was interesting to note how afraid my players are of their demons (lowest binding strength was +2 in favor of demon, highest was +4 favouring demon so it is justified.)

we struggled with Kickers,and before any play Espen had to leave. My players insited that their kickers should bring them in to contact with each other (to facilitate party-style play). This didn't work however. All it did was delay play.

Inital Kicker Play:
The scene was the giant constructions site of Factory 197, where the construction worker Yuri worked. A squad of SEK police came and arrested Ivan, frisking him and handing Illegal Insurrectionist Propaganda (a picture) to Kommisar 1416. Well aware that his Protokoll was watching from the side Yuri failed to convince all that it all was a mistake. 1416 dragged all in the head overseers office where he fed his protokoll by humiliating the overseers and commanding them all to work out in the ditches.
Yuri and Ivan went back to work and the Kommisar returned to his base. Kicker ineffective.

Banging to Kick
Jon went to get a bite (came straight from work) so I solo-played with Christer.
Kommisar 1416 was called into the op-center, where his Commander Kommisar 146 waited. Kommisar 146 simply stated that his underling had made a grievious error, the two insurgents would be executed at the construction site the next day, an arrest squad from Overwatch had been sent and that Kommisar 1416 was being sent to Nova Prospekt for retraining.

The young Kommisar went to his room, packed a travel bag, asked his Protokol for help and teleported to Yuri's appartment block.

great scene, worked wonders and suddenly one of them was in motion.

Ending the Intro
Jon having nuked his late dinner joined us again and found Yuri having returned home.

Yuri's parents sat infront of the Pravda Screen and all was its normal grey self. The same greyness that threatened to choke Yuri. The only thing different was that the Kommisar from the factory who stood in the hallway.
Skeptisim from Yuri was throw aside when a Block Shut Down was initiated by the Overwatch. The unlikly duo fled down the stairs. brutal combat later and one satisfied passer protokol later they came outside. 1416 boarded an Apc and proceeded to chew Overwatch troops to pieces with .50 cal bullets.

Only one trooper survived (future trouble) and Ivan escorted the two fugetives into the Undrground. We ended here with me setting the scene for next game.

Reflection

I need to utilise kickers better and to liberate my players from the Party style mind-set. This is a gradual process and there is no short-cut available here.

Systemwise it all gelled, one quick question: with several attackers does the defender roll Stamina once and compare to all, just against one and a single die against the rest or do I roll seperatly for all?

Any recomendations on how to make Parasite demons more creepy, the exsistential horror of letting something else into your system can not compare to the pure creep factor of a small girl in imaculate school-uniform intensely staring at a brutal combat, soaking up the screams of the wounded. I need to up the fear factor. Any help?

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Thanks for posting all this! I haven't given much feedback until now, because in many ways, there was nothing I could say. It looks excellent so far.

Here's my main advice: enjoy what you're doing, and don't concern yourself so much with "how it ought to be."

one quick question: with several attackers does the defender roll Stamina once and compare to all, just against one and a single die against the rest or do I roll seperatly for all?

None of these is quite correct. Your problem lies in designating "offense" and "defense" at the outset. [This is partly possible in the system, using the full-defense option, but it's an advanced idea and I recommend that you don't even use it until you understand the basics.]

Fundamentally, the dice being rolled are not defensive - you must get rid of your habitual idea that the designated offensive person rolls his attack dice against the designated defensive person, who rolls his defending dice to "stop" the attack.

Here's how to do it. We will call the single opponent X, and the group he's fighting will be called A, B, and C. Everyone has stated their intended goals/actions. Everyone rolls their dice, and the highest values are compared.

If X's highest die is the highest on the table, then his action "lands" first. When the others' attacks land (on him), he will be allowed to roll his full score to defend against each one of them, each time.

If X's highest die is lower than one or more opponents', but higher than one or more of them too, then he has an interesting choice to make. Here comes the attack, landing before he can achieve his action. He can (a) defend with a single die, or (b) abort his action entirely (the existing dice are picked up and their values lost) and defend with a new roll, using his full score to roll in defense.

- if he rolls very high on his single die, that's great! He can then proceed to his action essentially as if he'd rolled first, assuming his action is next.

- if he rolls low (fails) on his single die, he'll probably take some damage; if he can, he proceeds to his action as above, with penalties. (The penalty dice are added to the roll of whoever defends against his action)

If X's highest die is the lowest on the table, then he should almost certainly abort his action and use his full score to defend against each of the attacks, three times.

The key concept is: if your action has "landed" already, then you get to roll your full score defensively against whoever is attacking you. But if it has not yet "landed," then you must choose between aborting your stated action in order to defend fully, or defending with a single die and hoping you survive until your action arrives.

Any recomendations on how to make Parasite demons more creepy, the exsistential horror of letting something else into your system can not compare to the pure creep factor of a small girl in imaculate school-uniform intensely staring at a brutal combat, soaking up the screams of the wounded. I need to up the fear factor. Any help?

I suggest that you abandon the idea that your job is to make the players feel anything. As long as you include material (whether pre-prepped or spontaneously) that makes you feel creepy, then you are doing fine. They will be doing the same thing, and sooner or later, the effect will move from person to person. It's not your job to prepare a little "fear bottle" and sprinkle it onto them as you play.

Best,
Ron

[Kaare Berg]

I suggest that you abandon the idea that your job is to make the players feel anything

I'm sort of with you here, but I also see it as my job to encourage/facilitate certain moods/feelings. I do this through tone and descriptions and other ephemra.

What I was wondering about was if anyone had some suggestions on how to make the Parasite Demon a much more creepy NPC. I'm playing with some ideas, the whole there is another "oganism" living inside me feel. It's not a posessor so actual loss of control seems inappropiate. I'm just picking your collective brains here.

The big issue for is to avoid the superpower syndrome that I know will creep in (pun not intended). This was the biggest problem when we played WOD back in the days, now I do not want this to happpen in Rev 2. So I am going to get inside and mess about. Which is where your brains come in.

Thanks for the clarification on the combat issue by the way.

K

[Trevis Martin]

Hi Negligent.

Trust me, play sorcerer how its written and you won't have superpower probs at all.  A players caracter might have their finger on the button of all sorts of kewl powerz but the demon is at the circuit breaker, and it isn't nice, and it wants something.  Imagine, in Vampire, if you had to make the beast happy to be able to use your disciplines?

As for creepy stuff for a parasite.  It depends on how you've defined the parasite color wise.  If its a tumerous mass, maybe it crawls all over the body, visibly or not, causing unexpected pain in odd places, touching nerves, causing involutary reflex reactions, slithering over organs. Seeing a lump move through your gut...ew.  I would think movement inside your body would be very creepy.  

best

Trevis

[Kaare Berg]

If its a tumerous mass, maybe it crawls all over the body, visibly or not, causing unexpected pain in odd places, touching nerves, causing involutary reflex reactions, slithering over organs. Seeing a lump move through your gut...ew. I would think movement inside your body would be very creepy.

This is the way I am going, and just what I was looking for. Unexpected pain. Oh I love it. Shudder.

The superprower dilemma comes not from players abusing the rules. It is a mindset that seems predominant in Stavanger (scientifically derived from conversations at the FLGS) that in WOD you had all these kewl powers, oh and you had to drink blood, but hey I can outrun a car. No horror. No moral choice. No juice.

Above, Jon went for the soft parts in the fight. He didn't punch face when he could crush pelvis (a boosted  blow to the balls). The demon freaked him out by hovering right next to him, staring at him. Daring him to do his worst.
Christer just teleported and cloaked. His demon still happy from the inital humiliation which was significant.

Do you see the difference.

Oh he'll get it next session. You'll see (or rather read actually, oh but you get it).


I know he will.


K