Sorceror freaked us out …

[hix]

Comparing ensemble films like Short Cuts and Lone Star with a multi-character Sorceror game:

Maybe you're saying that while every character feels like they're the main character, you can't always tell who is (or if there'll be) a main character at the start of a story like this.

Are we talking about the 'fact' that - in any given game - some PCs may end up looking like supporting characters in terms of screen time (or addressing premise) – even though something important and pivotal has happened in their life?

This discussion's made me realise that I must have some sort of social contract with myself – to give everyone equal screen-time no matter what. For instance, this is what Wayne got to do in Session 2:

Keith Byrne AKA The Vigilante
*   Races the Road Runner and wins.
*   An assassin sneaks up and stabs Keith nearly to death. Keith tries to talk his way out and fails. [/color]

I'm afraid I didn't give Wayne a lot of stuff to do with Keith. I retarded both the moment of attack and separated some of the rounds of the attack between other people's scenes. I was trying to create suspense, don't think it worked. But despite my dissatisfaction, Wayne said he didn't have a problem with the amount of screen-time he got this session.

Killing PCs off is another social contract issue I have with myself. Reasons? People come to play and have fun; they've invested a lot of time into creating these characters; and you could interpret death as losing. Anyway, in this particular case I've come up with something I think is really neat for Keith so it's not an issue.

SIDE NOTE: Some of the rules oriented questions raised before are being dealt with in the Contest of Wills thread.