7 Sins

[Judd]

Inspirations:  Se7en, Hellblazer, more?

Humanity is the ability to lead a life in control of sin, rather than allowing them to control you and define who you are.

Humanity gain when you help someone absolve themselves from sin or take the high road above sin.

Humanity loss when you make someone wallow in their own sin or make it worse through further sin.

Demons are: Pieces of sin wrenched free and given form by the Sorcerer.  Bonuses for calling forth one's own sin or a sin they had a hand in creating.

Descriptors

Stamina

Brutal: Your body is made by wrath, for wrath's work.

Lovely:  Your body is made for lust.

Heinous:  The scars of sin are all over your body and have left you marked.

Unmarred: Somehow your body is pure despite it all.

Terrible: Sloth, Gluttony and Greed have left your body a corpulent mess.

So-so: Your bodyis nothing special, you look on the magazine covers and envy the beauty you see there.

Stunning: Your body is a glorious piece of work.

Will

Pick which of the seven sins most occupies your mind

Lust, Wrath, Pride, Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth

Lore

Seller: You make your living from sin and know it intimately.

Swallower: Sin has made you into what you are today.

Seer: You are surrounded by sin all of the time and thus know it intimately.

Naive: You know what sins are and have called upon its power but do not know how to do so consciously.

Need a few more lore...but you get the idea.
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[Robert Bohl]

It would feel sweet to me if you had to tempt people to sin in order to create the demons that power you.

[Keith Senkowski]

This is very cool Judd.  Any idea where you would take a game like this?

Keith

[Judd]

This is very cool Judd.  Any idea where you would take a game like this?

Keith

I think the neat thing about it is that it could be set in a variety of settings and still keep the heart of the theme.  I would want to talk to my players and see what they were thinking.

I'd think that some kind of religious setting, a church-run homeless shelter, where the streets can easily meet the faithful might work as I can easily envision a priestly sorcerer.

Like its inspiration material, Se7en and Hellblazer, I'd imagine that it'd end badly, quite badly.

"Tell me what's in the fucking box!"

I wanted to create a setting where the demons are crisp, vivid and easy to get ideas on what to summon, like for a con game, for instance.

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Judd, my take on this proposal is probably best expressed in my final post in The mechanics of Hellraiser ..., although Ben did a good job of addressing my concerns in The fucked up sorcerer.

To summarize, what you're proposing seems to me to transform Sorcerer into Unknown Armies: "See how messed up and obsessed you are? See how it turns into wildly entertaining chaos?" Fun to be sure, but sort of a fast amusement-park ride, when all is said and done, and not where the game's real strength lies.

I suggest that the best approach for a con Sorcerer game is to isolate one or two key features of play, things that really work for you as a GM and showcase the game's unique strengths, and then set everything else in stone. See the In Utero chapter in Sex & Sorcery for my favored example.

Best,
Ron

[Keith Senkowski]

Ron,

Not to jump off the shark too much, but isn't the point of a Con game the roller coaster ride?  This seems to me like the best way to get your hooks into someone is with something like this.  For a 2 to 4 hour game this seems to me the ideal situation.

Keith

[Ron Edwards]

Depends on what you're selling, Keith. From my point of view, the best Sorcerer demo inspires someone to go home and do as they will with the book. As opposing to reading it later, then staring at it in shock because it's about all this weird role-playing, rather than the cool-ass shock-jock skillfully-managed video game they played at the con.

Ultimately, whatever sells the book is good, if I'm wearing my Publisher Hat. But in the Author and Fellow-Role-player Hats, my take is to run In Utero or something built on a similar model.

Best,
Ron