Sorcerer in Spaaaaaaaaace!

[Nero's Boot]

I have an idea for a Sorcerer adaptation, which I've already emailed to Mr. Edwards as a potential mini-supplement.  Essentially, the mini-supplement would be about human pilots in the near future that've discovered ancient alien spacecraft capable of godlike acts of destruction.  Sorcerers would therefore be those humans capable of psionically bonding with the AIs running the ships.  Each ship has its own Artificial Intelligence running the ship's systems, but each requires a naturally sentient mind to act as pilot and captain.  Humanity would be one's ability to resist transformation into your ship's AI programming subroutines, in essence becoming a disembodied piece of software.  (This is a natural byproduct of inferior human minds interfacing with post-Singularity technology.)  We could call Humanity "Psionic Integrity."  Contacting would be pilots telepathically interfacing with new alien ships.  Summoning would be sending out a psionic impulse (over an area of several thousand lightyears) that draws unpiloted ships to you.  Binding would be attempting to psionically bond with a new ship, and resist being immediately assimilated mentally into its programming software.  Punishing would be psionically scrambling your ship's AI, in an attempt to stop it from assimilating you or acting on the commands of its former non-human creators.  Containing would be shutting down a ship's engines, casting it adrift in space.

--what does everyone think? NB

[Justin A Hamilton]

Would riding in a ship be a setting prerequisite for commanding the Demon?

[Nero's Boot]

After some further thought, I have more to add:

All demons would be Object demons, of course, representing the ships each sorcerer flies.  Big, Transport, and Travel would be mandatory powers for each demon (reflecting the demons' roles as intersteller transports).  Weapon systems could be presented using all sorts of powers: Daze, Hold, and Psychic Force could be depicted as the pilot's psionics magnified by his or her ship's weapons array, Spawn could represent a fighter wing of tiny man-sized ships being launched, and Special Damage could be the regular (non-psionic) weapons array.  Armor would be a necessary precaution, as many would envy pilots' abilities to command these ancient alien ships.  Link would describe the psionic bond 'tween pilot and vessel.  Hint could represent the pilot psionically accessing the confusing and alien memorybanks of his or her ship, to glimpse civilizations long gone and species now long dead.  Demon Desires and Needs would be along the lines of exploration and the search for their former masters.  Ships would be cold and emotionless as humans understand those terms, inconsiderate towards the failings and weaknesses of their new captains.

I have thoughts for a psionics system, but I'm going to probably represent psychic abilities in the form of sorcery rituals: I.e., the Binding, Containing, etc, is itself the psionics.  Does anyone have any ideas in this regard?  Furthermore, Humanity is definitely going to be Psionic Integrity, a psychic sense of Self that protects you from assimilation into the machine.  

--thoughts?  Opinions?  Likes and dislikes? NB

[Nero's Boot]

Would riding in a ship be a setting prerequisite for commanding the Demon?

Of course!  A captain does not command his vessel from afar, after all.  Still, with Link, a vessel could be called to your side, and boarded safely.

--thoughts?  Opinions?  Likes and dislikes? NB

[Sydney Freedberg]

The thing that strikes me:

Where's the temptation? And where's the horror?

As I understand Sorcerer,* the "demons," whatever they are, offer you a chance to get good things in a bad way. They offer something the real people playing the game really want -- not the characters! The players! -- but they also threaten to show you where your desires could lead -- not your character's perverse, weird desires! The players' real, ordinary, understandable desires!

I don't see that in this setting. But I bet you do, because there's something that got you excited enough to sketch out a mini-supplement. So you need to show us, not the cool, cold, intellectual aspects, but the gut-punch. How is piloting these starships like having great sex with a partner you know is wrong, bad, trouble? Or like that lightning flash of feeling like a god as the drugs fry out your brain? Or like striding through Columbine High School, your black trenchcoat billowing behind you, as you take your revenge on everyone who's ignored you?

* Note that I've never actually gotten to play Sorcerer, so take my words with many grains of salt. But this Sorcerer thread, by people who really know what they're talking about, is well worth your reading.

[ubergeek2012]

After some further thought, I have more to add:

All demons would be Object demons, of course, representing the ships each sorcerer flies.  Big, Transport, and Travel would be mandatory powers for each demon (reflecting the demons' roles as intersteller transports).  Weapon systems could be presented using all sorts of powers: Daze, Hold, and Psychic Force could be depicted as the pilot's psionics magnified by his or her ship's weapons array, Spawn could represent a fighter wing of tiny man-sized ships being launched, and Special Damage could be the regular (non-psionic) weapons array.  Armor would be a necessary precaution, as many would envy pilots' abilities to command these ancient alien ships.  Link would describe the psionic bond 'tween pilot and vessel.  Hint could represent the pilot psionically accessing the confusing and alien memorybanks of his or her ship, to glimpse civilizations long gone and species now long dead.  Demon Desires and Needs would be along the lines of exploration and the search for their former masters.  Ships would be cold and emotionless as humans understand those terms, inconsiderate towards the failings and weaknesses of their new captains.

I've done some thinking about this myself for a game I was working on (and should get back to) Heartless Void.  I originally thought of ships as object demons too, but in game had them capable of more indpendent action than objects tend to be capable of.  I'm considering toying with treating them as passers, allowing them to "pass" as normal ships to those without the lore to know better.

Either way, if you consider their base form as a ship, then they wouldn't necessarily require Big, Travel, or Transport.  Having them would just make them much better at them.  It's like having a sword as an object demon.  You wouldn't need special damage to make it hurt people, but if it did then it become a weapon far more dangerous than any normal sword.  In the same sense, having a "demon" ship without any of those powers makes in perform at about the same level as a normal ship, dependant on its stamina.  But if it's a power 8 demon ship with travel, it flies 8 times as fast as any normal ship.

I don't know if this will work for your game, but I didn't want to attach a whole lot of required powers to ships in my game because I felt it might homogenize them too much.

[Bret Gillan]

Sounds cool, NB! What sort of things would cause you to make Humanity rolls besides sorcery in your setting?

[Nero's Boot]

Sounds cool, NB! What sort of things would cause you to make Humanity rolls besides sorcery in your setting?

Essentially, the Humanity paradox comes entirely from sorcery, yet sorcery is the central axis 'pon which all else spins.  Sorcerers in this setting have virtually unlimited power to explore and destroy; they essentially have gigantic cold-fusion spaceships with enough nuclear arsenal in them to wipe out entire star systems, sensors strong enough to peer into other galaxies, engines capable of taking one from one side of the galaxy to the next in only a few months, and psionic boosters that make a man into a god-mind.

You have the power to transcend everything: The human race itself, sanity, limitation, and emotional weakness.  But that's just it: Should you use such power?  Is it right to act as a god to countless alien species you'll encounter out there in the void?  Is it right to ascend and become something unrecognizable to the common man?  Is the power these ships offering worth the pricetag they're asking of you?

--Psionic Integrity is more than mere force of will; it's also your ability to remain human with so much staggering cosmic power at one's fingertips NB

[Nero's Boot]

Ubergeek2012, you have a point 'bout the powers being repetitive.  Going back through the rules, I see you're right.  I'll change that to, "All demons must possess the power: Cover (intersteller warship)."

--how does that sound? NB

[ubergeek2012]

Yeah, that's a pretty good idea.  Are all the ships in your setting going to be warships, or would some have been designed for other purposes?  We had a ship in the Heartless Void playtest that was designed as an asteroid mining vessel, even though it had the ability (and inclination) to disassemble other ships and objects and absorb their base elements (special damage lethal).  Compared to normal starships it was still very powerful, even though it wasn't even intended by its builders to be a warship.

It's also worth noting that if the ships are being defined as passers, they'd get that cover for free, right?

And by the way, my name is Bob.  I didn't realize the naming rules/conventions here when i made the account.  I should see if I can change it.

[Nero's Boot]

OK, then, the ships'll be Passing demons.

--"Cover (intersteller warship)" for free, then NB

[Nero's Boot]

Yeah, that's a pretty good idea.  Are all the ships in your setting going to be warships, or would some have been designed for other purposes?  We had a ship in the Heartless Void playtest that was designed as an asteroid mining vessel, even though it had the ability (and inclination) to disassemble other ships and objects and absorb their base elements (special damage lethal).  Compared to normal starships it was still very powerful, even though it wasn't even intended by its builders to be a warship.

No, I'm wanting them to be warships.  They're primary designed to destroy and get to places quickly in order to destroy.

--but I AM open to the concept of other types of alien vessel NB

[Chris Peterson]

Would riding in a ship be a setting prerequisite for commanding the Demon?

Of course!  A captain does not command his vessel from afar, after all.  Still, with Link, a vessel could be called to your side, and boarded safely.

--thoughts?  Opinions?  Likes and dislikes? NB

Yes! Just like Michael Knight and KITT!

"KITT, where are you?!"

[IMAGinES]

Or a cross between the Andromeda Ascendant and a Shadow Dreadnought...

[IMAGinES]

You have the power to transcend everything: The human race itself, sanity, limitation, and emotional weakness.  But that's just it: Should you use such power?  Is it right to act as a god to countless alien species you'll encounter out there in the void?  Is it right to ascend and become something unrecognizable to the common man?  Is the power these ships offering worth the pricetag they're asking of you?

Hmm.

Maybe this is a question best answered through actual play, but - one wonders how you make that conflict meaningful? If every player is going to have at least one of these warship-demons at its disposal, how do you play up the alternative - remaining human - as an attractive option? How do you, in other words, allow the PCs to interact with Just Folks? Should a ship thus actually have a crew, for a ready supply of people who might look upon you with horror?

Just my thinkin'.