[Sorc] Player plays demon, GM controls Demon's "Intent"

[Madheretic]

As time passes by, it gets to be more likely I'll be actually playing my <a href=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=16674.0>Identity Crisis One-Sheet.</a href> while idly thinking about it for awhile, I considered this variant of demon control:

The player's 'play' the Possessor Demons in terms of portraying nuance, color and what they do, but the GM gives the Demon an "Intent", ala Trollbabe Relationships, that the player has to stick to.

There's 3 reasons I wanted to do this:

1. Adds the schizoid element of playing the characters, which could be very apt method for portraying the definition of Sorcery.

2. I see the Demons, espicially in terms of their nuances, personal histories and interactions with the Sorceror's lives as a potentially deep source of color and grist for the game, and I neither want to hog it nor accept responsibility for all of it.

3. I think a perfectly likely and acceptable occurence of character generation is to have 3 characters who all have possessors that inhabit themselves, and I don't think I know how to handle possessors enough to do that well consistantly.

I'm hopefully looking for people who have tried similar expieriments, but failing that, explainations on how I'm ruining the game or that it has a good shot of working.

[sirogit]

Woops. That post was mine. It was on my brother's computer.

And here's the link: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=16674.0

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

That's interesting. I think it flies well for Possessor demons only, and with this proviso - that a Will vs. Will roll can put the demon wholly back in the hands of the GM for a single action, and that the GM may call for this roll at any time.

H'm! Actually, that works really well, now that I consider it. It's a nice application of the vaguer advice given in Chapter 2 of The Sorcerer's Soul.

Best,
Ron

[GreatWolf]

So, would this be similar to how Wraith handled playing the Shadow (i.e. each player played the Shadow for a different player's character)?  I've long toyed with putting together a Sorcerer one-sheet using Possessors as "Shadows", and I'd be curious to hear others' experiences with this.

[James_Nostack]

Sirogit - are you talking about a "daisy chain," where player B controls player A's Possessor, subject to the GM's general instructions?  Or would Player A control his own demon subject to instructions?

If the latter, we were heading into that territory with the super-brief Sorcerer & Sword game we played a few nights ago.  My idea was to let the player run rampant with the Possessor demon, with me providing "way points" based on the demon's Desire (to be Worshipped) and Need (warfare), and rolling the dice for one side or the other to gain momentary full control.  As it happens, we never quite got there.  If it happens, I'll try to post a follow-up.

PS - What do you mean by "Trollbabe Relationships"?  I was just reading TB last night, but I'm not sure I understand the analogy.

[John Harper]

In Trollbabe, the player says what the relationship character does ("Bob kills Frank") but the GM is responsible for describing why and how they do it.