[Sorcerer] Day of Dupes 3

[Peter Nordstrand]

Previous threads

Character generation
First play session
Second session
See our wiki for character sheets and ... stuff.


General Observations

I didn't prep a lot this time. I came up with a couple of new Bangs, and fine-tuned some back-story details for Théobald. I had an awful headache most of the day prior to the session, and didn't really have the time or energy to focus as much as I usually do. Coming to think of it, I never really do focus as much as I usually do. ;-) Anyway, once Jonas and Johan showed up we had some food and got going.

Early in the session I was a bit disoriented. We did a social conflict that I handled plain wrong. But after a while, we picked up momentum and I ended up having a really good time.

[Peter Nordstrand]

Théobald

Théobald is a tobacco connoisseur, who also imports tobacco from South America. His demon is Hugo, a manservant with a Quasimodo-like appearance who likes to watch Théobald having sex.

Player: Johan.


This time, my goal was to give Théobald's story some final shots of adrenalin, enough to kill a horse and keep Johan busy till the end without me having to  do much more than playing the NPCs. I think I was fairly successful. Afterwards, Johan said that he had planned to be quite proactive this session, but that I kept adding twists at such a pace that he was unable to keep up. However, I don't think that was a complaint at all. My distinct impression was that Johan had a good time and that he is looking forward to our next sitting.


Highlights

Claire de Guiche, with her father, is in Paris to marry the wealthy Baron d'Albi. Clair was the young gentlewoman that was molested by Théobald when he first became a Sorcerer, as a part of binding his demon.

Evidence suggests that Baron d'Albi is having an affair with Mme. de Racieux. Yes, that's right, the very same Madame that Théobald has an affair with. The very same Madame that wanted Théobald to murder her husband. (Monsieur de Racieux was subsequently murdered by the demon Lukos, not by Théobald.)

Later, Hugo (Théobald's demon) gets arrested for sexually harassing Claire by standing semi-naked outside her bedroom.

Théobald was attacked by two angry sailors. They were sent by a sea captain named André, who Théobald humiliated in the first session. He would probably have managed quite well by himself, nevertheless Lukos (see above) showed up from nowhere, beheaded one of the sailors and scared away the other.

Lukos convinced Théobald to help decipher a certain coded document that Lukos has in his possession. Théobald asked Alexandre (Jonas character) for help. This was the first time the two of them met, and it was quite interesting. In return for some money, Alexandre deciphered the document which turned out to be a list of influential men conspiring against Cardinal Richelieu, the most powerful man in France.

A young man challenges Théobald to a duel to the death for molesting his sister Claire (above). I describe him as very young, and keeping his voice in a constant whisper. Later it turns out that Claire has no brother. Listening to Johan's speculations on the subject brought me great joy. This is a setup for future humanity-rolls, when he realizes who the young lad really is.


Next Session

I think it is important to let Johan decide for himself where he wants to go next. I think I will have him list the top three things that he wants his character to achieve. Then we make his first scene about whatever he is most interested in, and his second scene about the second most interesting plot thread. I'll frame the third scene, and then back to Johan again. We will probably have to deviate from this plan somewhat, but it does feels like a good rule of thumb.

Naturally, the duel with Claire's "brother" will take place early in the session. I can't wait to tell Johan who it really is.

Oh ... and the players don't know who Lukos' master is (was). I need to give them that information a.s.a.p.

The conspiracy against the Cardinal is not at the center of the story anymore. My original preparations included three player characters, where one of the co-conspirators was the father of one of them. With that character out of the picture some of the things I have included are a bit ... strange. Anyway, I'll put the most focus on whatever interests Johan the most. Perhaps the conspiracy turns out to be a big deal in the end. Again, I'll let Johan decide ... well, actually, Alexandre's Imp demon will have a say as well. *grin* Yeah, that's what it is: The conspiracy is what ties the player characters together now. That's kind of cool.

I'm rambling.

[Peter Nordstrand]

Perhaps the conspiracy turns out to be a big deal in the end. Again, I'll let Johan decide ... well, actually, Alexandre's Imp demon will have a say as well. *grin*

People! Nobody asks about this? You should, because it will probably affect the next session a lot. Okay, I'll ask it myself.

Peter, what does Alexandre's Imp have to do with whether the conspiracy turns out to be an important plot element or not?

Sorry, I forgot to tell. Imp has stolen the coded documents that mentions the names of all the conspirators. Nice, eh?


Cheers,

/Peter

[Peter Nordstrand]

Alexandre

Alexandre is an all-round genius and artist whose Price is the inability to finish his projects. He has presently bound two demons. The first is Imp, who inspires him to create great works of art and who has the ability to perceive people's greatest dreams and their darkest secrets. The other is Shawl, who Théobald summoned to protect his sister Fanche. Fanche is a low-life prostitute and the illegitimate child of Alexandre's father and a high ranking noble woman.

Player: Jonas.


Highlights

Alexandre sees Hugo (Théobald's demon) visiting prostitutes in the disreputable parts of Paris, and recognizes him as a demon.

Alexandre's father has managed to get his son a job as an infantry colonel in Quebec. If Alexandre is out of the country, he can't cause a scandal, can he? Formally, the position is offered by the King, and turning it down would dishonor both Alexandre and his father. A rather messy social conflict ensues, where the father is forced to recognize Fanche as his daughter. In the end, they both agree that Alexandre can take his sister with him to the colonies, which would make it much easier to pass her off as a gentlewoman. Nobody's honor gets hurt, and all is well. Or so it seems.

Wait a minute! Imp doesn't like this. It wants the whole humiliating story to be made public. Alexandre Contains it in order to keep it from making the story known, but by the end of the session, he voluntarily removes the Contain to get his demon's aid in deciphering the document mentioned in Théobald's writeup, above.

Fanche demands to meet her father. However, when Alexandre introduces them to each other, she stabs the father with a rusty knife!  "I always promised myself to kill him if I ever met him", she says staring in chock at her injured dad. "It doesn't feel like I expected it would." Her father then forgives her, and insists that it was an accident! However, when the royal surgeon shows up, Alexandre hints that he himself is the one guilty of stabbing his old man!

The fate of Alexandre and Fanche's dad has yet to be determined. He is in the care of the most distinguished Royal Quacks, so anything can happen really.

Alexandre is also challenged to a duel, by the brother (a genuine brother this one) of a gentlewoman he humiliated in the previous session. Naturally, the duel is to take place at the very same location — and at the same time  — as Théobald's upcoming duel. It will be fun to see what happens.

Finally, we have the meeting between Alexandre and Théobald described above. And Imp ends up stealing the coded document ... I cannot wait for that one to implode. Coming to think of it, the whole conspiracy against Richelieu is important to the story, but in a MacGuffiny sort of way. Which I guess was Ron's intention when he made up the scenario anyway?



Next Session

I doubt that Alexandre's Kicker is as close to being resolved as it currently seems. Next sitting, I aim to give Jonas a bucketload of shit for his character to wade through at his pleasure. He has two demons, and it is time for both to go crackers in an ugly display of demon entrepreneurship.

Jonas has clearly stated that he isn't very interested in his character's mother, who apparently lives in a manor somewhere outside Paris. Problem is, this makes me feel a bit restrained at the moment. I am not interested in the mother per se, but  ... gngyggygnm ... there is Bang material in that woman. I guess I'll just have to ask Jonas what he thinks.  Oh, give me a break! She is mentioned on the back of the character sheet after all. I'm bringing her in unless Jonas explicitly tells me not to. Or maybe I'm not. Somebody, please advice.

Prediction: Next session, Alexandre's story arc will spin out of control just like Théobald's did this time. Either that, or his kicker will resolve really soon.



Questions and comments are more than welcome.


/Peter

[Lisa Padol]

Jonas has clearly stated that he isn't very interested in his character's mother, who apparently lives in a manor somewhere outside Paris. Problem is, this makes me feel a bit restrained at the moment. I am not interested in the mother per se, but  ... gngyggygnm ... there is Bang material in that woman. I guess I'll just have to ask Jonas what he thinks.  Oh, give me a break! She is mentioned on the back of the character sheet after all. I'm bringing her in unless Jonas explicitly tells me not to. Or maybe I'm not. Somebody, please advice.

Yah, bring her in. "isn't very interested" does not indicate "don't introduce her" to me. It indicates that the player isn't invested in this NPC. He doesn't really care.

So, first of all, don't kick yourself if nothing interesting happens when you introduce the mother. The player's given you a heads up about that.

Don't beat a dead horse -- if things don't click with the mother, don't try to force anything. Move on to your next bang or plot twist or whatever. But keep the mother around, in case inspiration strikes for something else. (e.g., okay, the player and PC don't much care, but then she winds up with a mcguffin or something. You can kill her off, but if they player doesn't care in the first place, I recommend it.)

Do try to find a way to make her interesting to the player, whether this means personality-wise or plot-wise.

Remember that NPCs should want stuff from PCs or want to do stuff to PCs. Does she want her son to help out around the house? To get married? To send money home?

Does she have any other plans? These can either tie into plots or appear to tie into plots (e.g., she's planning an innocent tea party and invites someone tied into other things, which may make the PCs think something is up, and will make an NPC think something is up).

And, things can sort of build. In my Cthulhupunk campaign, I had an NPC murder a man who was teaching one of the PCs. Between sessions, it dawned on me that the NPC's next target had to be the person who lived with the dead man, just in case that person revealed anything. Later on, I knew she had to kill someone who had really ticked her off. And so on. But, I hadn't actually planned that spiral.

In the Sorcerer game I'm running, I expected one type of clash between Niccolo, Julian's PC, and a nasty sorcerer named Marcello. It didn't happen, for good and sufficient reasons. But, between sessions, I figured out that Marcello had been, ah, inspired by what he'd seen of Niccolo's demon, and that triggered reactions from two other PCs, one of whom wound up with a second demon as a result. The next session, Niccolo sent thugs to rough up Marcello, which led to an offstage snapshot summoning, which led, in the following session, to Dave's PC, Andreas, killing Marcello, which is looking like it may lead to a trip to Italy to banish a lot of Possessor demons in the bodies of children and which will lead, hopefully, next session, to Andreas trying to sort out what happened in his lab when he was gone. None of the later stuff could have been pre-planned from the beginning. I just looked at the R-map, what had happened, and what might happen. But first, you throw the NPCs into the pot, and see what happens.

-Lisa

[Jonas Ferry]

Jonas has clearly stated that he isn't very interested in his character's mother, who apparently lives in a manor somewhere outside Paris. Problem is, this makes me feel a bit restrained at the moment.

This is what I wrote in the second session thread. I include it for the general reader and not to remind Peter, who already knows all this.

I'm not that interested in the mother's story, and have made my best to not include her in any way. I've talked about how she hasn't influenced Alexendre much, and how all his contact has been with his father. She's not even living in Paris, but in a countryside manor somewhere, so she's out of the way. What I thought when you had the demon insist on bringing her in was that you had a whole bunch of neat bangs that depended on me going there. I knew that I had a choice, but I felt that if I chose to stay away I better have something more interesting to do myself.

That still stands. Same as you, I'm not interested in the mother per se, but she could be made interesting. You probably know Alexendre's priorities by now.

First of all he wants to protect his sister and somehow elevate her to her proper place in society. Secondly he wants to protect his father. The order wasn't clear until Fanche stabbed Alfonse, then I/Alexendre chose to protect the sister by taking the blame for the assault. So the mother can be made interesting if she has something to do with the sister, otherwise I feel she would just be a distraction. I mean, please introduce her if you want to, but don't be surprised if I have Alexendre answer "So what?" to whatever problem she brings, unless it changes the current situation with the sister. I'd rather leave her out of it and have the information reach Alexendre some other way, but if it's the mother it has to be, introduce her then.

It was nice that you introduced Alex's universal genius in the game; that's something that has been lacking. I originally saw him as an overworked, ambitious and brilliant artist and engineer, but we haven't given him any work yet. I would like him to have customers asking for their paintings and designs for bridges and stuff, while he tries to solve the dilemma with the sister. But since he hasn't worked yet, perhaps there's a pile of unfinished stuff that he has to handle now? I mainly want it to be color, it shouldn't be the focus of the game, but it would be fun if he had to do sketches for some design while his opponent in the duel is warming up.

Another question, apart from the question of where Alexendre's ambitions in working lie, is the question why he's doing all this for his sister. You know, I think he's attracted to her.

[Peter Nordstrand]

Thank you Lisa and Jonas for replying and helping me out. I'll continue the topic in my next actual play report, sometime next week. Right now, however, I have trouble finding time to even think straight.

You know, I think he's attracted to her.

Yuck, ick, ugh, yech, blech, eeew ...

cool

[Peter Nordstrand]

Waitaminute. You just gave me a list of priorities, Jonas. My job as a Sorcerer GM is to go "Reeealy? Let's see what your priorities are when THIS happens."

Neat.

Thank you, mister Karlsson.