Steampunk setting?

[Elysium]

Ron,

Just to be clear to everyone, I wasn't blaming anyone and wasn't upset, just trying to forestall further 'dogpiling'. I do appreciate the help!

While that way of dealing with object 'demons' won't help me with my current group, it might in another. I've been trying to expand beyond my main gaming group lately, to explore new games and techniques, such as Sorcerer and Narrativist gaming. So far it's been great, and a lot of fun.

---
David

[Valamir]

(it's not able to move on it's own, so _something_ must have moved it),

Out of curiousity...why do you assume this is true?  As opposed to assuming they're perfectly capable of moving on their own...being demonic after all.

[Elysium]

Ralph,

It's setting specific on if these 'demons' are actually demons or not.  For a steampunk game such as this, I not looking for the setting color to be all about magic and spirits with a veneer of tech. I want it to be an abstracted and fantastic tech of steam engines, brass gears, and such. So as far as the setting is concerned, these things are just objects.

Contrast this steampunk game that I'm trying to set up with the Sorcerer game I'm currently in for the last 3 months. It takes place in a fantasy Renaissance setting in a city much like Venice combined with the culture and historical significance of Constantinople. There are spirits (jinn, pixies, imps, etc) as well as demons and angels. The objects demons there, such as the sailing ship one player has, and the creepy leather coat another has, actually are spirits, with actual in game awareness and desires of their own.

In both cases they are demons. In one case, the desires/needs and any actions it takes are purely story driven, with causality being variable depending on the specifics of the situation. In the other case it's story driven, but the causality of any action it takes is because it's a demon.

A great example someone gave is the Millennium Falcon as a 'demon'. If it suddenly stops working at a dramatic point... well there's a good reason established in the setting. It's a piece of junk. If it were to misjump and take them to a random system where they encounter trouble... well the navigation computer's a piece of junk. If it's working or not working is depending on what's dramatic for the story, and how well the crew treated the ship recently, etc. How it doesn't work is already in the setting and makes it plausible. Now if it were to vanish from the hanger where the heroes left it, or suddenly show up in the hanger where the heroes are just as they needed it, we have an entirely different situation. How'd it get where it is now? Who did it?

---
David

[angelfromanotherpin]

A great example someone gave is the Millennium Falcon as a 'demon'. If it suddenly stops working at a dramatic point... well there's a good reason established in the setting. It's a piece of junk. If it were to misjump and take them to a random system where they encounter trouble... well the navigation computer's a piece of junk. If it's working or not working is depending on what's dramatic for the story, and how well the crew treated the ship recently, etc. How it doesn't work is already in the setting and makes it plausible. Now if it were to vanish from the hanger where the heroes left it, or suddenly show up in the hanger where the heroes are just as they needed it, we have an entirely different situation. How'd it get where it is now? Who did it?

Hey David,

At the risk of repeating myself, and my apologies in advance if you got this already, the answer to those questions is: Whatever the play-group decides is appropriate and cool.  In this case it could be automated mechanisms of the hangar moving the ship to another level to manage the parking space, or shipping it to maintenance for being a piece of crap, or some such thing.  If you can't come up with anything, someone in your group probably can.

Or you can also just declare that certain acts aren't possible.  Nothing in the Sorcerer book specifically states that a person with (for example) a vampirism Parasite Demon will go up like semtex in the sun, but in certain settings, it will happen anyway.  That's a 100% setting-imposed restriction on in-game behavior.  If everyone in the group has their heads in the setting, it should be immediately apparent what actions are appropriate for Object Demons and which are not.  It's a distinction you seem to make strongly already.

[Elysium]

Jules,

Thanks. Those were good answers to the questions. Yes, they are quite dependant on what the group finds fun.

The questions were more retorical in a context of answering Ralph's question, though. The point I was trying to make was that these questions can take on a whole different level of importance, and can be seen in a very different way, depending on how you define demons within the in game context. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Still, those are good answers to the questions, in a larger context.

---
David