Sorcerer Settings

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

I guess I'm kind of out of the loop on some things.  I always thought that Dictionary of Mu was the first setting for Sorcerer released by someone other than Ron.  But I find out that there are, in fact, several.  Ron, can you explain to me how this came to be and perhaps recomend one that might be good for Sorcerer beginners?

Peace,

-Troy

[Ron Edwards]

That's a long story. All the way back in 1998, I decided that opening up Sorcerer for others to publish settings was a good idea. I had no little interest in what the OGL was, what D20 was, or anything like that. So it's kind of a parallel.

The first one was Schism, by Jared Sorensen, based on the first-available Sorcerer rules from 1996 and 1998. It saw the light of day in 1999 or early 2000, i think. Yes, Jared's first actually finished/published game was a Sorcerer setting.

I figured that ownership is ownership, and that people who wrote'em should own'em and make the money. Others followed or were practically simultaneous, specifically Electric Ghosts by Raven Kromer and Urge by Clinton R. Nixon.

I did decide that I wanted to sell them off my site alone (remember, no Paypal, no IPR, no nothing!! The Sorcerer site was it!) and came up with the mini-supplement deal. I also decided that they should remain PDF products and remain low-cost ($5, $6). Both of these are pretty much obsolete now; they made sense at the time.

By the time the book came out in 2001, Scott Knipe was well on the way to finishing Charnel Gods and Dav Harnish was writing Hellbound. Mike Holmes almost finished Sorcerer in Space, and there were a couple others under way that didn't get much farther than drafts. Since then, times have changed. I no longer feel much need to exert approval and any editorial help or work, and I'm now inclined to say, "Hey, just write it and publish it as you see fit, never mind my approval as long as you acknowledge the game and me." There's probably a hard limit to that, but it's much farther out than most interpretations of IP.

Does that answer any questions? I'm happy to answer anything you'd like to know about, but your inquiry was a bit broad.

Best, Ron

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

Does that answer any questions? I'm happy to answer anything you'd like to know about, but your inquiry was a bit broad.

-Yeah, and the question was worth asking just for the awesome history lesson.  I had no idea that much work with Sorcerer had been done.  Here's the situation I'm facing.  I've got some guys that I game with who've been playing DnD for about 5 years strait.  I've gotten them to help me playtest most of my DL-Quarterly games, and I think they are ready to try something alogn the lines of Sorcerer.  The thing is though, they are really setting focussed people.  Which is strange to me since they didn't pick up DnD until third edition came out.  So, is there one of these settings you would recomend as either a helpful teaching tool for Sorcerer or something that beginers could really get a handle on?  If they had a setting to hold on to, I think I could introduce Sorcerer play techniques (bangs, kickers, etc) to them without a jolting culture shock.

Thanks, Ron!

Peace,

-Troy

[Ron Edwards]

I'm afraid I'll toot my own horn in answer.

Demon Cops is ideal for your purposes. The rules are solid Sorcerer with a strong emphasis on The Sorcerer's Soul, and the setting is both familiar and I think nifty enough for people to grab onto without any sense of threat or performance anxiety.

Best, Ron