Sorcerer: the Agency

[Clinton R. Nixon]

(Note: I edited the title. As I've made certain to say before, games based on copyrighted works are a tricky area. Plus, I really like this idea, and might make it into a mini-supplement if it works well in play. So - the Agency. I didn't, however, change the terminology in the text of my messages.)

Disclaimer: The "how-do-we-make-this-into-Sorcerer?" posts can get tiresome. I get bored with them, but here I go posting one. Just a warning.

So, my group's weekly game has just come to a close, and I'm trying to figure out what to run next. I have to admit that I've run in my life exactly one (1) game of Sorcerer. I keep wanting to run it, even going so far as to plan a campaign and create characters, and then scrap it. The reason: Sorcerer scares the living shit out of me. I have immense expectations, and keep thinking, "What if I'm let down? What if I don't run it well enough?"

After a campaign of Riddle of Steel, I finally have my GM-esteem up to a level that I can take it on, but I'm still aiming for over-the-top and humorous, as I know I can run that, and it seems like a good way to ease into the game.

So, laying in bed, I come up with the perfect Sorcerer variation: Men in Black. Wild, wacky partner-based adventurers where the point is to stop bad demons (or aliens - more in a second) while using demon (alien) technology and even having demon (alien) friends and co-workers.

This morning, trying to figure out how it would work, I thought of two variations - demons are, well, demons. This would end up a little more twisted and splatter-filled: I imagine a more organized version of Angel, the television show. I might focus on this in another post. The second variation is to crib straight from the Men in Black movie, substituting aliens for demons in the Sorcerer rules.

My thoughts on why and how this would work:

- The Men in Black make great sorcerers: Lore is knowledge about different species of aliens, their languages, their technology, and what not. You've got alien friends and co-workers (Binding Imminent demons, from Sorcerer and Sword), and alien technology (Object Demons - the Binding roll is how well you know how to use it).
- Aliens make great demons. You've got the following types:

Object: Alien technology[/list:u]

Imminent: Crazy-ass looking aliens[/list:u]

Passing: Easy. They're aliens that look almost human.[/list:u]

Parasite: These are almost always bad guys - evil aliens that wear human bodies. Vincent D'Onofrio's character in MiB. (He changes to an Imminent demon later.)[/list:u]

Possessor: This would be rare, if it should up at all - basically, incorporeal psychic parasitic demons.[/list:u]

Inconspicious: Right out - what's the fun of unseen demons in this sort of scenario?[/list:u]

Where things fall apart is rituals. Ok - for the PC's, they act like normal sorcerers.

Contacting. Shit - you call them on the space-telephone. Part of Contacting would be translating and understanding alien psychologies.[/list:u]

Summoning. There'd be no summoning that I can imagine in this sort of scenario.[/list:u]

Binding. They can Bind Object aliens, and even other Imminent, Passing, and Parasite aliens. Binding would work differently depending on the type of alien and its attitude towards you. If you hired an alien to help you out, Binding would be its employment contract. If you were trying to Bind a Parasite alien that has infested someone else in order to contain it, you'd have to taunt it until it attacked you.[/list:u]

Punishing. I'm not sure of the need of this one. In this sort of game, Punishing and smacking an alien in the head are synonmous.[/list:u]

Banishing. Hm. Again, this would be mainly physical, but I'd keep it for this: no alien can die without a successful Banishing roll against it. You're basically trying to figure out its weak spot - if you don't Banish it, you can kill it, but it'll come back.[/list:u]

Pacting. This sort of game would be all about the Pacting.[/list:u]

I can't see any other sorcerer-types in the game, though: most of the antagonists would just be rogue aliens. You might have occasional people Pacting with aliens, or accidentally Contacting them, but I can't see many full-blown sorcerer-types.

Last night, as I was almost asleep, I had dozens of questions, but I can't remember them to save my life. Basically: does anyone think this would work well, and can anyone find a way to tie it into Sorcerer more?

[jburneko]

Sorcerer scares the living shit out of me. I have immense expectations, and keep thinking, "What if I'm let down? What if I don't run it well enough?"

Side Note: Glad to know I'm not the only one.

As for your outline you might do well to come up with a Humanity definition.  I find that everything does truly flow naturally from a quality definition of Humanity.  I'd suggest one but I can't think of one for an MiB style game.  It's one of the reason why I think Sorcerer is ill suited to comedy.  Once you find a quality Humanity definition things get quite serious, very fast.

Jesse

[joshua neff]

Clinton--

Nice. Actually, if you make it straight demons, rather than aliens, it sounds a lot like Demon Cops. As aliens...it still works.

And now I should get back to mutating Metropolis (the recent Japanese anime, but the Fritz Lang as well) into Sorcerer.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

As for your outline you might do well to come up with a Humanity definition.  I find that everything does truly flow naturally from a quality definition of Humanity.  I'd suggest one but I can't think of one for an MiB style game.

Oh - really easy. Humanity is the ability to relate to other normal humans. Loss of Humanity means you've "gone alien" - that is, you're so immersed in your work that you can only relate to other MiB and aliens.

If I did this, I'd probably re-name just about every thing in the game - I don't like the idea of, say, figuring out a piece of alien technology and calling it "Binding." I'd, in this case, use the same mechanics, but call it "Attunement" or maybe, plain old "Deciphering." People would still have Humanity, but aliens would have an "Alien" attribute, which would be equivalent to Power.

[joshua neff]

And of course, the aliens want you to "go alien". What do they care for human culture & psychology?

As for "rituals", I could see how Contact, Punish, & Contain would remain the same, in name & function. But Summon doesn't sound right, nor does Bind or Banish. They'd still work the same mechanically, but the way they're done in-game & the names for them would be different.

[Blake Hutchins]

Great idea, Clinton.  For the summoning, at least in the case of object demons, I picture the bright white wall sliding open to reveal a HUGE armory of alien widgets and weapons.  Summoning is simply picking one of them (like the tiny Cricket gun Wil Smith grabs in the first MiB movie).

Best,

Blake

P.S.  Instead of Summoning, it's Requisitioning.

[Bailywolf]

Actualy, I'd do Humanity as a cross between Sanity and Cool.  As a MIB you deal with all sorts of wacko jachos all the time...and keeping your head enough to make a wisecrack in the face of some enormous gibbering 8 dimensional hyperslug is of quantum inport to a MIB style game.


Loose your humanity, and you start being affected by your work, start to loose it, start to crack under the relentless pressure.  Freak out, broadway style.

[Clay]

Sorcerer scares the living shit out of me. I have immense expectations, and keep thinking, "What if I'm let down? What if I don't run it well enough?"

The short answer is that it won't let you down, even if you run it poorly.  It's only recently that I had the mechanics right, and only slightly longer that I really understood how to generate & use kickers properly.  Even with those probhlems, the game rocked.  Even my broken mechanics led to very dramatic play.  The last time I sat down and ran a sample combat, the fight flow and outcomes just based on the dice was very dramatic.

In short, you'll still probably have a good time.

[Seth L. Blumberg]

How does the MiB thing align with the ur-Premise of Sorcerer ("What would you pay to get what you want?")?

As far as Humanity goes, Bailywolf, the Sanity/Cool thing just doesn't reflect the source material. More experienced agents get cooler and more effective (and spookier).

[Clinton R. Nixon]

How does the MiB thing align with the ur-Premise of Sorcerer ("What would you pay to get what you want?")?

It doesn't really align with the ur-Premise. I'm not certain it has to. What I'm looking for here is a really fun, light-hearted game using the Sorcerer mechanics and ideas, with room to add in serious emotional drama. In this case, the Premise ends up being "Where does being human stop?" or even more "What truly makes us human?"

I think the answer will be a lot of fun.

[Bailywolf]

Right... they do a LOT of Banishing don't they?  The more nasty aliens they bag, the more cool and unflapable they get.

Crazy MIBs likely go rogue or get neuralized.

[Bailywolf]

Frankly, I don't think angsty questions about what it is to be human have ANY place at all in a MIBs game... hell, despite their weird shapes, even the aliens are pretty much "just folks".

[Seth L. Blumberg]

Bailywolf: Good point.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Frankly, I don't think angsty questions about what it is to be human have ANY place at all in a MIBs game... hell, despite their weird shapes, even the aliens are pretty much "just folks".

Give this man a cookie. Before reading the notes I haven't even written up yet, before play, he nailed it. That's exactly why the premise is "What makes us human?" It's not angsty at all - it is, however, a slap in the face to those who'd look down on a five-eyed dude.

[Mike Holmes]

I'm going to have to side with the Humanity equals normality, and low humanity equals coolness concept, something similar to Clinton's idea. I like it because it's attractive to the players. They'll want to burn Humanity to be more cool. Until they face zero cool. That's the point where the agent has become so detached from normality, so cool that he no longer has any real emotions. At that point the agency has to retire him.

Instead of losing Humanity for doing things that are evil, instead have characters lose humanity for doing stuff that is just too cool. The neat part is the player can always decide to be just as cool as he wants, but he may have to pay for it based on a Humanity check. If he instead decides to have his character freak out, he loses no Humanity. So there is an incentive to do that as well. This will, of course lead to subtle ribbing from the other agents. Which follows the genre well. Nifty.

Mike