Players as Demons

[Finarvyn]

I mentioned this in another thread, and thought I might start a new one so as to not clutter up the other one.

In part, this stems back to my problem of having 6 players, which seems to be too many sorcerers.

One thing that I tried (with limited success) was taking 6 players and trying to set them up as 3 sorcerers and 3 demons. My plan was to build some intereaction between each sorcerer-demon pair in the hopes that they could challenge each other in the same way that I might challenge a player as a GM.

What seems to have happened is either:
1. Some of the pairs banded together to work cooperatively, so that there was little tension between them and the story lost some of its umph.
2. Some of the pairs were totally antagonistic toward each other, and the demons spent all of their time trying to play pranks on the sorcerers and humiliate them.

I think that perhaps I need to spend more time educating my players on the steps of control of demons, need of demons, and so on. Perhaps they aren't seeing the delicate balance between the sorcerer and the demon.

So, my questions are:
1. Has anyone else tried to pair up players as sorcerers and demons?
2. Is having a player be a demon a really clever idea, or a really bad idea?
3. Any general suggestions as to how it might work better?

[angelfromanotherpin]

I've tried it and it worked out pretty well.  It certainly freed up a good deal of my attention for the rest of the world.

The biggest deal is that Demons are not '-tagonists' in the way that Sorcerers are, and the players of the Demons have to know that and be okay with it going in. 

[Finarvyn]

The biggest deal is that Demons are not '-tagonists' in the way that Sorcerers are, and the players of the Demons have to know that and be okay with it going in.

Nice to hear that you had some success with this. Any special rules or guidelines that you recommend? (Other than the protagonist note, of course.)

[angelfromanotherpin]

Well, this falls a little under the -tagonist thing but I would strongly recommend enforcing the 'command' effect, where any Sorcerer can tell any demon what to do with a Will vs Will roll... and if successful, the Demon obeys.  That is, normal folks, especially Sorcerers, and most especially Sorcerer PCs, can always choose to take penalties instead of being socially compelled, and Demons, even PC Demons, can't (when the command comes from a Lore-bearing individual). 

In your group it seems like it might be worth making a big deal about how Demons really tend to only care about two things: their Need, and their Desire.  There's a few other things (like the aversion to performing on national television, and the hatred of being punished), but most of a Demon's existence is about the addiction that is Need, and the obsession that is Desire.  When my Demon-players asked what these things were like, I said they were consuming and defining;  I said that when they thought Need they should think Requiem for a Dream, and when they thought Desire they should think Moby Dick.  That got their motors running.