Parasite Communication

[Rod Anderson]

Hi,

I'm starting a Sorcerer & Sword campaign in which the PCs are Sorcerer-Kings in a Moorcock-esque world of purple skies, jagged black peaks and dangerous beasts in the mix-n-match-animal-parts mode. One of the characters has a Parasite Demon -- it's a glowing mauve fluid that lives in his blood and makes him a fightin', smitin' badass; its Desire is Power, and its Need is for its host to inflict unjust punishment.
My question: How does the Demon communicate these things to its host? Throbs of pleasure or pain? Simply by accepting or rejecting requests to use its abilities? I can think of a number of things, but I'm curious as to what other people have done.
Maybe the player could have the authority to describe how it feels to have the demon inside him, pulsing with glee/frustration/whatever, and my role can simply be to say "Yes" or "No" to requests for ability use, depending on whether I think the demon's Desire is being met, or whether it's hungry, etc.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks,

Rod Anderson

[edited for grammar]

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Rod,

The key to communication with Parasite demons is this:

Exactly what the player wants.

In other words, if he wants a lot of miscommunication to be going on, then it should be vague or garbled. If he wants it to be clear, then hell, the thing literally talks to him. Or anything in between.

But whatever the player wants in terms of medium or clarity, you should find that out and do it exactly that way.

Best,
Ron

[Rod Anderson]

Of course! Thanks, Ron.

Rod

[Jason L Blair]

Okay, we all know Ron's the author and all, so his response is as kosher as it gets, but I'm going to offer an alternate response.

I like the idea of an antagonistic demon determining its own method of communication. For me, it builds the tension between the sorcerer and the demon. This all hinges, obviously, on whether or not the demon in question is an obvious antagonist to the sorcerer. This changes the  relationship significantly, and bends more toward my style of GMing.

I'd get the player's okey-dokey on this, though, but I think it's a cool alternate.

[Uncle Dark]

Jason,

Shouldn't that decision be up to the player?  After all, one of the main principles of character generation in Sorcerer is that the player gets exactly what he or she wants.  That's part of player protagonism, right?

Lon

[Ron Edwards]

Jason,

I think you might be confounding player vs. character. In other words, say you were a Sorcerer player, and you said exactly what you posted above. I'd say, "OK!" and that would be that - you'd have an antagonistic Parasite demon who did not communicate freely to its host. As stated.

You haven't presented an alternate view at all. The only possible alternate to my "ruling" would be that the GM sets the demon's mode of communication, not the player. That's OK for a demon introduced during play, but not for a player-character's starting demon.

Best,
Ron

[Mike Holmes]

That's OK for a demon introduced during play, but not for a player-character's starting demon.

I Think that's a point that  lot of people have missed. CharGen allows the player to be quite specific with what they want from their initial demon. But when summoning, it's up to the GMs whim what actually appears. Thus the player is satisfied in CharGen, and a GM like Jason is satisfied in play. It's a neat little split.

Also, there's nothing wrong with suggesting. That is, the player can take the GMs suggestions, for an initial demon, and the GM can take the player's suggestions in play. But the rules are pretty specific about who has final say in each case. Such suggestions should only be adopted if they look like they will be engaging, and leave room for conflict (pretty much a given).

Mike