Secret Binding Strength?

[greyorm]

I'm gearing up for a game of Sorcerer (hopefully) with my weekly gaming group. I figured it would be a good game to get the three of us through the month-plus while we wait for the rest of our group to stop being busy and/or start showing up regularly.

As part of this process, I've been reviewing the book now that I've finally FOUND it (WHEW!) and also thinking of running at least one session with the "Mythic Game Master Emulator" to oil the rusty gears. This resulted in discussing the game tangentially on the GME list, whereon it came to my attention that the strength of the Binding (the number of bonus/penalty dice established when a demon is Bound) is supposed to be kept secret from the players.

I had thought that ruling was an artifact of the Apprentice version, but I was referred to the example on page 91 of the main book which indicates otherwise, and informed that "according to the rules" you only know the Binding strength of your first demon and none afterwards.

Now, I can't find anything about keeping the Binding roll results secret from the players in the rules on the Binding ritual, only the example in the book and my Forge Search-fu is weak, so given what I've read/been informed(?) of, I am wondering do you: know the Binding strength of your first demon, and only the gamemaster knows the Binding strength of any demon Bound thereafter? Know the Binding strength at the outset, but not how it changes thereafter? Not know the Binding strength at all for any of your Bound demons? Something else?

What is the suggested way to handle knowledge of Binding strength in play?

[Seth M. Drebitko]

 I would handle the issue as thematically appropriate but generally my preference is that the player know only that they succeeded. It will be from this point to the GM to role play the strength of that bind and the player to pick up on how far they can push it. However if we are talking about maybe computer hacking as the binding a programmer should be able to infer how well they programmed.

  Regards, Seth 

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Raven,

Here are three threads to check out about that:
[Sorcerer] Rules question: changing bond strength
Binding rolls
The final post in [Sorcerer] Three things I need to understand

Follow-up discussion is fine with me; I'm strapped for time at this instant so can't type about it right now. Also, thanks Seth!

Best, Ron

[greyorm]

Follow-up discussion is fine with me; I'm strapped for time at this instant so can't type about it right now.

Nope. I think those links covered everything. Thanks Ron and Seth!

Let me go over what I'm thinking the answers are based on the threads, in case I've missed or misread something:

The Binding strength is, technically, kept a secret...but do whatever works for your specific group is how it actually works. And Binding strength can also change during the course of the game, either downwards (towards a less secure Binding, with no one having the upper hand) or upwards in either the demon's or sorcerer's favor.

[Seth M. Drebitko]

Pretty much!