Gangster Sorcerer

[Judd]

I tried to Search around to find a campaign concept like the one I'm about to outline.  If anyone knows what it was called, I'd love to get a link to it.

The P.C.'s are all crime lords, probably in the same family.  Demons are people with no morals, none at all.  They have descended into a kind of sociopathic otherworld, a neighborhood of the city where Demons come from and you'd have to go through a tunnel to get there.  People just know who they are, that they are from that part of town.

Inspirations are the Sopranos, Miller's Crossing and Godfather.

Sure there are people, just normal Joes and Janes who do terrible things but Demons are different.  They don't just go shoot somebody or drive by.  They spray the block with bullets, carve somebody up in front of their kids for owing the boss money.  People are uncomfortable around Demons, uneasy and don't like when they have to be around too often.

Humanity is morals, having a shred of descency left while doing entirely indescent things and using morally bereft people to do so, bringing them to your side of town, inviting these bastards into your home.

When your Humanity hits zero you pick up and move to the other side of town.  You become a Demon and the player has the option of making up a Sorcerer whose primary Demon is their former PC.

Demons are gangster molls, junkyard owners who hide bodies, hired muscle, assassins, crooked cops and doctors who won't ask questions.

Lore is how well you know the underworld and how well you know the in's and out's of the criminal element.

Angel rules for turning to the feds and getting out of the Life?

Necromantic token rules to be used as a kind of street reputation or juice or whatever you want to call it.  It basically entails garnering extra dice from the death of someone who was publically giving the organization trouble.  

Comments and criticism appreciated.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Judd,

This is exactly what Walter Mosley's novels are like. Easy's friend Mouse is, basically, a sociopath, and he finds himself using Mouse as a weapon in many circumstances, and in some cases the weapon turns out to be too dangerous to hold.

Best,
Ron

[ross_winn]

this is arguably a great setting. I espescially like the idea of serial characters as humanity decreases. I would add a wrinkle that each of these former characters may lower the next characters humanity. This would make the balance of having the tools to get the job done opposed to keeping the character "family" whole and (somewhat) sane.

[Judd]

this is arguably a great setting. I espescially like the idea of serial characters as humanity decreases. I would add a wrinkle that each of these former characters may lower the next characters humanity. This would make the balance of having the tools to get the job done opposed to keeping the character "family" whole and (somewhat) sane.

Ross, I don't understand why the former characters lower the next  character's humanity.  I am currently in the process of re-reading Sorcerer and I admit to be rusty, hence the re-read but please explain what your logic is.

Thanks.

[ross_winn]

the don't in the core game, I guess I should have been clearer. I would use that as a sort of limiting mechanic to prevent characters from simply stripping all humanity away. Sorry if I was unclear.