Inside, new Sorcerer supplement in Daedalus

[Matt Snyder]

Folks, chance are you haven't heard me gush about the upcoming Sorcerer supplement that will debut in Daedalus Issue No. 2 (due out by Jan. 31 -- I'm working like a maniac here -- one man editorial army!).

The new supplement is called Inside. It's by our own Clinton R. Nixon.  It's a cyberpunk spin on Sorcerer. The "Inside" is a virtual world similar to the Matrix. It is populated by daemons, which are programs. Clinton's really done a kick ass job in creating this. It includes some new twists on old Sorcerer powers, as well as a new power. It also has some new demon types.

To beat all, I just got the illustration for Inside by Chris N. St. Pierre. It's a fantastic piece. I'm really jazzed about this appearing in Daedalus ( http://www.chimera.info/daedalus )

Look for it soon!

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Jeez, Matt - you make a dude blush.

I'm glad you dug it, though. Hopefully, others will feel the same. It's an idea that had been percolating for a while with me. The idea of ordinary people, with ordinary problems, that only have power Inside seemed to kick that fundamental Sorcerer question up a notch or two to me. "Inside," like everything in Sorcerer, isn't just an arbitrary word. I hope its meaning comes across in the text.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

I'll deliver my rant about how Inside makes The Matrix stop sucking the big purple donkey dicks that it sucks when I get the time.

Best,
Ron

[Matt Snyder]

Ron: Agreed. Inside seems to me as "The Matrix: Redeemed."

Everyone: Take a look at a sneak-peak of the Inside artwork here:

http://www.chimera.info/daedalus/images/winter2004/inside.jpg

[Matt Snyder]

Inside is now available in the winter 2004 issue of Daedalus.

http://www.chimera.info/daedalus/

[John Harper]

Best Sorcerer setting EVER. This is it, kids. Not only does Inside manage to capture what's cool about cyberpunk -- it also captures what's fundamentally cool about Sorcerer. Reading this made me remember why Sorcerer is such a great piece of work.

Run, don't walk to the Daedalus download page.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Ron - I believe you mentioned donkey dick? I'd love to hear more.

By the way, thanks, John. I'll be honest: I totally wrote this mini-supplement with the idea that you'd be the guy to GM it.

- Clinton!

[John Harper]

Really? Whoah. I mean, like, Keanu "whoah." My very own mini-supplement. Shiny.

[sirogit]

Thanks for the heads up about the second issue of Daedelus, my friend and I were looking for Sci-fi RPGs that were you know, good. I felt incredibly inspired reading Inside, thinking over a few players I would want to try it with.

[DevicDynamite]

Well this is my first post at the Forge, after having lurked a while, and it's a "me too". Not the most auspicious of beginnings perhaps, but what the hell.

I love the Matrix, I even enjoyed the sequels (sue me), so Inside immediately caught my interest. I'm not in much of a position to evaluate it in terms of a Sorcerer supplement as at the time of reading it, I had never read Sorcerer. I have since bought, and read, Sorcerer and all three of its supplements.  I've even managed to organise a date for play, a minor bloody miracle in itself! We're gonna have us some fun!

So big thanks to Clinton, and a big thanks to Ron. And to Matt, and all involved with Daedalus. Infact, hugs all around! (Oh,I feel so warm..)

Awaiting Ron's opinions on [edit: "Inside and"] the Matrix with bated breath,
Steve

[GreatWolf]

Well, I have a question about Inside, specifically about the Hack ability.  IIRC, it allows the hacker to adopt a daemon ability.  However, a hacker doesn't have a Power stat.  Or does he?  If not, what does he use in its place when using Hack?

BTW, I concur that this is a great mini-supp, especially in light of Gibson's AIs in Neuromancer and Count Zero.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Seth,

From the text:

This ritual [Hack] - always snapshot, with no penalties - requires a Fu vs. Humanity roll, and successes on the Hack roll are used for the ability's Power.

So, the Power is variable, depending on how well you do on the Hack roll. One thing I should mention is that all other side-effects do happen - Boost works, for example, but all non-Boosted scores go to 1 while it's on.

Hack is definitely one of my favorite parts of "Inside." It allows for all that wire-fu Matrix-y business with little fuss.

[Zak Arntson]

Oh man, why haven't I played me any Sorcerer, yet? And with these great supplements (Inside, Charnel Gods), what am I waiting for? Sheesh.

Inside is plain awesome, Clinton. I love "Fu" as an attribute. One question: Daemons cannot write their own code. Modern computer science has programs which do nothing _but_ write code (genetic algorithms), and viruses make copies of themselves throughout memory. Would this be disallowed in Inside?

I see the viruses can control other daemons -- which is somewhat analagous. But what about a virus turning a daemon into a copy of themselves? Or a factory which churns out copies of themselves?

[jburneko]

I see the viruses can control other daemons -- which is somewhat analagous. But what about a virus turning a daemon into a copy of themselves? Or a factory which churns out copies of themselves?

I haven't read Inside completely yet, but what you describe sounds like a combination of the demon ability Spawn modified to allow the demon to Spawn possessor demons.

I can tell that Inside REALLY customizes the rules a bit so I don't even know if the concepts I just used still applied but I thought I'd just throw it out there anyways.

Jesse

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Jesse hits it: it's a use of Spawn, especially with Possessor demons - called Virii in "Inside."

You'd be surprised, Jesse, at how little the rules had to be fiddled with to support this mini-supplement. As I recall, the changes that had to be made were:

- Rename the demon types, rituals, and some attributes.
- Add one ritual.
- Establish zero Humanity outcomes.
- Establish attribute descriptors.

Besides the one ritual, it's basically what you'd do for any Sorcerer mini-supplement.