[Sorcerer] Mind Games

[Peter Nordstrand]

Måns wanted to play Sorcerer, so I called Johan, and the three of us got together last Tuesday for character generation. Måns had mentioned Philip K. Dick, and I came up with a one sheet centering on issues that I associate with Dick's writing.

He was crazy. Took drugs, saw God. Big fucking deal...

What is real? Are your memories really your own, or have they been planted by someone or something else? Can you even be certain that you are human and not a robot, an alien, or perhaps just a dream in somebody else's drug addled brain?


Setting
Sometime in the future. It is a repressive society if you are a dissident, but Earth's dwindling middle class is living a shielded existance. Authoritarianism is hiding behind trademarks, killer design, and an abundance of entertainment and more or less artificial diversions.

Both the moon and Mars are slowly being colonized. A mining colony on the moon, with a nearby military base, has evolved into the sprawling underground Luna City. Here, lawlessness and misery lives side by side with an oppression police state. Reality on the moon is hard and grey.

Mars, on the other hand, is being transformed from a desert planet into a luxurious and verdant colony for the outrageously rich. New Earth is being built here, free from pollution, disease, and a threatening  lower class. Several megacorporations in bio technology, medicine, cybernetics, and terraforming have acquired large tracts of land for themselves and their employees. The process has only recently begun, but the first settlers are already arriving.

Inspiration
Early David Cronenberg, the fiction of Philip K. Dick. The tv series Raines.

Humanity
Humanity is the ability to separate fantasy from reality. At 0 Humanity you are psychotic, trapped in a dream world of hallucinations and delusions.

Demons
The sorcerer has given up part of the control over his own body, senses and experiences to ... something else. In return he gains access to abilities and knowledge far beyond his wildest dreams. Demons tempt their masters with fantasies and escapism.

Rituals
Rituals are based on things that affects the sorcerer's ability to sense and interpret reality. It can be drugs and medication, brain surgery, or different kinds of implants that affect your sensory capacity, or perhaps it is hypnosis or plain old brain washing.

We had a good chat, and Måns and Johan came up with great characters. And demons. I'll post them next.

[Peter Nordstrand]

We talked a bit about the setting, added a couple of Descriptors, and so on. We were all pretty much on the same page. On to character generation.

Johan character is Alejandro Delgado, a preacher working the slums of Luna City, helping the poor and healing the sick. He has a problem with authorities, which in the past got him kicked out of first the military and later the seminary.

Apparently the moon branch of the catholic church is run by a cardinal, an influential public figure that Alejandro particularly dislikes. Noted.

Alejandro's demon is a moving tattoo that confers great oratory skills to its master. (Well, actually the binding strength is 3 in the demon's favor, so we'll see about that master thing.) More importantly, it gives him the ability to heal disease with the judicious use of Perception and a Special Damage ability that kills bacteria and viruses. Finally, it uses Psychic Force in conjunction with Special Damage to eat people's memories.

Alejandro believes that this thing is of extraterrestrial origin. He practices sorcery by manipulation a large "alien" cube that inserts hundreds of tiny needles into his flesh when he touches it. Apparently the inscriptions on this thing is what taught him sorcery.

The demon remains nameless. It's desire is destruction, and it's need is to eat people's memories.

Next: Måns character.

[Per Fischer]

This is fantastic. What are the Descriptors you are using, Peter?

I want to play this. Tell us more!

[Peter Nordstrand]

I forgot Alejandro's Kicker. It took Johan quite a while to figure this one out. We kept throwing various ideas at him, but he rejected them all. However, in the end he came up with something that I'm very happy with:

The authorities has decided to shut down the sector where he is active. Air supply and other life support will be cut off, and the population will be forced to move to another, even less attractive neighborhood. The punchline is that officials have promised not to go throuugh with the plans if only Alejandro himself promises to move out.

[Peter Nordstrand]

Thank you Per! The Descriptors aren't really that special. Stamina were things like Born on Luna, Cybernetic Implants, Drugged up, and Military Training. Will included Cosmetic Surgery, Media Figure, as well as a couple straight from the rules book. There are only three Lore Descriptors; Junkie, Member of an Organization (essentially Coven Member under a different name), and Guinea Pig (meaning that you have voluntarily had something done to you in order to let you perform sorcery).

[Peter Nordstrand]

Måns introduced a corporation named Memetech, that makes a business out of handling people's memories in various ways. Individuals can go to them to have painful memories removed or replaced with happier ones, governments use and abuse their services. Discarded memories can be used as a drug, creating all kinds of bizarre experiences.

Jackson Durant is a memory junkie. He buys his stuff under the counter from a contact at Memetech. It is all illegal of course. He is also a journalist and prominent media figure. Jackson uses the drugs to perform his sorcery. His abuse causes him to be confused as to what memories are actually his, and whether a new situation is actually happening or not, and so on. This is his Price, imparting a -1 penalty to the first roll in every scene.

Jackson has a comatose son, without any real hope of recovery. Enter the demon, a cluster of memories with the ability to communicate with unconscious people. No, this is not a mind-reading ability. It is all about communication. Jackson gets to interact with his vegetative son. The demon's desire is despair, and it's need is to regularly take control over Jackson's body. This is like the possessor-variant mentioned in Sorcerer's Soul.

I'm extatic, as you can imagine. This is exactly the kind of character I hoped one of the players would make, someone that really adresses Humanity head on.

The Kicker: There's this mythical memory drug called Face of God, or F.O.G. that is supposed to be able to liberate the mind of any human, to truly awaken their consciousness. The kicker is that Jackson receives the memory of someone who apparently has access to F.O.G., or at least the furmula to create it. If only he could get his hands on this it, he would surely be able to bring his child back from his vegetative state.