[Sorcerer] Which demons get which abilities for free?

[Klaus_Welten]

Hello there.

The descriptions for Inconspicuous and Passing demons state that they "often" have the Cloack and Cover abilities, but the text of those abilities say that demons of those types get them for free (so they always have them). Which one is true?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Klaus,

That text has some problems. I'll tell you what I intended at the time of writing.

1. Passer demons must have the Cover ability. It counts as one of the abilities accounted for by a demon's Lore score. Therefore a Passing demon has a number of abilities equalling its Lore.

2. Inconspicuous demons must have the Cloak ability. It does not count as one of the abilities accounted for by a demon's Lore score. (this is why the Cloak text reads "for free" for them and the Cover text does not.) Therefore an Inconspicuous demon has a number of abilities equalling its Lore + 1.

The first problem with the text is simply not outlining the issue like I just did. The second problem is that the "almost" phrasing in the text about both demon Types is legacy from earlier drafts in which the demon ability rules were less refined, and should have been deleted in the final version.

There's a deeper problem, though. It's that this entire answer, points #1-2 above, is messy rules design. At this late date, I know what I should have done: Cover for Passers and Cloak for Inconspicuous demons should both be handled the same - like #1 above. I'm not saying this as a recommendation for what to do with anyone's game of Sorcerer, as the current rules have caused no problems during play. As I say, though, it's messy, unnecessarily so.

Best, Ron