The Forge Archives

I've just been re-reading Sorceror after picking up the excellent Sorceror & Sword supplement.

Anyway, I was checking out the bibliography and noticed the mention of The Ninth Gate. I enjoyed the movie, but would strongly suggest that anyone trying to add this sort of tone to a Sorceror game read the book upon which the movie was based, The Club Dumas (sometimes also translated The Dumas Club) by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

While the novel doesn't really have the overtly supernatural scenes of the movie, the sense of menace, mystery and transgression is much greater. Also, a very important subplot was dropped from the movie. Perez-Reverte's subtlety, the elegance of his prose and the strength of his pacing is masterful.

Lucas Corso is an incredible example of a Sorceror character: he's brilliant, avaricious, cowardly, driven and empty.

Hi Thor!

I just learned some more about The Club Dumas recently, and had written it into my "books to get." So pretty soon I'll be educated and not in the "only saw the movie" category any more.

More musing ... not about this particular story but about main characters in general ...

I have to say that my tastes in fiction/stories do tend toward a protagonist who at least eventually finds a place to stand. A lot of recent stuff seems to "go nowhere" in regard to crucial decisions of the main characters, despite whatever blood and thunder and action might occur.

Funny, though, Generation X worked very well for me - maybe because the main characters were cognizant of their own lack of a moral center, and sought to create one as well as they could.

Anyway, that's why American detective fiction works so well for my GMing style and why it's the basis for The Sorcerer's Soul - nb the title - it's all about finding "a place to stand" that does not rely on traditional mores or the forms of society. My personal goal in playing Sorcerer, at the most general level, is to see whether someone like Corso could ever develop into someone like Archer.

Best,
Ron

QuoteI have to say that my tastes in fiction/stories do tend toward a protagonist who at least eventually finds a place to stand. A lot of recent stuff seems to "go nowhere" in regard to crucial decisions of the main characters, despite whatever blood and thunder and action might occur.

I agree completely. I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised with the Lucas Corso (Corso means "run" in Italian BTW) of The Club Dumas in that respect. At the end of the novel Corso finally makes a stand and makes a very real choice.