The game’s Sorceror, set in 18th century Africa. Here's the prep thread.

Sean’s playing Rasputin, a Russian sorcerer eager for the demonic knowledge he knows can be found in the heart of Africa.

Gino’s playing Sebastian, a racist English fop exiled to Africa by his parents.

The joint Kicker was that Sebastian sleeps with The Contessa, an old Russian girlfriend of Rasputin’s. Sebastian is angry at being drugged and manipulated into sex; Rasputin wants to know why this woman he hasn’t seen in three years is in Africa, in this city, sleeping with his best friend... because it sure as hell ain’t a coincidence.

Soon after Sebastian wakes up in the Contessa’s bedroom, he gets into a fight with the Contessa’s bodyguard, Azaan – a one-sided fight that ends with Sebastian being thrown out a window.

Sean suggested that Rasputin could be walking by and sees Sebastian land. This would put the two of them together more quickly than I’d expected, but I thought it was a good idea because it’d introduce the central relationships quickly. And it let me introduce Rasputin’s three-year old baby, Yvan, which was my big spike to Rasputin’s Kicker.

My highlight of the session was a sequence that started when Rasputin and Sebastian arrived back at their apartment to talk (two or three scenes into the game) until the end of the session

* I loved playing Jalali, Rasputin’s demon, who wants to eat Rasputin’s baby in exchange for pivotal information about Rasputin’s past.

* Sebastian’s romantically involved in the daughter of the city’s dictator. I had the dictator throw Sebastian in jail, so he could find out if Sebastian’s intentions were honourable.

* Throughout that scene, there was a dead body in the cell. It was the body of one of their business rivals, which I left there, unexplained, for a while. Then I threw Rasputin into the cell as well and a full-on social and physical conflict ensued, with the two of them trying to convince the dictator they were innocent, and then trying to overcome the guards in an escape attempt.

Thoughts

I really liked GMing for 2 players. It was easy to keep both of them involved and the whole game felt like a conversation rather than ringmastering.

There was also a light, funny tone to the game that I hadn't expected. This was driven by Gino’s portrayal of Sebastian's upper-class attitude, and his willingness to take pratfalls.

The relationship between the PCs felt well-established. These two characters have been travelling together for a while, and Gino and Sean have been friends for ages.

Any time there was a reference to anything that had happened before, I eagerly jotted it down and inserted it into the timeline I’d written up. As far as I’m concerned, the timeline is the setting.

Even though I'd prepped most of the bangs for Sean's character (Rasputin), I found I was giving most of the screen time to Gino. It seemed fair to me and - from later conversation – to Sean as well.

I’m not entirely sure if Gino was ENGAGED with his Kicker. But he did what it says in the rules – made sure his character had a reason to stick around, and found something to care about. In this case, that someone (probably an old enemy) was killing their business rivals and framing Rasputin and Sebastian for the murders.

On the ride back home, Sean and I had a good talk. I’ll paraphrase some of the points here:

- Quite often I was dominating the narration of conflict outcomes, rather than letting all three of us contribute to figuring out what the situation now looked like
- Sometimes the narration of conflict outcomes didn’t take account of everything that had happened inside the conflict.
- Sean seemed a little ... uncomfortable (?) about conflicts where opponents stated intentions that weren’t directly in opposition.
- Sean also commented that you can get on an upward spiral (a life-spiral?) of bonus dice, that can start to guarantee success. On the other hand, this did lead to Gino carrying around 8 bonus dice and frakking vapourising a spider demon with a single thrown dagger – which was the single coolest moment of the entire game for me.

My main concern was that I found the prep for the game was really tough. Generating the web of characters, figuring out what each NPC really wanted, coming up with bangs. For both sessions 1 and 2, it felt like a lot of work for really good results – but certainly more prep than I’ve been used with with games like Primetime Adventures and Burning Empires.

Prep in Sorcerer is time-consuming.  One way to look at it is to say, "Okay, here's a situation arising from the interaction of this setting, and these particular characters.  What are the absolutely unavoidable yes/no questions coming out of that situation?" and then dramatizing it.  Like, "Does the Countess blackmail Rasputin about this kid?" or something.

I've never seen a "life spiral" in Sorcerer.  (I kind of think it's impossible to sustain for longer than 2-3 rolls, based on the limited amount of play I've seen!  But maybe I was playing the game wrong.) 

Hi Steve,

Good job! It's true, you need to invest some at the beginning, but after that, prepping should get much easier as you just shift your story map around a bit to reflect what happened in play, and should easily spot new opportunities.

Regarding Gino's kicker, I think it was a little weak. I still don't really see the connection between the whole "Rasputin's baby" thing and why the Contessa wanted to have sex with Gino's character, and then have him thrown out by her bodyguard. Also, the kicker did not initially come from Gino, did it? I'm curious: Did you make up that whole "dictator's daughter" affair, or did Gino come up with that?

Regarding the outcomes of conflicts: I used to think they were pretty easily figured out once the dice come down, since intentions in Sorcerer are not wide, stake-y things, but very concrete actions. Can you give an example?

And I need to re-read that part about destiny. It sounds interesting, but it bothers me a little.

Frank

Hiya,

Frank's asking all the right questions.

Best, Ron

Hi James,

The prep has gotten easier and shorter with each session. For Sessions 1 and 2, I wanted to be absolutely certain about what each NPC wanted from the PCs. Then I came up with the situational questions and the Bangs. I think most of my prep time was consumed by:

- reading lots of stuff about African legends, sorcery, and politics
- assembling a chronology of Rasputin’s and Sebastian’s adventures up to and beyond that point
- creating a whole bunch of NPCs to populate the city
- figuring out what each NPC wanted from the PCs (which involved coming up with about 20 ‘wants’ each before settling on one that rocked hard enough)
- creating those situational ‘Yes/No’ questions, which were:

Will Rasputin accept that he’s the father of the baby?
Will Rasputin sacrifice his baby to Jalali?

Will Sebastian fight past Azaan in order to confront the Contessa?
Will Sebastian tell Makeda how he really feels about her? (Bear in mind, I don’t know how he really feels about her.)

Will either Rasputin or Sebastian get the truth out of the Contessa, about why she’s here?
Will Rasputin and Sebastian convince the authorities they didn’t kill anybody?

Hi Frank,

Yep, Gino’s kicker initially come from Sean. I think I asked Gino about 3 times whether he was excited about it (having been bitten by half-arsed Kickers from other players). By the end of Session 2, I had no doubt that he was fully committed to dealing with the situation. Gino, any thoughts?

I'm curious: Did you make up that whole "dictator's daughter" affair, or did Gino come up with that?

Rasputin finds his dark heart and comes to accept it. Freed of morality he uses his powers to take control of the Russian Empire before coming to a sticky end (luckily for the rest of humanity).

Hey Steve, all of this sounds fine to me. I do think that Gino's kicker wasn't the best one he could have got, so he wasn't that engaged in it from the start, and focussed on acting out the snobby Brit instead. Picking something related to his destiny from the start probably would have been the better option. But hey, it was the first time, next time he'll no doubt make a stronger kicker. And you reacted very well by picking up that bit about the native girl, effectively turning that into more of a kicker than the bit about the Contessa (or at least that's what I read from your AP).

Overall you did a great job of preparing for the session. From what I have gathered and experienced myself, Sorcerer is a game that takes a little time to figure out, if you do not have the privilege to learn it from someone who already knows it in actual play. So, since things have been getting easier for you from session to session, I think you are right on track.

Frank

Thanks Frank. I figure I'll post the Session 2 write-up now, which we played at the start of last week.

***

Session 2 started with the two PCs in a bar, having just obliterated a spider-demon who’d been trying to kill one of their business rivals. I decided to not throw any Bangs in to the story for a while and just give the players a chance to slip into character and rediscover the world.

It quickly became apparent that they weren’t interested in immediately following up on either the Contessa or the source of the demon attacks. Instead, both Sean and Gino wanted to know more about Nadra - an NPC who Sean had created in the prep. I had introduced her into the last scene of Session 1 as a new business rival and potential target of a demon attack. Sean described Nadra as having “no memory of Rasputin, despite having met him many times before.” That was a clear signal to me that Sean wanted me to come up with a twist on what had caused the memory loss.

Sean Boosted his Lore to see if the memory loss had a sorcerous cause. I revealed that Nadra had had premonitions of "being sacrificed by Rasputin on a mountain-top". As GM to players, I suggested that this could have resulted from having been Hinted.

I think Sean enjoyed me batting the ball back to him like that. Certainly there was a nice moment laced with irony and foreshadowing where Rasputin assured Nadra and Sebastian (and himself) that Rasputin would never hurt Nadra.

***

Here’s a big thing: influenced by Burning Empires, I wanted to show the players what one of the NPCs was up to. Kigongo is a cannibal/witch-doctor who wants Rasputin’s demon for himself. Kigongo is pissed off that his own demon was killed at the end of the last session. He decides to summon an even-more powerful demon to wreak havoc on Rasputin, Sebastian and everyone they love.

So, I made rolls to Contact and Pact in front of the players, described what was happening in creepy detail, and established a significant sense of threat ...

... which turned out to be completely tangential to what the story has turned out to be about. And by ‘story’ I mean ‘what all 3 of us are riveted by’. The story is now about the consequences of a fight that went horrifically wrong for Sebastian.

***

The fight happened because we'd reached a point at around 8.30pm where we could've ended the game, but I felt like we hadn’t quite hit the right note to end on yet, so we kept playing.

Gino has Sebastian track Kigongo to his abandoned room. It's filled with lots of gross evidence that Kigongo is going to engage in a bad-ass summoning.

Sebastian knows Rasputin’s at the Contessa’s for dinner, so he runs over there to warn him. This is hilarious and completely throws me for a loop because in an earlier scene Rasputin was drugged by the Contessa. I had no idea what Sebastian was going to find in the Contessa's rooms, so I ask for a couple of minutes to think about what he finds.

An aside: that drugging was pretty interesting because Sean only failed his roll by one. I told Sean that he had the option to resist the drug’s effect, but that he’d be carrying one Penalty. Instead Sean choose to have Rasputin drop to the floor unconscious – because (I believe) that’d be more interesting for the story.

So, we all know there’s going to be a big conflict coming up. I ask Gino how his character will approach. Gino says Sebastian’s the kind of guy who’d just burst in. So he finds Rasputin trussed up on the floor, and the Contessa and her bodyguard Azaan packing to leave the city.

NB: Azaan is a demon, but Gino thinks Azaan is human.

Sebastian attacks.

Carnage ensues.

Carnage like in the first round Azaan gets the drop on Sebastian and bites his throat with 2 successes of Special Damage: Lethal, leading to 9 Lasting Penalties and 4 Temporary one.

Cut to: Gino, swearing.

Cut to: Steve, explaining the Will roll.

The fight continues and goes completely out of control, ending with Sebastian bleeding on the floor with 16 Lasting Penalties, and Rasputin snatching his baby from the Contessa.

The demonic threat from Kigongo is now completely off-topic to what’s really of interest. Rasputin and Sebastian both want revenge on the Contessa.

- Rasputin, for being drugged and humiliated (v. similar to Sebastian’s kicker).
- Sebastian, for having his ass handed to him by a demon and nearly being killed.

The big questions now are:

- Will Rasputin sacrifice his Baby to Jalali or not? [With the ‘not’ being a wide range of possible options.]
- Will Rasputin and Sebastian summon any demons (to either heal Sebastian or take on the Contessa)?
- Will Rasputin and Sebastian attack the Contessa?
- Will Rasputin and Sebastian attack Kigongo?

***

There was also a nice meaty scene in the middle of the session where Sebastian ended up at dinner with the city’s dictator, Mr Koli. I had no idea how to play this scene until I realised Mr Koli could make subtle digs at Sebastian’s suitability as a son-in-law. I had a lot of fun speaking over the top Gino every time he tried to get a word in, and then realised this scene was the perfect opportunity for Sebastian to put forward his case for getting the barksteel tender. Which was the stated reason for the players being in the city in the first place.

So we had this great in-character conversation where Bonus dice were handed out to him and me each time either of our characters made a good point. Then there was a tense, evenly-matched roll, which we all agreed the fate of ‘who gets the tender’ was completely riding on – and Gino succeeded. It felt good to take the tender out of play at this point.

***

So, great session with a couple of Humanity Gain rolls – for Gino rescuing an NPC slave called Baraka, and Sean, when Rasputin stayed to help the near-dead Sebastian instead of running.

My main concerns now are:

- making sure that Gino’s PC (who’s got 16 penalties) isn’t cut out of the game too much. We had this big talk during prep about making interesting (author stance) choices
- talking with Sean and Gino about the Kigongo sub-plot & whether they’re interested in dealing with it in this adventure, or whether it’s actually the ‘next’ (unwritten) adventure for Rasputin and Sebastian.

Still, chaos, comedy, and an important lesson that Special Damage: Lethal means exactly what it says.

Hi Steve,

I'm not sure, but I think you're group has made a major disconnect with the rules.

You wrote in your first post:

Sean also commented that you can get on an upward spiral (a life-spiral?) of bonus dice, that can start to guarantee success. On the other hand, this did lead to Gino carrying around 8 bonus dice and frakking vapourising a spider demon with a single thrown dagger – which was the single coolest moment of the entire game for me.

making sure that Gino’s PC (who’s got 16 penalties) isn’t cut out of the game too much. We had this big talk during prep about making interesting (author stance) choices

Hi Chris,

Bonus and Penalty dice do not "stay" with a character. They are not carried around.

They are used, if at all, when one roll of the dice in a conflict bears directly on the next roll of the dice. That's it.

Hi Steve,

Got it.

Well, the penalties certainly sound correct. (Gino of course can get Boost dice from a demon. Or get a demon to do things for him while he's healing. He's a Sorcerer. He's got options if he wants to use them...)

As for the Bonus dice... I can't tell you you're doing it "wrong" -- cause if it's working for you, it's working. But I don't think "plot-linked" rolls are in the spirit or letter of the rules.

The purpose of the carry over is to have the player make smaller, easier rolls that add more description and color to the scene's actions, building them to a nice big fat spike when the rolls count more. And in this regard, they are (at least in the rules as written) supposed to be direct influences from one action to the next.

I don't think (again, according to the rules as written, not as you choose to use them) successes from convincing anyone of anything could be used in throwing a dagger at a spider. I see a "plot-connection," as you put it. But I see no direct influence of the one action affectng the other action.

Christopher

I just realized I overstated one point and can't edit:

The purpose is not to start with easier rolls and build. Though you can do that, that limits the thinking and options.

But the point is to carry Bonuses in direct causality from one to the next -- not issues of plot.

Christopher

Okay, now I've got another question:

So, Gino gets some Bonus dice during the convincing with the dictator.

So then you record the number of Bonus Dice and what it's pertiant to?

Are you do this anytime a PC gets Bonus Dice?

So that whenever there's a dice roll you go back and check to see if there are any pertinant Bonus Dice?

Or do only some scenes (or scenes tied to important plot threads) count?

Christopher

What I've been doing the last 2 sessions is reminding Gino and Sean that they have rolled-over Bonus dice whenever they make a successful roll. They grab those dice and put them to one side. From there, it's up to them to apply the dice to their next roll. If they forget, then the dice are discarded. If they're applied, we do a quick check to make sure those dice are relevant to this roll - and if not, they're discarded.

We don't write anything down about why the dice were awarded; it's all kept in our heads.
I try to remember to apply that process to every single roll.

***

And maybe 'plot-linked' was the wrong choice of words. It was more that I could sense Gino was portraying Sebastian so that he was becoming increasingly frustrated at being accused of murder and being put under pressure about it. So, it felt like there was also a strong emotional throughline connecting all three rolls.

As you point out, that's still not direct causality but I'm extrapolating from this thread about a contest of wills between two characters. Ron's reply (#6), about how a hypothetical 3-dice penalty can be applied much later on in the story, is the reason I thought the system could work this way.

I'll look over those rules tonight.

I got it now.

What threw me was the fear of the "life-spiral" -- and then the phrasing you used. Sounds like you're right on the money.

Christopher

Hi Steve,

Now you can see why Kickers work: Because they tell you what the players are interested in. Q.e.d.

Sebastian does not have a bound demon, right? We have been talking about this "no demon" option from &Sword on a German forum, and been puzzled a little. Cutting off one corner of the triangle between a demon's Need and Desire, Humanity, and the Kicker seems... wasted. Do you think not having a bound demon made the game more interesting for Gino? Or would you rather, in retrospect, advise him to get a demon (an object or something)?

Frank

Frank, I think Sebastian not having a demon has helped differentiate him from Rasputin.

In the story, Rasputin is the dark seeker of supernatural knowledge, and he only has the one starting demon. It made sense of all three of us that Sebastian would have no demon at all - because Sebastian seems more innocent, and less inclined to use supernatural allies to solve his problems. *  ... And not having a demon just seemed right for Gino's character. We were all in agreement when we came to discussing it.

So, I'd say it's helped Gino with his characterisation, and helped both players' portrayal of the duo.

***

I'm 50-50 on whether I'd advise Gino to get a starting demon or not. I think I'd leave the choice up to him, but brief him much more thoroughly on how deadly demonic enemies can be. **

I think the lack of a bound demon has certainly made things more interesting for Gino now. If he'd had one to start with, sure I'd have had another angle to Bang his character with and introduce new tensions. However, now Gino's got to start making some on-screen choices about whether Sebastian WANTS a demon.

Your suggestion about getting an object demon appeals to me though. Something demonic that's not overt could fit well with Gino's character concept.

* However, Sebastian may well have Pacted or bound and banished demons in previous, unplayed adventures. We haven't really discussed that.

** Although, at that stage of character creation (pre-Kicker) I didn't know what demonic enemies would be showing up in the situation.

Going into the final session, I knew the following situational questions were going to have to be addressed:

- Will Rasputin sacrifice his Baby to Jalali or not?
- Will Rasputin and Sebastian summon any demons (to either heal Sebastian or take on the Contessa)?
- Will Rasputin and Sebastian attack the Contessa?
- Will Rasputin and Sebastian attack Kigongo?

The session broke into six big blocks.

1. Going over some of the rules; seeing if there were any issues lingering from the last session; sitting down with dinner and doing a ‘previously On’ for the last session.

2. Summoning Isaam the Jackal (a demon)

3. Rasputin and Sebastian argue about whether to kill the Contessa

4. Azaan is Banished.

5. An out-of-game discussion about whether the story had finished.

6. The confrontation with Kigongo and the Swarm.

So, here's the write-up. It's a long one. There another write-up at our local forum, which has some discussion about structuring sessions and author stance.

- 1 -

In the initial talk, Sean seemed hesitant about using sorcery to deal with the situation, but Gino launched into a rant about how Sebastian was going to get himself a demonic, combat-effective sidekick and kick Azaan’s arse. The contrast was great – it not only manifested in-character during the game, but attitudes about using demons become a defining feature of the resolution.

We talked about the sort of demon Gino wanted to summon. But I kept the conversation to generalities, as inspired by this thread.

- 2 -

To start with, I described Sebastian having an hallucination of Kigongo summoning the Swarm. This was my way of incorporating the Kigongo cross-cut material from last session ‘coherently’ into the game.

During that hallucination Sebastian was asked if he loved Makeda (the dictator’s daughter). I left Gino about 15 seconds to give us an answer to that – and he struggled mightly but couldn’t decide. So we left it, which was a good choice as – it turns out – that question was pretty much the last thing to be decided in this story.

***

Back in reality, Rasputin was ordering the Contessa to treat Sebastian, and she was obeying. Both of the Contessa’s demons were in Need, and messing with her. Her parasite demon had its eye on seducing Baraka, and Azaan was getting tardy about obeying her instructions. I think a lot of good stuff in this session came out of playing the demons really hard - their wants, their needs, the impact they have on their Sorcerors.

The main part of this scene was that Sebastian wanted Rasputin to summon a demon for him. We had a long, in-character conversation where Rasputin tried to convince Sebastian that it was a bad idea. There was a lot of neat stuff in here, with Rasputin (by implication) referring back to previous unplayed adventures where Sebastian had disdained using demonic help.

I felt like there wasn’t enough ‘happening’ during this part of the scene – or rather, that I wasn’t doing enough - but I withheld throwing any Bangs at them and focused on their conversation and the upcoming sorcery instead.

Gino came up with a pretty powerful combat focused demon, a jackal called Isaam (it means ‘Guard’). Its Need is to prey on the weak … Gino was uncomfortable with it, suggested ‘attack the strong’ instead. After I thought about it, I realised would make Sebastian into a bit of a hero, so I said no. The Needs of all the demons in this setting seem to compromise the identities of the Sorcerors, so it felt right to try and turn Sebastian into a bit of a bully.

Sean and I were disturbed by the summoning. Me just by mentioning it was going to happen; Sean, for reasons he can go into if he wants to. We through lots of colour into the ritual (blood, sweat, meat, and pain).

As soon as Isaam the Jackal showed up, it had a fully formed character. Biting, prowling, disliking Rasputin. Sebastian successfully Bound it, and from there I’m pretty sure we moved on to the next scene.

- 3 -

After transporting Sebastian back to his rooms, Sean wanted to know what’s the Contessa’s plan was. To start with, I deliberately misinterpreted this and said what she’d been aiming to do. The Contessa wanted destroy all of Rasputin’s reasons for remaining in Africa. To start with, this meant spoiling the negotiations. The easiest way to spoil that was to sleep with Sebastian, knowing that Makeda’s reaction would upset Mr Koli.

Between me and Sean, we decided the Contessa’s plans to marry Rasputin and live with him in Russia were in ruins. So the Contessa said she wanted to leave the city – with Yvan, if she possibly could. Rasputin agreed to meet her later and make that happen.

***

Pretty much as soon as the Contessa was gone, we had the centre-piece of the session – a big Rasputin and Sebastian conversation where they argued about what to do with the Contessa?”

Rasputin was all in favour of killing her. Sebastian was very much against. It eventually triggered a Humanity Loss roll for Rasputin, which he succeeded at, when Rasputin point-blank said … and I forget the specifics … that he was going to end the Contessa’s life, and make sure that she didn’t come back to trouble them again. It was damn cold, and me and (I think) Gino both drew in breath when he said it.

One thing about the Humanity Loss roll – after discussing it with Sean, we decided that, unless the situation changed, it would cover the act of killing the Contessa as well … that Rasputin was resolute in his decision. As you’ll see towards the end, this wasn’t exactly how things played out. They played out much worse.

A few more things about this conversation:

- It kept getting interrupted by me role-playing the demons (Jackal and Spider Totem) meeting each other. This undercut Rasputin and Sebastian several times, but I thought it was important to establish the demons as independent characters who weren’t necessarily concerned about their masters’ plans.

- I felt odd that I didn’t have any Bangs to throw in here … so I introduced the bonus dice again. These are my reward for good points of argument or roleplaying. They can get used in the event of the players making rolls to see which character ‘wins’ the argument., thinking that they had worked well last session during the negotiation with Mr Koli.

This led to a big discussion between me and Sean about player autonomy – particularly that this was a decision that concerned Rasputin’s destiny, and as such it shouldn’t be determined mechanically in any way. It was also a conflict of interest between the two PCs, which is when the Sorceror resolution system’s designed to be applied. Also, I felt that there needed to be a push towards a resolution of the conversation. In hindsight, I think that just figuring out when the conversation was ‘over’ might have been enough, but at any rate, dice were rolled and Rasputin ended up with a bonus die in his favour towards killing the Contessa.

***

What else was there? Oh yeah, Jalali become a key player in the last stage of the scene. Remember he’s the Spider Totem demon who wants to eat Yvan in exchange for telling Rasputin some knowledge he desperately wants.

At one point during the scene, Yvan started crawling into Jalali’s room. Rasputin stopped Yvan and told him to never to go in there. Jalali took this to mean he wasn’t going to get fed.

So from then on, I shifted Jalali into rebellion against Rasputin.

Rasputin wanted to use Jalali’s power to fight their enemies (Azaan, the Contessa and maybe Kigongo). Jalali told Rasputin he was only going to get a little bit of Jalali’s power, and that things were going to change around here. I forget the specifics, but Jalali really hammered home how angry he was with Rasputin and how much he was going to make Rasputin’s life difficult.

So Rasputin threw a temper tantrum, smashed Jalali over to the other side of the room. This was the key to the rest of the session – and also a great Sorceror vs. Demon moment.

- 4 -

The rest of the session consisted of two big conflicts.

First, when Rasputin and Sebastian arriving to meet the Contessa, they found her at the tail-end of a massive battle with Makeda. The bodies of 40 of Makeda’s soldiers lay on the ground of the plaza between them, and Azaan was about to leap on the now-undefended Makeda.

In the course of trying to save Makeda, Azaan was smashed up with a load of Special Damage Lethal. This was sweet payback for Gino. And at this point, I had a bolt of insight. Next round, I declared that the Contessa was going to take advantage of Azaan’s weakness and try to Banish him. I hadn’t even thought of this option till now.

My logic was that the Contessa felt enslaved to Azaan. He was way more powerful than she’d counted on when she Summoned him, and he was controlling her life in ways she didn’t like.

To my amazement, Sean declared that he was going to try and stop her from Banishing Azaan. Rasputin knew that if the Banish was successful, then Azaan wouldn’t be dead; he could be re-Summoned and come back after them again. We decided this meant they’ve had experience with Banished demons coming back to hurt before. But what I was most impressed by was that Sean knew what would happen – I’m still not sure if that was from reading about Banishing on-line, or from inferring what would happen through actual play.

The Banish was successful. The conflict ended. The Contessa was at their mercy.

Would Rasputin kill the Contessa? He had an opportunity - to push her down the elevator well as she walked past. Instead, Rasputin gave a speech. About how they all had to band together to defeat Kigongo.

***

Straight after that, Sebastian and Makeda had a moment. He didn’t want her to come with them when they hunted down Kigongo. She refused to obey him. We didn’t use the dice.

Instead, Makeda said she’d stay behind if Sebastian promised to marry her.

Sebastian said ‘Yes’.

- 5 -

I called an end to the scene then and there. In fact, to me it felt like an end to the game. So, after a short break to recover from the conflict, we debated whether the game was over or not.

So, after I came back from taking a break, I find Sean and Gino relaxing on the couch. When I joined them, there was a kind of post-game tone to our conversation.

I proposed three options:

i) That was the end.
ii) We play on, because the game could wrap up very quickly (within a scene).
iii) We play on, aware that taking down Kigongo and the Swarm could become another three-part story.

To me, it felt like it could be the end. A slightly Whedonesque cliffhanger that sets up a whole bunch of new relationships and tensions in the setting – certainly enough to generate a new Kicker.

Sean pushed for option (ii). He had an idea of what he wants Rasputin to do – and felt it could wrap up quite quickly.

After batting these ideas about, I realised that their Kickers (and their issues with the Contessa) hadn’t been resolved. That settled things for me. We have to continue. And since that’s the conclusion Sean and Gino seemed to be reaching, for different reasons, we headed back to the table.

- 6 -

Final scene. Final conflict.

Rasputin and Sebastian track down Kigongo. With them are the Contessa, Baraka, Yvan, and Jalali the Spider totem, who they picked up along the way.

Sean wanted his character to sneak up on Kigongo, and I decided that Jalali had no problem conferring Fast on him. Normally Jalali would be rebellious, but in this instance it gets him closer to Kigongo.

Rasputin proposes a deal – if Kigongo kills the Contessa, he’ll get Jalali. Kigongo is into that.

Meanwhile Sebastian warns the Contessa about the double-cross.

A conflict begins. The Swarm descends on the Contessa, intending to sting her to death. She tries to Banish it – even though it’s incredibly powerful. Rasputin doesn’t act, and Gino says that his character, Sebastian, is going to hesitate. In my on-the-spot interpretation of the rules, I decided that the Swarm could either attack the Contessa or defend itself against the Banishing at full dice. The Contessa gets the initiative – so the Swarm aborts its attack & holds off on killing her

The Swarm hovers above the Contessa as she fails to Banish it.

This image sticks in my mind. It’s like a still from a Ralph Bakshi movie.

Finally, the Swarm wins initiative. They immerse and kill the Contessa. I describe a single horrifying image from it … to drive it home to the players, especially Gino.

Then (motivated by Rasputin) Kigongo tries to Banish the Swarm. He’s unsuccessful. Multiple times. Even with help. So, the Swarm takes off to destroy the city - and in the background of everything that follows, we hear the screams of people being killed.

***

Rasputin chucks Jalali, the Spider Totem, over to Kigongo. Rasputin hasn’t released Jalali from its Binding, but Rasputin doesn’t want the demon anymore. Or anything to do with demons.

***

Now, I’m not sure if I asked this or whether Gino raised it, but it goes back to my initial question this session. Does Sebastian love Makeda?

Gino decides, “Yes.”

And we all agreed that meant Makeda was dead.

***

So, end of story.

The Contessa was killed through Rasputin’s machinations, and he ended up responsible his three-year old son.

Despite this, both Rasputin and the Contessa decided to renounce demons – while Sebastian Bound a demon, and has grown in sorcerous power.

Rasputin and Sebastian got the tender, but ended up being sort-of responsible for the destruction of about a third of the city, and the death of the dictator’s daughter.

***

I think we achieved what we set out to do – tell a story about these characters that stands on its own. The game was solid, fun, and intense – and it unleashed a lot of great characterisation from Gino and Sean.

I also found that discussion of the rules and of events that don’t have much to do with the ‘Now’ can be carefully considered, while still being entertaining and engaging.

Whew! I think that post deserves an executive summary.

For me, the coolest thing about the whole three-session game was that the characters’ attitudes about using demons completely flipped from their starting positions. Rasputin, the hardcore seeker of forbidden knowledge, now hates demons and the way they seek to control him, while Sebastian is fully prepared to make deals with them in order to get revenge.

I think a lot of good stuff in this session came out of playing the demons really hard - their wants, their needs, the impact they have on their Sorcerors. A lot of the time this involved undercutting Rasputin and Sebastian, and portraying the demons as independent characters who weren’t necessarily concerned about their masters’ plans. And I found that portraying the demons came really naturally – they’re so primal and focused, it’s easy to figure out what they’d want in any given situation.

Finally, I started feeling very comfortable with making on-the-spot interpretations of the Sorceror rules. I feel like there are some basic principles there, like the way the currency works, and the one-action per round (together with the option to abort, and the ability to defend against an unlimited number of attacks) that make the game easy to run.

That’s about it. It was a fun game. I’m not sure if there are any issues in there. Mostly I guess I’m curious if anyone else has felt that ‘basic principles’ thing I just mentioned – and if there are any other ideas about what they are.

Thanks for all your help along the way.

Hooray!! I am a happy game designer.

Quite a while ago, in reference to a Roger Rabbit discussion, I posted that I always play the demons as Toons. A lot of people found that incomprehensible, because they thought I was talking about playing them comedically. I wasn't. You've really nailed what I was talking about.

Best, Ron