. . . with that ubiquitous 'z' sound at the beginning!

Anyhow, hello to everyone. I'm about to start a S&S campaign that I got going through the indie-netgaming Yahoo Group, and I thought I'd post a little about it on the Forge. I've had some shaky starts with Sorcerer prior to this . . . a game that was supposed to be "like Conan"; a game that was supposed to be "like Elric". These "ideas" drew the sort of character concepts you might expect ("So, I'm . . . like Elric. You know, a king. With demons.") These games produced a couple of interesting "set piece" moments, but didn't have any momentum to keep them alive for more than a single session.

Time passed. . . I continued lurking at the Forge . . . I started to let my own ideas percolate about what I would want to see in the Sorcerer game of my dreams, and what it oughta all be about.

When I finally put my imagination through the ringer and wrote the pitch for Xuphia, I felt like it was the most lucidly written presentation I had ever done for a role-playing campaign, and it really seems to have resonated with the folks who've signed on to play (Chris, Mike and Ben). I've gotten the kinds of delicious, punchy character concepts from them that I never saw before in my previous attempts. So, I'm posting this with a touch of self-congratulation . . . I'm really happy about what's been done with this concept so far, and where it's hopefully going.

So, here follows the letter I sent to the indie-netgaming list to start it off (at the start, I briefly address Mike about a 'near-miss' idea I had discussed with him a few days earlier):

***

Okay, I want to pitch a Sorcerer & Sword concept here.

(To Mike: we had talked earlier about some ideas I had for
Sorcerer, but I kept feeling burdened by the sense that I wasn't
really doing something I wanted to do -- I wasn't getting that
"Fuck yeah!" moment from it. I started reading Sorcerer & Sword
again, and felt my way to a concept that buzzed me a lot more; so
what follows represents a substantial departure from what I
discussed with you!)

So, what I want to do is Sorcerer & Sword straight out of the
book. In the context of pitching a game to a mailing list, however,
I'll take a little more upon myself creatively than is suggested in
the book, in the hopes of jazzing some folks enough to come on
board and play. Here goes . . .


The Characters:

Larger-than-life heroes with a flair for reckless adventure and
cheeky outrage. Their personal power as sorcerers gives them
the wherewithal to call their own shots, stick their necks out and
express their personalities without restraint.


The World:

Xuphia, a rococo funhouse of sensory extravagance. People live
in opulent cities of gingerbread palaces and clockwork
contraptions, or in strange little communities with a visual/
conceptual bang ("Here's the town that's full of birdcages";
"Here's the town that hangs from the underside of a cliff").
Between one city and the next are grotesque or sublime
wildernesses of big, dramatic terrain, bursting with color, where
Old Ones rule pagan courts from deep forest or high
mountaintop. It's a world where people embark whole-heartedly
on grand, fate-tempting schemes, and if they tumble down, grin
and bear it with a sardonic wisecrack. Here and there, too, you
may find a ruined castle or a rusty, weed-grown automaton --
colorful shards of broken dreams that may yet be assembled
into a new design.


The Look:

Baroque, over-the-top, Technicolor fantasy. See the book "The Art
of Final Fantasy IX" as a style reference for places and objects;
you might even choose to envision the characters in Japanese-
cartoon style. Of note, humanity is more than usually plastic in
Xuphia; someone might have blue skin, or scales, or the head of
an animal and still be human. To be "Inhuman" is to get into
really weird effects, such as having fire for hair, or being
translucent.

The Demons:

Demons in Xuphia are ostentatious, dramatic, and as indulgent
of their own personalities as the sorcerers who bind them. They
may be True Demons hailing from mystic otherworlds, or Old
Ones and Pagan Things who "went native" in our reality a long
time ago. They're generally Passers (defined liberally, as with
the demons from the Clicking Sands setting in the S&S book) or
Inconspicuous Demons (defined as very small but having
definite material bodies).
Whatever the case, all demons have a strong visual/conceptual
theme, be it one of the four classical elements, or something
animalistic, or natural -- thus you might have a fire demon, or a
spider demon, or a mountain demon . . . or something more
abstract, like a demon of decay, or despair. Demons with like
themes consider themselves related, and may talk "family
business", or squabble with each other, or whatever.
Let's add one more type of demon: Some sorcerers verse
themselves in clockworks and craftsmanship to make and bind
Object Demons, in the form of toys, tools, weapons or what you
will. Whether these Demons are called by the sorcerer from
beyond or actually created from whole cloth is a matter for
scholars; the end result is the same. Whatever their form,
Xuphian Object Demons are oversized, overwrought and have
moving parts even if they don't need any.

EDIT: I'll also add a later message where I went into more detail about what Sorcery is like:

Sorcery in Xuphia is *big* and requires a lot of physical work, along the lines
of erecting standing stones, waving banners and things like that. Even if
you're not performing cooperative sorcery, you typically need confidants to
help you fulfill the ritual requirements. When a demon is summoned, the
effects are dramatic -- earthquakes, spontaneous combustion of nearby
trees, swarms of hornets -- so a good source for sorcerous Humanity rolls is
simply putting your confidants at physical risk. (Or allowing the Demon to take
Need from your confidant.) Alternate possibilities are assembling ritual
materials by stealing them from your friends, or throwing an orgy and using
it to generate the sorcerous energy for a summoning, leaving the
participants sick and drained.

***

Any questions or comments are welcome. I wouldn't mind if Mike, Chris or Ben wanted to pop in and discuss their responses to the material as well, and their character concepts and like that!


Rod


P.S. I talked with Chris about posting some of our correspondence about his character on this thread, since I thought it might be interesting in a "Look, here's some Sorcerer prep" way. I'm a little embarassed about it now because I feel like I fussed untowardly over his backstory, but if anyone's interested I'll post it.

Hi Rod,

Glad to see you post on this, since its got me excited. I think your description is part of the "Hell Yeah!" and the fact that I know Mike and I have a good grasp of the Sorcerer and Sword character philosophy(how bout you Ben?).

I think the fact that your world is described so visually helped a lot for me, since I started with the visual of my character and flew from that. Second, since my character concept hit me before I got a chance to hear Mike's idea, or Ben's, I was aiming to make fairly flexible and GM-friendly sort of kicker that would let you put my character anywhere, so don't worry about the fussin'.

For the folks that are interested, here's the summary of my character:

Sabbo Aladeus Mercaecio

“Fools abound, and I will not wait on them.”

Driven, confident, believes only divine forces can deter him from his goals, therefore only takes failure with a grin and works twice as hard to spite the gods.

Appearance:
Dark blue skin, intense yellow eyes. Slim, tall, muscular in a b-ball player sort of build. Usually sports royal finery, but has recently taken up swathing himself with black cloth. Think Amano meets Brom in terms of artwork.

Kicker:
King Marcaecio recently passed. And then returned. Neither dead nor living, he ran mad from the castle, chased by guards and family alike. Now Minister Guiseppe has declared through a loophole in the law that the Mercaecio line has committed a crime against life, and the entire bloodline has been exiled. Prince Mercaecio is less than pleased.

And of course, demon:

Ouroburos(Oro for short)

This Immanent has served(manipulated?) the Mercacio line for thousands of years. Oro has been responsible for the survival and the success of the kingdom. Now, Oro serves as faithfully as ever, although it fears that its time in the sun is over, and is desperate to do anything to restore the Royal lineage.

Oro moves about with a mad whimsy, like a malignant faerie, other times snatching folks into the darkness. To Sabbo, he is rather like a stern servant, always encouraging him to “demand his respect from this scum” in order to fulfill his Desire.

Appearance: Dark translucent, sapphire blue wings(2 pairs, total 4 wings), plus 4 spider legs. It’s wings with legs. Most of the time, Oro “perches” on Sabbo’s back, using its 4 legs to lock on to his back, the legs crossing over his abdomen, forming a chintinous “ribcage”

Desire- Dominance
Need- Needs people to bow to the sorcerer once a day

The basic idea is that while the Prince is a fairly arrogant bastard to begin with, Oro serves as his "external meglomania" egging him on to really put it to people. Between the two I expect extravagant cruelty, ruthlessness, and the venom to blast forth like a firehose on a riot crowd :)

Chris

Hey all--

Player #2 sounding off here... I'm very excited about this game. It's a lot of 1sts for me -- 1st IRC play and 1st sorcerer game. I am playing the sorcerer/demon couple that I mentioned in a previous thread, and I've had a lot of fun laying out their powers and relationship.

What hooked me into the game (aside from the fact that I'm about to leave my area and want to have a "portable" RPG) is the Final Fantasy images -- the aesthetics of the game series are simply gorgeous and I've always liked the way that they portrayed the summoned monsters as people, rather than just tools. For my character(s), I've taken this and turned it up -- each of the characters is both equally person and a monster, and they take their turns at each. Of course, this being Sorcerer, it's a totally screwed up power dynamic and there is an eventual doom... ;-) But that's just the fun.

I'm not yet done writing my characters yet, but I will post after I've batted things back and forth with Rod some more.

Now if I can just get IRC working...

yrs--
--Ben

edited 4:37 EST for type

I'm getting a kind of Dying Earth vibe except Xuphia is in the spring of its life cycle rather than the autumn. A "birthing" Earth if you will.

In other words, the same reckless devil may care attitude only now motivated by actual energy of spirit and faith, rather than end of days despiration.

Ralph,


Yes, The Dying Earth was a major influence on my imagination. In fact, this game almost was the Dying Earth until I decided that "end times desperation" just wasn't me, and made a U-turn, resulting in what you see here.


I've also been reading Vance's "Planet of Adventure" lately, so Adam Reith going sacred-cow-tipping all over Tschai was in the back of my mind as well.


Rod

Valamir wrote: I'm getting a kind of Dying Earth vibe except Xuphia is in the spring of its life cycle rather than the autumn. A "birthing" Earth if you will.

Holy crap ... all you guys are getting really good at knowing how much to present to the group such that character creation enriches and helps to define the setting.

Best,
Ron

Mike,

Humanity 0 is as in S&S -- I don't have the book with me, but it's basically loss of all empathy, seeing other people only as means to an end (for the single-minded obsessive type) or as toys and puzzle pieces (for the more aimless and frivolous type). Given the sensory nature of the setting, this will entail some sort of concrete perceptual derangement. For instance, if Zorleb's scary eyeball Taints him to Humanity 0, he might become acutely aware of people moving in big, intricate patterns of action and reaction -- but actual individuals are blurry and unmemorable. (and there's where Hint comes in too, I'm thinking)

Another fun thing about Humanity 0 is that mystic otherworlds become much easier to enter. In fact, if a character is Tainted, you can expect him to have one foot out of reality as he knows it, on general principle.

Rod

(edited for spelling)

Like Ben, it was the Final Fantasy concepts that hooked me. I like the fact that in their games, the summons as demons are clearly unique, and strange beyond all belief, without any sort explaination as to "what the hell they really are".

You'll find stuff like lightning unicorns that wear jewelry, such as horn rings, weird, unexplainable "things" that fly from across the galaxy and mystically re-calculate space/time to whomp your enemies, and weird 4 armed swordsmen seeking mystical weapons across dimensions who occasionally show up and help you out in return for helping them get a weapon.

Likewise, their worlds are usually unexplained in how they work, so stuff like towns made of birdcages and clockwork stuff flies just right. In other words, you have no problem jumping into pure fantasy without having to step back into reality too much.

I'm really excited to play, and looking forward to your final write up Ben.

Chris

More specifically, what happens to player control at Humanity 0. I assume character loss? Permenant? Negotiable? I mean that doesn't sound like too far gone to come back from, so I think permenant would be a bit harsh.

Mike

Mike,

Oh, okay. To be honest, I'd been assuming, that outside of Taint, it's permanent. I'm willing to bend on that, but I'll have to go home and read "Sorcerer's Soul"again and acquaint myself with the whole coming-back-from-0-Humanity concept. Any suggestions from the experienced would be appreciated, of course!


Rod


P.S. You know, having a demon that Taints you could be kind of a safety net against losing your character in itself, right? I mean, if you do Sorcery while you're tainted to zero, do you still check Humanity? CAN you do Sorcery in those circvumstances. Again, suggestions from the experienced are eagerly invited.

Hi Rod,

There's a list of options for Humanity 0 consequences, in terms of player and GM take-over stuff, in the first chapter of The Sorcerer's Soul.

Best,
Ron

Rod Anderson wrote:
P.S. You know, having a demon that Taints you could be kind of a safety net against losing your character in itself, right? I mean, if you do Sorcery while you're tainted to zero, do you still check Humanity? CAN you do Sorcery in those circvumstances. Again, suggestions from the experienced are eagerly invited.

I'ma bit confused on this, Clinton. How does it work again?

Mike

Mike,

Charnel Gods is pretty explicit about it, stating how Humanity 0 via Taint results in some, but not all, the effects of normal Humanity 0.

For standard Sorcerer, as I read the rules, getting Tainted to Humanity 0 would result in all the effects of Humanity 0, with the caveat that Taint wears off in a few hours or days, and your character would again have some Humanity, thereby sending him into a dire, but limited, streak of nastiness - however Humanity 0 is defined in your game.

In that way, you can consider a point of Taint as a buffer against total character loss or destruction. For my character, he was entering a mystic otherworld, which Sorcerer and Sword states requires constant Humanity checks until you lose a point, and then constant checks until you don't lose a point. The thing to notice is that you can lose more than one point before the barrage is over. (Ron, correct me if I'm wrong on this.) I used Taint to bring my character to Humanity 2, and he lost two Humanity in the journey, bringing his Humanity to 0. However, 1 Humanity would return in a while, bringing him back to, well, as normal as he ever got.

Works by the rules.

Best,
Ron

I'm aware of the idea of Taint going to Humanity zero as an excption to the normal ruels in that you come back when the taint subsides.

Uh, but in the example, if you hadn't lost that point to Taint you never would have reached zero. But I think I see what you're saying. If you go to zero you stop rolling, right? That is, you can't go to -1 or lower. So as long as one point is lost to Taint, no matter how many you might lose otherwise, you'll be at zero, and eventually recover a point and be at one.

Is that it?

Seems odd to me. I mean, what's the in-game rationale? What's the metagame purpose? Seems just an end around on the rules; kinda Gamist.

Mike

Mike Holmes wrote: I'm aware of the idea of Taint going to Humanity zero as an excption to the normal ruels in that you come back when the taint subsides.

Uh, but in the example, if you hadn't lost that point to Taint you never would have reached zero. But I think I see what you're saying. If you go to zero you stop rolling, right? That is, you can't go to -1 or lower. So as long as one point is lost to Taint, no matter how many you might lose otherwise, you'll be at zero, and eventually recover a point and be at one.

Is that it?

Seems odd to me. I mean, what's the in-game rationale? What's the metagame purpose? Seems just an end around on the rules; kinda Gamist.

Clinton R. Nixon wrote: The in-game rationale? Easy - I'm about to enter a place alien and bizarre to the human mind. Dear demon - please break me down, fuck me up, and twist me sideways, 'cause I'm not ready for this yet. The ritual to enter, in which I employed Taint, involved my character slashing open his own arms and spraying the blood in an X in the air, which burst into flame upon the Taint and then opened the door to enter. The entire scene had a whole "be the demon to fight the demon" atmosphere about it where Taint was wholly appropriate.

Beauty.

Best,
Ron

Hey--
Thought I would post my characters.
I really like the final form of the backstory and kicker -- it hints at all sorts of things but gives little away.

I wanted to create a close sorcerer/demon relationship, and I also wanted to play around with power struggles and egalitarianism in love. Inspirations are pretty clearly FF6, FF9-10, and Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Either of these kids can be the "Sorcerer" to the other one's "Demon." Neither of them likes to give up control, and so struggle for it constantly. The "gain control" contest comes when they are either mistreated or treated "too well", and it is opposed will+binding or will+binding vs humanity + binding.

Despite the fact that their themes are essentially sexual dominance, I' trying to refrain specifically from explicit sexual content -- these are teenage kids, after all, and their love is shockingly innocent in its own way.

(note to Rod: I named the village.)

Ren and Rachel:

Background:
Ren and Rachel are two young kids from the village of Blackflower -- a place where every married couple is a Sorcerer/Demon pair, the Sorcerer drawing out and controlling the monstrous nature of the Demon while supressing his or her own. They have been newly engaged but, since they had trouble working things out, their parents have sent them out into the world to see if they can't settle their differences themselves. So far, it's been a few months, and things haven't worked out well.

Kicker:
Rachel just saw her beloved (and married) older brother, Ethan (Leviathan), chained as a slave to a strange man in a white mask.

Ren Stats:

Personality: Ren is a bold, outgoing, arrogant young man. He doesn't take no for an answer, thinks he knows everything, and generally spits in the face of most of the people that he considers "useless."

Appearance: Ren has olive colored skin, spiky black hair, and rainbow eyes. He is clearly still in the middle of adolescence -- he is rather short (5' 6" or so) and very self-conscious about that, but he is reasonably well muscled in a slim sort of way. He tends to wear loose, tough clothes, and carries a very large sword with him everywhere he goes.

Stamina: 5 (Trained Warrior)
Will: 4 (Stubborn)
Lore: 1 (Apprentice: Village Lore)

Humanity: 5
Cover: Bravo 5
Price: Short-Tempered

Demon: Rachel/Rahab
Type: Passing Demon / Water Demon
Description: Ren's fiancee. Usually in her normal human form, but a kiss from Ren can transform her into Rahab -- a great flying snake made of water.
Telltale: Rachel's irises are rainbow colored. Further, if her blood or tears land on the earth, black flowers spring up.
Desire: Fidelity
Need: Public Affection

Rachel Stats

Personality: Never fond of people, Rachel likes to hang back and observe. She was always the careful, studious, diligent child in her village. Outside of the village, she is definitely the rational one of the pair, much more likely to plan and think things through.

Appearance: Rachel is a small, almost slight girl with olive skin, straight dark hair, and rainbow colored eyes. She tends to dress in simple clothes, in keeping with her cover, and rarely meets people's eyes or smiles. She always has a blue stone necklace which was given to her by her brother, Leviathan.

Stamina: 2 (Tough as Nails)
Will: 3 (Stubborn)
Lore: 5 (Adept: Village Lore)

Humanity: 3
Cover: Shrine Maiden 5
Price: Shy

Demon: Ren / Peregrine
Type: Passing Demon / Wind Demon
Description: Rachel's fiancee. Usually in his normal human form, but a kiss from Rachel can transform him into Peregrine -- a great rainbow winged bird.
Telltale: Ren's irises are rainbow colored. Further, if his blood or tears land on the earth, black flowers spring up.
Desire: Fidelity
Need: Public Praise

Ben,

To clarify, when I mentioned that the "contest for control" roll could be Humanity v. Will, I wasn't trying to say flatly "there's two options instead of one", so much as that "there's more than one way to skin a cat". Given that there will probably already have been a few Will contests between the two by the time a power struggle occurs, it could be prosecuted in a variety of ways, depending on how it's depicted in the narrative. Peregrine tries to wrestle Rachel into submission while she tries to shout him down with their village tradition's version of "the ol' fire and brimstone" . . . well, that's Stamina vs. Lore. Although I suppose it could also be Will (with Stamina successes rolled in) versus Will (with Lore successes rolled in). Whatever can be agreed upon as appropriate, when the moment comes up, will probably work fine.


Rod


P.S. When you say "olive skin", do you mean they're dusky, or they're green? Either is appropriate, obviously, I just want to know for the sake of my mental picture!

Hey, we forgot telltales for our Sorcerers. While I'm at it, I'll add a description, too. :-)

Zorleb is not old, but has a body with dimensions like he was, in fact, incredibly ancient. That is, he's just loose skin and bones held up mostly by the staff he leans on. He's so into his sorcery that he seldom takes time to eat or do the other things neccessary to maintain life. He'd be dead in fact if it weren't for his truck with Demons keeping him alive (hence the descriptior for Stamina). An enormously hawkish nose protrudes from under his hood, centered on a wizened and dirty face. His appearance is beyond unkempt.

He caries a small pack with him wherever her goes (with the demon in it), and besides some paraphenalia in that, his staff, and his extremely worn cloak, he owns nothing. Under his cloak he's covered with all manner of ink symbols. These record the names of the demons he's learned in a long dead system of symbols along with other notes. There's a demon he sometimes summons to erase parts so that he can have new space to record when he finds new names. The symbols are his Telltale.

Mike

Oh, good point, Mike....

Here's the rest of the Prince's stats:

Past- Prince

Stamina 2 - Just Healthy
Will 5 - Aristocrat, High Self Esteem
Lore 3 - Apprentice

Price: Arrogance
Telltale: Glowing sigils appear all over body(hands, arms, face, etc.) while committing any act of sorcery... Sometimes they glow dimly whenever he is upset

Also, Mike, to quickly comment on the Taint/Humanity 0 thing, just think of the Incredible Hulk, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, or any of the typical transforming anime heros(Guyver, Yugi-Oh, or Devilman, in particular) as folks who go into temporary Humanity 0 zones, do crazy fucked up things, and then come back, either remembering nothing, haunted, guilty, racked with sorrow, but at least in the mind state that "its not completely their fault..."

Chris

Just wanted to pop in and say "wow" again... seems like every time I read about someone's Sorcerer game it blows my mind and makes me anxious for the next installment.

I particularly like the nifty characters... the "legs with wings" demon is cool, I can just see it settling onto the Prince and... voila! He's got an armored ribcage and wings sprouting from his back... can the demon carry him as if he was flying himself? I am reminded of the cat-demon (Ura?) from El Hazard that wrapped itself around Makoto to protect him. And one of my characters from way back had a similar demon named Etch that could wrap itself around him and carry him on it's own wings (which is why your description really hit me). The enfianced demon couple is awesome too, you guys have really gone all anime/FF with these, which is very cool.

Anyway, I'm really hyped to hear about the game here or in Actual Play... I have to say no game system has ever gotten me as consistently enthusiastic as Sorcerer. The openness and adaptability are right up my alley, since my creativity tends to run at bizarre right angles sometimes. It's nice to see I'm in good company here!

Thanks, Nev! Game is this Thursday night, and I expect they'll be some Actual Play posting afterwards.

The funny thing is, when I mentioned the Final Fantasy thing in my writeup, I was imagining that people might go, "Yeah, I know what that looks like," or maybe not and I could give them some Web links if they were interested. I was a little surprised to hear from so many people who were galvanized by that specific aesthetic! But maybe it's not so surprising. The opportunity to play with that aesthetic, and use it in the service of a genuine dynamic role-playing experience, is pretty cool.

The other funny thing is, everyone who's playing has cited familiarity with multiple Final Fantasy games, whereas I've only played FFIX, and I played it well *after* I bought the art book, which totally blew me away in terms of craft and creativity.


Rod