The Forge Archives

All right then.

This post is about what I'd think (or DO think, really) about the characters prior to going into the first session. I will also post about my OWN work prior to play, both before the character creation and afterwards, but this will come later.

So, about the characters. (Creators, leave your egos at the door. This is the stuff I never show real players.)

Cyril's Price is invalid. This is "DNPC"-think from Champions, the idea that a person you care about is automatically going to be a hassle and distraction during play. It's especially obvious in that Cyril is supposed to love Jenny very much but not want to be with her. Pretty easy to jettison, eh?

It's not even a Price in rules terms, which by definition is a sphere of activity in which the character takes a 1-die penalty. At this point, I say, "Time to chat with the player and fix this mess."

Cyril has an excellent demon, with a great Need. No problems there. No problem with the Kicker either (mental note: "Tobias Hapgood").

Eroch has a great Price, a great demon Need, a great Kicker ... pretty much no problems, especially with that weird-ass building involved too. Cool. All this makes up nicely for the clean living + self-esteem + lone adept descriptors, which on their own are a tad boring.

I told Paul I'd like to set Pazuzu's Desire, and looking at the other demons (which are frankly quite mean and nasty), I decide to "soften" Pazuzu's unpleasant Need with a rather sympathetic desire for Knowledge.

Richie's Price is invalid as well: "Control emotions?" What's that? I've have to demand a sphere of activity that low emotional control DAMAGES. Richie's Kicker, also, is kind of hackneyed - old Dad Vader is back in town, apparently, and that story can usually only go one of two ways. Either I take pains to make the dad sympathetic after all (thus invalidating the player's whole character concept, which I won't do), or I resign myself to having an NPC who exists simply to be beaten up.

All three characters have a very similar problem - the players have treated sorcery per se as a bad Marvel power. "I was walking down the street, I got bonked on the head, and then discovered I had acquired super powers!" The Sorcerer equivalent is the mysterious stranger who teaches and then leaves (how convenient), and no "feel" or personal commitment between the character writeup and the material regarding Lore. The Lore section on the backs of the sheets would be suspiciously blank.

I'd have to talk to the players about that a bit. Eroch's architecture can be tied directly to his sorcery, if the player likes. Richie's coven, in particular, needs to be defined and set up in an interesting way (I have an idea about that ...)

Connections among the characters: Richie and Eroch get drugs from the same source. How does Cyril connect with either? Damn. Another thing to talk to the player about.

So NPCs include: Jenny, Tobias Hapgood, Chema de Pauvan, a German psychotherapist, Richie's mom (who the player has told me is still around), and Richie's dad (if indeed it's him).

Places of interest include Cyril's club and Eroch's building.

Okay, enough on that. Next post, all about me and my musings even before all this character stuff started. Then after THAT, I'll combine the two.

Best,
Ron

Now for the discussion of my prep as GM, prior even to knowing about the characters.

Remember my discussion of the atmosphere and "feel" of the game? The whole black-and-white animation, and 40s thing? I'll put that aside - TOTALLY. I'll only return to it later.

The book I've wanted to use for a template in a game for a long time is Find a Victim, by Ross MacDonald. It seems totally inappropriate in terms of the setting we've discussed - the main character wanders into things utterly disconnected (only conceiving a minor lech for one of the female characters and a dislike for her husband) and it all takes place in a barren, isolated central California town in the 50s. But none of this matters! All I want is the relationship map.

It goes like this. An old fellow named Meyer, who owns a trucking company, has two daughters. Anne is a good-time girl and Hilda is a repressed housewife, married to the local sheriff, Brandon Church. Another fellow named Don Kerrigan has a loveless marriage with a woman named Kate, and he owns a motel business, the latest in a string of loser/failed ventures.

Anne and Don had a long-term affair that's been over more than a year (everyone knows this). Anne also tolerates the puppy/stalker level of affection of one of Meyer's drivers, named Tony Aquista. Much more secretly, Anne has just initiated an affair with Brandon Church, who is guilt-ridden about it. Tony reveals the affair to Hilda.

Don has a criminal solution to his financial woes - hold up one of Meyer's trucks (that's delivering whiskey to HIM, Don, and driven by Tony) and sell the stuff to hoodlums in a dry state, as well as collecting on the insurance. An out-of-town criminal, Leonard Bozey, is his ally in this; Bozey has a local girlfriend named Jo and a set of unsavory hoodlum allies.

Complication #1: Don and Jo have fallen in actual, real love, which throws a nasty kink into the Don-Bozey alliance.

Complication #2: Hilda kills Anne, then Tony (on the night of the theft!). Brandon is torn between his loyalty to his honor/job and to his wife (whom he has always sheltered, knowing her fragility), and he gets Don Kerrigan to help cover up the situation (burying Anne's body), in return for letting Bozey get away with the truck. Hilda manages to escape and kill Don as well; she can't stand that anyone knows about the affair between her sister and her husband, and desperately wants life to be "normal" now.

OK, so much for the book. I draw the map and "take it over."

Name changes follow. I'm interested in the Cronenberg trick that Jared refers to in Schism, about having names seem like aliases, not directly transformable to ethnicities. I also decide to keep most of the first names the same, for no good reason.
Brandon Church becomes Martin Beck (hence his wife is now Hilda Beck)
MacGowan becomes Maginnis (hence Jo "Summer" Maginnis)
Leonard Bozey becomes Milo Sizey
Don Kerrigan becomes Joey Van Graysloke (which is a very weird name) (hence Katie Craig van Graysloke, ditto)
Meyer becomes Raner (hence (hence Anne Raner, Hilda Raner Beck)
Tony Aquista becomes David Pruitt (and gets de-ethnicized)

OK, now to transform it regarding the setting. First step is to alter it all to the urban, sophisticated, big-money environment that I have in mind for the whole "material gain" issue.

So van Graysloke's shitty little motel biz becomes a string of casino hotels and similar ventures, linking him solidly into the shady business of licenses, leases, building contracts, and much else.

Similarly, Beck transforms from a small-town sheriff into a crusading DA or maybe just a good precinct chief - none of the issues change at all, just his status and profile. The character is supposed to be moral and breaking-apart, so this works fine.

And finally, Raner becomes the guy who owns and runs the airline that ships a lot of commercial material into the city area, in a semi-private airfield. If it's a cargo plane, then he's got a piece of it. (For the period, this function would be much more specialized than it is today.)

The key events include two thefts, both by Sizey. One happened in the past (in the book, it's a bank robbery of $20 thousand, marked); one happens at the outset (a truck hijacking of $70 thousand worth of bonded liquor). Here we can change them into operations of much more significance, with the second one including the actual disappearance of an entire cargo jet. The other key event is the string of murders by Hilda, and for now, I keep those fuzzy.

Now to sorcerize it! The main character to beef into full sorcerer-status is clearly Sizey - change him from a small-time "heavy thief" into a semi-legitimate developer and high-gloss con man, with some political allies. The gang that helps him becomes a scary, shadowy, sorcerous entity, much more significant than the gang of thugs in the book.

The other issue is Anne's murder, which suddenly leaps into focus surrounding the GUN which kills everyone. Hmmmm ... what's interesting about this whole back-story is the depth of Hilda's unacknowledged hatred and jealousy for her sister ... and that the sister gave her the gun, daring her to shoot herself, which (no pun intended) backfires badly ... and so I get this image of Anne giving Hilda the demon gun, saying "Why don't you just kill yourself?", Hilda DOING IT, putting the gun to her head and pulling the trigger - and the demon treating that as a Binding, responding to her real desire, and killing Anne instead. Wow! That's an image: the gun remaining aimed at Hilda's head as it is fired, but Anne's head impacted and fragmenting from the shot. I can look forward to the revelation of that event.

So the gun is a demon. Perhaps old Raner has one foot in sorcery, perhaps just enough to Bind the gun originally. Let's make the demon up:

Its abilities are obviously Lethal Special Damage, Ranged, and Perception (intense desires). I decide that a person may roll Will vs. his own Humanity to bring the desire into the necessary "intensity," and then the demon rolls its Power vs. Humanity to perceive it (with victories from the first roll as a bonus), and its victories from that roll become bonuses for the Damage attack roll. Cool!  

Object demon (gun); Stamina 4, Will 5, Lore 3, Power 5; Desire Ruin, Need for stories of injustice.

Physically, it's just a gun. The only sneaky thing is that it can shoot whoever is the desired target without being pointed right at him (it still has to be fired; the Ranged and Damage abilities are conferred to a person). Nice - I decide to call it Kaww.

Not bad! Not prepped of course, just some back-story plus the demonic technicalities have fallen into place to some extent. Now it's time to check out those characters and see what they bring to the back-story and vice versa.

Best,
Ron

[ This Message was edited by: Ron Edwards on 2001-10-30 17:37 ]

I'm posting this only for the sake of clearity.  I think you've mistaken Jenny, who is ASSOCIATED with the price for the price itself.  Cyril's Price is: Jumpy (-1 die penalty to all social rolls).  Jenny is just the most direct consequence of that.

Also what happened to to my demon being related to Tor's demon in the connections section?

Other than that I think your observations are interesting.  Especially the Superhero observation.  What exactly is your advice for getting around this problem?  It seems to be a natural consequence of those who like to play Solitary Adepts or Naifs.  The former are those who have long lost contact with other sorcerers and the later are Sorcerer's by accident.  And both of these are by far the most popular choices at least in my limited experience.

You mention the "shadowy master" who shows up and then disappears.  I bring this up because I'm genuinely curious and not because I'm trying to be defensive.  My original master background had been that the guy saved my life, introduced me to sorcerery and then just one day vanished without a trace.  You're reaction was that this was weak and now you claim here that it is convenient.  Originally I didn't see it that way.

Where my mind was going was a justification for Cyril's price: jumpy.  Okay, so this guys shows up out of no where, introduces Cyril to the dark arts and then just disappears.  But WHY?  And where did he go?  Is he still alive?  Worse, is he coming back?  It didn't feel convenient it felt creepy.  I was laying bare something for the GM to do their worst with.  Maybe my master was really somekind of demon?  Maybe my master was wanted by some other group of Sorcerers and will someday come after me.  Who knows?  It was something for the GM to play maliciously with.  Cliche, maybe, but not convenient.

This is compared with the revised version in which my master and I were both gamblers and eventually the town just got two small for the both of us and I just got up and left.  Sure, it's a little more proactive on my part and perhaps shows an insight into Cyril's character but the possibilities seem much more narrow.  The best we can hope for is that my former master would come looking for me for some reason.  But why should he?  He's a gambler and I'm no longer crowding his turff.  Good riddence.

So, really I don't see how the latter is better than the former.  Again, I'm just being curious, not defensive.

Jesse

Jesse,

We're talking about GM-thoughts that are not negotiated by players. They may be unfair, misinformed, not interpreting things right, or forgetting details. Since they are private (in reality), that's just the way it is.

For instance, in cutting & pasting everything about Cyril, I totally missed the Price itself. [You are right, it's valid.] Since I was UNAWARE that I'd missed it, it could not be corrected until I went to that player and said NICELY, "Hey, I didn't see the Price," when I'd be corrected. And that's how I'd handled it.

However, we're in my head now - and it's not fair to anyone in there, I'm not nice about things in there, and the way I scribble notes about what to do has not yet gone through a social filter that's going to get good results.

Same goes for the sorcerous mentor issue. I like the new Kicker better than the old one, and that counts for a lot. That doesn't mean, when I look at the correlated change in the sorcerery-mentor back-story, it is not going to aggravate me in some way.

The whole point is that it's a POSITIVE aggravation. The new Kicker is so good that it's totally worth it. So now I say, "H'm, how can I do this back-story justice, when it doesn't offer me certain things?" I've already had a good correction from the player (the Kicker). I don't want to ask again. It's now on ME, and if I don't let myself spew a few sparks about it, privately, then the creative challenge isn't going to yield anything.

Remember the point of this exercise. The hood is off. One of the things that goes on in there is a much less mediated, much less friendly, much less "keep things smooth" atmosphere. I know you're not being defensive - the answer to your curiosity is, "Now is the time when I am not being fair," in both the ancient and modern senses of the word.

A lot happens between this stage and the first run. Fairness (again, in both senses) comes back into things during that return-to-players phase.

Best,
Ron


[ This Message was edited by: Ron Edwards on 2001-10-30 16:50 ]

Hmmm... interesting.  I understand that we're taking a walk around inside your head (Ron Edwards RAW :smile:).  I was simply asking the tour guide some questions about what I was seeing.  But in some cases it seems you'd prefer if we held our questions until the end.  I'm cool with that.

Jesse

Now it's time to bring'er 'round the mountain and do the next step - got my relationship map, setting, and some notions about back-story. Got the characters and some connections among them (and yes, Jesse was right about me forgetting about the two shadow-demons, which is important). How does it all come together?

More importantly, how do I bring it together WITHOUT WRITING A STORY? I am providing story meat, but not story events. Ultimately, this has two parts: (1) Deepen the back-stories of characters and situation alike, aligning them in many ways; (2) come up with Bangs that make sense, to be applied AFTER the first Bangs (the Kickers) during play.

All right, first it's a matter of checking out all the details.

ITEM
Chema is pregnant. Fabulous - the big stud of the back-story is Joey van Graysloke; he's the dad. Toss out Jo "Summer" Maginnis entirely, and replace her with Chema. The relationship map just changed radically, as the romantic rivalry between van Graysloke and Sizey has vanished, as well as marital tension between Kate and van Graysloke. Fair enough; it's worth it. Kate only really existed in the original book to hook the protagonist, so Chema performs the same role.

It also puts the only fractured marriage in the story with Martin and Hilda Beck, and that's all right - the more unresolvable moral weight focused on Beck, the better.

ITEM
The building! OK, we've got one main NPC who's a building/developer real estate casino type, and a PC who's about to open his amazing scary building. Great! Those business interests cross profoundly and with much opportunity for conflict; it also affords opportunity for what Joey and Chema are doing with one another.

Notice the "casino" part? That ties into Cyril as a gambler who owns his own club, and into Richie as the hustler and grifter. Okay, good; any shady business by van Graysloke is going to reverberate throughout the three characters.

ITEM
Drugs. Whoa - drugs. Two of the PCs utilize drugs in their sorcery. Ooooohhh ... well, doesn't that tie nicely into what the cargo plan was carrying when it was hijacked. Poof out! goes the bonded liquor and poof in! goes the dope. Got it. It also gives Raner a very nasty turn, because not only does he want the plane's contents back, he doesn't want Beck finding out what they were.

ITEM
A German psychotherapist. Whoa! Whoa! OK, a ton of things all come together simultaneously. The term "shadow" plays a big role in Jungian psychology. Richie is a coven member. Hilda is an unbalanced neurotic, recently graduated to full-blown psychopathy.

When this happens, it's like stuff just REVEALS itself to you, rather than you making it up. It all fits. The whole setting just screams for murky Jungian symbology and murkier Freudian motivations. We have a Jungian psychotherapist at least ankle-deep in sorcery - we have Richie with a shadow-demon and membership that coven; Hilda undergoing therapy and thereby picking up some Lore; Cyril with some sort of connection as well.

Notes to self: (1) make sure Tor is OK with the coven being a psychiatric thing; (2) spend a bit more time linking Cyril's mysterious mentor to the coven (letting him stay distant, too; he's not a part of this story) and pointing that out during play. Gotta figure out that demon connection too; I still like the "one demon" idea or at least the concept of a mental or emotional link between them.

Thoughts on THAT - note that both men have very informal names for their demons, "Blob" and "my shadow." Ha ha ... that would give me lots of room for developments. Noted and logged. [If this were a real run, I'd spend some time developing this idea with a VERY close eye on not forcing the player-characters to know anything more, nor to do anything specific in the future.]

ITEM
Sizey is not Richie's dad (too obvious), but the vague and sinister head of the vague and sinister sorcerous group that he works with IS Richie's dad. All set. Call him Leo Silver. Thoughts at this point: keep him light - what matters about Richie's Kicker is not what he and his dad actually work out in confrontation, but rather how ANXIETY about his dad screws with his ability to deal with other stuff. (A bit of a dodge, but OK.)

ITEM
Beck and van Graysloke hate one another's guts, all the more since the murder of Pruitt turns them into temporary allies. Van Graysloke sees it as his big chance to get away from the town with a nice nest egg, and Beck sees it as yet another step on his personal staircase to hell.

Anyone who deals with them, or knows of them, can spot this sudden exponential rise in the dislike between the two men.

DONE YET?
Well, we could play at this point. But it's always good to look at the whole arrangement and shake it a little ...

DOUBLE-CHECK
Too much sorcery? We have Raner with the gun, the psychotherapeutic coven, and the shadowy group that includes Richie's dad. Richie and Cyril both tie into that, but Eroch represents yet another branch/type of sorcery.

It does seem like too damn much of the stuff going around. Sharpen it up a bit ... combine the demon gun with the shadowy group, and link Eroch's tradition back in time with the Jungian group's European origins. That pretty much gives us two solid groups, which is much better.

Note to self: come up with characteristic Telltales for both sorcerers and demons for each of the groups, especially using PC material for the basic ideas.

Other note: make sure that the other group has a strong psychological angle - perhaps the disruption of relationships is involved, given Leo's past - and really play up, eventually the fact that Hilda used the Lore of the psychotherapeutic group in combination with the demon of the OTHER group to commit the murder. Nice.

DOUBLE-CHECK
Is the back-story linked up enough? One thing's a problem: dealing with Anne. She's the primary murder victim, and there are two ways to go with that - have her be vaguely known to the PCs to start or not at all, or have her be linked in strongly.

Could Anne be Jenny, Cyril's girlfriend? Two problems with that. First is that Jenny is Jesse's NPC and it's rude to knock her off without any screen time, even. Second is that Jesse made it clear that their relationship problems are CYRIL'S doing, not hers - so having her be a bitch of a good-time girl is more-or-less stealing the character entirely. Can't do that.

Too bad, really, because it would have let Tobias completely replace Pruitt, which would have worked great! Except that it also means killing off all of Jesse's NPCs in the first half-hour of play. No go.

Solution: leave Anne out of the player-character prep entirely. Her existence is something they can find out fast (the most superficial look at van Graysloke will reveal his notorious ex-affair with her), even at the "you know about Anne, a real good-time girl who picks up with men at the club" level for Cyril.

Do, however, make sure they know who Beck is. He's well-known in the city as a clean, justice-driven, highly moral politico-cop. (Kind of like the precinct chief part, as it would include jurisdiction over the airfield.)

DOUBLE-CHECK
Kicker check time. Fuck! Eroch and Richie are all set, but we're still stuck with Cyril. And it's a good Kicker, too! How does poor ol' Tobias fit in here? Hmmmm ... just gotta be a little "lumpy" and connect loser-Tobias to his loser-friend, David Pruitt, successful pilot for Raner but totally, hopelessly, and uselessly besotted with Anne Raner. Oh, that works. That means that Cyril knows who Anne is (as described), and has to deal not only with his lapdog-pal Tobias but Tobias' equally annoying pal Dave.

And since we're gonna kill Dave deader than disco in the first run, no problem. Tobias will be awfully dependent on Cyril about it. Hmmm ... have to make sure that Tobias is actually NOT an annoying little bastard ... Jesse's going to have to like him enough to care ... ah ha! If he's with Anne, he ain't with Jenny, right? Cool. Jenny turns him on to Anne.

DOUBLE-CHECK
Is anyone important being marginalized? Yes!! Chema is being treated like a little punchboard, most unfairly. I like Chema; I want her to be an interesting character and generally sympathetic, and for her relationship to Eroch to be something worth caring about (it's a Kicker, after all). Note to self: beef her personality up (a mute character is EITHER invisible OR more present than anyone else), give her lots of good stuff to do in the course of play.

WHAT I'LL GLOSS OVER
If this were a real run, I'd now spend time assigning some physical features to each of the NPCs, so that we'd know that van Graysloke has red hair, very sharply slicked down flat with a high side part - a handsome guy in his early 30s with a lazy, look-past-the-person stare. I'd make sure that Tobias' hair was parted in the middle, and that Raner is a hairy, grunting behemoth of a 60-year-old. Time for a good description for everyone and some thoughts about role-playing them (tentative, of course - in many cases, these will be tossed out during actual play and replaced by better ideas).

Whew! The next post will be about the actual prep for the first run. We're skipping a few things, including the time spent for details like the ones I've mentioned (Telltales, Chema, etc), as well as perhaps one or two little dialogues between me and the players (such as the one which would clear up my confusion about Cyril's Kicker, for instance).

Best,
Ron

P.S. All questions and concerns are welcome as we go, although of course some answers will be "wait until the next part." Some can be answered right away though, I'm sure, so fire away.

Hey Ron,

Holy smokes, I had to read this thread three times before I thought I could respond with intelligent questions. So here they are, from all over the place:

Hilda kills Anne, then Tony (on the night of the theft!).

In the book, what's Hilda's motive for killing Tony after her informed her of the affair? She doesn't want anyone to know her shame? What's Tony's motive for telling her? He's mad at Anne for continually keeping him at arm's length, but then having an affair with Brandon?

I decide to "soften" Pazuzu's unpleasant Need with a rather sympathetic desire for Knowledge.

Beyond just softening Pazuzu's unpleasant Need, did you choose the Desire for Knowledge with any other objective in mind? Did it maybe seem like a good fit for the way you see Eroch and Pazuzu fitting into the backstory? Or could you just as easily have chosen something else soft like a Desire for Social Celebrity?

I'd have to talk to the players about that a bit. Eroch's architecture can be tied directly to his sorcery, if the player likes.

This is cool with me. I was actually trying to come up with something like this, but my imagination failed me. And the main problem I have with Eroch, as written, is kind of related to this. It's that Pazuzu seems kind of incidental to his situation. Involvement from Pazuzu in the hiring of the psychotherapist or business planning related to the building isn't actually specified, so it comes across almost like Eroch decided to have a demon around just in case he'd need one. So I'm thinking a linkage between Eroch's sorcery and the building would be good. What thoughts do you have about that possible linkage?

Joey van Graysloke; he's the dad. Toss out Jo "Summer" Maginnis entirely, and replace her with Chema. The relationship map just changed radically, as the romantic rivalry between van Graysloke and Sizey has vanished, as well as marital tension between Kate and van Graysloke.

What happened to the marital tension? Wouldn't the affair with and pregnancy of a 15 year old girl cause marital tension?

I get this image of Anne giving Hilda the demon gun, saying "Why don't you just kill yourself?", Hilda DOING IT, putting the gun to her head and pulling the trigger - and the demon treating that as a Binding, responding to her real desire, and killing Anne instead. Wow!

This is awesome. I really like it.

The "double check" sequence you describe is great too.

But you do casually write a couple of things that seem logical and straightforward, but when I think about how sweeping they are, seem amazingly ambitious:

1. "It does seem like too damn much of the stuff going around. Sharpen it up a bit ... combine the demon gun with the shadowy group, and link Eroch's tradition back in time with the Jungian group's European origins."

2. "...we've got one main NPC who's a building/developer real estate casino type, and a PC who's about to open his amazing scary building. Great! Those business interests cross profoundly and with much opportunity for conflict; it also affords opportunity for what Joey and Chema are doing with one another."

3. "Notice the "casino" part? That ties into Cyril as a gambler who owns his own club, and into Richie as the hustler and grifter. Okay, good; any shady business by van Graysloke is going to reverberate throughout the three characters."

Link the tradition back in time? Business interests crossing profoundly? Any shady business is going to reverberate throughout the three characters?

I'm not sure how I'd attempt any one of those three things with a given scenario. Just exactly how can a prospective GM implement delivery of three things like that?

Paul

Hi Paul!

"In the book, what's Hilda's motive for killing Tony after [he] informed her of the affair? She doesn't want anyone to know her shame? What's Tony's motive for telling her? He's mad at Anne for continually keeping him at arm's length, but then having an affair with Brandon?"

Remember, both of these people are nuts. That's not to say they are inexplicable, though. Hilda's motive is that if EVERYONE who knows ANYTHING is just eliminated, then the Whole World Is All Right. (Murder to protect one's capital-D Denial is a big issue in MacDonald stories.) You got Tony pegged too.

"Beyond just softening Pazuzu's unpleasant Need, did you choose the Desire for Knowledge with any other objective in mind? Did it maybe seem like a good fit for the way you see Eroch and Pazuzu fitting into the backstory? Or could you just as easily have chosen something else soft like a Desire for Social Celebrity?"

It's simply sympathetic and provides a different way for a demon to be a "clue vacuum" from Blob's Need (which is also fine, but only one way to do it). I'll let it develop through play, as I trust myself fine to role-play and establish demon personalities with little prep. Personal GM talent thing.

Re: Eroch and his sorcery
Actually, I was thinking about tying the sorcery more heavily into the psychotherapy ... in that Eroch had enough contact with the therapist to get some ideas, and developed it further on his own. Pazuzu may well represent a successful effort on his part to enlist whatever power he could to become rich and powerful (mainly to help his sister, of course, although probably not entirely). Her help, plus the insect-motif, both influenced the building's design, probably mediated through Eroch's own aesthetic ideals as well.

Re: Joey van Graysloke and Chema:
"What happened to the marital tension? Wouldn't the affair with and pregnancy of a 15 year old girl cause marital tension?"

Hmm, good point. The problem is that Kate van Graysloke is no longer necessary as the character hook, so I was just going to drop her. However, for present, we'll hold her as a potential NPC who may "grow" in response to player interest.

Regarding the murder of Anne,
"This is awesome. I really like it."

That's because you're a sick, sick man.

"But you do casually write a couple of things that seem logical and straightforward, but when I think about how sweeping they are, seem amazingly ambitious:"
"Link the tradition back in time? Business interests crossing profoundly? Any shady business is going to reverberate throughout the three characters?"
"I'm not sure how I'd attempt any one of those three things with a given scenario. Just exactly how can a prospective GM implement delivery of three things like that?"

Umm ... easily? Look at your phrasing: IMPLEMENT DELIVERY. That's exactly right. I don't have to develop, establish, or otherwise define any of these things. I have to deliver them as issues. All I need is for the players to tap into the power issues inherent in each character and get a rush of that sorcerous arrogance, coupled with Author power. Richie is given a chance to see what sort of shit his dad is up to ... Eroch must deal with political or economic shenanigans that jeopardize his building ... Cyril must react when said shenanigans put his club license in jeopardy ...

But all this is getting ahead of ourselves. Next post will deal more with the whole "prepping for real play" issue.

Best,
Ron

Hi there,

This is my final prep post to show what I'd have ready for our initial run.

STUFF TO PUT ON A HANDOUT ABOUT THE SETTING
I am a handout fanatic. The first one might include ...

Lots of atmospheric cool stuff about the city

Material about the casino hotels, as well as about the big new insectoid building going up. This portion establishes for SURE that something very screwy is happening regarding Van Graysloke's shady real estate dealings.

Drugs have been dry for a while, but there's a new shipment coming in.

Some names: Martin Beck, along with a bunch of others like the mayor and so on. Perhaps individualize the sheets for this part, so that different players get different information and NPC lists.

Absolutely nothing topical - remember this is mid-20th-century as the movies would have us believe.

It might be fun to comb through some Call of Cthulhu or other game material to find pictures of the NPCs in the map. Maybe even some black-and-white period photos? If so, avoid known actors or celebrities.

THINKING ABOUT THE PLAYERS
[The following material is designated very unfair and arbitrary. These are the suspicions and concerns that I'd NEVER tell players until much later, if ever. The good news is that even if they are inaccurate, they prompt me to make the game better via the in-game "Solutions."]

Jesse - may drift into "find the monkey" and "investigation" without reference to anything cool or worthwhile in audience terms. Solution: beef up all NPC interaction, have them expect things and judgments and concerns from the character. Jenny has humor, intelligence, verve, and hopes - make sure Jesse wants Cyril to get with her, such that Cyril's resistance is perceived as a character flaw.

Tor - not too sure, so I fall back on the default new-to-Sorcerer concern that the player will swing into either Cyberpunk or Call of Cthulhu mode. Solution: Beef up his family! Have mom and possibly siblings be interesting people who depend on him. Play up their concrete financial needs, e.g. rent and so on. When Richie squares his shoulders and enters a hustling/con situation, I want us to root for him because we know what's at stake.

Paul - may be a worry wart and have a complex about whether what's he doing is OK, maybe descending into during-play monologues to psychologize his character without announcing an action. Solution: give Eroch respect. He designed, implemented, and owns this building - he's a big wheel! Art, function, and prosperity - what could be more impressive, in this setting? People fall all over themselves to please him. Give Eroch power via influence; don't frustrate his actions in any way.

ON TO THE BANGS!
Well, then, we get together and play, and here's what I'd have scribbled as my notes.

It's OK to state where PCs are and what they're doing, as a form of respect and acknowledgment to the player about the character. The best way is to suggest, "Eroch is doing a personal walk-through the building with Pazuzu ..." and then ASK Paul if that's reasonable or all right. If it is, it lets him know that I "feel" the PC in a way that acknowledges his creativity AND control.

Ask for physical descriptions, not only of the character's face and appearance, but of his surroundings and turf. During play, go ahead and find out what Cyril's club is like, or how Eroch is setting up his office, or how spiffy Richie's personal space like his bed and bathroom is (could go either way, with that character).

Now to the Kickers themselves (the first Bangs) - serious role-playing time. Richie finds out that his dad's back in town, does he? Time to role-play that ... I have to decide whether it's through his mom or other family members, or through the sorcerous contacts, or what. Same goes for Chema - I have decided that Pazuzu hears her weeping, and is "full up" with her Need, which Eroch will be able to spot - then Chema shows up with reddened eyes and a brave look. That oughta do it. Chema WILL turn to her brother for support and help, and NOT keep the pregnancy secret. Then with Cyril ... that's definitely a club scene, so that Anne, David, Tobias, and Jenny can all be involved at least visually.

In every case, pay strict attention to how the character responds in terms of human empathy, especially in terms of it being more important than financial/status ones. Bring the demon into it in each case, preferably to the extent that Humanity check is called for if the player does anything interesting.

AND INTO THE RELATIONSHIP MAP
So the response to the Bangs ought to reverberate into the map instantly. Does law get called in to deal with the real estate stuff? Then it's time to meet Beck and establish him as a Good Guy, stern perhaps, but solidly down on the shady stuff (this is before the murder, remember).

Similarly, does the therapist (whom I dub Dr. Heuttner all of a sudden) get called into things in response to Chema's therapy? Well that's a big deal right there, and Richie's whole coven may be thrown into a tizzy as well.

This is serious role-playing on my part - I have to provide huge amounts of nifty meat via the NPCs to the players, in a form which invents, among us, the in-game solidity of the PCs and NPCs alike, as well as the city as a whole. I have to take the players' stated actions, NONE of which I am able to anticipate, and bring in stuff from anywhere appropriate on the map. Much of it will be invented on the fly - a few coven members, perhaps, or cronies of Richie's, or perhaps an investment attorney who's Eroch's right-hand man. That invention can be by me or by the players, I expect the diagrams on the back of the sheet to get scribbled on extensively.

It depends mainly on the Amber trick: "What do you do?" and the more the character does, the more happens and the cooler it is.

It also depends on the NPCs being well-played and often sympathetic. Again, Chema is a big priority; I want her appearance in a scene really to interest everyone. Same goes for Richie's family and Jesse's relationship (Jenny isn't a whiner!).

Really develop those Bangs. They are story. Find out what happens. Get an idea of which PCs are polite, which ones are ruthless, which ones are instantly sympathetic. Play the demons and find out (ie invent) what they are like. Record the outcomes of rolls for actions that look like they might have long-term consequences, including the successes for or against the character.

THE GM'S BANG
The drug shipment is coming in - and the plane vanishes. Yup, it just never touches down. David Pruitt is wandering dazedly in the wasteland surrounding the airfield (there always seems to be one), when he is killed (long-distance!) by Hilda and her gun.

Who finds him? Doesn't matter. If a PC was involved in waiting for the plane, then they might. Or perhaps Tobias can be involved - he had been told by David that "something big was up" and was trying to get in on it to impress Cyril. Or maybe it's something that gets discovered whole sessions later.

What matters is that every damn NPC on the map is going to react to this like Ferdinand the Bull being stung by the bee. It means that any and every interaction the PCs are having with them will instantly and obviously change in character, in many cases counter to the PCs' interests.

Note for future: have a big black evil void open up in the air and the plane come thundering out of it to crash somewhere. Of course, all the drugs it carried and all personnel are gone. That's definitely a session 2 or session 3 thing.

AND FURTHER INTO THE MAP
Well, the first thing is that tons of stuff is happening that the characters may or may not be privy to, namely the killing of Anne (before the plane vanishes), the crucial deal between Beck and van Graysloke (ditto), and the killing of David (afterwards).

The main thing to remember is that the original source (the novel) is left far, far behind at this point. It may be that actions of the PCs in the first part of the run have changed many things! No NPC has to be "protected" - I don't have to keep something secret if the PC has done something that would get that info. And the PCs have amazing information retrieval systems in the form of their Covers and their demons.

The doors are flung wide at this point. I don't have the faintest fucking idea of what's going to happen. Perhaps the sorcerous bastards who stole the plan are going to be more present and dangerous than previously anticipated. We may have a whole coven meeting to run, with Eroch and Richie present, to determine the father of Chema's child. Or who knows - maybe Anne's body is discovered in this very first run (rather than being the climactic discovery). The map is now the player-characters' chew-toy, and all I have to do is amplify what's already there, and what's been established through play already. I have to keep "pushing" the demons and their Desires and Needs.

Think about what's ABOUT to happen too, specifically that Hilda's going to nail van Graysloke too. Maybe someone can be talking to van Graysloke right when his head blows up from Hilda's gun, fired miles away.

One thing to remember is that Beck and Van Graysloke are allied enemies, and that perhaps (if Beck had been looking into the shady dealings) the fact that Beck is now PROTECTING him will be very obvious to any PC who's been involved in that aspect of the situation. This only becomes MORE drastic after Van Graysloke dies, and Beck goes into full cover-up mode, with attendant Humanity loss and erratic behavior.

FINAL NOTES
That's it! That's prep! I go into a first run knowing and planning exactly what you've seen, ready to play bass with my instruments the demons, the Kickers, and the GM's Bang, as well as the relationship map.

Best,
Ron

Paul - may be a worry wart and have a complex about whether what's he doing is OK, maybe descending into during-play monologues to psychologize his character without announcing an action

Whaaaaaaat!!! Okay...I'm totally pouting and not talking to you anymore.

Scott, defend me. Scott? Danielle, register for the Forge and defend me.

Dammit.

I'm gonna fire my bouncer. He was specifically told to strip the three principals' egos from them during this exercise, prior to their entry into my private head-space.

Comments on the scenario preparation? Please?

Best,
Ron

Is this going to go into "...& Soul"? I'm a bit confused.

Well Ron, personally, I'm just oogling in awe.  To fully comprehend what I'm looking at I'm going to have to sit down and map it out for myself.  I'm not very good with verbal descriptions of relationship maps.  But off the cuff the best I can do is offer my initial thoughts.

1) Your bouncer has sufficiently de-egoized me.  But I do have one comment about your 'concerns' about me.  Did you determine the possible tendency for me to fall into 'investigative' mode from the character I created alone or because of what you know of me as a person?  I ask only because you're dead on. I even worry about my games falling into this mode when I *GM*.  

2) I have to go with Paul in that I'm amazed about the more abstract issues such as how sorcery is linked back in time.  I admit that I have NO IDEA how to bring these things into actual play and ANY elaboration on this would be welcome even if it just comes into the form of, "Well, if the players truly are interesting in authoring the story then I expect things like X, Y and Z to result from these elements."  What exactly DOES the Sorcerous Technicallity do story-wise other than just add color, flavor and uniformity?

3) I have to admit that most of my own relationship maps/backstory endevors suffer from what I've come to call the, "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you medling kids!" syndrom.  That is, the backstory is COMPLETE, in that those who were involved in any crimes, injustices or moral attrocities have reached a point of stasis.  The darkness is in their past and they wish nothing more than to forget it ever happened.  But then some medling PC happens to start digging for whatever reason and unearthing this seething cess pool.  The idea being that these crimes, injustices and moral attrocities are lying their unresolved and it's up to the PC to decide what to do about it.  This unfortnately results in basically having NPCs that can do only one of two things: resort to violence and try to stop the PC from diging too deep or go into utter denile mode and try to lock the PC out.  Not very interesting.

So all this self absorbed rambling was to say I'm very impressed with your ability to slice a story very neatly in half.  You have just enough backstory to really understand what's going on but yet it's still in motion so that when the PCs arrive they're sucked up into a rushing river rather than stiring up a still pond.

4) Source material.  I'm impressed with both your ability to start with a kernal of someone else's idea and make it your own as well as your ability to drop the novel's plot.  For some reason this technique just doesn't work for me.  Not only do I seem to have a great deal of trouble altering some one else's work to fit my own needs, I have a great deal of trouble forgetting the actual events of the novel.  I feel arrogant messing with these things.  I read published novels with a sort of wide-eyed sense of wonder at how everything just fits so nicely into place and I end up having this feeling that if one single element is distrubed this carefully crafted masterpiece will crumble.  Something I should probably get over but impressive on your part none the less.

5) This is more of a side note but you make references to the "Cyberpunk Mode" and the "Cthulhu Mode".  I know the "Cthulhu Mode" but what's the "Cyberpunk Mode"?

I think that about summarizes it.  These are just the thoughts that go through my head as I read this.  Once I've gone over it all more carefully I think I'll have something slightly more constructive to say.

Jesse

I have to give a big "me, too!". I also have the tendency to run Scooby-esque stories (stuff I talked about up in Actual Play). Seeing the developmental process for the relationship map scenario was enlightening. I'm feeling a surge of creativity & freedom.

Quote
On 2001-10-31 12:38, Ron Edwards wrote:
STUFF TO PUT ON A HANDOUT ABOUT THE SETTING
I am a handout fanatic. The first one might include ...

A specific question on this one, that can be applied to the process in general:  How much time (effort?) are you going to spend putting these handouts together?  If not as an absolute number, maybe as a proportion of your overall prep time?

(Let me confess - Part of my agenda here at the Forge is to get more quality RPG time for less overall time invested/spent.  But this seems a valid question in the overall "how you prepare a game" consideration . . . )

Gordon