Nan and Lore

[Christopher Kubasik]

Okay.  I have a question about NaN...

I just had our character creation session for my new game will start playing next weekend, and I'm excited as all hell.  But I want to try to get something straight...

Ron wrote in a NaN thread: "That's also why types and styles of sorcery, in a given setting, do not reflect setting but rather characters."

But in each setting there is a kind of Demon.  There is a kind of Lore. There's a unity that is sought -- the book is explicit about this. It's not all willy-nilly. There are mentors. There can be covens and so forth, as mentioned in the rules.

So, how does the fact that the setting has a unity of decisions fit in with the idea that the types and styles of sorcery do not reflect setting.

Just so there's context, there' the game I've set up with my three terrific players:


The Brotherood

[jburneko]

CK!,

I think you're in the crowd of people whose "story sense" is so strong that sometimes they get tripped up on concepts because they already understand intuitively so they think they must be missing something.  Think instead like someone who has never seen Sorcerer or any games like it and instead has dined on a steady diet of Vampire, 7th Sea and other games like it.

You look at your prison and its inmates and their criminal lives as "the setting" because that's the world view of the *characters* you're interested in examining.  But look at what you've done from a more traditional RPG gamer point of view.  What you've done is described "only" ONE place.  Where's the rest of the world?  What do wall street corporate CEOs in your "setting" look like?  What about politicians?  How is Washington DC different given this Sorcerous criminal underworld?  What's the mafia up to?  How about the international scene?  Are children affected by these demons?  Is the average law abiding joe affected?  What about his wife?

Those questions are intuitively nonsensical to you but the mindset that asks them is still out there in gamer and fanish culture.

Jesse

[Christopher Kubasik]

Hi Jesse,

That's what I figured.  In fact, I said pretty much the same thing to one of my own players just tonight over dinner.

And if that's it, well, then that's it. Thanks!