[Sorcerer] GM stumbling blocks
Finarvyn:
Marshall -
One thing that sets Sorcerer apart from many RPGs on the market is that you really have to develop a love for the character and really resent its loss. Some games seem to instill a disposible character model, but Sorcerer is such that if you don't care you might as well be playing Monopoly. The fact that you care about your character is what motivates you to make the decisions that you make, and when things go badly makes you agonize over them.
- Marv (Finarvyn)
Christopher Kubasik:
Marshall,
It's not about forming an attachment to the character so that you're afraid to lose the character or whatnot. (In this, Marv and I differ -- I don't think Sorcerer is different than other games in that you need to have special relationship with your character or something. But that's not to say Marv is wrong with how he plays.)
My point is that you don't want to lose a character until you are done with him. That's all. As far as I can tell from your post you and I are identical in our tastes on this point, so you're not a unique case at all. (I think you should know that.)
So, for me, it's not a matter of being afraid of losing your character or something... just a matter of "Are you done with him yet?" Because if you're not done with him -- in terms of whatever creative agenda you have with playing via this particular character you've created -- you're going to have to pump up some Humanity gain rolls to make sure he's still around.
Again, this has been my experience with playing the game. Players see that Humanity dropping toward zero and they start taking actions to lift their Humanity score a bit. It's not out of fear, and I've never seen anyone see it as punishment. (I'm pretty sure that outside of Sorcerers punishing their demons, there's no use of the word punishment in the text -- and certainly not the rules punishing the players.)
And now... Here's an Actual Play posting (in three parts). In it, I chose to drive my PC's Humanity six-feet-under as quickly as possible. Then Jesse took my character, doodled on it, and handed it back and said, "Now what?"
Gothic Fantasy Part One:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=2702.0
Gothic Fantasy Part Two: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=2807.msg27442#msg27442
Gothic Fantasy Part Three:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=2908.msg28210#msg28210
I link these so you can see my above posts have nothing to do with being so attached to my character I'm afraid of losing him or something. I made a choice -- and I knew that choice had consequences creatively -- and those consequences made the choice of value.
And then, because there were consequences, something even cooler came about when Jesse handed my character back to me.
CK
Finarvyn:
Quote from: Christopher Kubasik on February 05, 2008, 06:09:28 PM
My point is that you don't want to lose a character until you are done with him. That's all.
Christopher -
You've stated it much better than I did. :-)
- Marv (Finarvyn)
Marshall Burns:
I think I'm getting it. It's a clever trick to get people to create story without even realizing they're doing it!
I also received Sorcerer & Sword Wednesday. I bought it because I like Robert E. Howard; I'm completely unfamiliar with the other source material. Yet I could only nod my head enthusiastically while reading it! It's cleared up some fuzzy areas for me regarding Sorcerer in general, and I'm getting all kinds of cool ideas.
This, combined with your account, Chris, has given me a great idea for a potential setting. I actually had a game idea that I abandoned a couple years ago called Bone Orchard: a Spooky Roleplaying Game with a setting that I can only describe as Americanfairytalegothic, derived from a variety of sources from Washington Irving to Grimm's Fairy Tales to the music of Tom Waits, plus a bunch of songs that I wrote with titles like "Black River Jam" and "Duke's Bones." I could never figure out how I would go about making it actually deliver that setting, and the sort of experience I saw as built in to it, but I think I can do it much better than I ever anticipated between Sorcerer and Sorcerer & Sword. Now I just gotta run it by my players and see if it clicks with them as well as it does with me :)
Christopher Kubasik:
Quote from: Marshall Burns on February 08, 2008, 12:22:53 PM
I think I'm getting it. It's a clever trick to get people to create story without even realizing they're doing it!
Or a helpful set of tools for those who do!
Either way, it seems to work.
CK
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