[Sorcerer] The Live Tattoo
Ron Edwards:
Hi Sven!
My recollection is that we did set the game in Hamburg, but now that you mention it, I may be mistaken. Could it have been Berlin after all? I'm pretty sure that it was not unnamed or generic.
I know about the pressure you mentioned during character creation. I developed it during my long-time experiences with Champions. The idea is not really pressure so much as saying "yes" to ideas that a player has which are so interesting to him or her, that the player rejects them. This is a weird trend in role-playing: when you come up with something that really grabs your own self, then you throw it away as quickly as possible because it might make trouble of some kind. It's as if we have been trained to apply only the comfortable imagination to play, which usually means a genre cliche, rejecting the visceral.
A related tactic is to ask questions when someone clearly falls into the cliche trap, typically that the character has amnesia or starts looking too much like a given actor's persona (say, Bruce Willis as "action guy") or a given fan-favorite character motif (say, Willow in Buffy). I don't really challenge it or say "are you suuuure" in a leading way, so much as ask questions about what does make the character more dynamic, and that usually results in the cliche being abandoned or being transformed into something better.
Your character was about friendships based on bullying. It was a brutal, painful topic, probably for all of us. I think the essential question (and ultimately, decision) built into the character concerned whether he was such a self-made victim that he would be destined to succumb to the worst excesses of sorcery, or whether he would find a "hero" in himself eventually. That's an important question and given the characteristic dice-results and dice-usage in Sorcerer, a risky one.
I especially appreciate your comments about catharsis, because that was a primary creative goal for designing the game: catharsis without self-indulgence.
You wrote,
Quote
When he punished his daemon and showed him who's boss I did this really reluctantly feeling it was bad roleplaying, but it was the only acceptable way out of the situation I saw.
Why did I see this as bad roleplaying? Because I have learned that it is considered to be "breaking out of character" if you portrait your character in any way that is not the same as what's written down on the character sheet.
I think this is a serious issue. I've discovered that this is a primary reason that Sorcerer plays poorly in a convention context. People look at the sheet and commit to depicting what they see there, instead of using the sheet as a set of starting points or habits that characterize this individual until the Kicker hits, i.e., before play only. It's thespianism as opposed to authorship.
I am definitely going to return to Hamburg, and to visit all the great people I met there.
Best, Ron
Christoph Boeckle:
This is a beautiful thread! Thanks to all for sharing.
Frank Tarcikowski:
Yes, now that you mention it, it was Berlin. The “eyes of an educated visitor” thing still applies, though.
Apart from that, Sven: Wow. Just… wow. I did notice that you were very “in it” but I didn’t realize it was that personal. I’m glad you felt comfortable enough to cross those lines with us. And for what it’s worth, in my book that was excellent role-playing.
- Frank
Frank Tarcikowski:
I just recalled a neat rules twist we made. My demon did not boost cover. My demon had a cover of its own, equal to its Will of 7 or 8, that was transferred to the sorcerer. This is only one example of how demon abilities are very flexible and can represent almost any effect if you’re a little creative.
- Frank
Ron Edwards:
Hi Frank,
That's not a rules twist, though. There is indeed a demon ability called Cover, and like nearly all the abilities, its user can be defined as the demon or as someone else.
Best, Ron
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