How can I best run a game of sorcerer?
weaselheart:
Hi,
I've been a lurker on these boards for a year or so, and have thought about posting a couple of times, but only recently worked out what to say. I'm posting here in the hope someone can tell me something that gives me a bit of a nudge forward, as I feel I'm missing something in the way I run sorcerer but I'm not sure what it is.
Some background. I've GM'd for more than twenty years, starting with red-box D&D. My favorite games (other than sorcerer) are Amber, Everway, Houses of the Blooded and Mortal Coil. I've found I really like games where the players are active contributors to the plot as well as the gm.
I've recently finished running a sorcerer campaign set in the far future. The characters were people who for one reason or another had become trapped in the space between downtrodden peasant and corporate drone. Essentially, they were fighting to preserve their freedom. The game's over now and we all had a lot of fun, and yet I can't help thinking I didn't use the full extent of sorcerer more. For example, the players only rolled against their humanity two or three times in the whole 8 sessions, which makes me feel I didn't challenge them enough in that arena.
Here's where I think the problem is. I know two quite different ways to run a game:
1. I write up the scenario in advance. The players enter scene 1, play it out. Enter scene 2, play it out. Etc.
To be honest, I haven't run games this way in ages, although I might if it was a pre-gen for a one-nighter.
An example of this approach would be,
"You are in a dungeon - there is a corridor in front of you with a door to the left and a door to the right. Which one do you open?"
2. I stat up baddies, decide what the main forces of antagonism in the world are, and how they will hit the players on day one, then wait to see what the players do. More or less, I wing it from there. If the characters run, I send people after them. If they attack, my people flee, regroup, etc.
An example of this approach would be,
"You are sitting in the cafe opposite when you see the secret police break down your house door and run in with dogs. What do you do?"
Now I think this one is closer to the spirit of what sorcerer wants, and the one I used, but I'm beginning to believe I'm still not getting it fully. For example, the players are still pretty reactive and expect me to have a coherent reason why everything happens worked out beforehand. At the moment it feels like I'm using sorcerer to run a game the way I always have, and all I'm taking from it are funky demons and a cool dice mechanic - yet I know from reading around that there's a lot more to it than that.
So, my question is, is there a third way of running a game that I don't yet understand, and which would make more sense when running sorcerer? Or, put another way, how do you prepare the world-stuff for a game of sorcerer and how much freedom do you give the players to add to it?
John Adams:
Hi Weaselheart,
I'm in the middle of my first Sorcerer game, coming at it from a situation similar to yours.
You're well on your way with your second style of prep. Now make it a story about the PCs. Take Sorcerer's Premise and build it into the PCs and your prep. Use Humanity.
Premise: You have tremendous power. So, what do you want? How far will you go to get it?
Your players answer the first question up front when creating thier Sorcerers, often right in the Kicker. The GMs job is to make them answer the second question again and again though play (usually through bangs) until that character reaches a satisfying conclusion. This is where Humanity comes in. "How far will you go?" is almost always a challenge to whatever Humanity is in this particular campaign. If Humanity = Love, getting what you want means risking something you love and will usually trigger a Humanity check.
There's a feedback loop. A player tries to get something, the GM challenges the Sorcerer's Humanity in order to get it. Sometimes the player will turn aside and say, "not worth it"; sometimes he'll say "HELL YEAH!" and drive right on through. Now the GM has a better idea of which buttons to push. "Oh, you jumped at that huh? Well how about NOW?" Escalating, upping the ante each time until the Sorcerer is destroyed or gets what he wants. There is no sytematic way to stop short of Humanity = 0, the dramatic arc will go where it goes and when everyone agrees it's over, it's over. Usually there will be an obvious climax.
Alan:
Hi Weaselheart,
Yes, go with the second approach. Be sure to use Sorcerer's character creation and game preparation to support this. Each character will have a kicker that you should use as the center of each PCs involvement in the game. Each character sheet has a diagram on the back for the player to write what people and things are important to their character. Make sure they fill this out (and they can add to it during play). Use that as inspiration. Also, between character prep and first session, make a relationship map of the NPCs -- such a map is great for knowing how PC actions will push NPC buttons and who the NPCs will pressure.
Ron Edwards:
Hello! You've received some good advice so far.
Your second way is partway there. I'll add these points to it and maybe you'll see how to get further.
1. You don't have to prepare a story, or even half a story, and then figure out how the characters "are involved." Instead, before character creation, consider only very basic notions about NPCs or images that you find compelling, for yourself. Then, after character creation, begin with their Kickers. Use those as your primary preparation material, bringing in your stuff to round it out and deepen it.
2. The diagrams on the backs of the sheets are a big deal. They're the main reason I don't like to prep and play in the same get-together. They're also hard for new players to understand, because the things they're used to using as benchmarks (the scores, the descriptors) do not act as constraints for what the character is like or what he or she can do. Instead, the diagram is more of an indicator of where the character is at and what he or she is "about" at this time.
3. Think of every demon as a driving, fully present NPC. The best way to do that is to understand the difference between Desire and Need.
- Desire is an obsession, an ideology. The demon likes it, wants to do it, wants to be around it, and promotes it for others when possible. The sorcerer has no obligation regarding the Desire and the demon doesn't suffer if it doesn't get it.
- Need is an addiction. The demon can't get it for itself (and if it did, it doesn't count!), and relies totally on the sorcerer just like a pusher. If it doesn't get it, it suffers.
At the beginning of every session, punch the demon's behavior up regarding these two things. You can relax on the Need if it's just received it recently, but otherwise, play that demon according to the Desire and Need, as if it were your own favorite player-character.
And finally, please put aside the Apprentice. That is not quick-play Sorcerer. Many of its rules are obsolete. It is available only because people have found it interesting to see the game's design history. If you try to read and apply it as if it were the game, you'll get a clunky, con-oriented GM's-scenario play that is not especially compelling compared to what the game can really do.
Best, Ron
weaselheart:
I've put in answers to Ron's specific points, but all the answers so far have helped clarify things. Thank you, it's very much appreciated.
Quote from: Ron Edwards on May 04, 2009, 07:11:15 AM
... after character creation, begin with their Kickers. Use those as your primary preparation material, bringing in your stuff to round it out and deepen it.
I did use the kickers in order to create my bad guys, but I wonder if I let this slip in play. For example, each character had nanites to keep them healthy. One player's kicker was that someone cancelled her ID's so her nanites went out of date and she started to get the plague. At the start of the game I described black veins running along her hands, but then went for several sessions without referring to it again.
Should I be returning to the kicker time and again in play? I.e. is that "what the game's about?"
Quote from: Ron Edwards on May 04, 2009, 07:11:15 AM
The diagrams on the backs of the sheets are a big deal. <...> the diagram is more of an indicator of where the character is at and what he or she is "about" at this time.
That's very interesting, and not at all what I used the diagrams for. I used them to tie up the NPC backgrounds at the start, so that where one character had someone he hated, that npc worked for the corporation that turned off another characters nanites. But the idea of using the diagrams as a window into the character's mind is very thought-provoking...
In fact, this brings up a question that I think I've struggled on with a number of "indie" games and I'm beginning to think may be part of the reason we as a group are not getting the most out of them - how much do the players have to define up-front to make the game run well? Put another way, is a clearly stated character ambition required for sorcerer? The reason I ask is that it became clear during play that most of the characters didn't really want anything. The girl who had the plague simply wanted to get back to being healthy, while her friend wanted nothing more than a quiet life. In fact one player told me that he usually finds out during a campaign what his character wants and thinks rather than defining it up front.
I think my biggest confusion with running sorcerer may be the quote "how far will you go to get what you want". I think we usually start games without defining the "what you want" part, and in order to compensate in sorcerer I ran it like I would an ordinary rpg. At least that's the way I'm feeling now after reading your answers. Would you say that I'm nearer understanding, or have I missed the point completely?
What I'm wondering is if I really need to ask my players to define a burning character ambition as well as a kicker. I.e is it:
A finds his credit cards cancelled and house repossessed (kicker only), or
A longs to defeat B, and then one day he finds his credit cards cancelled and his house reposessed (ambition + kicker).
Quote from: Ron Edwards on May 04, 2009, 07:11:15 AM
Think of every demon as a driving, fully present NPC. The best way to do that is to understand the difference between Desire and Need.
This is interesting. I think I managed the first point, mainly because one of the characters died in play so I let him play the demons. He's a great actor and managed to give each one a different personality and character. I also managed to get the desires in there. One character had to watch the news every game, while another had to cause trouble. But I don't think I pushed need at all. We probably played for eight or nine games, and I had need come up in two or three of them. That's something I'll watch out for when we play again and try to put it more centre-stage.
Quote from: Ron Edwards on May 04, 2009, 07:11:15 AM
And finally, please put aside the Apprentice.
I haven't used it. I have the main books (sorcerer, sword, soul and sex) and a number of different settings. I think my problem is that I've never played in a game of sorcerer I haven't run, so I haven't seen any good habits to learn from.
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