[Sorcerer]Sorcerers in Casablanca - AP
Ron Edwards:
Hi guys,
I want to focus on the Kicker resolution. From the blog for the game prep:
Quote
Serge is Catholic. His wife Anna has converted to Catholicism and attends church with him and takes communion.
A few weeks after binding the rat Tachyorychtes (‘Tack’), Serge was asked by his Jewish in-laws to help them fix something at their bookshop, and to bring his tools. Naturally, Serge agreed, like any good son-in-law, although he puzzled at their insistence that he come alone on a particular Saturday afternoon.
When Serge arrived he found most of the Godechaux men were gathered. Serge was asked to help make sure that nothing was damaged as the family set to clearing out “an old unused back room in the basement.”
Despite the lies, the intent of the enterprise was clear: to open up a new wall in the basement of the Godechaux bookstore. Expanding Jewish businesses was already banned in Casablanca by French decree, and while Serge found the law disturbing he was angry at his father-in-law for drawing him into something illegal.
Nevertheless, Serge carefully inspected the structural integrity of the house, and determined that opening up the new wall was probably safe. Always cautious when working with civilians, he sent the various Godechaux kin out of the house so he could get to work.
Serge used Tack’s conferred materials sight to discern where the weak spot was, and realized one area was particularly vulnerable to being struck. What Serge didn’t realize was that he was aiming straight at the entrance to a prison that had been Containing a powerful demon.
(snipped: the demon gets out and runs off)
I don't see defeating the rope demon as even beginning to resolve that Kicker. The Kicker is about a Jewish woman converted to Catholicism, and the ensuing family crisis. The demon merely amps up the imagery.
If you're in debt to the Mob, and you're married to the don's daughter, and one day the assassin shows up at your door (Kicker), and you kill him instead ... you haven't resolved the Kicker. You've only been shown how serious your entire personal situation is, and you were lucky enough to survive the first salvo in what is now a full-blown, scorched-earth battle over your entire concept of yourself.
My fear is that you guys went ahead and treated it as resolved anyway. Let me know.
Best, Ron
Ry:
Hey Ron, I think John lumped some of my other backstory into the Kicker on his site. At the table the backstory for Serge was this big list of connections, including Anna and some of Serge's firefighter friends. But the kicker itself began with "A few weeks after binding..." The idea of the kicker was Serge's trucking with demons leading to negative consequences. Anna-Michelle is in the background to that (and a likely victim in the long run). The Catholic conversion was a line of tension through Serge's backstory because I didn't want Serge to be one-dimensional kid-saving control-freak firefighter.
I sent John some other stuff about Serge's perspective... John, do you want to comment?
Ron Edwards:
Doesn't matter to me. The story components are there to be used, and if you have chosen for there to be no connection between (a) getting set up for something not-too-good by one's in-laws, and (b) getting attacked by this rope demon, then I think you're missing the GMing opportunities that the prep handed you.
"Resolving the Kicker" does not mean merely dusting it up with whatever immediate threat hopped into the character's field of vision.
Ninjas attack! I escape out the window.
My dog dies mysteriously! I bury him.
My wife has returned from the dead! I get her to sign the divorce papers (finally) and walk out the door.
All of these conduct a conflict with the most immediate elements of the Kicker. None of them resolve it, as far as I'm concerned.
My apologies for the brevity of the post. Its terse qualities should not be translated into a verbal tone and I am definitely not dismissing your prep and play. I'm simply in a rush.
Best, Ron
Ry:
I think I get what you're saying - you're saying that the reason the rope demon was grabby as a Kicker is because it hit -both- "Serge needs control" -and- "Serge has a religious faultline running through his marriage". So we got an end of the knot, but we haven't really untied it ... which is a much higher bar.
When I wrote the character, and we started the prep as a group, I wanted the plight of Jews in Vichy France to be part of the game (i.e. as ignored in "Casablanca") without making the game or my character pedantic.
I can see that we could continue down that road because it's more broadly about family, trust, and religious convictions, and there's no clear moral this story is shooting for.
But...
John, are you good to go there? I'm asking both in regards to subject matter and in terms of the PCs' stories drifting apart. I feel like Jacques (Mike) headed for murdering Nazis while Von Braun (Peter)'s spousal abuse will eventually catch up with him... These could be very divergent paths and I don't think anyone wants you to be responsible for forcing them back together.
Paiku:
Hi guys, sorry for not getting back to this thread sooner. Time, ack...
Ron, thanks for weighing in on this. We haven't done anything irrevocable yet like re-writing Ry's character or kicking off a new kicker.
I too thought that Serge's kicker brought more than just the rope demon into play. I was also looking forward to playing on Serge's feeling of responsibility towards his in-laws regarding helping them illegally adding to the basement, the better to conduct illegal business (which I started to do in the 3rd session). But then we had that great climax vs the rope demon, and you/Ryan opined that the scene made a great kicker resolution, and I decided to let you make the call. To do otherwise felt like it would be akin to telling you how to play your character. Your kicker, your resolution to call, you know? But yeah, if the kicker was a stone dropped into a pond, then we called the first wave to reach the shore a resolution, when really there's a tsunami coming...
So Ry, as you saw in the third session, the kicker has set a larger sorcerous situation in motion. In the most general terms, there's something under the bookstore which the NGF would really like to get their hands on. And it's going to be really hard, from this point forward, to keep it a secret. This ties Serge's story to Jacques'. And, given Oberst Baer's interest in the good doctor, von Braun can't be far behind.
As for Serge's family and religious issues, I'm good to go there... You gave us lots of great detail to work with, and I do want to use it. I just haven't figured out what to do with it all yet. Family dynamics in an RPG-SIS is very new to me. I'll read your original kicker/backstory again tonight and brainstorm on some bangs. If I get stuck, then I'll tap you for an offline discussion of where you think we could take this.
And yes, diverging stories is beginning to be a problem with this game. I'm about to bring Serge and Jacques back together pretty neatly I think (see above), if briefly, but the thread with von Braun and his wife has the potential to turn into a one-player arc. I'll have to pay more attention to making that situation relevant to the other two PCs. And then there's tying in Serge's family issues... yeah.
Ry, in other news, I found the rules on advancement again (pg42). We could celebrate the End of the rope demon with some improvement rolls instead of a complete re-write.
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