Rick Jones, Sorcerer
James_Nostack:
Quote
Clint is 100% awesome hero in my book. Let's please not debate it but merely acknowledge that interpretations can be influential here.
<bites down hard on the wooden dowel so as not to swallow own tongue>
Quote
I see your point at present, for working-notes purposes, for making them correspond phonetically
Yeah, right? Somewhere in the Modern Necromancy threads, you're like, "Here's this book you haven't read! Here are half a dozen characters! Got their names straight? Great, let's change all those names!" I understand why this step must occur, and why it must occur at that point in the process, but it always disorients me (because it's supposed to).
Quote
My take is that your analysis is still a little too rooted in what happened in the Marvel plot, which is no different from my own stumbling-points in presenting the example scenarios in The Sorcerer's Soul, so I sympathize.
So, that's interesting. If this were a PC kicker type of thing, I'd definitely understand that it's too much pre-played. As general-purpose scenario backstory, though, I want to test my understanding a little--please indulge me!
My understanding of R-Map type scenarios is that it's . . . geez, like, World War II in Casablanca. The protagonists are doing their own thing, passionately. And their own thing is, somehow, tied up in this broader scenario, which they don't necessarily have to care about or "solve" except to the extent that it's complicating the resolution of their own problems. (Maybe Casablanca isn't the perfect example of this, but hopefully it's apparent what I'm gesturing at.)
So the R-Map here is a "duplex of cards" (like a house of cards but, y'know, two). You've got Hank/Henrietta in a failed marriage with Janet/Jack, and the affair with Simon/Simone is either putting pressure on that marriage or repairing it, and probably both. Meanwhile Simon/Simone's own marriage to Wanda/Walker is immensely charged due to, well, more-or-less psychotic in-laws.
In the middle of both of these, Simon/Simone is actually pretty stable: ain't his fault everybody around him is crazy. But there's this shadowy figure from the past, Natasha/Nikola, who might upset Simon/Simone's precarious balance.
To me, all of that is, like, putting the water in the cooking pot and turning the burner on high. It's the bare minimum for this to work at all.
The next stage, with the water hissing but not quite boiling, is when some fool kills Simon/Simone. At which point, everyone one "link" away (Eric/Enid, Wanda/Walker, Janet/Jack) starts freaking out, and everyone two "links" away (Hank/Henrietta, Pietro/Petunia, Magnus/Magda) realizes it's game-fuckin'-on.
The final stage--water is vigorously boiling--is when Simon/Simone comes back as a demon, which sets everyone at everybody else's throats.
If we had to follow this through in lockstep all the way, whatever's filling the role of Ultron would end up manipulating Hank/Henrietta to perform an abominable act which, you'd think, would destroy his marketability forever. That's pretty much pouring the water into the colander.
The question is, when do you put in the PC's, and why?
My instinct would be to insert the PC's into the situation maybe 2 days before Simon/Simone's murder. Enough time to appreciate what's going on, enough time for the NPC's to try to influence each other one last time while there's still some hope, but close enough that the water will boil very shortly. (This assumes that the PC's Kickers don't have their own timing cues, of course.)
Ron Edwards:
It depends. It depends on a lot of things.
When I was writing The Sorcerer's Soul, my thinking ran along the lines you're describing. It also reflected my experiences and play-groups at the time which led me to place characters in crisis relatively quickly.
However, my preference for play, especially with Sorcerer, are running a little differently lately. I'm letting Bangs be more Kicker-centric, letting back-story be more background-like. The relationship map material is much more on my side of the table as GM, performing its role for me as I play the characters, being less like a terrain or (worse) a puzzle for the players.
I'm not saying the earlier way is worse, and it's true that if one is very concerned about gotta have things happen, then it's probably the more reliable way to go.
Best, Ron
James_Nostack:
Thanks!
Recasting a Few Names
Familiar NameNew NameHank PymMaude ZezJanetRogerSimonChloeEricEnidClintAngieNatashaDmitriWandaWalkerPietroRhondaMagnusHugo
Step 4: Demonize It!
So, Maud is definitely a sorceress: Lone Adept + Mad. Walker is probably a sorcerer too (Mad), probably living in fear of his brutal father Hugo. Hugo isn't a sorcerer, but has very impressive scores for Stamina and Cover, and an insanely high Will score. Conceivably Walker may have installed a possessor or parasite demon inside Hugo, permitting him to wage a one-man battle against pretty much all of society for many, many years.
I was gonna say that Chloe ends up resurrected as some sort of Undead Passing demon, but as indicated in the posts above maybe that's too far along into the situation at the start of play, and maybe Chloe doesn't get resurrected at all. If Chloe comes back, this might require figuring out what Necromancy looks like in this setting. Any thoughts? From Sorcerer & Sword I kind of want to make Necromancy extra-transgressive, but in a mad-science type of setting, simply animating a dead body goes back to Frankenstein, there's nothing shocking about it.
The main thing I'm wondering about here is how to translate Ultron. If Necromancy is involved, I could see Ultron as a token. But Ultron has so much agency in the comics, I think it would be a shame to lose him.
Oh. Oh man. Just as Hank Pym creates Ultron due to sublimated rage and impotence, maybe Maud creates Ultron as some horrible rejection of, or bitter commentary on, her own fertility? Necromancy becomes a perversion of birth.
Oh man, again! What if Chloe ends up dying, and then Maud resurrects Chloe as Maud's baby, so that Roger will finally get attached to the family unit? And then Walker ends up making a bid to bind the resurrected Chloe-baby, robbing Maud of everything?
Ultron definitely has Taint, probably directed squarely at . . . hmm, either Maud or Roger. Ultron might work as an Inconspicuous alien-type consciousness that Maud made contact with, and now Ultron is trying to guide Maud into mating with it so it can assume a greater reality in this dimension? Ultron would have Hint and possibly Psychic Force. Desire is Ruin.
If Hugo is host to a Parasite demon (bound to Walker), it was probably an attempt to keep him alive while meting out vigilante justice. Maybe Vitality + Boost Will + Mark + Special Ranged Lethal (keyed to those Marked) + a couple of handy Covers? Desire is Power.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page