What happened to the Mini Supplements?
Finarvyn:
First, let me mention that I'm re-reading Sorcerer & Sword. It really is one of the best Swords & Sorcery references ever, particularly chapter 2 dealing with the literature of the genre.
Makes me wish there were more supplements than the "big three." I understand that a new supplement would have to cover something really different (such as the proposed Sorcerer in Space) but I can't help but wish there were more of these.
Now to the real question: Whatever happened to the Mini Supplements? I know that several of them were written early on and I bought them all in PDF. But after the initial surge, hardly any have been written (other than Dictionary of Mu) and nothing through Adempt Press.
This seems unusual to me because Sorcerer players are clearly among the most creative out there -- posts here on the Forge prove that. Do people play but not publish, or aren't there many folks playing Sorcerer any more? (Perhaps there are too many other choices, which waters down the support for any one game line?)
Just curious.
jburneko:
I can't speak for others but I can tell you about me. So, I've WANTED to do a Sorcerer mini-supplement for years. Here are some of the issue's I've run into:
1) It's flat out a lot of work. It's one thing to write some cool stuff in a word file, it's another to organize it into a coherent presentation for others to use.
2) It's hard to generate enough usable content to justify a whole short book. Do you want to play in my Gothic Fantasy setting? I can give you the short version on one page and the longer version on three. After that what? I guess I could catalog a lot of the cool stuff I've seen in play from that setting ala Dictionary of Mu but that feels weird to me as a lot of it is stuff my players generated mid-play. Not me. Also a lot of it is cool only in the context it was generated. I'm not sure it has the same spark as the Mu stuff.
3) I've started playing around with some pretty radical departures from basic Sorcerer that might actually be mini-supplement worthy because they represent genuine acts of new design. They're still recognizably Sorcerer but do some weird things with the mechanics (like ritualized magic that results directly in an effect rather than a demon who causes an effect). But the blocker there is that it's all un-played noodling. I wouldn't feel comfortable publishing that.
Jesse
Ron Edwards:
Hi,
I'm not entirely sure that your question can be answered. You're effectively addressing an entire subculture to ask what "it" did.
I can provide a few details from my end of things which probably contributed to the drop-off.
1. Sorcerer ceased to be the hot new lead. The Riddle of Steel and Burning Wheel simultaneously became the new darlings in 2003-2004, and Primetime Adventures and Dogs in the Vineyard took over after that. (I'm speaking in terms of stuff people want to enrich and which seem well-suited to the grey zone between "write a setting for" and "hack.") So fashion may have something to do with it.
2. My own support fell off, mainly because my policy of the time stunk. The whole idea of myself as senior editor, the approval, the exclusivity to my site ... all of it was horrible ass. I think other people probably figured it out too. It's obvious that the website, then and now, should have a big page devoted to the external supplements, covers displayed as thumbnails, the works, and it never did.
Best, Ron
Spooky Fanboy:
I am/was in a position similar to Jesse above. I think I've got some of the logjam cleared, but quite frankly, I need access to people willing to playtest it. The mechanics, I can almost guarantee, need hammering and welding. And while I write clearly enough for me to understand it, I need at least a couple more eyes on it.
Finarvyn:
I can see the points made. Ron's point about Adept Press not providing the kind of support to encourage this is a good one, and maybe his standards were too high for most people and it scared them away. I know that I've never felt like I mastered the system enough to attempt a mini-supplement and I have to assume that others felt the same way.
I know that it's a lot of work to write stuff, but so is writing any adventure or module for other RPGs and somehow they get it done. It just seems disappointing that after so many years there isn't more "buzz" about and/or support for Sorcerer.
Again, I don't mean to be critical. It's just something that bothers me sometimes when I look at my bookshelf and wonder why there isn't more product for such a cool game concept.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page