I shall be blunt. Sorcerer is the finest roleplaying game I've
yet purchased. The system is superb. The prose is terse, full of
energy, and really pumps you up to play. The How to GM section
is a bold, nuanced set of ideas. I simply cannot recommend this game
enough.
Demon Tales
Before I read it, I expected Sorcerer to be like a World of
Darkness game, with a carefully plotted backstory, a detailed
setting with pre-established political conflicts, and a fairly
straightforward theme. It had none of that. Instead, here was a game
without the fluff, bare, stripped clean, but with one utterly
provocative idea.
There is a type of story I shall call the Demon Tale.
You're familiar with it. A person -- call him a sorcerer --
dabbles with knowledge and powers beyond his control, and makes a
bargain with some transgressive otherness -- call that a demon.
This costs him his life, his humanity, his soul.Doctor
Faustus is the classic example. Clive Barker's
The Hellbound Heart
(a.k.a. Hellraiser) is another. However, these are just the
start.
A Demon Tale need not end tragically. In
Bloodstone,
by Karl Edward Wagner, the hero manages to destroy the monstrous
entity with whom he had allied. In
Lilo and Stitch,
the demon (an alien) is himself redeemed when he acquires a family.
(And yes, Lilo and Stitch is a Demon Tale.)
"Demons" need not be, properly speaking, demonic. A "demon" may
be one's superpowers, one's muse, one's profound technological
invention, or even one's invisible friend. Indeed, even
Harvey
is a Demon Tale, albeit one turned on its head. The difference in
each case is what the "demon" is, and what it costs the sorcerer.
This, my dear reader, is what Sorcerer is about: the Demon Tale,
in all its variation.
Sorcerer doesn't have a setting or any particular backstory.
Demon Tales, you see, can happen any place or time. It cannot have a
specific theme, although its themes all arise from a general template.
Play groups must customize these things. The first and most important
dial to turn is Humanity.
Oh the Humanity
Humanity is a numeric trait possessed by each character. It varies up
and down during play according to the character's actions, in
particular going down when the character dabbles in sorcery. As long
as Humanity is a positive number, the character is fine and no limits
are placed on her actions. But if it ever reaches zero, the character
is removed from play. She is either dead, damned, insane, or
otherwise. If not completely gone from the scene, she remains as an
NPC.
So exactly what does Humanity measure, and what sorts of acts
(other than sorcery) cause it to go up and down? This you must decide
before play, and it is the most important decision in a Sorcerer game.
The answer comes from exploring three questions. First, just what
are demons? Second, how is dealing with them transgressive? And
third, what does the sorcerer risk? I shall give some examples.
Say we want a story in the Doctor Faustus mold. Demons are
the bad guys from Down There. There is a single, lawgiving God
against whom they have rebelled. Why is dealing with demons wrong?
Because it is profoundly sinful. What does the sorcerer risk? His
eternal soul. Here humanity measures the state of the character's
soul. When positive he has at least a chance of salvation. If it
hits zero, he is irretrievably damned. A chasm opens beneath him. He
falls. The sorcerer risks losing humanity from any deeply sinful act.
He can gain it by acts of faith and obedience. This will probably not
be a happy story.
Ok, change of pace. We want to do something like Lilo and
Stitch. There is just one demon here, a genetic horrorshow from
outer space. But forget about that for now. What is this story
about? What is at risk?
Lilo and Stitch is about family, which is Ohana in
Hawaiian. Humanity measures Ohana. It goes up when Lilo acts
to keep her family together. It falls when she does otherwise (like
getting her sister fired). And if it hits zero? She's placed in
foster care.
I could go on, but you get the idea. Humanity can measure just
about anything: sanity, virtue, soul, innocence, and so on. What you
choose determines the key issues that the story will be about.
Bang! You've Got Characters
Sorcerer characters have few stats: Stamina measures all things
physical; Will is presence of mind, strength in social
situations, and so forth; Lore measures the rituals of sorcery;
Cover is essentially the skills surrounding the character's day
job; and Humanity is as mentioned above. Each player divides
points up among the first three, and the rest are derived from those.
Next, Stamina, Will, and Lore each receive a
description, chosen from a list. Some examples: (for Stamina) Clean
Living, Military Training, (for Will) Belief System, Manipulative,
(for Lore) Coven Member, Solitary Adept. The descriptions have no
formal mechanical effect; their purpose is pure characterization.
There are few other odds and ends. Each character has a
Price, which is some flaw or otherwise, and a Telltale,
which marks the character as a sorcerer to those in the know. Then
there is the Kicker. It is the important part.
The Kicker is some event or situation that has just happened to
the character. Its purpose is to thrust her into the action, force
her to make decisions, in short, to do something.
Here is a Kicker:
Elda has lived outside the village for years. The villagers have
always trusted her, and been grateful for the assistance she's
given. They didn't love her; they feared those things she
whispered to, but there was peace. But now that priest has come to
town, using strange words like Heretic and
Inquisition. He's got the villagers scared, and they now
fear for their own souls. Together they're marching to her house
with torches shouting, "Burn that witch!" Elda awakes, hearing
them through the trees.
There are some specific rules on what makes a Kicker. First, it
may not be a casual event that the character might ignore. Second, it
must provide a range of possible actions. Third, and most important,
the player creates it. The GM can give advice, and the players can
coordinate. But ultimately each player gets to provide the first
piece of his character's story, and thus, as you'll see below, the
player gets to create his character's first Bang.
The Demons
Did I mention that each character starts with one bound demon? I left
that out? Silly me! Each character starts with one bound demon.
Sorcerers, it turns out, have no particular powers of their own,
other than the ability to summon, bind, banish, and otherwise deal
with demons. The demons, in turn, cannot enter or stay in this world
without the help of a sorcerer. The two groups, then, are intensely
interested in each other.
Binding is the core relationship with a demon. Once bound, the
sorcerer must provide for her pet's specific needs, which may be
straightforward (food) to bizarre (lick four different cat's eye
marbles a day). In exchange, the demon provides its powers to the
sorcerer. But no contract is perfect. The demon has its own desire
and will. (Even if demons are supposed to be technological devices or
whatnot, you still treat them as if they had their own motives,
needs, and desires.) And whatever motivates a demon, surely it will
not be kind to Humanity. The sorcerer is always in a balancing act,
between conflicts with her demons, and conflicts with the larger
world.
Demons are created much like human characters, except they lack
Humanity (obviously). In its place they have the analogous stat
Power. The demon's powers are constructed from a simple
effects based system. Just about any notion of "demon" can be
sustained by the rules, from slithering pit fiends to alien,
self-aware spaceships. It only requires a little creative
interpretation. Of course, the details should be guided by genre and
mood.
Demons come in five basic flavors.
- Passers Which look more or less like normal folks.
- Inconspicuous Which are hidden most of the time.
- Objects Your famous demon sword, or perhaps a ray gun.
- Parasites These occupy a host's body and provide their
powers through her. This is often the sorcerer herself.
- Possessors These take over the host.
The player gets to make up his sorcerer's first demon. He can
make it as powerful as he wants. There are no limits. But the more
powerful it is, the harder it will be to control.
Now, here's the fun part. Demons are always played as NPC's. And
any GM who does not lick her lips in perverse delight at this prospect
should not bother with Sorcerer.
Bang! You've Got Stories
A Sorcerer story is composed of Bangs. What are Bangs, you ask? A
Bang is an event or circumstance that the character must respond to.
Moreover, the choice she makes should matter in some interesting and
emotionally compelling way. I mentioned before that the Kicker is the
first Bang, and so it is. But after that the GM must come up with the
Bangs, and he must keep them coming. Pacing is, in Sorcerer, simply
the act of getting to the next Bang.
Bangs are about conflict and choices, and these add up to stories.
This is the formula of Sorcerer. The GM can't railroad, since the
choices to be meaningful must be real. And the choice must be the
player's, lest they become mere passive participants. And all the
while the GM must be evaluating the choices as to how they affect
Humanity.
Ok, some examples. This isn't a Bang:
The character finds himself in the pit. There are two doors, one
to the east and one to the west. Written on the wall is this, "One
door is freedom; the other certain death; which is which?"
If that happened to my character in a game I think I'd leave.
Sure, I have a choice: let the character sit there and rot, or take
even odds on dying. Oh Fun!
This is a Bang:
Georgy (our hero) charges into the chapel just as the witch priest
is starting the ceremony. At the alter is his rival, the blood
sorcerer Flavius. And next to him, Georgy's beloved Alya in a
bright red gown! The wedding party turns to look at Georgy,
Flavius with a sneer, the priest with shock and fear, and Alya?
Just what is her expression? Is that pity? Then from the shadows
comes an insectoid chittering sound. Flavius' dark allies are
eager to strike.
I don't know what Georgy will do, but if we care about him at all,
as well as Alya, then his decision will be interesting.
Currency Reform
Sorcerer has a central dice mechanic that covers all conflicts in the
game. It is a dice pool rolled versus another dice pool, usually
rolling dice equal to one of your stats (say Stamina or Lore).
Determining victories is somewhat novel. Look at your single highest
die. If that is larger than the largest opposing die then you win.
Ties are resolved by looking at the next highest die. Degree of
victory is then determined by counting the number of dice that exceed
the largest opposing die. So, if you roll 8, 8,
7, 2 and he rolls 6, 3, 3 you win
three victories from your two 8's and your 7, each
greater than his 6.
You may earn bonus dice for giving a cool description of your
action, or if your action forwards the plot. You receive penalties
for the opposite behavior. These bonuses can add up, and getting
victories in tough situations depends on earning them.
There are specific rules covering topics likely to arise often:
the various rituals of sorcery (summoning, binding, banishing, etc.);
combat; Humanity gain and loss (which is always rolled for). However,
in all cases there is a single underlying theory, and understanding
this is critical in adapting the rules to novel situations.
The idea is this. Everything is measured in dice, and the value
of a die is the same in every case. It's terribly abstract, I know,
so bear with me. First off, any stat can be rolled against any other
stat. They are all measured on the same scale. So you can roll your
Humanity against an opponent's Will (perhaps trying to overcome his
greed with your goodness, maybe). Or you might roll your Lore versus
a demon's Power (you'll do this a lot, actually). Combat has rolling
your Stamina versus his. You get the idea.
But there's more! The victory dice won have the same measure, and
can be used in various ways on further rolls. For instance, in Combat
the number of victories from your Stamina vs. Stamina roll directly
determines the number of damage dice the target receives. These then
deduct from further rolls. Similarly, the victory dice from your
binding roll adds to, or subtracts from (yikes), all further rolls to
influence or control your demon. In general, the GM looks for cases
when victory (or failure) on one roll should directly influence the
next roll. If so, the victory dice are added to (or subtracted from,
for failure) the next dice pool.
Now, dice pools can get pretty big this way, and success at a
difficult task can involve many rounds of building up the pool by
intermediate tasks. The rules don't dictate the exact how's and why's
of this process, so a big dose of creativity and judgment is required
from the players. But in the end it is a flexible and fun system.
The End
Ok, so where is all this going? The player's are rolling with the
Bangs. The drama is flowing along. You feel a climax nearing. So
how is your Demon Tale going to end?
The Sorcerer text identifies four possible outcomes:
- Retribution. The hero fails totally, losing control of the
methods and accomplishing nothing but disaster for all concerned.
- Remorse. The hero achieves the goal, but it is an empty
victory for the methods have blighted the results beyond recognition.
- The Outlaw Prevails. The hero achieves the goal, but the
methods were kept under control and not permitted to spoil the vision;
- Redemption. The hero achieves the goal only by putting
aside the methods and trying another way entirely.
Now, here's the key. There is no right ending. Sorcerer
presumes a certain goal, namely creating a dramatic, interesting
story. And clearly any of the "Big Four" outcomes (as they're called)
will do. Authors often talk about characters getting a life of their
own, and players should hope that their character does as well. The
big payoff moment, then, is that point where the character "decides"
something quite unexpected and sets off, unswervingly, to a final
account. That is the stuff of drama.
The Artifact
The book measures 6 1/2 by 10 inches. It is 141 pages, hardcover,
black and white, and with a color slipcover. It has an index. The
interior art is of various quality; the cover quite good. The paper
is of a decent stock. In fact, the whole thing is a tactile delight.
The layout is unpretentious; it looks like a book, not a webpage.
There are none of those hideous icons and boxes that litter so many
texts. There are a few more editing errors than I would have liked,
but then I would have like there to be none.
Rituals of Contact
Sorcerer is published by Adept
Press. Here are some other which are useful:
This reviewer lives and plays in Lighthouse Point, Florida. I can
be reached at
stimuli1@earthlink.net
with any comments, or if you are in the area and want a demo of the
game.
Review Summary