NB - postponed to second semester
Sorcerer + Inside Introduction v3.0.1
Required reading
- ]] mini-supplement (print out available)
- The Anatomy of Authored Role-Playing (Chapter 7 from Sorcerer & Sword, photocopy available)
- I'll also bring my Sorcerer books to campus as often as is convenient
Recommended reading
- ,]] what? lecturers get to set their own books!
- ]] and ]] from the Sorcerer website (these pages focus on the "default" magical setting for Sorcerer, you can be rest assured that Tropolis daemons will be just as willful as their counterparts)
What is Sorcerer?
In Sorcerer the PCs? are normal human beings who command otherworldly entities to their own ends; the game focuses on the consequences of your characters' actions, and questions how far you are willing to go to get what you want.
The definition of the setting (sorcery, entities, what you lose to get what you want) is specific to each campaign/module/supplement. Inside (which appeared in the latest issue of Daedalus and has already been hailed as "The Matrix: Redeemed") casts the PCs? as hackers of a virtual reality system. The particular history of the VR system is still up for grabs, and will be finalised with the group.
Your characters will be able to do martial arts, they will see the code and manipulate it, they will kick ass: the question is: what will they do with this power?
Techniques of play
In answering that question, the emphasis is on players being primary authors of the game, not choosing paths or optimising within the GM's storyline (there is no GM's storyline). Techniques in the game that support this goal will include:
- Kickers, what just happened to your character, right now, that sets off their story? In essence you frame the first scene for your character and their driving force in the campaign. It can be a shocker, an opportunity or a mystery. (See Sorcerer p25 (character creation), p35 (Kickers))
- Author Stance, viewing your character as a character, not as "you" - you are not limited by your character's perceptions or by "that's what my character would do"
- Scene Framing, cutting from the most interesting part of the scene to the next, not plodding through moment by moment and making walk-around-the-corner checks
- how these work together: let's say the GM (me) decides the next interesting moment is when your brother has pulled a gun on you, there's no reflex check or whathaveyou, he's pulled the gun because I say so, then bamm the rest is up to you, do you break him and destroy that filial bond? is that bond important enough to take the bullet? is this a convenient moment for another character to step into the room? you decide as a player not as a character
There is a bunch of in-depth rhetoric to flesh this out, relevant links are on TheForge wikipage. The chapter from Sorcerer & Sword covers everything relevant to this, TheForge readings are just for extra credit ;)
- Inside doesn't define a setting except to say that sorcerers are hackers and there's an "Inside" world. I've got a more specific outline in the Tropolis introduction. The intention is not to create an excessively detailed setting, this is all there is. Details will arise in play.
- Questions? Post 'em.