View Full Version : [Sorcerer] Gun-Fu Ghost Story
Rob (aka Scorpio Rising) has been running our 7th Sea game for years and hasn't played in a while, so I asked him what he'd like me to run whiel we're on hiatus and he e-mailed me the following.
CHINESE GHOST STORY
Set in an ancient and byzantine walled city in china,
which has now been destroyed. The city is the home to
the dead and to spirits, and interacts with the
modern, Hong-Kong-esque city which stands in its
stead.
The Sorcerers are Ghost Masters, binding the spirits
of either the dead or infernal folkloric beasties to
their will. Humanity measures their resistance over
the power of the dead. When it falls to zero a
Sorcerer experiences true death and goes over to the
other side, becoming a demon himself, and subject to
the will of other Ghost Masters.
Each Sorcerer's first demon must be a Possessor. This
demon represents his "inner ghost" which he has
awakened in order to become a Ghost Master. The Inner
Ghost provides various Boost type abilities, allowing
the sorcerers to go forth and perform ... well not
really "heavenly" Kung Fu, but certainly a fair amount
of John Wooishness.
And that's all I got. But I was thinking it could be
a great backdrop to mix the ancient, entangled city
with its culture of ghosts with a modern chinese
cop/bad guy drama. Kind of 'City On Fire' with
'Spirited Away' going on in the background.
I like the vibe, very Planetary #3 but I disagree with his Humanity definition which I think it should be something about law, justice or family duty. I'm also not too keen on his first Demon has to be a possessor thingie but we're meeting at his girlfriend's graduation party tonight, so we'll hash it out then.
I will probably use many of the descriptors from Demon Cops but I'm rather stuck on Lore descriptors again but some are rooting around in my brain. We'll see.
urbwar
05-28-2004, 03:43 PM
Originally posted by Paka
I like the vibe, very Planetary #3 but I disagree with his Humanity definition which I think it should be something about law, justice or family duty. I'm also not too keen on his first Demon has to be a possessor thingie but we're meeting at his girlfriend's graduation party tonight, so we'll hash it out then.
I will probably use many of the descriptors from Demon Cops but I'm rather stuck on Lore descriptors again but some are rooting around in my brain. We'll see.
Here's a thought: How about the Ghost Masters "bind" members of their ancestors, who aid them in banishing those dead who no longer retain their memories? Like Hungry Ghosts and such, that are a threat to the living? And they could also take on the spirits of the underworld (ie demons), not the lands of the Undead.
Humanity, as you suggested, would be about family duty, justice etc. Not just of the living, but of the dead. Sure, you've bound Grandfather Chau, and he aids you against the Hopping Vampires, but you also need to remember to burn him grave goods on the holidays, and such.
Or, you could use that idea I mentioned from the anime Judge, where the Ghost Masters command Ghosts, but fight for justice for those whose deaths were wrongly caused by the living (ie murders, death by rape, death for crimes they never committed, etc).
Just throwing out a few ideas for you to consider, as always ;)
Old Scratch
05-28-2004, 04:10 PM
Off the top of my head, here's a few:
Lore:
Apothecary: You are a master of the ancient mysteries of herbs and healing. But you have a glimmering of another world beyond this one, something that ancient texts you study hint at.
Apprentice Exorcist: You were mentored by an aged and decrepit Exorcist, a strange man with stranger demands and teaching methods. You spent hours sifting through ancient scrolls or chasing dragonflies around, and now you are ready to assume the mantle of Exorcist. You hope your bells, prayer scrolls, and will are sufficient to the task.
Born Dead: You are yourself a ghost: your body was born without a spirit but a midwife or doctors resuscitated you, and you were born not just aware of the ghosts, but as a ghost, in the flesh.
Emperor Reborn: Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor of China made a pact with Tian to ensure that the ancestors on high had their representative on earth. You are that representative, but none know or acknowledge your power. But the ancient secrets of the Emperor’s is yours, if you will listen to the ancestors who offer you power and influence.
Eunuch: You are a member of the secret eunuch order that once ruled China’s bureaucracy. Centuries of secrets so important and dire that even the Emperor himself was kept ignorant!
Immortal: It was in a high stakes game in a god-forsaken backroom somewhere in the alleys of Hong Kong. You don’t know who you were playing against, but his (or her) eyes were unnerving. You made a bargain, and you won, or lost, you’re not sure which. Since then, you haven’t aged a day, but you no longer cast a shadow. You’ve spent the last twenty years exploring the Hong Kong occult underground in search of this figure.
Opium Dreams: They came to you in your most vulnerable yet sensitive state: in the midst of opium induced dreams.
Party Official-Agent: You are a member of the People’s Liberation Army or the Ministry of State Security, but in none of the departments that anyone else is aware of. Instead, you are part of a shadow department, set up by the Gang of Four in an effort to rid themselves of Chairman Mao’s ghost. Your unit captured him, but… the rest is a secret. Let’s just say that the Gang of Four fell due to someone’s vengeance. You are the spirit-trained servants of the Chinese State.
Stamina:
Bull in a China Shop: You’re a monstrous, tough guy, with a temper to match. When things don’t go your way, things and people get shattered into too many pieces.
Originally posted by Old Scratch
Off the top of my head, here's a few:
Great as always. I have to watch it or I'll become lazy and dependant on your Lore descriptors.
Thanks.
Old Scratch
05-28-2004, 04:41 PM
Originally posted by Paka
Great as always. I have to watch it or I'll become lazy and dependant on your Lore descriptors.
Thanks.
Some ideas are better than others, I'm less crazy about the Emperor Report, but I have a fondness for QSH and Li Ssu and the rest of the early dynasty characters (if I remember their names correctly!).
China's got its secret societies, you can always have a Boxer type character:
Yihequan: You are a member of the mystical secret society driven underground by the foreigners, who derisively called you "Boxers" and mocked your powers. But you now wait, harboring and nurturing your powers, ready to unleash them upon your foes.
Revenant: [Cop] Out of honor of your dead partner, mysteriously killed in the line of duty, you kept his (her) badge. But the dead do not rest easily, and he (she) has reached out from beyond the grave, demanding justice. He (she) feeds you information, hinting about the spirit world, and wanting desperately to rest in peace. [Criminal] Change "badge" to "gun", "justice" to "vengeance".
Chinese Warlord Heritage: Your grandfather was a Warlord in pre-Maoist China. The source of his power was secretive: control over the spirits of the earth AND of the mind. Now, on his deathbed, your dad passes down to you the fragmented secrets his own father passed down to him on his deathbed.
Gatekeeper: Your family was charged by the Emperor to guard the gates of this city until freed of the charge. The city was razed and rebuilt, razed and rebuilt endlessly, but your family has always lived in the humble house at the city gates that have always stood and that most people overlook. And now, soon, the responsibility of watching the gates that lead to the city of the present and the city of the past will be yours...
Twelve should be fine!
Love to hear your own lore descriptors as well, and the final write up you give to characters!
Wait, I just came up with another one...
Eyes of the Dead: Your eyes are milky white and can see into a world all others are blind. You may have been born with the eyes, cursed by the dead for your lack of respect to the ancestors, or given the eyes of the dead in an organ transplant. Walking down the streets, you see the ghostly outlines of cities' past imposed upon the modern gleaming city skyline.
I'm thinking of a plural Humanity definition, Law and Justice.
Debating, we'll see what Scoprio Rising thinks.
Law and Family Duty.
Thinking out loud here.
Old Scratch
05-28-2004, 05:02 PM
Originally posted by Paka
I'm thinking of a plural Humanity definition, Law and Justice.
Debating, we'll see what Scoprio Rising thinks.
Law and Family Duty.
Thinking out loud here.
I dunno about those. Family duty works - but can ghosts only be your family members? Law? What if the characters are criminals? Or what if they disagree with the law? And which law? The Legalism of the past? Confucianism? Modern law? Modern ethics?
It seems to me that all these HK films seem to be a little melo-dramatic, like each person has that one person or thing they have to care for, so could it be dual: responsibility to the living and responsiblity (respect) for the dead? Couldn't these both be at odds as well?
I don't have Demon Cops, so I'm not sure what's in it, but definitely bonus die for racking a shot gun or flashy signature gun play (to steal a concept from Feng Shui). In fact, you might want to browse through FS, it might give you a few ideas!
This game is something of a mess. The concept was written up by a buddy of mine, the Thursday Night 7th Sea GM, who hasn't ever played Sorcerer before. The concept was good but the Humanity defintion didn't work for me at all but his idea of what ghosts were rocked.
CHINESE GHOST STORY
Set in an ancient and byzantine walled city in china,
which has now been destroyed. The city is the home to
the dead and to spirits, and interacts with the
modern, Hong-Kong-esque city which stands in its
stead.
The Sorcerers are Ghost Masters, binding the spirits
of either the dead or infernal folkloric beasties to
their will. Humanity measures their resistance over
the power of the dead. When it falls to zero a
Sorcerer experiences true death and goes over to the
other side, becoming a demon himself, and subject to
the will of other Ghost Masters.
Each Sorcerer's first demon must be a Possessor. This
demon represents his "inner ghost" which he has
awakened in order to become a Ghost Master. The Inner
Ghost provides various Boost type abilities, allowing
the sorcerers to go forth and perform ... well not
really "heavenly" Kung Fu, but certainly a fair amount
of John Wooishness.
And that's all I got. But I was thinking it could be
a great backdrop to mix the ancient, entangled city
with its culture of ghosts with a modern chinese
cop/bad guy drama. Kind of 'City On Fire' with
'Spirited Away' going on in the background.
We fiddled with this, throwing out the possessor bit, keeping the flavor.
I don't like his Humanity definition at all and since all of the PC's in this game are cops, I'm thinking of making the Humanity Law or Justice, perhaps even a plural with both.
Okay, so I have 5 people playing Sorcerer this Thursday but five felt like way too many people for everyone to have Kickers and make it work. So, I paired two of 'em up.
"You're partners."
And they came up with joint Kickers. I think it worked out alright. We'll see how it plays.
Character Name Blue-Eyed Chan
Player Name Rob
Concept: Squeaky clean Internal Affairs cop in over his head with a Demon who is way more powerful than he is.
Telltale: Eyes permanently unfocused
Stamina: 2 Sinewy Muscle
Will: 5 University
Lore: 3 Emperor Reborn
Cover: 5 Wild-Eyed Genius
Price: -1 to all social interactions, spooky
Demon Concept: Sun Yat-il, Emperor of China
Need/Desire: To have his agenda enacted/Power
Kicker: While on a case Chan runs across a loose Demon who was a vassal of Sun Yat-il. The Demon beckons to the Emperor, "I'm set up with an organization and power. Join me."
Character Name -
Player Name Dan
Concept: Undercover forensic scientist.
Telltale: Doesn't blink.
Stamina: 2 Whip-fast
Will: 3 University
Lore: 5 Born Dead
Cover: 3 Undercover Cop (Chemist)
Price: -1 off first roll in any scene, bookish
Demon Concept:Wise woman, ancestor
Need/Desire: maintaining family graveyard/???
Character Name -
Player Name Matt
Concept: Undercover cop trying to live up to his ancestor's deeds
Telltale: Breath of Death
Stamina: 6 Muscle Under the Fat
Will: 2 Long Line of Cops
Lore: 2 Opium Dreams
Cover: 6 Undercover as Major Buyer
Price: -1 to social interactions, intimidatingly large
Demon Concept: his grandfather
Need/Desire: make arrests/justice
Kicker: Matt's character has a long line of partners dying, all on the same day for the past seven years. Today is that day. It is also the day of a tremendous drug buy, to bring Matt's character deeper into the fold and when Dan's character goes to the lab, everyone is on edge.
Character Name Kim Li
Player Name Robert
Concept: Homocide detective who enjoys his work.
Telltale: Has the shadow of a Chinese warlord in full regalia.
Stamina: 4 Martial Arts
Will: 2 Street Education
Lore: Chinese Warlord Heritage
Cover: 4 Bad Cop
Price: -1 Cynical
Demon Concept:snake tattoos that writhe on his body
Need/Desire:Require prey/mayhem
Character Name -
Player Name Miriam
Concept: Another homocide detective who enjoys his job.
Telltale: mesmerizing eyes
Stamina: 2 Whip-Fast
Will: 5 Long Line of Cops
Lore: 3 Immortal
Cover: 5 Worse Cop
Price: -1 impulsive, -1 to any action where he doesn't immediately jump in.
Demon Concept: High priestess gone bad
Need/Desire: blood/power
Kicker: They are driving along on a routine day when they witness a gangland execution.
Thanks again to Old Scratch over at RPG.net for the fantastic Lore Descriptors.
Some things occur to me as I wrote this down but more on all of this tomorrow.
Things I'm thinking about:
Bangs!
a good web site for Chinese names
re-reading my book of Chinese myths and legends.
I forgot to mention that Lore is the ability to see the Ghost World that pervades the city.
urbwar
06-07-2004, 11:46 PM
Originally posted by Paka
Things I'm thinking about:
Bangs!
a good web site for Chinese names
Thanks to another thread, here (http://www.jiawen.net/Chinesenames.html) is a page someone did with Mandarin names. We used this for the Heavenly Kung Fu game (which we have yet to finish!)
Also, here (http://homepages.ics.edu.hk/faculty/bryantd/asian_studies/hungry_ghosts.htm) is a great page Thor directed me to regarding Ancestors and Ghosts in the Hungry Ghost Festival....
Originally posted by urbwar
Thanks to another thread, here (http://www.jiawen.net/Chinesenames.html) is a page someone did with Mandarin names. We used this for the Heavenly Kung Fu game (which we have yet to finish!)
Also, here (http://homepages.ics.edu.hk/faculty/bryantd/asian_studies/hungry_ghosts.htm) is a great page Thor directed me to regarding Ancestors and Ghosts in the Hungry Ghost Festival....
Thanks, both of those links are priceless. Rock on. Appreciated.
Brad Elliott
06-08-2004, 08:38 AM
Kate Monk's Excellent Name Database page for Chinese names is here:China Names on Onomastikon (http://www.gaminggeeks.org/Resources/KateMonk/Orient/China/index.htm)!
I've found it invaluable!
Originally posted by Brad Elliott
Kate Monk's Excellent Name Database page for Chinese names is here:China Names on Onomastikon (http://www.gaminggeeks.org/Resources/KateMonk/Orient/China/index.htm)!
I've found it invaluable!
Thanks, Brad. I've used this site for other games too but just entirely forgot about it. Thanks for the re-introduction.
I'm thinking that a Criminal Overlord who was a Sorcerer has been whacked and now the gangs of Pseudo-Hong Kong are out to snag his Demons who have run amok.
It is a basic adventure idea in the Sorcerer main rulebook and for this setting I think it'll work out well. I might have to outline his kids and some members of the force who were on his payroll.
What this means is that all of the Kickers are ramifications of this crimelord's death that will drive the adventure.
BANGS
* Blue Eyed Chen hears a wire tap of two leutenants in the overlord's hierarchy arguing over how get's dominion over the Police Comissioner, who was in their pocket the whole time.
* The Bad and Worse Cop are offered a deal from one of the crime lord's children, who wants them working for her and she'll pay them handsomely and aid them with their Demon's Needs that she knows. She isn't a Sorcerer but her father Pacted a Demon to work with her and it keeps her up to date on some Demon's needs.
* The Undercover Duo are told about a computer disk that details all of the rats and undercover cops currently on the payroll that will be bought with the upcoming drug deal.
I'm spent. Next I'll make a few more Bangs and think about how I'm going to use and abuse the Kickers.
Kicker #1: While on a case Chan runs across a loose Demon who was a vassal of Sun Yat-il. The Demon beckons to the Emperor, "I'm set up with an organization and power. Join me."
Kicker#2: Matt's character has a long line of partners dying, all on the same day for the past seven years. Today is that day. It is also the day of a tremendous drug buy, to bring Matt's character deeper into the fold and when Dan's character goes to the lab, everyone is on edge.
Kicker #3: They are driving along on a routine day when they witness a gangland execution.
Kicker #1 - I'm not sure where to go with this rampaging Demon. Is it truly loyal to the Emperor and sincerely wants him to rule again?
Was it involved in the Emperor's death and wants to earn his trust to trap him again?
I think the second option is more interesting. It wants to draw the Emperor into the mess of crime and blood so that he can feed his Sorcerer to the first bad situation that arises.
Kicker #2 - Due to last minute real life obligations, Matt can't make it. So Dan's PC will also be learning about how Matt's character is captured and is being tortured in a warehouse for answers. "They want to know if there are other rats in the house. He can't last too much longer."
Kicker #3 - Gangland execution or the end of a ritual to summon a vicious demon?
Hmmm.
Ideas? The game is tomorrow night so, smoke 'em if ya got 'em.
Bangin' on some more BANGS:
* Sun Ya-Til blows a newspaper at Blue Eyed Chen about ancient Chinese relics being moved into the psuedo-Hong Kong Museum of Antiquities. He wants Chen to jack the shipment.
* Worse Cop and Bad Cop are brought before a comittee for a past (or present) atrocity they perpetrated.
* The Undercover Chemist is supposed to train a new drug-maker and it is an ex-con who he helped put away, testified against him in court. Will the convict recognize him?
So, there's a Sorcerer crime boss who died with leaving an obvious heir.
He had three kids.
1 - a criminal bad-ass but with no Sorcerous ability. He's going to deal with this by gathering magical artifacts and destroying them in a great ritual that will rend the ghost world from the real world, making it far more difficult to contact, summon or bind.
2 - a daughter who is dating a captain in the criminal hierarchy. She is a Sorcerer but because she's a woman her father refused to leave her in charge. She is planning to take control of the family through her soon to be husband boyfriend.
3 - a Sorcerer civilian. He wants nothing to do with his family and is quietly going about his normal life, running the family shipping business. But now Demons will begin knocking on his door, begging to be bound. Will he be able to say no for long?
Will I use these characters? We'll see where the PC's lead me, how they play their Kickers.
And More Bangs:
* Mugging - I think it will be interesting to see how the different characters deal with a mugging and might do a parallel sequence where The Bad & Worse Cops, the Undercover Cop and the Internal Affairs Guy all witness a mugging, just to draw out their differences in how they handle it.
* Ghost Cop - Might have a ghost cop who will enigmatically appear throughout the adventure, who was killed by his partner or something right out of this game's main inspiration, Planetary #3.
* A Hearing - The Internal Affairs cop should have to at some point, testify against a dirty cop at a hearing. Might be a PC he has to testify against.
I really need to re-read their Lore descriptors.
After a month of running at least one and often two Sorcerer games a week, I think I've run my strongest session yet. For pure use of the summoning and binding mechanics, for complicated demonic machinations and for bloody aristeias with bullets and attitude, this one took the cake.
It didn't get wrapped up this session but will spill into a second session, to wrap things up well, with everyone at full throttle.
Introduced quickly throughout the Kickers was the concept that Old Man Gui, criminal overlord of the city died. The complication was that his 13 Demons were sent away by him as he died.
In the aftermath his children and other criminal and sorcerous folk fought for pieces of the criminal pie.
Gui had three children. One, Hento, was a mook and not a Sorcerer but has a strong force of guns and troops. The sister, Wei-Jing, is a sorceress but her father was loathe to leave his empire to a girl. Mei, the youngest, is known to be an upstanding civilian who has nothing to do with the criminal side of things but he IS a Sorcerer.
A hint was dropped and picked up that Hento will sell his big shipment of drugs not only for money but for artifacts that will seal the Ghostworld from the city, leveling the playing field between him and his Sorcerous siblings.
The Bindings:
Bindings have become a kind of prelude for the games. They allow me and the player to role-play with one another, Demon to Sorcerer, so we can get a feel for how the relationship will basically work.
Preludes were a gaming tool I learned from White Wolf books and I like the mightily. These bindings rocked. I set it up so that the two players who have gamed Sorcerer with me, Robert and Miriam, went first, kind of modeling how it works and then, Rob and Dan, the gamers who have never gamed Sorcerer with me went after.
It set the tone.
The Kickers:
Kicker #1: While on a case Chan runs across a loose Demon who was a vassal of Sun Yat-il. The Demon beckons to the Emperor, "I'm set up with an organization and power. Join me."
Blue-Eyed Chen's case is the death of Old Man Gui. It was a quiet death in the bed of his girlfriend but the cops managed to barge their way in before Gui's family lawyers could kick them out.
Knowing Chen has a way with "weird shit" they invited him to take a look at Gui's body and the strange circle drawn around his bed.
Gui's ghost was still lingering in the Ghostworld, Chen noticed with a Lore roll. But then, from out of the body, came the ghost of an Imperial Eunuch. If made the offer mentioned in the Kicker but Chen ran.
He regained his nerve and managed to get back but by then the daughter had already bound the eunuch to her.
Too late.
Chen gave her his business card before heading out.
By the end of the game she hadn't called yet.
Kicker#2: Matt's character has a long line of partners dying, all on the same day for the past seven years. Today is that day. It is also the day of a tremendous drug buy, to bring Matt's character deeper into the fold and when Dan's character goes to the lab, everyone is on edge.
This was the kicker that gave me the most trouble. I had trouble getting Dan into the game until the very last scenes, which I'll talk about later.
Dan found out that they had his partner in the warehouse and were beating information out of him. He crept through the Ghostworld and came across his partner's ghost, having been beaten to death.
Dan bound him, making for the first binding of the night.
We also set up Dan's relationship with his PC's ghost, a kind of motherly disapproval of her life, wanting her to get married, maybe turn in her badge to become a nurse to meet a nice doctor. Dan told me before the game started that he wanted the character to be a woman.
*shrug* Okay.
But I think it made his relationship with his grandmotherly ghost much clearer.
Kicker #3: They are driving along on a routine day when they witness a gangland execution.
Bad Cop and Worse Cop are bad mamba-jamba's. I used mook rules for the nameless dudes and they mopped the floor with them. Both Robert and Miriam have played with me in Hell-side of Town, Grade-School Sorcerers and Rob in Mu's Bed. They understand how to describe a combat to get maximum dice.
It was a fast and brutal mopping of mooks. When Robert's Bad Cop called in the action on the radio, he said (and I'm paraphrasing), "A messy situation is about to happen..." The slaughter in the alley was thereafter referred to as the messy situation.
Quickly, they all got caught up in the retrieval, binding, summoning, and contacting (and sometimes banishing) of Old Man Gui's Demons. It was an unholy mess. My only regret is that they weren't thinking outside of those 13 Demons. I feel that the concept of Demons wasn't clear enough. I will make it clear that Demons are out there, ripe for the picking.
Rob made up some cool-ass rituals for contacting, summoning and banishing and his relationship with his demon really progressed nicely, from naked fear to a kind of intrigued truce.
There were several failed Summoning and Contact rolls that ended up in the wrong Demon being summoned or contacted. That made for some nice plot as Rob tried to summoning an Empress' Consort and instead summoned the Emperor's Assassin, whom he later banished.
Dan tried to summon the Empress' Consort and instead got the Dragon of Vice, who he allowed to Bind with him, letting one of his needle claws inject his heroin into his veins. Nice.
The concept of failed rolls not just sputtering out into nothing but actually adding to the story as much as a success, just in an unanticipated direction is key and has made games go from cruising at 55 miles per hour to red-lining at 120 on the wrong side of the highway, screaming with glee.
It was an intense roller-coaster ride and I think everyone had a bunch of fun, watching everyone else's role-playing. I can't stress how important that is. The audience aspect is probably one of the most important in the game of Sorcerer.
Four is a crowded table and although the missing play, Matt, is a credit to whatever gaming table he sits at, it might have been for the best that he wasn't there. The rotations were a little long.
The only time characters met other than the Bad and Worse Cop, who were always in each other's company, was when Chen interviewed the Bad and Worse Cop about a shooting they had witnessed.
Written Bangs used:
* The Undercover Duo are told about a computer disk that details all of the rats and undercover cops currently on the payroll that will be bought with the upcoming drug deal.
Oddly, I think this was the only written bang I used. Others were twisted and contorted or just thrown away. This was probably the weakest Bang of the bunch. I fear Dan didn't feel he could do much after binding his late partner's ghost and convincing his drug lord bosses that he had nothing to do with the dead men who had beaten the cop to death.
Dan's undercover chemist's plot didn't pick up until he met Mei and his grandmotherly demon began prodding him to be nice to this university boy (who is not only a Sorcerer but a soon to be doctor). Mei saw Dan’s PC's Telltale and asked pretty forwardly about his Sorcery and if he could help him.
"My brother and sister are going to kill me. I need help."
Yeah, he has nothing to do with the family business....just like Michael Corleone.
After announcing that Old Man Gui had 13 Demons bound to him I realized I did NOT have 13 ideas. I took a moment, stopped the game for a second and jotted down ideas.
Here's what I wrote with a star next to the ones mentioned or met in game.
* Qun, the Emperor's eunuch - crafty with lore boost. Contacted by Rob
* Blood-taster, hound with human face and long snout that can drink blood and tell about the person whose blood they taste, tracking them or their ghost if necessary. Bound by Robert's Bad Cop
* Hark, the emperor's assassin, a brutal killer who was banished by Blue-Eyed Chen into the hells in a great scene. Accidentally Summoned but purposefully Bound by Blue-Eyed Chen, later Banished in a great scene when Chen realized how heinous Hark could be.
* Tung, consort to the empress, a courtier who everyone wanted to bind but no PC did. Little do they know that Mei already bound him. They think the sister has Tung. Contacted twice by Blue-Eyed Chen.
The Pear Tree - I read a Chinese folk tale about it. Picture the ghost of Shel Silverstien's Giving Tree with an angry chip on its shoulder, giving out fruits that bestow terrible gifts on those who eat them.
The First Gun - the ghost of the first gun that ever killed a man in China, an object Demon.
* Dragon of Vice - body the color of smoke from a crack pipe, eyes like twin flames and claws like a junkie’s needles. Accidentally contacted in a failed roll but purposefully Summoned but purposefully Bound by Dan's PC.
Dragon of Weakness - never elaborated upon or mentioned in game.
The 4 Winds - figure there's one for East, North, South and West but have no ideas other than that. Honestly, I needed four more Demons and figured they'd be good ways to take up space.
If anyone has any ideas for Needs or Desires for these Demons...shoot away. The Blood-Taster and the Dragon of Vice have been done but the others remain untouched. Also I might very well throw many of the unmentioned of the 13 away and substitute ones I like better. These were made up truly spur of the moment and I'm not thrilled with all of them.
I'm looking forward to the next game, where we see which Demons have settled with whom and the big drug shipment will get sold and many of the plots will come together in a heinous BANG of bullets, blood and mayhem.
And one more very important thing.
When I got to the game I talked about Humanity being about Law but the group didn't like that.
So we made Humanity about Life. Taking Life alone wasn't worth a Humanity check, unless it was gratuitous and in a Hong Kong Action movie universe, that'd be pretty intense.
Gains would be the simple things one does for their ancestors and their families but cannot have anything to do with one's Demon.
Humanity at 0 launches one into a their bloody finale. They create a kind of second Kicker, starting their final scenes, after which their character will perish in a hail of bullets and haze of smoke.
People are teetering on the edge now.
I'm eager for my first 0 Humanity.
The next setting I run will have a great mechanic for 0 Humanity that will have PC's RUSHING to get to it.
Old Scratch
06-11-2004, 01:54 AM
Originally posted by Paka
Humanity at 0 launches one into a their bloody finale. They create a kind of second Kicker, starting their final scenes, after which their character will perish in a hail of bullets and haze of smoke.
People are teetering on the edge now.
I'm eager for my first 0 Humanity.
The next setting I run will have a great mechanic for 0 Humanity that will have PC's RUSHING to get to it.
I like the bloody tragic ending (reminds me a bit of The Bad Lieutenant, for example. A bizarre film that has a drugged out cop summoning Jesus Christ I suppose...).
As for your next setting with a great mechanic - don't keep us in suspense!
Originally posted by Old Scratch
As for your next setting with a great mechanic - don't keep us in suspense!
I'm not keeping you in suspense. I have nothing in the pipe.
I've run everything I have even remotely written except for my Birthright inspired Sorcerery setting, which I'm tinkering with here and there and will almost certainly be the next thing I tinker with after The Dictionary's done.
Tancred
06-11-2004, 02:18 AM
Sounds like an awesome game! The final, Humanity 0 scene is a really cool idea.
Originally posted by Paka
The Bindings:
Bindings have become a kind of prelude for the games. They allow me and the player to role-play with one another, Demon to Sorcerer, so we can get a feel for how the relationship will basically work.
As an aside, do you run these preludes with all players present, or just those directly involved in the bindings?
I'm still trying to get a handle on the idea of playing out every scene in front of all the players.
Originally posted by Tancred
As an aside, do you run these preludes with all players present, or just those directly involved in the bindings?
I'm still trying to get a handle on the idea of playing out every scene in front of all the players.
Yes, I run them with everyone present. I've been running every scene at the table in plain view. It has added to the dramatic momentum with players' figuring out what their characters know.
It is neat.
Tuesday we are finishing up Gun-fu Ghost Story in what I'm calling Gun-fu Ghost Story II: Aristiea of Bullets and Blood!
Truth is, its just finishing up last week's kickers. Should be a kind of mini-session, in which the Big Bang is played out. The big drug deal is going down, an artifact designed to cut off the real world from the Ghostworld is in the mix, the 13 Demons of Old Man Gui are bound, running and killing hither and yon. New Demons are being called up ("Wait, we don't have to ONLY Summong Old Man Gui's 13. There are tons of 'em out there. There's a big fight-a-comin' so let's get to work.").
I like starting the game with a kind of warm-up. This week I'm going to run a two to three minute flashback in which the players run their PC's at their entry interview to Police Academy, young and naive. "Why do you want to be a police officer?"
Should be fun to see who they were before they fell from grace and began trafficking with the dead.
I'll jot down what happened Tuesday and mayhaps even some players will log in and give their thoughts.
We'll finish up this game on Tuesday but I don't consider it a full session. There will be time to prep for the big showdown, the big buy in which the undercover cop will attempt to make the arrests and all hell will break loose.
I've got a few bangs in my GM's Bag-o-Tricks but don't want many. Really, I just want to allow them to summon, bind and contact whatthey want to prep for the final Big Bang and bring this story to a close. We didn't finish it last week because energy was lagging and pushing on would have done more harm than good with folk needing to go to work the next morning and such.
A Few Bangs:
* The Bad Cop and the Worse Cop's Demons try to turn them against one another. I think this will be a complicated parallel scene in which tehy both get asked this at the same time. We'll see. A wedge driven between these two insepperable partners could be really dramatic.
*The Undercover Chemist discovers that her love interest isn't really a civilian. Dan told me that his character is seriously considering taking the Dragon of Vice adn becoming an Underworld Boss on her own. The fact that this nice guy, Mei, the supposed civilian son, has summoned and bound one of his father's most cunning demons might have some effect.
*Blue-Eyed Chan needs a Bang but I've got a bit to think it over. We'll see.
Traumritter
06-14-2004, 11:55 AM
Originally posted by Old Scratch
Revenant: [Cop] Out of honor of your dead partner, mysteriously killed in the line of duty, you kept his (her) badge. But the dead do not rest easily, and he (she) has reached out from beyond the grave, demanding justice. He (she) feeds you information, hinting about the spirit world, and wanting desperately to rest in peace. [Criminal] Change "badge" to "gun", "justice" to "vengeance".
Wow. Even if I ignored all of the other great ideas in this thread, just this one character idea is enough to make me seriously consider scrapping all of my other ideas for games and running something like this.
Originally posted by Traumritter
Wow. Even if I ignored all of the other great ideas in this thread, just this one character idea is enough to make me seriously consider scrapping all of my other ideas for games and running something like this.
Old Scratch's Descriptors have been incredible and have helped the games I've run this past month.
I have seen my players look at them and you can just hear their mental tumblers clicking around into a nice combination for a great character. Its been a fantastic help.
We had the final game tonight. Bullets flew, summonings went down, banishments were attempted and one of the PC's hit Humanity 0.
Bad Cop and Worse Cop came to the realization that Bad Cop still had 5 Humanity, by far the highest in the game and went on a Contact frenzy.
Miriam failed her rolls left and right. She contacted an ancient courtesan, hoping to gain her insight into the Ghostworld, failed her summon roll and Summoned her pimp. She bound him.
She tried to summon one of Old Man Gui's 13 Ghosts, the Dream-eater, and failed the Summon roll again, accidentally summoning the ghost of her mother because I refused to make a failed sorcery roll mean a fizzled silence. In hindsight I should have gotten nasty. Shoudl've had the Dream-Eater go rabid but such is life.
Blue Eyed Chen tried to banish another ghost, one of Old Man Gui's children's demons and failed twice.
The undercover chemist kicked Mei out when she caught him in a lie. Then she tried to summon the Ghost of the Imperial City but it was a big one, Power 10. Between that and the strain of the Ghostworld, using mystic otherworld rules, he went to Humanity 0.
His kicker was that dies taking the artifact that Hento was going to use to cut the Ghostworld off from the real world, letting his demons rampage as his bindings break.
The players had fun doing Gun-fu in the warehouse as Hento's troops, Wei-Jing and her husband Ming's goons, the Russian mobsters making the drug buy and the SWAT Team all converged on the warehouse.
The players caught both of Gui's children, forcing Wei-Jing to banish all but one of her Demons at gun-point. Rough.
There was a nice bit of witty repartee between the Internal Affairs and Straight-Laced blue Eyed Chen and the Bad and Worse Cops.
The Undercover Chemist's player had nothing to do during the combat, having taken herself out early. He described how ghosts were coming through from the ghostworld, effecting the combat in various ways.
The game ended with an epilogue, the Undercover Chemist being Summoned as a Demon, bound to Mei, the new Crimelord.
The game worked, a good time was had by all.
Thumbs up.
I think I had trouble with a big combat and need to brush up heavily on the combat system. Had a great time but I need to brush up, have it down pat.
It has been a good month of Sorcerer playing and I've gotten to indulge in many different kinds of games. Fun stuff.
I'm looking forward to playing with the game further.
Thanks to Rob (Scorpio Rising) for the idea and to Old Scratch for the fantastic descriptors.
Scorpio Rising
06-23-2004, 01:26 PM
Thanks, Judd.
That game really rocked. The whole experience was a great introduction to Sorcerer. (And it was also really nice both to play with you as a GM and to be on the other side of the (in our case purely metaphorical) screen with the rest of our group.)
Last night felt like we lost a little bit of the hell-for-leather momentum we had going at the end of the first session. I know that personally it took me two rotations to get back to being ready to just throw Chen into the story. While Dan was playing his third scene and mine was about to come up, I suddenly realized that wherever I went and whatever I did the story would be there. "Motion is better than stillness," I decided and so I had Chen go over to Wei Jing's place with no clear idea of what I'd have him do when he got there. Maybe he didn't even know.
I thought you handled the ghosts really well in this game. The Dragons, Hark, Tung, the pimp, the Blood Eater, Old Man Guei, even the frikkin' pear tree all added loads of ambiance to the game.
However, this does raise a technical question for me: As a GM, it seems there's a tricky overhead to introducing a new ghost at a moment's notice: You have to have a good idea of what its Need and Desire are (obviously you can just make shit up about its stats and fill in the powers as you go). Seems like this could cause a bit of floundering -- it certainly would cause me a chunk of difficulty.
Another observation, just while we're here: A couple of times during play I found myself wishing for a way to "nudge" the dice. I'm so used to playing (or running) games which include a meta-currency that players can invoke when they really want success that I think I've become a bit dependent on it:
Ars Magica = Confidence
7th Sea = Drama Dice
Exalted = Willpower
Buffy = Drama Points
I certainly don't maintain that this currency should be present in every game. But it interested me to note this morning that that's what I'd wanted. It seems like the games that provide this currency are more Simulationist in tone -- Wild Talents, ArM, 7th Sea, Exalted might all be deemed strongly Simulationist. (Although personally I can never get the boundaries straight.)
One idea: Sorcerer has this idea of roll-over successes: That you can make a good roll at one task and take the successes to add to your next.
Does that mean that when Chen ninj-ed into Wei-Jin's compound his extra successes would add dice to his dickering with the ghost of Old Man Gui and that those successes would then add to his roll to enter the Old City and those successes would then add to his roll to Banish the pear tree? Do I have that right?
'Cause if so it seems to me that one way to introduce "currency" to Sorcerer is to let players keep their successes till they need them. We could use the little glass beads that I use as Drama Dice in 7th Sea and to keep track of Essence and Willpower in Exalted. Players could horde successes and deploy them on rolls that needed them.
Is this a really terrible idea? I am prepared to accept "yes" as an answer....
Anyways, fun all round. If Sarah stops flipping out about her dissertation at some point then maybe we can try some Mu's Bed action in July....
Oh, and hi RPG.net. It's been a while....
- Scorpio found a Taurus....
Scorpio, I'm glad you had a good time and it was great to return the favor by running a game for you.
I agree that it took a while to get into the groove yesterday and I wish we could've gotten the game over and done with the first night. Such is life, I'm happy with where we ended up.
Originally posted by Scorpio Rising
1) However, this does raise a technical question for me: As a GM, it seems there's a tricky overhead to introducing a new ghost at a moment's notice: You have to have a good idea of what its Need and Desire are (obviously you can just make shit up about its stats and fill in the powers as you go). Seems like this could cause a bit of floundering -- it certainly would cause me a chunk of difficulty.
2) 'Cause if so it seems to me that one way to introduce "currency" to Sorcerer is to let players keep their successes till they need them. We could use the little glass beads that I use as Drama Dice in 7th Sea and to keep track of Essence and Willpower in Exalted. Players could horde successes and deploy them on rolls that needed them.
Is this a really terrible idea? I am prepared to accept "yes" as an answer....
1) The players should describe what the Demon is and what they want it to do before they summon it. Perhaps there will be times when tehy will merely name a Demon but the players shoudl state what goals they want this demon to help them solve.
After that it is up to the GM to figure out what it actually can do but I've never had a problem with it before.
This game was demon-heavy and I walked in rather unprepared, which was lame but it all worked out.
2) I would argue that the only currency is the story happening. Descriptions given in that moment and help flesh out and define the story are the players' currency. I'm not keen on a Drama Dice system.
I've enjoyed it in the past but I like that Sorcerer demands its players make cool shit up for every roll and I think this system really brings out the best in people. Hoarding could allow people to get lazy.
I'm against it but I hear ya.
Scorpio Rising
06-23-2004, 04:19 PM
You know, now that I know you it's very weird talking to each other through the medium of these net personalities. It's kind of like being "in character" even though, in a way, there's no character here.
Peculiar.
But I digress. WRT "currency", I was mainly thinking of that bloody pear tree. I really wanted to take it out and it would've made a cool scene. I would've been willing to commit a chunk of resources to it had the mechanism been in place. That was what made me wonder whether Sorcerer benefits or suffers from the lack of a currency. I'm not strongly advocating either way, just idly speculating. The Pool uses this kind of currency and it works reasonably well, although I'm not sure I'd want to use that game for much more than a one-shot.
Secondly, I'd like to comment on your interpretation of failed summoning rolls. I much, much prefer the "wrong number" approach to the "fizzle" approach that might otherwise exist. That said, I think it would've been nice to see the Dream Eater get all up in Miriam's face after her failed Summoning attempt. I think I'd almost be tempted to have failed Contacts be the "wrong number" and failed Summonings just mean that you have an uncontrolled and dangerous demon to deal with, rather than one you get to Bind.
Third point: One thing that I feel was never quite clear was how much authority we had over the demons/ghosts. If you have a demon or ghost Bound then you don't necessarily have control over it. Other than Punishment, bribery (supply of Desire) or blackmail (denial of Need) is there any other way to exert control over a demon? Or is it all just social interaction and cajoling? I wasn't sure of this, especially given that eg. the Emperor was off having meetings with my enem- ... rivals and I didn't even know about it. I didn't even know he could do that till that scene.
Anyway. It was All Good Baby. A very interesting experience, and one that's piqued my interest to play Sorcerer again.
See you later.
- Scorpio 48 hours from leaving his job.
If you really wanted to cut the fucker down, you could've summoned the ghost of a woodcutter.
Pussy.
I'd argue that summoning is your currency and ability to get things done. If you want a goal desperately enough, summong something big and bad to help you achieve it, dammit.
Yeah, I should've treated the failed summonings with far more of a sharp edge. I'll know for next time. Miriam really should've been mauled by a rabid deam-eater...
Scorpio Rising
06-23-2004, 04:26 PM
Originally posted by Paka
Pussy.
Not to mention that if I'd really, really wanted to get rid of it I could've remembered to add the extra two dice from my Humanity into the two rolls I'd made.
Or taken extra time to Banish Boss Gwei, thus putting my Humanity up and getting more dice for Banishing the tree.
Or demanded you give me a roll or two for stealing the car and roll over successes into plowing into the tree.
Oh well.
Stupid tree.
- Scorpio defeated by the dead wood.
Originally posted by Paka
The Pear Tree - I read a Chinese folk tale about it. Picture the ghost of Shel Silverstien's Giving Tree with an angry chip on its shoulder, giving out fruits that bestow terrible gifts on those who eat them.
In your defense its a bad-ass tree.
Not as bad-ass as Blue-Eyed Chen, crying blood all over his pristine white suit while shooting bad guys with a gun in each hand.
But still, as pear trees go...or ghosts of pear trees go, that was the one with the wallet that had BAD MOTHERFUCKER written on it.
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