thread: 2008-01-07 : Another year's worth
On 2008-02-09, Vincent wrote:
I'll try! I think "particular and uncompromising?" and "defend relevance?" are the same question.
In Shock:, if you lose a conflict, you get points that make it more likely you'll win future conflicts. Every setback is guaranteed momentary. In Sorcerer, if you lose a conflict, you go into the next one at a disadvantage. It's possible in Sorcerer to lose and lose and lose. This by itself isn't what I'm talking about, but it's an example of what I'm talking about - this little mechanical difference represents a philosophical difference between the games, incompatible constructions of the player's role in creating the shape of the game's fiction. I mean that this difference is borne out over the whole of play, it's not just a blip.
Hm. Ron once wrote something about how the sorcerer is always the john, and the demon is always the hooker, but which one is the other's bitch? You play the game to find out.
In Shock: (and a variety of other games, Primetime Adventures' philosophical children), your PC will be the bitch or not depending entirely on how you choose to portray her. You don't have to fight for it, it's your choice, and you never have to play the bitch if you don't want to.
In Sorcerer, on the other hand, your PC will be her demon's bitch unless you somehow win otherwise.
Who gets to decide if your character's a good person? Who gets to decide if your character's sympathetic? In Shock:, you do, and the game's system is there to back you up. In Sorcerer, you don't, the game's system is there to do it, and you have to deal with that.
In our Sorcerer game, Meg wanted to play a sympathetic character no matter what awful things she did, and she short-circuited the game's rules to do it. Joshua wanted to play an unsympathetic character no matter what grace the world offered him, and he short-circuited the game's rules to do it too.
Funnily enough, Meg's short-circuits were easier to accommodate and more fun to play around than Joshua's were.
Does any of this make sense? Did I answer your questions?
