How far will you go to get what you want? In the Sorcerer role-playing game, the characters are people, not mutants or monsters, or elves. However, they are driven people, willing to break the most fundamental laws of reality to achieve their goals. They know how to summon, bind, and command demons. But demons are dangerous, transgressive beings, who demand a Price for the power they lend … mind of its own. Can you handle it? A complete role-playing system. Story creation. This is your instrument. Its rules are built powerful, entertaining story possible. No wasted motion. innovative dice system, well-suited to all aspects of interaction, violence, and sorcery. Flexibility and creativity. Full guidelines permit you to customize the premise into your own, unique vision. winning awards, breaking new ground, showcasing success in independent publishing, and setting standards for clear and effective design, Sorcerer is the same as it always was - a game for today. You’ve never seen role-playing like this before. SORCERER by Ron Edwards The Annotated Sorcerer by Ron Edwards An Intense Role-Playing Game by Ron Edwards Greg Pryor ADEPT PRESS chicago The Annotated Sorcerer Copyright © 2001 by Ron Edwards Copyright Notice All rights reserved. Annotations Copyright © 2012-2013 by Ron Edwards This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Art Credits US Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without Cover Art by Thomas Denmark written permission from the publisher. Interior Design & Layout by Nathan D. Paoletta (http://www.ndpdesign.com) Printed in the United States of America. Note On This Edition isbn 0 97091 760 0 The Annotated Sorcerer is presented with the original text of Sorcerer on the left- hand page, and the related annotations on the right. This text is provided in two formats: 2-on-a-page, creating a horizontal layout suitable for viewing the whole Art credits spread at once on digital devices, and single-page, suitable for printing and binding Cover art by Jeff Kromer ([email protected], www.daegmorgan.net) into a paper document via DIY technique or print-on-demand service. Interior art by Greg Pryor, Desmond Jackson, Manny Vega, M. Wayne Miller, Jeremy McHugh, and Gary Simpson (hive: www.closetland.f2s.com) Due to this presentation, the page numbers of the original Sorcerer are considered to apply to the entire two-page spread. In cases where the annotations fill more than the facing page, the overflow pages are marked with roman numerals (for Interior design and layout by Paul Mason, Panurgic Publishing example: page 16-i, page 16-ii, and so on). ([email protected]) Sorcerer logo by Matt Donino Adept Press PO Box 14616 Chicago, IL 60614 USA The Annotated Sorcerer Contents Chapter Three: DEMONS 47 Demon Characters 47 Demon type 48 CONTENTS Some important terms 49 Demon abilities 50 PREFACE 9 Desire 57 Role-playing Demons 58 A word on role-playing systems 9 What are they? 58 Art or game? 9 The Three Rules 59 Disclaimer 10 Example Demons 60 Visit the Sorcerer website 10 Ruatt 60 The supplements 10 Monicus 60 A word of encouragement 11 Doppelganger 61 Li’l [insert master’s name here] 61 Chapter One: INTRODUCTION TO THE GAME 13 The Heart of Sorcery 13 Chapter Four: PLAYING SORCERER 63 A quick question 14 Customizing 63 The Heart of the Game 15 Humanity 64 The player 15 Sorcerers 64 The Game Master 16 Demons and what they want 65 The System 17 Tone 67 Rolls 17 Organizing a Game 68 Bonuses and penalties 19 Setting it all up 68 A crucial role-playing mechanic 19 The story 68 Bibliography 21 So what do we do 72 Books and stories 21 Actual Play 73 Comics 22 Responsibilities 73 Movies 22 Understanding the currency 75 Television 23 Making the story work 77 Sneaky player tricks 78 Chapter Two: CREATING SORCERERS 25 The Training Run 80 Sorcerers 25 The back-story 80 Steps to make a player-character 25 The scenario 82 Scores 26 Some notes on play 84 Score descriptions 26 Humanity 31 Chapter Five: RULES FOR SORCERY 85 Cover 31 Sorcery 85 The Price 32 The Sorcery Chart 86 Telltale 33 Group sorcery 90 Starting demons 33 Sorcerous rituals in action 90 Once-over 33 In-game Contacts and Summons 91 The Kicker 34 Binding Subtleties 93 If you’re stuck 37 Dumb sorcery 97 Development 42 Improvement 42 Humanity 43 Everyone else 44 Other sorcerers 44 Persons of power 45 Just folks 45 The Annotated Sorcerer Contents Chapter Six: RULES FOR EVERYTHING ELSE 99 Everything but Combat 99 Characters and their skills 100 Perception 101 Combat 103 Actions 103 Combat rolls and modifiers 106 Damage 106 Keeping track of damage 109 Recovery from damage 109 Effect 109 Demons in combat 110 Various modifiers 111 Chapter Seven: THEME AND MEANING 113 How I Did It 113 Part One: The world and style 114 Part Two: Sorcery 114 Deep Stuff 119 Complex sorcery and other magic 120 Conspiracies 120 The really big questions 121 Thematic points 123 Going Over the Edge 124 Over the what? 124 Something simple 124 Recursion 125 A narrative experiment 126 A scary idea 126 APPENDICES 127 System Does Matter 127 System design: part one 128 System design: part two 129 In conclusion 130 Reference Sheets 131 The Sorcery Chart 131 The Everything Else Chart 131 Damage Table 132 Damage Penalties Table 132 Lasting Penalties Table 132 Character Sheet 133 Demon sheet 135 Advertisements 136 Fanzines and specialty sites 137 Index of Authors and References 138 Main Index 139 The Annotated Sorcerer Acknowledgments Happy Anniversary! Playtesters Or rather … a bit late. Sorcerer was first made Thanks to everybody, not the least for their patience in dealing with a gm available as a TXT file in 1996, in shareware fashion; who was occasionally confounded by the system he wrote. The very first then was upgraded to a PDF for sale in 1998. The Sorcerer stories were created with Tom Luango, Dan Kazi, Jonathan book version with finalized rules was released in 2001. Therefore 2011 was both the fifteen-year and the ten- Stambaugh, Marge Klugerman, Ron Stone, Taer Bluitt, and Camille year anniversary, for the 1996 and 2001 releases. Throckmorton. I have no record of the legions who played Sorcerer over the first year of its existence, although their donations and occasional One of the reasons for the annotations is that Sorcerer messages meant a world of author-gratification to me and provided the actual is not written for Iron-Man Bad-Ass role-playing. It’s impetus to continue developing the game. Thanks go as well to all the great easy, very easy. My goal here is to show how. folks who dropped by for a game at various conventions and demonstrations I’ve pulled some of the text from my posts at the during 1996–1998. Adept Press forum, and the people who prompted those posts should be acknowledged. Petter Sandelin, Crucial input Ralph Mazza, Jesse Burneko, Ben Bailey, Per Fischer, Special thanks for support in the early days go to the webmasters of the James Nostack, Trevis Martin, Christoph Boeckle, Josh Porter, Christopher Kubasik, René (“Rampage”), Gaming Outpost, the Game Publishers Association, Carl Congdon, Doug E. James Heil, Mackie, Klaus Welten, Joel Shempert, Bolden, Darrell Hardy, Charles Ferguson, Clinton Nixon, Randy Hardin, John S, René, “AXUM,” Mandy Frank, John Adams, Gareth Hanrahan, Jared Sorensen, and Raven. Thanks also go to the Frank Tarcikowski, Ben Baugh, Michael (“Plotin”), organizers of Jonescon in Gainesville, Florida, and to the wonderful game “Abhoth,” Mark (“Tasseomancer”), “Arxhon,” John store Sci-Fi City in Orlando, Florida, all of whom permitted me to (“Paiku”), David Berg, Eric, Moreno Roncucci, Tar demonstrate the game in its ashcan baby-stages. In the latter stages, I have Markvar, Bill Cook, Lisa Padol, Jae, Piers (“The benefited greatly through discussions with Paul Czege, Jim Henley, Sean Magus”), Nat Barmore, Konstantinos, Simon C, Tim Wipfli, Logan Hunter, Ralph Mazza, Lon Sarver, Clay Dowling, Bailey Watts, C. Koppang, Mandy, Tim Alexander, Chris Weill, Sven Max Cairnduff, and others. Micah Skaritka, Dav Harnish, and Elizabeth Miller Seeland, Ezio. deserve special notice for their generous insights and advice. Zine editors Paul Mason of imazine, Steve Darlington of Places to Go, People to Be, Ian O’Rourke of Chimera, and Julie Hoverson of Serendipity’s Circle all deserve wonderful karma for their support of Sorcerer and the independent role-playing scene in general. Clay Dowling is the greatly-appreciated mastermind of the website’s current incarnation. Most especial recognition goes to Ed Healy, whose commitment to the game has been unstinting, to the wonderful Elizabeth Fulda of the Sphinx Group, and to Cecilia Friberg. And thanks to all the members of the rootin’ tootin’ Sorcerer mailing list throughout 1999! Copyrights Mentions of trademarked works of any kind in this text are intended as reference and not as challenges to trademark or copyright. 8 The Annotated Sorcerer PREFACE Gary Simpson A word on role-playing systems Many role-playing games amount to not much more than a series of gorgeous coffee-table books. Others spark the imagination with a set of simple, high- potential ideas. Sorcerer is written in the tradition of the early editions of Traveller, Cyberpunk, RuneQuest, Champions, and (lo these many years gone) The Fantasy Trip. Every one of these games was originally published as a low-budget labor of love and each transformed the experience of role- playing. This spirit of role-playing design never died, and Sorcerer owes many debts to Over the Edge, Prince Valiant, and Zero.