After my first “Sorcerer” campaign last year I fall in love with the game and run a short 3-session mini campaign between February and March. I must say I learned a lot during this second campaign but we had two sessions zero and only three sessions due to lack of enthusiasm to continue using the “Sorcerer’s” rules. I will describe my process and what I’ve learnt from it.

First of all, I watched Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” musical from 2015 and it greatly inspired me. I re-watched it like two or three times, listening to the songs and their polish versions for like a month. In my head I imagined two campaigns: one of “Sorcerer” with this big dilemma between ideals and ambitions and second of Luke Crane’s “Miseries & Misfortunes” where characters would have George Washington as a patron and do some gigs for him. As the second idea required more rework in original game (from France 1648 to America 1786) I started with “Sorcerer”.

Quick note, as I’m getting back here writing like a half of the article. I will apologize up front for historical unthruths regarding the period and naming convention. We are from Poland and “Hamilton” was our main context for this campaign (and we threated it loosely).

I have found two players interested in such play (American revolution, ideals vs ambitions, “Sorcerer”) and we did two sessions zero, during which we decided that the “honor” of the time will be our Humanity (with addition of rules from “Sex & Sorcery’s” male-story, so that the honor would be judged from the perspective of self, family, religion and politics. The sorcery idioms were related to writing (ink, letters – especially denunciations, newspapers, seals) and temptations (with lust and power abuse in it). We divided demons by types so that parasite and possessors were manifestations of lust, passing and inconspicuous demons manifested temptations and object demons in form of proofs of a crime or dishonor. Sorcerer’s telltale were white strands of hair or especially white stain on the skin under it.

During first session zero we made a few errors we decided to correct before they would grow into problem during play. The errors were:

1. We didn’t describe the sorcery in visuals and it was hard to visualize how demons were summoned and how it aims at character honor (for example during first scenes one of the characters just did some research which felt insufficient yet due to late hour we noticed it the next day).
2. My first call regarding Humanity was to use reputation (in broad sense) yet it was something decided by others so we firstly switched to sin as something a character can feel themselves. Only after the session we get this idea that it should be honor as perceived by the character (yet still within the understanding from XVIII century).
3. My first situation were too loose (something like “Boston 1776”). I was so much into the musical that I imposed the time and place to the players instead of going after their character concepts. Between both sessions zero we decided to move it more concretely to “Unqiet Boston 1770” and start directly after Boston Massacre. We noted some facts about the time and place to have more vivid view on that.
   1. I must note that despite wanting to correct myself and go after characters I unfortunately moved the story to time and place that interested mostly me so I made the same mistake twice… I should totally go for New York 1776 or even further and start during first fights.
4. The characters weren’t really likable and interested in revolution. Kicker of the first one was to “colonize west but all his comrades went political” which sounded like the character wanted to get out of the whole revolution and stick to his own business, whereas second character wanted to marry rich (and weren’t really that interesting to the player herself).

During second session zero we managed to get it straight and move to situations interesting players more (but not as much as we needed, as I see from the time perspective). Our characters were:

1. Bernard Foreman (28), hunter (4) wanting to join army and became an officer after taking part in American Indian Wars. He had military training (4), was vengeful and rageful (3) and a part of a coven (3). His kicker was that his coven leader were caught and accused of sorcery. He was also wary, penalized with -1 die dealing with people he don’t trust (he don’t know by names). His demon, Uru, were an Indian rifle object demon with powers od Daze, Range, Cloak and Special Damage Lethal (missiles) – Power and Will 5, Stamina and Lore 4. He made a deal with it killing it’s previous owner and hunting chasing him natives down. He rolled well on binding (binding strength +3).
2. Margaret Johns (45), running orphanage (4) and being a wife of local pastor lived a clean living (2), with strong belief system (4) and being a solitary adept (4). Her price was grief after her first son (killed in a duel) giving her -1 in joyful atmosphere. Her kicker was that her second son got shot during Boston Massacre event and is dying now. When she tried to save her first son, she made a deal with powerful passing demon, black goat Kruczy (eng. Corvine). The demon has powers: Armor, Command, Special Damage Lethal (sulfur fire), Shadow, Travel (levitating or speedster-running), Spawn and Boost Lore – Power and Will 8, Stamina and Lore 7. Unfortunately binding went poorly and the deal didn’t save the son (she wanted to quickly go to the doctor’s house but the doctor’d been absent and nowhere to find) – binding strength -1.

Bernard’s player played “Sorcerer” for the first time whereas Margaret’s player was the one I played this marvelous campaign last year. One difference was that I wanted to play “Sorcerer” but then it was her idea for Humanity we used then.

We started with “arresting” Bernard as he has been seen with convent’s leader, accused Charles Livingstone. Bernard’s Player said during character creation that the convent isn’t interested in revolution and people of different nationalities and status were a part of it. I decided Livingston was British and accusations were an excuse for Patriots to vent on him (and maybe lynch a sorcerer!), so after he gave in to them, they took him to Sam Adams (already escalating the scale of the Massacre to gain more supporters). During their talk Bernard promised to find a native Kachada, who were a part of the coven but run away. Then Bernard wanted to please Adams so he went to a bar to find some drunken man and led them to the fort, to get the soldiers accused of the Massacre out and lynch. He managed to move people with his voracious speech and the mob went out.

Meantime Margaret was informed her son got shot and after throwing away the crowd from the church (where they moved him) she stayed by her son and husband waiting for doctors decision. Doctor said he’s unable to remove the bullet but there is a professor at Cambridge who could do that and he promised to write to him right away. Margaret’s husband wanted the doctor to continue despite him giving little to none chances of success. The pastor were encouraged that god will save his child and grant the doctor precision he needed. Margater tried to persuade her husband to let the doctor go but she was reminded about her first son dying when she were absent (looking for the doctor on her goat demon). I wanted to show her husband coldness towards her after that incident. The operation were disturbed by Daniel (Margaret’s son) waking up. The doctor used that opportunity and get out of church ensuring he will contact Cambridge professor.

This ended our first session. Between sessions I prepared a “BANGdolier” for possible use and sketch some characters.

During the session I tried to move between both characters at the point of rolling dice and getting the outcomes, as I understood the suggested techniques from “Sex and Sorcery”. I think it worked and switches were dynamic and players had time to think about consequences – I love how Ron pointed out in the text that because there is no preplanned story anyone can make up the consequences of the roll! It makes the game fluid and easy for me to not railroad players (what I do out of bad habit from time to time).

During second session Margaret contacted another demon, wanting to find a way to cure her son (I believe it meant to be a possessor demon with Cover (doctor) and Perception (flesh)) but Kruczy advised her not to and promised to get the professor from Cambridge himself. Bernard cached a British patrol on his way to the fort but at the last moment Sam Adams get there (right before another massacre occurred) and negotiated with officers so the patrol members were exchanged for moving the trial yet for tomorrow. I decided Patriots weren’t ready for such quick move as mob mobilized by Bernard but Adams wanted to move the trial as fast as he can to avoid his brother getting there to defend them. There were also a scene right after the mob dispersed, when Bernard meet Kruczy (spying in the city) but after a quick talk (Kruczy recognized him as a sorcerer) sorcerer hide using Uru’s Cloak power (otherwise I would make Kruczy spawn a Spawn to go after Bernard and watch him).

Session ended with Bernard declaring being interested in seeing the trial and Margaret sending her husband to the trial, to tell the truth (that it was horrible accident on both parts). Her husband confessed in tears that it has been him who encouraged Daniel to join the riot.

It occurred to me that Bernard’s player get much more involved in this political intrigue than his kicker but as both players were engaged in the fiction I decided to wait for after the trial to remind about it.

Between sessions I prepared some more NPCs reading about “Boston Massacre” and the trial in detail plus I had some bang ideas.

Third session was about the trial, but as Bernard didn’t influence it (he just managed to get into the court) and Margaret’s husband testimonies confused the crowd (whereas the governor-jugde Thomas Hutchinson wanted the trial to be 100% proper and just), the trial were delayed to provide proper evidences and more witnesses.

Kruczy get back with scared Cambridge professor (he saw the devil!) but Margaret persuaded him to concentrate on her son. With the help of the doctor they performed a surgery and saved Daniel. In the meantime pastor get home with governor (wanting to see how’s Daniel and get pastors family help in calming the city’s situation – “we are so close to get representation in Britain!”). Professor used the opportunity to ask governor to drive him back to university. Kruczy told Margaret that the professor saw too much and he shouldn’t be let out alive. She tried to oppose, then used Command (writing and burning a letter against the professor) on family’s sheep but with little effect (professor jumped quickly to the carriage) and finally punishing Kruczy calling him to order (then they went to the cemetery to feed Kruczy’s desire to corrupt such places).

Bernard, after the trial wanted to find some more people dissatisfied with the delay and start a secret association with them, teaching them to shoot and train in the woods. As it was dishonorable for them to join such a group, we rolled and Bernard lost (his price applied). One of the people decided to tell Adams and he told the militia (as after the night riot he recognized Bernard as someone dangerous to his plans). We moved the action few days later and described as during one of the trainings Bernard saw the patrol (leaded by the officer he took hostage during the Massacre night). He decided to buy some time to his colleagues (humanity gain as this was honorable – I just realized I didn’t mentioned every humanity gain and check but there were quite a few, sometimes both in one situation) but then he got into a shooting with the militia (humanity check), killed their leader (using Uru’s Special Damage Lethal power) and run away. Despite his Cover as a hunter, they were prepared for the chase and get him near the river. In quick conflict with three soldiers he got hardly beaten, unarmed and fell to the ground so he gave up. We ended the session here.

At the next session we had a discussion about the direction we are going into. Margareth concluded her kicker but the player had a feeling that this isn’t really a good scenery for “Sorcerer”, like she were too on the side and not really interested in using demons in her situation. The player were interested in the fiction we created but she preferred to move along using different game or ending the campaign as it is. Bernard’s player on the other hand “concluded” his kicker by killing the officer so that he got accused of something worse than Livingstone and get into his own problems. We decided it’s a good place to end the campaign.

After that I had a thought I wanted to share that “Sorcerer” works best when the players came with idea for Humanity and I as a GM use it to fuel the sorcery, demons and the situation. In our case I had been more interested in something I felt watching “Hamilton” but for Margaret’s player this conflict between ideals and ambition was too obvious (she already have her answer for such question and didn’t wanted to explore it). It’s quite interesting for me as I’m accustomed to preparing the concept as a GM but I can see that some games require (or it is at least easier) for players to point what interest them. In that case I will surely try again in some time.

I also (for reasons unknown even to myself) decided to back the story to 1770 even when Bernard wanted the war and would fit much better when the fights began. I’m not sure why I did it but from a perspective we should play closer to the musical and fighting.

From my perspective the campaign went quite good despite players getting interested in topics differing from their kickers. I surely could do better making them more urgent and important but I felt really interested in how both sorcerers would find themselves in Boston’s situation. I felt much more confident running the game, and with two players I could finally make some crossroads to see the technique in application.

Just a personal note at the end (sorry Ron! It’s just a matter of personal preferances). I like the humanity concept but I have my problems with demon’s powers. They feel quite weak or inadequate to the themes I would like to explore myself. I personally don’t see a point in exchanging my soul for powers the “Sorcerer’s” demons offer. I would expect demons to make people rich, talented, popular, loved or immortal (or revive someone dead) – things people really want, maybe in some twisted way so a sorcerer gets rich but it made someone else poor. Some powers aren’t that tempting. I recall during first session zero one character were a smuggler with Daze power. We imagined he could summon a mist to hide a ship but then we read that the power lasts for minutes whereas ships move much slower. I wonder on changing powers into that narrow but powerful deals but will take my time thinking about pros and cons and I’m sure it would affect the game I’m just learning so it’s not an experiment for my next “Sorcerer’s” campaign.

Last impression – “Sorcerer” does similar thing for me as “Burning Wheel” (my personal favorite game) however is much easier to tweak but the character as created doesn’t look very inspiring. In plain numbers and descriptors, even with relationship maps and notes on his past (before demon, after demon, now with the kicker), and even thought we can quite easily fit any concept into a sorcerer (we did an exercise creating count Monte Christo as a sorcerer), it is still inspires us less than the fully burned character for BW. Both games are great, I just see now how the setting hidden in “Burning Wheel” makes it easier to imagine the characters and how they are formed.

Regarding my points about players coming with their ideas for Humanity and GM preparing the situation after that, do you have the same observations? Do you have any advice for my next campaigns?

Thanks in the advance!