Campbell
Relaxed Intensity
What this thread is about?
Discussing the impact that Sorcerer has had on our hobby by helping to popularize things like scene framing, playing to the characters' dramatic needs and emotional safety techniques in roleplaying games.
What this thread is not about?
Discussing the validity of the Big Model, The Forge Essays, The Forge as a community, Ron as a person or comments he made he made about other games. I'm open to direct criticism of Sorcerer, but please keep it to the actual game rather than its author or the community that spawned it.
My Roleplaying Journey
Way back in 2005/2006 I had begun to sour on playing and running roleplaying games. I wanted a focus on more personal stories where who the characters were really mattered. Party based adventuring had kind of started feel stale to me after 8 years in the hobby. At that point I had been a member of this community since 2000 when it was still Eric Noah's forum. At that time there was a strong throughline of debates on these boards is roleplaying games were an appropriate medium for the sort of personal journeys I was interested in. I had already had a significant amount of experience with games like Vampire and Legends of the Five Rings which seemed to promise what I was looking for, but only through GM led illusionism.
Some members of these boards (@fusangite and @SweeneyTodd) at the time talked about a different sort of game. One that did not involve illusionism, but still was focused on personal narratives. Those discussions led me to The Forge and more importantly a little game called Sorcerer. Reading Sorcerer was like a revelation to me at that time. The idea that we could start with the characters first and build around them and that play could focus on resolving their personal stories and that it would end once those were done. Like just that was staggering, but then it followed with the idea that the player characters did not need to be a discrete group, but that we could just follow them around individually and frame scenes that would lead them to interacting with each other in whatever way they chose.
Getting to run and play Sorcerer was the first time I really felt satisfied with roleplaying. This journey is not my alone. It's one that has been shared by many of us. The creative movement that Sorcerer spawned basically created a whole new category of games. Ones that focused first and foremost on the player characters and addressing who they are under stress. I have since learned to enjoy more traditional play, but Sorcerer sparked my love for our hobby.
That's all for now. Soon I'll go into the impact I feel Sorcerer has had outside of the category of games it has spawned.
Discussing the impact that Sorcerer has had on our hobby by helping to popularize things like scene framing, playing to the characters' dramatic needs and emotional safety techniques in roleplaying games.
What this thread is not about?
Discussing the validity of the Big Model, The Forge Essays, The Forge as a community, Ron as a person or comments he made he made about other games. I'm open to direct criticism of Sorcerer, but please keep it to the actual game rather than its author or the community that spawned it.
My Roleplaying Journey
Way back in 2005/2006 I had begun to sour on playing and running roleplaying games. I wanted a focus on more personal stories where who the characters were really mattered. Party based adventuring had kind of started feel stale to me after 8 years in the hobby. At that point I had been a member of this community since 2000 when it was still Eric Noah's forum. At that time there was a strong throughline of debates on these boards is roleplaying games were an appropriate medium for the sort of personal journeys I was interested in. I had already had a significant amount of experience with games like Vampire and Legends of the Five Rings which seemed to promise what I was looking for, but only through GM led illusionism.
Some members of these boards (@fusangite and @SweeneyTodd) at the time talked about a different sort of game. One that did not involve illusionism, but still was focused on personal narratives. Those discussions led me to The Forge and more importantly a little game called Sorcerer. Reading Sorcerer was like a revelation to me at that time. The idea that we could start with the characters first and build around them and that play could focus on resolving their personal stories and that it would end once those were done. Like just that was staggering, but then it followed with the idea that the player characters did not need to be a discrete group, but that we could just follow them around individually and frame scenes that would lead them to interacting with each other in whatever way they chose.
Getting to run and play Sorcerer was the first time I really felt satisfied with roleplaying. This journey is not my alone. It's one that has been shared by many of us. The creative movement that Sorcerer spawned basically created a whole new category of games. Ones that focused first and foremost on the player characters and addressing who they are under stress. I have since learned to enjoy more traditional play, but Sorcerer sparked my love for our hobby.
That's all for now. Soon I'll go into the impact I feel Sorcerer has had outside of the category of games it has spawned.
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