Actual Play – A Circle of Demons (4/5/2009)

System: Demon: The Fallen

Last Sunday we put our heads together to make a head pie. And from the pie we cut slices of delicious demon… Hmm… I think I’m wandering here. We got together for a character creation session and stirred up a situation as well.

The concept is pretty much what I suggested from our on my last post. We’re Luciferans who are eager to keep fighting (presumably at this point out of malice, hate, etc). Our Lord, who knows our true name sent us to steal the vessel of knowledge from them. The plan goes pretty bad however, and we hop ship from the Abyss to Earth, carrying the physical vestments of our prize with us in the form of a loom which should lead us to one of the old ones. The cryptics however will be on us quickly so we’ve got to figure how to find this earthbound in a hurry.

We each created characters.

A Devil that wasn’t present during the start of the war and while he fought for Lucifer never got a chance to ask him why the war started. He’s got some unfinished business with the Morningstar. Now he’s take over the body of a professional consultant, a fixer, someone who takes care of problems…. Michael Weston.

A Devourer who’s taken the body of an old CEO who refused to retire and refused to die. He’s a crotchety old man who liked animals. In fact he summons them… by the swarm.

A Fiend who watched the stars and told us when the time was right to make the heist. She’s taken the body of a house wife who worked at book store and is part of a new age religious group.

A Defiler who took the body of a burnt out ATF agent.

And a Slayer who carried the Scythe to Lucifer and is now in the body of a 12 year old girl who nearly drowned do to drunk driving. Ummm… that was me and I ended up pretty unsatisfied with the concept. It was all schtick and no purpose. A Malefactor who worked in the Ebon Legion creating weapons of mass destruction for Lucifer, plagues and the such. He’s taken over the body of Marion West (still debating the name), an Arms dealer who got into the industry to put power back in the hands of people. Or at least that is what he once hoped for, over the years he saw his business create pain and suffering instead of business. He grew jaded and felt he betrayed his calling. Then he died in a shootout with the AFT and opened a door for a demon to walk in.

What rocked

Demon is definitely the most mature of all the old World of Darkness games. By that I mean they back up what they say the game is going to be about with mechanics. For instance, Vampire says it’s all about politics and dark morality, but the mechanics are 90% about ways to kill people. Werewolf got it right by accident. They made a game about killing things and then made lots of mechanics for killing things. That however, I don’t credit as brilliance as much as I do fortunate. With Demon I’ve very happy to see that the way you gain power and what matters mechanically in game is the same thing that matters in the setting description. Thumbs up WW.

I like that our characters have relationships both as Demons and as co-conspirators. We’ve also got at least one mortal connection as well. The more we feel that we have meaningful ties to each other, the better the game will be.

I’m anxious to play. That is always a good sign. I have two “character” scenes I already want to play out when I get a chance and will look for more as I see more about the other characters.

What could have been improved

I was totally floundering with my first concept and so I spent the character creation night really frustrated. I’m feeling much better now.

I’d like for us to have named a few more things (like our characters and the Cryptics we stole from). Until they have a name they feel nebulous to me and I want things to feel visceral and real.

Next game the 19th… Looking forward to it.

8 Comments

  1. Yeah, character names would have been cool. I’m fine with some of the cryptics being named, but as a gm, I don’t want the feeling of, “we’ve named them all.” because then if you manage to take them all, I don’t have any further antagonists to throw at you!

    Maybe on the board we can name a couple of the sergeants involved?

    • oh, I wasn’t even thinking of naming the members, more like the name of the group or the lord we stole from. I just want to be able to say we’re on the run from the “Last secret of Adam” or from “Medameer, the Defiler” or something like that. As for the masses that will be after us, I’m happy to have that undefined.

      • Ooo, naming the Lord you stole it from would be awesome, since there’s virtually no way that a) they’ll ever come to the real world and b) that you’ll ever be able to kill them and eat their soul if they do. (Escape, confuse, etc, but not kill. Defeat in a Bilbo sense of the word)

  2. A Devil that wasn’t present during the start of the war and while he fought for Lucifer never got a chance to ask him why the war started. He’s got some unfinished business with the Morningstar. Now he’s take over the body of a professional consultant, a fixer, someone who takes care of problems…. Michael Weston.

  3. Mechanically speaking

    I have to completely agree with you on the concept of the mechanics here. It is one of few games created by white-wolf that was designed with a mechanic that enforces the setting ideals/themes. Scion is another. My only issue with Demon has been the mindset needed to embrace such a being. Unlike all of the other games, where all of the characters are essentially human or they at least were, demons are an almost alien mindset with an understanding of Creation beyond human comprehension. Then add in the fact that they had been around literally forever. That said, I can’t wait to play in a game.

    • My only issue with Demon has been the mindset needed to embrace such a being.

      I think the authors took that into account somewhat by (thankfully) letting the demons forget most of their life. What this means is that each player can bring in as much or as little of their demon into their character. While the default assumption is that the demons possess the hosts and wear their bodies like cheap suits, the case of PCs are specific exceptions. The human host somehow had a profound effect on the demon. Just how profound you want that to be is totally up to the player. So yeah, I think the authors gave us a safety net there.

      Like you, I’m itching to play.

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