Demon Summoner interest?

Everyone has their desires. But how much evil will you do, how much will you put at stake, if it means getting what you want? How far can you go, and still think it to be right? And if you cross that point, is it worth trying to repent?


OK, so I've got a specific craving for an RP concept. Basically, the idea is that you are in a world that doesn't have any magic whatsoever, except for demon summoning, which is wrong and dangerous. You've summoned a demon or two anyway, because there's something you want so much that you'd put your life and soul at risk by trafficking with dark forces to attain it, and you think you can handle that kind of power without being corrupted.

And there's the rub: I'd prefer it if everyone had goals that could actually be pointed at something pretending to be plot, because I don't think the RP concept would work if you can be a summoner and not be one of the most driven, strong-willed, desperate people alive. And frankly, I think it's easier (or at least better) to tailor the plot to what the players want to play than make the players tailor their character concepts to the plot.

Setting can be messed with. I'm personally more used to working with medieval fantasy type lands, but human nature doesn't change because you have swords and kniggets rather than guns and mobsters. Or lasers and spaceships, if people think the sheer awesome factor of demon summoners IN SPACE! is worth a shot.

This sounds great! Have you read the Bartimeus trilogy or Memoirs of a Master Forger?

Demon Summoning, this is interesting. I might be up to RP on this one.

Off topic, are you a Shin Megami Tensei series fan?

@empowermint Unfortunately no, although Bartimaeus was already on my list of things I really should get round to finding. Will hunt them out next time I'm in a library or a bookshop.

@Ethereal Yep, I'm an SMT fan. Which bits have you played?

Also, we should probably actually start working on concepts here. My first thought is a conspiracy/cult of more obviously evil summoners, whose actual objectives can as yet remain vague and nebulous so character concepts work (and which don't even have to make sense to humans because, well, they're influenced by demons!). Alternately, we get an all too human conspiracy or problem that turns out to be hard to solve with normal means, like a well-entrenched trafficking ring.

I've never played SMT but looking at it on Wikipedia it looks awesome.

I like the first idea best! I'm interested in how they get to be evil - how the demons can bring out the worst in people.

An ageing book found in the very darkest corner of the very oldest bookshop in Bucharest promises unknowable power. But... perhaps summoning demons creates more problems that it solves? A group of travelers in Romania discover the rituals needed to summon spirits from the Other Realm and bind them to the summoner's will. Back in their normal lives, they set about solving their various problems with demon magic, little realizing that their pact with the devil works both ways... as the demons conspire against their masters - little things, verbal loopholes in their instructions, deliberate misunderstandings of the mystic symbols, slowly gathering information to blackmail and cheat to get what they want: the downfall of their masters and their ultimate freedom.

Hmm, got carried away with the dramatic prose there.

Perhaps some of the player characters could be the demons themselves?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_demons

I've played the first few SNES releases of Megami Tensei but have not finished em, sadly. Then I got my hands on some of their spinoff titles like Persona series, Devil Survivor on DS, and my favorite Digital Devil Saga. That's about the titles I've played. I'm sure there are others but I just can't remember, it's been so long since I last played SMT, the latest title that I played was Devil Survivor.

Mark me down for a maybe

Oh, I am totally down for demon summoners in a modern setting!

Count me IN!