In an industry of high-priced games and supplements, it's nice to find a bargain once in a while. Ron Edward's Sorcerer costs only $10, and if you don't like it, you don't have to pay for it. If it sounds like shareware, well, it sort of is; Sorcerer isn't a computer game, but is currently only available as a textfile over the Internet at http://www.sorcerer-rpg.com. If you e-mail a request to EDWARDS@zoo.ufl.edu, he'll e-mail you the game, and if you decide you like it you send him $10. (When I printed out the file, using minimal formatting, 10-point type, and smallish margins, it filled 50 pages, so this is a hefty file.)

Sorcerer is an RPG in which players play sorcerers in the modern world. These are sorcerers in the classical mold, when sorcery meant dealing with demons. That's pretty much the extent of their magic; no fireballs or time travel, nothing but six-to-12-hour-long ceremonies that will contact some kind of netherworld and summon forth a being of greater or lesser nastiness. The demons themselves, however, once summoned and bound into service, can do all sorts of things ... if they can be persuaded to.

Characters are regular people who have taken the time to learn sorcery ... hey, you don't just accidentally stumble upon a six-hour ceremony, folks. This means that they are assumed to have chosen this path for some reason, implying that they may well be arrogant, self-assured, and willing to do anything to get their way. Beginning characters are assumed to have summoned their first demon already, but its quirks and willingness to behave are up to the GM, who plays the role of the creature. Demons might not always want to behave, but they do want to be bound to a sorcerer, because this is their means of staying out of the netherworld.

Demons have various needs and desires which must be fulfilled, the former for their survival, the latter to keep them happy. They're kind of like big, scary Tamagotchis, complaining when they don't get what they want, or getting sick and dying when their needs aren't met. (Of course, if you discipline them too much, they turn from mean to meaner.) Typical needs are such commonplaces as blood sacrifice, though some are really strange, such as those of the example demon who balks at combat because its master has refused to discuss Judge Ito's idiosyncrasies with him, its need being "current events."

Task resolution is simple, with all challenges resolved by comparing highest dice, and the type of die is left entirely up to the group playing the game (they do all have to be rolling the same kind of dice, however). Very basic, and non-threatening for inexperienced gamers.

Character generation is also simple, merely requiring players to allocate 10 points among three stats and choose several descriptions to go with them. One of the more interesting points about this game is the lack of information about the setting. Edwards deliberately refuses to provide a world, insisting that dictating the general circumstances, theology, and overall dominance of sorcerers (as well as the existence of other creatures like vampires) in the game world is really part of the job of the GM, since " ... that would be too much like using the game as an excuse to publish my fiction when the goal is to get other people creating their own stories," a nice sentiment (though some people prefer the challenge of working within a prepared framework). Instead of handing you a world, he provides a decent section on creating your own and the things you'll need to decide on when you do. I can vouch for the importance of this, since when playtesting Sorcerer I allowed a bit too much leeway in my theology and it skewed the whole scenario.

Sorcerer has much to recommend it. I like the basic game concept as well as the specific handling of demons. The text is easy to read and is liberally peppered with examples and quotations from various books (which are listed in a modest bibliography). Best of all, the "shareware" format of publication ensures that you've got nothing to lose by giving Sorcerer a try.