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(Via Story Games:) Rebecca Borgstrom has released "Unlikely Flowerings", the first part of the long-awaited Society of Flowers supplement for Nobilis as a 115 page pdf at Drivethrurpg for $5. It's also available for free at (the publisher) Eos' website, but "purchasing it from DTRPG will show your support for the author, her efforts and improve the chances of seeing the rest of the book."
Nobilis is also getting a reprint by Eos Press. The reprint will be revised and twice as thick as the 2nd edition, due to resizing the book to 8.5" x 11"; will contain new art, a new visual style, and content from The Game of Powers Live-action RP rules. (Which is ironic, since I always thought the rules in Game of Powers worked better for TTRPGs than the main rulebook's more LARPish rules.)
I think, assuming that Birdwell Island is a Chancel (which is clearly is, otherwise all the mortals would have gone insane by now), Emily Elizabeth must be the Imperator.
I've tried to work it with her as a Noble and Clifford as her anchor, but it just doesn't work, since he's got like... three anchors himself.
So she's the Imperator. Obviously aligned with the Light -- no one else could be that positive.
Went looking for the the Nobilis "Lexicon" projects today.
They seem to have vanished.
Let's say you get into a book club. It's a pretty interesting set up, where you get a tremendous number of new books (40 or so), for about forty bucks.
The only catch is you have to indicate *at the signup stage* which books you're going to want to read during the course of the run. It doesn't have to be books that are published at the time (you'll be getting books regularly and about bi-weekly for... let's say a year and a half), but of course the list is all going to be based on your preferences and interests that you have at that moment in time.
About halfway in, maybe less, you realize your preferences have changed. The first half-dozen books were great and exactly what you were hoping for, and you've found some wonderful and interesting bits here and there since then, but there's also some things you're getting that really don't work for you at all, plus you've been reading some other stuff on the side and found out about a newer style of book club where you pay a bit more but get smaller batches of books, which lets you switch your preferences much more easily.
Basically, at this point, despite some great experiences, you're ready for the last of the books to show up so you can read it and move on. You just want to get it over with, and that's no way to read a book.
That's pretty much where I am with the Nobilis game. I love the players, love the characters, and even like the storyline (such as it is), but I've taken the whole thing someplace that I don't really find that engaging and basically I simply want to wrap things up as well as I can and move on; this one ran too long and tried to do too much: in retrospect I should have stopped after session six -- that's really where it stopped being a story and started being meeting minutes, a bunch of things I'm just not that proud of. Regardless, I've come to believe that shorter campaign lengths result in a much leaner and cleaner story arc overall and help keep the excitement level up at a higher level.
So... I love the game, and I think I need to finish it up cleanly and more importantly quickly, because it deserves the kind of concise attack that it came in with. Time to move on.
In the history of Nobilis, the first 20th century was different.
So were the 400 wondrous years after that, but that is all gone now.
One day, it was the year 2400 and space-ships plied the Aetheric Currents between earth and the colony worlds. Then (about one hundred years ago) a rogue imperator conspired, an immortal Queen/Empress died, and human history/memory was reset back en masse.
The next day it was 1900 again, and the world, the history books and mortal memory had been changed so that it seemed normal for it to be 1900.
The crew at OceanWiki is putting together a Lexicon to tell us about everything we lost from those amazing five-hundred years.
It's a shorter project than the former Lexicon, but it's tighter, faster, and dare-I-say already better than the first effort... and we're only on the A-C entries.
Amazing, terrific stuff: all the 'lost futures' of all your favorite sci-fi, brought into one place -- Jules Verne and Space 1889 and Castle Falkenstein and Robert Heinlein and Buckaroo Banzai and Doc Savage and John Carter.
From "Ben Faulk, the First One to do Something Else" to the Pan African Teleostean Hegemony... this is really good stuff.
Go. Read.
A few weeks ago, Dave commented that we've been at this Nobilis thing for 'about a year'.
I believe my immediate reaction to this was something like "you're completely crackers", but it turns out he's right: the first Nobilis session was... well, I posted about it around the last week of April of 2003, so I suppose that's pretty close to the first little half-session we did.
Looking back, I'm both pleased and annoyed, but generally far more of the former than the latter.
Continue reading "The Plot Point" »
So for the last couple weeks I've been contributing the insanity of the Lexicon Of The Second Age, in which people are sequentially writing up entries on the Second Age of Creation for the Nobilis setting, following certain guidelines.
Once a few standard practices and guildelines worked themselves into place, things have gone swimmingly, and I honestly find myself looking forward to the next entry from the others and the next entry to write -- there's tons of stuff that's come out of the project that I'm already planning to use in my own campaign.
Today's "O" contribution was a little tongue-in-cheek (after several entries worth of Serious Topics) -- a time-jaunting band of heroes who spent the Second Age saving the world, doing good, and rocking out (a Noble tribute to the Hong Kong Cavaliers).
Good times.
A long email exchange on magic in rpgs -- not a lot that resonated with me, but I did want to refer back to this passage, which touches on a possible problem I'm having in Nobilis (and possibly other stories).
Emphasis mine:
... [I am] against taking magic for granted, relying on the system, instead of trying to elicit that which the system is designed to facilitate. Relying on the system has the paradoxical effect of making the magic both more and less real: on the one hand, it removes everything from the realm of concrete action and physical description, distancing everyone from what’s really going on; on the other hand, by invoking rules, one lends an air of authority if not verisimilitude to the proceedings. “I’m using Waters of Vision to try and see what’s going on” implies that the magic is real*; “I’m peering into the water in the bowl on my dresser to see what I can see in the ripples” leaves crucial room for doubt and ambiguity**.
(The paradoxical epistemology of rpgs: precisely because they are so subjective—based almost wholly on the subjective cause-and-effect dialogue between players and referee—they end up being much more objective than the real world.)
* -- "Real", read "measurable and solid", which is so antithetical to the idea of what magic is in most settings that it makes Magic into Not-Magic (Technology). Magic in DnD (and in virtually every other RPG out there), for instance, is actually Technology -- very reliable technology, come to that.
** -- But lends a solidity to the act itself. Compare "I do a Divination of his location." to the actual concrete actions described in the example above: which one immerses you in the world of the character more? Which allows (or forces) a certain emotional separation from the scene?
This all goes back to a problem I choose to perceive in the Nobilis games I'm running, in that most of the sessions fail to have anything resembling a mythic tone to them. I know that most of this lies with me -- to have a mythic feel, a lot has to come from me, and frankly I think most people of my generation are going to have problem with mythic thinking -- it's not what we were raised on, after all -- sesame street is a far cry from being raised on oral tradition stories and fairy tales at bedtime. My myths are those of Tolkien -- a magical world with very very VERY little that is overtly magic in it: a world with histories but not myths... myth doesn’t enter into it, and the closest thing to fairy tales are Bilbo's encounter with the Trolls and the regrettable Tom Bombadil (who really should have been in a short book of his own... preferably in a different world entirely).
And to top it off, I taught myself systems at a young age whereby everything that happens in Tolkien can be quantified (RPGs) -- just to milk that last bit of wonder myth out of it.
(Note to self: buy many books of fairy tales -- read them to children as they grow up.)
So, back on track, I don't necessarily know the imagery of myths, and thus my Nobilis games tend to feel more like (best case) an Unknown Armies game where everyone's playing an Avatar or (worst case) a Supers game.
Supers... the myths of our time, and more's the pity; though you can have mythic supers tales (cf. Hitherby Dragons), that's the exception, not the rule.
So, Question the First: how to think mythically? How to encourage the players to think/act mythically?
The other thing that is leeching the magical out of the Nobilis game is that I'm very focused on the rules right now, because I'm trying to teach them to my players -- so that even when they simply describe "this is my concrete and emotionally immersive action", I break it down from the subjective-but-immersive to the objective-but-non-immersive -- I'm very much into showing everyone what gears are turning behind the curtain right now, because I want them to see how the machine works.
My motives are good: I want people to know the rules well enough to be able to ignore them, but I'm beginning to think that that's not going to happen, at least not quickly.
So I think "We'll, we'll let everyone be subjective-concrete-immersive and I'll be the only one making sure the game system is being observed and everyone can just trust me that it's fair."
Which is fine, if everyone trusts me, and maybe they do. I'm nervous about that because I-the-player got really burned on that about a year or two ago and I'm still compensating for that in most of my games, trying to make sure that everyone knows I'm working with a fair and balanced rules set even if they never asked.
So, Question the Second: How to move from my current mode of "objective-non-immersive" to "subjective-immersive" to let people be engaged in the action, not the rules. Ideally, the goal should be that the players are always utterly confident that they did what they say they did, but unsure as to whether the 'magic' will behave as expected. This is easier, provided trust-in-the-GM by both the players and the GM.
What frustrates me about this is that I was DOING this (creating more mythic imagery and veiling the hard rules) at the beginning of the game before I really learned the rules, and I'm doing it less now because I'm thinking of them too much.
Interesting thoughts on why to decide your Estate last when creating a character in Nobilis, stored here for my convenience:
The crux of Tony's process is that the Estate is the LAST thing you choose when designing your character.
What it does (I feel) is discourage people from playing Estates and Affiliations instead of characters.
In my attempts to play Nobilis I have seen characters who seem designed to govern a pre-selected Estate. That's okay, but I maintain that it's only okay with careful consideration and balance. Without a critical eye, choosing the Estate first (from my experience) can lead to a more shallow and two-dimensional character. Why? Because the tendency is to create a character whose background is retrofitted to rationalize and justify why they were ennobled as that particular Power. (ie. the computer hacker who is the Power of Computers, the painfully shy girl who loves to read to the exclusion of anything else is the power of Libraries)
Or the abused child who grows up to be Affiliated with the Fallen or the Dark.. It begs the question of who wants to play an abused child and why? Is it just to rationalize why you're affiliated with the Fallen or the Dark- or because it's truly part of the character?
The London cabbie who is the Power of Coincidence is more interesting in my opinion, because he was somebody before he became a demi-god.
Now someone will fairly argue that Imperators might select some one to steward an Estate based upon their interests and predilictions. I'll grant you that. I do maintain that it leans towards to a more contrived character, but no - not a guarantee; this is a generality, not a hard and fast rule.
The only note I will add to this is that, in my limited Nobilis experience thus far, I've had the most 'problems of two-dimensionality' with the characters whose backgrounds were designed around their (eventual) Estate. I love everyone's characters, but them's the facts.
The old Amber-ism of 'make up the character you've always wanted to play' works pretty well here. (Hell, in any game, come to that.)
The creator of Nobilis, reinventing the ecosystem of the world's oceans on Hitherby Dragons.
The ocean should be made of custard. On a purely practical level, it would be tastier and more nutritious than sea water. On a more idealistic level, it's one of the few things that could entice me to take up a career as a sailor: a custard sea, with little gummi fish! (The fish would have to be gummi fish. Otherwise they'd drown. Normal fish can't breathe custard! That's a silly idea.)
Gummi fish wouldn't be the only wonders of a custard sea. There'd be white chocolate reefs and a Bermuda's Triangle made of deadly meringue. Would the sailors consume it or would it consume them? You'd never know. Not without going there!
Most of all, there'd be little candied fruits suspended in the custard. And you know what that would mean?
That's right.
An end to scurvy IN OUR TIME.
After some thoughts provoked by the posts here and here, I opted to eschew the turn timer for the Nobilis game tonight.
Result? Mixed. The scenes were much more complete and felt a lot more 'whole' to me, but at the same time there's something good to be said for an impetus to wrap up a scene instead of letting it simply fade and fade and fade and faaaade to black.
Continue reading "Stepping into other shoes" »
I've got some catching up to do... Monday Mashup #13: Silence of the Lambs
I'm combining this with Nobilis.
Lecter is a captured excrucian, gone from cannibal to destroyer-of-bits-of-creation. Because he has been captured by the PC's and they have no proof that he's actually done any harm, they're stuck with either keeping him under lock and key or releasing him, and they aren't going to release him.
He therefore becomes a source of information -- insight into the other monsters out there in the world whose motivations are beyond the understanding of normal folks but which are completely understandable to him.
In the stories, Lecter's motivations were alienation and aesthetics; he only killed the most stupid, annoying, and distasteful. Playing around with this, you get a pretty archetypal Excrucian -- they are truly alien by nature (coming from beyond Creation), and aestetically motivated, as they try to 'collect' all the portions of creation within themselves... perhaps not strictly cannibalistic, but close enough. Our little captured excrucian never expects anyone to understand him... who in Creation could.
Until he begins to sense that he might have an ally (or at least willing dupe) in the form of one of the PCs: someone particularly bright, particularly ruthless, notably pragmatic...
Hmm. This is an idea I might have to use.
So, we've had a few players cross-over from one Nobilis game group to the other now, and someone asked one of the 'crossers' which one of the groups stayed on track better.
His answer, to say the least, surprised me a bit, so I set about the Saturday session with the goal of getting the thing in focus a bit better. The result (as summarized elsewhere):
Nobilis seemed to be focused and on track and yet somehow ‘off’.
That's just how it seemed to me, at any rate. Wasn't really sure if anyone else saw it that way.
Dave chimed in:
Re Nobilis, I thought the session went well, too, but I agree that it was "off." May be because folks are scattered here and there, and not necessarily pulling toward a common goal. Or maybe not.
There's a magic formula there, somewhere, with the Nobilis stuff. People are all addressing the story but...
Hmm... I'm not feeling like everyone's gears are engaged? Everyone's addressing the problems at hand but not always involved at the same time.
Case in point: as much as I liked the scene with the Wyrd sisters from from last game, the scene where everything really felt 'right' was Sian visiting Meon.
Could this be because it was a personal project... er... rather, a personally-devised solution to a problem? I think maybe so -- it felt much more player-determined, which is a point at which a game like Nobilis or Amber really seems to start to hum, I think... when the players have their own projects to work on, or are coming up with their own solutions and actions.
The scenes that have, thus far, worked really well, since the split of the group into two (in no particular order):
- Lust and Crime disposing of the Excrucian weapons.
- Sian and Justice in general.
- Sian and Meon in general.
- Death traveling back in time (by Gating along the 'path' of his own lifeline) to collect his former 'tribe' as warriors.
- Donner and Cities making a private arrangement of mutual benefit.
Things that haven't really clicked:
- Most anything where someone said 'I need you to do this', especially when the 'how to do it' part is defined at all... giving them leeway to solve the problem in whatever way they feel like always seems to work better (though that still comes in second place to the scenes that are completely self-determined.
So I'm not sure that 'common goals' are really what's missing... just need to get to that point where everyone's engaged in their private idaho's, I guess. This isn't new ground or discovery for me (or anyone else reading this, I suspect) -- it's just something I need to remind myself of from time to time.
Sunday, we had our first 'guest star' in the ongoing Nobilis game.
Hmm, before I get into that, though, let's lay a little background out.
Continue reading "Of gods, guest stars, plots, and naming conventions" »
Ran the 'Chrysalis A' group last night (the first time with the full group), and got things rolling with the patented "throw sixteen problems at them at once and let them sort that out... by the time they do, the group dynamic will have gelled."
One notable quote from the game last night that I want to make sure to mention related to a task set them by the Boss. During the events a few sessions ago, a big cave complex under the town collapsed, killing quite a number of town inhabitants in sinkholes and the like -- they are supposed to replenish the population by bringing in 30,000 new people from... well, wherever, so long as they aren't simply 'made'.
The comment, following about ten minutes of theorizing about 'How' (involving everything from kidnapping to disaster recovery to time-travel), was this: "Let's back up and decide who we want to get. We know we can get whoever we want once we decide who that is, so let's not worry about that part."
That's one of the great Nobilis secrets: it's not the how that matters, it's the why and the who. I'm really pleased that this fact was spontaneously voiced by the players. Yay.
There is a great deal of good to be said for scheduling a regular game on a weeknight. It encourages people to focus (in theory - in practice, I seem to be immune), it feels a bit more intimate, and (for me, anyway) it refreshes you and seems to shorten up the week somehow (since you get a chance for a little playtime in the middle of work, basically).
The downsides are mostly having to figure out where everything you need the next morning ended up during the game session the night before.
Saturday: First half of the second session of the second story-arc in Nobilis (which of course would be designated Session 8C... don't ask). Four players who have never gamed with each other as a gestalt (or, in some cases, at all), so I'm really still working on getting the group to gel and build some momentum. Folks are still finding their sea-legs, I think. I hope.
To aid this, I've hit on the simple solution of taking two fairly complicated plots (1. political wrangling over key 'geographic spiritual resources' and 2. a plot to frame the familia for treason) and starting them up simultaneously while the familia is still making introductions. Not satisfied with stopping there, I've also introduced a few key NPCs that should loom large in the story for some time and made notes about the far-reaching consequences of some player actions.
Things are coming along well, mostly: I'm a little unhappy with my own ability to keep gametime even (it *felt* about right to me, but I'm not sure if it did to everyone else), but I'm pleased with the group and the dynamics that are being introduced. I'm looking forward to these initial plots (esp. the frame-job) concluding and where some of the loose threads might lead -- also, I have some characters who are really designed to tell a strongly internal, personal story and I'm looking forward to exploring that some more.
Favorite bit: Jurai of the Cammora's introduction and explaining his desire to meet everyone 'just say Hellooooo.'
Also... tumescence in it's creepiest form EVER. Bwuuahh ha haaa.
Note to self: preparing a list of likely (and point-balanced) qualities for a well-known Chancel and Imperator does not appreciably make the Chancel- and Imperator-creation process go any faster than doing nothing of the kind beforehand.
For anywhere from $2.50 to $6, The Language of Flowers is a steal and terribly terribly useful for a Nobilis game.
It's a very simple book: the first half is lists of flowers in alphabetical order, matched to their traditional message/meaning. The second half of the book is arranged alphabetically by meaning/message, with the flower following. Good stuff, and pocket-sized.
Prompted by watching the Prophecy, Dracula, and seeing similar stunts in the LoEG trailers, I present this bit of fluff for Nobilis (though, like many Nobilis Gifts, I'd rather have it in Amber :)
Gift: Body Swarm
Greater Change of Self (9) Self Only (-3) Simple Miracle (-1) One Trick (-3) Uncommon (1) = Cost: 3
This gift allows you to change into a flock/swarm/pack of vermin or small winged critters... pick one type of critter, whatever works best for the character -- power of Heaven might go for white doves or butterflies, a power of Light might go for sparrows or honeybees, a power of Hell might select bats or rats or something equally disturbing. Generally, the animal needs to be fairly small -- swarms of Condors might be a bit much. As a rough guideline, ten little critters will manifest for each Wound Level the character has, and killing off ~10 of the things will inflict a Wound level on the character. Other than that, you consciousness is pretty much distributed over the whole group, which might make it easy to spy on many people (provided you've got the Aspect to process all that incoming information), though there should probably be some logical limit on how far apart the individual critters can be spread out... call it a mile.
One of the NPC's in my Nobilis game has three names. Why? Because he's supposed to be a serial rapist, and serial-anythings always have three names.
Lileks explains:
Well, we know Eric Robert Rudolph’s guilty, don’t we? He has THREE NAMES. He was Eric Rudolph for years, but now he’s Eric Robert Rudolph. Say no more. That’s why I never thought Richard Jewell did the Atlanta bombing; he would have been described as Richard Jay Jewell, or Richard Harvey Jewell. People don’t get a middle name unless they’re a famous criminal. That’s the law. Ricky Ray Rector. Lee Harvey Oswald. James Earl Ray. Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan.
The nation is run by people with four names (William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, George Herbert Walker Bush, Harry Herbert Heever Hoover, etc.) The nation is entertained by people with one name - Cher, Sting, Madonna, Eminem, Rush. The people with three names are found guilty by jury members who have two names. What of the five-namers, you ask? Those are the puppet masters, my friend. The Masonic Illuminati. Somewhere now in Bavaria, Rheingelt Quincy Etienne Xavier Chernobog is shaking hands with John Jacob Zhinkleheimer Kim Tanaka. And that handshake took six years to learn.
John Jacob Zhinkleheimer Kim Tanaka... (Makes not in NPC-names memopad). Good stuff.
What games would Nobles play?
How about this one: the HipBone Games, with many variants.
Looks like fun, and definitely something I'm going to try with Justin.
I've fiddled together a proper blog for the nobilis game here: chrysalis.
Those of you who keep track of the Cry Havoc game will not certain design similarties (grouping of posts by type, images to go with the groups, etc.), and certainly the "back" pages are very similar to CH at the moment, both because I haven't the time to fiddle with them and because I really like that color scheme.
More to the point, this has allowed me to give all my great players a place to write some stuff, which is always good.
It's easy, in Nobilis, to choose an Estate and then try to base everything on making them a perfect fit for that Estate (a good example might be Destiny of the Endless) or making the character's personality the direct opposite of what would be expected (Destruction of the Endless). Alternately, if you look at something like Lord of Light as an example, you see a main character who's influenced by the estate but has several other big things that influence his personality as well.
I personally think it's a really good idea to figure out what kind of character you want to play first and figure out their Estate later. (A good example of this is (IMO) Death of the Endless, who approaches things the way any dedicated professional does -- it's important, and a big part of her 'life', but not all of it.)
Today's oneword is also a bit of fic for Nobilis :)
Continue reading "Bonus" »
Another bit of floral bordering for the Nobilis game. This one is ENTIRELY spoiler-free (at least relative to the story arc). It's just a lame attempt to write out the enNoblement of one of the NPCs I'm using in the story. My intent was just write out an enNoblement for anyone, just for the sake of doing it, but unfortunately I picked the Power of Loyalty. What I found out is that Joshua Stark's martini-dry demeanor does not allow for the sort poetic waxing that most of the enNoblement bits in the rulebooks have.
Oh well. It was still sort of fun.
Continue reading "Interlude 2: Loyalty's Birth" »
What is "Blake's Seven" and why are people comparing it to the premise of the Nobilis test game?
Again, possible spoilers for players... I'm just messing around though, so there's not any real information.
Continue reading "Prelude 1: Sacrifice" »
For the non-Nobilis people, the premise: Nobilis have mortal servants, known as Anchors, who will work for them and can also serve as 'hosts' that the Nobilis can jump into, take over, and even perform miracles through -- anonymously.
For my reference, there are essentially four different types of Anchors, or more accurately, Anchors each have one ability, either chosen from the list below or designed with me:
Aid Miracle: calling on the Anchor with this ability helps out with a small, predefined set of tasks or miracles. For example, a persuasive Anchor can help sway opinions, a hound-spirit can help you hunt. *
Earthly Magic: the Anchor possess some earthly magic that you don't (most certainly not the same thing as a Miracle, basically creating magical equivilants of 20th century tech), which gives you access to it.
Influence: the Anchor has mortal influence, can obtain wealth for you, or provide useful information or assistance within the area of their speciality.
Agent: the Anchor is multitalented and can be given tasks on a session-to-session basis, such as retrieving needed tools that you don't have time to go after or protecting an area from spies or sabotuers -- in mundane RPG campaigns, anchors talented enough to be a Noble's "agent" anchor would be the PC. Their relative effectiveness is generally a function of your Spirit. *
Addendum
Your Noble can not directly control the actions of their Anchor except by performing an Aspect miracle through them (with the appropriate cost in AMPs). This means, particularly, that an Anchor is a representative, not an avatar. They can convey messages from their Noble, but do not constitute the same thing as having the Noble in attendance in a social situation.
A list of some of the NPC's involved in the events surrounding the I&H Nobilis game. (Players may not want to know this, but it's just blurbs, no stats.)
*Update*: changed and added a few NPCs, allowing me to move a few people around who are more useful to me unaffiliated with the 'main' Familias.
Continue reading "Nobilis NPCs" »
My work computer still won't let me install the software I need to work, so I guess I just have to keep screwing around.
So, here's an Interlude for the Nobilis game. Should be player-safe, but if you want to remain as ignorant as your characters, do not proceed.
Continue reading "Interlude 1: Loyalty" »
Hogshead/GoO has a PDF "example of play" available on their website -- basically it's 20 pages right out of the rule book and it's a hell of an entertaining read.
It's also huge. I took the document, excised the two full-page pictures from the document and chopped it down to about a third the size. Download file if you like -- even if you're not into Nobilis, the example of play is a hoot to read.
[This last intro log was easily the most difficult, since we didn’t do much more with ‘pat’ than set the stage for upcoming events... by this point our time was running out.]
A wooded copse looks down over an open expanse of grass. Faeries flit from shadow to shadow in the gloaming beneath the trees, occasionally circling the head of the creature that stands at the border of darkness and light. The creature is not human, but seems to give the impression of a humanoid form, if that form were composed of the firm but pliable substance of a mushroom, it’s skin the durable ‘leather’ of a puffball. It’s toes dig into the earth beneath it and flat black ‘eyes’ take in the world beyond the trees.
The strange shadows of a city loom all about this small patch of tamed wilderness – the place were she stands is a temporary refuge at best.
Why the creature thinks it needs a refuge is unclear even to it, but somehow it knows.
As it ponders the how and why of that it senses a type of smoke, somehow both near at hand and very far away. It knows this smoke is called ‘incense’ and that knowledge brings with it something like fear.
The smell grows stronger.
Quick Summary: The Graf of Fungus
Aspect: 0
Domain (Fungus): 4
Realm: 2
Spirit: 2
Gift: Fast Reincarnation (when the Graf is killed, it’s body accelerates into decomposition as, somewhere else in the world, it’s body and spirit are reconstituted from the fungal matter at hand). 3 pts.
Limit of Spirit: Uninspiring
Restriction: The Graf can be Summoned by those who know the proper ritual. Normally, it finds such interruptions rather enjoyable, since the sort of people who would choose to summon the Sovereign Power of Fungus are often quite... interesting.
[The Graf of Fungus is played by Margie Kleerup.]
A MAN SPRAWLS across a threadbare and badly sprung armchair. A light bulb socket hangs directly overhead, dangling from the ceiling on a cord and holding only the shattered remains of a blackened bulb.
There is dust on the scarred wooden floor, the single windowsill, the radiator next too it, and on the misused armchair itself – all of which seems entirely undisturbed. The room is otherwise empty. Something in the chair is digging into the man’s back.
He is lithe and wiry, the man; lean, with short blonde hair so pale it was almost white. He wears a fine pair of slacks that quite are quite obviously part of an expensive suit, a dark, form-fitting sleeveless shirt somewhere between silk and mesh, and no jacket. A shoulder holster hangs along his left side, empty. He, unlike the room, is not covered in dust.
He raises his other hand (instinct or habit, one might say) to take a drink and discovers he still holds the neck of a whiskey bottle between his fingers. He seems less surprised by the natural inclination of his hand to cling to a bottle even in unconsciousness than he is when he notices that the bottle ends in jagged shards about halfway down.
There is something dark and tacky on the jagged edges of the bottle, and he is not injured (barring the damage the chair is doing). The room does not smell of spilt whiskey, nor does he see broken glass or blood (or footprints… how did I get here?) on the floor as he sits up and looks around.
He stands, wiping the bottle down to erase fingerprints and dropping it on the chair behind him as he looks over the room. Neither his jacket nor the presumably missing pistol are anywhere to be seen so the holster hanging at his side remains both conspicuous and useless. He slips it off, winds the straps around the holster itself and shoves it into a pants pocket where it bulges and ruins the line of his slacks, but does not draw as much attention.
His gaze moves to the bare window and the world beyond. Tenements. Projects. He is certainly not dressed to blend in but, searching his mind, he finds no particular concern about such things. His natural instincts tell him he is more than competent enough to handle the dangers of such places, though he has no idea how or why.
Of course, in searching his mind he finds precious little else in the way of information or memory, which does bother him. He is a well-dressed newborn delivered into an abandoned tenement in an unknown city. The room holds no further information for him beyond that.
Turning to the door he walks into the rest of the world, searching for himself.
Ambrose Donner, Power of Lightning
Aspect 1
Durant
Domain 4
Realm 1
Spirit 2
[Ambrose Donner, Duke of Lightning, is played by Randy Trimmer]
(Apologies for the lack of further character information – we sat down, made characters, and played – I’m still collecting background info, I don’t have the character bonds available, and they are being changed anyway as the player reads more character examples from everyone’s fine websites, so hopefully the character page will be up and more complete later.)
I made a Nobilis page (yeah, sue me, it's what I do for games I like), mostly as a place to put up links to files and web pages that I've mostly be finding and refinding with Google searches.
Normally, I would not do something this friggin' girly, but Nobilis has a HUGE amount of floral imagery and an art neuveau feel, so I just figured I'd go with it.
Yep, more Nobilis posting.
Warning, this is not really fun fictional crap, but me thinking out loud about the kind of game-design stuff that I do all the time... if you don't want to talk nuts and bolts, don't worry about it.
I've run Amber extensively (duh) and I've run Everway a few times, and I personally think Nobilis has a huge advantage in the realm of Conflict Resolution over both systems. Sustaining Damage aside, Both Amber and Everway hit the (DnD-like) problem of everybody expecting their PCs to put forth the maximum conceivable effort for every single action, because there are no PC resources to spend or withhold (and yeah, I'm guilty of this as a player):
"You've just walked the Pattern, twice, when the House Manticore Chaosite ambushes you... his first swing narrowly misses beheading you, instead drawing blood on your sword-arm."
"WHAT? My Warfare HAS to be good enough to dodge that! I bear down, putting all my effort into winning, regardless of the cost"
"Just like you did for the last five opponents?"
"Yes, just like that."
Sure, a GM can work through the system and either use a subjective internal system for dealing with this or tack on an objective internal system, but that doesn't address the fact that said System is absent from the basic rules... it's not a huge failing -- like I said, it's been missing since the First of All RPGs (and even in games where penalties can be applied as you gradually get hurt, they are generally ignored, especially as the night drags into the wee hours).
What I like about Nobilis is that you've got your 'normal optimum' and those lovely little Miracle points that can be used to stage things up to a Greater Effect if you need it... you can't really said you've Given It Your All in Nobilis until You've dropped 8 MP's on a Word of Command whose very invocation ruptured your spleen. THAT'S effort :)
What I don't like is dealing with Penetration rules and Auctoritas.
-=-=-
Okay, I haven't got the larp rules yet, but based on something R. Sean mentions about how the miracle contests work in the LARP rules game and something I'm not particularly in love with in the combat examples for the Tabletop rules, I'm going to implement a house rule regarding powers/combat and how it works with Auctoritas (read Nobilis 101 if you dont' know what the hell I'm talking about... it makes this way clearer):
Way it currently works: An attack must have 'penetration' defined ahead of time or it goes poof if it hits any sort of Auctoritas (basically magic godling-forcefield equal to your Spirit), or if it hits an Auctoritas higher than the Penetration you decided to use.
Player one has Aspect 4, Spirit 1.
Player two has Domain (cold) 4, Spirit 4.
Way combat works now:
1. Player 1 punches player 2 as an Aspect 4 miracle. Player1 defines no Penetration on the attack, so nothing happens. Poof. P1 either has to declare (on the next action) that the attack was Aspect 0, Penetration 4 to get a crappy effect (and he probably has to make several attacks to "get the range": "I try penetration 1... no? how about 2? no? damn..."), or spend miracle points to keep the attack high and still penetrate. Ugh.
2. Player 2 uses a Domain Cold attack on Player 1. Domain 4, but no penetration. It goes poof. There isn't much Auctoritas there, but it's enough.
The Way I want it to work: Auctoritas interferes with any incoming miracle, moving it down in strength to a degree equal to it's strength... the remaining strength of the attack or effect gets through.
How it would look with the same characters:
1. Player 1 punches Player 2 as an Aspect 4 miracle. Player 2's Auctoritas of 4 pushes the punches strength down to an Aspect 0 miracle, which is basically a competent Mortal's punch, and that is what connects... a bruise at best, unless P2 is already hurt, and Player1 knows he's going to have to 'push himself' (spend MPs) to do serious damage.
2. Player 2 uses a Domain Cold (4) attack on Player 1 (who has Spirit 1). P1's auctoritas pushes the Domain 4 miracle down to a 3, which isn't enough 'miracle' for Lesser Creation of Cold (need level 4), so it basically becomes a illusory ghost miracle within P1's auctoritas, and P2 knows that he needs to pump it up a bit (but not by how much -- since "Ghost Miracle" is a level 1 miracle, the guy could have a Spirit anywhere from 3 to 1... if he'd had a 4, it would have negated even a Ghost Miracle.
Anyway, this means the players don't have to worry about declaring Penetration or crunching numbers at all. Here's what they see:
1.
"I punch him. Aspect 4."
"His auctoritas is strong, pushing out against every hostile move you make in his direction... you're landing punches, but they don't have any more oomph than a mortal brown belt."
"Damn... okay, time to push."
2.
"Freeze the area: lesser creation of cold... something like a sleet storm."
"The area is rimed in ice and several of the mooks are knocked to the ground by the slippery conditions and the incredibly painful slivers of ice blasting through the air, but the air around your main opponent contains only ghostly images of the effect... nothing real seems to be reaching him."
Both players know they have to spend MP's to make their actions stronger against the Auctoritas, but they don't have to declare penetration, just overall "Oomph". The net effect on their MP's is EXACTLY the same, but the combats play faster, with less focus on number crunching and less unrealistic 'range finding'.
Okay... tech-design talk off.
For those interested (and apparently some are), I have a "Nobilis 101" document available. It's about 15 pages printed, but considering that it's a solid breakdown of a 300 page book (enough to use to make characters and get a good idea of the setting), that's not too bad.
The original html document, written by a guy named "Ry" in 1999 (when there was only the first edition book out), is here. It is still a viable document and highly recommended. All respect is due this guy. it's a great document.
I (and ***Dave) fiddled with it because...
- The layout was pretty basic (circa 1999 straight text) and the 'tables' were hard to read.
- Some of the rules info has changed
- In fiddling with it, we both figured out the rules much better than we had before. I love the main rulebook, but when I was about thirty pages in, I stalled, and it was reading and editing the 101 document that really made things clear to me.
To the Nobilis, the symbology of flowers is strong -- they are one of the oldest associative symbols, and an almost inseparable part of sympathetic magical rituals. A tiger lily doesn�t just mean strength, it is strength, whereas magnolia is the flower of Nobility.
This is a story of Hyacinth and Ivy.
This is a story of Jealousy and Friendship.
-=-=-
[edited transcript version of intro session]
GM
You wake up on a psychiatrist couch.
Power of Lust
Actually, for me that makes all kinds of sense.
GM
Taking your own measure, you note that you are dressed in your typical...?
PoL
Leather.
GM
Right. Leather. You have an ornate but serviceable knife in your left hand -- both of which are coated in blood that has long-since gone tacky; in your right hand you hold a cell-phone whose screen indicates you've missed... ten calls. As soon as you register that, the phone starts to ring.
PoL
Answer it, sit up if I haven�t already, and look around the room.
GM
The room is typical Freudian fare: dark read leather and mahogany, heavy drapes over the windows. The female voice on the other end of the line is speaking somewhat loudly, her voice is filled with strain. You're not tracking the words however, as your attention is on the angel sitting in the traditional psychiatrists wing-backed chair across the shadowy room.
PoL
Angel? That�s what it is?
GM
He�s wearing the robes you associate with angel imagery. Also, the big white wings hanging over the back of the chair is a giveaway.
PoL
What�s he... doing?
GM
He looks quite dead: his chest has been split open and youre� fairly sure even from here that his heart is missing. The voice on the other end of the phone is repeating a name over and over, as though trying to get your attention.
PoL
Is it my name?
GM
You're not sure. You don't remember your name. *Can't* remember, actually...
PoL
Greaaat. What�s the name she�s calling me?
GM
Macy. It doesn�t exactly sound wrong.
PoL
�Who is this?�
GM
�It�s me, obviously. There are people watching my place and all kinds of crazy shit on the news. What happened?�
PoL
Is there a TV in here?
GM
Psychiatrist�s office? There�s a radio in the corner. It just happens to be on the hourly new summary. Massive fire at a Rave in Chicago, firefight in London. Some sort of massive power grid blackout in Malaysia. [assumes caller�s voice] �They said you were dead.�
PoL
�Who?�
GM
�Everyone. Where are you?�
PoL
... �where are you?�
GM
�My place, like a said; being watched.
[long pause. player waits]
New York.�
PoL
�Right.� Where am I?
GM
You glance out through the drapes. You�re on the second floor of a brownstone on a residential-looking street filled with dozens of other brownstones -- it almost has to be New York, although you could never explain how you know that.
PoL
�I�m... close to you. I�ll call you back when I�m closer.� Hang up. Wash off the blood from the knife and my hand, wipe it down and stick it in my coat or belt or something until I can dump it. I�m leaving. Oh, but before I wash up, I cut the angel�s throat, just in case.
Other Player
What?
PoL
It looks like I tried to kill him, but I don�t know what kills angels -- I don�t even understand how he IS one -- so I definitely want to make SURE, because right now there isn�t any little voice in my head that�s telling me �It couldn�t have been me!�, so I�m going to assume it was and make sure I do it right.
GM
... Umm... Right. Next player.
-=-=-
"Macy", Baroness of Lust, scion of The Fallen, is played by Jackie
To the Nobilis, the symbology of flowers is strong -- they are one of the oldest associative symbols, and an almost inseparable part of sympathetic magical rituals. A tiger lily doesn’t just mean strength, it is strength, whereas magnolia is the flower of Nobility.
This is a story of Hyacinth and Ivy.
This is a story of Jealosy and Friendship.
--
The Power of Punishment lay on the cobblestones of a dirty alley. This, as her eyes slowly blinked open, was the first thing she noticed; grimy stones, bits of refuse settles against the juncture of a buildings wall and the ground.
Her cheek was pressed against the stone as well, which meant she was lying on her stomach, with her back exposed to --
She rolled over, blinking rapidly against the noontime sun that snuck through the rooftops overhead to stab at her eyes. The alleyway was dank and old, which seemed familiar, and thick with the stink of molding trash.
That seemed familiar too, although somehow for a different reason.
She sat up, resting her arms on her knees. She was wearing slacks, a jacket. Her knuckles were scraped and bruised. A taxicab drove by the mouth of the alley several dozen yards away and she realised she was in London.
She didn’t know how she knew it was London, what or where London was, or why it filled her with a certain relief, but she knew that she knew.
Forcing herself to her feet, she took stock of her surroundings.
The dead body on the ground between her and the alley’s dead end caught her attention first.
Her reaction was strange, or at least might have been; there was no fear or revulsion, only resignation, as though this were a familiar scene playing out for the hundredth time to no happy conclusion. She approached the face down body (too much like her own earlier pose for comfort) and rolled it over.
A flash. A memory. Looking over the shoulder of a London bobby, looking down on a body, lying in a very similar -- the same? -- alley. Blood everywhere. the poor woman's eyes wide with terror and death and the stink of blood and offal is nearly overwhelming and --
Five... no, seven bullet entry points. Centre mass. Also, his eyes were missing. It did not look as though he’d ever had them.
In a sudden flash of memory, she remembered the scene. He was stalking towards her from the dead-end of the alley, half-smiling. She had had a pistol in her memory, and he had been wearing sun glasses.
Searching, she found the gun against the wall and shortly thereafter found a holster for it at the small of her back. The other’s sun glasses she didn’t see.
She frowned. It didn’t feel right, having used a gun. There was something...
Something... off. Wrong weapon. Not the feeling that she wouldn’t have killed someone, but the feeling that it wouldn’t have been this way.
Something was wrong, but that wasn’t quite the worst of it.
She’d been trying to remember her name since she’d first rolled over and faced the sun, and she couldn’t.
-=-=-
[The nobilis of Punishment is played by Dave Hill.]
As should be evident by now, there is a HELL of a lot of stuff to process just in the background for Nobilis -- the book is 300 pages and maybe 10 of it is hard rules... the rest are examples and and examples and great great great fiction and more examples.
For a test game, I needed to simplify the background.
That usually means I start killing people.
The idea is simple: character generation is more than involved enough without having to frell with designing Chancels (the players job) and their Imperator (also the player's job, and both come AFTER character creation for a number of reasons.)
So, the premise: The characters are Nobilis whose Imperator is accused of Treason against Creation and the Valde Bellum... it (the Imperator) is found guilty and destroyed.
Usually, that's the end of it: destroying the Imperator means the Chancel breaks apart and/or returns to what it used to be as part of the Prosaic Earth and the Nobilis die from the shock of having a god's soul ripped out of their body.
Didn't happen. Therefore, the treasonous (and they MUST be treasonous if their Imperator was, right?) Nobilis must be hunted down and likewise destroyed. That's the seed of the plot.
But wait, there's more
Just because the destruction of their Boss didn't kill them doesn't mean there aren't downsides: the PC's start out the story separated from each other, away from their Chancel (just as well, as it's currently occupied by hostile forces), and utterly Amnesiac from the psychic shock of what's just happened.
(Cool, but also a key game-thing: since the players have amnesia, the PLAYERS don't have to keep track of all the background stuff -- they don't even have to remember the game rules... as they slowly remember who and what they are, I can phase in their introduction to the rules and background: one player has an Aspect confrontation... another works with her Domain... another with her Gifts while a fourth is contacted by a Nobilis that wants to help them avoid the forces sent by Lord Entropy.)
When they wake up, each encounters evidence that Things Aren't All Right, and that they've recently been involved in either Fight or Flight. Flashes of memory both help and hinder them at this point. One finds herself in an alleyway in London. Next to her lies the body of a dead man with no eyes, and she remembers (in a sudden flash) shooting him.
Except... she doesn't particularly like guns, and she has a distinct feeling that there is another, better, more appropriate weapon she would have been using...
They don't know who they are, why they can't remember themselves, or what's going on, but they've got a really bad feeling about this.
More (A sort of log of the first session) later.
Okay. I've finally gotten around to this post. It's taken awhile.
As I've mentioned before, I recently gave into the overwhelming weight of my own curiosity and bought a copy of Nobilis: a game of sovereign powers
Anyone familiar with the game and me will most likely first ask "What the hell took you so long?" And on the face of it, there's several good reasons to support that kind of reaction. Let's look at them.
Resources
The book lists a sort bibliography of inspiration, but on the first or second page of the book rather than the end. That's kind of fun, but take a look at some of the things on the list:
On a Pale Horse, The Complete Traveler in Black, Charles de Lint et al., Donaldson’s (ugh) Mordant’s Need, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Guy Gavriel Kay, Jane Lindskold, Roger Zelazny (specifically Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness, and a few others).
There are No Dice
However, unlike Amber (with which I'm passing familiar) there is a fine and well-documented OBJECTIVE resolution (and combat, and damage) system that I find both elegant and intuitive. Comparing the two games, one potential player commented that such things 'just seem to have been thought out better'. I heartily agree.
Players Can Play in Scenes Where Their Characters are Not Present
Something I feel worth mentioning, mostly because it's different than in most other RPGs, and comes up a lot in the sort of Diceless, High-power games that Nobilis is built for -- you don't need to be part of a group when you can clap your hands and flatten a crowd of people, so when the GM is working with you, the other players become either a mood-breaking peanut gallery (guilty) or bored.
--
Given all this, it seems like the perfect fit for someone with my inclinations and background. Perfect.
As a result, I didn't buy it for a very long time simply because my natural inclination to get it made me suspicious that I'd be horribly disappointed. Also, the 2nd edition book is 43 bucks, so that's a downside.
Anyway, what's the game about?
Concepts
Earth is part of creation: it is (using prosaic perception) a ball of dirt floating in a vast vacuum around a ball of burning gas that provides it heat and light... it is ALSO (using mythic perception) a world-fruit that hangs on the thousand-fruitted world-tree Yggdrasil - heaven hangs above the tree and hell boils at it's roots, and it encompasses All Knowable Things of Creation (though not exactly all things, since some are not OF Creation).
Both these existences are 'true' -- or rather both are viable reflections of the truth.
Imperators
Imperators are the Great Powers of Creation -- bitterly divided, holding to the causes of Hell or Heaven, Light or Dark, Old Gods or New, Duty or Freedom.
There are seven kinds of Imperator known on Earth: Angels (servants of Beauty), Devils (or the Fallen, servants of Corruption), The Light (protectors of Humanity), The Dark (destroyers of Humanity), The Wild (the Free), True (or Old) Gods, and Aaron’s Serpents (the children of Yggdrasil, nurtured within its bark until they are strong enough to break free).
(Note: these aren't the PC's... we're getting to them.)
Now, given that, you can see where you've got a ripe playground for conflict already, but that doesn't cover half of it... because you've still got the Excrucians to deal with.
Excrucians
Each of the Imperators works in Creation towards its own ineffable goals. In addition to these beings there are Things From Outside Creation: The Excrucians -- their stated goal is the utter annihilation of All Creation, pulling each destroyed thing into themselves where it will Live Forever In Them.
Hell and Heaven might not get along, but both sides agree that Losing Creation is a Bad Thing. The Earth is one of ~30 worlds on Yggdrasil where the Excrucian War (or Valde Bellum) is currently being actively fought.
Most Imperator/Excrucian battles are waged in the Spirit Realm, which is so hard to deal with that no space is spent on it in the book -- that's where the Imperators do their thing -- the problem is that the Bad Guys also try to destroy aspects of Creation in the Material World (Mythic and/or Prosaic versions, take your pick). The Imperators don't have the time or ability to deal with those incursions, so some create "homes" out of portions of the Material world by investing part of themselves into it, creating Secret Places... also known as Chancels, and once-Mortal Servants (who become more than mortal as a result).
Secret Places
The ritual that makes a Secret Place, a Chancel, requires a hundred nights, and a human death each night of it. Then a piece of the Imperator’s self is bound into a piece of it to give it strength.
Sovereign Powers
The Valde Bellum or Excrucian War is waged in the spirit world. With Excrucian victories there, the things of this world lose a little bit of magic and of soul. Humans caught in the creation of a Chancel and humans who spend years inside a Chancel or its vicinity make the perfect receptacles for a shard of the Imperator’s own divine essence.
These humans become the Sovereign Powers. The shard of Imperator-soul they are given burns out a piece of their own soul, and their minds are made loyal. They are given in return a gift that is sometimes full consolation: power. The typical soul-shard is a prototype for a single aspect of reality, such as Night, Doorways, or Agony, and it gives the onetime human control over that Thing. Often, these humans receive other great blessings as well. Their normal responsibilities are simple: defend the aspects of reality associated with their Imperator (Imperators have Several, and split them between servants), guard and govern the Chancel and its inhabitants, and (when it does not interfere with the above duties) help in the general defense of the Earth.
***Whew***
That's the basic concept. Characters are rated as to their relative prowess, the strength of their soul, the mastery they have over their Estate, and the mastery they have over the Celestial Family's Chancel.
The story tends to focus on personal interactions (alliances and intrigue) between the PC's and other Nobilis from other Chancels (there are thousands of such Nobilis), the goals of their Imperator, their own personal goals for themselves, those they love, and their Estate, and the War against the Excrucians.
Next post: what do you DO with all this? (Or what did I do?)
Nobilis auto-generator: useful as an excercise in excel tweaking, if nothing else.
Okay, so I just picked up Nobilis a few weeks back, someone check me on this.
The Matrix is a Nobilis game
The Suits = Excrucians
Chancel = the practice contruct? Or possible Zion.
Mystic Earth = the Matrix
Prosaic Earth = starts out as the Matrix, til you take the red pill and then it's the 'real earth'? I'm a little shakey on the Nobilis terminology.
Neo is just the guy everyone's been waiting for who got killer ranks in Spirit. (Everyone has good ranks in Realm and Domain, I think, since that's just the program with the downside that none of it really works in the prosaic earth, but but the rest of it basically works.
As of 30th November 2002, Hogshead Publishing Ltd is leaving the adventure-gaming industry.
Please note that the company is not going bankrupt. It is refreshingly solvent. However we are bored, creatively frustrated, and increasingly despondent about the future of the specialist games industry. After our successes in 2002, particularly the mould-breaking and critically acclaimed games Nobilis and De Profundis, we think we've gone as far as we can, and this seems a suitable high-point on which to call it a day.
Nobilis has moved to Guardians of Order, and will be available from them with immediate effect. The English-language licence for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has handed back to Games Workshop. SLA Industries is back under the control of Nightfall Games.
All the future products Hogshead has announced products are cancelled. The only exceptions to this are the Nobilis line, which will now appear from Guardians of Order, and the full-length Warhammer FRP adventure, Fear the Worst, by Michael Mearls, which we will be making available within a day or two as a free PDF download from our website, as a farewell-and-thank-you present to all our players and fans.
Shame -- I'd hoped to check them out when I went through London in February.
Very interesting that Nobilis went to GoO, since McKinnon was/is heavily involved in another diceless game for a long time. Sorta makes sense. Nobilis fans should be encouraged.
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