|
 Free 100+ page preview!Un-free full digital edition What the diceless gently caress is a Nobilis? If you're familiar with both Vertigo comics and Amber Diceless, it's essentially the best Sandman/Swampthing hack for Amber you could possibly ask for. If you don't mind reading a two-page PDF, here's the classic "So you've been EnNobled" flyer. Nobilis is a roleplaying game by Jenna Moran where you play the guardian, embodiment, and controller of a fundamental concept of your choice, called your Domain. Your character was once mortal (unless they were a particularly fascinating patch of sand, or maybe a statue), and then you were chosen to be forever joined to Metal, or Fire, or Music, or Waves, or Cars, or Letters, or Danger, or almost what-the-gently caress-ever else you can get the rest of the group to agree would be cool. These beings (ps: they're called Nobilis) are created by the various Gods, Angels, Demons and even stranger things that inhabit the earth (and other places, but lets focus on the earth) from their multifarious souls in order to protect these concepts from their eternal enemy, the pale riders from outside Creation, the Excrucians. The Excrucians are fighting a war against everybody to unmake everything, Domain by Domain. If their plans against you succeed, then not only will you die, but your Domain will pass out of existence altogether and for all time, with history and language reshaping around the hole. I hope you didn't choose something happy or useful like Hope or War, because you just made yourself priority number one. Cool! So the game is about fighting this war? Well, that's really just what their creators intend for them to do. Of course, most of them will fight the Excrucians (all of them will say they will, certainly), but in practice, you can't fight a defensive war 24/7, so they really do all kinds of things. If you were granted preposterous inhuman power, you might want to change some things in the world (especially since it's a bit Through the Mirror Darkly, kinda like the World of Darkness on an absinthe bender), wouldn't you? And if some of those things have living, breathing semi-deities, with their own lives and personalities, you might find yourself wanting to help them, or weaken them, or enter into all kinds of complex relations with them. Or you may just want to throw a bunch of fancy magical tea parties. Those can be surprisingly awesome. But yes, magic-kung-fu fighting smug world-eating aliens from beyond time and space is frequently one of the high points. What kind of system does it use? It's diceless. Characters have 4 principal stats, and if the stat that covers the action you attempt is high enough that the GM (sorry, "Hollyhock God") says you can do it, then you can inevitably do it 100% of the time. "Bad luck" is for mortals. If your stat is slightly too low, then you can spend from a linked pool of points to boost it for that one action. These points come back when you choose to encounter difficulty due to the things your character values (or is, or at appropriately dramatic moments decided by the HG. Of course, there's more to it than that. Details follow in the second post. Sounds cool, where can I get it? Click away for PDF. Only 20$! To buy the physical copy...well, just don't use the official store. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS GAME IS AS STUPID AS YOUR STUPID FACE I disagree! I have played in several active games of it, in both editions, and I personally know at least four people who have played in successful campaigns of it elsewhere. I honestly find it pretty simple and a shitload of fun. I will tell people about it at the least provocation. But then, I am the sort of person who enjoys arguing over the nature and meaning of concepts, and that is something you will do at least implicitly. You can't crush the noble of Technology with a tidal wave without someone somewhere saying "Ah, perhaps tools cannot extend man's reach indefinitely..." or "Such is the fate of all things, to fall, to be drowned in the tears of the creator..." or even "Hah! Did you see the look on that smug rear end in a top hat's face? Didn't see that one coming, did you?!" Let me put it this way: if you like coming up with creative solutions to problems, and then dealing with the world-changing consequences of them, you will be able to like this game. One more thing: who the gently caress is Jenna Moran? Dr. Moran is many things to many people. She's contributed to or written and designed entire several published books (sometimes as Rebecca Borgstrom). The List posted:Nobilis: She's also published a lot of out-there fiction on her blog, along with a way-out-there free RPG called Wisher, Theurgist, Fatalist (yes, WTF) with a tiny supplement called Thus Languidly Dreamt Raif (aka TLDR). As well, you can find the Projects "Capsystem", a set of rules for ambitious projects doomed to demand terrible sacrifices of their mad creators that you can add to almost any game, and an unedited, layoutless, incomplete game called Dreaming Waters, which I suspect will be either her Ulysses or her Finnegan's Wake. Finally, there's the currently in hibernation Jenna's Fairies RPG blog where she was discussing at length her ideas for an RPG about fairies, with mechanics based on circuit diagrams and metaphysics. I think. She knows a lot of fancy math, computer science, and Vedic philosophy, and is not afraid to deploy them in service of her designs. Many people will say that this makes them difficult to approach, or even self-indulgent, or even that it's all a pile of  . Some may even say that in this very thread. Personally, judging from her work and talk, I think communication is something that she does not always find easy, but she is nice to a fault and does not deserve the bile she sometimes seems to inspire. Her games are not making fun of you; she actually thinks that this was the best way to explain them. Doc Hawkins fucked around with this message at Dec 1, 2011 around 04:35 |
| # ? Jul 6, 2010 23:51 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2013 01:17 |
|
|
What's the deal with... ...this game? First off, I recommend checking out the free preview. It's the first ~130 pages of the book, everything from the setting and system basics through character creation (including the awesome lifepath system). If you're new to Nobilis, there probably is no better introduction. If you're familiar with previous editions of the game, it's a huge improvement system-wise. An incomplete list of major changes:
Also, yes, the art is anime as gently caress now. In one sense it's a shame that it looks less like an serene and coldly beautiful masterpiece, but on the other hand it's definitely more inviting. I mean, I don't feel challenged and found wanting every time I read it. ...the books being late? Long story short, Eos misses deadlines like it's their job. The last we heard, Dr. Moran is still waiting for the special edition copies to be shipped to her for signing. ...the Lifepath System? In effect, it helps you come up with a full character concept. It asks you what kinds of relationship to being a god you're interested in playing with, then asks you a general rubric of questions about your character. Based on your answers, it hints at the sort of struggles and mysteries you could consistently face and answer in play. It also instructs you to produce a mind-map for your character, that will help you interact with the Projects system, if you want to. Doc Hawkins fucked around with this message at Jul 18, 2011 around 05:39 |
| # ? Jul 6, 2010 23:51 |
|
|
What's the GWB? I detect piracy and drama.
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 01:39 |
|
|
Bieeardo posted:What's the GWB? I detect piracy and drama. nah, the printing rights are just all screwed up. To give you some idea, the Nobilis 2e was printed at a coffee table book size (I still have mine).
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 01:47 |
|
|
I still have a ridiculously long (like, upwards of 20 pages, iirc) word document that has the basics of character creation. I have no idea where it came from (possibly here, forever ago). I'd gladly share it, unless a. it would be classified as :files:, or b. if it's no longer worth sharing, due to edition changes.
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 02:00 |
|
|
Dr. Jenna Moran 
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 02:24 |
|
|
Ferrinus posted:Dr. Jenna Moran
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 02:30 |
|
|
Wow, that's great news. I have the Nobilis 2e book, and ran a campaign of it some years ago - it was one of the most challenging things I've ever GMed, since the characters are so powerful and the story hence so player-driven. We had a lot of fun, and it's amazing how well the diceless system works. I'm sad to hear that rights issues mean it won't be back in the same *form*, but a new and hence affordable release of the game to recommend to people is good news.
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 03:49 |
|
|
Dr. Moran has posted a couple of sample character on Hitherby. They are based on characters from the long-running stories that she's put on there, so they are A) Weird, and B) Probably not legal starting characters. We have Martin, an Excrucian Warmain, Sid, an Excrucian Strategist, Jane, an Excrucian mimic, and Max, a Cowboy. I'm too tired to do a full analysis, but I'll talk about Jane at least. As a Mimic, Jane's attributes might be intended to match those of an Imperator. We see that she has Aspect and Domain just like before, as well as two new Attributes, Persona and Treasure. I suspect that Persona might serve part of the same purpose as Spirit, which in the old system was both a universal defense, and a measure of your "You-ness," your miraculous charisma stemming from how hot your soul burns. Interestingly, it seems to be tied to individual Estates (Jane has a Persona of two for one of her estates, and zero for the others), so could it somehow be a more personal level of Domain? Being fiery instead of making fire? Treasure sounds like something to replace Realm: things that you might be able to take with you, rather than a connection to a static place that you start out knowing most everything about. Which is a shame, because ever since I made a high-Realm character, I've thought it highly underrated. But if it works out better for most people, I won't complain. On the other hand, I wonder how it might interact with gifts? They often took the form of foci with cool powers. They still seem to be around in some form: Jane has "Active Immortality" written where the other characters have classics like "Glorious" and "Worldwalker." Maybe each level of Treasure lets you produce treasurey things up to a certain potency or grade? Apparently, Bonds might now be divided between Bonds and Afflictions. I'm happy that there might be more interesting mechanical things happening around them, but I have no idea what distinction is being made. "I love my friends" is a Bond, but "I love my Brother" is an affliction? And speaking of which, Martin has the Bond "I trust Jane," and the Affliction "I am Jane's Brother," whereas Jane's Affliction is "I love my Brother."  "Passions" and "Skills" seem more self-explanatory: Baking and Theatre are skills, and wanting to hide is a passion, no prob. But what the hell are they?! Do you add them to attributes when you use them? Are they like those narrow-aspect attributes that were introduced in the Peculiar books or what?! Oh poo poo. I forgot to post the Peculiar Books in the OP. Something to do for tomorrow, then. pseudosavior posted:I still have a ridiculously long (like, upwards of 20 pages, iirc) word document that has the basics of character creation. I have no idea where it came from (possibly here, forever ago). Do you mean this?
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 05:35 |
|
|
Doc Hawkins posted:Do you mean this? It's possible, but I don't have archives, so, I do not know. v  v
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 07:24 |
|
|
Added to the OP
pseudosavior posted:It's possible, but I don't have archives, so, I do not know. v Actually, I'm an idiot, I think the length is very different from what you described.
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 14:14 |
|
|
Who is Jenna Moran and how did she usurp the divine portfolio of Rebecca Borgstrom? In other words, what's with the name change? Was Borgstrom a pseudonym or something? I only ever got to flip through my friend's copy of Nobilis. Never got to play it because there wasn't enough interest in non-D&D. Gorgeous book and wonderful concept though.
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 15:55 |
|
|
Ah Nobilis, the coolest game I've never played.
|
| # ? Jul 7, 2010 16:03 |
|
|
Benagain posted:Ah Nobilis, the coolest game I've never played. Yeah... (run a game gul banana!)
|
| # ? Jul 8, 2010 00:33 |
|
|
Bosushi! posted:Who is Jenna Moran and how did she usurp the divine portfolio of Rebecca Borgstrom? In other words, what's with the name change? Was Borgstrom a pseudonym or something? Yep. In retrospect, were we foolish not to suspect? Benagain posted:Ah Nobilis, the coolest game I've never played. I feel like I should be challenging people to start games of it or something. It's fun! It's easy! It works for a variety of groups! Just dive in! I'm playing in a game right now that's fantastic. It has seven players who mostly are only sporadically present. One of them has stated that he dislikes the game, but wants to play it! What I'm saying is, this is not optimal. And yet...any yet I have a huge amount of fun playing it. The GM has commented that he over-prepares for every session, since just trying to get things that we decide we want and interacting with one another can while away the pleasant hours. Last session, Lauren, Baroness of Hearts, was annoyed that my character, "The Captain," dominus of Struggle (  ), had decreed that while she may keep her recent find of a man who bleeds ambrosia in the Chancel, and even keep him sedated and continuously bleeding, he will provide this strange fisher-king an abode, a kind of small shrine or tomb of precious metals in a neutral place. Because, you see, he must Respect Life, and she must Degrade it, and I was trying to find an inoffensive way to satisfy both. What a shame, she felt any kind of conditions on the disposal of "her property" was utterly impossible. What a shame, The Captain felt that he was the eldest in the family (having very high Realm is not all fun and games), and had to see dangerous things taken care of properly, and also, hey, Struggle! The Captain thinks he knows how to deal with petulant children: smile patiently and do what you're going to do anyway (of course, out of character, I was having all kinds of discussions and offering negotiations, but the confrontation turned out to be inevitable). After she tried to get violent, he encased her in diamond stocks. Her Aspect let her shatter this, but not overcome his Spirit to take the living corpse away from him. So she:
The Captain gets a serious look and reaches forward with a burning finger to carve "POET" on the golem's chest. "Are you not, still?" Lesser Preservation of Struggle on this soul's attempt to remember its humanity. Its eyes now shine with a pale blue lambent light. The GM tells me that when we reach the garden, it looks around, saying "I have to...I have to tell everyone." I tell the GM, "If my character is killed, I know who the next Noble of Struggle will be." Nobilis is one of the best games there is.
|
| # ? Jul 8, 2010 04:23 |
|
|
It has been brought to my attention that Dr. Moran has posted many more words in the RPGnet equivalent of this thread. WTF is Persona? Is it a Spirit replacement? Jenna Moran posted:Spirit was dull. WTF is Treasure? Is it a Realm replacement? Jenna Moran posted:The Realm slot is actually taken up by a bonus everyone gets and a side purchase none of the sample characters made. What's with Bonds? Do they do something, like add their value to bond-related miracles? Jenna Moran posted:Bonds do have a feature that is much like that; they're even more active and worth having than Handicaps used to be. It's not quite that good---being able to casually throw around level 9 miracles just because you were a Duke/Duchess with a relevant level 5 Bond would require me to extend the miracle scale upwards to keep the system engaging, and I'm not sure how much higher it can go. But they do add to your miracle strength. (I don't know about you guys, but I only noticed Bonds were lame relatively recently, like post Shadow of Yesterday. High standards!) Hey, can you give an example of a miracle of Treasure using PG Wodehouse characters? Jenna Moran posted:So, Bertie Wooster is fleeing in desperation across pastoral Ganymede; and he rounds the edge of a crater, and there's Jeeves idling the car. He flings himself into the back seat, dragging the door closed with his foot, and calls to Jeeves to drive like the wind; and as his nimblejack aunt falls behind him, the HG gently points out that Wooster is, after all, on Ganymede; and interrupting the flurry of his other thoughts and considerations, Wooster throws in an, "Oh, yes. Good show, your being here and all, Jeeves! Good show!" There's still more. Apparently Destiny is a resource that you can spend to make big, grand changes to the world and stuff (a resource of the same name and similar purpose was present in Weapons of the Gods, where it also served as experience points). The wound system and action timing has changed. She's being surprisingly talkative.
|
| # ? Jul 8, 2010 05:34 |
|
|
Yo someone other than me should run a game, because I would totally play in it. got blue-balled the last time someone wanted to play nobilis and freaked out because 12 people jumped on it at the same time.
|
| # ? Jul 8, 2010 15:04 |
|
|
Hokay, so I've gotten to be a playtester. I haven't played yet (and I probably won't be able to for at least a week), but I have read the draft they sent us a few times, and  doesn't begin to cover it. Pre-orders can't open soon enough.I'll say more, bit by bit. I may start by posting a character, since that's a thing that's been done by official channels already. Of course, I'm open to questions that aren't  related. My group was told that anything which promotes the game is fine, and anything that reduces the value of the book is not, so please don't ask for extensive details.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2010 00:12 |
|
|
hopy poo poo, how'd you swing that and can I get in on it?
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2010 00:34 |
|
|
Benagain posted:hopy poo poo, how'd you swing that and can I get in on it? Not unreasonable questions.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2010 01:55 |
|
|
Can you give me some idea of how well the second edition book would match up to the third edition in terms of setting premise and thematics? I'm fairly sure I'm going to be getting the third edition ASAP; my question is if getting the second edition book to find inspiration for character ideas would end up being frustrating or confusing when it came time to actually make and play them in third edition.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2010 02:11 |
|
|
Attorney at Funk posted:Can you give me some idea of how well the second edition book would match up to the third edition in terms of setting premise and thematics? I'm fairly sure I'm going to be getting the third edition ASAP; my question is if getting the second edition book to find inspiration for character ideas would end up being frustrating or confusing when it came time to actually make and play them in third edition. I think the author said somewhere the book's mood was being shifted a bit more action-heavy, but that you still run the same sort of games. A lot of the nanofiction from the margins was kept.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2010 10:33 |
|
|
Attorney at Funk posted:Can you give me some idea of how well the second edition book would match up to the third edition in terms of setting premise and thematics? I'm fairly sure I'm going to be getting the third edition ASAP; my question is if getting the second edition book to find inspiration for character ideas would end up being frustrating or confusing when it came time to actually make and play them in third edition. I cannot think of a single character described in Nobilis 2nd that cannot also be made in Nobilis 3rd. However, the reverse is not true, so I think you'd only be getting part of the possibilities. My vague, incomplete and overly-simple guide to applying inspiration from one to the other:
The big game-changer might be Persona, which lets you give properties of your Estate to anything or anyone. The power of  s can actually now turn someone into a . The power of rivers can make time more river-like, so it doesn't flow at the same rate everywhere. If you wanted to do that in the past, it would have been an impossibly expensive gift; I think it expands play and character possibilities a lot.Although, Treasure can (among many other things) turn your mortal family into Ma and Pa Kent, possessed of such incredible Normality that they can defeat supervillains, rescue souls from hell, and make apple pie that makes even bitter aliens say "My goodness, I was birthed from a genetic soup and raised by uncaring robots and my taste-receptors are not tuned to Earth's chemistry, yet for some reason I just can't stop crying and thinking of my mother!". So that's another thing that would be a pretty expensive gift in the old system, and probably not one you'd think to make? I know I never did, and I even made characters that remained part of their family, keeping them in the Chancel.
|
| # ? Jul 14, 2010 04:02 |
|
|
Let me back that up with an example. Here's a reworked concept I made years ago in 2nd edition. I'll call him Jean, the Power of Youth. Aspect 4, 5MP Domain 0, 5MP Persona 2, 5MP Treasure 1, 5MP Youth: - is fleeting (2) - is never really noticed until it's gone (2) - seeks its own foolish destruction (1) - is desired (2) Affliction: I can't age! (3) Affliction: I'm always loyal to my friends (1) Affliction: After about four hours pass, I forget anything besides my Familia, my Imperator, and my own noble nature (3) Bond: I have to attend my chancel's high school forever (2) Bond: My friends at school (2) Bond: This sweet motorcycle I probably stole (get it because I can't remember) (1) (2 Unspent points to make specific students or teachers supernaturally competent as needed) Passion: Annoying the self-important (3) Passion: Chillaxin' (1) Skill: Bluffing (2) Superior Detective 2 (*Skill: Cool (4) *) Gift: Elusive The concept was that youth was a mental state as well as a physical one, so an embodiment of Youth would not be able to form new long-term memories. That, crossed with "Man, I sure do watch and read a lot of things with super-powered kids in High School beating each other up." Then I was all "Oh, right, Peter Pan. Well, gently caress that guy." All of my old bonds, gifts and limits are either a Bond or an Affliction in seconds (they are mechanically different, but fictionally interchangeable). I only had to give slightly more thought to Passions and Skills. Not sure if "detective" is the right word for the superior attribute, but my point is, with his Aspect, it's not that hard for him to figure out what's up and what needs doing, even with his 40 First Dates-style amnesia. I let the Schoolkid concept lead me to take a point of Treasure, for gangs of badass kids or especially gifted individals (The Hacker! The Actor!), and I lowered Domain to zero and put those levels in Persona, because making people foolhardy, or making himself seem really unimportant until after he's left, were just too goddamn cool, and a better fit for my concept. The new damage system lets any hostile effects cause "wounds," not just physical damage. Because I think it would fit his image of having a strong inner pattern he bounces back to, I give my boy "Elusive," a gift based on Lesser Preservation of Self, just like Durant, except it protects you from getting enchanted, hypnotized, turned into a cat, that kind of crap. So there you go: one character inspired very strongly by the mechanics and the aesthetic of the great white book, translated into 3e in minutes. (Bonus spoiler: So a great thing about Aspect in the new hotness is that it gives you a free equal level of Cool. Cool is a special type of skill, that acts as an automatic penalty to any mundane actions that are trying to:
I have noticed, when it comes to Nobilis characters, that some of them are more spectral and otherworldly and "I am a Dominus of a fundamental aspect of reality, and such pathetic human concerns as pants are as nothing to me!"[/i]. Others get drunk in dive bars and get lost trying to go back to the Chancel. Cool, in combination with the new rules for Mortals actually loving doing stuff (Passions, Skills, etc), codifies this distinction, and thereby makes it frigidly unassailable  )
|
| # ? Jul 16, 2010 04:25 |
|
|
So if you can go into a little more detail, I'm assuming that the numbers under Youth are there to more rigidly clarify what you do and don't have control over?
|
| # ? Jul 16, 2010 13:22 |
|
|
Benagain posted:So if you can go into a little more detail, I'm assuming that the numbers under Youth are there to more rigidly clarify what you do and don't have control over? Those serve three principal mechanical purposes. They are ways that Excrucians (or other Nobles, I suppose) can attack your Estate. If someone reverses ageism in modern society, making youth no longer desired, then the HG tells me my Estate is under attack, and I get 2 MP from "Youth is desired." They are ways that you can serve your own Estate. If the HG agrees that I've done something that honors or reinforces my estate some way, say by using a miracle to make every adult in a city have a minute of silence, pining for their squandered youth, then I would get 2 MP for "Youth is never noticed until its gone." Finally, they are explicit properties that you can give to or take from things and people (or yourself) using Persona. Though you can give them other obvious properties as well. And that's not the only kind of thing you can do with Persona (Miracles of Incarnation are loving crazy). So, when you use Domain, you can create or destroy instances or quantities of the substance of your Estate, but when you use Persona, you can create or destroy the meaning or metaphorical natures of the Estate. Like, if I was the Noble of Books, I could create Books with Domain, but I could use Persona on a TV set to make it turn on and play a show about books, or make it a very stately kind of TV set, or a silent one, or some other thing that's particular to books. Or, in the case of Jean, he could use Domain to create "the property of only having come into being relatively recently" or maybe even "the property of not having reached developmental maturity," because that's obviously what Youth is, just like a bunch of words on folded writing medium is what a book is, but Persona lets him make things youth-like, serve similar purposes to what youth does (or at least what I say that it does), and the like.
|
| # ? Jul 16, 2010 15:24 |
|
|
Doc Hawkins posted:Those serve three principal mechanical purposes. So between that and Persona most of the complaints about the vagueness of Domains and what they cover is solved? Nice. Can you give a rough example of how chancels are made in a less-bean counting manner?
|
| # ? Jul 17, 2010 22:48 |
|
|
Benagain posted:Can you give a rough example of how chancels are made in a less-bean counting manner? The players talk about what sort of place they want their chara...I mean, their Avatars and their Imperator to live in. They come up with a few Properties of the Chancel, a lot like Estate properties, except more general, to describe the metaphorical essence of this space. "People are born from fields according to their alloted purpose," "All material things have their own song," "Everything is a weapon," "Cities live, and are hosts to life," that sort of thing. They talk about how it can be reached. Does it have a few roads in and out? Are there connections to it in every square-angled corner of less than 120 degrees? Is there a special gate into the past? What rituals are needed to walk these paths? Or is it so woven into the world that people pass through it all the time without realizing it? They decide on an Auctoritas for these paths in and out, one to five. And done. They can of course populate the chancel with whatever cool and pretty stuff that they want, but getting possessions and followers to have mechanical effects is covered by Treasure, so if you'd like your army of warrior monks to be able to actually solve problems rather than simply continue to exist and look good, then you'll want to increase your Treasure and take them as a Bond, or else buy them as a Treasure-based gift.
|
| # ? Jul 18, 2010 15:14 |
|
|
Today's Wonderella got me thinking about Afflictions, and how awesome I think the new wound system is. Let us say that you want your Avatar to be a Gorgon. That is, that they (I assume a Gorgon could be male) will be quite beautiful, but also turn anyone who looks in their eyes to stone. You could take this as a Gift, but you decide that it should be a kind of curse, one that could be a problem and generate miracle points. So you take the Affliction "I turn anyone who meets my gaze into stone." at 3. Whenever a normal guy looks into your eyes, they are stone forever. Oh power great and terrible! What if the Noble of Masks wanted to make a mask that would allow his agents to look at you without turning into stone? Then it becomes important to know what level of Miracle the Affliction is operating at, so the HG makes a call. If it were me, I'd probably call it a Persona Miracle of Lesser Enchantment - level 4 -, with the estate of Stone, to make something be stone (in addition to its other properties). A Lesser Creation of Masks is also level 4, so it seems reasonable to allow that to work, as long as they sustain the Miracle for as long as it's needed. But! Afflictions are serious business! So serious that the Miracles they create get Auctoritas equal to their level plus one; in this case, four. Auctoritas means that any Miracle opposing them is completely ignored, unless that Miracle has a matching Strike, which you can get from invoking Bonds or spending extra Miracle Points. So actually, the Noble of Masks would have to spend an extra 4 miracle points, or else care a whole bunch about protecting this person from the gaze of our Noble, or else, bam! They're stone! Because, you see, I wrote it right there on my character sheet: "I turn anyone who meets my gaze to stone." And because I wrote it, it's true. People can work against it, but it's some powerful poo poo. Of course, if this causes a problem to the character, they get MP for it. And if they meet a person who's already made of stone or who has a gaze but no physical substance to be made stony, then I get to decide how that's resolved so that my Affliction remains true, or else take some damage and gain some MP as the paradox backlashes. Optionally, at this point, I can say "Okay, the curse is lifted, I'm done with this Affliction now" and remove it from the character sheet, spending the freed up points on something else. Now, what if a Noble, or an Imperator, or an Excrucian, or someone similarly invested with divine significance, met your gaze, and did not stop it? They, of course, would no more turn to stone than an atomic bomb would cause them to turn into rapidly expanding gas. Instead, they'd consult the handy-dandy damage chart, and look up what a level 4 miracle should do to them. A normal, undamaged power would lose their highest health level, thereby gaining a level 2 or so (HG's discretion) Affliction. Probably something like "Turning into stone!" or "Ohgodcantmove!" And if they want to fight against it, they're in the same position that the Noble of Masks was, but now, as the person afflicted, they need 2 Strike to do anything that a statue frozen in a look of horror couldn't do. I like this new system a lot, I think.
|
| # ? Jul 19, 2010 05:01 |
|
|
Sooooo Dr Moran was working on a little pamphlet of promotional stuff to be released at Gencon, but her plans were cancelled by illness. It is now on her blog. First, it has a Nobilis art preview, which is anime as gently caress. I mean that in a neutral sense, but I don't want to sugar-coat it. But who really gives a poo poo when it also announces SUPPLEMENTS AAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!!! Nobilis: Principles, Book One: the Royalty of Heaven posted:In 2011 Eos is releasing the first book of Nobilis: Principles. Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine posted:Once per 24 hours Chuubo gets to make a wish. The wheels and cogs in his engine turn. The sparkers spark. The creaking component creaks, the honking portion honks, and the make-a-joyful-noise component gives a joyful shout. Then the whole thing shudders and burns with power and the shining beacon at the top shoots off a lance of light to Heaven;
|
| # ? Aug 11, 2010 05:53 |
|
|
Bumping this to request that you figure out some way to run a game online. Skype or IRC. Goddamn I cannot wait to buy this book.
|
| # ? Aug 15, 2010 17:49 |
|
|
Are you guys sure this company isn't dead? Their website is down and they've been suggesting a third edition of Nobilis since 2008.
|
| # ? Aug 18, 2010 12:20 |
|
|
Yeah, I don't know what the hell is up with the company but the author of the books has been really active in the last two-three months drumming up support for the imminent release and Doc Hawkins is playtesting it, so the game isn't dead.
|
| # ? Aug 18, 2010 21:03 |
|
|
At RPGnet they had a rep from the company saying that they were undergoing a 'restructuring' but Nobilis is still well on track. Probably the only other game of note if you care about the company is Weapons of the Gods, which they say they have lost the rights to.
|
| # ? Aug 18, 2010 22:53 |
|
|
bewilderment posted:Probably the only other game of note if you care about the company is Weapons of the Gods, which they say they have lost the rights to.
|
| # ? Aug 19, 2010 00:57 |
|
|
I hope this third edition retains a) the really amazingly good fiction that's in the 2e book and is pretty much the awesomest thing ever at setting the tone and b) the ability for me to play a Power of populist democracy. I managed to get into a game where my character was the aforementioned Power of populist democracy, then we got about one session done and the game collapsed.  It was still pretty fun and more importantly hella cool, though.
|
| # ? Aug 19, 2010 01:34 |
|
|
Hyperactive posted:But they're doing a new edition of that as well, just with a more toolbox-y kind of setting instead of the WotG specific one. So, win-win. Yeah it's supposed to be the "Wuxia Action Series" now, which was actually the subheader of Weapons of the Gods. I think the whole point of licensing WotG in the first place was to get cheap and inclusive access to Tony Wong's art to illustrate the book.
|
| # ? Aug 19, 2010 03:23 |
|
|
Ansob. posted:I hope this third edition retains a) the really amazingly good fiction that's in the 2e book and is pretty much the awesomest thing ever at setting the tone and b) the ability for me to play a Power of populist democracy. It is doing both of those things. Rejoice!
|
| # ? Aug 19, 2010 03:41 |
|
|
Ansob. posted:I managed to get into a game where my character was the aforementioned Power of populist democracy, then we got about one session done and the game collapsed. That sounds rad. If you'd like to get a head start on the future game that you will play and enjoy with your cool friends: 1) Write down between three and seven of what you think are the most important and essential points that get at the true nature of Populist Democracy. Phrase each beginning with either "Populist Democracy always...," "Populist Democracy never...," or "Populist Democracy seeks to..." For example, you might say that "Populist Democracy always encourages dissent," or "Populist Democracy never can be bribed." 2) Divide seven points between these properties, in proportion to how interesting they are to you, either as potential sources of conflict (Excrucians and other jerks need to attack them in order to attack Populist Democracy) or as potential sources of power (miracles of Persona let you make yourself or others like or unlike Populist Democracy in the listed ways (or just, you know, turn yourself or others into Populist Democracies[/i])). I encourage other people to do this with other estates. Hyperactive posted:But they're doing a new edition of that as well, just with a more toolbox-y kind of setting instead of the WotG specific one. So, win-win. Well, that's fantastic news. I always found it pretty toolboxy already; the setting was accurately billed as "The Ancient China of Every Kung-Fu Movie Ever." But the system is the real star; as I said in the Exalted thread, if you include the Great Game rules that were in the only supplement, Weapons of the Gods is a comprehensive system both for punching people in the face, and everything else.
|
| # ? Aug 20, 2010 23:35 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2013 01:17 |
|
|
So here's an example I was thinking about while I was away from an effective data connection: Duels. Duels always settle things definitively If they spiral out of control, obviously they were mere feuds or grudges. The Noble of Duels can make people better or worse at cutting through the drama and getting things done (or immediately failing, without wasting time). Or make a gun who makes anyone it shoots immediately die (or surrender, I guess), or make people either divorce or never argue again, depending on how compatible they are. Holy poo poo I'm Cupid over here. Duels are always won by the better contestant I like ancient Greek culture, and I like fighting for good, rational things, and punishing cheaters. Arguments about the meaning of "better" would entrance me. Also, I secretly plan on using this property on some national election to make someone in my familia President of someplace. Duels never respect the law I also dig an outlaw vibe, with duels powered by agreements between participants, rather than between oligarchs. This is begging for the HG to have stories about dueling codes, which my Avatar must break or destroy. Duels seek to free passion and restrict crudity As I wrote down the first three properties, I got a really romantic impression, so I decided to go all-out with it. I think that makes a pretty good list. I could come up with more than that, but if during the game I think of a really important property I had forgotten, as long as the HG agreed it was appropriate, I could add it right then. The main problem I see with this system of writing down properties of your estate is it then becomes much harder to not make Persona your highest stat. Yes, Domain would let me create and destroy duels, and also "move" them, forcing complex lawsuits to be settled on the hopscotch field, but Persona would let me merge with any contest between two people. (I have to admit, the official character creation rules tell you to come up with your basic Avatar concept, and divide points between bonds and afflictions before doing Estate Properties. Because, after all, maybe they struggle against the nature of the Estate.)
|
| # ? Aug 23, 2010 05:57 |
|
