The Inside Scoop on Gaming

General Information about the supplement

The first time I read Heaven and Hell, I loved it and I thought it was great. Oh, I thought practically everything in there was sketchy, but that it was enough to give you the general outline, and what was there was good. Then I reread it with a more critical eye, and I decided the book had the potential for greatness, but had missed it.

What the book really provides is enough information about Heaven and Hell to give the players a general idea let the GM talk manage the big landmarks and easily improvise elsewhere in Heaven or Hell. That's exactly what I wanted, and that's why I thought the book was great when I read it for myself. If you're looking for either of those, buy the book.

What the book frustratingly doesn't provide is anything non-stereotypical. It doesn't even try to in the Heaven section; the Hell section does have a couple unusual bright ideas of the Princes, plus adventure seeds. If you want to shake a player's conceptions of Heaven or Hell, you'll have to come up with the wrinkle yourself.

This supplement, like the entire Revelations cycle, subdivides neatly into several sections: Superiors, the Celestial Realms in general, Heaven, Limbo, Hell, and an adventure named No Dinero. Save for the adventure, the sections fit very neatly into a whole: the Celestial Realms go naturally together, and the Superiors who are fleshed out are appropriate to describe along with Heaven and Hell.

Superiors

Heaven and hell fleshes out four Superiors and invents two minor ones: Dominic, Archangel of Judgement; Asmodeus, Demon Prince of the Game; Yves, Archangel of Destiny; Kronos, Demon Prince of Fate; Zadkiel, Archangel of Protection; Mammon, Demon Prince of Greed.

All of these Superiors are well-done. They could have used three times the space they did, but other than that my only gripe is that I'm not fond having minor Superiors slipped into the Revelations cycle.

The Celestial Realms

This section has very sketchy descriptions of Heaven and Hell, how you get there, the nature of Celestial existence, and angels in Hell and demons in Heaven.

This section is necessary and it does its job. But it's the one section that I thought was longer than it needed to be. Fewer words which were more to the point would have freed up space for other stuff.

Heaven

This section includes a few more generic bits about Heaven, short (usually about 1/2 page) descriptions of each Archangel's Cathedral, and stuff about other major landmarks.

Whether or not you like this section will really depend on what you want from it. It gives the flavor of Heaven, and it gives usable if predictable descriptions of the major landmarks. That is exactly what I most wanted from the Heaven section of Heaven and Hell: all the obvious elaboration, which I find the least interesting to do myself. If, however, you want enough information to run snippets in Heaven without making Heaven stereotypical, this supplement will not help.

Limbo

This short section explains where Heartless Celestials go when their Vessel dies and how they get out again. In short, they're in a sensory deprivation Limbo where they can't do anything but accumulate a point of Essence a week; they can accumulate any amount of Essence and leave once they've accumulated enough Essence to form a Vessel (it takes a lot, especially for a human Vessel.)

This section is short, to the point, and badly needed. My one complaint is about the mechanics: a Celestial in Limbo recovers from Trauma in a matter of weeks, not days. And nobody can affect someone in Limbo other than to throw Essence at them. This means that according to the rules, someone in Limbo is out of the action for a minimum of a number of weeks equal to his Corporeal Forces, and there is no way for anyone to speed things up. And that in turn makes matters unnecessarily difficult for GMs who want to let a player whose Renegade, Outcast, or Free Lilim got Vessel-killed play again next week. However, the solution is simple enough: if it's a problem for your campaign, ignore that portion of the mechanics. Celestials in Limbo ordinarily stay for ages because of the amount of Essence required to get out; if the GM wants to speed matters, something happens whereby the requisite amount of Essence is sent on the spot.

Hell

The section on Hell is more than twice the length of the section on Heaven. It has the same type of information as the section on Heaven: general information, Superiors' Principalities, and other major landmarks. The information in this section is somewhat more detailed and includes some more interesting bits. It also includes far more adventure seeds and characters. In general, the Hell section is better designed for actually running things there.

This section was better-done than the Heaven section, probably primarily because there was more space alotted to it. However, there's also an old saying that it's easier to write about demons than angels, and that may play into it too.

This section had some cute bits, such as the inscription over the Gates of Hell: "sometimes it seems to read 'Abandon all hope, ye who entere here'; at other times the words look like 'Arbeit Macht Frei'." (Arbeit Macht Frei: "Work shall make you free," an inscription on the entrance to Auschwitz.)

Adventure: No Dinero

I have really mixed feelings about this adventure. In sum, Loki is trying to start a war between Zadkiel and Mammon in the lower East side of Manhattan; meanwhile, a damaged Thor is in search of his hammer.

There are a lot of things going for it. But it makes me grit my teeth because it's just half a note off: yes, Loki is a trouble-maker (in fact, that's one of his kenings, sort of nicknames the poets use) but this adventure has a simple-in-principle complicated-in-practice style that doesn't feel right. Loki is brilliant, but his real strength is thinking on his feet, and after that brilliant outrageous ideas (like putting Thor in a bridal dress with veil and pretending he is Freya) -- not the sort of obvious enough but very complicated plan he has going here.

Now, most people aren't going to have a problem with that, and the adventure is workmanlike and in general close to Norse myth. Even people who have a problem with the details of Loki's plan could fix it just by making half of the circumstances a freak coincidence which Loki decided to capitalize on; Loki's very good at thinking on his feet and being opportunistic.

Recommendation

I've said a lot of negative things about this book. This supplement is good, given that it tried to detail six Superiors and all of the Celestial Realms while including an adventure, all in 128 pages. What problems it has stem mostly from the fact that 128 pages is just not enough space to do everything Heaven and Hell tries to do. (Well, that and the fact that SJG didn't have a Line Editor for In Nomine when this book came out; the errata for this book is crucial.)

I would recommend this for GMs who want to set adventures in Heaven or (especially) Hell. I would also recommend it if any of the Superiors detailed in this supplement are important. I would recommend this book for players and GMs who are generally curious about the backdrop of the In Nomine world. And I would recommend that GMs have their players read the sections on Heaven and Hell (possibly blocking out any secrets the GM wants to use) to give them more of the flavor of the world.

I feel like I've said more bad than good things about a decent, though no better, supplement that I personally liked. This is not because there's more bad than good to it, this is because all the good stuff is very straightforward: good writeups of six Superiors, brief decent descriptions of Heaven and Hell, a workable mechanic for Vesselkilled Heartless Celestials, and a decent adventure.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Revelations III: Heaven and Hell
Author: James Cambias, David Edelstien, Matthew Grau, Kenneth Hite, Steve Kenson, Chris Pramas, S. John Ross and John Tynes Category: game Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Cost: $17.95 Page count: 128 ISBN: 1-55634-339-6 Capsule Review by Elizabeth Bartley on 03/12/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day	General Information about the supplement The first time I read Heaven and Hell, I loved it and I thought it was great. Oh, I thought practically everything in there was sketchy, but that it was enough to give you the general outline, and what was there was good. Then I reread it with a more critical eye, and I decided the book had the potential for greatness, but had missed it. What the book really provides is enough information about Heaven and Hell to give the players a general idea let the GM talk manage the big landmarks and easily improvise elsewhere in Heaven or Hell. That's exactly what I wanted, and that's why I thought the book was great when I read it for myself. If you're looking for either of those, buy the book. What the book frustratingly doesn't provide is anything non-stereotypical. It doesn't even try to in the Heaven section; the Hell section does have a couple unusual bright ideas of the Princes, plus adventure seeds. If you want to shake a player's conceptions of Heaven or Hell, you'll have to come up with the wrinkle yourself. This supplement, like the entire Revelations cycle, subdivides neatly into several sections: Superiors, the Celestial Realms in general, Heaven, Limbo, Hell, and an adventure named No Dinero. Save for the adventure, the sections fit very neatly into a whole: the Celestial Realms go naturally together, and the Superiors who are fleshed out are appropriate to describe along with Heaven and Hell. Superiors Heaven and hell fleshes out four Superiors and invents two minor ones: Dominic, Archangel of Judgement; Asmodeus, Demon Prince of the Game; Yves, Archangel of Destiny; Kronos, Demon Prince of Fate; Zadkiel, Archangel of Protection; Mammon, Demon Prince of Greed. All of these Superiors are well-done. They could have used three times the space they did, but other than that my only gripe is that I'm not fond having minor Superiors slipped into the Revelations cycle. The Celestial Realms This section has very sketchy descriptions of Heaven and Hell, how you get there, the nature of Celestial existence, and angels in Hell and demons in Heaven. This section is necessary and it does its job. But it's the one section that I thought was longer than it needed to be. Fewer words which were more to the point would have freed up space for other stuff. Heaven This section includes a few more generic bits about Heaven, short (usually about 1/2 page) descriptions of each Archangel's Cathedral, and stuff about other major landmarks. Whether or not you like this section will really depend on what you want from it. It gives the flavor of Heaven, and it gives usable if predictable descriptions of the major landmarks. That is exactly what I most wanted from the Heaven section of Heaven and Hell: all the obvious elaboration, which I find the least interesting to do myself. If, however, you want enough information to run snippets in Heaven without making Heaven stereotypical, this supplement will not help. Limbo This short section explains where Heartless Celestials go when their Vessel dies and how they get out again. In short, they're in a sensory deprivation Limbo where they can't do anything but accumulate a point of Essence a week; they can accumulate any amount of Essence and leave once they've accumulated enough Essence to form a Vessel (it takes a lot, especially for a human Vessel.) This section is short, to the point, and badly needed. My one complaint is about the mechanics: a Celestial in Limbo recovers from Trauma in a matter of weeks, not days. And nobody can affect someone in Limbo other than to throw Essence at them. This means that according to the rules, someone in Limbo is out of the action for a minimum of a number of weeks equal to his Corporeal Forces, and there is no way for anyone to speed things up. And that in turn makes matters unnecessarily difficult for GMs who want to let a player whose Renegade, Outcast, or Free Lilim got Vessel-killed play again next week. However, the solution is simple enough: if it's a problem for your campaign, ignore that portion of the mechanics. Celestials in Limbo ordinarily stay for ages because of the amount of Essence required to get out; if the GM wants to speed matters, something happens whereby the requisite amount of Essence is sent on the spot. Hell The section on Hell is more than twice the length of the section on Heaven. It has the same type of information as the section on Heaven: general information, Superiors' Principalities, and other major landmarks. The information in this section is somewhat more detailed and includes some more interesting bits. It also includes far more adventure seeds and characters. In general, the Hell section is better designed for actually running things there. This section was better-done than the Heaven section, probably primarily because there was more space alotted to it. However, there's also an old saying that it's easier to write about demons than angels, and that may play into it too. This section had some cute bits, such as the inscription over the Gates of Hell: "sometimes it seems to read 'Abandon all hope, ye who entere here'; at other times the words look like 'Arbeit Macht Frei'." (Arbeit Macht Frei: "Work shall make you free," an inscription on the entrance to Auschwitz.) Adventure: No Dinero I have really mixed feelings about this adventure. In sum, Loki is trying to start a war between Zadkiel and Mammon in the lower East side of Manhattan; meanwhile, a damaged Thor is in search of his hammer. There are a lot of things going for it. But it makes me grit my teeth because it's just half a note off: yes, Loki is a trouble-maker (in fact, that's one of his kenings, sort of nicknames the poets use) but this adventure has a simple-in-principle complicated-in-practice style that doesn't feel right. Loki is brilliant, but his real strength is thinking on his feet, and after that brilliant outrageous ideas (like putting Thor in a bridal dress with veil and pretending he is Freya) -- not the sort of obvious enough but very complicated plan he has going here. Now, most people aren't going to have a problem with that, and the adventure is workmanlike and in general close to Norse myth. Even people who have a problem with the details of Loki's plan could fix it just by making half of the circumstances a freak coincidence which Loki decided to capitalize on; Loki's very good at thinking on his feet and being opportunistic. Recommendation I've said a lot of negative things about this book. This supplement is good, given that it tried to detail six Superiors and all of the Celestial Realms while including an adventure, all in 128 pages. What problems it has stem mostly from the fact that 128 pages is just not enough space to do everything Heaven and Hell tries to do. (Well, that and the fact that SJG didn't have a Line Editor for In Nomine when this book came out; the errata for this book is crucial.) I would recommend this for GMs who want to set adventures in Heaven or (especially) Hell. I would also recommend it if any of the Superiors detailed in this supplement are important. I would recommend this book for players and GMs who are generally curious about the backdrop of the In Nomine world. And I would recommend that GMs have their players read the sections on Heaven and Hell (possibly blocking out any secrets the GM wants to use) to give them more of the flavor of the world. I feel like I've said more bad than good things about a decent, though no better, supplement that I personally liked. This is not because there's more bad than good to it, this is because all the good stuff is very straightforward: good writeups of six Superiors, brief decent descriptions of Heaven and Hell, a workable mechanic for Vesselkilled Heartless Celestials, and a decent adventure. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)

Revelations III: Heaven and Hell