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Nephilim: Occult Roleplaying is a game made by Chaosium. It was developed by a French company whose name escapes me at the moment. The basic premise of the game is that you are a Nephilim, an immortal creature which incarnates into human bodies, called Simulacra. Nephilim are ancient spirits which can pratice sorcery, unlike humans, who may only use magic with difficult processes often involving Nephilim blood. Most of human history has been shaped by the Nephilim, and they have inhabited many prominent historical figures.

Character creation is rather complicated. First, the player must choose a Ka element: air, earth, fire, water, or moon. This determines what spells the Nephilim will be able to use. The dominant Ka starts at 22, but it costs 2 Ka to inhabit a body, so PCs cannot start with more than 18. This is because of past lives. Past lives give the character skills, knowledge, and sorcerous lore of various types. The player must balance magical knowledge with raw power. After Ka and past lives have been determined, a simulacrum is chosen. This determines stats and gives more skills. The list of simulacra is long, but there are no rules for creating your own.

The rules are about halfway along the complexity spectrum. Combat is relatively analog, but does not have the realism of, say, GURPS. I consider this to be a good thing, since I often use only the most basic of the combat rules. All kinds of dice are used, but perentile dice are the most common.

The game is, overall, well put together. The magic system is good, and the spell lists are actually an interesting read. "The Tempestuous Bands of Ariel" and "Raphael, Prince Crucified on the Tree of Life" are more flavorful than "Missile Shield" and "Monster Summoning II." The game seems to stay close to the occult source material, though I wouldn't really know. There is not very much art, but the art that there is is good. Metamorphoses are interesting, and there are guidelines for creating your own. The history was well designed. The formatting was decent, and the game was, in general, easy to understand.

There are, however, flaws. The most obvious of these are holes in the rules and background. The ultimate goal of all nephilim is to reach Agartha: merging with the simulacrum and ascending to a godlike state. To to this, you need to gain Ka, among other things. So why don't you gain Ka in past lives? No matter how many you take, you get a net loss of Ka. Apparently, PC Nephilim have all been very lazy before the present day. Also, the game is marred by typos and grammatical errors, caused, I suspect, by the translation from French. This does not detract much from the game, though. The alchemy rules are mediocre. There is only one alchemical device, and most effects are caused by waving powder around. Lastly, there is not much material on Nephilim GMing. The GM's Guide will help a lot with this.

Overall, Nephilim is a good game. If the subject matter intrigues you, and you are willing to buy the GM's Companion, give it a try.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Nephilim
Author: Various Category: game Company/Publisher: Chaosium Line: Nephilim Cost: $21.95 Page count: 240 ISBN: 1-56882-023-2 SKU: 3100 Capsule Review by Iain Wendell on 04/28/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day Conspiracy	Nephilim: Occult Roleplaying is a game made by Chaosium. It was developed by a French company whose name escapes me at the moment. The basic premise of the game is that you are a Nephilim, an immortal creature which incarnates into human bodies, called Simulacra. Nephilim are ancient spirits which can pratice sorcery, unlike humans, who may only use magic with difficult processes often involving Nephilim blood. Most of human history has been shaped by the Nephilim, and they have inhabited many prominent historical figures. Character creation is rather complicated. First, the player must choose a Ka element: air, earth, fire, water, or moon. This determines what spells the Nephilim will be able to use. The dominant Ka starts at 22, but it costs 2 Ka to inhabit a body, so PCs cannot start with more than 18. This is because of past lives. Past lives give the character skills, knowledge, and sorcerous lore of various types. The player must balance magical knowledge with raw power. After Ka and past lives have been determined, a simulacrum is chosen. This determines stats and gives more skills. The list of simulacra is long, but there are no rules for creating your own. The rules are about halfway along the complexity spectrum. Combat is relatively analog, but does not have the realism of, say, GURPS. I consider this to be a good thing, since I often use only the most basic of the combat rules. All kinds of dice are used, but perentile dice are the most common. The game is, overall, well put together. The magic system is good, and the spell lists are actually an interesting read. "The Tempestuous Bands of Ariel" and "Raphael, Prince Crucified on the Tree of Life" are more flavorful than "Missile Shield" and "Monster Summoning II." The game seems to stay close to the occult source material, though I wouldn't really know. There is not very much art, but the art that there is is good. Metamorphoses are interesting, and there are guidelines for creating your own. The history was well designed. The formatting was decent, and the game was, in general, easy to understand. There are, however, flaws. The most obvious of these are holes in the rules and background. The ultimate goal of all nephilim is to reach Agartha: merging with the simulacrum and ascending to a godlike state. To to this, you need to gain Ka, among other things. So why don't you gain Ka in past lives? No matter how many you take, you get a net loss of Ka. Apparently, PC Nephilim have all been very lazy before the present day. Also, the game is marred by typos and grammatical errors, caused, I suspect, by the translation from French. This does not detract much from the game, though. The alchemy rules are mediocre. There is only one alchemical device, and most effects are caused by waving powder around. Lastly, there is not much material on Nephilim GMing. The GM's Guide will help a lot with this. Overall, Nephilim is a good game. If the subject matter intrigues you, and you are willing to buy the GM's Companion, give it a try. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)