The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Caveat:
    I received a copy from a friend involved in Nobilis, and hope to do freelance work for the gameline in the future. I don't know if this precisely qualifies as a complimentary copy from the publisher, but it's close enough to play it safe.
    I know several people involved in Nobilis. This may make some claim bias. I know people involved in a number of game products. I have not reviewed them, even in cases where I've gotten free copies from friends. Season as you will.

    I was not actually expecting to run Nobilis this weekend. Normally we alternate between D20 and Torg. The D20 DM is a stand-up comedian and involved in various improv groups. He had a gig at the last minute, alas. Torg GM was also unavailable, so RP seemed in jeapordy.

    My group likes to play boardgames, but my only RP fix are these weekend games. Add to that missed games due to family committments. I really wanted to roleplay.

    The group is used to me running weird games. I often run them based in present day with PCs that gain odd powers. Many of these games are diceless or near diceless. This may have made them more accepting of such a game than other groups. On the other hand, they are also tired of my 'experiments', which is an argument to the reverse.

    In any case, they were willing to give it a go this time.

    This review is not going to explain a number of things, like Aspect, Domain, or Excrucians. If you wish to know more about those elements of the game, please read one of the many other reviews of Nobilis. I'm concerning myself here completely with the experience of setting up and running the game.

Character Generation

    Now here's the first problem. I had a big ass book, some character sheets and an intro document. It's a lot of material to explain. The three players had heard my comments on the game previously, but nothing in detail. I also had little more than enough time to print out sheets and flip through the book for some NPCs. I thought I'd have more time while they generated PCs, but they needed a lot of help.

    Chargen took about 2 hours, and a good half hour was spent considering the Chancel. This is about on par with a lot of new games, and is faster than some chargens have gone. Still, it would have been helped greatly if any of the players had read the book before.
    I skipped Imperator properties to save time. It wasn't clear whether we would play the game again, so I didn't expect it to be a big deal. I'm a believer in loose structures for games, so defining the Imperator in retrospect (or even the Chancel) wouldn't bother me.

    I was very pleased with my friends. They really responded to the open setting and created interesting characters.
    First was White, looking much like Trinity from the Matrix but with a white outfit and hair. She was Power of Technology... ooo. Aspect 3, Domain 2, Realm 0, Spirit 1, with Durant, Immutable, Elemental (cyborg), and Sovereign's Gift. The player has a great eye for using (and abusing) systems, and quickly adapted. Sovereign's Gift meant she could break into a car without even working at it. Hated by animals, Affiliation of Light.
    Second was Photos, Power of Electromagnetism. We started laughing at this point, as this was rather cool in combination with White. Aspect 0, Domain 3, Realm 1, Spirit 1. Many gifts, including Elemental (ball of light), Worldwalker, Immutable, Eternal, and Perfect Timing. Handicap of Summonable, which is a great potential plothook. Also Affiliation Light (snickers ensued). Normal human guise is a tall albino.
    Finally, Professor Virg Gamel, a dragon who had been researching humans when he was swept up in the forming Chancel. He is Power of Humans, affiliation Heaven. Aspect 0, Domain 2, Realm 0, Spirit 2. Not a lot of attributes, but then Shapeshifting, Flight, Firebreathing, Immortal, and Luck.

    We skimmed over Anchors and Bonds. At this point I reminded them that with only 1 Realm point between them, their chancel would be woefully underpowered. I was not surprised that they didn't see the utility of Realm. If the game continues, they may learn. One thing I should have reminded them is that anything created in a Realm can be brought out and used for 1 RMP per session. I had forgotten about this crucial point until reminded a day or two later.

    Even so, with 1 Realm point, their Chancel had Defender's Blessing 2 (natural protection against harmful miracles for all inhabitants), and Magical Inhabitants. To pay for this, the player of Photos (being the only one who spent any points in Realm) decided on a landlord they'd have to worry about.
    Power of Humans decided that his view of humans meant that inhabitants were hairy and brutish, but still essentially human. Magic in Nobilis includes weird science, so the 'magical' inhabitants can create and use Zap guns. More laughter.

    So two hours of character generation. Though at some points the players floundered ('I have no idea what I want to do!'), once things started moving, they quickly bounced ideas off of one another. I think this was one of the most entertaining, enjoyable chargens I've seen in just about any game. The lack of specific classes or other details meant their focus was more on the setting    and each other.
    Once the initial confusion lifted, there was a lot of grins and laughter as people came up with ideas. Each took idiosyncratic directions, yet in the end, the Imperator of Humans, Technology, and Electromagnetism seemed quite sensible, and suggestive.

Game

    I decided to have an Excrucian shard working against the players. I picked the sample Warmain from the book, subtracting 2 Aspect and removing the Eyeless Jack focus. At 31 CP, I figured it'd balance with 3 PCs at 25 CP.
    Now, Nobilis isn't focused on combat. Combat is very exhausting, and should be rarer than, say, D20. Still, with 10 minutes to think up a plot, I figured it'd be a good quick test.
    The players stared at me, wondering what to do. So I start with Power of Tech feeling a pain. At this point I realized something useful about the setting. Simply explaining what things mean as you go works decently. Considering how much Nobilis should know automatically, this doesn't harm the flow of the game. In this case, 'the pain means an Excrucian attack.'
    Quick divination points to an Oldsmobile plant. One player noted that Oldsmobiles are being discontinued, which I did not know. So I ran with it as a red herring (hampered somewhat by: 'Really? I didn't know that. Er... it's a clever plot element!')
    They show up (one stolen car later). Power of Humans does a divination to find out what visitors the guard is expecting. Player worked extensively in steel plant operations, which provided cool 'how to get past guard' information. Once inside, another divination points out a specific person as the cause of the 'attack'.
    At which point Walking Eye, Power of Borders, appears through his anchor Serafina and promptly kills every mortal in the plant (psychotic limitation, Domain of 5 used to create the border of death). PCs stare, expecting this to be the Excrucian. Doesn't look like an Excrucian, so must be a Deceiver.
    White trains her guns and waits to see what is going on. Serafina then focuses on the players, spots Virg and commands him, in his name, to tell her who he is. I inform the players that that is an invocation of the Name, a useful tactic against deceivers.
    At this point, Virg explains that he is actually who he appears to be.

    Fastforwarding a bit, turns out the Power of Borders is also under attack, with the same guy. His home is visited, and there is a strange device made from off the shelf items, the source of the attack. What is it? A device that creates energy. White isn't clear on exactly how this violated technology, but the threat is obvious. They resurrect the guy and try to convince him his device is a bad thing, that it causes madness and sterility. He gets stubborn.
    Warmain shard shows up. White beats on him a lot. Photos summons a mantle of lightning. With aspect 0, he's forced to flood a big area with his lightning attack.
    The warmain's limitation of photosensitive, once it becomes obvious he's avoiding the patches of sunlight, dooms him. Normally he'd wait until nightfall, but the potential loss of the tools of the assault were considered worth it. His glass whip does a number on White, but she's hard to keep down.
    Power of Electromagnetism goes into ball of light form and then does muuuch more damage with lightning. Warmain flees with worldwalker, Photos worldwalks to follow, finishes it off.
    They spread some stories about the guy and his device and let prosaic reality explain things. Factory full of people dead? Obviously it was his device. Obviously it does cause sterility and madness. Guy ends up in an asylum, raving at the walls.

    Affiliation of Light? Well, humanity is preserved. And Power of War considers the device thoughtfully.

Conclusion

    We had fun. Sure, the game ran about as long as chargen. But the structure of the game, in some odd ways, really supports starting cold.

    I played in a Shadowrun game, once. My friends told me that I was doing well for a neophyte mage. A few bad decisions later, I ended up armless and on the run from the Tong and the Yakuza. Ok, so this is more a GM issue than optimization of character issue, but similar things have happened in other games. Games where it's clear that if I had been more of a 'twink' I'd be having fun. Instead, my artistic inspiration gave me characters that never got to shine for what they were, let alone be 'effective'.
    There is a certain relaxation that a game like Nobilis allows. A character is powerful. Even if the player make 'nonoptimal' decisions, she is still unlikely to loose badly or be crippled by decisions.

    The players decided they had made a lot of nonoptimal decisions. The dragon had shapeshifting and immortal. Few things can bother him. But lacking a lot of Domain or Aspect, he couldn't make things happen easily. I think the character could work, played subtly, but it's a difficult design. Still, he had fun, and being able to read the mind of any human was fantastically useful. Despite being 'nonoptimal', he was useful and had many opportunities to shine.
    White, with 3 in Aspect, and Photos, with 3 in Domain, had a more solid area of expertise. I think in Nobilis it is 'optimal' to have 4-5 in Domain or 3-4 in one of the other attributes. You get more from one high number than many low numbers, mainly because the attributes can, with creativity, cross over to be used in other areas.
    Power of Humans, with 5 Domain, could be a combat god over humans (predict human attacks, just make them drop dead, etc), or make very potent guards. Realm 5 would allow creation of useful vehicles and weapons that could be exported. Spirit of 5 could allow some useful anchors and great defense against miracles, and is a possible substitute for the persuasive use of Aspect. I'm not sure if that last is by the book, but that's how I do it.

    The other comment from the players was how many MP a combat burned up. With a refresh per game session, you can't run many challenging fights. This was no great surprise, as the danger and difficulty of straight confrontations is mentioned many times in the book. I bring it up mainly to note that this detail becomes obvious in play.
    On the other hand, combat ran pretty smoothly. This is a system I could definitely see using for something like Feng Shui. I've always been annoyed by combat that runs at typical game speeds for games of action and adventure.
    There were some misunderstandings that popped up in combat about Aspect, though. For example, the dragon with Firebreathing assumed that as an Aspect 4 miracle, it was considered Aspect 4 when it was used. As far as I understand it, this is not the case, it only damages like Aspect 4 does. In other words, a person with Firebreathing is like someone with a flamethrower. If they can hit, they do lots of damage. If not, they don't. With an Aspect 0 dragon vs. an Aspect 4 Warmain shard, this means the dragon isn't going to hit. On the other hand, fire does a lot of things a person with Aspect 4 cannot, like melting things.
    Beyond that, White had fun shooting and doing Matrix things, and also using Sovereign's Gift to get the nearby car to run at the Warmain shard. Photos had fun blasting large areas with his mantle of lightning. Virg was a little put out, but watched the human body, an important task in case anyone had appeared to abscond with it.
    I heartily recommend printing out or writing down the table on p. 97 for reference purposes. Remembering what levels various domain miracles are can be a little tricky at first.

    So I hope to run this again, though next time with more attention to setting up a social or subtle plot. There's a balance, of course. With the infrequent nature of my GMing, I have to be careful about subtlety. Still, there are a number of potential plots. Incursions into the Chancel, maybe a party gone wrong in a neighboring Chancel...

Nobilis
Nobilis Playtest Review by William Timmins on 28/05/02 Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!) A rather sudden chance to run Nobilis, with entertaining and enjoyable results. Product: Nobilis Author: R. Sean Borgstrom Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Hogshead Publishing Ltd Line: Nobilis Cost: $43 Page count: 299 Year published: 2002 ISBN: 1899748306 SKU: HOG600 Comp copy?: yes Playtest Review by William Timmins on 28/05/02 Genre tags: Diceless Other	Caveat: I received a copy from a friend involved in Nobilis, and hope to do freelance work for the gameline in the future. I don't know if this precisely qualifies as a complimentary copy from the publisher, but it's close enough to play it safe. I know several people involved in Nobilis. This may make some claim bias. I know people involved in a number of game products. I have not reviewed them, even in cases where I've gotten free copies from friends. Season as you will. I was not actually expecting to run Nobilis this weekend. Normally we alternate between D20 and Torg. The D20 DM is a stand-up comedian and involved in various improv groups. He had a gig at the last minute, alas. Torg GM was also unavailable, so RP seemed in jeapordy. My group likes to play boardgames, but my only RP fix are these weekend games. Add to that missed games due to family committments. I really wanted to roleplay. The group is used to me running weird games. I often run them based in present day with PCs that gain odd powers. Many of these games are diceless or near diceless. This may have made them more accepting of such a game than other groups. On the other hand, they are also tired of my 'experiments', which is an argument to the reverse. In any case, they were willing to give it a go this time. This review is not going to explain a number of things, like Aspect, Domain, or Excrucians. If you wish to know more about those elements of the game, please read one of the many other reviews of Nobilis. I'm concerning myself here completely with the experience of setting up and running the game. Character Generation Now here's the first problem. I had a big ass book, some character sheets and an intro document. It's a lot of material to explain. The three players had heard my comments on the game previously, but nothing in detail. I also had little more than enough time to print out sheets and flip through the book for some NPCs. I thought I'd have more time while they generated PCs, but they needed a lot of help. Chargen took about 2 hours, and a good half hour was spent considering the Chancel. This is about on par with a lot of new games, and is faster than some chargens have gone. Still, it would have been helped greatly if any of the players had read the book before. I skipped Imperator properties to save time. It wasn't clear whether we would play the game again, so I didn't expect it to be a big deal. I'm a believer in loose structures for games, so defining the Imperator in retrospect (or even the Chancel) wouldn't bother me. I was very pleased with my friends. They really responded to the open setting and created interesting characters. First was White, looking much like Trinity from the Matrix but with a white outfit and hair. She was Power of Technology... ooo. Aspect 3, Domain 2, Realm 0, Spirit 1, with Durant, Immutable, Elemental (cyborg), and Sovereign's Gift. The player has a great eye for using (and abusing) systems, and quickly adapted. Sovereign's Gift meant she could break into a car without even working at it. Hated by animals, Affiliation of Light. Second was Photos, Power of Electromagnetism. We started laughing at this point, as this was rather cool in combination with White. Aspect 0, Domain 3, Realm 1, Spirit 1. Many gifts, including Elemental (ball of light), Worldwalker, Immutable, Eternal, and Perfect Timing. Handicap of Summonable, which is a great potential plothook. Also Affiliation Light (snickers ensued). Normal human guise is a tall albino. Finally, Professor Virg Gamel, a dragon who had been researching humans when he was swept up in the forming Chancel. He is Power of Humans, affiliation Heaven. Aspect 0, Domain 2, Realm 0, Spirit 2. Not a lot of attributes, but then Shapeshifting, Flight, Firebreathing, Immortal, and Luck. We skimmed over Anchors and Bonds. At this point I reminded them that with only 1 Realm point between them, their chancel would be woefully underpowered. I was not surprised that they didn't see the utility of Realm. If the game continues, they may learn. One thing I should have reminded them is that anything created in a Realm can be brought out and used for 1 RMP per session. I had forgotten about this crucial point until reminded a day or two later. Even so, with 1 Realm point, their Chancel had Defender's Blessing 2 (natural protection against harmful miracles for all inhabitants), and Magical Inhabitants. To pay for this, the player of Photos (being the only one who spent any points in Realm) decided on a landlord they'd have to worry about. Power of Humans decided that his view of humans meant that inhabitants were hairy and brutish, but still essentially human. Magic in Nobilis includes weird science, so the 'magical' inhabitants can create and use Zap guns. More laughter. So two hours of character generation. Though at some points the players floundered ('I have no idea what I want to do!'), once things started moving, they quickly bounced ideas off of one another. I think this was one of the most entertaining, enjoyable chargens I've seen in just about any game. The lack of specific classes or other details meant their focus was more on the setting and each other. Once the initial confusion lifted, there was a lot of grins and laughter as people came up with ideas. Each took idiosyncratic directions, yet in the end, the Imperator of Humans, Technology, and Electromagnetism seemed quite sensible, and suggestive. Game I decided to have an Excrucian shard working against the players. I picked the sample Warmain from the book, subtracting 2 Aspect and removing the Eyeless Jack focus. At 31 CP, I figured it'd balance with 3 PCs at 25 CP. Now, Nobilis isn't focused on combat. Combat is very exhausting, and should be rarer than, say, D20. Still, with 10 minutes to think up a plot, I figured it'd be a good quick test. The players stared at me, wondering what to do. So I start with Power of Tech feeling a pain. At this point I realized something useful about the setting. Simply explaining what things mean as you go works decently. Considering how much Nobilis should know automatically, this doesn't harm the flow of the game. In this case, 'the pain means an Excrucian attack.' Quick divination points to an Oldsmobile plant. One player noted that Oldsmobiles are being discontinued, which I did not know. So I ran with it as a red herring (hampered somewhat by: 'Really? I didn't know that. Er... it's a clever plot element!') They show up (one stolen car later). Power of Humans does a divination to find out what visitors the guard is expecting. Player worked extensively in steel plant operations, which provided cool 'how to get past guard' information. Once inside, another divination points out a specific person as the cause of the 'attack'. At which point Walking Eye, Power of Borders, appears through his anchor Serafina and promptly kills every mortal in the plant (psychotic limitation, Domain of 5 used to create the border of death). PCs stare, expecting this to be the Excrucian. Doesn't look like an Excrucian, so must be a Deceiver. White trains her guns and waits to see what is going on. Serafina then focuses on the players, spots Virg and commands him, in his name, to tell her who he is. I inform the players that that is an invocation of the Name, a useful tactic against deceivers. At this point, Virg explains that he is actually who he appears to be. Fastforwarding a bit, turns out the Power of Borders is also under attack, with the same guy. His home is visited, and there is a strange device made from off the shelf items, the source of the attack. What is it? A device that creates energy. White isn't clear on exactly how this violated technology, but the threat is obvious. They resurrect the guy and try to convince him his device is a bad thing, that it causes madness and sterility. He gets stubborn. Warmain shard shows up. White beats on him a lot. Photos summons a mantle of lightning. With aspect 0, he's forced to flood a big area with his lightning attack. The warmain's limitation of photosensitive, once it becomes obvious he's avoiding the patches of sunlight, dooms him. Normally he'd wait until nightfall, but the potential loss of the tools of the assault were considered worth it. His glass whip does a number on White, but she's hard to keep down. Power of Electromagnetism goes into ball of light form and then does muuuch more damage with lightning. Warmain flees with worldwalker, Photos worldwalks to follow, finishes it off. They spread some stories about the guy and his device and let prosaic reality explain things. Factory full of people dead? Obviously it was his device. Obviously it does cause sterility and madness. Guy ends up in an asylum, raving at the walls. Affiliation of Light? Well, humanity is preserved. And Power of War considers the device thoughtfully. Conclusion We had fun. Sure, the game ran about as long as chargen. But the structure of the game, in some odd ways, really supports starting cold. I played in a Shadowrun game, once. My friends told me that I was doing well for a neophyte mage. A few bad decisions later, I ended up armless and on the run from the Tong and the Yakuza. Ok, so this is more a GM issue than optimization of character issue, but similar things have happened in other games. Games where it's clear that if I had been more of a 'twink' I'd be having fun. Instead, my artistic inspiration gave me characters that never got to shine for what they were, let alone be 'effective'. There is a certain relaxation that a game like Nobilis allows. A character is powerful. Even if the player make 'nonoptimal' decisions, she is still unlikely to loose badly or be crippled by decisions. The players decided they had made a lot of nonoptimal decisions. The dragon had shapeshifting and immortal. Few things can bother him. But lacking a lot of Domain or Aspect, he couldn't make things happen easily. I think the character could work, played subtly, but it's a difficult design. Still, he had fun, and being able to read the mind of any human was fantastically useful. Despite being 'nonoptimal', he was useful and had many opportunities to shine. White, with 3 in Aspect, and Photos, with 3 in Domain, had a more solid area of expertise. I think in Nobilis it is 'optimal' to have 4-5 in Domain or 3-4 in one of the other attributes. You get more from one high number than many low numbers, mainly because the attributes can, with creativity, cross over to be used in other areas. Power of Humans, with 5 Domain, could be a combat god over humans (predict human attacks, just make them drop dead, etc), or make very potent guards. Realm 5 would allow creation of useful vehicles and weapons that could be exported. Spirit of 5 could allow some useful anchors and great defense against miracles, and is a possible substitute for the persuasive use of Aspect. I'm not sure if that last is by the book, but that's how I do it. The other comment from the players was how many MP a combat burned up. With a refresh per game session, you can't run many challenging fights. This was no great surprise, as the danger and difficulty of straight confrontations is mentioned many times in the book. I bring it up mainly to note that this detail becomes obvious in play. On the other hand, combat ran pretty smoothly. This is a system I could definitely see using for something like Feng Shui. I've always been annoyed by combat that runs at typical game speeds for games of action and adventure. There were some misunderstandings that popped up in combat about Aspect, though. For example, the dragon with Firebreathing assumed that as an Aspect 4 miracle, it was considered Aspect 4 when it was used. As far as I understand it, this is not the case, it only damages like Aspect 4 does. In other words, a person with Firebreathing is like someone with a flamethrower. If they can hit, they do lots of damage. If not, they don't. With an Aspect 0 dragon vs. an Aspect 4 Warmain shard, this means the dragon isn't going to hit. On the other hand, fire does a lot of things a person with Aspect 4 cannot, like melting things. Beyond that, White had fun shooting and doing Matrix things, and also using Sovereign's Gift to get the nearby car to run at the Warmain shard. Photos had fun blasting large areas with his mantle of lightning. Virg was a little put out, but watched the human body, an important task in case anyone had appeared to abscond with it. I heartily recommend printing out or writing down the table on p. 97 for reference purposes. Remembering what levels various domain miracles are can be a little tricky at first. So I hope to run this again, though next time with more attention to setting up a social or subtle plot. There's a balance, of course. With the infrequent nature of my GMing, I have to be careful about subtlety. Still, there are a number of potential plots. Incursions into the Chancel, maybe a party gone wrong in a neighboring Chancel...