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This is a capsule review because I have yet to play this edition, but I should say I have both played and run lengthy games using the second edition. The changes in the new edition are extensive -- more than, say D&D changed going from second to third edition, and perhaps as much as the shift from third to fourth. Despite my great fondness for the prior edition, I have to say the new Nobilis is improved pretty much across the board. In mechanics and setting, that is: the prior edition was distinctly superior as a physical artifact. (On the other hand, this one does have a functional index. And it's easier to carry and use even as a normal-sized hardcover, let alone the electronic versions.)
The book is about 1/3 background, 2/3 rules, front-loaded with setting. Although the cover says "volume 1," the game is arguably complete with this book. Continuing the D&D comparison, the Field Guide to the Powers is closely analogous to recent Players Handbooks: it gives all the rules actually needed to play, but little guidance for the aspiring game master. As far as I know, Eos' ambitious plans for the line do not include anything analogous to a DMG (though I don't know what else might eventually be considered "Essential").
To be fair, the rules mechanics actually provide significant help for campaign design. The optional "lifepath" section of character creation doesn't actually provide a lifepath (that is, a mechanically significant character history), but does build in plot hooks; working out their implications can build much of the game for you. In play, the mechanics encourage the players to define and pursue both group and individual goals. Still, the GM -- "Hollyhock God" in Nobilis-speak -- will be thrown on his own resources to a perhaps uncomfortable degree when it comes to devising specifics.
"Hollyhock God" may strike you as a bizarre term. Nobilis is written in a distinctive voice, no question: I like it myself, and you should be able to tell in short order whether you will find it to your taste. The tone varies quite a bit: a whimsical note is perhaps most prominent, but it also regularly turns majestic and/or horrific. In this, I can say from experience, the writing reflects the range of styles Nobilis can support in play.
I should note that the websites selling the pdf offer a free Preview document comprising 22 pages of background material, a brief rules overview and the entire lifepath system, plus the table of contents and index. The Preview is also more than enough to make an informed judgment about the book's tone and style.
SETTING
The canonical setting of Nobilis starts with modern Earth and adds secret magic. More than one level of magic, actually: mortal magic (which canonically exists) isn't that much more impressive than purely mundane capabilities; Noble miracles are qualitatively superior. Ordinary life is explicitly a screen to protect humanity from seeing the mythic world that is true reality. Existence is fundamentally animistic: everything has a living spirit; indeed, everything has free will.
Earth is one of hundreds of worlds which make up creation: in the mythic world these are fruit hanging on Yggdrasil the World Ash. That name seems to be the only element of Norse myth used in the game: Nobilis has little interest in any actual mythology, assuming rather that each game will construct mythologies of its own. Similarly, there's a fair amount of Judeo-Christian furniture in the setting, but it is basically incompatible with any real life religion. Heaven and Hell both exist, but the Creator ("Cneph," an obscure name from Egyptian myth) is clearly not God and his relation to Heaven and its angels is unclear. The angels are the harsh, narrow-minded sorts standard in much contemporary fantasy; in other words, they follow pop culture rather than anyone's theology. Hell is more original: the devils love every feature of the world, specifically and especially the wicked, twisted, or harmful things that Heaven wishes to remove. This unusual spin on champions of evil has peculiar consequences -- e.g. it seems that devils have no interest in moral temptation -- which are largely unaddressed in this volume.
The angels and their fallen kin are two of the seven types of Imperators, the beings who create the Nobilis by investing mortals with shards of themselves. Other types include the Light and the Dark, which are native to Earth and especially concerned with humanity; they are derived ultimately from the fall of Adam and Eve. True Gods are also earthly divinities, but derive from the prehuman ecology. Aaron's Serpents are natives of the World Ash but not its worlds: they are, as it says on the label, really big snakes. Finally, the Wildlords are alien entities, having either originated outside normal reality or at least rejected its rules (the text is ambiguous, if not contradictory).
All Imperators are more or less omnipotent when given time to operate. They are actually weaker than their own Powers in a straight-up confrontation, however, due to the swift pace of combat. This is the main reason Powers exist: to defend against the Excrucians, beings from outside Creation who are seeking to destroy reality, piece by piece. Like Imperators, the Excrucians come in several types, all four of which are briefly described. A dozen individual Excrucians are named and given a couple sentences of description -- really just inspirational: it would be no more work to devise one of your own than to develop one of the samples into a full character.
Overall, the baroque background of Nobilis is presented in broad strokes, but the book also inserts brief paragraphs about many specific elements which imply a very large iceberg of undescribed setting. The longest descriptions are given to three of the Imperators on the "Council of Four," who make the rules for all Imperators and Powers on Earth. They don't have stats, though, and all their text still leaves a lot of open questions (like, what kind of Imperators are they?). Most other entities mentioned get only a paragraph.
Small-scale customization of the setting would be fairly simple: little of the material appears really crucial. However, Lord Entropy, most powerful and most evil member of the Council of Four, has made laws that actually matter to the tone of the game and to life as a Noble (the one that makes love illegal is particularly significant), so you'd need to insert him, use a substitute, or accept a significant difference in the game. Larger-scale changes are perfectly possible -- e.g., there's a recurrent idea in gaming circles of using Nobilis as a divine-level capsystem for some other game setting -- but will obviously be more work.
RULES
Nobilis character creation is pretty complex, using a point-buy system with more than one kind of points. The "lifepath" set of questions comes before point assignment: not strictly necessary, but it ensures hooks for your character and looks like a pretty effective creativity pump for players who have trouble getting started.
Point assignment starts with mortal skills and passions. The mortals rules are resource-based like everything else, based on assigning points of Will to supplement skills or passions, thus giving the level of success. Freakishly enough, the mundane mechanics are the most difficult to understand in the whole book. They are not especially complicated, but are highly abstract -- success levels are supposed to translate into your overall goals as well as your specific tasks. There are not nearly enough examples to clarify how this is supposed to work in actual play.
The "miracle" rules, which cover most of what Powers do, are much more extensive and generally clearer. They are built around four attributes rated from 0-5. By spending Miracle Points (MP) you can move up a ten-point action scale (numbered 0-9) for an attribute: these are more clearly defined than the success levels for mundane actions. All four scales go from merely potent to jaw-droppingly powerful, and then up past that to literally world-altering.
Aspect is body and mind: basically, all the usual RPG attributes (except for some bits of Charisma). It interlocks with the mundane action rules at lower levels. Domain and Persona determine control over your Estate, the thing you're the Power of. Domain is straightforward (I create a river) and Persona is more symbolic (I make this thing more river-like, e.g. more fluid and flowing). The distinction is clear in play, and character generation actually requires you to come up with some initial notions of what you can do with both attributes. Treasure governs tools and minions, ranging from ordinary people up to entities potentially mightier than Powers: it may sound like an add-on, but is at least as potent as the other attributes.
All the attributes are bought with a pool of 25 character points. Those points can alternatively be spent on mundane skills (rarely worthwhile), extra Miracle Points, and Gifts, specialized abilities built off the attribute system. Almost every Noble PC will spend the vast majority of their points on attributes.
You also spend a different pool of 13 points on a different set of qualities, all rated 1-5. Bonds are people, objects, or ideals you care about, or alternatively things you're good at doing. Afflictions are things that always happen when you're in the story -- the name is inappropriate, since they can be beneficial and, in fact, I'd be surprised if most Afflictions aren't helpful in actual play. The only catch is that you don't control how they work. Both Bonds and Afflictions can give you MPs when they cause you trouble; they also give bonuses (of different types) during conflicts.
In general, the more powerful miracle wins when there's a conflict: Afflictions provide some shielding from miraculous interference, and Bonds can help your miracles overpower resistance. If a miracle or a powerful-enough mundane effect is targeted against a character, they may end up taking a wound. PCs have five health levels (though some may regenerate during a combat): a wound damages one and imposes a new Bond or Affliction until it heals. Unwanted effects of all kinds (including, say, divinations) use the wound system: total defeat, therefore, may not mean death but will always mean at least losing control over your character for a while. Nobilis are quite durable, so full-fledged defeat should be uncommon.
In longer-term play, players may define and pursue Projects, which can change things permanently. The game does not have an experience point system, strictly speaking, but Projects can be (often will be) used for self-improvement. The same Project system is used whether you're trying to raise your Domain score, resolve a personal drama, or free the souls imprisoned in Hell. The Project system arguably empowers the players even more than their stratospheric mechanical abilities, since it gives them substantial capacity to affect the nature and course of the campaign.
During the character design session(s), the players will also collectively define their Imperator and their Chancel (their home base, a private pocket universe). As campaign building tools, these are handy in giving the players common ties and, usually, collective goals. Your Imperator is guaranteed to have something that prevents them from being helpful to the PCs, and fixing that will be a Project in the technical sense.
There are just enough examples to get a new player through character creation: an applied example of the lifepath system, a bunch of sample Bonds and Afflictions, and sample Domain and Persona miracle charts. There is no single character fully statted out anywhere in the book.
When you turn to actual play... well, complaints about inaccessibility have dogged Nobilis since its first edition, and I have to admit some substance to them. Despite literally decades of experience with rpgs, I still didn't completely get how the mundane action rules are supposed to work after more than one careful reading. The miracle rules are actually pretty clear -- once you get it through your head that yes, the scale of power really is that high -- but a few more examples would help, and could clarify some of the more obscure points. The action and wound systems have some unusual features; they are sufficiently explained but the reader has to pay closer attention than game rules usually require. Overall, the game is crying out for an extended example of play, and there isn't one.
The insufficiency of examples is easily the most serious problem with the book, and the principle reason for the mediocre Style rating. The writing style is a significant plus, as far as I'm concerned, and the layout and organization is otherwise good (I'd give it a 3.5 if the rating was available, but I can't quite see a 4). I am less concerned with the art than many critics, but I concede they have a point: the art quality covers a wide range, but overall... well, it's about what you'd expect to find in the art room at an SF convention. The broad middle of the bell curve is decent but amateurish, and for every superior piece there's at least one that's disappointing. It tends toward the manga influence so popular with the kids these days, which seems to provoke surprisingly hot distaste in some readers.
If the art is a bigger problem for you than for me, I should note that most of the pieces seem to work better as a physical book than on a computer screen. I don't know; maybe it's the colors not being backlit (there's at least one dark piece that's an exception). Or you could go for the (remarkably inexpensive) Kindle edition, for which the art is much less obtrusive.
If any of the preceding sounds remotely interesting, I strongly recommend the game. As a supremely high-powered secret fantasy game, it is without peer. (It's also interesting as a piece of rpg design.) The "typical" Nobilis game seems intended to begin as wild adventure and/or soap opera fantasy, and evolve towards deep exploration -- of the characters (moral quandaries give PCs experience points), and also of the setting and its metaphysics (philosophy in Nobilis is a full-contact sport). But it's hard to predict any given game, particularly since the game strongly encourages player proactivity.
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