gradenko_2000 posted:This is good advice for running games in general, to the extent that it's in keeping with the game's tone. Nobody has stealth, everybody has explosives? Blow it up. And the GM? Let the players blow it up. I kinda want to strip all the explosives and vampires out of NBA and use the rules to run/play a John Le Carre game. Depending on the GM it could either be incredibly exciting or incredibly boring. Has anyone done that? There's so many great spy RPGs suggested by just the equipment and skill lists.
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Jan 20, 2016 01:59
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unseenlibrarian posted:Yeah, and if that's not enough, we could point you at his other game/sourcebook Power Chords but it's currently the only RPG kickstarter that's even more delayed than Far West. I've been waiting for that thing for 10 years. I might just back it, since Brucato's terrible writing aside I pretty much live for 'music is magic' settings, and even if what I read about it seems pretty ham-handed I remember it having a whole bunch of music/magic war stuff that's already in my head/mental map of the world. This thread has made me realize I have terrible, terrible taste. But unlike Fields, Brucato's terrible taste is shared by other people. I can't imagine anyone wanting to play in any Fields game, beyond taking one or two lines and turning them into Unknown Armies character ideas. I would play an Alpha Protocol game in a heartbeat.
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Jan 20, 2016 02:52
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Embedding images is annoying on my phone, but so I can't paste a poster for The Angel of Stone's favorite Ozplotation biker movie: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(1974_film)
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Jan 20, 2016 03:09
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quote:He has mixed feelings over Gabriel, as well, which bothers him. They were once closely associated, as Gabriel's punishing of the cruel worked well with Dominic's role as judge. Her ideas of justice gradually diverged, however - she protested the harsher acts committed in the name of law, and he disliked her haphazard punishment focused on only one aspect of wrongdoing. Islam was the final straw. Dominic and several others on the Seraphim Council opposed the creation of new religions. During the debates, Gabriel lost patience and dictated the Qu'ran to Muhammed before a decision was reached. On comparison to Yves' copy, it was found that there were discrepancies. It was unclear if Gabriel did this deliberately, did it unconsciously as part of her (well, his at the time) prophetic nature, or if Muhammed had inserted them himself. It was enough, however, for Dominic to accuse Gabriel of heresy and begin the trial. Gabriel refused to be judged and stormed out of Heaven. Yves convinced Dominic to revoke the charges, but Gabriel refused to return and became increasingly unstable. Dominic now believes her madness makes her too dangerous to be loose, and he wants her confined for her own safety, if not the safety of her angels or Earth itself. He makes no effort to bring her into custdoy, however. He can wait. Some day, she will cause a major disaster, and then everyone will understand the Truth. Is this still in print and easily available? It seems like it could be a bit problematic.
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Jan 20, 2016 05:18
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Mors Rattus posted:I quite like Dominic, though I wish they'd play up the flexible gender identity more - so few angels have it when they're all essentially sexless, and Dominic/Dominique doing it to the hilt would be neat. I like a sympathetic Dominic, if not one Heaven likes much, because it's just too easy to go 'oh, actually the brooding, gloomy cop angel is the bad angel,' it's such an obvious idea that it's boring. I just assume all the angels are androgonysly bisexual, like in that Neil Gaiman comic about a murder mystery in Heaven that I forget the name of. Gabriel looks like Destiny of the Endless too. quote:As Macklemore says, we live on the cusp of death, thinking it won’t be us. That’s especially true for the Awakened, whose intense insights and godlike powers bring them closer than most of us to the mysteries of their mortality. Whether or not he ever faces down a cyborg in a dark alley – or is that cyborg in the alley, facing something worse – a mage has a keen sense of life and death. When violence erupts, as it all too often does, its effects can’t be ignored. I take back every word I've typed defending this book. Why put the least cool rapper in your book about cool mages? F.A.T.A.L & Friends 4: As Mackmore says.... Something something find this in a thrift shop (that would be a great find though). Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Jan 20, 2016 |
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Jan 20, 2016 07:30
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Cythereal posted:Probably. I think I'd tone down David's brutality a little, seeing groups like skinheads and militias as fundamentally dividing the greater community rather than strengthening it, and I think I'd make Dominic more merciful and willing to work with others as I previously mentioned, probably giving him a more overt sense of empathy - he is Judgment, and that to me implies understanding why the accused did what they did even if he disagrees and must serve a higher purpose and law beyond any individual. I dunno, what little Oi! and street punk music I've heard has tons of songs about brotherhood and stuff, but why not have him ONLY support the SHARPS and anti-racist skins and Antifa? You can still play a badass skinhead, just an explicitly good one.
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Jan 20, 2016 07:40
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Playing a Gumshoe or Dogs in the Vineyard game as a triad of Dominic's angels could be fun.
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Jan 21, 2016 03:27
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I'm guessing they use American Gods rules? Please review that book next. My Borgstromancy skill is getting rusty.
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Jan 21, 2016 04:57
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Nessus posted:There may be thousands of Pikachu... but how many Mudkip? Supernatural just claims that all 'pagan' gods are demons, which lets them kill them easily. It's pretty lame.
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Jan 21, 2016 07:36
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Is part of the joke that Heaven has like 3 separate War/battle Angels?
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Jan 22, 2016 04:29
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Impermanent posted:I like that they've given just about every angel a secret demonic contact in their counterpart. It makes it much easier to do mixed angel/demon games and also gives you a lot more political intrigue in a game that could otherwise be very black and white. I was about to say I like how everyone has a secret, so you can do Paranoia: Heaven. I guess it's also to facilitate mixed parties and Good Omens riffs.
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Jan 23, 2016 04:10
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DigitalRaven posted:That is the best way to handle it. Leaving it to GM fiat means that a human can beat the Devil with a fiddle in Georgia (or a guitar in Scunthorpe), without having it as a codified weakness that the characters can game. Ashes to Ashes (the TV show)?
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Jan 23, 2016 13:25
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quote:At lower levels, they also work as doctors (to emphasize the importance of regular sex), teachers (with their own slant on curriculum) and so on. FWD:FWD:FWD:FWD: Is Obummer's Sex Ed A Demonic Plot? This is everything many Fundies fear. quote:And, well, some of Andrealphus' projects are about protecting humanity - solving problems like world hunger, AIDS, safe fuel sources and peace, without having angelic inspiration. Take away the rape and forced prositution, and Andre starts to look like the hero of the setting. Is that an artifact of the game's origins as an anti-Catholic satire?
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Jan 24, 2016 01:49
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He just needs to be Redeemed by the love of a good Angel. I'm thinking one of the martial ones like Laurence or Michael, for maximum contrast. Or Novalis or Eli (the most fascinating character, IMHO) if you want to be boring. Or just keep him as an amoral Destiny of the Endless type, I guess. Is there a way to use him to make players fall in lust without taking away their agency? Some kind of Compel? I guess I took part of the game as having 'dials' for the different factions, so you can play them as good or as evil as you wanted, with the Angels being surprisingly bad and the demons having surprising goodness. I imagine the 'default' campaign to be 'Angel and Demon elope from Heaven to have a kid, with everyone after them - that made a decent Hellblazer arc and I think it was in Preacher too.
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Jan 24, 2016 03:04
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Haagenti played for comedy is John Belushi. Played for horror, he's Jim Belushi (or at least the We Hate Movies version). He's the ultimate slobs vs snobs comedy! Lucifer is the crusty old Dean, Andre's the queen of the cheerleaders, Kobal is Bill Murray or whoever, etc! It's like Stripes in Hell. Reading this writeup while eating an English Breakfast is fun.
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Jan 24, 2016 03:22
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Sounds like the basis for Shakesperean comedy. After a ton of mischief, Andre gets married and Haagenti caters the wedding.
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Jan 24, 2016 04:36
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 I guess Eurynomus is a real demon, but I thought it was a clever nod to this: quote:Euronymous used Dead's suicide to foster Mayhem's 'evil' image and claimed Dead had killed himself because death metal had become 'trendy' and commercialized.[12] In time, rumors spread that Euronymous had made a stew with bits of Dead's brain and had made necklaces with bits of his skull.[13] The band later denied the former rumor, but confirmed that the latter was true.[10][13] Moreover, Euronymous claimed to have given these necklaces to musicians he deemed worthy,[14] which was confirmed by several other members of the scene, like Bård 'Faust' Eithun[15] and Metalion.[16]
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Jan 24, 2016 12:43
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This seems relevant:  quote:...that's not how the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle works. It's actually rather noticeable that every single time Brucato says something about science, he says something that is at worst plain wrong and at best just incredibly stupid. It ranges from this example here and his claims about mass and acceleration, to the claims that the universe being made from a viscous superfluid validates the aether theory and that tying ancient Sumerian prophecies into recent papers on string theory is in any way profound (it actually just makes one sound like a conspiracy theorist). Th last thing I want in my game about reality warping mages fighting secret battles is conspiracy theories. I feel like you need a pinch of 'but what if new developments in science make it all true, maaan?' to really capture the tone of 90s sources like Snow Crash and The Invisisbles. I read two separate comics that referenced Julian Jaynes' fringe theories on the bicameral mind. The trick is to put in references to fun, interesting bullshit that encourage further reading. I'm more bothered by the gun/tank porn - I never got statting that kind of thing up. Make things as powerful as they need to be for the story you want to tell, so a tank could be a massive endboss or just canon-fodder if your Mages really want to go to town. 90 stats for individual guns are less powerful than the idea of a Shotgun or a Revolver. The whole thing should be way more rules-lite and freeform anyway, since the magic system gives players such a high degree of narrative control. I'm bugged by how Mages apparently can't ride a motorcycle or handle their drugs, but weed making Time magic easier is a detail I always appreciated. Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jan 24, 2016 |
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Jan 24, 2016 20:49
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Kavak posted:I've had fever dreams more consistent and logical than M20. That's why I love it. Kobal feels way too Original Character Do Not Steal. The other demons and Angels have some kind of basis in theology or actual sins. Maybe they could have made him a funny Prince of Envy, or just give another demon a sense of humor. Even his name is stupid.
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Jan 25, 2016 08:42
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Nybbas and Rex are the best - you could easily have them win the war, since the Angels are so clearly uncool. But most of the demons are too. Maybe they engineer a twist ending? If you need to keep Kobal, maybe him a low-level Wordbound in Nybbas' organization.
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Jan 26, 2016 04:17
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Evil Mastermind posted:Geez, that's halfway into hell's version of "Entourage", isn't it? http://www.avclub.com/article/scenes-from-the-ementourageem-movie-that-is-our-li-104845 Sean O'Neal already wrote that script: quote:MARK WAHLBERG Read the whole thing. God shows up. Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 06:26 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 06:20
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Anything Kobol does, Nybbas can do better. There's a Hellblazer comic written by Ian Rankin about Big Brother in Hell that you could steal for one of his plots.
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Jan 26, 2016 06:56
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All I want in this world now is to play that hard-boiled 30s Demonic reporter. Hell I want a whole TV series - if they can turn Lucifer into a cop show (they just did) where's my newsroom filled with demons and at least one angel, getting the scoop at all costs?quote:Kandid Kamera is Nybass' secret service, working in two main areas, surveillance and enforcement. Their ability to get recordings of anything is unequaled, even by the Game, though the accuracy of those recordings is sometimes dubious. They are reasonably efficient and rarely short on folks to spy on, but because everyone knows much of their evidence is faked, they need personal or physical evidence to take on demons of high rank. Kandid Kamera's at its best on Earth, where the evidence they produce or procure isn't scrutinized as heavily, and an entire branch of the organization is dedicated to gathering blackmail on humans of use to the Media. Now we know what Andrew Breitbart does after he died. Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Jan 27, 2016 |
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Jan 27, 2016 01:59
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quote:The Ephemera, meanwhile, is both library and gallery, containing all works of art ever dreamed or imagined by humans but never made. It takes up several floors, and it never ends. Sculptures and paintings cram into eavery inch of space, showing vague dream-images of what might have been and might be. It does link to Yves' Library, and when a writer finishes a book they had dreamed of, the book is dutifully sent over from the Tower to be reclassified. The angels of Dreams are terrible librarians, so Yves has sent some shared angels to put the shelves into order...though they still spend much more time sharing the dreams then they do cataloging or helping patrons. At the highest point of hte Tower is an open balcony with a parapet. It is known that Blandine spends much of her time there, and it is high over the mists of the Vale. From its edge, it is possible to see Beleth's Tower on the horizon. All angels are brought to the balcony when they fledge, to be shown the enemy. Straight from Sandman, but otherwise Blandine is not Morpeheus enough for my tastes. I'd have the Marches try to be independent and make a third faction, unfettered possiblity away from Heaven's solid war and Hell's gross lusts. Is this written by Borgstrom? Is there Dream Combat rules?
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Jan 28, 2016 06:01
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The Peacemaker could be terrifying as the ultimate enforcer of the status quo, the negotiator convincing everyone to stop fighting a corrupt company or oppressive regime, the moderates on your side convincing you to work with your oppressor. They could let their boss 'peacefully' resolve conflict through money or government.
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Jan 28, 2016 12:04
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In Nomine turned one of my favorite art movies, Wings of Desire- which is basically about Angels silently floating around in Berlin, falling in love, going to a Nick Cave concert and hanging around with Columbo - into an RPG character class. That's unexpected, but I'm not sure how you'd play them.
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Jan 28, 2016 22:47
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Something bothers me about the beautiful but insane prophet woman trope, but I'm not sure what or why. It seems a bit too common/trivializing? Otherwise she could be Liz from Hellboy.
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Jan 29, 2016 03:39
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JesterOfAmerica posted:Truly Bugs Bunny is the greatest power in the world Well... yeah, he is. Even Wil E Coyote got the Jesus treatment in the Animal Man issue The Coyote Gospels. The modern Trickster - Bugs Bunny, The Mask, your average comedy hero - is that powerful since most stories about them have them constantly winning. Which is fine and awesome in media centered around them, but when you put them in a shared RPG universe you get... Kobal, or FishMalks. I feel like the Trickster both needs to exist by UA's internal logic - it's one of the most obvious Archtypes - and should be kept at arm's length from the setting. Unless you've got Bill Murray or somebody that good in your group, make it NPC only... hell even then use it sparingly, if it all. If you really, truly need to shake up a campaign toss a Trickster in. Otherwise, nobody knows who they are or if they even exist. Maybe they're the Comte or something. In Nomine... man, I want to make a DJ Khalid joke but going from Demonic Media Mogul to bad views on Islam is such whiplash. Khalid has a point that every angel has supported dodgy things, but the game doesn't seem to view it that way.
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Jan 31, 2016 01:47
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quote:Almost all of Khalid's angels speak fluent Arabic, as Arabic is the language of the Quran. Does this mean that Angels (and Demons) can't speak all human languages by default? That seems odd, since in the Bible they could speak and everybody listening would hear them in their own language. I get that Biblical Rome and the Middle East were more multilingual than modern America, but restricting Angels to one language just seems odd. Like how in oWoD you needed a bunch of dots in Linguistics to learn a few languages.
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Jan 31, 2016 02:08
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Mors Rattus posted:Angels only get one human language free. Other than that, they have to take them as skills or learn the Corporeal Song of Tongues. I'd give them all the Song of Tongues for free, but that just reflects my personal religious upbringing.
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Jan 31, 2016 02:22
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Maybe reducing the power of the Trickster could be a UA campaign, but I can't see how that's possible. You could claim that beloved comedians dying or falling from grace is a potential Trickster being stopped, but that somehow seems too dark even for UA. Maybe there is no Trickster - everybody just assumes there is, so potential avatars make fools of themselves trying to live up to it, but they always fail. Or maybe Andy Kaufman shows up in the person of his 'manager' to give the campaign the little nudge it needs. And what does it mean that Jim Carrey played him, a literal avatar of Loki, and a man who broke through the sky of a false reality? On another note, Yves is the first Archangel I actually like.
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Jan 31, 2016 09:20
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I'm curious about The Final Trumpet. Does Yves not have one of those 'different ways to play him' bits? You could do The Absent-Minded Librarian, Peter Falk from Wings of Desire (the nicest man in the world), The Enigmatic Puppetmaster or Literally Just Borges/Destiny of the Endless. I'd be inclined to make him genuinely nice. Too many angels are assholes. The one thing I like about Kahil is that most of the other Angels respect him. Keep that bit, drop everything else.
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Jan 31, 2016 20:38
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Hypocrisy posted:I feel the opposite. The archangels have pretty much all been decent sorts, at least to humans if not each other. The most hostile ones would seem to be Michael and Dominic and even that feels pretty tame. I guess a bunch are mad at Eli too but all of the archangels accepted his angels when he left. I just don't find anything relatable in all that martial honor/duty junk. It just seems like a straitjacket. Even Eli and the other hippie angel don't seem as fun as Media, Gluttony, and Lust. They actually like and cultivate human appetites, instead of subsuming them to a pointless war. Guess that means I'm going to Hell, but it's probably a valid way to play the game, as it is with most of these modern supernatural things. In most of In Nomine's source material, Angels are ASSHOLES. And c'mon, Stone supports white supremacists, Laurence supported the Crusades and pushes all that knightly bullshit, Michael is the original Heavenly rear end in a top hat....
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Jan 31, 2016 21:19
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Rand Brittain posted:I'm not sure if cultivating human appetites is that great in and of itself. Nothing about Nybbas indicates that he wants to foster good television. But he GETS that everything is image and POV. That reality is how you spin it. And even bad television still feeds a human need. It's not some abstract ideal based on notions from centuries ago.
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Feb 1, 2016 02:27
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Tsilkani posted:Just realized a Kyriotate of Destiny is pretty much Sense8 the TV series, with the sharing of knowledge between the different hosts. That'd be kind of neat to play. I had the same thought! I kinda default to Angels being the worse side due to growing up reading all the Vertigo comics In Nomine is based on, plus Catholic school. The default is kinda 'the Angels are bad, did I just BLOW YOUR MIND?' and In Nomine seems to come from that tradition. Plus, as the noted theologian William Joel notes, "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints [3]. The sinners [4] are much more fun." Why is there an angel of trade/capitalism? Was that part of the satire? Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Feb 1, 2016 |
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Feb 1, 2016 03:27
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Mors Rattus posted:In Nomine's default position is that while Heaven's not perfect, Hell is much worse. The GM's guide talks about running In Nomine Backwards, which is 'Hell is the good guys,' and low-contrast In Nomine, which is 'both sides are roughly equal, morally speaking.' It just feels like they need to try to make Hell evil by inserting things like Haaganti's cannibalism, and they're easy to remove. It's the same problem that dates back to Dante and Milton - Hell just feels more interesting and more ALIVE. But hey, any game that gets you debating theology has to be good. How is it actually played? Like GvsE or Good Omens where street level Angels and Demons meet and plot? Alemon sounds fun.
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Feb 1, 2016 03:51
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Cythereal posted:Haagenti is Gluttony. You really thought he wouldn't be evil? It's hell. Sins are only sins if you buy into the theology that says they're sinful. Like I said, there's a long tradition of Hell not being evil. Or writers trying to make Hell evil and horrific but failing - way more people have read Dante's Inferno than his Paradiso and Purgatorio, and Milton hated how everyone lionized his Lucifer. quote:To me, only a few of the demon princes have been interesting so far: Nybbas, Kronos, and Asmodeus. But with a few exceptions, they don't seem to actually LIKE or even care for humanity, except in some disinterested, paternal way. Heaven's goal is to drag humanity into some stupid war. Heaven wants us to eat and gently caress and pose and burn and die, and loves when we do those things we'd do anything. It's telling that Heaven doesn't have anyone watching over death, the most natural process (though I guess it was only supposed to come into being with The Fall?). Besides, Hell has a sense of humor and fun, and every Prince seems to spawn a bunch of potential plots - the last one lets you run Demonic Paranoia. Where's the cheeky counterpart to the Hellish Media?
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Feb 1, 2016 04:07
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Bieeardo posted:I remember there being an Angel of Teen Suicide in some fluff attached to one of the adventures, and an adventure in Pyramid (?) revolving around some kind of cloak and dagger battle for the Word of Flowers. I always figured that in the case of apparently irredeemable or innocent Words, claiming one was a strategic move to deny the Enemy its potency. Flowers is the most powerful word, if you're playing Nobilis. Holy poo poo. Nobilis. Novilis. Also The Angel of Teen Suicide makes sense if you listen to a ton of 50s teen ballads: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KG_VIcoiCFA Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Feb 1, 2016 |
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Feb 1, 2016 06:04
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wiegieman posted:Yeah, but Nobilis is 90% bizarre wiccan nonsense No way, I have no interest in Wicca and Nobilis is wonderful. It's one of those games that just sparks creativity - I remember doodling character ideas in my college notebooks based on whatever I was studying that day. It's kinda the purest expression of the narrative and symbolism based RPGs I like. This poo poo makes way more sense to me then the 'math' that governs most games.
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Feb 1, 2016 08:22
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quote:250 kilos over nuclear material have been confiscated by the Romanian security police since 1989, including 32 kg of "red mercury", desired by nuclear terrorists, techno-alchemists and vampires. The agents are fed a lead on the red mercury's current whereabouts - by who? Why? http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/magazine/the-doomsday-scam.html?referer= Here's a million plot hooks for any modern supernatural game. Cythereal posted:Hell also wants to drag you into exactly the same war, incidentally, for exactly the same reasons. To demons, humanity is nothing but cattle. They care about you the same way you care about prime beef. Are we talking factory farming or dry-aged, farm-to-table, beautifully treated organic beef? If Hell wants to get my Essence by keeping me drugged up, loved up and full of food that's fine with me. Speaking of drugs, why do so many RPGs have this weird reactionary streak around them? I'd have Drugs be something created, corrupted, or fought over by other Angels and Demons - Commerce, Technology, etc. Though the Drug War being demonic and Angels being cool with it would be funny.
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Feb 2, 2016 00:49
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