in_nomine-digest Thursday, February 21 2002 Volume 01 : Number 2554 In this digest: Re: IN> Consider Animals-Technical Explanation Re: Humans and Words (was Re: IN> Tethers of... Re: Jordi (rant)) Re: IN> Consider Animals-Technical Explanation Re: IN> Book Info Request Re: IN> Cherub of Fire IN> Jordi's relationship with other superiors IN> Updated call for IN PBEM players Re: IN> A question on Celestial Combat... Re: IN> A question on Celestial Combat... IN> Re: IN Time Travel Re: IN> Consider Animals-Technical Explanation IN> Heck, *I* think that it's weird... (Part I) IN> Heck, *I* think that it's weird... (Part I) IN> Heck, *I* think that it's weird... (Part II) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 20:00:32 -0500 From: Christopher Pipinou Subject: Re: IN> Consider Animals-Technical Explanation On Wed, 20 Feb 2002 19:16:22 -0500 Mike Bruner writes: > At 04:42 PM 2/19/02 -0500, you wrote: > But with Jordi as written, his interests so poorly overlap with the rest of Heaven > that it's too often a ridiculous stretch to get one of his people involved in a > campaign for prolonged periods. Dunno, I always felt Blandine was harder ... at least Jordi works in the same PLANE. Perhaps, sometimes, it's a matter of "A Servitor of Jordi works in the area, and is friends with another PC; when said PC is in trouble, the Jordite offers assistance?" Not the greatest of excuses, but... Best, Chris ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 17:24:56 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: Humans and Words (was Re: IN> Tethers of... Re: Jordi (rant)) - --- Michael Walton wrote: > > --- Donato Ranzato wrote: > > Earth could be one big Tether of Eli. > > If that were the case, demons would take damage > just from > entering the Corporeal plane. Maybe it's too diffuse? Attenuated over vast distances, after all. It'd only be a problem around the locus, which would have to be Eli himself (trust me, you don't want to think about that for too long). Of course, the amount of soul hits that a demon would take by assuming celestial form anywhere near a Tether locus that's also an Archangel of the first rank would probably be ... well, we're talking Instant Death, essentially: "Crikey! It's Eli! I better go tell my Prince!" (assumption of celestial form) (bzztzp noise and a quick flash of blue light) (ashes drift on the wind) Well, now we know why Hell doesn't know where Eli is, either... :) Moe ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 01/01/02(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 00:59:16 -0000 From: "Genevieve Cogman" Subject: Re: IN> Consider Animals-Technical Explanation - -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Pipinou To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com Date: 21 February 2002 01:08 Subject: Re: IN> Consider Animals-Technical Explanation >Perhaps, sometimes, it's a matter of "A Servitor of Jordi works in the >area, and is friends with another PC; when said PC is in trouble, the >Jordite offers assistance?" Not the greatest of excuses, but... That's one of the reasons I used in my own campaign, when we had a Kyriotate of Jordi around. There's also the fact that Jordi does not generally approve of any demonic work -- well, apart from the very rare cases that I'm sure you could come up with in order to disprove my point. If one of his angels should happen to run across a clear example of demonic work, *even if it was only affecting humans*, I feel that Jordi would want his Servitor to put a stop to it, and possibly even trace it back to source where appropriate. Just because the talking monkeys frequently annoy him, due to their stupidity or perversity, doesn't mean that he's going to leave them in pain or let them be damned to Hell. I mean -- he is an angel. Genevieve ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 20:43:13 -0500 From: "Michael Nutt" Subject: Re: IN> Book Info Request > I know I'm going after at least one of the Superiors books (either 1 or 4, > since I have 2 and I want to wait on 3), plus probably the IPG and In > Nomine Anime. But I'll have money left over, and I'm not sure what to get. > 2: ...any other recommendations? ^^;; I have the core book, Sups 2, and Rev > 5 at the moment. And after In Anime, the IPG, and Sups 1 or 4, I should be > able to afford at least two more books... Here are my recommendations: Liber Canticorum -- "Gotta have, no matter what". Any of the Superiors books, Corporeal Player's Guide -- "Buy as soon as feasible." Game Master's Guide, Liber Servitorum, Liber Reliquarum, IPG -- "Buy soon, but not as urgent" Liber Castellorum -- "Buy when convenient" Angelic Player's Guide, Heaven and Hell -- "Buy on eBay" Other Revelations books -- Not Recommended. You Are Here -- I don't own it, so I can't make an informed recommendation. - -- Michael ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 21:02:26 -0500 From: "Michael Nutt" Subject: Re: IN> Cherub of Fire > One of my players wants to play a Cherub of Fire. The problem I can see is > that a Cherub of Fire must punish everyone s/he meets that has betrayed > somebody devoted to them. As s/he recognizes such persons just by looking at > them it means that just walking along a busy street s/he will meet a number > of people she can -and must- punish. > Have other GMs encountered this problem with a Cherub of Fire and if so, how > did they solve it? How can I make sure a player with a Cherub of Fire will > have fun playing his character while preventing him from any kind of > solitary play? Others have addressed the issue pretty completely, but let me also point out that there are some angels that just don't work well in a particular story, and should be avoided. It's good that you're thinking ahead, so I'd recommend sitting down with your player and saying, "Look, here's the kind of game I want to run, and I think this character concept might not work well for these reasons." Come to an understanding of what the player wants to do, and see if it can be made a reasonable part of your story. For example, if you want to play a game that's heavily focused on intrigue and information-gathering, a combat-monster Seraph of War with 5 Corporeal Forces isn't going to fit in well. See if there's something about the player's character concept that can be adapted to another type of angel. > Also, what is a fun person that needs to be protected by a Cherub? I expect > that other GMs have created interesting "charges" for their Cherubs and > maybe they can share experiences. I was thinking of a local politician or a > well-known artist (as the latter would fit better with Gabriel). The artist > can be a brilliant painter but with the tendency to use drugs and other > self-destructive tendencies to get inspiration from. In my experience, PC Gabrielites work best as quasi-Windies, coming and going as needed. PCs tend to lack the subtlety needed to frequently punish the cruel while not blowing your cover over the medium to long-term. Assigning a Cherub of Fire to a long-term protective mission may just wind up frustrating you and your player. You might want to think about having the Cherub assigned to protect a loose group, without asking it to attune to any particular member. - -- Michael ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 21:12:22 -0500 From: "Charles Phipps" Subject: IN> Jordi's relationship with other superiors Some areas where Jordi however DOES get along with other supeiors: Allied: Novalis "Ooo we just get along goody goody gosh great! Animal rights, Preservation of Wildlife, Concerts...who knew Jordi was a Gwar fan? Jordi doesn't agree a great deal with my redeem em all policy very much but...err well it's....I'm not supporting it you know but you know when they're about to rape and eat my flowers children it's nice to have a big old ATTACK dog...ooo dissonance!" Eli: "*snore* huh! The colors! Oh hey. Yeah me and Jordi go waaaaaaay back. The trick when you work with Jordi is to make sure that no animals be hurt in your testing...no people either if you can manage it. It's a balancing act. Jordites will be willing to help you introduce a nuclear toaster to the masses (provides it's eco-friendly) but you have to promise you'll be there to raid Mary Kay's place to make off with the bunnies." Associated: Michael: "Yeah Jordi still gives me those puppy dog eyes every time humanity nearly wipes out everything on Earth. I remember the big game of fetch we had to play after the Cuban Missle crisis. Of course I caught the stick farther than he could and to this day he plays it alone with himself but we'll heal. Jordites hate demons and that makes them okay in my follower's books. They also eat the bodies too if in the appropriate vessels so kudos." David: "Aside from Moles (I *HATE* moles) animals benefit signifantly from my association on Earth. Furthermore a pet teaches a great deal of responsibility and toughens oneself to the world dealing with the consequences even as one benefits. We often exchange ideas on domestication and it's a poor streetgang or fire truck without a dog." Gabriel: "We must SMITE those who are cruel to doggies! Then the doggies will rise up and devoure child molesters!" Hostile: Jean "Animals are nice...especially when lighting hits them....*twitch* Sorry, I dislike Jordi and his goals a great deal but our followers get together on occasion. For instance we get together to hunt demons because that's what we do. We will never physically harm the other and actively undercutting another's work is grounds for Dominic's interference. We are on the same side and when in the same area we can rely on each other...grudingly." Marc "Jordi is still ticked off I thought it would save a lot of problems by efficentizing Cattle-ranching. Pretty much what Jean said but we occasionally find common ground with give and take" _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 03:15:54 +0000 From: "Janet Anderson" Subject: IN> Updated call for IN PBEM players The schedule of my Bright, High Contrast, almost entirely canon PBEM has changed. It's now Monday and Wednesday from 9:00 to 11:30 pm EST. I still need players. Janet Anderson _________________________________________________________________ Join the world s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 00:01:39 -0500 From: "Michael Nutt" Subject: Re: IN> A question on Celestial Combat... > > >Yep. In fact, the Celestial Song of Light, a fairly well-known > > >Song, is probably the most common way for a Celestial in a > > >Vessel to attack someone who's just gone Celestial, while > > >remaining immune to Celestial damage themself. > > > > And then there's the Celestial Song of Stone, from the *Liber > >Canticorum,* which enables you, or your chosen weapon, to > >hit something that's in celestial form while you're still wearing > >a vessel ... as hard as you can hit it corporeally. But it's limited > >to Servitors of Stone. > > But this does imply that you can't normally, ie: without a song or > attunement, hurt someone in Celestial Form while you are in a Vessel. Pretty much. There's also the section on pp. 65-66, that discusses movement and attack range in celestial form, which implies that one needs to be in celestial form to actually engage in celestial combat. You're right that it doesn't explicitly state it, in the way that p. 63 discusses ethereal combat. Still, it's a pretty strong implication. I think I smell a clarification for the Errata page... > BTW, thanks to everyone else for the different ideas on how to lay the > beats down on people in Celestial Form. =) In my experience with the game, celestial combat is pretty rare, although not unheard of. If you get lucky and an opponent blows his Will roll to ascend (not uncommon with angels, and not as rare as you might think with demons), remember that he can't try again for at least an hour, and it may be longer than that. Interventions can also play havoc with anyone trying to flee. Soul-killing is generally a result of someone getting bushwhacked while in his celestial form. It usually requires several celestials ganging up on one target in order to do enough damage to strip Forces, and it really helps if the target is low on Essence. You've got to find a way to keep the target from dropping into a vessel; the Ethereal Song of Forbidding can come in handy here. Other solutions are left to the creativity of the reader, although manipulation is often a favorite. Note that celestials cruising in the Marches can be celestially attacked (p. 64), and it requires a Will roll to "wake up" (p. 52). - -- Michael ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 00:06:56 -0500 From: "Eric Bertish" Subject: Re: IN> A question on Celestial Combat... >attacked (p. 64), and it requires a Will roll to "wake up" (p. 52). Or you can stick a finger up their nose. Wakes 'em up every time. (Okay, how many people are going to get that reference?) - -- Casca _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 05:40:03 +0000 From: "Jonathan Walton" Subject: IN> Re: IN Time Travel >Where's the damn IN Time Travel supplement?! Actually, that's right in line behind finishing my IN China proposal and getting the Tattered PBeM off the ground :) In fact, I could use some time travel at the moment, just so I could actually get some stuff finished! Seriously, I've got a massive stack of notes for fleshing out the "In Nomine/Continuum" ideas I was playing with earlier, actually making it into a playable concept, but have yet to find a block of time to work on it. Still, the logo is done :) One of these days I'll get some content to go with "In Nomine Continuum: Good & Evil, Life & Death, Time & Space" ... Later. Jonathan _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 00:54:17 -0500 From: Mike Bruner Subject: Re: IN> Consider Animals-Technical Explanation At 08:00 PM 2/20/02 -0500, you wrote: >On Wed, 20 Feb 2002 19:16:22 -0500 Mike Bruner >writes: > > At 04:42 PM 2/19/02 -0500, you wrote: > > But with Jordi as written, his interests so poorly overlap with the > rest of Heaven > > that it's too often a ridiculous stretch to get one of his people > involved in a > > campaign for prolonged periods. > >Dunno, I always felt Blandine was harder ... at least Jordi works in the >same PLANE. I'm sure fostering dreams requires some work on the Corporeal plane, especially since the function of a lot of her servitors is given as "protecting particular important dreamers" which might be hard to do just in dreams. Not to mention one of the major uses one can get from the Ethereal plane is information which can be applied on the Corporeal. Admittedly the subject is also addressed well in Superiors 3 in Blandine's writeup, which Jordi hasn't had yet, so maybe a good writer can address this concern for him. >Perhaps, sometimes, it's a matter of "A Servitor of Jordi works in the >area, and is friends with another PC; when said PC is in trouble, the >Jordite offers assistance?" Not the greatest of excuses, but... I suppose that could work; you need an excuse why the Servitor happens to be in the area, but that could be done. As long as their primary work is taken care of, I'm sure Jordi won't mind helping other angels so long as his usual rules are followed. They are members of the same "pack", after all. - -- Mike Bruner-- mbruner18@home.com Give a hobbit a fish and he eats fish for a day. Give a hobbit a ring and he eats fish for an age. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 22:23:42 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> Heck, *I* think that it's weird... (Part I) So, I was sitting around rereading the CPG, when I came across David E's extremely cognent point about how the proper use of humanity can keep an IN campaign from mutating into a 'hidden superheroes/villains' riff. Please bear in mind that I have no problem with this. It was just that I was studiously avoiding several other projects, I had this half-finished thing on my desktop, and, well, I'm me. Anyway: rough draft (I dunno if I'll even be keeping the name of these guys) and all that. Comments welcome, as always. Moe Elementalism This odd version of Sorcery is new - so new, in fact, that neither Heaven nor Hell has noticed it yet. Note the use of the word 'yet'. After the smoke clears, most researchers on both sides are going to find the entire nature of Elementalism to be highly confusing. It's clear that the below skills and rituals are Sorcerous: the requirements for users are the same as for regular Sorcerers, and the disciplines seem to draw upon the intersection of human will and the Symphony in roughly the same way. It's just that nobody will be quite ready to believe that comic books can be a legitimate route to apotheosis... Becoming an Elementalist As near as anyone can tell, the minimum requirements are a Will of 6 and at least the potential for 6 Forces. Possession of the Sorcery Attunement (or Symphonic Awareness) is not required, at least at first: the potential Elementalist will be picking those up along the way, provided that he or she is worthy. The triggering mechanism seems to be, terrifyingly, comic books. Lots and lots of comic books. Entire shelves - nay, rooms - of comic books, read over and over and over again. Sometimes, when conditions are correct, the potential Sorcerer will begin to see an underlying pattern to the myriad graphics and story lines. If these patterns are obsessively mapped out and analyzed there is a good chance that a qualified researcher will be able to make the conceptual leap to seizing the power that lies just beneath their quivering fingertips. This conceptual leap, among other things, will provide the researcher with the Sorcery Attunement, one Skill/1 and one Ritual/1. If the Elementalist doesn't have 12 points available to pay for this (the Symphonic Awareness comes free), he or she will also gain one or more of the Disadvantages found below... In general, it takes roughly twenty uninterrupted hours of research to allow the use of an experience point for learning or developing an Elementalist skill/ritual. Once a particular issue of a comic has been 'research', it cannot be used to gain further points. Also, note that the research does not give free points: PC Elementalists will have to pay for their new insights with earned experience, or else take one of the Elementalist disadvantages. Skills Air (Will) This skill governs movement; it is the least understood of the four Elemental Skills (or possibly just the most ritualized). Earth (Will) This skill deals with various defensive disciplines; most Elementalists will have it at respectable levels. Fire (Will) This skill permits various forms of Sorcerous attack; it is usually the first one learned by Elementalists, and mastery of it is pursued with zeal. It is also the least indirect. Water (Will) Oddly, this skill explores the negation of other types of Sorcery. Elementalist rituals are merely the most vulnerable. SCIENCE! (No default) This is knowledge of the true physics of the universe: not the puny science of those fools back at the University, but the way things really are. Armed with this superior knowledge, the character can create wondrous devices that duplicate the awesome powers demonstrated by the below rituals: also, this skill is a prerequisite for Gadgetry. Incidentally, regular Sorcerers would call this skill Enchantment, for good reason: it is. Gadgetry (Intelligence) This skill is used to create temporary devices that utilize the principles of SCIENCE! In game terms, it is treated as an exact duplicate of the Alchemy skill, mostly because it actually is the Alchemy skill. Rituals It should be noted that the below Rituals are generic: each Elementalist learns on his or her own, and routinely develop variants. Unless specifically noted, each variant Ritual is to be treated as a distinct entity, and must be learned separately. Air Rituals Faster Than... (Air/1) A success at this ritual allows the Elementalist to drastically increase the CD of a successful Running or Swimming roll (chosen at the time that the Ritual is learned): double the CD for every level of the ritual. Duration: CD minutes Time: 15 seconds Essence: 1 per 2 levels. Able To... (Air/3) This ritual is essentially equivalent to Numinous Corpus: Wings, except that there does not necessarily have to be actual wings involved, and speed is a base 100 yards per round for every 2 Essence spent. Duration: CD hours Time: 1 minute Essence: 2 to 6 Jumpy Flippy Guy (Air/6) Use of this ritual allows an Elementalist to essentially ignore gravity and inertia. He will be able to run up walls, fall from the top of a skyscraper and land safely, sneer at relative velocity and generally act as if he had a permanent target number of 12 on his Acrobatics rolls. In combat, add the CD of the ritual to all of the Elementalist's Dodge rolls, and s u b tract the same from the Dodge rolls of his opponents (attacking from odd directions, and all that). Duration: CD minutes Time: 5 minutes Essence: 6 Earth Rituals Costume (Earth/1) This ritual will make one's clothing (and up to 5 pounds of items) more or less immune to the side effects of using one's other powers. This can be handy for individuals that (for example) routinely burst into fire... Duration: 24 hours Time: 15 seconds Essence: 1 Tough as Nails (Earth/2) This ritual increases the toughness of the performer, giving him a protection equal to the level of the ritual times the amount of Essence spent. Duration: CD minutes Time: 1 minute Essence: 1 to 3 It's Just a Flesh Wound (Earth/3) This ritual regenerates Body Hits at the rate of 2 per round. Duration: 2 minutes Time: 3 minutes Essence: 3 Cat-Like Reflexes (Earth/4) This ritual makes it harder for others to hit the performer: s u b tract a successful ritual's CD from all corporeal attacks made against the Elementalist. Duration: CD minutes Time: 1 minute Essence: 4 Rhino Hide (Earth/4) There are many distinct Rhino Hide Rituals: each one will allow the performer to utterly ignore one type of attack (chosen at the time that the Ritual was learned; it may not be changed later). Some common types are hand to hand combat; lasers; fire-based attacks; cold-based attacks; gu n s ; and so on. Duration: CD minutes Time: 1 minute Essence: 5 Sponge (Earth/6) Like Rhino Hide, only more so: the performer is effectively immune to all corporeal damage while the ritual is in effect. If the Corporeal Song of Shields could have blocked it, so will Sponge. Duration: CD minutes Time: 1 hour Essence: 6 ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 01/01/02(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 22:24:16 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> Heck, *I* think that it's weird... (Part I) So, I was sitting around rereading the CPG, when I came across David E's extremely cognent point about how the proper use of humanity can keep an IN campaign from mutating into a 'hidden superheroes/villains' riff. Please bear in mind that I have no problem with this. It was just that I was studiously avoiding several other projects, I had this half-finished thing on my desktop, and, well, I'm me. Anyway: rough draft (I dunno if I'll even be keeping the name of these guys) and all that. Comments welcome, as always. Moe Elementalism This odd version of Sorcery is new - so new, in fact, that neither Heaven nor Hell has noticed it yet. Note the use of the word 'yet'. After the smoke clears, most researchers on both sides are going to find the entire nature of Elementalism to be highly confusing. It's clear that the below skills and rituals are Sorcerous: the requirements for users are the same as for regular Sorcerers, and the disciplines seem to draw upon the intersection of human will and the Symphony in roughly the same way. It's just that nobody will be quite ready to believe that comic books can be a legitimate route to apotheosis... Becoming an Elementalist As near as anyone can tell, the minimum requirements are a Will of 6 and at least the potential for 6 Forces. Possession of the Sorcery Attunement (or Symphonic Awareness) is not required, at least at first: the potential Elementalist will be picking those up along the way, provided that he or she is worthy. The triggering mechanism seems to be, terrifyingly, comic books. Lots and lots of comic books. Entire shelves - nay, rooms - of comic books, read over and over and over again. Sometimes, when conditions are correct, the potential Sorcerer will begin to see an underlying pattern to the myriad graphics and story lines. If these patterns are obsessively mapped out and analyzed there is a good chance that a qualified researcher will be able to make the conceptual leap to seizing the power that lies just beneath their quivering fingertips. This conceptual leap, among other things, will provide the researcher with the Sorcery Attunement, one Skill/1 and one Ritual/1. If the Elementalist doesn't have 12 points available to pay for this (the Symphonic Awareness comes free), he or she will also gain one or more of the Disadvantages found below... In general, it takes roughly twenty uninterrupted hours of research to allow the use of an experience point for learning or developing an Elementalist skill/ritual. Once a particular issue of a comic has been 'research', it cannot be used to gain further points. Also, note that the research does not give free points: PC Elementalists will have to pay for their new insights with earned experience, or else take one of the Elementalist disadvantages. Skills Air (Will) This skill governs movement; it is the least understood of the four Elemental Skills (or possibly just the most ritualized). Earth (Will) This skill deals with various defensive disciplines; most Elementalists will have it at respectable levels. Fire (Will) This skill permits various forms of Sorcerous attack; it is usually the first one learned by Elementalists, and mastery of it is pursued with zeal. It is also the least indirect. Water (Will) Oddly, this skill explores the negation of other types of Sorcery. Elementalist rituals are merely the most vulnerable. SCIENCE! (No default) This is knowledge of the true physics of the universe: not the puny science of those fools back at the University, but the way things really are. Armed with this superior knowledge, the character can create wondrous devices that duplicate the awesome powers demonstrated by the below rituals: also, this skill is a prerequisite for Gadgetry. Incidentally, regular Sorcerers would call this skill Enchantment, for good reason: it is. Gadgetry (Intelligence) This skill is used to create temporary devices that utilize the principles of SCIENCE! In game terms, it is treated as an exact duplicate of the Alchemy skill, mostly because it actually is the Alchemy skill. Rituals It should be noted that the below Rituals are generic: each Elementalist learns on his or her own, and routinely develop variants. Unless specifically noted, each variant Ritual is to be treated as a distinct entity, and must be learned separately. Air Rituals Faster Than... (Air/1) A success at this ritual allows the Elementalist to drastically increase the CD of a successful Running or Swimming roll (chosen at the time that the Ritual is learned): double the CD for every level of the ritual. Duration: CD minutes Time: 15 seconds Essence: 1 per 2 levels. Able To... (Air/3) This ritual is essentially equivalent to Numinous Corpus: Wings, except that there does not necessarily have to be actual wings involved, and speed is a base 100 yards per round for every 2 Essence spent. Duration: CD hours Time: 1 minute Essence: 2 to 6 Jumpy Flippy Guy (Air/6) Use of this ritual allows an Elementalist to essentially ignore gravity and inertia. He will be able to run up walls, fall from the top of a skyscraper and land safely, sneer at relative velocity and generally act as if he had a permanent target number of 12 on his Acrobatics rolls. In combat, add the CD of the ritual to all of the Elementalist's Dodge rolls, and s u b tract the same from the Dodge rolls of his opponents (attacking from odd directions, and all that). Duration: CD minutes Time: 5 minutes Essence: 6 Earth Rituals Costume (Earth/1) This ritual will make one's clothing (and up to 5 pounds of items) more or less immune to the side effects of using one's other powers. This can be handy for individuals that (for example) routinely burst into fire... Duration: 24 hours Time: 15 seconds Essence: 1 Tough as Nails (Earth/2) This ritual increases the toughness of the performer, giving him a protection equal to the level of the ritual times the amount of Essence spent. Duration: CD minutes Time: 1 minute Essence: 1 to 3 It's Just a Flesh Wound (Earth/3) This ritual regenerates Body Hits at the rate of 2 per round. Duration: 2 minutes Time: 3 minutes Essence: 3 Cat-Like Reflexes (Earth/4) This ritual makes it harder for others to hit the performer: s u b tract a successful ritual's CD from all corporeal attacks made against the Elementalist. Duration: CD minutes Time: 1 minute Essence: 4 Rhino Hide (Earth/4) There are many distinct Rhino Hide Rituals: each one will allow the performer to utterly ignore one type of attack (chosen at the time that the Ritual was learned; it may not be changed later). Some common types are hand to hand combat; lasers; fire-based attacks; cold-based attacks; gu n s ; and so on. Duration: CD minutes Time: 1 minute Essence: 5 Sponge (Earth/6) Like Rhino Hide, only more so: the performer is effectively immune to all corporeal damage while the ritual is in effect. If the Corporeal Song of Shields could have blocked it, so will Sponge. Duration: CD minutes Time: 1 hour Essence: 6 ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 01/01/02(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 22:24:53 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> Heck, *I* think that it's weird... (Part II) Fire Rituals Stronger Than (Fire/1) A successful use of this ritual increases the performer's Strength by the (the level of the ritual + the CD). This will not increase Body Hits, but will affect Fighting and Large Weapons rolls. Blast (Fire/2) There are - or will be - literally hundreds of versions; the idiosyncratic nature of Elementalism is nowhere more obvious than in the Blast ritual. No matter the variant, they all have the following statistics: Power (level of Blast + CD + Essence spent), Accuracy 0, Range 75. This attack may be Dodged. Duration: Instantaneous Time: 1 round Essence: 1 to 6 Flame On! (Fire/3) Despite the name, flame is not necessarily involved: essentially, the Elementalist will become covered with some sort of dangerous s u b stance (chosen at the time that the ritual is learned). Some examples of this would be fire, ice, acid, electricity or poisonous smoke. The performer will be immune to the effects, but anyone in the same hex will suffer CD/2 (round up) Body Hits per round, and anyone who comes in actual contact with the s u b stance will suffer CD hits per round. Duration: CD hours Time: 5 minutes Essence: 4 Jet (Fire/4) The ritual allows the performer to project some sort of damaging s u b stance (chosen at the time that the ritual is learned): this s u b stance causes CDx2 Body Hits per round of contact. As for Jet, the attack may be Dodged. Duration: 1 minute Time: 2 minutes Essence: 4 Zap! (Fire/5) Much like the Blast ritual, except that the Accuracy is +2 and armor only protects at only half value. Duration: Instantaneous Time: 2 rounds Essence: 6 There is currently no Fire/6 ritual, but not for lack of looking... Water Rituals Drain (Special) This Ritual is the Banish of Elementalism: a successful use of it will negate any Sorcerous Ritual. However, there are restrictions. First off, a variant of it must be learned for each specific type of Ritual. For example, a Drain Blast will work against any Blast, but will do nothing for Zap! Also, if the Ritual to be Drained is known at a higher level then the effects of that Ritual are mitigated, instead of cancelled. To continue the example, a Drain Blast/2 will stop any Blast/1 or Blast/2, but only reduce the effective level of any higher Blast Ritual by 2. Finally, a Drain may never be learned at a higher level than the Elementalist's Water skill. It is possible to learn a Drain ritual that will let one Drain someone else's Drain, but any Elementalist who goes down that path too far will find himself in deadly danger of succumbing to a nasty case of infinite regression... Appropriate Disadvantages Most Elementalists will have at least one of these, at varying levels. Metahuman (Corporeal) (3pt/level) This represents an obvious alteration in body type (such as turning into a living-metal statue, becoming a glowing field of anthropomorphic energy, etc, etc). Elementals with this Disadvantage must make a Will Roll (plus the level of the Disadvantage) to assume their Metahuman form before they can perform their Rituals: unfortunately, it takes a Will Roll (minus the Disadvantage level) to turn the Metahuman form off. The higher the level of the Disadvantage, the more obvious the changes; also, many celestials generally react at -2 per level to Elementals in their Metahuman form (as will some humans). Pu n s ter (Corporeal) (1pt/level) Self-explanatory: Elementals with this Disadvantage just won't stop, and thus get a -1 reaction per level from roughly 95% of the population. Angst (Ethereal) (3pt/level) Individuals with this Disadvantage tend to act in a fairly morose and depressed manner. They also have a bit of a problem with pulling their punches (Will roll to make any attack at less than full level), which gives them lots more to be depressed about. They also like to wear dark-colored clothing. Anybody that has to deal with their sudden mood swings will usually react at -2 per level. Compartmentalized Life (Ethereal) (2pt/level) Elementalists with this Disadvantage go to exceedingly long lengths to keep their 'secret identities' secret: this preoccupation with secrecy and deceit is worth - -2/level for anybody close to them who doesn't know of their extracurricular activities. You can only miss so many dinners before you start hurting the ones you love. Evil Overlord (Ethereal) (3pt/level) A favorite of those Elementalists out there that decided to use their powers to Rule the World (or a portion thereof), this Disadvantage keeps things somewhat balanced. Those with this Disadvantage, whenever they develop a nefarious plan (or just make a Tactics roll), must also roll against Intelligence, minus the level of Evil Overlord. If they fail, the plan or tactic will look fine, but will have a flaw in it that an ordinary five-year-old could see through. No reaction modifiers on this one: it's bad enough as it is. Fashion Victim (Ethereal) (1/pt level) Wearing colored underwear outside long johns is just the tip of the iceberg for Elementalists with this Disadvantage. It just gets worse from there. It's worth a -1 reaction per level from people with any sense of style. Four-colored Glasses (Ethereal) (3pt/level) Elementalists with this Disadvantage have a real difficulty in not dividing the universe into simple dichotomies (the two most common ones are Good vs. Evil and Us vs. Them). Moral absolutes are the order of the day: this should be role-played. In tricky situations, the Elementalist may make a Will Roll to properly deal with ambiguity... but they should still be portrayed as disliking it exceedingly. Generally, the higher the Disadvantage, the sharper the dividing line: this is usually good for a -2 per level reaction from those on the other side of it. Glory Hound (Celestial) (4pt/level) This Disadvantage doesn't interfere with Essence gathering: quite the contrary. It allows the Elementalist to better draw Essence from crowds. Normally, a group of 10 people can provide about 1 Essence to a particular ritual by acting in an appropriate manner. For Elementalist purposes, 'an appropriate manner' is equivalent to 'looking up in the air and pointing' ... and the number of people needed per point of Essence drops by 1 for every level of this Disadvantage. The Essence may only be used to fuel Elemental Rituals going on at that exact moment in time. Still, this is hardly a flaw: indeed, the only reason why Glory Hound is considered a Disadvantage at all is due to the base -6 to reaction rolls per level that the Host will show to anyone with it, once Heaven works out what's going on... Elementalism in a Campaign There are two things that have to be remembered, here. First off, Elementals are Sorcerers, with all the advantages and disadvantages that the state entails: they can learn regular Sorcerous rituals without difficulty (provided that they have the right teaching materials), have Symphonic Awareness, can engage in Will Wars... and are exceptionally willful individuals. They simply filter everything through their own unique viewpoint. This can cause headaches for celestials, as even the humblest Elemental is willful nearly beyond human ken. The second (and related problem) is that Elementals are possibly the one set of Symphonically Aware entities with no real interest (or reason) to keep the War quiet. They may very well identify themselves with one side or another - demons and angels are staples of superhero comics, after all - but they generally see no reason to keep things quiet. Indeed, with their ability to tap a crowd for Essence (something probably best left unrevealed, at first), they have a vested interest in as much publicity as possible. Neither the Host nor the Horde is going to go along with this, of course - too many necessary things would become too difficult to do - but there's the minor problem that, physically at least, Elementals are formidable entities indeed. The perceptive reader will note that this particular flavor of Sorcery doesn't seem to deal much with mental abilities, whether offensive or defensive: this is deliberate, in order to allow celestials some sort of potential controlling mechanism on the entire thing. Still, the raw power of Elementals can be troublesome, both in the short and long term. This particular phenomenon could have deleterious effects on attempts to keep the secret of the War. You have been warned. ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 01/01/02(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2554 ********************************