in_nomine-digest Tuesday, June 4 2002 Volume 01 : Number 2662 In this digest: Re: IN> Baby Angels Re: IN> Is combat in IN too draggy? Re: IN> House rules Re: IN> Baby Angels Re: IN> Baby Angels RE: IN> House rules IN> WoD in IN? Re: IN> WoD in IN? Re: IN> WoD in IN? Re: IN> Baby Angels Re: IN> Baby Angels IN> Limbo Stick! (was Re: IN> Songs of Limbo) Re: IN> Limbo Stick! (was Re: IN> Songs of Limbo) Re: IN> House rules Re: IN> Is combat in IN too draggy? Re: IN> Limbo Stick! (was Re: IN> Songs of Limbo) RE: IN> Baby Angels IN> Vaputech Implants IN> Re: man from limbo Re: IN> Vaputech Implants Re: IN> Re: man from limbo Re: IN> Re: man from limbo Re: IN> Limbo Stick! (was Re: IN> Songs of Limbo) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 10:39:54 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Baby Angels At 4:02 AM -0700 6/3/02, W S wrote: >*blahs* > >Just woke up, can't remember where I read this, but >there is at least one plot seed that has the PCs >babysitting for a Lilim, guarding what seems to be a >gremlin or imp. Towards the end of the adventure, >however, Lilith comes by to say hello to her granddaughter... Superiors 1, pp. 136-137, "Strange Bedfellows." *peers* Hm. That one should have been a Pyramid adventure. It's squished. - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 10:08:01 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Is combat in IN too draggy? At 2:10 PM -0700 6/1/02, W S wrote: >Possible solutions? None come to mind! Celestial >combat takes a long time to really resolve, if both >parties stay to duke it out. Possibly reducing the >Celestial Hits to just the sum of Will and Perception >would help (as opposed to CelF * Will), but perhaps not. I dunno... We took out a young Tether's Seneschal with a Song of Seals and a Kyrio of Lightning with major Will and the Song of Acid. The Malakite of War got in a few drop- kicks, but, er, I think the kill went to Bezzie within, er, about 2-3 rounds. It was kind of an anti-climax, really. O:> The Mercurian of the Wind Ethereal-Motioned the Shedite's computer into the walls until it bounced out of there, with drop-kicking from the Malakite NPC (who had Proficiency: unarmed combat, BTW), and then the Malakite ("Come out and play, demon!") and the Kyrio did a number on it, with assistance from the Seraph of Destiny to add insult to injury. Mind, I think Bezzie's a 10-Force Kyrio, with 5-6 Celestial Forces and Will out the wazoo*, not to mention some Fighting skill, not to mention Song of Acid at a fairly high level. For a non-combat character, he's a real wombat.** I don't remember what damage the Shedite did -- it wasn't a BIG Tether, so it didn't have a lot of Essence to play with, and it may have made some non-optimal choices, like attacking the Malakite first. (Dumb move! When your options are a Seraph, a Malakite, and a Kyrio -- hit the celestial Kyrio first!) But no one was taken down a Force by it. * If any creature can have a Wazoo, it's a Kyriotate. ** Combat wombat. - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 10:44:02 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> House rules At 9:54 PM +0000 6/2/02, Perry Lloyd wrote: >I've also included /social stats/ and brief guidelines on how to use them - >any and all comments and constructive criticism is welcome, as well as >suggested alternative names for them, since at the moment they smack of >White Wolf. I dunno about the names, but I'd think that some of the other skills might acquire different/additional defaults -- Lying, for instance, might be the higher of what it already is, and Manipulation, while Seduction would want Presence or Appearance... - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2002 12:25:45 -0400 From: Eric Eves Subject: Re: IN> Baby Angels >>Bam, Baby Bright! And Laurence will immediately show up to volunteer to >> be the godfather... >I would have thought that it would be a Baby Virtue since Lilith is the > > only source of Lilim. Ah, but what if /both/ parents were Lilim? - -Eric ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 12:52:31 -0400 From: "William J. Keith" Subject: Re: IN> Baby Angels >>>Bam, Baby Bright! And Laurence will immediately show up to volunteer to >>> be the godfather... > >>I would have thought that it would be a Baby Virtue since Lilith is the >> >> only source of Lilim. > >Ah, but what if /both/ parents were Lilim? > >-Eric I can make something of a case for 4 options: a.) Lilim (Bright) b.) Lilim (Green) c.) Malakite d.) Boom! e.) Nothing -- stuff just doesn't "take." In my opinion, the boring easy answer is e, the fun campaign premise is a, the wacky possibility is c, the other fun campaign premise is b, and the one to torture conscientious players with is d. If you were an angel, though, would you risk b or d? William ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 12:27:36 -0500 From: "Brook Freeman" Subject: RE: IN> House rules > I'm using the Eden Project (name?) Eden Ban is how I've heard it referred to. Brook ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 12:44:02 -0700 (PDT) From: W S Subject: IN> WoD in IN? So, I'm morbidly curious. Has anyone tried to bring either IN to the Storyteller system or the WoD critters in the d666 mechanics? If so, where could I find their results? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 16:06:54 -0400 From: "Eric Bertish" Subject: Re: IN> WoD in IN? > So, I'm morbidly curious. Has anyone tried to bring > either IN to the Storyteller system Yes, and to great success. It tends to require handwaving and fast-and-loose rulings, however. > If so, where could I find their results? Unfortunately, it's only in my diseased brain, and I'm not due for a cortex-downloading anytime soon. I hope to put fingers to keys one day and have the full conversion on my campaign's website, but I suffer from A) procrastination, B) writers block, and C) too many toys at home to distract me. Until that day, you can peruse what little there is at http://www.the8thvirtue.org:81/in-nomine/inwod/index.html . And if you want to see more, pester me through email. If I reply to enough questions I'll eventually have the rules codified. ;) - -- Casca "Many people hear voices when no-one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing." --Margaret Chittenden, writer ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 22:11:10 +0200 From: "Donato Ranzato" Subject: Re: IN> WoD in IN? From: "W S" > So, I'm morbidly curious. Has anyone tried to bring > either IN to the Storyteller system or the WoD > critters in the d666 mechanics? If so, where could I > find their results? There has been a article on the Pyramid website called: Celestials in the World of Darkness, by Sean Jaffe - 10-22-1999 Conversion rules and campaign advice for adding In Nomine-style Celestials to any World of Darkness roleplaying game. I don t know of any article to convert WoD critters into IN. Donato ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2002 16:32:53 -0400 From: "Steven E. Ehrbar" Subject: Re: IN> Baby Angels Eric Eves wrote: > Ah, but what if /both/ parents were Lilim? I'd say, an angel (Bright-Bright, Bright-normal, or normal-normal assisted by an Archangel) or demon (normal-normal cross assisted by a Demon Prince) of the involved Superior's Chior/Band (the corresponding Choir one in the case of Bright crosses assisted by a DP). In the case of a Lilim Superior? I'd have something strange and/or spectacular happen, like: 1.) Both parents destroyed as the new Lilim is born. 2.) Superior destroyed as the new Lilim is born. 3.) Human or Ethereal produced. 4.) New, never-before-seen Choir/Band manifests. 5.) NonSuperior but Yves/Kronos-like Celestial born 6.) Failure, and both parents are fused into a single Celestial 7.) Lucifer-like being able to bind Words to celestials created. 8.) Failure, but parents, Superior become both ungeasable -- and unable to geas others 9.) Normal angel/demon of another Choir/Band born -- but one parent has her Choir/Band change to match ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 16:17:39 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Baby Angels At 12:25 PM -0400 6/3/02, Eric Eves wrote: >>>Bam, Baby Bright! And Laurence will immediately show up to volunteer to >>> be the godfather... > >>I would have thought that it would be a Baby Virtue since Lilith is the >> >> only source of Lilim. > >Ah, but what if /both/ parents were Lilim? They get a reliever or a demonling, depending. That one's been tried, plenty of times. O:> No Lilith's Special Blend Secret Herbs and Spices, no Lilim. - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2002 17:31:53 -0500 From: "Gregg Forge" Subject: IN> Limbo Stick! (was Re: IN> Songs of Limbo) >>From: "Bergeron, Robert F., DS1(SW)" >> >>Songs of Limbo - Increases the Singer's ability to twist and wiggle. All >>versions cost one Essence, but require a successful dance or acrobatics >>check to perform. > >NEW ARTIFACT! > >Limbo Stick > >The Limbo Stick is used in a West Indian dance known as the Limbo. Limbo >dancers keep bend over backward and pass under the Stick without knocking >it down. The Stick is lowered slightly with each pass, making each pass >more difficult. >Cost: None. >Activation: None. > And now, in a tribute to Project: A-Kon, Super Smash Brothers Melee, and all levels of wrongness... Limbo Stick Rev 2! Created by, of all things, a dissonant Elohite of Eli who was finding himself far too often involved in physical combat with Demons, and was incredibly adverse to actually soul-killing where he could help it, the Limbo Stick appears to be a Golden Sparkling Baseball Bat with Red Grip Tape. The reason for this emphasis is that, even to non-celestials, the bat sticks out like a glowstick-wielding raver at a Young Republican's convention; when seen, it can NOT be missed. This bat serves as a combat reliquary, with the stipulation that the bat does, with the expenditure of a poinnt of essence per swing, no actual lasting physical damage. Instead, upon reaching a complete 'loss' of hits, or upon a single unmodified maximum damage swing from the bat, the individual on the receiving end of the wallop sails off into the distance, and disappears without a trace. The body/vessal is utterly destroyed, and the soul/celestial/ethereal within is batted clear to Limbo. Kamika-Z ...where, of course, the essence-gathering begins... _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 19:31:26 -0400 (EDT) From: "Christopher Anthony" Subject: Re: IN> Limbo Stick! (was Re: IN> Songs of Limbo) Gregg Forge said: > The body/vessel is utterly > destroyed, and the soul/celestial/ethereal within is batted > clear to Limbo. You realize, of course, that this opens up a whole new can of worms. Can a human in Limbo generate a vessel? If so, does it automatically have to look like the last one? Adventure seed: About a year ago, a friendly NPC suffered a tragic loss: one of his relatives simply vanished, leaving everything behind. There was no forwarding address, no indication of where he was going; he just disappeared one day. Now, a stranger has come to the door, claiming to be the lost relative. The stranger looks nothing like him, and has no identification, but can answer any question put to him - even the most private - about the relative's life. Thus, the NPC has come to the PC group for guidance. He knows of their Phenomenal Cosmic Powers, and is interested in having them scout out this stranger-cum-relative and see what's going on. Mercurians will note that, although the information's a little fuzzy, all of the stranger's relations seem to point to the relative's family and friends. Malakim will note that the least honorable thing this stranger has done is vanish without a trace for a little under a year. (Exceptionally perceptive ones will note that it's not really his fault. He still feels bad about it, though.) Seraphim will note that he believes that he's telling the truth, and the Symphony... well, it's not exactly forthcoming on that particular reply. A Seraph of Destiny, however, will be able to tell that his True Name meshes with the name of the relative. All in all, everything seems to point to this stranger being the genuine article. Now, what happened? All the stranger remembers is being attacked in an alley by a very large, very angry-looking man. After being hit several times with a club of some sort, the stranger recalls feeling as though he was fading out - in fact, he thought he was dying - and nothing for the next year or so except a vague greyness, as though he were in a coma. Then, as suddenly as anything he'd ever experienced, he found himself in a nearby park - in the body he always wished he'd had. There are a few clues here that indicate that the stranger really was killed, and was simply rejected (for whatever reason) by the reincarnation process; these same clues also tend to indicate that the man is actually a Saint, although his memories of Heaven have been blanked. (A quick check with Laurence will reveal this to be untrue, although again, Seraphim are a little fuzzy here.) Eventually, though, impossible as it's supposed to be, someone is going to bring up Limbo, which happens to fit every available piece of evidence, except naturally that non-celestials can't *go* there. There are two avenues, then, that the PCs can take. One is to try and figure out what the stranger *is*, considering that he can't possibly be a human; once it's been determined that the PCs are wrong about that particular assumption, the other avenue is to try and find the big, angry guy who seems to have figured out how to send humans to Limbo... - -EDG ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 20:14:24 -0400 From: "Eric Bertish" Subject: Re: IN> House rules > Eden Ban is how I've heard it referred to. Yes. http://www.the8thvirtue.org:81/in-nomine/inwod/edenban.html - -- Casca ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 10:08:01 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Is combat in IN too draggy? At 2:10 PM -0700 6/1/02, W S wrote: >Possible solutions? None come to mind! Celestial >combat takes a long time to really resolve, if both >parties stay to duke it out. Possibly reducing the >Celestial Hits to just the sum of Will and Perception >would help (as opposed to CelF * Will), but perhaps not. I dunno... We took out a young Tether's Seneschal with a Song of Seals and a Kyrio of Lightning with major Will and the Song of Acid. The Malakite of War got in a few drop- kicks, but, er, I think the kill went to Bezzie within, er, about 2-3 rounds. It was kind of an anti-climax, really. O:> The Mercurian of the Wind Ethereal-Motioned the Shedite's computer into the walls until it bounced out of there, with drop-kicking from the Malakite NPC (who had Proficiency: unarmed combat, BTW), and then the Malakite ("Come out and play, demon!") and the Kyrio did a number on it, with assistance from the Seraph of Destiny to add insult to injury. Mind, I think Bezzie's a 10-Force Kyrio, with 5-6 Celestial Forces and Will out the wazoo*, not to mention some Fighting skill, not to mention Song of Acid at a fairly high level. For a non-combat character, he's a real wombat.** I don't remember what damage the Shedite did -- it wasn't a BIG Tether, so it didn't have a lot of Essence to play with, and it may have made some non-optimal choices, like attacking the Malakite first. (Dumb move! When your options are a Seraph, a Malakite, and a Kyrio -- hit the celestial Kyrio first!) But no one was taken down a Force by it. * If any creature can have a Wazoo, it's a Kyriotate. ** Combat wombat. - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2002 21:14:21 -0500 From: "Gregg Forge" Subject: Re: IN> Limbo Stick! (was Re: IN> Songs of Limbo) > > The body/vessel is utterly > > destroyed, and the soul/celestial/ethereal within is batted > > clear to Limbo. > >You realize, of course, that this opens up a whole new can of worms. Indeed ah do! > >Can a human in Limbo generate a vessel? Last I checked, they could; stranger things have (and do!) ended up in and worked their way out of Limbo... > >If so, does it automatically have to look like the last one? That's the clincher, now, ain't it? ;D > >Adventure seed: About a year ago, a friendly NPC suffered a tragic >loss: one of his relatives simply vanished, leaving everything >behind. Yeeeeeeeeessssss! >Eventually, though, impossible as it's supposed to be, someone is >going to >bring up Limbo, which happens to fit every available piece >of evidence, except naturally that non-celestials can't *go* there. THIS part is a bone of contention, but I can't argue it until I get home; that's where all my books are, for once. >There are two avenues, then, that the PCs can take. One is to try >and >figure out what the stranger *is*, considering that he can't >possibly be a >human; once it's been determined that the PCs are wrong >about that >particular assumption, the other avenue is to try and find the big, angry >guy who seems to have figured out how to send humans to Limbo... If he's even figured out that's what he's been DOING! Kamika-Z, who is continuing to harvest essence offa this... _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 22:44:41 -0400 From: "Bergeron, Robert F., DS1(SW)" Subject: RE: IN> Baby Angels - -----Original Message----- From: Eric Eves [mailto:eeves@erskine.edu] Ah, but what if /both/ parents were Lilim? - -Eric They're smart enough to not go around pissing momma off. DS1 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 02:12:48 -0400 From: "William J. Keith" Subject: IN> Vaputech Implants A long while back, I posted an "Essence Magnifier," basically a device intended to take x Essence being expended through it, and output y Essence on whatever the intent of the expenditure was, where y > x. It was implanted -- visibly -- on the user, by Vapulan surgeons. It had its flaws, but all in all it wasn't too shabby. It was, however, intended to be the first of a line of Vapulan implants for In Nomine, exploring notions of selfhood, the expression and loss thereof, and The Machine; in part sparked by the neat illustrations in Vapula's writeup for S4, in part mentioned in the text in a few throwaway lines. Life being what it is, the project got put by the wayside. Now, however, the juices are flowing again on this one. - -------------------- Force Jar Cheap Forces... theoretically. A Force "Jar" comes in two parts: one is a metallic "headband" that is about two centimeters high and a few millimeters thick, made of smooth dark metal, with slots on top for circuitry interface. This is implanted into the recipient's head, and does nothing by itself. The second part is a cap of the same metal that fits over the recipient's head, with a bit of exposed circuitry around the bottom that locks into the appropriate ports on the receiving headband. Each cap contains a Force of any chosen type. When worn, the cap can provide the effects of its stored Force. A demon otherwise lacking a Corporeal Force can go to Earth; an amnesiac can be restored far enough to process the information in such memories as remain. Activities based on Forces will take the stored Force as one of the user's own, and attributes will be increased, etc. Nothing can be pushed past its species maximum, and Undead and Remnants have "species maximum" of effectively 0 for Celestial Forces. The caps can be removed and worn at will, and traded if desired. Now the downsides. The configuration of any given Force is fixed -- that is, the points it grants for attributes remain the same. A particular cap might raise Intelligence by 1 and Precision by 3, for example -- at least, if the recipient doesn't already have Intelligence at maximum, or Precision within 2 thereof. Second, the caps can be stolen or damaged -- some might have the Unbreakable feature, but removability is integral to the concept. Summonability is a valuable feature, though. Third, each time the cap is removed, roll against Will. On a failure with a CD of 6, one of the recipient's own Forces is removed instead of the cap's Force, which stays. Choose the realm randomly, as well as the attribute points lost. If the user is overfull on Essence, the excess also does a Soul Hits equal to the total Essence held as it exits the user. The recommended cost for a Force Jar headband base is half as much as for a normal Force, modified by costs for additional Features like Unbreakable. Caps cost no points unless they are bound to the owner with a feature like Summonable; they are meant to be traded by demons willing to swap parts of themselves like commodities. This design was sparked by the headgear of the troops on the cover of S4 (which, okay, was not a headband). - -------------------- Mechanical Numinous Corpus The recipient of one of these implants need not know the implanted Numinous Corpus, although the artificer-surgeon must. Horns, Claws, Fangs, Fins, Spines, and Tail are the versions currently known, though Andre is sponsoring research into certain Ornamentals. They cost the same Essence, and make the same Disturbance, to activate as the Song. Upon activation, the appropriate NC takes form, extruding from the performer's body as finely jointed silvery mechanisms. This is cosmetic, at the moment -- they have the same effect as the Song known at the surgeon's knowledge level. The devices require no Song roll, never failing as long as they operate. The true advantage of the implant, though, is not evident until the normal duration of the Song is up -- the implants are physical devices, and, though as vulnerable to wear and damage as any Numinous Corpus, do not vanish automatically! They may be retained for as long as desired. The user must spend an *additional* Essence to command the devices to retract, whereupon they fold themselves into the user's skin and cover themself with a flexible skin-colored plastic. Unless the user tans noticeably or is subjected to a close medical exam, they will not be noticed while retracted. The other downside is that, as physical relics, the implants may be subject to breakage, whereupon the relics will no longer function. The recommended cost for a Mechanical Numinous Corpus is as a standard relic of the level of the artificer's Song, with the Convenience: worn hidden(+3), creates a disturbance when used(-1), and 1 Essence required above the usual 1 for the Song (-1), for 1 point per level, plus any costs for features a player would like to have added. This relic was sparked by the glove-things on the cat on page 113 of S4, as was: - -------------------- Sensory Enhancers Normally, a player can increase his Perception after creation, but eventually will have to buy another Force to cover it; in GURPS, Acute (fill in sense here) is almost impossible to receive later. These devices can get around those problems, and fairly cheaply in terms of points. (They are also old standbys in cyberpunk, which I was trying to avoid -- there are extensive catalogs of mundane cybernetics elsewhere -- but that's because they're just so useful, so they're here too.) A plate implanted over, and replacing, one eye can give bonuses to vision rolls, though no more than 3 unless both eyes are replaced or the other eye is removed (the difference in the two visions becomes too much to reconcile). Hearing can be augmented with a device which, unless closely inspected, looks like a pair of hearing aids(at higher levels, *large* hearing aids). Touch can be augmented with a skin-grafted, flexible circuit patch over the area where sensation is desired enhanced, usually the hands. Clothing can hide it, though none but expert makeup can. Smell can be enhanced by replacing the nose with what looks like a metallic sculpture of an animal's snout -- almost totally undisguisable, though smell is now good enough to track by. To purchase this relic, spend half the points which would have been required to purchase the necessary boost at caracter creation. Besides the cat, the shooter's eyeplate on p. 118 contributed to this. - -------------------- Bound Unholy Pistol This pistol comes with a cable attaching it to a socket in the user's temple. The cable can be carefully removed and replaced with a minute's work each way. Yanking it out does Body hits equal to the level of the Pistol. The Unholy Pistol can more effectively use the Essence pumped into it by the user -- it converts faster via the direct link, allowing the pistol's full rate of fire for the round rather than the single shots such weapons usually require. Purchase as a standard Unholy Pistol -- the usefulness of the increased rate of fire balances out (or at least is intended to balance out; talk to a non-Vapulan and you may get a different answer) the socket implant and the extra target the cable presents. The obvious spark for this one was the shooter on page 118, of course. - -------------------- Symphonic Monitor Demons don't want to expose themselves to the Symphony at large. Humans have a difficult time of it, period. However, the benefits of being able to hear the Symphony intimately are undeniable. Therefore, why not have a piece of equipment to do the hearing for you? A Symphonic Monitor consists of a blocky eyeplate or ear covering of dark metal. It does not replace these organs -- a *careful* cutaway will reveal a functional organ, surrounded by a ring of broken circuitry which had tied the user's brain (or celestial analogue thereof) to the display or speaker unit. The unit operates thusly: attuned to a particular concept in the Symphony, it will continuously compare the surrounding Symphony to that concept, displaying a waveform or sounding a tone which can be translated to glean information about the presence of that concept in the Symphony *as it currently affects the user*. Thus, for example, if the device is attuned to 'angels', it will register slightly if an angel in a Vessel comes into the user's view; more strongly if the angel begins talking to the user; and if the angel attacks the user, it will almost certainly approach peg. Attuning it to 'demon', 'relic', or 'Technology' will produce unreadable high-energy garbage continuously. The understanding of this output is not innate -- translation of the device's output is a skill which requires practice like any other (in GURPS, it is a Mental/Very Hard skill; in In Nomine, it is based on Precision). Furthermore, Vapula's algorithms are still under development; the device itself has an effective Perception for its currently-attuned concept, which the GM will need to roll against in any important situation in order to determine if the device even has the desired information. As usual for information devices, on a critical failure or unfavorable Intervention, convincing incorrect information is provided. The higher the Perception, the more useful the artifact, naturally. The attuning is the really hard part. Any being capable of giving out a Rite or Attunement can attune the device to its own nature fairly easily with a moment of concentration. This includes Word-bound celestials, or ethereals with worship rites. However, for arbitrary concepts, the only way to attune the device to a particular concept is to have the device exposed to the phrase describing the concept (five words or less is the limit, though the more precise, the better the device's accuracy)... spoken in *Angelic*. Forcing an angel to take celestial form is no easy task; nor is finding one in a Tether speaking the desired phrase. Hunting a Reliever down, maybe in the Marches, is perhaps the most likely track to bear fruit. If the demon can influence a Vassal of War (!), their verbal code will also work. William ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2002 10:05:46 +0000 From: "cassandra benner" Subject: IN> Re: man from limbo >One is to try and >figure out what the stranger *is*, considering that he can't possibly >be a human; once it's been determined that the PCs are wrong about >that particular assumption, -EDG Um.. my coupon for a 2cents says he's a Ethereal thingy. Created from the dreams of the relatives, and given enough essence to get a body and come earthside. He'll know the family details, cos they fed them to him, the rest will be easy enough for him to blag.. Cas *Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be Evil.* In Nomine @ http://www.angelfire.com/goth/psyber/i-n.html In Nomine yahoo @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/inveritas ADnD forum @ http://www.drunkendwarfinn.co.uk ADnD stuff @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ADandD_Stuff _________________________________________________________________ Join the world s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 05:56:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN> Vaputech Implants - --- "William J. Keith" wrote: > A long while back, I posted an "Essence Magnifier Which is still in the INC. > Force Jar Heh heh... this has potential. > Mechanical Numinous Corpus Not as cool as Vapulan Cyberzombies, but it'll do. > Sensory Enhancers As you said, useful. But the visibility feature will limit the effectiveness in a campaign set in the present. > Bound Unholy Pistol I'm surprised that you didn't call it the Unholy Smartgun. > Symphonic Monitor This has some munchkin potential, but the single-concept attunement feature minimizes it. ===== Michael Walton, #US2002023848 "Be aware that most people are operating on a highly condensed version of the 10 Commandments... the part about murder." -- Mark Bricklin __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2002 11:10:06 -0300 From: "vez o'rama" Subject: Re: IN> Re: man from limbo >From: "cassandra benner" >Um.. my coupon for a 2cents says he's a Ethereal thingy. >Created from the dreams of the relatives *snip* Ooo... Which brings up an interesting idea... pale images of children lost wandering through the Marches, vitalized by parental grief. When parents find out what has actually happened to their child (that they really are gone), the ethereal image fades out... Weak ethereal apparitions wandering around bearing shocking resemblance to the children on milk cartons is kind of eery, and would definitely add ambience to a dark Marches campaign. Very Michael Marshal Smith! Thanks! <:D - - vez _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2002 14:26:37 +0000 From: "Janet Anderson" Subject: Re: IN> Re: man from limbo >Ooo... Which brings up an interesting idea... pale images of children lost >wandering through the Marches, vitalized by parental grief. When parents >find out what has actually happened to their child (that they really are >gone), the ethereal image fades out... Hmm. What about "They," by Rudyard Kipling? Janet Anderson _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2002 10:52:58 -0400 From: "Steven E. Ehrbar" Subject: Re: IN> Limbo Stick! (was Re: IN> Songs of Limbo) Gregg Forge wrote: >> Eventually, though, impossible as it's supposed to be, someone is >> >going to bring up Limbo, which happens to fit every available piece >> of evidence, except naturally that non-celestials can't *go* there. > > > THIS part is a bone of contention, but I can't argue it until I > get home; that's where all my books are, for once. > Heaven & Hell, p.79. "Humans and ethereal spirits, and even stranger beings (for example, ceslestial Children of the Grigori) have also found their way into Limbo on rare occasions." ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2662 ********************************