From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Mon Apr 21 11:20:58 1997 Return-Path: Received: from lists.io.com (root@lists.io.com [199.170.88.15]) by deliverator.io.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA27748; Mon, 21 Apr 1997 10:58:37 -0500 (CDT) Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id KAA05907 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Mon, 21 Apr 1997 10:20:01 -0500 Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 10:20:01 -0500 Message-Id: <199704211520.KAA05907@lists.io.com> From: owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com (in_nomine-digest) To: in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Subject: in_nomine-digest V1 #129 Reply-To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com Sender: owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Errors-To: owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Precedence: bulk in_nomine-digest Monday, April 21 1997 Volume 01 : Number 129 In this digest: IN> Long Adventure idea: Satanic Ritual Abuse IN> Player Contributions with IN? IN> Minor plotline that has been very worth while. IN> New IN page. IN> Opps!! New IN page... With URL this time :) IN> Phasekiel - Angel of Heresy Re: IN> Why conceal? IN> Mortal Roles and Celestial Vessels IN> Jordi's Choir Attunements IN> Campaign Start Questionaire Re: IN> Plot Seed - Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition IN> Re: in_nomine-digest V1 #128 Re: IN> Xexistanai Comments (short) Re: IN> Minor plotline that has been very worth while. Re: IN> Roles, Mercurian, Elohim Dissonance Re: IN> Xexistanai, Lilim and Death Re: IN> In Nomine problems Re: IN> Long Adventure idea: Satanic Ritual Abuse Re: IN> Phasekiel - Angel of Heresy Re: IN> Mortal Roles and Celestial Vessels Re: IN> Jordi's Choir Attunements Re: IN> All of Creation finale ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 03:10:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Frederic Bush Subject: IN> Long Adventure idea: Satanic Ritual Abuse Comments are welcome, nay, encouraged! Let me know what you think! Background A recent phenomenon in clinical psychology is the emergence of widespread claims of repressed ritual child abuse. That is, lots of people are going to see psychiatrists for minor complaints such as headaches or sexual dysfunction, and then suddenly remembering that they were abused as children. These memories are often quite a shock to the rememberers, and to their families, who often hotly deny the rumors. However, these memories have been used in several cases as the sole evidence to convict family members of abuse. Within the psychological field there is little agreement on whether or not such memories can actually be repressed, or whether the "memories" are in fact created by overzealous psychiatrists. Many of these memories are obtained under hypnosis, a fact which in some eyes weighs against their possible truth. Here's the kicker: oftentimes, the memories of child abuse involve Satanic elements. Accusers will describe how, over a period of years, they were inducted into a Satanic cult of murder, mayhem, and ritualized sex, after which they lost all memory of the event. FBI investigations haven't turned up one shred of evidence that Satanic ritual abuse is a real phenomenon. WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON Well, an actual network of Satanic ritual abuse does exist, surprisingly enough. The demons with the word of Satanism, who are in charge of Lucifer's organized believers, live a dangerous life; if their activities become too blatant, their followers tend to get slaughtered and they themselves demoted to Demon of Moldy Pumpernickel. The succession of demons who held the post in the Middle Ages were unable to maintain a coherent organization; the new Demon, Paimon, is fairly effective. A balseraph, Paimon maintains a bunch of aboveground Satanists, such as Anton LaVey and Aleister Crowley, who are not involved in any way with evil or criminal activities, but who siphon off unwanted angelic attention and get all the bad press. Meanwhile, the actual work of the Church is carried on in small cells, consisting of families related by blood. New inductees are first horribly tortured through ritual abuse as young children, and caused to perform horrible deeds. After a cell has been active for a while, the memories of the evils they have committed is removed by Paimon's servitors. With their memories carefully erased, they set out and begin new lives. Haunted by memories of their past misdeeds, the children exposed to these Satanic rituals marry, and live somewhat normal lives until, at some point, shockingly, their memories return to them. Some commit suicide; some, however, reveling in what they have done, start the cycle afresh with their own families. Ritual child abuse will call Paimon's attention; he then sends servitors to "clean up" any messy evidence of ritual murders on the scene of the crime; heal scarring, and in general remove any evidence of the crime. All in all, a clean, underground cult bringing power to Lucifer, perverting the family, and destroying the lives of youth. Paimon can trigger the memories of cult members at any given time; if he needs agents in a particular area to carry out some sort of deed, he can wave his hand and perhaps your next-door neighbors, the ones with the chow-chow, will murder you with long ritual knives. Oh yes, Lucifer is happy with Paimon. However, recently Novalis has gotten wind of this scheme. Novalis has great influence over the therapeutic community, and one of her Mercurians, moonlighting in his Role as a kindly trauma counselor, found himself talking on a suicide hotline to an individual who had just awakened to the memory of being involved in gruesome acts a child. Counselling the man, the angel realized with a start that he was telling the truth, and reported the matter to Novalis. Novalis, highly disturbed, put the word out among other archangels, and instructed her social workers to be aware of the problem. A couple of Michael's Malakites, incensed at this blatant evil, tracked down the man's family, found the nearest demon, and kicked his ass. The demon managed to burn down the family's house, conveniently removing all evidence of the crime. Paimon was pleased; a potential leak had been covered up. Then, all hell started breaking loose. Reports flooded in from everywhere of ritual satanic abuse. Lots and lots and lots of people started reporting the same symptoms, and a book on the topic just reached Oprah Wimfrey's Book Club. However, angels who investigate these stories are coming up blank. They are beginning to suspect Novalis went a little overboard. Paimon is baffled. While these reports are all false (!), they attract attention to the real incidents that he covers up. He is confused as to how people are suddenly coming up with these outlandish stories that match in perfect detail what he is up to. The answer to all of this is Kobal. He's planting lots of rumors of demonic abuse, and having a blast as both angels and demons scramble to figure out what's going on. Typically, he'll instruct his Impudites to drain a mortal's essence to such a degree that the mortal feels illness. Essence draining causes a general, diffuse malaise that's hard to quantify. The Impudite might suggest going to see a shrink. The Impudite follows the patient to the shrink, then creates a crazy, wacky, bizarre illusion of ritual cult abuse that only the patient can see. Because psychologists tend to be deathly dull, they don't get the jokes, but the players might: describe scenes that are twistedly funny. In any case, the scenes enact all the key rituals of Paimon's cult. Where does it go from here? - --players can talk to the angel who took the suicide hotline call, or the would-be suicide himself, currently recuperating in a nice, pastoral mental hospital under Novalis' aegis - --players can investigate people who claim to have suffered the abuse; if angels, this might trigger Paimon to awaken a cell and use it to attack the angels; for either group, this might provoke the other side to retaliate - --players might find an actual cell of Paimon's demon-worshippers; useful allies for demons, they are only to be used in emergencies, since Paimon is keeping a low profile these days; however, they could prove a nasty surprise for angels. In any case, capturing one cell will not reveal the extent of the group, though it may provide a further adventure later on. - --one of Kobal's servitors will notice what is going on, and may try to plant evidence that one of the PCs' superiors is behind it all. Or perhaps one of the PCs! (Note--I don't want to suggest that child abuse is not a widespread and dangerous phenomenon, nor that most memories of abuse are not true. The jury's still out.) - --Fred ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 03:11:51 -0500 From: Scott Turnbull Subject: IN> Player Contributions with IN? I've been tossing around the idea of player contributions, A'la Amber DRPG, in exchange for additional character points and so forth. Just wondering if anyone else has used this and if it has worked well for them. Cheers, Scott ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 03:09:10 -0500 From: Scott Turnbull Subject: IN> Minor plotline that has been very worth while. Just thought I'd mention an idea that has blossomed into some good role-playing and a very neat sub-plot for the players in the game I'm in. We had a sit down before the game where our characters got involved in a debate on the divinity of man as oppose to Angelic divinity. The opinions ranged from 'Talking Monkeys", to Possessors of greater faith then the angelic host, and several in between. We agreed as characters to make notes of observed (non-influenced) behaviors that supported each of our theories during the game, and bet a few points of essence between us all. It turned into a somewhat enjoyable sideline during role-play. We enjoyed it so much that we're planning several other pre-game debate sessions. Granted our characters are generally slanted toward this sort of behavior Being mostly comprised of Elohim (2), and Seraphim. However, even our Malakim and Cheribum have gotten involved. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention this as it's proven very enjoyable to us. Cheers, Scott ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 04:22:59 -0500 From: Scott Turnbull Subject: IN> New IN page. Just FYI, I've taken the character sheet I created and posted it on a hastily constructed IN webpage on my site. So It can be downloaded from there or linked as appropriate. If anyone knows how to make a Word 7 file into a postscript file, please drop me a note. I'd like to post the sheet in a more universal format for folks. Cheers, Scott ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 04:25:15 -0500 From: Scott Turnbull Subject: IN> Opps!! New IN page... With URL this time :) Just FYI, I've taken the character sheet I created and posted it on a hastily constructed IN webpage on my site. So It can be downloaded from there or linked as appropriate. If anyone knows how to make a Word 7 file into a postscript file, please drop me a note. I'd like to post the sheet in a more universal format for folks. The URL is http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~scotwt/nomine.html Cheers, Scott ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 21:13:09 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Frederick Subject: IN> Phasekiel - Angel of Heresy Dear Elizabeth (and List) >> >>Some of it!?!?! Why you malign me, it's all the Truth. I am reminded of >>one of my favourite scenes from Deep Space Nine. [...] >>Garrok "Why Doctor, all of them were the Truth." >>Dr Bashir "Even the lies." >>Garrok smiles "Especially the Lies." >> >>Hmm you can read that two ways can't you, and I guess that is Phasekiel's >>point :) . > > Garak is one of my favorite characters... He's so... unrepenetant. When I see a Klingon run from a fight or a Ferenghi give a refund I'll start to look for a Cardassian to repent. > >>I have been working on a full write up for Phasekiel, but true to his nature >>he is unhappy with the results of a single definitive version of his history >>and abilities. > >Well, if you can ever pin him down to something he at least is amused >by... By your command. BTW Phasekiel got a but funny when we got to the bit about Summoning and the modifiers to it, so that bit may not be as accurate. Otherwise here he is. Phasekiel - Elohim Servitor of Yves, Angel of Heresy "All Paths may lead to God" As a newly created Angel Phasekiel was fascinated by the diversity of Destinies that Mortals could achieve. His Celestial nature predisposed him to observe without judging and he became increasingly interested in not only the Destiny of Mortals, but in the paths that they reached those Destinies by. "Many watch over the main paths, but the roads less travelled are just as important." Phasekiel was as surprised as anyone else when Yves petitioned the Seraphic Council for his appointment as the Angel of Heresy, and many thought it not an appropriate Word for an Angel. As a Servitor of Destiny it is Phasekiel's function to provide the mental space within which Free Will can reside and to ensure that Mortals may reach their Destiny by whatever path they chose. Since his appointment Phasekiel has redoubled his efforts to ensure that those who follow the roads less travelled still reach the Truth. While not a major theme in the Symphony, the Angel of Heresy still manages to be a bit of a political hot potato. Dominic and Lawrence are continually concerned that Phasekiel's efforts seem to directly oppose their own, as Angel of Judgement and Patron of Christianity, while he continues to have an interesting relationship with Khalid. Since the rise of the Archangel of Faith Phasekiel has tried to work with Khalid where ever possible, faith as easily embracing multiplicity as reductionist ideals. Janus approves of Phasekiel's function, being a shaker of the Heavenly intellectual status quo. Surprisingly Phasekiel is not impressed with Eli's current absence as he feels that Eli is just not doing his job with due diligence. Amongst the Fallen Phasekiel has a mixed reputation. Some see him as ineffectual and weak, some as so obscure and subtle as to be insignificant and others look at his resilience and his successes and wait to see what he will do next. Phasekiel's most recurrent Diabolic opponent is the Demon of Ideology, a Major Servitor of Asmodeaus, and Ideology's "four hoursemen" Organised Religion, Academic Orthodoxy, Political Correctness and Economic Rationalism. He also has butted heads with the Demon of Patriarchy, one of Malphas' Servitors. Dissonance - Servitors of Heresy are bound to allow Mortals to explore any path that might lead them closer to God. Whenever a Servitor of Phasekiel blocks or discourages a Mortal from exploration of a line of reasoning or a course of action that does not lead directly to that Mortal's Fate they generate dissonance. Servitor Attunements Divine Prism - Servitors of Heresy can open a Mortal's mind to possibilities that they would not normally consider. The effect is to remove prejudice and provide a brief period within which balanced neutral consideration of those possibilities can be undertaken. To invoke the Divine Prism takes a point of Essence and a Perception Roll at -1 for each person after the first that is to be effected. Effected targets are freed from any outside forces that are warping their judgement (supernatural or mundane) and further allows them to reconsider their current course of action. Divine Quantum Mechanics - As any action may come within the bounds of God's Plan it is possible that actions that seem dissonant are actually not contrary to an angel's nature. This attunement allows a Servitor of Heresy to put off the effects of dissonance until a later time, when hopefully they will have taken actions to remedy the possible dissonance. When a point of dissonance is gained the Servitor may make a Perception Roll to neutralise it. The dissonance doesn't go away it just doesn't effect the Servitor. Whenever the Servitor gains Essence they must reroll seperately to re-neutralise each point of neutralised dissonance. Failing to re-neutralise any of the previously neutralised points of dissonance results in the Essence not being gained and all the neutralised points of dissonance becoming effective dissonance. Distinctions Friend of the Heretic - A Friend of the Heretic may illuminate the Divine within a line of reasoning or course of action. To do so cost one Essence and requires a Perception Roll. This is not as useful as it sounds, because by the Angel of Heresy's approach many courses of action from any particular point contain some aspect of God's Plan. The two things it does do are to show the target what relation their plan has to God's, it may not be what they think, and if your course of action has NO relation to God's Plan you might want to reconsider. This may only successfully be done for an individual or group of individuals once a month. Rites-for one Essence spend 4 hours teaching a doctrine Heretical to the local consensus view of reality, this can be a political, moral, economic or spiritual doctrine. for two Essence convince a Mortal of the equal validity of two radically opposed ideas or theories. Summoning - Base chance 3. + 1 an alternative newspaper or magazine + 2 a copy of any literature banned by local censors + 3 a copy of any publication banned by a major religion - The Satanic Verses or anything on the Vatican's Index Librorum Prohibitorum will do + 4 copy of a samizdat + 5 an up to date copy of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Thanking you for your indulgence. Yours Peter. Email to peterf@geko.net.au "Whoso loveth God truely must not expect to be loved by Him in return." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 14:48:05 +2 From: "Ella Lynoure Rajamaki" Subject: Re: IN> Why conceal? > Angels, for their part, seem to generally seek to guide man to make a > choice in the destiny they could attain. Simply showing up and saying 'I'm > an angel, there's a God, now lets get to work.' would shatter the ability > of man to uplift himself by faith. By the same token, if demons popped up > it would probably scare the good (and bad) folks of earth into the arms of > Heaven. Of course they can't have that. IMO, _knowing_ there is a God wouldn't necessarily destroy all of the faith: one still has to believe the God is _God_, the almighty creator. I do not think faith means simply a faith in existence, IMO it has to be faith in powers too. And if demons showed themselves to humans, the effect doesn't need to be so dramatic: after all, they are not necessarily the rotten completely evil type. After all evil is highly subjective thing. - ------------------- Lynoure ---------------------- - -----"Just like the twilight I come to you."------ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 22:04:36 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Frederick Subject: IN> Mortal Roles and Celestial Vessels Dear List Just a couple of questions that crossed my mind. Does the Level of a Mortals Role have effect on the Game, via mechanics or roleplaying? What does the Vessel Level of a Celestial's Vessel represent? Thanking you for your indulgence. Yours Peter. Email to peterf@geko.net.au "Whoso loveth God truely must not expect to be loved by Him in return." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 22:04:34 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Frederick Subject: IN> Jordi's Choir Attunements Dear List A Servitor of Jordi, say a Malikim, sets some explosive charges on a bridge that is used by a logging company. He moves some distance away where he can still see the bridge and puts the radio detonator on the ground. He changes from his human vessel to his wolf vessel and waits. A bus taking loggers comes along and the wolf steps on the detonator setting off the charges and killing about a dozen people. How much disruption to the Symphony is there? What if a Mercurian of Jordi in a chimp vessel placed the charges so that both angels could stay in their animal vessels at all times in the operation.? Thanking you for your indulgence. Yours Peter. Email to peterf@geko.net.au "Whoso loveth God truely must not expect to be loved by Him in return." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 22:04:32 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Frederick Subject: IN> Campaign Start Questionaire Dear List Trying to move from character design to start of play I have a couple of players involved in prologs to get a better handle on their background and character. A few of the players want to have been in the campaign city for a while, between 2 and 6 years. To help us both flesh out what they have been doing I made up the following list of questions. Maybe they will be of assistance to others. 1. How long have you been in Sydney? 2. What contact have you had with your Superior during that time? 3. Have you sought out other Celestials? 4. Have you made contact with or investigated local Tethers? 5. What do you regard as your top 5 recreational activities? 6. Have you joined any clubs/groups/informal associations? 7. What possessions do you have? List your most interesting/important possesions? 8. In God's cricket team, what position would you play, and why? For countries where Cricket is not well known another sport may need to be substituted :) . Thanking you for your indulgence. Yours Peter. Email to peterf@geko.net.au "Whoso loveth God truely must not expect to be loved by Him in return." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 22:04:28 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Frederick Subject: Re: IN> Plot Seed - Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition Dear Adam (and List) I wrote >> As far as Major angels >> having high levels of Discord, I found it a bit hard to swollow to, but >> God's mills are not interested in when they grind up those who do wrong, >> just that wrongdoers be punished. >Adam Responded >Really what happened to Uriel, Eli and Kahlid then and why is Dominic >convinced that heaven would be better off without Gabriel. Interesting questions all and ones I know my players would love to have the answers too. Rather than answer I can only offer large helpings of MHO. Uriel - I think he nearly fell and was swept up by God. Around 700 AD Humanity was in the grip of Dark Ages, what might have happened if the Patron of Christianity and the holder of the Word of Purity had Fallen? The consequences are too horrible to contemplate, prompting the normally non-interventionist God to make a play and remove Uriel before he did any more damage. Eli - Who said Eli has done anything wrong? I think Eli is just being creative about the administration of his Word. Khalid - The Angel of Faith looking for a promotion to indicate that he had been doing a good job? Maybe he should have more faith. Dominic vs Gabriel (and Eli and Novalis and .....) - To quote myself from a while back. Yep that's because they are all honestly, ernestly and devotedly following their own Words. Dominic doesn't dislike Eli, it doesn't get that personal. Eli and Dominic play different themes of the Symphony and those themes don't play harmoniously next to each other, so they clash, musically and politically. I guess my comment might have been a bit vague. What I was trying to say was that I thought that Heaven might give a person who had strayed the chance to redeem themselves before casting them out. On the other hand that might depend on who was doing the casting out. Be interesting to see what Players might make of some more creative Judgements by Dominic, it is an eye for an eye, but if the charge is "Causing Disruption to the Symphony" then what is a suitable punishment. Thanking you for your indulgence. Yours Peter. Email to peterf@geko.net.au "Whoso loveth God truely must not expect to be loved by Him in return." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 07:59:02 -0500 (CDT) From: rogue@ez-net.com (RogueLdr) Subject: IN> Re: in_nomine-digest V1 #128 > >Oops da "Trying to register for GenCon" Ogre > >PS- Remember when we were talking about Freddy Kueger as a demon? I've >been working on the "Bogeyman" role for demons. Coming Soon... Speaking of GenCon, I'm going to be trying to make it this year (no guarantees). Is anyone going to be putting on a game of In Nomine? If so, I'd love to sign up! - -Rogue, He Who Hopes He Can Afford GenCon ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 09:19:25 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: Re: IN> Xexistanai Comments (short) On Apr 19, 12:41pm, Leathal Weapon wrote: > Subject: Re: IN> Xexistanai Comments (short) > A comment on: > > > Oh, I left off a Basic Rite. If the the Demon > > scars themselves for at least 5 points of damage that > > will generate one Essence. This scar is _permanent_ > > and will show up whenever that Vessel is used. > > (Shedim cannot use this Rite, alas). > > Here's an idea. Shedim CAN use this Rite if thhey like. The scar > follows them through vessels, appearing on the bodies then > disappearing when they leave. In this manner, it makes his Shedim > much more careful, because they become much easier to track! Wicked. ;) - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | "A fundamental principle of economics is that the | | more you tax something, the less you get of it. | | In this country we tax success most of all." | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 09:31:51 -0400 (EDT) From: Gregory Littmann Subject: Re: IN> Minor plotline that has been very worth while. On Mon, 21 Apr 1997, Scott Turnbull wrote: > Just thought I'd mention an idea that has blossomed into some good > role-playing and a very neat sub-plot for the players in the game I'm > in. We had a sit down before the game where our characters got involved > in a debate on the divinity of man as oppose to Angelic divinity. The > opinions ranged from 'Talking Monkeys", to Possessors of greater faith > then the angelic host, and several in between. I like this a lot. It sounds like it added a lot of distinct IN flavour to your game. You could even base an adventure around it - questions of status could easily lead to bloodshed, or worse, fall through pride... ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 09:29:02 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: Re: IN> Roles, Mercurian, Elohim Dissonance > But now I have to ask at what point do you "act on emotion"? Say he's off > work and he see's an old lady take a nasty fall. He decides to help out. Is > that an act? is it based on an emotion? (Sympathy?) Is this dissonant? It > seems to me that most angelic behavior is based on emotion. If nothing else > the Big Guy (who appears very very little in In Nomine) seems to have gone to > great lengths to speak of the value of the myriad forms of love. I would say that as long as the Elohite can give a logical, non-emotionally based reason for any action, they are pretty safe. In the above he could say, "I'm protecting the integrity of my Role because it would be in character" or "I'm preventing suffering on Earth to weaken Hell's plans." If the woman fell (or was even killed) because it forwarded some of Heaven's plans, the Elohite, to avoid Dissonance, should do nothing. If it makes more sense, in the grander scheme of things, to let the Demon go that just butchered a schoolyard of kids, the Elohite should let him go. It's these little emotional/moral quandries that are the bane of an Elohite's existence! ;) > I would have to think that in his objective way, Artie cares about people, > *loves* them. Would you say this is dissonant, or no? I would say no, as long as this love doesn't interfere with his duties. > Or...Artie's a pretty chaste guy, it goes with the Elohite bit. But say he > did get the hots for someone. I dunno, a really really objective, unbiased > lilim maybe. (Hey, the universe is BIG and the universe is STRANGE. So sue > me.) > > In an effort to dodge dissonance Artie would probably use his emote skill to > HIDE emotion. would this be dissonant? I don't think _being_ in love is Dissonant. Just acting on it is. I imagine a lot of fallen Elohim pretend they are not acting on emotion... right up until the time they Fall. - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | "A fundamental principle of economics is that the | | more you tax something, the less you get of it. | | In this country we tax success most of all." | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 09:32:36 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: Re: IN> Xexistanai, Lilim and Death > Also, if took a Role, perhaps as a prostitute or > someone else who might make it her business to please others, then > her Role might very well cover up the target's death. Many have died > in bed, I'm told... Awww, go on and say it. The Role should be 'Whip-wielding sadistic Mistress with an Attitude'. ;) - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | "A fundamental principle of economics is that the | | more you tax something, the less you get of it. | | In this country we tax success most of all." | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 09:44:44 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: Re: IN> In Nomine problems > * What's the use of mechanics for `essence', `dissonance' and `discord'? How > do these improve the quality of play? Couldn't you just have discretionary > rewards and punishments from your superiors/the universe whenever the GM > sees > fit? Why not just have celestials use Songs/discorporate etc... as often as > they > want? (Has anyone tried this? How well did it work?) Most of the Essence rules were designed to avoid having a campaign get over-powered. The Essence cost for going Celestial and going up to heaven is there to avoid the 'transporter' problem so often found in ST episodes. The Essence cost for guns is to stop the 'neverending six-shooter' syndrome. Most of the rewards and punishments in my campaign are discretionary. The Archangels frequently give out additional rewards based on how their minions supported their specific Word (in addition to the character points gained for the adventure). Also, it doesn't matter how many xp's you have built up if your Superior decides that this is not the proper time for you to learn Numious Corpus: Tongue and instead gives you Gift of Tongues. Superiors can be a real pain in the butt sometimes. > > * The players have suggested a game where angels and demons play a much less > violent conflict against each other. Where they may actually like each > other, > due to pre-Fall history, but are duty bound to conflict at times. They > argue > that it would make the play less caricatured. Does anyone else run such a > game? Nope, but it sounds like fun. > * There do seem to be a lot to memorise before you can play this > game. I've noticed too, that most of the traffic on this list in past weeks > has been about politics and mechanics. Why is it so complicated? How could > I make it easier for players to get into the game? The character creation mechanics were scattered and disorganized. I rewrote all of them in a quick and clean method to get people in faster. Then I typed up the combat mechanics in neat bites (took less than half a page) and the Song/skill mechanics plus some miscellaneous stuff on the other half of the page. Things go MUCH smoother, especially for a new system, when it's laid out like that. > * What are the long-term aspirations of characters in your game? The sense > I got from the book is that they are all doing revenge or > self-agrandisement. > Is there a place for celestials to love people, places, and things of the > mundane world? Can they have desires that are not really part of the War at > all? Has anyone tried this? With what results? My primary campaign hasn't had time to develop these sort of sub-plots (hey, I play Amber all the time... I _like_ stuff like this!). They will happen, though! > * Do the demons have to be so psychotic? It makes them very hard to play > credibly, and makes them hard to support as long-term PCs. Almost none of my demons are psychotic. They have a _very_ good grasp of how the world works and go about their tasks with skill and surety... most of the time. Of course, my favorite Demons are the Shedim, so maybe you shouldn't listen to me on this topic... > * In our last game the mechanics kept getting in the way of the story needs. > (Too > many Perception rolls, and far too many Will rolls.) I haven't had this problem, though many times I'll just eyeball someone's Will or Perception and make a judgement (more of my Amber background coming to the fore). Any critical scenes (i.e. where the player would get pissed if there no chance no chance of success or failure), I roll the dice. - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | "A fundamental principle of economics is that the | | more you tax something, the less you get of it. | | In this country we tax success most of all." | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 09:50:25 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: Re: IN> Long Adventure idea: Satanic Ritual Abuse [Interesting story idea snipped] Two possible red-herrings (or, if the players read this list, maybe one of these is the REAL truth and the rest are the red-herrings!) 1. The abuse happened... in Beleth's realm. 2. The psychologists/Shedim are deliberately convincing people of the abuse. Maybe some direct mental surgery involved here. - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | "A fundamental principle of economics is that the | | more you tax something, the less you get of it. | | In this country we tax success most of all." | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 09:52:07 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: Re: IN> Phasekiel - Angel of Heresy On Apr 21, 9:13pm, Peter Frederick wrote: > Subject: IN> Phasekiel - Angel of Heresy > Dear Elizabeth (and List) > > >> > >>Some of it!?!?! Why you malign me, it's all the Truth. I am reminded of > >>one of my favourite scenes from Deep Space Nine. [...] > >>Garrok "Why Doctor, all of them were the Truth." > >>Dr Bashir "Even the lies." > >>Garrok smiles "Especially the Lies." Another 'in joke' for the series. The Church of the Sub-Genius watches ST (except for Voyager, bleck). ;) - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | "A fundamental principle of economics is that the | | more you tax something, the less you get of it. | | In this country we tax success most of all." | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 09:53:22 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: Re: IN> Mortal Roles and Celestial Vessels On Apr 21, 10:04pm, Peter Frederick wrote: > Subject: IN> Mortal Roles and Celestial Vessels > Dear List > > Just a couple of questions that crossed my mind. > > Does the Level of a Mortals Role have effect on the Game, via mechanics or > roleplaying? Mortals don't have Roles. Mortals are integral to the Symphony. > What does the Vessel Level of a Celestial's Vessel represent? Body points, mi'lad, body points. - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | "A fundamental principle of economics is that the | | more you tax something, the less you get of it. | | In this country we tax success most of all." | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 10:00:04 -0400 From: "John Karakash - Lucent ASCC" Subject: Re: IN> Jordi's Choir Attunements On Apr 21, 10:04pm, Peter Frederick wrote: > Subject: IN> Jordi's Choir Attunements > Dear List > > A Servitor of Jordi, say a Malikim, sets some explosive charges on a bridge > that is used by a logging company. He moves some distance away where he can > still see the bridge and puts the radio detonator on the ground. He changes > from his human vessel to his wolf vessel and waits. A bus taking loggers > comes along and the wolf steps on the detonator setting off the charges and > killing about a dozen people. > > How much disruption to the Symphony is there? Huge heaping gobloads, I'd say. This is not official, since I haven't thought on it for a long time. Just by the rules, there is no Disturbance. But it is FAR too unbalancing for the Crack Chimp Commando Corps to start wandering around with machine guns and rocket launchers in their fight against evil and injustice! I suppose y'all will want guidelines for this then.... sigh. Any use of the devices of man (as opposed to the abilities of the body of the animal vessel) will cause Disturbance. Rolling rocks down a hill on the loggers would be fine, I'd say. Even having beavers with razor-sharp teeth gnawing the bridge til it fell. No guns. No bombs. No heat-seeking missiles. Unless I'm overruled, this is how _I'm_ going to play it. - -- ___________________________________________________ / \ |John Karakash - Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) | | (919)380-4629 | | "A fundamental principle of economics is that the | | more you tax something, the less you get of it. | | In this country we tax success most of all." | \___________________________________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 10:00:23 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> All of Creation finale [Gilding the gilt lily] Contacting Eli... First thing any Servitors of Creation are going to try is *summoning* him! Let them. If they succeed, give them an **Ethereal** contact! (Ethereal Song of Tongues or something similar.) For best effect, have a faint background that sounds like an Ethereal phonathon room. Eli says something on the order of of, "Okay, okay, what's wrong? Are you in trouble? Talk fast -- I'm not a Kyrio!" The PC tries to explain. Play Eli as vague and distracted. Ask lots of questions that have forgotten the previous sentence. ("You're in trouble!" "I am? Why?" "They're going to try to reassign your Word?" "What? That's weird. Why would they do that?" "Dominic talked the council into it." "Into what?" "Reassigning your Word!" "Why would they do that?") When the PC gets to the "speak in one sentence paragraphs" stage ("We're assigned to find you and make sure you show up at the Seraphim Council by [date] because you have to defend your right to hold your Word because Dominic got them to call another test because he thinks you're heretical and we don't know all his reasons for that."), Eli says, "That's impressive -- doesn't it give you a headache to think all that at once? Ack! Something's come up. Gotta go!" And the connection ends. If a PC calls and *is* in trouble, some kind of rescue will likely be made, and then he teleports off quickly afterwards, with an enigmatic hint of where his previous engagement was... "Can't keep a lady waiting" or "the band needs me" or "Look, you're not the only one who gets in trouble -- [NPC name] just called urgantly." (For the last, the *PCs* might get 'ported off to a firefight in progress, if they're not too beat up. Or maybe they just get sent off on some esoteric mission for Eli -- "Can you go pick up the photos for Doris and deliver them? Here, I'll send you to the developers." *POOF*) When he's finally found, moments before deadline, his reaction is, "Oh, was that *today*? Right. Hey, *thanks* for reminding me, guys! You did good." Then proceed with the "trial," wherein Eli can defend his actions and declare that his Word has been protected... and that the PCs helped. - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com // emccoy@jade.mv.net GURPS characters, Roleplayers; Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #129 ******************************* The material here is (C) 1996 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.