From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Thu Jul 10 17:11:34 1997 Return-Path: Received: from lists.io.com (lists.io.com [199.170.88.15]) by pyramid.sjgames.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA01914 for ; Thu, 10 Jul 1997 17:11:34 -0500 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id OAA29435 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Thu, 10 Jul 1997 14:38:44 -0500 Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 14:38:44 -0500 Message-Id: <199707101938.OAA29435@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 #242 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 Thursday, July 10 1997 Volume 01 : Number 242 In this digest: IN> Adventure: Vap to the Future? IN> Adventure Seed: INto the Banestorm... Re: IN> Adventure : Graduation Party Re: IN> Adventure : Graduation Party IN> Hello! IN> Animal Vessels Re: IN> Animal Vessels ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 12:13:46 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: IN> Adventure: Vap to the Future? Vap to the Future? Time-travel, Prince of Technology style... One day, in the PC's area, they start hearing *bad* Symphonic disturbance. They get to the source, and everything seems normal. (Cruel GMs will describe something odd right after this -- such as the cybercafe/bordello that's been there for, oh, ages... Yes, normal.) But the echoes are still continuing...and getting worse, jangling the entire Symphony. Then appears a messenger... Pick a Superior: Yves, Jean, Kronos, or maybe Vapula. (Or someone else, of course -- but these are the main players.) Yves and Jean: Something strange is going on, changing the Symphony on Earth (Heaven is unaffected...so far). If it isn't stopped, the ripples will destroy all the Heaven-Tethers! Obviously someone is trying an end-run around the War -- out-flanking with some way to travel through, well, time. Fortunately, the Yves/Jean team can get pretty inventive when they put their heads together (and might even get some help from Eli in this case). Meet the Ofanite-possesed Delorian -- a volunteer has been bound into a time-machine vessel. No PCs need drive, though there's still a steering wheel. (PC Ofanim may argue about this with the car, of course.) Kronos: Vapula's gone and done another experiment. It has to do with time-travel. Makes a lot of noise, doesn't it? Little problem. The Princes of Tech and Fate were going to go along themselves, to keep an eye on how things were going. Well, Tech's unavailable for comment for some reason (we're looking into it, with some of the Game), and Kronos is here, and the changes being altered seem to be intent in boosting Vap's Word until his power will rival Kronos'...or Lucifer's... Fortunately, we still have one of the devices around, so you lot can go after them and find out what's happening and *fix* it. Meet an artifact that's probably full of bugs... Vapula: Okay, it's like this. The High Programmer himself kinda got himself put into some kind of temporal bubble, and the Temporal Team ran off on their own. And, well, some of the changes aren't the ones the boss ordered. In fact, it's looking like the leader of the Temporal Team (a Wordbound Shedite Baron of Gremlins) is working on a coup -- enhancing his Word (pick something that will scare your players -- MicroSoft, for instance) over Vapula's! We can't have *that*! Meet an artifact that's got a few less bugs than the one Kronos' people have. Okay, you've got your PCs loaded up into something at least a little obnoxious. You've got them to the temporal location with appropriate side effects (c'mon, you know you want to make them hit 88mph and leave flaming tracks! Watch the Ofanite-version do it by turning its wheels sideways and making a circle. Did Jean remember to pack Dramamine in the glove compartment?). They get to look around and remember when they were youngsters (or at least younger) and yep, things sure did change. And they get to discover that it's a *lot* easier to make noise when you're outside of the Symphony *and* your proper time! In fact, any time they do something that "tweakes" their "future history", they make noise. This has its good points (they know when they're doing something "wrong") and its bad points (can you say, shooting up a signal flare?). Other things to bother them with... inability to summon their Superior, inability to use Rites (handwave it -- they're outside of time, so they can't access their Superior's Word as easily), having to dodge other celestials in the area because they don't want to cause more paradoxes... Tracking down the offending Team of Tech, dodging or battling the *other* teams (of NPCs, as listed above) who are trying to do the same thing -- and, of course, giving into temptation (or following orders, for demons) and doing a little temporal meddling themselves, to benefit *their* lot. (Personally, Superior-wise, or Side-wise.) Will they be able to succeed in their missions, without erasing themselves/their Superior(s)/their Side? Only Time will tell... - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com // emccoy@jade.mv.net GURPS characters, Roleplayers; Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 13:53:02 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: IN> Adventure Seed: INto the Banestorm... INto the Banestorm ^^ First, buy GURPS Fantasy (aka GURPS Yrth, if you ask me...). It's a pretty "dry" setting by many people's standards (yeah, well, mine too), but In Nomine can probably spice it up some, wouldn't you think? For those who don't know about Yrth: it's a very medevael setting, with magic, crusades, a powerful Church, monarchies, etc. It has the Christian Church (a bit modified to deal with working mages...) and people who worship Allah. And Sauhud. We won't go there -- it's silly. (But fun.) This might be best done using the GURPS In Nomine rules, or some hybrid version... I, however, would declare that Yrth magic, for whatever reason, does *not* make noise, and depends on bodily fatigue, rather than Essence. And fatigue recovers faster than Essence... On the plus side, celestials are probably highly magic-resistant, as befits critters who have (usually) super-human Wills. And their resonances/Songs/Attunements will probably work even in no-mana areas. Starting out: Put the PCs in the middle of a cross-celestial confrontation, if possible. We want both angels and demons in this... Have Something Go Wrong (or did it?). There's a lot of Symphonic noise, with them at ground zero, a lot of swirling air, special effects, etc. And when it clears, they're in the middle of a very unfamiliar place. (Alternatively, have the PCs' Superiors send them to "the site of an odd disturbance" -- and when the smoke clears...) Places To Drop Them: Summoned(?) by a circle of mages who *thought* they were going to get standard Yrth/GURPS demons. Will the pentagram arond them hold them inside? Will it only hold *demons* inside? Are these necromancers/dark elves, or are they closer to the side of the angels? (Hey, what *would* Jordi's lot think of the Dark Elves' opinion of humans? Hmmm...) In the middle of a mortal battle, where somebody's mage got a most amusing critical failure... In the middle of woods, with no one around for miles... In the middle of a village of people, who don't speak the languages they know... In the middle of a *city*! Tredroy, Megalos City, Geb'al-Din, etc. First Impressions: It's quiet. Too quiet... The only Symphonic "disturbance" they can hear is the usual hum of human activity, and their own. Their Rites still work, but sluggishly, taking extra time or leaving them physically fatigued afterwards. The daily ration of Essence comes slowly, requiring careful meditation to catch. Their Superiors are not answering the phone. And they can't seem to do more than go celestial -- Heaven and Hell just don't seem to be around! (On an appropriate Intervention, or a CD of 6 or something, perhaps they wind up in some kind of "proto-celestial realm," which starts responding to their desires... Or demons might find some place that's pretty Hellish -- but doesn't correspond to *their* old stomping grounds! Probably looks like a cross between Saminga and Baal's principalities, with bigger demons (of no discernable Band) lording it over little demon (ditto) and raiding other demons...) If any of the PCs are Word-bound, at least *their* special Rites will work (assuming they can do them; with no computers, some of Lightning's people will not be in good shape)... What Happens Next: Well, the Mages' Guild of Yrth will probably go, "Oh, look what the Banestorm dragged in. More people from that Earth place," and try to snag them up for debriefing and mindwipe of nastybad tech skills. Knowing celestials and PCs, this will likely be a *bad* mistake, and give the PCs a decidedly negative first impression of the locals. Angels will probably want to contact the Church. In general, the Church (especially in Megalos) does not want to be contacted by angels. They're doing just fine, thank you (and these weirdos are probably just mages with delusions anyway), and the higher levels (riddled with corruption in some cities and areas) are *not* going to want a bunch of know-it-all angels telling them how they're wrong. The Church of Yrth will probably not want to hear from demons, either. They know what demons are -- demons are to be exorcised, or killed off, or something along those lines. This may get newcomer PC demons an express ticket to the Yrth equivalent of Hell, but they're likely to bounce back quickly. They can try contacting the Islamic Faithful, but will likely meet with roughly the same response -- when magic is common, it's hard to persuade someone that you really *are* a celestial, and not a mage committing heresy. (Having a mortal accuse a Servitor of Judgment of being heretical could be entertaining...) And then there's all these non-humans around... How *does* a Seraph of Destiny deal with the existance of mortals or semi-mortals like Orcs, Reptile Men, and unaging Elves? And what do they think of celestials? And we won't even talk about Sahud, no we won't... (Plug: GURPS Fantasy Adventures 1: Sahudese Fire Drill. Yes, it's silly, but they generally have reasons... And look who *really* wins in the end...) Servitors of Kobal might like the place, though. At first. And After That: On the surface, the PCs seem to be the only celestials in this Yrth realm. A sort of War in miniature, as they politic amongst themselves (your PCs don't politic? Yeah, right) and battle (or ally) with the Other Side celestials who arrived with them. Slowly, their Rites start working again, sort of -- perhaps some of them are starting to get *extra* Essence occasionaly, and slowly, well, *adopting* the Word of their Superior? (If they wern't already Wordbound.) Demons will probably jump up and down for joy, seeing this as a promotion to Prince and Yrth as a grand new playground... Angels get to struggle between temptation (c'mon, a Word, Archangel status, a chance to try their wings....), duty to the humans (uh, mortals, no, wait, elves...uh, non celestials?) here, and (if they're smart) the sinking feeling that Something Is Wrong Here. What's Wrong With This Picture? GMs can pick and choose... Here are some theories... #1: This is some kind of Ethereal trap -- they're stuck in the Marches, and a pantheon of Ethereal gods are using this model as an Essence- source. As the entrapped PCs (and their opposite numbers -- if, indeed, those opposite numbers *are* celestials!) gain in power, they draw even *more* power into their pocket universe, which the Ethereals can feed off of. Perhaps these Ethereals hope to create a "heaven" and "hell" to rival the existing ones, based off of the wills and strength of the captured PCs? #2: The PCs side-slipped (accidentially, or via demonic plans) into an alternate universe that was supposed to be kept pure -- another Grand Experiment by the Ineffable One. Oh, well, this experiment's been contaminated. #3: Similar to #2, except the contamination was *deliberate* (and the whole thing might not have been run by the angelic Top Boss), to see what would happen if celestials who'd endured the War found themselves in charge of it -- or of Peace. #4: They're in the Marches all right, but it's some kind of test run by Blandine or Beleth (depending on GM's whim and party composition) to see if they can make a "pocket universe" to dump prisoners into -- perhaps somebody's found a way to trap celestials that's easier than taking them out in celestial combat. Eventually, the PCs might get rescued or informed that they don't have to be guinea pigs anymore. #5: The PCs are testing Vapula's Celestial-Neural Dreamgame Machine, and are about to be plunged into CthulhuPunk in a few more subjective weeks. #6: They PCs found an alternate universe, and real soon, their bosses are going to be showing up -- and the PCs are going to have to decide if they want to fight for their fledgling harmonizing with their Superior's Words, or if they want to relax and let that attunement fade away. Perhaps they'd like to help some of their opposite numbers polish off the (more experienced, and more dangerous) Superior who normally holds that Word? Perhaps demonic PCs want to help their "good angelic buddies" Fall, so they can keep their Word without a struggle... #7: some blend of the above, mixed in with player theories... How Do We Get Out? *That* is up to the GM... Perhaps they can be rescued, or perhaps they'll get Banished by a native... Maybe they can find some way into the Marches and slip into their home territories... Maybe the experiment will break down. Maybe they'll get the right sort of Intervention and find a chink to escape. Or perhaps they won't escape at all... (Hey, if the players are having fun...) In that case, the GM will probably want to take care that they don't hit Superior status quickly -- but make them work to learn how to: draw Essence from manifestations of their Word; draw Essence from people using their Rites; deal with the sticky problems of "if our Superiors aren't here, where are we, and where's our boss?"; (if demonic) tap damned souls for Essence, after figuring out how to herd them into a Hell; create new celestials; recruit Soldiers (what about non-human ones?); form or take advantage of Tethers; Word-bind a Servitor; and otherwise discover how *hard* it is to be one of the movers and shakers... (Back when, the Host went for quality -- 9-Force angels -- while the Horde went for quantity -- 7-Force demons. Will the local angels feel the same way, or will they try to churn out an army of Relievers? Will the local demons try to recruit local talent (Yrth/GURPS demons), crank out the Imps and Gremlins, or take a page from the angels and work on *quality* demons? Will any Lilim in the group figure out how to create *more* Lilim??) [Or, of course, you could always do all the work required to fit the existing Superiors into their traditional spots, and decide that Yrth is really just an Earth where Uriel never went on his Purification Crusade...] - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com // emccoy@jade.mv.net GURPS characters, Roleplayers; Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 16:57:37 -0500 (CDT) From: Martin Leslie Leuschen Subject: Re: IN> Adventure : Graduation Party "Nathaniel Eliot" etched into clay tablets: > >>>>>My error: IOU, where U stands for university. I stands for Illuminati. > >>>>>You're not classified to know what the O stands for. (I'm not sure that > >>>>>anyone short of the ArchDean is. :)) > >>>> > >>>>If anyone else knew, I suspect it would be me. And she won't tell me, > >>>>either.... > >>> > >>>Actually, if anybody knew, I'd suspect Archangel Beth would (is the > >>>Archdean a manifestation of Beth, or vice versa?). [I thought that Beth was just a Kyrio.... > >> > I have my guess, but I'm keeping it to myself, so the > >> >AD's CIB (Cats In Black) don't come after me. > >> > >> It's not "online," though agents of disinformation have claimed > >> such from time to time. > > > >Well, that is the first, obvious conclusion. Which means it is > >obviously wrong. > > Bingo. [Personal flawed theory: [ [Considering tradition, the driving purpose of the University, and the [ArchDean's general attitude, "Owe" *almost* works. Unfortunately, it [doesn't really scan - ("Illuminati Owe University") - although a lot [of the Team *do* talk like that... [ [ <- Should save Beth some time.... > >You've been known to tell people that they can, if they want, think it's > >for the "O" in "fnord", too.... > > Oh, right. I like that one almost as much as the real one. Works well. Okay, everybody say "fnord" and deny everything; it's the GURPSnet "more Illuminated than thou" thread. What fun - please excuse whilst I get the chips... [ Oh, all right -- if you insist. [ Fnord. Fnord fnord. Fnord fnord fnord fnordfnord Fnord [ fnordFnordfnord fnord fnord? ... Fnord? Fnoooorrrrd! [ [ Happy now? }{fnord}{ Martin Leuschen martinl@rice.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 19:38:55 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Adventure : Graduation Party At 4:57 PM -0500 7/9/97, Martin Leslie Leuschen wrote: >"Nathaniel Eliot" etched into clay tablets: >>>>>>>My error: IOU, where U stands for university. I stands for Illuminati. >>>>>>>You're not classified to know what the O stands for. (I'm not sure that >>>>>>>anyone short of the ArchDean is. :)) >>>>>> >>>>>>If anyone else knew, I suspect it would be me. And she won't tell me, >>>>>>either.... >>>>> >>>>>Actually, if anybody knew, I'd suspect Archangel Beth would (is the >>>>>Archdean a manifestation of Beth, or vice versa?). > >[I thought that Beth was just a Kyrio.... That's what's great about being a Kyrio -- you can be *everything*! >[Personal flawed theory: >[ >[Considering tradition, the driving purpose of the University, and the >[ArchDean's general attitude, "Owe" *almost* works. Unfortunately, it >[doesn't really scan - ("Illuminati Owe University") - although a lot >[of the Team *do* talk like that... >[ >[ <- Should save Beth some time.... (Interesting. Not bad.) - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com // emccoy@jade.mv.net GURPS characters, Roleplayers; Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 23:30:49 -0700 From: "Matthew M. Colville" Subject: IN> Hello! I am both new to this mailing list and In Nomine both. I bought the sourcebook (the angelic edition) and am about to start a PBEM game in which 3 players are Angels, 3 are Demons, two are Word Bound Angels for whom the 3 normal angels work and 2 players are Word Bound Demons for whom the three normal demons work. I will be pitting them against each other. The idea being that the Word Bound Celestials will be getting thier 'missions' from their Archangels/Demon Princes, will then use the other players as pawns. Ideally, the missions will be at cross-purposes and the players will end up in opposition. Of course, each group will receive its own version of what's happening, etc. . . I'm setting the campaign in my Champions campaign, which has recently melded with White Wolf's World of Darkness. So while the players will mostly being warring over the mental, physical, and spiritual well-being of normal humans, they will be doing so in a world with super-powered humans, vampires, werewolves, mummies, faerie folk, and mages (from Ars Magica, not Mage: The Ascention. I think M:TA is just a silly idea.) I bring this up both by way of an introduction, and to give you an idea of if/how different my campaign is from others. I have no idea what you guys are doing with IN, but I'm really interested in finding out. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 19:55:29 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Frederick Subject: IN> Animal Vessels Dear List Do Celestials in Canine Vessels have the same lack of colour vision as normal canines? What other quirks of real animals would or wouldn't be required in Animal Vessels? 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: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 14:44:00 -0300 From: Andre Ribeiro Subject: Re: IN> Animal Vessels Peter Frederick wrote: > Do Celestials in Canine Vessels have the same lack of colour vision as > > normal canines? I think the answer is NO - in The Book we read in the box on page 48: "Vessels in animal shape *look like* normal animals, but they have been modified so they can talk" (stress mine). So why wouldn't they be modified so they could see? I think the 'look like' part says everything: It's not an animal, it's a Celestial in an animal body - period. You can talk, you can see full colors and you can think with your full capability - it doesn't matter if your host's brain is as big as a dolphin's or as null as a flea's. Of course, sometimes you would feel that irresistible pull for raising your rear leg next to an electric pole... But that's the way it is...:-) Andre ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #242 ******************************* The material here is (C) 1997 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.