From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Wed Apr 9 21:54:52 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 VAA27019; Wed, 9 Apr 1997 21:39:16 -0500 (CDT) Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id UAA13170 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Wed, 9 Apr 1997 20:45:18 -0500 Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 20:45:18 -0500 Message-Id: <199704100145.UAA13170@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 #111 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 Wednesday, April 9 1997 Volume 01 : Number 111 In this digest: Re: IN> questions Re: Tethers of the Wind again (Re: IN> Re: in_nomine-digest V1 Re: IN> Releases Re: Tethers of the Wind again (Re: IN> Re: in_nomine-digest V1 #109) IN> Re: MIBs for In Nomine IN> LARP & Relics in '98 Re: Tethers of the Wind again (Re: IN> Re: in_nomine-digest V1 Re: IN> perceptions Re: Tethers of the Wind... (Re: IN> Principalities) Re: IN> questions Re: IN> perceptions IN> Elohim of Destiny Resonance (was: Another question) Re: IN> perceptions Re: Tethers of the Wind... (Re: IN> Principalities) IN> Bodhi's Cult Adventure Seed Re: IN> Elohim of Destiny Resonance (was: Another question) IN> Moving Taget/Tether IN> Possible Janus Tethers IN> New Demon Idea. Re: IN> Bodhi's Cult Adventure Seed Re: IN> perceptions Re: IN> perceptions IN> Malakim vs Shedim: detecting the damned things... IN> Bodhi's Cult Adventure Seed Responses... Re: IN> New Demon Idea. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 11:33:50 +0000 From: "Perry Lloyd" Subject: Re: IN> questions On Tue, 8 Apr 1997 18:57:14 Elizabeth McCoy wrote : > Haven't you ever caught a glimpse of something out of the corner > of your eye? ;-) And it's not strong-willed humans who see it -- it's > ones with high perception... (Utterly different things, in IN.) > > Which means that a highly-perceptive human will either consider this > a Second Sight manifestation, a subconscious "snap judgement", a sign > that they need to go on medications, or something of the sort. > I have encountered such folks in real life. Far too perceptive without the stability to aid them in understanding what they are seeing. This would account for all sorts of "ghost stories", tales of "Demons" in the night. Any of you see dark, shadowly figures out of the corner of your eye? :) Especially at night? We all see things, some of us more than others. High perception is not necessarily a good thing. - -Perry ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 11:29:23 +0000 From: "Perry Lloyd" Subject: Re: Tethers of the Wind again (Re: IN> Re: in_nomine-digest V1 On Tue, 8 Apr 1997 18:53:10 Elizabeth McCoy wrote: > At 4:43 PM -0500 4/8/97, RogueLdr wrote: > >>A quick question about Seneschals. Do the Seneschals of Janus lose > >>the "must keep moving or gather dissonance" limitation, or do his > >>Seneschals spend a lot of their time going from place to place, > >>calling in on the Tether, and hoping that no-one damages it before he > >>can get back? > > > >I wondered that same thing myself when making a Tether for Janus. My > >solution (which I'm sure is *completely* non-canon) is to make Janus' > >Tethers mobile. They go from building to building in the form of a company > >(North Wind Enterprises) that buys and changes other companies. Myabe a > >traveling road show, or some such would be other Tethers.... > > Oh, *cool*! I hadn't thought of that. You could make it a train, > too ("I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans"), or > a plane, or a space shuttle.... Or a Grayhound bus, or *anything* > that doesn't stay put! Oh, I *like* that idea! > Yes, it doesn't make sense for an angel of Janus to stay in one place for long. I was considering a bus station, train station or airport as possible tethers, but I do not believe the tether should be "extended out" via planes, all over the globe. However, I wonder just how stable a moving tether would be. I imagine that more protection would be needed than for other tethers. If a Tether of Janus were an airport, could a being work off dissonance by using and maintaining the planes? Of course, this all applies for Valefor also. - -Perry ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 11:41:43 +0000 From: "Perry Lloyd" Subject: Re: IN> Releases On Wed, 9 Apr 1997 16:32:39 "David.Evans" said: > Gregory Littman said:- > > > That I said:- > > > Yeah, but you can bet they'll throw in some *really* powerful artifacts, > > > just for the Pcs to chase... :-) > > > > > I'm sure. And if you enjoy such chases, that's all the justification > > necessary for getting the book [ie, Relics]. But I don't see why you > > are so eager to run these chases in In Nomine. I mean, you can already > > run such chases in a million other games - why would you want the first > > supplement for In Nomine to be something so generic? > > Because, desite the fact that yes, they *are* generic scenarios > _in_concept_, that doesn't mean to say that they have to _play_ in that > manner - for a perfect example, see the adventure in the GM Pack, "Feast > of Blades" for an excellent example of how to put the right "twist" onto > what would be an otherwise stale idea for an adventure. To use the Cold > War analogy, there have been many instances of one side trying to get hold > of some device or technology or secret weapon/device that the other side > had, to "even out" the odds again. I'm sure when it comes out, that there > will be adventure seeds suggested for most, if not all, of the artifacts > given, in the same manner as, say, GURPS Supporting Cast gave a > collection of NPCs each with _at_least_ two possible adventure plotlines > to lead a party down. And BTW, *personally* I'd like to see > "Night Music" comeout first and foremost. > > Be seeing you... > > David. > > I speak in defense of item-running, and if you'll pardon the term, Shadow-Running, adventures. Running a short adventure of conflict over an item, powerful or merely thought to be powerful, makes for an excellent first run with a new system, like In Nomine. I'm running a little item-run adventure right now. The characters have yet to discover that the item even exists, and that's half the fun! A short item-run is simple and allows for the GM to get over a few rule-humps in andventure which perhaps less has been invested into. - -Perry ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Apr 1997 16:14:10 -0500 From: "Joseph R. Watt" Subject: Re: Tethers of the Wind again (Re: IN> Re: in_nomine-digest V1 #109) Elizabeth McCoy wrote: > Oh, *cool*! I hadn't thought of that. You could make it a train, > too ("I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans"), or > a plane, or a space shuttle.... Or a Grayhound bus, or *anything* > that doesn't stay put! Oh, I *like* that idea! Have you ever ridden on the City of New Orleans? It hardly seems like tether material. Is there a Demon Prince of boredom, insomnia, or snow-on-the-tracks? Also, I have trouble imagining an Ofanim taking that particular train... When I was on it I got the impression one could have made better time walking. Joseph PS> Before anyone blows up on me, or for that matter gets the impression that this experience is universally miserable, there was a nation-wide blizzard the day I took it. :) I just got a poor first impression. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 12:09:58 +0000 From: "Perry Lloyd" Subject: IN> Re: MIBs for In Nomine I have introduced MIBs into my current In Nomine campaign. They are both angels and demons, serving Dominic and Asmodeus respectively. As MIBs they act as Enforcers, essentially a hand (right or left? haven't decided yet) of Dominic and Asmodeus. MIBs of Heaven and Hell often work together when controlling information that should not reach the masses or the governments (e.g. the existance of celestials, except to certain individuals). Because of this, all MIBs are given the special Rite: Provided are Black Trench coat, suit (white shirt, black jacket, black tie, black pants), black socks and shoes, and, of course, dark sunglasses (easily seen through, only tinted on the outside, for the better of night goings on). Soldiers as MIBs was an idea, but I wanted most in the celestial community (the PCs included) to fear them, at least. If you encounter a MIB, it's a celestial with a mission and God help you if you're the target. Also, MIB is taken as human Role with a Status of 5, this ensures that beginning characters will not be able to get away with too much. After all, MIBs are essentially "untouchable" in the world of mortals. The Status 5 also explains their natural ability to intimidate (bonus of 5 to reaction roll due to status, expressed as fear and willingness to cooperate). Thoughts? - -Perry Lloyd ------------------------------ Date: 09 Apr 97 14:06:29 EDT From: Moriah - Steve Jackson Games <73407.515@CompuServe.COM> Subject: IN> LARP & Relics in '98 >David: >Oh yes, there's also going to be an Angel's and >a Demon's players guide each, too. What's going to be in those? >Moriah? It's a RPG designed to allow celestial gamers to RP mundane humans. Peace, Moriah ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 14:39:03 -0500 From: Earl Wajenberg Subject: Re: Tethers of the Wind again (Re: IN> Re: in_nomine-digest V1 Perry Lloyd wrote: "However, I wonder just how stable a moving tether would be. I imagine that more protection would be needed than for other tethers." On the other hand, it's hard to hit a moving target. Think of the mobile Janus tethers as a fleet of getaway cars (whether they look like cars or not). Earl Wajenberg ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 14:13:02 -0400 (EDT) From: gibsonc@nku.edu Subject: Re: IN> perceptions the group i'm running had a kyrios of Yves do just that. however he gain disonance because he was a beat cop not a detective and he was assigned to traffic control but instead tampered with evidence and then left the scene unbeknownst to his supervisor, causing his host much trouble!!! jahon On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, tom timberlake wrote: > about the game in the gamescreen you mentioned: who besides me sees > the crash site as a wonderful opportunity for the Kyrios in the group? > just possess the onsite police supervisor and the whole group is > inside the crime scene tape snooping around with permission!!! :-} > > don't let your wings drag in the mud, Tom. > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 13:00:08 -0500 From: tom timberlake Subject: Re: Tethers of the Wind... (Re: IN> Principalities) James, Malakim of David here (aka Tom the music man)...there is another solution--Janus' Tethers are guarded by other angels on temporary loan from other Archangels just for this purpose--they are not actually angels of Janus, they just are working with him for a while, possibly because their Superior thinks they need to learn patience and staying in one place, guarding a Tether, and dealing with all and sundry who come calling is just the thing to fill the bill. Janus is kept happy, because his tether is being well-guarded. The Tether's guardian is happy, because he is working his way up in the eyes of his Superior. The loaning Superior is happy, because his Servitor is learning a lesson. The GM is happy, because he has a way to throw Janusians and others together--at the Tether, since any non-hostile Celestial may claim sanctuary at a Tether and what it takes to guard a Tether from the enemy is at the discretion of its guardian, even up to actively going out and finding a particular foe or band of foes---he just better be right or the Tether's patron Archangel is going to ream him out good for endangering the Tether. on a slightly unrelated note, i like the idea of gargoyles--they nicely fill the niche between humans and Celestials. Hey--that's it!!! a band of gargoyles in debt to the Archangel of Wind could be the guardians of at least one of Janus' Tethers!!! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 14:22:03 -0400 (EDT) From: gibsonc@nku.edu Subject: Re: IN> questions oh, cool, thanx On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Elizabeth McCoy wrote: > At 12:42 PM -0400 4/8/97, gibsonc@nku.edu wrote: > >i have a question for someone. in In Nom, under aura as a form of discord > >it says aura adds to other's perception check, but i can't find any game > >mechanics behind how one celestial can perceive another while both are in > >their corporeal vessels. > > They generally can't -- *unless* the poor celestial has this discord! > With this Discord, even in a vessel, it only takes a Perception+Discord > Level roll to spot them. > > And, of course, it will add when they're celestial as well. > > >also, if strong willed humans have a chance to perceive celestial, > >wouldn't their always be a random screams or hysteria going on in this world? > > Haven't you ever caught a glimpse of something out of the corner > of your eye? ;-) And it's not strong-willed humans who see it -- it's > ones with high perception... (Utterly different things, in IN.) > > Which means that a highly-perceptive human will either consider this > a Second Sight manifestation, a subconscious "snap judgement", a sign > that they need to go on medications, or something of the sort. > > > --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com // emccoy@jade.mv.net > GURPS characters, Roleplayers; Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ > > > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 14:14:56 -0400 (EDT) From: gibsonc@nku.edu Subject: Re: IN> perceptions but if they can't perceive other celestials then how does aura "add" to perception rolls, is this a typo that should read "allows a perception roll? jahon On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Bodhi wrote: > > how can celestial in the corporeal vessels perceive others celestials who > > are also in corporeal vessels? does anyone have any working system for > > this? what does the check digit here do if you cannot tell the difference > > in demons and angels by perception check alone(see aura). A way i did it > > was the better the check digit the more "sure" the perceiver was that the > > person seen was celestial. > > Actually, this seems to be a popular question! > > The general answer is... you can't! Generally speaking, you cannot > tell that a person is a Celestial, Diabolical, Mortal, or Soldier, > unless they expend Essence consciously. Since "regular" people only > expend Essence subconsciouly, they make no disturbance in the > Symphony when they do so (they expend all their essence at once, as > well.) Only Celestials, Diabolicals, and Soldiers have learned the > ability of expending a single, controlled point of Essence through a > conscious act. This makes a disturbance in the Symphony that is > detectable. However, you still can't really tell if the expenditure > was done by a Soldier, Diabolical, or Celestial. > > There are certain attunements, resonances, Songs, etc. that give > "hints" as to somebody's nature, but generally speaking, unless > somebody is consciously expending Essence and "showing their hand", > you can't tell their nature. > > This adds much crucial flavour to the game... my players love/hate > the fact that they're never sure if somebody is who they say they > are, or if they aren't a more powerful figure merely pretending to be > mundane. Removing this dramatic tension severely changes the style > of gameplay. > > Walk in Beauty, > > Rob Wolff / Bodhi > rob@v-wave.com > > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 16:45:57 -0500 From: rbeall@fdldotnet.com (Grim88) Subject: IN> Elohim of Destiny Resonance (was: Another question) >>Elohim of Yves don't need to make their resonance roll when touching the >>target. I assume that the check digit is equal to [some] Forces. Which >>Forces would it be? I was thinking Celestial, but the other ones I saw, >>for other Archangels, were all Ethereal. > >> >Based on that, I'd say that the base CD for Elohim of Destiny would, >indeed, be Ethereal Forces -- they are getting the data quite nicely, >but require Intelligence/Precision to "organize" this auto-data in >any sensible fashion. (I *love* gamespeakbabble!) > My only player happens to be an Elohim of Destiny. What i planned to do in teh above circumstance was to roll ONLY the check digit. That way, it would always succeed like it should, but the degree of success would be more random. What do other people think? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 12:04:19 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> perceptions At 8:57 PM -0400 4/8/97, gibsonc@nku.edu wrote: >how can celestial in the corporeal vessels perceive others celestials who >are also in corporeal vessels? You can't. Or, rather, not easily. Some resonances and attunements have a chance to figure this out indirectly. Shall I dig up and email or repost my "Ways to tell if the person is celestial" list? At 6:58 AM -0500 4/9/97, Donald G Bixler wrote: >> Elizabeth McCoy did a very detailed analysis of just this point. You >> might check the archives for "Perception of people and celestials" >> from March 25. Or if she gives me the go-ahead, I'll repost it. > > That reminds me: while re-reviewing the attunements, I spotted >another potential way to tell that isn't in Elizabeth's list as far as I >can remember. The Impudites of Technology are given sunglasses that can >measure the amount of Essence in anyone viewed. If you look at someone >and they have 6+ essence, you should probably be suspicious... I gotta add that one in. Forgot about the techno-tricks, and just skimmed over them. Thanks! - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com // emccoy@jade.mv.net GURPS characters, Roleplayers; Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 20:56:02 GMT From: w_mazur@primenet.com (Walt Mazur) Subject: Re: Tethers of the Wind... (Re: IN> Principalities) On Wed, 09 Apr 1997 13:00:08 -0500, tom timberlake wrote: >James, Malakim of David here (aka Tom the music man)...there is >another solution--Janus' Tethers are guarded by other angels on >temporary loan from other Archangels just for this purpose--they are >not actually angels of Janus, they just are working with him for a >while, possibly because their Superior thinks they need to learn >patience and staying in one place, guarding a Tether, and dealing with >all and sundry who come calling is just the thing to fill the bill. One problem with this seems to be (corrections welcome!) that loaned Celestials, except for Eli's, get the dissonance of the superior they're loaned to as well as their natural dissonance. So, angels loaned to Janus would gain dissonance from not moving. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 14:40:19 +0000 From: "Bodhi" Subject: IN> Bodhi's Cult Adventure Seed Adventure Seed: If It Seems too Good to be True... Background: When Eli took his little vacation a few decades ago, he left a number of his more powerful and inspired minions without the benefit of his guidance. While most of them continued their work under the guidance of other Archangels, a very few of them retained their sole allegience to Eli, working on various projects without guidance, secure in the knowledge that they were doing his bidding. One such creative angel, with a great deal of distinction, was Alron. As Alron was a very great fan of literature, he acted throughout the world furthering the creative and inspirational energies of many authors, screenwriters, and so on. He didn't feel that his talents were necessarily linked directly to the efforts of the other archangels (except perhaps for Yvex), so he continued his work unsupervised for the interim period of time. It was always Alron's belief that Eli was coming back "real soon now", and that things would return to "normal" very quickly. Thus, there was no great rush to go work for another archangel. Alron was never essentially creative per se' on his own. Instead, Alron's greatest talent lay in the ability to take good notions from a number of disparate sources, and jumble them together into a newer and more creative format. Thus, the artists that he would patronize tended to take factual information and fictionalize it, or they would take different fictional settings and combine the best of both elements into an even newer and more fantastic creation. Alron's focus didn't lie in direct creation, therefore, but in modification of current creation to bring about an even better product. He began to write down some of his personal thoughts over twenty years ago, and as a consequence wound up with a neat little bundle of insightful and helpful hints about how to take one's life, sift through the bad stuff, find the good stuff, and mix it with the good stuff of other people to make an even better existence. What had originally started out as a means for helping himself work on making his own Celestial assignments move more efficiently wound up becoming a more centralized personal philosophy, and he began to tell any of his friends who would listen exactly how they could help streamline their own existences as well. Indeed, after a few of his friends adopted his viewpoints, he showed them another theoretical history he had been working on, which true to form was simply a conglomeration of the best parts of all other sorts of history jumbled together. Alron's emphasis was that the most logical components of disparate theories could be fused together to make the most logical unifying theory. He wrote out his thoughts into a second work, which attempted to fuse differing theories about Creation, the Creator, and the nature of the early days of the War, into one unifying theory. These first two books were so popular that Alron more or less abandoned his original human-inspiring works in an attempt to bring personal inspiration to other Celestials. He arranged to have his books duplicated. The first book was titled "Celestiometry", and the second book was titled "The Truest History". He began writing many, many more books in his spare time, and soon his fans were inundated with a deluge of Alron's writings, his "philosophies", and his re-worked "histories". While more scholarly Celestials scoffed at his "works", his fans became very much enraptured with the message that he was sending through these books. If it was possible to take the best elements of any one individual, and downplay the negative elements, and furthermore combine it with the positive elements of other individuals, then it would be possible to remove distinguishing characteristics between the choirs. Indeed, Alron published a pseudo-fictional novel in which the characters all started out in different choirs, but wound up forming a new brotherhood, a neo-choir, which was essentially a blend of all of the different choirs. This met with great success! Alron's fans (some even began to think of themselves as followers...) began to actively pursue the personal re-structuring of their internal selves to match the neo-choir. Indeed, some would become quite indignant if you pointed out their individual membership in any particular choir, claiming that the old class system was invalid when seen through the light of Celestiometry. Alron's fans generally would gather during their spare time on an island retreat that Alron had purchased in California. On his island, he was free to pursue his writings, his scholarship, and his newfound role as spiritual icon. To date, Alron has published specialized volumes of Celestiometry aimed at alleviating the particular problems faced by any individual. There are special volumes devoted to the problems of Malakim, Ofanim, etc. Alron then published a two-volume set of instructions to his followers, in which he advocated a radical new theory. In his newest theory, Diabolicals were also seen to be part of the great scheme of things. Indeed, the focus was on the fact that the War, being initially started by God, must serve as the integral point of existence for all living creatures. "The World is the War" was the title of the book, and in it he advocated spreading his message to Diabolicals as well as Celestials. He even made provisions for humans! It seemed that Alron had discovered that the basis for all individual existences was the wrapping of cosmic Forces around an elementary individualistic particle, which he called an "Alphon". Celestials and Diabolicals, being created first, used up the majority of the Alphons. Humans, being created afterwards, were created out of a different particle called a "Beton". Alphons and Betons were different enough that the two souls could never be interchanged, but they were also similar enough to show that all living beings were essentially "brothers under the skin". Alron even went so far as to suggest that Alphons and Betons were not the creations of God, but rather that God would've simply utilized the particles left over from some older creations. Alron hypothesized that God took the Alphons and Betons of a long-dead alien species, and created the first Celestials and Diabolicals out of them. Thus, all Celestials, Diabolicals, and Humans are really (in a way) the re-incarnations of a long-dead alien species not even endemic to this Universe!!! God then set this universe up simply as a conflict-zone in which the War would be fought. The war serves no purpose other than the simply perpetuation of this Universe's existence. So long as we are caught up in the War, we will never get to our true Alphon and Beton nature. We will, instead, be clouded from our true nature, and follow blindly our programming regarding the War, and never achieve true happiness. Only by abandoning the War, and getting in touch with our Alphon and Beton nature, will we understand our true beginnings, and thus understand ourselves. The Birth of Alray Alron set up a mechanism through which he could spread his message. He modelled it after certain highly unorthodox and highly lucrative human business enterprises. Alron had each of his followers attempt to convert others through the promise of "free and easy Essence". Thus, the contract of Essence, or Alray, was born. In Alray, every participant gives their immediate superior one point of Essence every day. If they possess a rite, they can easily regenerate that point of essence through a little work. Thus, for as little as 4 to 6 hours of work per day, you can make your Alray payments. However, the nice part is that every member you recruit now owes you one point of Essence. Thus, if you spread the word to 15 new recruits, their total accumulated input to you will be 15 points of Essence DAILY!!! As well, provisions were made to "split off" from under your superior, by buying off your franchise and becoming a separate line directly under Alron. Of course, ALL lines pay a direct daily fee to Alron in order to support Alron's works, his efforts on their behalf, and his now-lavish lifestyle. Alray also takes payments of money from their human counterparts if they should choose to do so. As well, Alray will exchange favours for cash deposits. Thus, if you wish to purchase some sort of Celestial or Diabolical action, you simply have to pay the fee and the service will be delivered for you. Many people have become fervent believers in the Alray system, and spend quite a bit of their lives making money and/or essence for Alray. Each one of them is trying to "break off" and become a direct Alray line under Alron. The individuals that manage to do so have almost unfathomable amounts of Essence and cash at their disposal on a daily basis. There are, at this point, 23 direct lines under Alron, each of which have between 25 and 50 members. Only about 10% of the Alray members are humans, with about 60% being Celestials and 30 %Diabolicals. The distribution across choirs and bands is disturbingly uniform... Celestiometry seems frighteningly convincing to all members of society. The Adventure: The PC's are asked to infiltrate, investigate, and if possible, eradicate the Alray cult. Sniff around and dig up dirt. The PC's could be mortals, Soldiers, Celestials, Diabolicals, or any combination thereof. The point is that Alron is not necessarily wrong. In fact, it could be quite enjoyable if some of the PC's get wrapped up in the teachings of Alron, and decide that their "infiltration" mission should be transformed into an actual "conversion to the faith". This has the the potential for some quite nasty dust-ups within the party itself! Every member of Alray is a devoted follower of Alron and Celestiometry. They are not above a little petty violence if it brings about greater Order and Harmony. Thus, they are more than willing to eliminate problematic PC's if they discover too much, or make too much noise. I don't wish to make the adventure too constricting. I don't necessarily see Alray as "an evil entity", and I don't think it particularly needs to be "menacing or corrupt". However, I do see it as a deceptively simple and potentially soul-crushing, non-creative, pseudo-intellectual cult, which in-and-of-itself may be enough of an evil entity that it should be ferretted out and destroyed. Such action, however, needs to be justified in the PC's own hearts, and more to the point, in their reports to their respective Superiors. Thus, perhaps Alron is just a nut-cake who needs his wrist slapped. Perhaps he is damaging people's perceptions, and their roles in the War, to such an extent that he needs to be eliminated for their own good. Perhaps, in so doing, the PC's will simply Martyr Alron, and make his message all that much more powerful. Remember that Alray has a great pyramid-scheme type business going on with regards to cash and Essence. The higher-ups in Alray should have tremendous resources at their disposal. Don't make it too easy for the PC's to simply waltz in and fix things. Walk in Beauty, Rob Wolff / Bodhi rob@v-wave.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 17:49:07 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Elohim of Destiny Resonance (was: Another question) At 4:45 PM -0500 4/9/97, Grim88 wrote: >>Based on that, I'd say that the base CD for Elohim of Destiny would, >>indeed, be Ethereal Forces -- they are getting the data quite nicely, >>but require Intelligence/Precision to "organize" this auto-data in >>any sensible fashion. (I *love* gamespeakbabble!) > >My only player happens to be an Elohim of Destiny. What i planned to do in >teh above circumstance was to roll ONLY the check digit. That way, it would >always succeed like it should, but the degree of success would be more random. >What do other people think? I think you need to roll the whole schmere, so that you can check for Divine/Diabolical Intervention... Either that, or use Eth Forces as the "default" CD? Your game, of course, so you get to decide whether you want to roll for Interventions. (Maybe you only roll the other two if it comes up a 1 or a 6?) - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com // emccoy@jade.mv.net GURPS characters, Roleplayers; Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 17:22:06 EST From: PERRY LLOYD Subject: IN> Moving Taget/Tether >Perry Lloyd wrote: > > "However, I wonder just how stable a moving tether would be. > I imagine that more protection would be needed than for other > tethers." >Earl Wajenberg wrote: >On the other hand, it's hard to hit a moving target. Think of >the mobile Janus tethers as a fleet of getaway cars (whether they >look like cars or not). > I completely agree that a moving target would be harder to hit, I was worried that exposure to several cities (for example) might lead to a lot of rival celestials becoming aware of the tether, following it en masse and attempting to destroy it. On the other hand, if it would only appear in your city once in a blue moon and it would be easier to ignore it, why target it anyway? - -Perry Lloyd ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Apr 97 18:31 EDT From: Walter Milliken Subject: IN> Possible Janus Tethers Thinking about Janus' Word, which seems to be something on the order of Wind/Movement/Change/Chaos, it seems to me that the notion of a fixed Tether simply doesn't fit his Word, and, as I understand Tethers at the moment, they are anchored Earthside at a place that exemplifies the Superior's Word. Running with this, I conclude: - Janus would probably have no fixed Tethers at all - transient wind phenomena, especially tornadoes and hurricanes, are probably Tethers to Janus for their duration - the jet streams might be Tethers (kind of hard to reach, though without a plane) - there *might* be Tethers on certain aircraft, at least in flight: candidates that immediately come to mind are the Space Shuttles, one or more Concordes, and possibly famous aircraft (or the Air and Space Museum) - possibly some Tethers jump around; maybe any aircraft experiencing turbulance may temporarily be a candidate for a Tether anchor - ---Walter ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 09:02:43 GMT+10 From: "Leathal Weapon" <938269@wrpc.riv.csu.edu.au> Subject: IN> New Demon Idea. Okay guys, my line of thought jumps around here, so try and stay with me. I was watching the Simpsons last night (one of the Halloween episodes) and started thinking about Freddy Krueger (are we lost yet?) Anyway, I was thinking that isn't Freddy a perfect example of a powerful demon (Calabim?) of Beleth? He'd have very high Ethereal abilities, not bad Celestial, good Corporeal (for when he bothered to appear in the Corporeal) and high levels of songs that let him change forms, play with poeple's minds even when they're awake etc. Hmm, I'll have a think, and I may even create a Demon based on this character. Leath. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 09:24:44 +1100 From: "Patrick O'Duffy" Subject: Re: IN> Bodhi's Cult Adventure Seed Bodhi wrote: > > Adventure Seed: If It Seems too Good to be True... > Hmmm. You are a complete loon, Bodhi, you do realize this? - -- Patrick O'Duffy, Brisbane, Australia With his mouth sewn shut, he still shakes his butt Cuz he's Hitler & Swayze & Trump & Travolta Smell. Sweat. Movement. Everyone's dancing. Disco. MR BUNGLE, "Quote Unquote" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 17:59:47 +0000 From: "Bodhi" Subject: Re: IN> perceptions > >how can celestial in the corporeal vessels perceive others celestials who > >are also in corporeal vessels? > > You can't. Or, rather, not easily. Some resonances and attunements > have a chance to figure this out indirectly. Shall I dig up and email > or repost my "Ways to tell if the person is celestial" list? Please! It was most helpful on the subject. It also showed that the best you can do is get a clue as to somebody's nature, never an "easy detection" type of roll! Walk in Beauty, Rob Wolff / Bodhi rob@v-wave.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 19:47:36 +0000 From: "Perry Lloyd" Subject: Re: IN> perceptions Well, as far as celestials perceiving other celestials, the players demanded a way, so I said "Go ahead and make a perception roll." To which one of my responded "Will there be a bonus or what?" To which I responded: "First of all, would I tell you (NO), and second, GM to player, there will be LARGE penalty. You're trying to determine someone's nature by listening to the symphony. That's going to be hard." In the end I decided that I would let make a perception roll, but only with Demonic or Divine intervention would they learn anything concerning a being's true nature. - -Perry Lloyd ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 19:47:36 +0000 From: "Perry Lloyd" Subject: IN> Malakim vs Shedim: detecting the damned things... The situation currently in my campaign is that I have two Malakim using their resonance against humans possessed by Shedim, so what happens them? I've ruled that unless the Malakim know the human is possessed, they will test the human and thus get fudged results, if they figure out the human is possessed, then they can try the Shedite, but in that case they know there is a demon present. If the human has been possessed for more than a week and the Malakim makes its resonance with a CD of 1 or 2, then the Malakim will get a null reading, a sure tip-off that there's something wrong... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 18:42:41 +0000 From: "Bodhi" Subject: IN> Bodhi's Cult Adventure Seed Responses... Examples of public and private responses I am getting... ***** > Interesting- $cientology, Celestial Style. Now I just need to >fit in a variation of the clam story into it... ***** > Hmmm. > You are a complete loon, Bodhi, you do realize this? ***** > Unless I miss my guess, you just lampooned two subjects near >and dear to my heart... Which only goes to show that just about >anything good can be abused and perverted -- by those who profess to >uphold it as much as those who are outside it, more's the pity. :-J ***** The three people who posted these are some of my favourite names on this list (one e-mailed me privately, so don't bother looking for their post...) It was never my intention to be overly-critical of any particular body of REAL followers, nor of any particular pyramid scheme, nor of any particular combination of the two. I know that there are some harsh commentaries located within this adventure seed if indeed certain of these subjects are "near and dear" to you. I know how you feel!!! You know how many really nice Buddhist and Hindu mystics have become ensnarled within huge money-driven, sex-scandal-type California cults? You know how many such mystics have spearheaded some of the most attrocious manipulations of young minds (and BODIES!!!) all in a supposedly "pure" search for enlightenment? You know how many of these guys get published, and their ridiculous "philosophies" become more fast-food for the pseudo-informed new-age sub-culture? All good things can indeed be perverted. All good missions can indeed stray off course. All good philosophies can become perverted by power-grubbing underlings (especially after the Master dies!!!) I guess that's what I'm trying to say. Perhaps the "message" in my seed is that Alron just went a step or two too far. Perhaps the Alray group simply needs to be nudged back into line... Therefore, if my little adventure seed strikes far too close to home, please understand that my intention was NEVER to ridicule, but rather to entertain! (and perhaps, just perhaps, make one think critically, but never over-harshly!) Thanks for your support, but I wanted to make sure that people knew where I was coming from. (especially __these__ people, since they've been so good to me in the past) Thank you, you three, and the others who've e-mailed me privately, for your support. (and your critical perspectives!) Walk in Beauty, Rob Wolff / Bodhi rob@v-wave.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 19:54:54 +0000 From: "Perry Lloyd" Subject: Re: IN> New Demon Idea. On Thu, 10 Apr 1997 09:02:43 "Leathal Weapon" wrote: > Okay guys, my line of thought jumps around here, so try and stay with > me. I was watching the Simpsons last night (one of the Halloween > episodes) and started thinking about Freddy Krueger (are we lost > yet?) Anyway, I was thinking that isn't Freddy a perfect example of a > powerful demon (Calabim?) of Beleth? He'd have very high Ethereal > abilities, not bad Celestial, good Corporeal (for when he bothered to > appear in the Corporeal) and high levels of songs that let him change > forms, play with poeple's minds even when they're awake etc. > > Hmm, I'll have a think, and I may even create a Demon based on this > character. > > Leath. > > All I have to say is that is really scary, but a wonderful campaign-seed. I don't deal enough with the Etheral realm and this would definitely do the trick... Scary, never really liked Freddy, too much violation involved. - -Perry Lloyd ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #111 ******************************* The material here is (C) 1996 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.