From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Thu Jun 22 12:21:31 2000 Return-Path: Received: from lists.io.com (majordom@lists.io.com [199.170.88.15]) by pyramid.sjgames.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id MAA07755 for ; Thu, 22 Jun 2000 12:21:31 -0500 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.9.3/8.9.1a) id MAA22494 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Thu, 22 Jun 2000 12:20:04 -0500 Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 12:20:04 -0500 Message-Id: <200006221720.MAA22494@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 #1688 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, June 22 2000 Volume 01 : Number 1688 In this digest: Re: IN> Late Product (Humor, blessit, humor!) IN> The Death of In Nomine Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) RE: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) IN> Hmm. Re: IN> PC Creation Help Re: IN> PC Creation Help Re: IN> PC Creation Help Re: IN> PC Creation Help Re: IN> PC Creation Help Re: IN> Hmm. Re: IN> PC Creation Help Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) Re: IN> PC Creation Help - Thanks! Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) IN> NPC creation on the fly Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) IN> Interventions and Balseraph resonance (Was: Running a mystery) Re: IN> Late Product (Humor, blessit, humor!) True Names (WAS: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance)) Re: IN> PC Creation Help Re: IN> Late Product (Humor, blessit, humor!) Re: IN> PC Creation Help Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) Re:Opposites Attract (was Re: IN> GURPS IN Canon (loooong) Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 14:47:40 -0700 (PDT) From: MANDY JON BOWYER Subject: Re: IN> Late Product (Humor, blessit, humor!) On Wed, 21 Jun 2000, Elizabeth McCoy wrote: > > soothing to drink> (Puck patpats and offers the nice Archangel some chocolate and mentions that she just bought GURPS IOU today, just in case that makes her feel better) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 18:34:41 EDT From: Daedalus3D@aol.com Subject: IN> The Death of In Nomine Since everyone seems to be finishing up their complaining, philosophizing, and planning about the "inevitable death of In Nomine," I thought I might throw my thoughts onto the pile. In Nomine is my hands-down favorite role-playing game. If something like IN had never been released in English I would have made it up myself (I had actually started too, come to think of it. It was called "8th Day" and used a bunch of those infernal war machines that Milton talks about in Paradise Lost). Personally, my life wouldn't change much if IN stopped being published. I'd keep playing it just the same. Sure, it'd be definately harder to recruit people to play a defunct game, but if you have enough excitement about what you're doing, you can convince people to join you in anything (heck, look at bunjee jumpers). In my state (North Carolina), there is a large network of gamers who's system-of-choice is Earthdawn. *EARTHDAWN* for crying out loud! If people are still playing that, I think IN will go on for a long time to come, even if it is dropped by SJG. So, basically what I'm saying is "damn the man; just play what you love." Thank you. Daedalus ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 18:43:24 EDT From: MarkDEddy@aol.com Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) In a message dated 6/21/00 2:17:07 PM, silversm@intouchsys.com writes: >I don't know. Assuming "Frank" is a decent plant, how often would the >angels actually use their resonnance on him? If you have no reason for >suspecting he's been compromised, it might take a while until people >noticed he was acting oddly and looked into why... > This is how I managed to get a group of angels through a mystery adventure... Enough red herrings and wrong people to resonate, and they wound up doing a fairly nice imitation of a dog chasing it's tail. The other thing I did was have crucial witnesses difficult to find.... Mark ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 17:12:56 -0600 From: "ben" Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) > This is how I managed to get a group of angels through a mystery adventure... > Enough red herrings and wrong people to resonate, and they wound up doing a > fairly nice imitation of a dog chasing it's tail. The other thing I did was > have crucial witnesses difficult to find... My darned angels resonate everything they see. If it gets mentioned, they resonate it. They even resonate their friends once in awhile, just to make sure they've been good. Ben ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 16:17:26 -0700 From: Steven Feldon Subject: RE: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) And they never fail? Unless they've got a perception over 10, they should spend a decent part of each day celestially "blind", if they're that indiscriminate. . . . The cherub in my last campaign would fail at the most dramatic times. Unfortunate, but dramatic. Actually, I started ruling that anyone could automatically resonate with a CD of 1, just to keep him from failing too often. After all, how often do your eyes fail you, or your ears? steve - -----Original Message----- From: ben [mailto:ben@zianet.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 4:13 PM To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) > This is how I managed to get a group of angels through a mystery adventure... > Enough red herrings and wrong people to resonate, and they wound up doing a > fairly nice imitation of a dog chasing it's tail. The other thing I did was > have crucial witnesses difficult to find... My darned angels resonate everything they see. If it gets mentioned, they resonate it. They even resonate their friends once in awhile, just to make sure they've been good. Ben ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 22:30:34 -0400 From: Walter Milliken Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) At 19:12 -0400 6/21/00, ben wrote: >> This is how I managed to get a group of angels through a mystery >adventure... >> Enough red herrings and wrong people to resonate, and they wound up doing >a >> fairly nice imitation of a dog chasing it's tail. The other thing I did >was >> have crucial witnesses difficult to find... > >My darned angels resonate everything they see. If it gets mentioned, they >resonate it. They even resonate their friends once in awhile, just to make >sure they've been good. Not entirely unreasonable, *if* they have a high Perception (and thus don't get stuck with CD 6 failures very often). On the other hand, they'll get a lot of Infernal Interventions as a result, too.... I don't find excessive resonance use all that troubling -- if they resonate random people, they get distracted, since resonances rarely give *really* precise information except on a CD 6 in my game. For example, "he hates his boss and his boss thinks he's an incompetant idiot" as a Mercurian resonance result doesn't really tell the angel all that much. And names aren't all that much trouble, either, if demons have common use-names in Helltongue that are plausible English (or whatever) names. Some of those Biblical/Hebrew names are somewhat suspicious, but then humans use some of those, too. Of all the Choirs, the Seraphim and Elohim probably get the most use out of their resonances in routine information-seeking encounters. Malakim and Mercurians find out more about the nature of the person, but aren't generally going to gain that much of an advantage in digging up information that way. Some, yes, but generally not plot-killing stuff. (And Malakim are *so* easily distracted by "evil" people. And they might just be looking at the 100% human, friendly neighborhood pedophile.... After a bit of this, their companions will probably be trying to keep them from resonating indiscriminately, just to keep to the main job at hand.) - ---Walter ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 20:04:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> Hmm. Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 19:40:45 -0500From: "Prodigal" Subject: Re: IN> GURPS IN Canon (loooong) From: "Whistling in the Dark" > > > >Christopher/Mammon, Khalid/Magog.> >> Actually, reverse those two. Children and Cruelty >>oppose well, and >> Faith and Greed seems natural. >True, but Magog scares Christopher more than Mammon >does. ;;;) >(Personally, I'd put Zadkiel in opposition to Magog.) It's starting to sound like a Button Men concept. :) Morgan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 21:37:55 -0500 From: "Kiara S. Legner" Subject: Re: IN> PC Creation Help Y'see, I have this player... He's got a great attitude. He plays a fabulous barbarian with the same gaming group in a fantasy setting. When he can get his head around a character, he's also a very good roleplayer - the type that does a great job at interacting with the rest of the group and doesn't wait for me to micro-manage every single inter-player communication. So what's the problem? I've got a pretty well read, highly educated gaming group for the most part. Except for this guy. He doesn't "get" magic in fantasy settings, and he had an absolutely miserable time with the Seraph of Laurence he was playing in the last campaign I ran. (Couldn't handle the dissonance conditions, either.) His reading skills also are marginal, so expecting him to pick up any of the books and actually understand the details isn't an option. He tries, but he just doesn't have the comprehension skills. He needs a new character. And I'm stumped. How do I translate a fantasy game chaotic-good barbarian type into an IN character that is similar? Mind you, I don't allow PC Malakim. The best idea I've got at the moment is to have him run a Soldier with a lot of combat skills, use the optional human mastery rules from the GMG, and keep Songs for him pretty much non-existent. Might work - I've never run a campaign with human PC's before, though, and this group tends to get pretty wild and ignore the consequences of lots of noise. (They see Judgement a lot, too...) I want him to be able to hold his ground, as well. The campaign I'm setting up at the moment is loosely based on Mission Impossible 2, and I play to keep that same level of ridiculousness that runs through anything MI in the campaign world. I'm also basing it in 2012, with a taste of Cyberpunk and Illuminati thrown in 'cause I feel like it. Ideas? Ki ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 23:43:49 EDT From: MarkDEddy@aol.com Subject: Re: IN> PC Creation Help In a message dated 6/21/00 8:13:05 PM, PhoenixRising@horusinc.com writes: >And I'm stumped. How do I translate a fantasy game chaotic-good barbarian >type into an IN character that is similar? > >Mind you, I don't allow PC Malakim. > Actually, I'd think that an Ophanite of War, the Wind, or (possibly) Jean would be a good choice for this guy. >The best idea I've got at the moment is to have him run a Soldier with a lot >of combat skills, use the optional human mastery rules from the GMG, and >keep Songs for him pretty much non-existent. Might work - I've never run a >campaign with human PC's before, though, and this group tends to get pretty >wild and ignore the consequences of lots of noise. (They see Judgement >a lot, too...) I want him to be able to hold his ground, as well. > >The campaign I'm setting up at the moment is loosely based on Mission >Impossible 2, and I play to keep that same level of ridiculousness that runs >through anything MI in the campaign world. I'm also basing it in 2012, with >a taste of Cyberpunk and Illuminati thrown in 'cause I feel like it. > >Ideas? Or, as another option, a cherub of Stone. It may be difficult for him not to hit first, but explain the 'feel the force, Luke' resonance, and you may have a winner. Mark ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 00:13:47 -0400 From: Douglas Muir Subject: Re: IN> PC Creation Help >>The best idea I've got at the moment is to have him run a Soldier with a lot >>of combat skills, use the optional human mastery rules from the GMG, and >>keep Songs for him pretty much non-existent. Might work - I've never run a >>campaign with human PC's before, though, and this group tends to get pretty >>wild and ignore the consequences of lots of noise. (They see Judgement >>a lot, too...) I want him to be able to hold his ground, as well. If you're going to stick him with a human character, then 1) Make sure he's Blessed, otherwise he's absolute demon-chow; and, 2) Try giving him a Superior attunement or two. For role-playing purposes, you could have him be basically good, but occasionally inclined to some vice or other... so that he might be in danger from Gluttons or Lusties (not necessarily from them overwhelming him with resonance, but from old-fashioned temptation). Also, you'd probably want to have him be one of those humans who is sure that the War is about humanity, and that angels are ultimately mankind's servants. Yes, some humans do take this attitude and get away with it; after all, many _angels_ believe this (it's the default setting for Mercs IMC, frex). Otherwise, the angel PCs will try to push him around. They may anyway, of course. Doug M. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 00:43:05 -0400 From: Jason Schneiderman Subject: Re: IN> PC Creation Help >And I'm stumped. How do I translate a fantasy game chaotic-good barbarian >type into an IN character that is similar? Cherub of the Wind? Chaotic, good, and a Babe Magnet(tm) to boot. Jason * * * * * "I'm addicted to stress that's the way that I get things done if I'm not underpressure then I sleep too long and I hang around like a bum and I think I'm going nowhere and that makes me nervous..." Jason Schneiderman jadasc@ma.ultranet.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 00:03:29 -0500 From: David Edelstein Subject: Re: IN> PC Creation Help "Kiara S. Legner" wrote: > I've got a pretty well read, highly educated gaming group for the most part. > Except for this guy. He doesn't "get" magic in fantasy settings, and he had > an absolutely miserable time with the Seraph of Laurence he was playing in > the last campaign I ran. Seraphim are the last character type I'd recommend for players new to In Nomine....it takes a while for most people to realize just how restrictive it is to not be able to lie, or even fudge the truth, AT ALL. > He needs a new character. > > And I'm stumped. How do I translate a fantasy game chaotic-good barbarian > type into an IN character that is similar? > > Mind you, I don't allow PC Malakim. Go for an Ofanite. They can actually kick butt in combat even better than Malakim. And they're _supposed_ to be impulsive. Their dissonance restrictions are the easiest to deal with of all the angelic Choirs, IMO. An Ofanite pretty much has to be set up to be put in a situation where it's actually hard for him to avoid dissonance (aside from the occasional unlucky die roll, of course), and since you're the GM, you can make sure he isn't "set up" until you're sure he can handle it. - -David ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 00:18:20 PDT From: "Jo Hart" Subject: Re: IN> Hmm. >From: Maurice Lane >> >It's starting to sound like a Button Men concept. :) > Now THAT is a brilliant idea! Beth, Andrew .. any chance of someone suggesting this to Cheapass? :) jo ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 10:53:38 +0100 From: "Laurent" Subject: Re: IN> PC Creation Help > How do I translate a fantasy game chaotic-good barbarian > type into an IN character that is similar? If he's not comfortable with all the resonance/dissonance stuff, he shouldn't be a Celestial. Give him a soldier with many skills. Mind you, a good Corporeal-oriented human can easily kick celestial butts. One of my players has one, and he's more efficient than most of the other members of the team (all angels). If he likes the magic part but doesn't understand the mechanics of it, give him relics instead of Songs. A fiery sword (or concealed uzi), a summonable armor, etc. Also, a Force-catcher could be wise... One shot relic-reliquaries can be good too. One of my NPC's has got a pretty large stock of these self-powered grenade-like relics. Need a Thunder, Shield, or Charm? Just drop the grenade, and Boom! For the chaotic-good part, make him serve the Wind. Laurent. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 11:11:18 +0100 From: "Laurent" Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) >> My darned angels resonate everything they see. If it gets mentioned, >> they resonate it. They even resonate their friends once in awhile, >> just to make sure they've been good. Facing the same situation (again), I started mentioning many, many pointless things. All the time. Sometimes they'll be off-track for hours before they realize it. An alternative would be to add worthless details only when they start exagerating. It helps when you make them look like fools. > Not entirely unreasonable, *if* they have a high Perception but highly annoying for the GM who has to make up a story for EACH person in the damn building! > On the other hand, they'll get a lot of Infernal Interventions > as a result, too.... Must be the worst thing. Most of our interventions happen on Perception rolls. And they usually go by packs of 2 or 3 (666's and 111's mixed). Now what possible intervention can happen when an angel rolls a 111 while trying to read someone's feelings?!? Especially when that someone has no importance whatsoever in your scenario... Laurent. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 03:50:10 PDT From: "Jo Hart" Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) >From: "Laurent" >Now what possible intervention can happen when an angel >rolls a 111 while trying to read someone's feelings?!? Especially when that >someone has no >importance whatsoever in your scenario... > > I take it as a sign that the NPC should _become_ very important in your scenario. Rearrange your plot on the fly to take account of this ... jo ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 12:07:23 +0100 From: "Laurent" Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) Jo Hart wrote: > I take it as a sign that the NPC should _become_ very > important in your scenario. Rearrange your plot on the > fly to take account of this ... Yeah, piece of cake... :) Laurent. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 04:17:43 PDT From: "Jo Hart" Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) >From: "Laurent" >Reply-To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com >To: >Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) >Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 12:07:23 +0100 > >Jo Hart wrote: > > I take it as a sign that the NPC should _become_ very > > important in your scenario. Rearrange your plot on the > > fly to take account of this ... > >Yeah, piece of cake... >:) > You sense that X has the potential to become a _soldier_ ... but only if s/he is properly trained? (Possibly pushing it a bit to get that out of an Elohite resonance, but I've used it for a divine intervention on a Malakite resonance, and you could prolly get away with it for a Seraph or Mercurian too. Interventions on a cherubic resonance are pretty easy -- just means something extreme is happening to the subject of attunement. 111 might mean that s/he is unwittingly talking to an archangel, who is being very favourably impressed. 666 probably means s/he has been recruited by a demon.) Alternatively, just say that the PC is so tuned into the Symphony that they can automatically succeed in all uses of their resonance for the rest of that day with a CD equal to their Celestial Forces. This has the nice side-effect of ensuring that they won't be rolling any more interventions on resonances during that game session :) jo ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 13:05:34 +0100 From: "Laurent" Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) > This has the nice side-effect of ensuring that they won't be rolling > any more interventions on resonances during that game session :) oooh clever!! I'll keep this one! Laurent. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 06:46:48 -0500 From: "Kiara S. Legner" Subject: Re: IN> PC Creation Help - Thanks! From Mark: >Actually, I'd think that an Ophanite of War, the Wind, or (possibly) Jean Vote the first for an Ophanite. (Which, by the way, was another possibility I've been mulling over). >Or, as another option, a cherub of Stone No can do, here. Getting him to not hit first will never, never work. From Doug M: >If you're going to stick him with a human character, then >1) Make sure he's Blessed, otherwise he's absolute demon-chow; and, Good point. >2) Try giving him a Superior attunement or two. Hadn't even thought about that. If he & I go the human route, I think there's some possibility here. If I'm *real* careful that attunements are very, very straightforward and nothing remotely requiring a comprehensive understanding of the game mechanics. From Jason: >Cherub of the Wind? Chaotic, good, and a Babe Magnet(tm) to boot. Hm.... From David E: >Seraphim are the last character type I'd recommend for players new to In >Nomine....it takes a while for most people to realize just how >restrictive it is to not be able to lie, or even fudge the truth, AT >ALL. Don't I know it! This was a last minute, utter mistake on my part. This guy had just reappeared after having gone walkabout for a year, we were two sessions into the new campaign, and I had an extra character handy for a player who had to drop out at the last minute. The Seraph restrictions weren't nearly as much trouble as the fact that he was a Laurencian - for a former Marine, this guy could *not* follow orders! >Go for an Ofanite. They can actually kick butt in combat even better >than Malakim. And they're _supposed_ to be impulsive. Their dissonance >restrictions are the easiest to deal with of all the angelic Choirs, >IMO. An Ofanite pretty much has to be set up to be put in a situation >where it's actually hard for him to avoid dissonance (aside from the >occasional unlucky die roll, of course), and since you're the GM, you >can make sure he isn't "set up" until you're sure he can handle it. Role playing is suppposed to, above all, be fun. I only set my players up when they *deserve* it - I had much more difficulty with this guy's inability to handle the character I gave him than, I think, he did. I think I'll spend some time mucking around with Ofanite possibilities before I talk to him about his new character again - if we work out something that is skill heavy, song light, and has a few throwaway one-shot relics, it might solve the problem, give me a PC who can be integral to the plot, and not drive me nuts trying to recreate the game around a player doomed to self-destruction. Thanks for the thoughts, guys. Ki (The only good thing about spending four hours on the road every day is that I have *lots* of time to plot and scheme...) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 12:27:32 GMT From: "Erich S. Arendall" Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) >My darned angels resonate everything they see. If it gets mentioned, they >resonate it. They even resonate their friends once in awhile, just to make >sure they've been good. The players in my current group are very resonance happy, too. A Mercurian of Judgment with the Elohim of Judgment attunement ("Does he feel guilty?") A Malakite of Fire with the Ofanim of Fire attuenment ("Is he on the run from justice?") ...and the worst of the lot... A Kyriotate of Destiny with the Seraphim of Destiny attunement ("What's his true name?" and "I possess him. What's his life story?") They use their attunements and resonance on /everyone/, even nameless passerbys. I need to build a random resonance & true name generator. :) Speaking of the last, is the true name of a mortal their full given name, or something else? The Kyrio PC in my game tends to focus on anything with a true name of only one word - which makes it very hard to disguise the celestials amongst them. - -Erich S. Arendall "Shadow Sprite" Demon of Critical Failures at the Worst Possible Time for Players and the Best Time for GMs, Impudite of The Game - ------------------------- Touched by an Impudite http://www.impudite.com Go Directly to the Blog http://www.impudite.com/abt-blog.asp ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 06:14:01 PDT From: "Jo Hart" Subject: IN> NPC creation on the fly You might want to check this out. It isn't perfect by any means, but it is quite fun: http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~sws99dsc/rpg.html (From the uk.games.roleplay newsgroup) jo ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 11:41:59 -0400 (EDT) From: "Rev. Pee Kitty" Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) On Thu, 22 Jun 2000, Laurent wrote: > Must be the worst thing. Most of our interventions happen on Perception rolls. And they usually go > by packs of 2 or 3 (666's and 111's mixed). Now what possible intervention can happen when an angel > rolls a 111 while trying to read someone's feelings?!? Especially when that someone has no > importance whatsoever in your scenario... One "stock" intervention I use when someone gets a favorable intervention on a Perception roll is, for the next however-long-I-feel-like-it game hours, give 'em a Perception of 12 and the inability to fail a roll (I normally use the "natural 12 is a failure" house rule). The funny thing is, this has happened more times to the Calabite with a Perception of 2 than to EVERYONE ELSE in the party combined! This player has rolled at LEAST one intervention each session, both of them on perception rolls. (No, he's not cheating.) The character believes that he's the most Perceptive member of the party, even when he walks into doors.... - -- Rev. Pee Kitty, of the order Malkavian-Dobbsian Meow! "Punctuality, regularity, discipline, industry, thoroughness, are a set of slave virtues." -- G. D. H. Cole ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 17:02:56 +0100 From: "Laurent" Subject: IN> Interventions and Balseraph resonance (Was: Running a mystery) Rev. Pee Kitty wrote: <<< The funny thing is, this has happened more times to the Calabite with a Perception of 2 than to EVERYONE ELSE in the party combined! This player has rolled at LEAST one intervention each session >>> You should be happy he doesn't roll interventions while using his resonance! Now don't ask me how he does that, but one of my players usually rolls AT LEAST 2 interventions per session. With the other players and me, it gives us roughly 3-4 interventions per session in total. No joke. On a different topic: how long do the effects of the Balseraph resonance last? The book specifies an amount of time during which the target will believe whatever the Balseraph says (roughly). But what happens to the target after that amount of time? Does the lie become a vague memory, do they suddenly realize the truth, or what? E.g. IMC, a Balseraph used his resonance on an FBI agent to cause an incident. the FBI agent was about to arrest a suspect, and the Balseraph convinced him that the suspect had a gun and was about to open fire. In the chase that followed, the agent was firing at the suspect, the Elohite (colleague of the FBI agent) used a corporeal Shield to protect the suspect, and the Kyrio possessed the agent at the very last second to stop him. Obviously, the suspect was completely innocent and didn't have any gun... Anyway, when the players asked the agent why he opened fire, the effect of the Balseraph resonance was over. I gave the agent a very vague and confused recollection of the events. i.e., he was certain the suspect had a gun, but coudn't tell why he was so sure of it. Was that the right thing to do? Or should he have said: "oh, it's that guy right there who told me the man had a gun, and somehow I believed him!" ? Laurent. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 17:20:56 +0100 From: "Laurent" Subject: Re: IN> Late Product (Humor, blessit, humor!) Beth wrote: > In the review, it says: > The worst thing: it's a french company, remember?. > > It's a tradition! A _tradition_, carried directly over > from the French! Or maybe a curse. Maybe that's the > reason... Am I becoming paranoid, or is there a sudden rise of criticism against Frenchies on the list? Laurent. takes his flaming sword and heads for a new purification crusade on the list ;¬) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 11:42:36 -0500 From: "Prodigal" Subject: True Names (WAS: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance)) From: "Erich S. Arendall" > > Speaking of the last, is the true name of a mortal their full given name, or > something else? One game (I think it was White Wolf's Mummy supplement for Vampire) posited that a person's True Name was a combination of their name and social security number. If you go with this, that destroys celestials' ability to remain hidden right off, but if you wanted to be sneaky, you could just give EVERYBODY one-word True Names... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 12:45:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Richard Gant Subject: Re: IN> PC Creation Help On Wed, 21 Jun 2000, Kiara S. Legner wrote: > He needs a new character. > > And I'm stumped. How do I translate a fantasy game chaotic-good barbarian > type into an IN character that is similar? > > Mind you, I don't allow PC Malakim. A character for a player who loves Chaotic Good barbarian types, that can't be a Malakite? Hmmm... I'd say an Ofanite or a Cherub. One for the wild action that fantasy barbarian types are known for, and the other for the honorable fantasy barbarian stereotype. Good Archangels would be Michael or Zadkiel. Janus *might* work. Make the character fairly combat heavy, but also find out what kind of things *he* wants his character to be good at. Avoid Songs. Richard Gant - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Gant's Gaming Ghetto: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dunes/4656/ The Returners Final Fantasy Role-Playing Game Site: http://returners.simplenet.com/ or http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Matrix/5758/ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 09:51:43 PDT From: "Jo Hart" Subject: Re: IN> Late Product (Humor, blessit, humor!) >From: "Laurent" >Reply-To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com> >Am I becoming paranoid, or is there a sudden rise of criticism against >Frenchies on the list? > > Let's just not go there? (Every time I say that lots of Americans hate the French for no reason, David gets irate (even though it does seem to be true) and I don't want to be responsible for his blood pressure rises :) ) jo ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 13:02:20 -0400 From: Walter Milliken Subject: Re: IN> PC Creation Help At 22:37 -0400 6/21/00, Kiara S. Legner wrote: >And I'm stumped. How do I translate a fantasy game chaotic-good barbarian >type into an IN character that is similar? I'd recommend a Cherub of Wind. The Cherub dissonance shouldn't be too complicated (and the GM can cut more slack on this one than most of the others). Tell him that he's simply intensely loyal to his friends and whoever/whatever he's supposed to be protecting (if anyone), but *he's* the one who gets to interpret how he responds when he senses a threat to them. Windy is the best match for chaotic, certainly, with Creation trailing somewhat behind. (And this doesn't sound like a Creationer sort of character.) Don't forget the Windy motto: "...and mayhem ensues!" Sounds like it would be a good fit. The Cherub resonance is also pretty simple (though he should probably be discouraged from attuning to things/people gratuitously). And a Wind Cherub can only have one "human" attunement at a time, anyway. If the player doesn't want a loyal sidekick/love interest, then he needn't have any attunements. (I expect some Cherubim are assigned simply as combat support, without orders to attune to anyone specific; I'd recommend that in this case.) The only possible problem I see with this is that the Wind's dissonance condition can be a bit of a pain, if the campaign stays localized too long. But the GM and the other players can help out with that by finding errands to send him off on, if the other PCs are stuck somewhere. If he's not fond of magic-type stuff, make him skill-heavy and/or give him an artifact (I favor summonable weapons and motorcycles). Passage is a fun, and fairly straightforward, attunement to consider. And it's useful if someone locks him up.... If the player likes sturdy characters, give him a high-level vessel -- that, and an emphasis on Corporeal Forces, ought to do a good job of emulating a fantasy barbarian type. If he's not likely to use his resonance much, then a 5/2/2 might be viable. The main drawback to that would be a low Will, I think, and possibly a low Precision (bad for Driving, Ranged Weapon, and Small Weapon). - ---Walter ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 13:08:55 -0400 From: Walter Milliken Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) At 6:11 -0400 6/22/00, Laurent wrote: >> Not entirely unreasonable, *if* they have a high Perception > >but highly annoying for the GM who has to make up a story for EACH person in the damn building! True, but if most of them are trivial and uninteresting, the *players* will probably stop doing it. (Sounds like you're already doing this, though.) >> On the other hand, they'll get a lot of Infernal Interventions >> as a result, too.... >Must be the worst thing. Most of our interventions happen on Perception rolls. And they usually go >by packs of 2 or 3 (666's and 111's mixed). Now what possible intervention can happen when an angel >rolls a 111 while trying to read someone's feelings?!? Especially when that someone has no >importance whatsoever in your scenario... The angel gains a *really* good understanding of how the "little guy" thinks and feels.... On the other hand, on a 666, you can have them "discover" that the subject is Lucifer or a Prince, or the next Hitler, or whatever. When in fact he's just a harmless store clerk.... If they go around offing humans due to Infernal Interventions messing up their resonances, they may decide to lay off. (Or the next triad may correct them in the error of their ways....) - ---Walter ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 13:12:14 -0400 From: Walter Milliken Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) At 7:17 -0400 6/22/00, Jo Hart wrote: > Interventions on a >cherubic resonance are pretty easy -- just means something extreme is >happening to the subject of attunement. 111 might mean that s/he is >unwittingly talking to an archangel, who is being very favourably impressed. >666 probably means s/he has been recruited by a demon.) Or a demon is playing "Bait the Cherub" by attacking the attuned. >Alternatively, just say that the PC is so tuned into the Symphony that they >can automatically succeed in all uses of their resonance for the rest of >that day with a CD equal to their Celestial Forces. This has the nice >side-effect of ensuring that they won't be rolling any more interventions on >resonances during that game session :) That's a good one. I've also used essentially the opposite on an Infernal Intervention -- burned out the resonance for d6 days. That should creep out most angels.... - ---Walter ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jun 2000 17:14:27 -0000 From: "-=|horsefly|=-" Subject: Re:Opposites Attract (was Re: IN> GURPS IN Canon (loooong) On Wed, 21 Jun 2000 12:37:02 -0400 (EDT) Richard Gant wrote: >On Wed, 21 Jun 2000, -=|horsefly|=- wrote: >> >I've never really liked having War and The War as opposites. Not since >> >Laurence became an Archangel, anyway. The Sword and The War seem to be >> >much better opposites, on a conceptual level. >> granted. whom do we pair with War, then? *everybody?* ;) >Hardcore, perhaps. Violence For The Sake Of Violence against Violence For >A Purpose. (Of course, that puts Furfur into direct competition with >Michael...) i like that suggestion thematically and conceptually, as well as for the idea of the expression on Furfur's face when he realizes the Archangel most responsible for conflict with his own Word's efforts is the one who threw Lucifer out of Heaven in the first place . >Then again, War probably *does* pair off against every Word in Hell. >Michael's always struck me as an overachiever. he probably does pair off against everything diabolical, but that doesn't strike me as the mark of an overachiever. it strikes me as perfectly within Michael's Word--he *has* the power to beat any or all of the Demon Princes (IMC, anyway). for anyone who's read Fred Saberhagen's Sword series, think Shieldbreaker. -=|horsefly|=- "It was a different time: a time of blood and guns and killings.... It was a time when killers needed saints, for so much of God's good work was being done." --SAINT OF KILLERS #4, Garth Ennis ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 13:20:42 -0400 From: Walter Milliken Subject: Re: IN>Running a mystery (Was:Question re Balseraph resonance) At 8:27 -0400 6/22/00, Erich S. Arendall wrote: >They use their attunements and resonance on /everyone/, even nameless >passerbys. I need to build a random resonance & true name generator. :) Alternately, everyone they meet is named "Fred". Whether they're important or not.... You can always explain this as some Kobalite having used the Song of Plagues (I think it is) on the hapless PC. >Speaking of the last, is the true name of a mortal their full given name, or >something else? I'd see it as either their full name, or the name the person thinks of himself as. > The Kyrio PC in my game tends to focus on anything with a >true name of only one word - which makes it very hard to disguise the >celestials amongst them. There's no reason why celestials shouldn't have multi-word names, though that runs counter to the examples in canon. And DPs may name some of their demons simply to sneak people past this trick (and the Mercurian resonance as well). The first time the PC presumes that someone *isn't* a celestial because his name really *is* John Smith.... Or give them a human loon who knows inside his head that he's really "Gabriel", even though his driver's license reads "Fred Jones". And then there are rock stars.... - ---Walter ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #1688 ******************************** The material here is (C) 2000 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.