Note: This is a sub-account, because I may want to share logs of this game with people who know me by other names but I don't want to associate them with the name I use here. Therefore, I am OJ for the purposes of this game. I know it looks a little weird to have this be someone's first post which is why I brought this up. I would like to run a game of Nobilis here. (Third edition.) I am looking for 1-4 players. What is Nobilis? -- this guy (admittedly, writing about 2e, but this still holds for 3e. Well, most of it. The 3rd Edition book is a bit less spectacular, mostly because they had to replace a great deal of plagiarized art at the last moment. As a result the book sometimes looks like strolling through a DeviantArt gallery. I am sorry.) Nobilis, Kintsugi style I intend to run a relatively serious game, touching on themes such as "everyone thinks their decisions make perfect sense from the inside" and "minds are far more different from each other than most people realize". There will be material that may make people uncomfortable, such as the darker sides of human nature, exploration of the effects of trauma, neurodivergence showing up in villainous characters as well as heroic ones (although I will try to be balanced), kyriarchy, and the various implications of a world where everything has an animistic spirit and can thus be persuaded to do things. However, I expect everyone (including me) to handle such material with the utmost of respect and delicacy, and anyone is free to contact me at any time to discuss putting a stricter standard on any particular topic if necessary. The game world has a theme of forbidden love. This will be preserved and used, but please fade-to-black any actual sex scenes. As to violence, anything you'd see in Homestuck is fine - beyond that you will need to discuss with me. (For example, cutting off someone's arm is fine as long as you don't wax poetic about it, but I will want to personally approve torture scenes.) The Nobilisverse uses the term "Hollyhock God"/"HG" instead of GM for the roughly equivalent role. It's a long story. In principle, you have control the minds and emotions of your characters at all times. However, since this is a forum RP, other players are allowed to assume that your character does trivial things (like following another character through a door, or actually eating after ordering food). You may say "Objection!" and correct this at any time. (Actually saying "Objection!" is optional, but I recommend it because it's fun.) In principle, I have control over the environment at all times. However, since this is a forum RP, you are allowed to assume that trivial features of the environment are present (such as benches in a park, or serving staff in a restaurant). I will shoot you an "Objection!" if I'd rather something different. Nobilis deemphasizes combat and emphasizes social interactions and roleplaying. If you're used to d20 dungeon-crawling, this will be very different. If you're used to freeform roleplay, it will be suspiciously similar. PC creation Your characters will be Powers. (I know there's rules in supplements for playing other types of characters, but I'd like to run a relatively straightforward campaign. For instance, Deceivers are fun but I'm not sure I'd be able to keep a lid on them if they were PCs.) I highly recommend going through the Nobilis 3e avatar lifepath. It is a very cool character creation process that helps you flesh out characters rather than having to go "...okay, what kind of person am I playing now?" and stumbling around. It begins on page 118 of the core. (Although you should start on page 103, it explains more things.) You will be a Power of an Estate, which is a fundamental building block of reality. You can choose the Estate on your own. Sell it to me based on how it ties into my campaign concept! I'm going to try to be generous. Any questions? I highly recommend letting me know your Skypename in PMs so that we can discuss things like rules, and play out NPC scenes, in realtime. It is not required. If you do not have a copy of the rules, let me know in PMs and I will arrange for something. Otherwise, you can post questions in this thread!
I've always wanted to try my hand at Nobilis - the concept sounds very fun. Do you have character-creation PDFs or anything?
Estates are the bits of reality that you happen to rule - Computers, perhaps, or Hope, or Guns, or Artistic Integrity. It'll make more sense inside the book itself. Mu. You'll be working with the entire rulebook; start on page 103 for character creation. (118 is where I start, but 103 explains more.) I'll PM you.
Incidentally, if you really don't have any ideas, my wishlist of Estates for this includes Empathy, Communism, Nonbinary Genders, any emotions with the property of "clouds your judgement", neuroatypicalities of various kinds, and Respect. Edit: I originally also offered Inferential Distance but it turns out I need that one back for Reasons. Sorry!
Inferential Distance is basically the snazzy phrase for the theme of the game: It's the way and reason people don't grok each others' conclusions... Because we don't know and understand all of the premises that led others to them. Man, I am having trouble choosing what to do with my character. I'm interested in the Devil song, with the appreciation of all things -- especially terrible things -- and how corruption can settle in with time and familiarity. Codependency, the sense of clinging for validation yet seething with resentment for not getting what one wants, the alternating of support and lashing out. Maybe the dehumanizing worship of putting people on pedastals then begrudging their success, or the " forever the bridesmaid" sentiment.
@swirlingflight OH that's really cool I might do that. Honestly I find that very interesting, so. inferential distance. huh.
Hmm. I think I want to take Inferential Distance back. I need that Estate for Reasons. Sorry! I'll pull it out of the post above too just to be minimally confusing.
Yeah, but I was an idiot and opened up recruitment before I even started designing the campaign. I promise I'll do something interesting with it instead.
So it's been a week and I've gotten a character concept from swirlingflight. I'll be picking those of you I can find out of the userlist for the Kintsugi Skype chat, if that's all right?
Basically, I want to discuss stuff with you in a Skype chat even though we're still RPing in a thread on this forum! Also, I already have you added, KarrinBlue, so let me just see...