Session 88.5
Chancel_Amyra
Chapter 10
BethE: Welcome. :) Are you interested in Nobilis?
Vurdalok: i can be. i do have the core book (was more or less browsing the channels)
BethE: Ahh. We're a Nobilis group that meets once a week here for our game. Do you enjoy the game/book?
Knockwood: Ah, so you know it's the RPG and not, say, the pants.
Random_Nerd: Heh. By an amusing coincidence, we had been looking for a new player to the game. Hmm. What's the address for the game's wiki page, Knock?
Knockwood: one sec...
Vurdalok: i know the book, enjoyed it, tried it once but group failed to "unite" so to speak. so my knowledge it foggy at best
Knockwood: (Link: http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Chancel_Amyra)http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Chancel_Amyra
Vurdalok: remember i had a liking for Lilam(sp)
Random_Nerd: (Or Nobilis the breakfast cereal. Stays Borgstromian even in milk!)
Knockwood: you could be the Power of Misunderstanding. Oh wait, I've got that... :)
Random_Nerd: Hmm. Is there, perhaps, a chance that you're rather thinking of In Nominie?
Random_Nerd: In Nomine, even.
Vurdalok: hmm... oops, yeah sorry my mistake. Nobilis is the White hard back book i dont actually own. read in store
Vurdalok: addled mind is getting old i guess
Knockwood: heh
Random_Nerd: Heh.
Random_Nerd: But, at any rate, what did you think of that proposed approach to our player gap, Knock?
Random_Nerd: (And if we had entirely reliable attendence, I'd be tempted to stick with three, but as it is Laz is sometimes either absent or too tired to be very active.)
Knockwood: well, some progress... last one on eBay only went for $81.
BethE: The option with adding someone new might mean that we can move the game around and have Sara be able to come back.
Knockwood: so, we'd go after the cult, and maybe dig up a new Noble out there?
Knockwood: meanwhile, OOC, we'd be showing people our play style?
Random_Nerd: Pretty much, yeah.
Knockwood: That could work...
Random_Nerd: Heh, I just recalled that my /last/ Nobilis game introduced a new character as a result of a plotline involving a corrupt mystery cult.
Knockwood: of course, the tricky part's on you, doing an impromptu integration and/or a parallel RP
Random_Nerd: Although in that case the character came in after the storyline.
BethE: It could just be that Kudzu sent this new Noble to look into the cult without telling us. Imperator, Wild, Sanity, Door...
Random_Nerd: And it doesn't have to be entirely impromptu. I can think of two good ways to bring in a new Noble through this storyline, and I doubt that you guys will make decisions that rule out /both/.
Knockwood: never underestimate the ability of PCs to screw over a perfectly good plot.
Vurdalok: lol. indeed
Random_Nerd: At worst, I can just wave something shiny and say "While you weren't looking, a new player character appeared!"
Random_Nerd: But I'd need something really shiny.
Knockwood: Kudzu's eye
BethE: Dante's eye!
Knockwood: how interested would the other Nobles be in that, tho? :)
BethE: With Numbers, wave his shiny particle accelerator. Have something go boom.
BethE: (Oh, side question, RN, which did you say was more useful, more Domain or more MP?)
Random_Nerd: Oh, that reminded me...
Random_Nerd: Earlier today I figured out the One True Canon Answer for Previous Nobles of Blades/Courage.
Knockwood: aaaaaaaand?
Random_Nerd: What, you want me to just tell you? I can, if you want, I guess.
Random_Nerd: But it ties into the fact that it seems that there was a previous Noble of Blades, but no previous versions of the other Estates.
Knockwood: hm... (Beth, how much trouble would that entail?)
Random_Nerd: You'd probably have a bit of a surprise spoiled, but it wouldn't ruin anything to tell you now if you like.
BethE: (Which part? My question or getting the Courage answer out of RN?)
Knockwood: (the latter)
BethE: (If RN offers, he offers freely. I've found that if he's not willing to give something away/tell something, he won't even offer it because he wants the most enjoyment for his players.)
Random_Nerd: Basically, Knock, it's your call. You knowing or not knowing won't really screw anything up.
Knockwood: ... OK, hit me.
Random_Nerd: Okay. This ties into the fact that the Grigori have come up a few times, Kudzu seems to have a past with them that he doesn't want to talk about...
BethE: I am intrigued by the thought that Courage might have a previous but we don't. Which might mean that Courage is a graft onto Kudzu.
Knockwood: (BTW, Beth, can you think of anything to add to teh Quotes Page? )
Random_Nerd: The fact that one of them was noted for having taught humans to make bladed implements, and the fact that Dante seemed to be the only Noble with a previous version of himself around.
BethE: (*thinks*)
Knockwood: I was thinking it was the other way around, that Blades comes from Dante
Random_Nerd: This version seemed to work better. Blades seemed to fit less closely with Kudzu than Courage.
Random_Nerd: So, at some point in the Second Age, Kudzu absorbed part of Azazel as a result of a conflict between the two, and took the Estate of Blades, which in conjunction with his existing ones produced Courage as a distinct estate semi-connected to itself.
Knockwood: OK, who was Azazel before that?
Random_Nerd: Angelic Imperator. Got kicked out with Barakiel and the others. Imperator of Blades and... well... bling. Or ornaments and cosmetics, at least.
BethE: *imagines an Imperator with a tricked out chariot, riding through the deserts. The wheels have spinners.*
Knockwood: hm... does that mean the new guy could be the Power of Bling? :)
Random_Nerd: Heh. It could.
Random_Nerd: If the player wanted.
BethE: But is bling a pillar of the Universe?
Random_Nerd: Or alternatively, Azazel could still exist, but diminished.
BethE: (And ticked.)
Knockwood: hm... Bling -> Ornamentation -> Appearance -> either Beauty or Truth. :)
Random_Nerd: And I was also going to throw in hints that absorbing in this fashion was easier to Wildlords, because of reasons connected to their kinship to the Excrucians.
Knockwood: what's the tie to Courage?
Random_Nerd: Well, the idea was that Courage wasn't previously an Estate of its own.
BethE: People with really big swords tend to be heavy on Courage? :)
Random_Nerd: But that the presence of Blades in Kudzu's soul, combined with his tendency towards driving forces and things that don't know moderation, produced Courage connected to blades.
Random_Nerd: A little like an oyster forming a pearl around a piece of grit.
Knockwood: would that mean Courage was not originally a pillar of the universe?
Random_Nerd: Sort of. It'd mean that earlier it was implicit in things like Fear and Proper Behavior and Duty, and that after that it stood out as a distinct new thing.
BethE: Hmm, wonder what you would have called protoCourage then...basically the stuff that folds into the War. Duty? Self-preservation? (Makes sense for the Sacrosanct then. ^^ )
Random_Nerd: Interesting, too, to have Courage coming into being shortly before the War.
Knockwood: depends on how you define it
Random_Nerd: Makes you wonder how the Valde Bellum would have gone differently without it,.
Random_Nerd: So... since it's your Estate (or rather Estates), I figure you have veto power. Does this new state of affairs sound acceptable?
BethE: (Hmm..it's not like Courage wouldn't have _existed_, but it would have been hard to get a hold on.)
Knockwood: depends. Just how Interesting is it that it became a distinct estate right before the War?
Random_Nerd: Seems interesting to me, at least. What do you think?
Knockwood: and didn't we have a discussion on whether everything is 'covered' by the Nobility?
Random_Nerd: Probably.
Random_Nerd: And basically, the answer is that everything falls under one or more estates, but some things don't have their /own/ estates.
Knockwood: I'll accept it. I'll regret it, I'm sure, but I'll accept it. :D
Random_Nerd: Like, there might not be an Estate of Apples, they might fall under Fruit or Plants or whatever.
Random_Nerd: Okay. And if you want Dante to have flashbacks to the past of his Estate, feel free, but don't feel obligated to do so either.
BethE: Maybe having an Anchor will unlock something about the past.
Knockwood: I've been debating IC (and OOC) whether to Anchor my sister, as you recall.
Random_Nerd: Yeah, that would make sense. Or you could have something sparked by meeting Barakiel, too, since Azazel knew him.
Random_Nerd: And have you decided about the sister yet?
Knockwood: probably not, since I'm still concerned about how Anchors 'attract the attention of fate'
Knockwood: of course, being my sister will do that... but not as much, right?
Random_Nerd: Yeah.
Random_Nerd: Being related to a Noble will draw some attention, but that's more likely to be internal-Amyra you're-related-to-someone-famous stuff.
Knockwood: I should have you sign a statement to the effect that you see 'named' NPCs as more that plot points. :)
Random_Nerd: Rather than the traditional anchor weirdness, which is more related to things like being "protected" from the tides of Estates.
Knockwood: "Let's see, who'll be eaten by a dragon today..."
Random_Nerd: Heh. Well, I'm not really the sort of GM who loves to kill off family members of PCs.
Random_Nerd: I'm more the kind who likes to clutter his games with dozens of minor NPCs connected to the main characters.
Random_Nerd: But it's not like if you Anchor her then next storyline she'll be eaten by the reanimated body of Theresa's husband or anything.
BethE: (There's the fact that Theresa has taught maybe hundreds of kindergardeners over her time as a teacher...and now she's famous!)
Knockwood: BTW, I'm thinking of posting that 24-hour-setting thing on RPOpen... make it a thing to do in the new year.
Random_Nerd: Interesting.
Knockwood: then again, I'm thinking of saying it can be either 1 24-hour session or 2 12-hour... figure a break would enable authors to look at it with new eyes, sort of, and smooth over any glitches
BethE: A break in between would probably be helpful. I know that after a certain time period of working on a single project nonstop, my brain hits shut-down.
Knockwood: you know, write for 12 hours, sleep, look again and see the goofy bits
Random_Nerd: Yeah, I fear that me designing a setting for 24 hours straight would produce... interesting results.
Knockwood: should it be 'formal', though? "One twelve hour session, PENCILS DOWN when the alarm sounds regardless of where you are, no resuming for 8 hours..."
Knockwood: RN: that's kinda the point. :)
Random_Nerd: I imagine the product of the last few hours being a scribbled sheet of paper with a picture of a slice of cheese, along with the words "CAPABLE OF TIME TRAVEL!" underlined three times.
BethE: How...Dr. Who-ish. In a Dr. Suess sort of wayu.
BethE: way even
Knockwood: "When the hell did I eat cheese?" "1372."
BethE: Ah, French.
Random_Nerd: Hmm. So, how about this. We stop here for tonight. I send emails to the two folks who'd mentioned interest in the game, asking them to sit in on the next session, when we start the new storyline. After a session or two of that, we all vote on who stays.
BethE: Sounds good to me.
Knockwood: with a note that at the end of the session they can throw in char concepts?
Random_Nerd: Hmm. Good idea.
BethE: And getting a list from each of them about what times they are available? It wouldn't be polite to ask them to sit through watching us and _then_ finding out that we can't match up gaming times.
Random_Nerd: Heh. True.
Knockwood: workable
Random_Nerd: Okay. Anything else before we call it a night?
BethE: Not that I can think of. I'll have a final verdict on what I spend my points on before the next game.
Knockwood: think you'll actually do a 24-Hour Setting? :)
Random_Nerd: I have no clue.
Random_Nerd: Depends on how much free time I have, and if I find a Muse hiding behind my sofa.
BethE: *raises an eyebrow*
Knockwood: They do like it there
Knockwood: comes from ages of artists passing out drunk there
BethE: All I can say is that I best not find young ladies in togas passed out behind _our_ sofa. For one thing, it's chilly in here, she'll catch her death.
Random_Nerd: But.... toga!
Knockwood: and they're not young
BethE: She'd look young.
BethE: (And RN likes older women. :) )
Knockwood: true, assuming that they keep up eating those apples
Knockwood: (Or am I mixing up my myths?)
BethE: (Nah, wrong young women. Muses stayed young, inspired writers and so forth. The Hesperides were the ones that guarded the tree of immortal golden apples.)
Knockwood: Holy moley... there's one Nobilis book listed on Amazon UK... for the equivalent of $737.
Knockwood: oh, my mistake... $738. O_O
BethE: *blink*
BethE: I was surprised by the price of one of the Terry Prachett books on Amazon. *relooks it up*
Knockwood: not kidding either: (Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nobilis-Role-Playing-R-Sean-Borgstrom/dp/0967318017/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198727942&sr=1-4)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nobilis-Role-Playing-R-Sean-Borgstrom/dp/0967318017/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198727942&sr=1-4
Knockwood: GBP371.55 = $738.05
BethE: "Once More with Footnotes" $200 like new or $410 new.
BethE: Wow...
Chancel_Amyra
Chapter 10
