Several years back, a friend of mine picked up the new (at the time) game of In Nomine, a game allowing players to take the roles of the angels and demons of Judeo-Christian mythology. Going with my "heart character" I made an angel who was once allied to the archangel of Dreams but has since fallen from God's grace. You see, my angel served in the dreaming realm, where he met and fell in love with a mortal dreamer. He went to earth to be with her but then she was murdered. Using his power over dreams he ripped apart the mind of her murderer with nightmares. This began his fall. He didn't fall all the way to Hell, but he's closer there than ever. He is now living as a con artist on earth, a character inspired as much by Vertigo's John Constantine as by anything else.
I built my character so that he was the equivalent of a mortal human in physical stats and spiritual stats. It was only on the sphere of Ethereal (mental) that he excelled. As the game started, my character was arriving in New York's LaGuardia airport when he came across a fight between a few angels (the other PCs) and a demon.
I ask, "How do we figure out initiative? Who goes first?"
My friend looks confused for a moment and begins looking through the book. He can't find it. Instead of making something up, he keeps looking. We all take turns. In Nomine has a very pretty book, but its horribly organized. (Possibly worse than White Wolf.) None of us can find it. GM still refuses to move game forward. "It must be in there." I'm wishing I kept my big mouth shut. Finally I convince him of a way to handle it and the game continues...a half hour later.
It was a physical fight and my character would be completely outclassed, so he stands back and waits for a critical moment to toss somebody's luggage at the demon, distracting it when the other PCs could finish it off.
So, then the plot starts developing and I decide my character would slip into the ethereal realm to research the origins of the demon. The GM says, "You can't do that yet."
I ask, "Why?"
""The ethereal sourcebook isn't out yet. I don't know how to run it."
"Can't you make stuff up? It's your game."
"Yeah, but the sourcebook may contradict me."
The whole game was like that. Another physical fight broke out and once again, I couldn't use by mental powers in the fight because the GM didn't have a sourcebook. As my fellow angels fought the demon in the street, I went to the truck of the car. I pulled out my suitcase and pitched it at the demon.
I recently borrowed a whole bunch of In Nomine books from some friends. Unfortunately, I don't think they ever came out with an ethereal sourcebook.
My Champions group got together last night for the first time in a while. We had a good time. It was the first time is a long while I've been able to play Jubei.
We ended up talking at one point about how the the difference between the silver age comic books (1960's-1970's) and modern comics is that some point villians stopped calling themselves evil. There were tons of villian groups in the sixties with names like the Sinister Six and the Injustice League. In real life are you going to go around calling yourself evil?
Let's take Magneto's "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants." The plot is that Magneto bands together these mutants to stop the oppression of mutants. What was he thinking calling them EVIL!? Really, if he wanted people to stop persecuting mutants, calling his group EVIL mutants wasn't the smartest move in the world.
What if the National Organization of Women called themselves The National Organization of EVIL Women? Would the NAACP have done as well if they called themselves the NAAECP? Could the FBI get government funding if they were the Federal Bureau of Sinister Investigations? What if the UAW was actually United EVIL auto-workers?
The first session (or Season Premiere) of my new campaign, "Kingdom of Lost Children" was Sunday night. We've got a good group. I sent a call out for new players last week and ended up with a pretty full group.
The first session introduced all but one of the main characters. The setting and first scenario wasn't completely solid in my mind yet when we started, so I had to wing some things. Also, I didn't know for sure what the new players would be playing, so I had to figure out how to work them in.
In the adventure, the characters met and defended a Frankenstein-like monster from the police, stole rare scarabs from the Boston Museum of Natural History and generally got to know eachother.
What went right: Everyone got to play (with the exception of Kris who was finishing her character). Noone wants to come to a game and not get a chance to play. I'd like to take credit for making sure that all characters were involved but much of the credit has to go to the players. They are a cooperative bunch as well as being excellent roleplayers. They knew how hard it can be to get a group together in the first game and they helped. The best part was seeing how everyone broke into groups and continued roleplaying while I was busy GMing with other characters. I found that to be a compliment to me that players were interested enough in the plot to continue discussing it and a compliment to the group that they
What went wrong: I knew I wanted to make a street map for the nighborhood before the game and sure enough there was several times I wished I had it.
Lesson learned:Never give players omens of things that they are not meant to prevent. I started one Vampire-to-be as a mortal in the game and made the mistake of giving another character an omen of what would happen to him. That character told another and the next thing I know there are two Sidhe (a type of Fae) protecting the future vamp. Luckilly things ended up working out by the end of the episode.
I'm looking forward to the next session with this group. <
The new "World of Darkness" campaign starts Sunday. I'm almost ready. I've recruited a few new players and all of the old players who are starting new characters (most of them) have their new characters ready.
I have it in my mind how the characters should mesh and the setting is ready. Now, I just need a plot. I have a few plot ideas in mind but the first game needs just the right plot. It needs to be one that lets the characters introduce themselves and give the players a chance to get into character. It also needs to get all or most of them together at some point and hint at dangers to come. This could be difficult.
The game will be set in a neighborhood of New Tara, a New England city with a powerful occult connection. (The characters of the last campaign basically created the city in their minds.)
Here is the cast so far:
Drusilla Peel (Matt)- Toreador Vampire and headmistress of Ms. Peel's School for Girls.
Lucien (John)- Sidhe Knight who will be opening a martial arts dojo in the neighborhood.
Calixa (Carla) - Malkavian Vampire
Maevren (Double N) - A wereraven who acts as groundskeeper for Ms. Peel's school.
??????? (Mark) - A young Tremere Vampire who runs an occult shop in the neighborhood.
Drusilla and Lucien are returning from the Changeling game. The others are new. I'll let you know how it goes
I don't use a whole lot of props in my games but sometimes the right picture or right piece of music comes along and I use it.
Pictures are worth a thousand words. It's true. To that end, I've started collecting pictures to use in roleplaying games. I've been buying artbooks; mostly gaming and fantasy art. I've been ripping pictures out of magazines that catch my eye including several illustrations from ads in Previews, a catalog of upcoming comic book releases. I've got a few folders with scraps of magazines and doodles of my own.
I've also started looking for illustrations to use in The Dreaming City website which I have been lazily avoiding working on lately.
As for music, sometimes there is a peice that reflects exactly the mood I want in a scene. In "The Shattered Crystal" Devrim was the caretaker of a castle that was haunted. When the ghost first manifested itself, I wanted to reflect the feeling of stepping back in to another time. I picked out a Jazz song that sounded like it was from the 1920's and played it in the background. "You hear music coming from one of the rooms."
I'm guilty of buying dice themed to a character. For Jubei, the immortal Samurai I play in Champions, I bought three six sided dice that have Japanese numerals on them. They are pretty cool. I use them only when I play Jubei (which hasn't happened in a while). I also have bought dice in colors that have fit a character or setting.
As a GM, I tried playing a horror game by candlelight once. It didn't work. Gamers often need light to see the books or character sheets. Candles might work better in a game like Amber.
For my next campaign, I am coming up with maps. Normally these aren't that important. Players can picture the maps in their head, but for this game I want to make sure that the neighborhood the game is set in is defined and that players know how many blocks away things are. I will also map out the interiors of several of the main locations.
I used to have a wooden Kendo sword. I think it may have got lost in the one of the moves over the years. It was great for handing to a player and asking what stance their character is taking.
Ginger asks: In the gaming you are doing lately, what do you miss from earlier games? What works so much better you never looked back? Three examples?
What I Miss: