Lord Of The Rings (LOTR), Blood Bowl (BB), Battlefleet Gothic (BG), Epic Armageddon (EA), Inquisitor, Mordheim, Necromunda, The Battle Of Five Armies (TBOFA), Warmaster, Aeronautica Imperialis (AI), Gorkamorka
Nobilis is a contemporary fantasy role-playing game created by Jenna K.
Moran, writing under the name R. Sean Borgstrom. The player characters
are "Sovereign Powers" called the Nobilis; each Noble is the
personification of an abstract concept or class of things such as Time,
Death, cars, or communication. Unlike most role-playing games, Nobilis
does not use dice or other random elements to determine the outcome of
characters' actions, but instead uses a Karma-based system for task
resolution.
Setting
Nobilis draws on many
sources, including Christian and Norse mythologies, but adds numerous
unique details to its setting. Though the everyday world in the game
appears much like our own, it is actually only the Prosaic Earth, a lie
that the world told to itself in a desperate attempt to explain
suffering, and a rationalized delusion which conceals the true reality
that would plunge most mortals into madness: the Mythic Earth, an
animistic world where everything has its own sentient spirit. In the
Mythic, the earth is really flat, and hangs somewhere among the vast
boughs of the "world-tree", Yggdrasil. Countless worlds dot the branches
of this world-tree, but at the top is Heaven, which is inaccessible to
all but the angels (only one human soul in a billion is not turned away)
and is the source of all beauty. Beneath the earth, in the roots of
Yggdrasil, is Hell, the source of all corruption. Around Yggdrasil,
except above heaven (where it is open to the stars), is a mystical
impenetrable curtain of blue flames known as the Weirding Wall.
Every class of objects and every concept is represented by a being of
god-like power known as an Imperator. Each Imperator may govern from one
to several of these Estates, and has effectively limitless control over
them. The Imperators are engaged in a deadly struggle with the
Excrucians, terrible beings from outside the Weirding Wall who wish to
destroy reality; this struggle is known as the Valde Bellum. This war
keeps Imperators busy in the Spirit World, so in order to maintain their
affairs on Earth and in the other worlds they invest a shard of their
soul in a human (or occasionally another animal or object), creating a
Nobilis. Each Nobilis represents one of the Imperator's Estates; the
group of Nobilis this forms, known as a Familia Caelestis, is typically
loyal, both to each other and their Imperator. The Imperator Lord
Entropy oversees the actions of the Nobilis and enforces the Code
Fidelitatis, the five laws he has established for them, in his Locust
Court. The most notable and notorious of these, and the one most often
broken, is the Windflower Law which states that no Noble is allowed to
love another being. (Ironically, in the first two editions, Nobilis can
turn other humans into Anchors, whose every action they can control, but
in order to do this they must first love or hate the person.) To
protect their physical forms from the ravages of the Valde Bellum,
Imperators take a part of reality and partition it off into a
self-contained, unique world which can take any form. This world, called
a Chancel, both houses their physical bodies and is a spiritual
reflection of it. Much like in the myth of the Fisher King, if the
Imperator suffers, so does their Chancel. Flowers have great
significance to the Nobilis and their Imperators; earthly flowers are
reflections of their heavenly counterparts and each has a meaning. For
example, the gamemaster is known as the Hollyhock God because, in the
world of Nobilis, hollyhocks represent vanity and ambition. This is
because, according to the in-game story, the angels used flowers as a
tool to control and direct the brunt of their powers when they created
Reality. Each Nobilis and Imperator has a flower that represents them,
and flowers are often used in their magical rites.
System
Unlike most role-playing game systems, Nobilis does not use random
elements in determining success in characters' actions. Instead, Nobilis
uses a resource management system; players may spend Miracle Points to
succeed at certain actions, but otherwise they rarely fail at what they
set out to do. Instead of the action centering on whether or not the
characters succeed, the emphasis is instead on the consequences of those
actions. Since combat between Nobilis uses up Miracle Points very
quickly and a Nobilis can easily defeat even great numbers of humans,
social roleplaying is encouraged over combat. Though the characters may
seem to have limitless power, in reality they must take into
consideration both the outcome of every act and what other Powers or
Imperators they may offend in the process.
First and second editions
In the first two editions, each character has 4 attributes: Aspect,
which governs their ability to perform superhuman physical and mental
acts; Domain, which covers their power over their estate; Realm, which
determines how much power they have in their Chancel; and Spirit, which
describes how much magical power the Nobilis has. Spirit creates the
Auctoritas, a shield that protects them from the Miracles of other
Powers. A character's Spirit also determines how many Anchors they may
have. Each attribute has a number of Miracle Points associated with it.
The character creation system also makes Nobilis notable by giving
players an unusual amount of control over the setting. In addition to
creating their own characters – a process which already allows for
considerable customization – the players create their Imperator and
Chancel. Players receive a number of points to invest in their Chancel
equal to the total amount they spent on their characters' Realm; they
may use these to buy special attributes for their Chancel such as
special technology or magical inhabitants. They do not receive any
points for their Imperator, so they must take a corresponding drawback
for every special attribute they wish their Imperator to have. Each
Nobilis also has an Affiliation, which is a moral code they follow in
order to regain Miracle Points, as well as character flaws called Limits
and Restrictions. Much like their Affiliation, these allow the
character to regain Miracle Points when they become an inconvenience.
Third edition
In third edition, each character again has 4 attributes, but this time
they are: Aspect, which governs their ability to perform superhuman
physical and mental acts; Domain, which covers their power over the
substance of their estate; Persona, which covers their power over the
properties of their estate (as defined by the player); and Treasure,
which governs their power over their panoply, the objects, animals and
people that represent who they are. Domain governs the Divine Mantle, an
aura that makes it harder for hostile Miracles to overpower their own
Miracles. Persona governs the Auctoritas Magister, a shield that
protects them from the Miracles of other Powers. Each attribute has a
number of Miracle Points associated with it. Each character also has a
set of Bonds and Afflictions, the rules of their nature. Bonds are those
rules which need effort to maintain; Afflictions are those rules which
simply happen, without effort. When Bonds and Afflictions become an
inconvenience, they allow the character to regain Miracle Points. When a
Noble confronts and overcomes significant obstacles and antagonists, or
honors the properties of their estate, they also regain Miracle Points.
As in earlier editions, the Imperator and Chancel are created by the
players, but the point-buy system has been dropped. Instead, the players
work together on deciding the properties of both.
History
First edition
The first edition was printed on demand by Pharos Press in 1999 with cover art by Alphonse Mucha.
Second edition
In 2002 Hogshead Publishing printed the second edition. When Hogshead
Publishing shut down in 2003, the rights to the book returned to
Borgstrom, but arrangements were made with Guardians of Order to publish
the second edition. The second edition is a coffee table-style book,
the cover designed by Universal Head, with a ribbon bookmark; it is
called the "Great White Book" by Nobilis fans. Full-page black and white
art was commissioned for this book, in particular from Charles Vess and
Michael William Kaluta; Borgstrom's flash fiction, set in the game
world, fills its large margins. This edition won the Origins Award for
Best Graphic Presentation Book Format Product 2002 and the 2003 Diana
Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming.
Guardians of Order ceased operations in 2006, with an announcement that they would attempt to find other publishers for their games.
Third edition
The third edition rulebook, titled Field Guide to the Powers, was published by Eos Press in 2011, as the first volume in the
Nobilis: the Essentials range. It was initially released on PDF, to be
followed by a print version. The cover art is by Ciaoffen In the
years following the release of the second edition, Borgstrom had changed
her name to Jenna Katerin Moran, and the third edition was released
under that name.
Supplements
A single
sourcebook was published for second edition, The Game of Powers, which
provides rules for live action role-playing. Attempts to publish a
second sourcebook, to be entitled A Society of Flowers, were
unsuccessful until March 2008: part of the supplement was finally made
available as a free pdf download from Eos Press [6] or for a small fee
from drivethrurpg.com, under the name Unlikely Flowerings. This document
was the first of an announced series of "peculiar books" that would
make available the whole "work version" of Society of Flowers. Then
those peculiar books, completed and cleaned, would be released later in
2008 in hardcopy version. However, the second peculiar book and Society
of Flowers were delayed following personal problems of the author., with
the second peculiar book, Creatures, Clothed in Strangeness, eventually
seeing release in September 2009 as a free
Translation
The second edition of Nobilis was translated into French in 2002 by the
Swiss company 2 dés sans faces, société coopérative (2 dice without
faces, cooperative society). Curiously, this translation was available
for sale before the original, English edition. The French edition, for
reason of available space, replaced the scenario from the English
language book by an original one, whose action is in a media-obsessed
Chancel. A gamemaster screen, titled Perfidie, has been released in late
2002, with a small booklet including errata and the scenario from the
English language book.
Список книг:
Nobilis Core Rulebook (OCR) Nobilis Core Rulebook (Printable) Nobilis - The Game of Powers - The Live-Action Supplement for Nobilis Nobilis - unlikely flowerings - the first peculiar book of the society of flowers Nobilis-and-Hitherby-Promo Nobilis - Сreatures, Сlothed in Strangeness - The Second Peculiar Book of the Society of Flowers Nobilis - Character Sheet Nobilis - Imperator Sheet Nobilis - Chancel Sheet
Название: Nobilis Автор: Jenna K. Moran Вселенная: Contemporary fantasy role-playing game Редакция: текущая Качество: оригинальное Язык: оригинал Страницы: много Файл: PDF (225 МБ)
