Ceremony of Sedition [Nobilis] Recruitment Thread [BDSM/Exotic]

[Cessali]

NOBILIS: CEREMONY OF SEDITION

You are Noble.  Whatever you were before in the 'modern' mortal world -- pop star, punk teen, barista, college professor, house-spouse, thinly-veiled self-insert, particularly intelligent dog, nascent artificial intelligence, elf -- you have become a Power, something far more than mortal.  Your very nature has been infused with an Estate, one of the cosmic building blocks of reality.  Was it Force?  Life?  Water?  Rocks?  Roads?  Mermaids?  The Internet?  War?  Politics?  Game Design?  Pulp Adventure?  Love?  Kung Fu?  Terror?  Money?  No matter -- you are both the guardian and manifestation of the highest forms of your new Estate, and can see the mortal world for the flimsy cover-up it is, stretched over something much more.  You are like unto a divinity, free almost to do as you will with your new power.

But you weren't enNobled casually.  Everything that is, everything that has being, is under siege by the Not, in the form of the Excrucian Host.  They are being fought off -- for now -- by the Imperators: the angels, magisters, devils, and other supernal beings whose very existence helps form the matrix of Creation itself.  But there are multiple fronts in the Excrucian War, and many of the Imperators have chosen to slumber, to leave their bodies behind, to fight where they are strongest -- and their sleeping selves are vulnerable in a way that their manifest selves are not.  To protect them, your Imperator has chosen you (yes, you) and placed a part of itself into you to protect it from what may come.

And so, the Third Age has rolled on, the war simmering but not quite again at a boil.  The vast hosts of the Excrucians are held back at the gates, but they have learned to slip through the gates or send fractional bits of themselves through to places like the mortal world.  The Powers of the world have had time to establish alliances, rivalries, and formal agreements as to how things should be; their affairs are mediated at times by the four Imperators who effectively administer the War.  There is pain, struggle, and conflict, but there is also splendor, and glory, and peace.

For you, though, the War has become much more complicated.  You have uncovered evidence or born witness to the fact that your Imperator has consorted with the Enemy, and may have turned traitor against Creation.  You probably thought about going to the authorities with this, but there is one vital complication: not only do you not know why your Imperator has cozied up to the Excrucians, but there is a law written by tLord Entropy himself: 'Serve your Imperator before the War; serve the War before yourself.'  Even the act of bringing your case to the Council could have you summarily executed without a chance to defend yourself. 

Now, you can only confide in your Familia -- the other Nobles who belong to your Imperator -- and perhaps, together, you can learn the truth... and from there, decide what to do.  Between, of course, picnicking with other Nobles, falling in (legally-forbidden!) love or (legally-permissible!) hate, dealing with the parts of your mortal life you couldn't quite bear to leave behind, politicking with things beyond the borders of Creation, and making sure you all get to see the next day when at any point you may be commanded to betray everything you care for.

On the upside, you -are- as unto a god, so there's that.



Hello!  This is my proposal for a game of Nobilis 3E, the RPG written by the inimitable Jenna Moran, where you are a divinity and get to expound at length about what that means to you and can mean for the world, while you sip tea and wrestle bears and command the fundamental forces of the cosmos, sometimes all at the same time.  I have wanted to play Nobilis for about a bazillion years, but because it is Obscure and High-Concept, you don't see it very frequently anywhere!  On the other hand, I am roughly as familiar with everything as a person can be without having actually had the chance to play it, so I figure I may as well give running it a shot and see how many other people I can sucker into it.

Never played Nobilis?  No problem!  Nobilis is a diceless game, and the rules are pretty simple -- the trick is wrapping your head around the possibilities the rules put forth, which admittedly can be a bit of a trip for people who are used to crunchier game systems.  If you don't have the rulebook, I'll be happy to help you put a character together!

Interested, but have questions?  Ask away in the thread!

Interested and want to play?  Take a moment to read the stuff under the spoiler marked HG's Philosophy.  If this is all agreeable to you, take a second look under the Formal Interest spoiler and shoot me a PM with the relevant deets?

HG's Philosophy

Yes, I think this is important!  Your heart may be saying "OH MY GOODNESS NOBODY EVER RUNS NOBILIS" or it may be saying "What the heck is all this exuberance about >:|" but there are so many ways to play this game, or any game, that I want everyone's expectations to be more or less on the same page.  Yes, this is a lot of data, and you don't have to know every word, but I will be extremely frowny-face if you run head-long against a stated standard of mine.

On Metaplot
I have few broad ideas as to what our tricksy Imperator is up to, but I haven't yet sketched anything out for sure because I want to see what interests people.  This could end up a great and glorious story of preserving the True and the Good, a tragedy of realising the only answer -is- treachery, a series of spy-counterspy intrigues that unearth a complex web of mysteries and betrayals, or even a series of tea party vignettes that ultimately discuss what the whole point of anything is.

On Characters
   Come as you are, write what you want!  So long as I can believe they are a person, I'm not too picky.

On the Posting Rate
I will do my damndest to try for three HG posts per week.  I cannot promise more than that (though I will certainly try!), on account of I am writing on a novel, running a monthly LARP, may be picking up ST duties for another LARP, and playing in a few games here and elsewhere besides, but I wouldn't put this idea out there if I didn't really think it could be awesome.  Besides, time spent writing here is time not spent gazing dimly at Imgur or whatever!

By the same token, I know that life catches up with people sometimes and it gets to be really tricky to balance life with fun Nobilis stuff.  If you realize that something is going on and hit me up, I will accommodate you as best I can to your wishes IC!  If I notice that you are not posting for a week or change, I will try to hit you up with a PM to check up; if I don't hear from you for a couple of weeks afterwards, I will shuffle your Avatar off-stage myself for possible re-introduction later on.

On Alternate Meeting Zones
I intend to set up a Discord channel for this game, as I do not have E! access where I work and my phone often decides that E!'s security doesn't meet its random standards.  People can RP through those channels as well, with the expectation that I will bundle up scenes and post them in a thread set up for those situations.

On Sex Drugs, and Rock and Roll
I personally am probably not going to be doing more than fading to black when it comes to sexy-times with NPCs.  This is not because I am opposed to the idea; this is because I don't have the faith I'll be able to pay individual participants the attention they deserve if heat gets hot in that particular fashion.  Be advised. 

On Character Death and Character Defeat
It is very, very hard to lose a character in Nobilis unless you are digging in your heels and fighting to the last against people who also want to do the same.  You can proceed with the expectation that my NPCs will typically be more interested in achieving objectives than murdering your Avatars -- and what's more, in Nobilis, losing a struggle may actually serve your greater designs more than success!

On Metagame and Player Expectations, In Sum
I found the Same Page Tool courtesy Bankuei and I think it's a great way to go about things.  For each statement in the spoilered section below, several possibilities are listed to describe entirely valid ways a game -could- theoretically be, and I've highlighted the one I want everyone to be aiming for.

The Same Page Tool

Same Page Tool – Checklist

Do you play to win?
a) Yes, you totally play to win! The win conditions are…
b) Good play isn’t a win/lose kind of thing

Player characters are:
a) expected to work together; conflicts between them are mostly for show
b) expected to work together; major conflicts might erupt but you’ll patch them up given some time
c) expected to work together; major conflicts might erupt and never see reconciliation
d) pursuing their own agendas – they might work together, they might work against each other
e) expected to work against each other, alliances are temporary at best

The GM’s role is:
a) The GM preps a set of events – linear or branching; players run their characters through these events. The GM gives hints to provide direction.
b) The GM preps a map with NPCs and/or monsters. The players have their characters travel anywhere they can reach on the map, according to their own goals.
c) The GM has no plan – the GM simply plays the NPCs and has them act or react based on their motivations
d) There’s no GM. Everyone works together to make the story through freeform.
e) There’s no GM. The rules and the system coordinate it all.

The players’ roles are…
a) …to follow the GM’s lead to fit the story
b) …to set goals for their characters, and pursue them proactively
c) …to fling their characters into tough situations and make hard, sometimes, unwise choices

Doing the smartest thing for your character’s survival…
a) …is what a good player does.
b) …sometimes isn’t as important as other choices
c) …isn’t even a concern or focus for this game.

The GM’s role to the rules is…
a) …follow them, come what may. (including following house rules)
b) …ignore them when they conflict with what would be good for the story
c) …ignore them when they conflict with what “should” happen, based either on realism, the setting, or the genre

After many sessions of play, during one session, a player decides to have her character side with an enemy. This is…
a) …something that shouldn’t even happen. This is someone being a jerk.
b) …where the character becomes an NPC, right away or fairly soon.
c) …something the player and the GM should have set up ahead of time.
d) …only going to last until the other player characters find out and do something about it.
e) …a meaningful moment, powerful and an example of excellent play.

A fistfight breaks out in a bar! The details of where everything is – tables, chairs, where everyone is standing -- is something that…
a) …is important and will be displayed on a map or grid, perhaps using miniature figures.
b) …is something the GM will describe and you should ask questions to get more information.
c) …you can decide on the spot using specific game rules (rolling dice, spending points, whatever)
d) …isn’t really that important other than it makes for an interesting scene- pretty much anyone can come up with details.

In order to really have fun with this game, the rulebook is something that…
a) …everyone playing needs to have read and understood before play, because the rules and setting are both very important.
b) …everyone should know the rules very well.
c) …everyone should know the setting very well.
d) …everyone at least should know the basics of the rules.
e) …everyone at least should know the genre the game pulls from
f) …Only one person needs to really know the rules and it can be explained in 10 minutes or less to everyone else.

This game runs best when the players take time to create characters that are…
a) …built to face challenges using the mechanics and stats.
b) …written with extensive backstories or histories
c) …given strong motivations and an immediate problem or crisis
d) …tied into the other characters as (allies) (enemies) (as either)
e) …written with some knowledge, research or reading up on the game setting, real history or an actual culture

How To Formally Express Interest In Participation

Recruitment
I intend to be taking anywhere between four to six players.  As a nod of thanks to all the GMs on Elliquiy who do this labor of love, I will be prioritizing people who are currently running group games as of this post, but I am definitely not excluding those who don't.

Send me a PM with the following...

High Concept: [Give me a short phrase or sentence as to what kind of Noble you are interested in playing.  Or a few short phrases if you have multiple ideas in mind!]
Estates I Would Like: [Tell me two or three Estates you would like your character to have, or if you don't have any idea what you would like to have!]
My Nobilis Experience: [Why does Nobilis interest you in general?  This game, in particular, if anything?  Are you new to the idea, an always-wanted-to-play, or do you have experience directly with the system?]
What's Got Me Excited: [Something's got to be interesting or you wouldn't be going to this length!  Is it the setting?  The chance to finally play?  The spin?    Or... ara ara, is it me? o///o]/sp
Anything Else: [Anything else.  At all, that you think I might be concerned with.]

Have questions about the game, the setting, or anything else?  That's what this thread is for!

[Cessali]

I've had a couple of direct PMs with character ideas, but I'm short of the minimum four I would like!  If this is something you'd like to play, there's still plenty of room, and I'm happy to teach people the basics of the game if the concept is interesting but the system is unknown or weird.

Thanks again for your attention!