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Chaosium Digest Volume 06 Number 10
Chaosium Digest Volume 6, Number 10
Date: Sunday, June 5, 1994
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Announcement: Nephilim (Chaosium) NEPHILIM
Nephilim History & Philosophy (Sam Shirley) NEPHILIM
Review: Beaumains #4 (Shannon Appel) PENDRAGON
Index: Wyrm's Footnotes (Shannon Appel) MISC
--------------------
From: chaosium@netcom.com (Chaosium)
Subject: Announcement: Nephilim
Product: Nephilim
Authors: Frederic Weil and Fabrice Lamidey
Cover Artist: Franck Achard and Jean Bey
Description: "In those times, when men grew and multiplied after Adam
had left Eden, the Nephilim roamed the Earth." -- GENESIS 6:4
There is a dark side to our everyday universe, an unwritten reality
which has been hidden for millennia. Maybe you have unwittingly
encountered this reality. Already you are familiar with such worlds
as magic, alchemy, and kabbala.
This August, Chasoium will be releasing a new roleplaying game,
HEPHILIM. With NEPHILIM we invite you to look deeper, to see behind
the scene, find the canvas under the paint.
Discover a twilight world of old alchemists bent over their ovens, of
kabbalists tracing their pentacles, of magicians deciphering their
books of spells. This is a world concealed behind the false
respectability of wealthy neighborhoods, non-profit associations,
flourishing businesses, and historical monuments. A world where
secret societies wage unseen war upon each other for political control
or control of one of the five magic fields. A world of mystery and
occult magic, which originates in the characters that you play: the
Nephilim.
YOUR CHARACTER
Your character is one of the Nephilim, with a past more ancient than
man, who uses magical powers and who helped found the major occult
arts. You are but a spirit and since the Deluge, have lost your body
and have been forced to inhabit human bodies during different times in
history.
Perhaps you witnessed the sack of Troy; contributed to the fall of
Rome; spied upon the crowning of Charlemagne; initiated Napoleon to
the mysteries of the secret society of the Carbonari; or even
encouraged the crimes of Jack the Ripper.
In the 1990's the Nephilim waken. Your character also rises,
rediscovering the mastery of the five magical forces of fire, air,
water, earth, and moon. Your character is a spirit who takes
possession of a new human body, a simulacrum. You import your own
personality and the skills that you have acquired during previous
incarnations and now learn how to use those of your simulacrum. Then
begins the journey you have already lived through many times in the
past -- the physical metamorphosis of the human body and the beginning
of the long quest for Agartha.
AGARTHA
Agartha is the spiritual and physical fulfillment of the Nephilim. It
corresponds to a lost state, where the Nephilim has no need of a body,
where he or she can directly manipulate the five magical forces, or
fields, and can guide other Nephilim in becoming the prince of the
Nephilims' families (the greater arcana).
Your character possesses a great sum of occult knowledge, and knows
many of the great secrets of our world. You have become an Initiate,
a Master, an Enlightened One. You now belong to the unknown superiors
who secretly govern Earth.
Before you can reach this exalted state of accomplishment, each
Nephilim must undergo several stages. You must acquire occult
knowledge; must uncover great secrets; accustom yourself to this
strange world; and rediscover old volumes stacked away in museums
within which are consigned spells. You must undo the plans hatched by
secret societies who work to both destroy the Nephilim and to seize
control of the world. You might find old companions or members of
your family, compute new conjunctions, abandon yourself to rites of
magic, alchemy, or kabbala, -- anything to increase your occult
knowledge and skills in order to reach Agartha. You must endure what
humans vulgarly call adventures (actually initiations) as said in one
of the best known hermetic texts, the Emerald Tablet.
Each Nephilim knows the origin of his race, but he has learned it
during his various incarnations, step by step, inscribed on forgotten
papyrus or engraven on stone tablets in forgotten languages. This
fragmentation of history makes its understanding difficult.
HISTORY OF THE NEPHILIM
"I have at last found proof of the existence of great civilizations
more ancient than us Hellene: Atlantis of the Egyptian priests, the
continent Mu of the poets. What new riches to discover, to visit, to
tell." -- THE SECRET BOOKS OF THE INQUEST OF HERODOTUS -- New Hades,
National Library
One of the first great secrets that the Nephilim learns is that
history, as conceived by the majority of humans, is a lie or more
politely, an illusion. Most terrestrial events have been caused by
the magical world of the Nephilim. History books only describe the
surface of things, lived by individuals and societies unable to
comprehend their true implications, or maybe simply refusing to face
the truth. Furthermore, secret societies fabricate false historic and
scientific truths to protect their influence and activities, and these
are taught later as truth.
One example of this is Darwin's theory of natural selection. During
his numerous travels, Darwin was initiated to a little-known masonic
lodge. A particular cell of the free-masons, this lodge was dedicated
to bringing together humans and Nephilim. When he learned of and
understood the nature of the Nephilim, he destroyed his notes which
lead to the location of lost Atlantis, afraid of betraying the
Nephilim to the other secret societies. Aided by a Nephilim, he then
built a coherent, believable system of biological evolution which
enabled him to threaten his sworn enemy, the Church (and particularly
the Templar Survival), and to protect those that he called the
`miracle of selection,' the Nephilim.
*********
We are interested in your thoughts on this new game system. Please
feel free to contact us at Chaosium.
*********
Stock#: 3100
Retail Price: $21.95
Page Count: approx. 144 pages
Shipping Date: August 1994
ISBN: 1-56882-023-2
Chaosium Inc
950-A 56th Street
Oakland CA 94608-3129
510-547-7681
AOL Screenname: Chaosium
Internet: chaosium@aol.com
--------------------
From: chaosium@netcom.com (Sam Shirley)
Subject: Nephilim History & Philosophy
System: Nephilim
[this article was originally posted to rec.games.frp.misc]
Ok, to clear up some rumors and speculation about Nephilim:
--The French Connection:
Nephilim was originally published in France by Multisim, where it
appears to be one of the more popular RPGs. Multisim licensed our
game system, and used their own world setting. They asked if we
wanted to publish it. We looked at it and decided it was a cool game.
We're treating it as any other submission, where the French game forms
the foundation of what we're going to publish. Since it's already
been published in France, we have the opportunity to add our
publishing experience to their game design, so some elements of the
game will be different from the French original.
--Nephilim Compared to White Wolf's World of Darkness:
Nephilim differs in fundamental ways from White Wolf's World of
Darkness. The dominant mythology of White Wolf's world setting is a
metaphor for the ego's fear of annihilation, hence the heavy darkness
and death themes; the World of Darkness is the world of Samsara. For
the ego, illumination (because it requires the ego's death) is an
unattainable goal. Vampires ARE the ego, with no knowledge of the
soul, holding on even beyond death, and satisfying their need for the
balancing soul by draining the life essence from others.
This is also why the magic of Mage: The Ascension is totally
unmagical, since magic is the realm of the soul, and the ego cannot
see it, being aware of only the dimmest reflections. Mages in Mage:
the Ascension are egotists of immense proportions, attempting to sway
the consensus trance of the masses to meet with their own pre-
conceptions in order to alter reality. Actually, reality is already
here and doing fine on its own, we're just too busy ignoring it. The
illusion is not out there but here in our heads -- we make it
ourselves. If the zen master asks you whether the stick he is holding
is real, say yes, otherwise he'll hit you over the head with it.
Magic IS paradox, and logic is not truth.
Nephilim approaches the metaphor of enlightenment from another
perspective, from the viewpoint of the soul reaching down to the ego,
not the ego looking up. Metaphorically, Nephilim are the spiritual
self, the magical side of a person that awakens when one first
glimpses the infinite. Nephilim is a game of the soul's journey out
of darkness into light, of the gradual illumination of the whole
person. The Nephilim and its Simulacra (host body) represent the yin
and yang of mindful awareness. The Nephilim is awareness and being,
and the Simulacra is mindfulness and doing. Joined together they are
"becoming", or directed change. Think of the metaphor of a boat,
where the Simulacra is the ego, the boat; and the Nephilim is the
religious awakening, the pilot.
The current confusion between these games, I believe, stems from our
culture's propensity to relegate anything from the vast universe of
non-Christian religion into the un-explored dumping hole of "The
Occult," without any deeper inspection. What is occluded is so much
larger than what is not; several games can explore occult themes and
still differ greatly.
And on a purely game-play level, the game activities are greatly
divergent. The metaphors discussed above are just the game-design
underpinnings. For all this lofty philosophy, Nephilim is a game of
street-level action. The action in Nephilim is driven by the
Nephilim's struggles against the human secret societies that are
trying to destroy or entrap them on the one hand, and on the other
hand by their search for Agartha (spiritual enlightenment) which will
free them from the sorrows of this world and the eternal cycle of
re-incarnation. The Nephilim search for arcane tomes and items to
help them in their struggles, and try to find other Nephilim or
sympathetic humans with whom they can ally. And at times they must
act against the secret societies to thwart their plots.
Sam Shirley
Chaosium Inc.
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Review: Beaumains #4
System: Pendragon
Last week, I received a copy of Beaumains #4 in the mail. I'm happy
to say that it continues to be of quite high quality (see V2.11 and
V3.2 for some notes on earlier issues). Here's a quick run-down of
what you can find in the newest issue.
PENDRAGON BEFORE ARTHUR, by Heidi Kaye. An excellent article
detailing Britain before Arthur. This articles provides a lot of good
flavor and many ideas for running a campaign in the earliest phase of
the Pendragon chronology.
THE ADVENTURE OF THE CASTLE OF THE CURSED ISLE, by Tim Harris. An
interesting adventure set in 515, centering around the final battle
between Sir Balin and Sir Balan.
A SAINT TO QUEST FOR, by Jackie Duckworth. Some short notes on
Christian knights and a quest.
THE UNCONQUERED SUN, by Lewis Griffith. My favorite of the articles,
this one details the religion of Mithraism and give some ideas for
incorporating it into Pendragon Britain.
A PENDRAGON GLOSSARY, PART 2, by Ian Jenkinson. G-M of a Glossary of
Pendragon people.
REVIEWS, by Misc. Three reviews of Fourth Edition Pendragon are
included, as well as reviews of Lionheart and Robin Hood. (Much of
this previously appeared in V3.10 and V4.9 of The Chaosium Digest.)
THE ADVENTURE OF THE FIVE LADIES, by Heidi Kaye. An adventure in
which five knights are tested by five magical ladies. (This
previously appeared in V3.7 of The Chaosium Digest.)
NPC KNIGHTS, by Shannon Appel. Details of two interesting knights,
The Mirrored Knight and Sir Madog. (This previously appeared in V4.1
of The Chaosium Digest.)
DOGS & HUNTING, by Michael Trout. Some extended rules on hunting,
with lots of details on different types of dogs and the different
phases of the hunt.
Overall, Beaumains #4 has lots of interesting articles. Some of the
articles have previously appeared in the Digest, but Beaumains is
still _well_ worth picking up. If you'd like more info on Beaumains,
drop a line to:
Gareth Jones
69 Atherley Road
Shirley
Southampton
SO1 5DT
England
Shannon
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Index: Wyrm's Footnotes
System: Misc
This is a frament from the Wyrm's Footnotes index that I recently
completed. If you'd like to get the whole index, you can either ftp
it from soda.berkeley.edu (where it's available in the /pub/rpg-index
directory), or watch rec.games.frp.archives.
FROM
THE WYRM'S FOOTNOTES INDEX
VERSION 1.00
[issues 1-14,RQC]
ELRIC BOARD GAME [Chaosium]
Rules, Official Questions & Answers:
Elric Questions and Suggestions, by Greg Stafford #5 pg 21-23
Rules, Variants:
Elric Suggestions, by Mark Colborn #5 pg 24-25
Elric Variants, by Art Turney #4 pg 43-44
ENGAGE & DESTROY [Chaosium]
Rules, Official Questions & Answers:
Changes, Clarifications & Additions, by Chris Kurzadkowski
#10 pg 26-28
FANTASY, GENERAL
Games, Board:
The Battle of Dunstop Castle #3 pg 27-34
KING ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS [Chaosium]
Rules, Misc:
King Arthur's Knights Expansion, by Stephan Abbott #8 pg 15-16
Rules, Official Questions & Answers:
King Arthur's Knights Expansion, by Stephan Abbott #8 pg 15-16
LORDS OF THE MIDDLE SEA [Chaosium]
Background:
Notes on the Physical Rationale, by Lynn Willis #5 pg 15
Rules, Official Questions & Answers:
Errata, by Steve Lortz #6 pg 43
Errata #9 pg 15
PERILOUS ENCOUNTERS [Chaosium]
Rules, Official Questions & Answers:
Errata, by Steve Lortz #5 pg 40
THIEVES' WORLD [Chaosium]
Advice, Players:
Outworld Characters in TW, by Eric Goldberg #13 pg 29
TROY [Chaosium]
Rules, Official Questions & Answers:
Troy: Errata & Questions, by Don Dupont #4 pg 31-33
Wanderlore, by Greg Stafford #3 pg 9-10
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's
Games. To submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The
old digests are archived on soda.berkeley.edu in the directory
/pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.
