Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Chaosium Digest Volume 08 Number 05
Chaosium Digest Volume 8, Number 5
Date: Sunday, October 30, 1994
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Review: Nephilim (David Cake) NEPHILIM
A Simple Fatigue System for Elric! (Matthew Bassett) ELRIC!
Editor's Note:
You're receiving this Digest a little late this week because of
disk-related downage of soda, my UUCP host. Despite the delay of this
week's issue, next week's Digest should be really big. I have a
four-part Call of Cthulhu Dreamlands adventure written by Penelope
Love nearly ready to go.
Shannon
--------------------
From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake)
Subject: Review: Nephilim
System: Nephilim
Nephilim is an unusual and ambitious subject for a role playing game.
Superficially, Nephilim is yet another in a series of games about
hidden magical conspiracies engaging in battle for control of the
Earth, with a good dose of urban horror thrown in, like the several
sucessful White Wolf games, Kult, and the upcoming In Nomine from
Steve Jackson games. On the other hand, it is by Chaosium who, while
not immune to bandwagon jumping, usually do produce quality games (I
assume the readers of the Chaosium Digest can be expected to agree!)
and it seems to have made more of an effort towards the real Western
Magical tradition than any game so far.
I will not repeat the basic idea, as other people have ably explained
it in their reviews.
So, how does it measure up to its aims and to its competition? It
features roughly the usual Chaosium mechanics for most things, and
extends them (through the idea of potentials for various mundane
things, like police presence, crime severity, social status, etc.) in
some very useful ways. This is definately a plus. The mechanics are
well tested and familiar, with particularly simple and effective
handling of the very fast Nephilim, with more than one action.
The production values of the game are excellent. It has a nice cover,
good interior illustration, interesting graphic design. It is
proofread, and fairly well organised. All in all, it shows that
Chaosium can produce some of the best work in the gaming industry.
The other details of the game seem to be quite well done as well.
Though parts of the magic system are a little lacklustre, generally it
is interesting, and seems, with the prominence of Summoning and
Alchemy (they are given slightly more space than the more traditional
roleplaying style Sorcery), and the importance of elemental and
astrological connections, to be as close as we are going to get to the
hermetic magical tradition in a roleplaying game. The emphasis on
circles of initiation is also another good touch. For people who are
wanting more 'authentic' magic in their games, it is definately worth
a look. There are very creative spell names, and some original
effects. I recommend the magic system highly for authenticity, and it
looks like it will work pretty well in practice, though I have some
reservations about having to work out astrological modifiers. Perhaps
the GM Screen, with its astrological wheel, will help.
My biggest concern is whether the Nephilim background will grab me and
my players as a game to actually play. I have a mixed response. The
game has a lot to offer. Of all the various magical conspiracy games
that seem to be sweeping the industry at the moment, it pays the most
attention to the joys of classic conspiracy theory and its magical
themes, and that to me is a lot in its favour. It also avoids the
unrelenting darkness of theme of games like Vampire. Of course, I
think the mechanics are a lot better as well.
But there are a few doubts that prevent me from recommending it
without reservation. There are two problems, somewhat connected.
The first is that you are not told enough. There is an enormous amount
of stuff that is obviously left out of the rulesbook, which you will
want to know to run a campaign. The most glaring omissions are
information on the Selenim, and information on initiation into the
Major Arcana (well, technically I guess the Selenim are the 13th
Arcanum). Also, Nephilim in areas of the world other than Europe and
America are largely ignored. We are told that they are different, but
not how. Another big omission is the lack of examples of typical
campaign activity. There are 3 pages of suggestions, but I certainly
could have used a bit more, especially for a game that so challenges
many of the classic role playing ideas. I think that many GMs will be
waiting for a little more before they start a campaign. Worse, most
of it hasn't appeared on the Chaosium release schedule either, so it
will be at least a year before some of the most important aspects of
the game world are explained.
This is compounded by what I think is the biggest problem with the
game. As a conspiracy theory game it suffers from the basic flaw that
the Nephilim, the players, know too much. They are on the inside of
the main conspiracy. Most of the basic mysteries are already
revealed. Players already know about Atlantis, Mu, the secret history
of the world and magic. This takes the basic sparkle of the
conspiracy theory away. You already know the big picture, and are
only searching for the details. It is possible, or even likely, that
Chaosium will release supplements of the 'everything you know is a
lie' variety, to add some more mystery to the game, but this is
different to the slow unveiling of the truth of a classic conspiracy
theory.
And, as a modern occult adventure game, it suffers somewhat from
having tied the entire game tightly into the one central concept.
Everything in the game must be something to do with Nephilim or the
Ka-elements, so there is a much restricted range of plots. For
example, the only magic castable by humans that does not involve a
Nephilim (either its voluntary assistance or enslaving it, sacrificing
it, or rendering it down into a vat) is useful only to ward off
Nephilim.
So, if it isn't going to make a good conspiracy theory game or
occult horror game, what is it good for?
I think that Nephilim is primarily intended largely as a game of urban
fantasy action. Look at the bibliography - and look past all the very
serious and no doubt valuable books on occultism (though as a note - I
too recommend Foucaults Pendulum, by Umberto Eco, to anyone planning
to play Nephilim). Look at the films. The films they list there have
far more action and humour than you might suspect, films like the
first Highlander film, Big Trouble in Little China, or Warlock. I
would also suggest the comics of Grant Morrison, particularly Zenith
and most especially the recently begun series The Invisibles, which
looks to have a lot in common with Nephilim. Treat the world of
Nephilim as excellent background and motivation for a more
conventional action oriented campaign, and you have the potential for
an exceptionally fun and absorbing game.
This is not to say that supernatural horror or conspiracy theory are
not part of the game. As minor themes, they can still enrich and
broaden it significantly. But, anyone who is looking to create games
entirely on these themes may find Nephilim ultimately dissatisfying.
For horror, you may be better of with CofC, for conspiracy theory you
may be better off creating your own.
As a conspiracy theory game it is ultimately hollow, and as an urban
horror and magic game it is very restrictive. But, it is not
restricted to these genres but can mix and match all these with some
fun action to make an intelligent and original campaign in the right
hands. This game demands a little more of its GMs, but could be
really memorable in the right hands.
Cheers
David Cake
--------------------
From: Matthew Bassett (Ext. 6571) <matthew@sa.rl.ac.uk>
Subject: A Simple Fatigue System for Elric!
System: Elric!
Here's a simple (yet hopefully realistic) fatigue system for Elric!
(and perhaps Basic Roleplay). I created it because I was a bit
frustrated at the fatigue "rules" given with Elric! and fed up with
the arbitary rulings that I had been making so far. I would
appreciate any feedback on it.
SIMPLE FATIGUE SYSTEM FOR ELRIC! (AND BRP?)
I've tried to create a fatigue system that both includes the effects
of increasing fatigue on recovery times, and is also simple to use.
The main concept of this system is that of fatigue levels. Currently
the fatigue levels are just numbered. I would prefer to have them
named, but I've not had time for that. The following table details
these fatigue levels:
FATIGUE EFFECT ON EFFECT ON EFFECT ON RECOVERY
LEVEL ATTRIBUTES SKILLS FUMBLES* TIME
0 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 1 minute
2 -1 -10% +2% 10 minutes
3 -1 -10% +2% 1 hour
4 -1 -10% +2% 3 hours
5 -1 -10% +2% 6 hours
6 -1 -10% +2% 12 hours
7 -1 -10% +2% 1 day
8 -1 -10% +2% 2 days
9 -1 -10% +2% 4 days
10 -1 -10% +2% 1 week
* fumble penalties are halved for those skills that remain above 100%
_after_ the fatigue level penalty for skills has been assessed.
N.B. fatigue level 0 represents someone who has suffered no fatigue.
Attribute penalties are assessed against all attributes except SIZ and
CON (ie hitpoints remain unaffected), however damage bonuses will be
affected (because of changes in STR). The attribute penalties will
not reduce an attribute below the racial minimum. If that should
occur, make another CONx5 check to avoid an hours unconciousness
instead.
Skill penalties are assessed against all skills (including
non-physical ones, like Insight or Oratory). The skill penalties will
not reduce a skill below it's basic percentage. For skills whose
basic percentages are related to attributes, those basic percentages
should be based on the unpenalised attribute score for simplicity.
There are no limits on the fumble penalties that may be assessed.
Fatigue checks are carried as described in the rules as normal, but
the player records failed fatigue checks as a gain in one of these
fatigue levels. For example an unfatigued character running may fail
a fatigue check (roll vs CONx5 I seem to remember from the rules) and
gain fatigue level 1, he may then shortly afterwards fail another
fatigue check and gain fatigue level 2.
Fatigue levels are cumulative, that is the effects of all the gained
fatigue levels are assessed together. For instance a character with
fatigue levels 1 through 4 marked off suffers a penalty of -3 to all
attributes, -30% to all skills and for skills of less than 100% is 6%
more likely to fumble (ie he fumbles on rolls of 93-00). Note that
fatigue level 1 assesses no penalties, it just ensures the next time a
fatigue roll is failed (assuming the character still has fatigue level
1), that fatigue level 2 is gained.
An unfatigued character gains fatigue levels consecutively, ie he
first gains fatigue level 1, then 2, then 3 and so on. Fatigue levels
are not, however, recovered from in the reverse order: they are
recovered at the end of their recovery time, providing no further
fatigue levels with greater level numbers have been gained in that
time. Ie our example character in the above paragraph would first
recover from fatigue level 1, one minute after gaining his last
fatigue level, he would recover from fatigue level 2, 10 minutes after
gaining his last fatigue level, and so on.
Once a character has gained and recovered from fatigue levels, he
gains fatigue levels from the lowest numbered levels first. Ie a
character who has got a fatigue level 3, would first gain fatigue
levels 1 and 2 before gaining fatigue level 4.
NOTES:
Characters who would reach fatigue level 11 fall unconcious instead,
for one hour.
GMs may wish to use an additional option with this system: they may
wish to assess longer term fatigue levels without going through the
earlier ones, for strenuous activities that take a long time. For
instance walking through hilly terrain may cause a GM to automatically
award fatigue level 5 to all characters involved, and a fatigue check
to avoid fatigue level 6. If the weather was bad as well, the GM might
automatically award fatigue levels 5 and 6, and a check to avoid
fatigue level 7; and so on.
Problems I've already noticed with the system:
+ the mechanics don't quite fit in with the style of the Basic
Role Play system.
+ the way I've described the system is too dry and mechanical (it's
actually relatively simple, but it sounds complicated)... anybody
fancy phrasing it better?
+ the rules for recovery times may be a bit too simplistic and
hard to administrate (ie. you recover a fatigue level in it's
recovery time providing you don't go past that fatigue level in
that time).
+ it hasn't been reality tested; the recovery times and the
penalties assessed against characters are more based on numbers I
found convenient than any real known facts. They sound sort of
"first glance" reasonable to me based on my own cross country
running / hill walking experience, but...
Hoping for feedback,
-Matt.
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's
Games. To submit an article, subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to:
appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The old digests are archived on
ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be
retrieved via FTP.
