Thoughts on a revision of the setting?

[MoonRightRomantic]

I've been hanging around the nephilim mailing list, and Shannon Patrick recently uploaded "Ex Oculis" (ExO), an abandoned attempt from ~2010 to try writing a new edition of the game. I've been working through some homebrew ideas for a new edition myself, based on the Enlightened Magic supplement for general BRP. I did plan on taking ideas from ExO, tho. I'd just call the result "Nephilim: Ex Oculis" since I'm not really doing all that much new with it besides general revisions and additions.

The biggest change compared to Chaosium's first edition is that the immortals would be written as reincarnating human beings rather than spirits that possess human beings. In terms of lore there would be plenty who undergo radical personality shifts after their awakening, but the PCs would be awakened humans so that players would have an easier time connecting with them. I find it bizarre that gamers would have a problem with playing possessing spirits but not murderous vampires, but whatever.

I wouldn't intimidate players with the full secret history starting out, but allow them to discover it during play and leave it more ambiguous and subject to GM whims rather than laying it out as gospel. For example, I'd basically keep Chaosium's secret history from the Gamemaster's Companion the same aside from dividing the ka'im (elemental spirits) and nephilim (awakened humans) into two different species to smooth over the transition; other GMs might decide to rewrite it entirely.

A key distinction from other urban fantasy games is the past lives. Unlike certain other games were you have a metaplot that's essentially irrelevant unless you invest in it like a comic book fan, the immortal PCs may have personally taken part in historical events during past lives that can be recalled during play if so desired. Perhaps your character's past life included an architect who designed Göbekli Tepe, a Loa who funded the Haitian Revolution, a Catholic missionary who tried to stop the conquistadors from butchering the Aztecs and Mayans, a founding father of the United States who opposed British rule, a member of the Bolsheviks who sought a better life for your family, or a Slavic vampire lord who fought nazis intruding on your domain by summoning monsters from the Cthulhu mythos.

I would include the selenim (mentioned but never published in the Chaosium supplements) and ar-ka'im (from the French 3rd edition) as character options from the onset. The selenim are a mix of succubus and medium who inspired myths of vampires, lycanthropes, and zombies. The ar-ka'im are able to potentially use all eight elements, but their magic reserves are more unstable. The secret history and nephilim are already changed dramatically from the French version, so I would not write them faithfully to the French version but introduce my own twists. For example, the selenim in the French version could not reincarnate due to writer fiat, but my setting would allow them to a la the Blue Blood novels by Melissa de la Cruz. Likewise, I would allow options for nephilim to have eternal youth or mortals to have limited elemental powers (c.f. the Fraternitas Saturni cultivating Saturnian Ka within themselves in Secret Societies).

In terms of mechanics revisions, I would adapt the magic points mechanic so that characters would have a reserve of magic points for each of their elemental POW/Ka-Element characteristics. The mechanics for recovering and spending magic points would be more detailed, including consequences for overcharging. I was inspired after reading the French version (where the ar-ka'im's instability was related to overcharge) and the magic point rules in RQ6.

ExO introduced a new sanity system based on the madness meters in Unknown Armies, which I liked and wanted to adapt too. This would replace and revise the previous "degeneration" mechanics from Nephilim. There are five madness meters (identity/self, isolation, unnatural, helpless, violence) which are associated with the five elements, and a fifth madness meter just for the immortals associated with their dominant ka. Concepts like khaiba, narcosis, and shouit would be translated into psychological (and possibly magical) disorders.

What do you guys think?

 

[RogerDee]

Honestly i would certainly incorporate Champions Mystic World, which is essentially similar to the realms from Gurps Cabal, just more detailed.

Next I would certainly think about including Grand Grimoire for 7e, for magic, and perhaps, even Cthulhu Pulp to make the characters more cinematic, and interesting.

As I am thinking about incorporating Nephilim, as well as Everlasting Davea (Supernatural Pagan deities are a carbon copy really), and Highlander into a Buffy type environment - I certainly want different kinds of Nephilim.

So the Highlander immortals would essentially be empowered by positive energy (DnD / Pathfinder) or Alpha (Alpha Omega rpg). Vampires would be the exact opposite, meaning both would essentially be hard pressed to associate with one another. Although I did potentially toy with the idea of the Highlander immortals being a shattered elder god (Evil Author off SB and FF.net) did something similar but an Old One instead.

Daeva could be empowered through being born into a nexus, igniting the fire of their 'divinity'.

 

 

 

[SunlessNick]

I would take a more mystical approach to the incarnation.  Each of the Nephilim's lives is essentially a new being, the alchemical wedding/offspring of the Elemental essence in the Reliquary and the human Host (I prefer those terms to stasis and simulacrum), meaning that Nephilim is a combination of immortal and lineage.  Not all the Arcana would see it that way - some of the more similar ones could be distinguished by disagreements over the nature of Nephilim.  (It would be better to try to write it as if any of the alchemical wedding, elemental spirit possessing a human, or human awakened to their elemental nature could be true, but everyone's biased to one of those, and the alchemical wedding is mine).

I'd get down on my knees and beg John Snead to be able to use Enlightened Magic for their magical system.

Character Types:

• I'd change the elements a bit, replacing Moon with Metal.  In the Middle Ages, metal was regarded as a close balance of the four elements, and of course the Chinese system swaps out Air for Metal and Wood - that makes both workable as imperfect analogues to the truth.  All five elements being forms of matter has better symmetry. In astrological terms, Metal would tie to Saturn, while Orichalka would be reallocated to the asteroid belt - this is why it expresses of other elements.
• However, Moon would still exist as a different type of human immortal, rooted in perfection of mind and body.
• Black Moon and Selenim would be character options - both humans and Nephilim can become Selenim, though humans need the help of an existing one.
• Some humans would be able to awaken one of the Nephilim elements in themselves, and practice a degree of sorcery without having to resort to stuff like elixirs.
• And some humans would be able to awaken their Sun, which grants them an air of spiritual authority and influence.  When you hear about people having mana, or farr, this is where it comes from.
• Regular humans or members of secret societies would be an option too.
• Nephilim would still be the default - one character creation chapter for Nephilim (given all the parts that go into making one), and another for "other character types."
• Granted, all those being available from the get-go would need a big core book, but if I had my way they would be.  And big core books are pretty common nowadays.

Another vote for the Four Realms from GURPS Cabal/Mystic World.  I also rather like the Reverie from The Everlasting - Ka Vision would be akin to stepping into the Reverie.

I'd include a few more secret civilisations from history, mythology or literature that the Nephilim might have interacted with, like Irem or Valusia.

Secret societies wouldn't be universally opposed to the Nephilim - the links between individual Arcana and societies that come up in the Major Arcana and Secret Societies supplements would be clear from the core book.

Someone else I'm acquainted with who wants a reworked Nephilim has the idea that the past lives would be the game rather than character creation - you start back in the day and play though the incarnations as stages in the campaign, with the modern day be no more special than any of them - that's not my own preference, but it would be cool to include it as a supported campaign type.  Another thing that should be supported is extensive flashbacks - even if the campaign is mostly taking place in the present, setting a scenario in one of the PC's past lives - the secondary character types could be used by players whose Nephilim aren't active in the period being flashed back to.

[MoonRightRomantic]

On 7/6/2020 at 6:28 AM, RogerDee said:

Honestly i would certainly incorporate Champions Mystic World, which is essentially similar to the realms from Gurps Cabal, just more detailed.

Next I would certainly think about including Grand Grimoire for 7e, for magic, and perhaps, even Cthulhu Pulp to make the characters more cinematic, and interesting.

As I am thinking about incorporating Nephilim, as well as Everlasting Davea (Supernatural Pagan deities are a carbon copy really), and Highlander into a Buffy type environment - I certainly want different kinds of Nephilim.

So the Highlander immortals would essentially be empowered by positive energy (DnD / Pathfinder) or Alpha (Alpha Omega rpg). Vampires would be the exact opposite, meaning both would essentially be hard pressed to associate with one another. Although I did potentially toy with the idea of the Highlander immortals being a shattered elder god (Evil Author off SB and FF.net) did something similar but an Old One instead.

Daeva could be empowered through being born into a nexus, igniting the fire of their 'divinity'.

At this point, you're making an entirely new game.

I have been entertaining the idea of devising an urban fantasy game myself. I'm not married to any particular system, so I suppose I'd be okay with doing a systemless setting or compatible with multiple types of OGC systems like d20, GORE, or Action!.

There are just so many different subgenres. Gothic horror soap opera, paranormal political thriller, splatterpunk, mystery investigations, monster hunters, occult revelation...

Speaking of The Everlasting, I thought their Osirian character option was an interesting riff on Mage: The Ascension and Nephilim. In The Everlasting, anyone can potentially learn the rules' freeform magic system with the limitation that a single character is only able to ever learn a single magical tradition such as wicca, druidism, Taoism, or less conventional traditions like "techgnosticism." The Osirians are reincarnating magicians who can learn the precepts of all other traditions because they understand the meta-magic underlying all the different traditions.

If I was designing an urban fantasy setting and wanted to give my wizard characters special treatment, then that's probably the same direction I'd go in.

 

On 1/10/2021 at 12:47 PM, SunlessNick said:

• I'd change the elements a bit, replacing Moon with Metal.  In the Middle Ages, metal was regarded as a close balance of the four elements, and of course the Chinese system swaps out Air for Metal and Wood - that makes both workable as imperfect analogues to the truth.  All five elements being forms of matter has better symmetry. In astrological terms, Metal would tie to Saturn, while Orichalka would be reallocated to the asteroid belt - this is why it expresses of other elements.
• However, Moon would still exist as a different type of human immortal, rooted in perfection of mind and body.

I can't say I'm a fan of changing Moon to Metal. All the symbolism doesn't work as well with Metal: the proximity to Earth and Water, the associations with darkness and nocturnal creatures, reptiles because they shed their skin, madness and biological illness, dreams and illusions, etc. Not to mention, each of the elements already has correspondences with particular metals (e.g. gold w/ Sun, silver w/ Moon, lead w/ Saturn).

There's no occult or philosophical basis for it, I don't think. The classical elements were descriptions of how the world was composed, whereas the Wuxing are about phases of process and change. Furthermore, the Nephilim pentacle is already arranged basically the same as the Wuxing pentacle.

But YMMV.

On 1/10/2021 at 12:47 PM, SunlessNick said:

Black Moon and Selenim would be character options - both humans and Nephilim can become Selenim, though humans need the help of an existing one.

The French version would go on to introduce various other options: Nephilim "cruxim" with only four elements, Selenim "graftees" with additional elements grafted on, Nephilim "rejects" with their lunar branch blackened, rumored "Necronim" who had all six elements including moon and black moon (and could incarnate in corpses?), and the Ar-KaIm who had Solar-Ka and Orichalka and potentially all the rest. There were several factions (not arcana) that dealt specifically with this like the 666 and Orichalquiens. (Basically, the French version was weird.)

I think we could stand to introduce a more standardized way of handling various combinations of elements.

On 1/10/2021 at 12:47 PM, SunlessNick said:

• Some humans would be able to awaken one of the Nephilim elements in themselves, and practice a degree of sorcery without having to resort to stuff like elixirs.
• And some humans would be able to awaken their Sun, which grants them an air of spiritual authority and influence.  When you hear about people having mana, or farr, this is where it comes from.
• Regular humans or members of secret societies would be an option too.

The Secret Societies sourcebook introduced rules for the Mithradites who had more refined Solar-Ka that gave them some mystical abilities over other awakened mortals, and the Fraternitas Saturnii who had rules for cultivating Saturnian-Ka within themselves and casting Saturnian spells. The book gives only a little detail on the Cultes des Ghoules, but in the French version the Selenim are able to infect mortals (both the living and the dead) with a connection to the Black Moon field using their necromancy.

Again, this could probably be standardized. As a collective character option, you could call mortals with awakened ka "Bohemians" after a similar character option in the French. Maybe give them their own Minor Arcana or Chimerical Arcana, since the English version doesn't have minor arcana. (Credit to ganonso for the idea he presented on rpgnet and spacebattles.)

[RogerDee]

16 hours ago, MoonRightRomantic said:

At this point, you're making an entirely new game.

I have been entertaining the idea of devising an urban fantasy game myself. I'm not married to any particular system, so I suppose I'd be okay with doing a systemless setting or compatible with multiple types of OGC systems like d20, GORE, or Action!.

There are just so many different subgenres. Gothic horror soap opera, paranormal political thriller, splatterpunk, mystery investigations, monster hunters, occult revelation...

Speaking of The Everlasting, I thought their Osirian character option was an interesting riff on Mage: The Ascension and Nephilim. In The Everlasting, anyone can potentially learn the rules' freeform magic system with the limitation that a single character is only able to ever learn a single magical tradition such as wicca, druidism, Taoism, or less conventional traditions like "techgnosticism." The Osirians are reincarnating magicians who can learn the precepts of all other traditions because they understand the meta-magic underlying all the different traditions.

If I was designing an urban fantasy setting and wanted to give my wizard characters special treatment, then that's probably the same direction I'd go in.

As per the title, revising the setting ever so slightly.

Sun and Moon energies could be polar opposites, and Dark Moon even more so. In fact there was a story on ff.net about Connor fighting Dracula, who when empowered by a quickening came alive, literally, and was no longer undead.

In fact some of the later French systems I believe had characteristics such as Strong, Very strong to describe characters - something that has been imported into Pulp Cthulhu so it is arguable that this is nothing new to the game. Merely adding bringing in elements from the original source material. Plus we know that the Kaim were the gods of the past, and did not need to use an anchor to enable them to possess a human. They were physical beings, so a faction keeping that aspect - i.e. physical gods a la Everlasting Daeva / Supernatural Pagan gods is not really changing the game either. Just altering some events of the the past.

In fact something present in Legacy: War of the Ages, which is Highlander in the modern day, with a few slight changes to canon. What is missing from the English version, and present in the original Portugese Imortal, is that they originated in Atlantis. Plus there are Dwimmeralik, lesser old ones really - and quite horrific, which could easily be older kaim. There are all kinds of options to revise aspects of the setting and still keep the game the same.

 

[MoonRightRomantic]

On 2/22/2021 at 7:13 AM, RogerDee said:

Sun and Moon energies could be polar opposites, and Dark Moon even more so.

I think that misunderstands the cosmological constraints that Nephilim setup. All of the elements are derived from Solar-Ka, each representing a fraction of its infinite possibility. This is a key conceit of the setting from which other aspects follow.

[RogerDee]

On 3/6/2021 at 7:07 PM, MoonRightRomantic said:

I think that misunderstands the cosmological constraints that Nephilim setup. All of the elements are derived from Solar-Ka, each representing a fraction of its infinite possibility. This is a key conceit of the setting from which other aspects follow.

It does not have to remain that way if it is re-imagined.

Not the least of which if it was re-imagined it would allow the easily incorporation of Immortal Invisible War, Fireborn, and of course Highlander all relatively easily with some redesign.

[MoonRightRomantic]

On 9/19/2021 at 1:30 PM, RogerDee said:

Not the least of which if it was re-imagined it would allow the easily incorporation of Immortal Invisible War, Fireborn, and of course Highlander all relatively easily with some redesign.

(Sorry for the late reply.) Then it's not the same setting. It's an original setting with some inspirations from several different 90s games.

[DrGoth]

It's at least related, and the possession thing was one of my least favourite parts of the original.

[MoonRightRomantic]

I’m currently working on a blog revising the setting. It revises the Nephilim to be a higher self that arises from the fusion of a human soul and an elemental a la Montgomery’s blog posts, in order to make them palatable to players. I’m also including Selenim and Ar-Kaïm from the French 3e.

I’m translating the French 3e books to get better rules for the Selenim since the 1e/2e “rules” are vague wishy-washy garbage. It’s been a blast so far. I’ve even translated some fan supplements from Heritors of Babel.

What I’m having trouble with is devising an Enochian summoning system to match the rules from Liber Ka, Slaying the Dragon and Enlightened Magic. I’ve got a bunch of ideas, read some real occult books on evocation for ideas. But I’m coming up dry when it comes to inventing and balancing evocations, as well as differentiating it from sorcery and alchemy. I don’t want it to just be “you summon an entity that casts spells on your behalf.”

Working in the Ar-Kaïm is gonna be a doozy because their shtick is that they’re Aberrant-inspired superheroes. Unlike the Nephilim and Selenim, they’re not body-snatchers either. Neither fits the subtle magic and higher self conceits I’m going with for the Nephilim.

[MoonRightRomantic]

The 3e rules are definitely a much better fit for the setting than the BRP rules. Particularly when it comes to things like managing Ka damage. In the BRP rules, every lost point meant you immediately had to recalculate your entire Pentacle. Under the 3e rules, your Characteristics only count the tens for task resolution, which makes bookkeeping so much easier.

What I like about the character creation is that it does away with the "spend 2 Ka per past life" rule. Instead, you just pick whether your character is an Apprentice, Journeyman, or Master in various occult things. Then you balance that by selecting an equivalent number of Flaws. So your PC could start play with Master in all steps and be a famous figure in the setting as a result (this is explicitly stated during CC), but your PC has equivalent Flaws to compensate. I find this a much better way to balance characters by comparison.

I'm thinking of hacking 3e for the US version's setting, since I appreciate the simplified bookkeeping. I haven't translated 4e and 5e yet, but I hear that 5e further simplifies past lives by condensing them into skills and having them unrated. Instead, these "experiences" apply a bonus or penalty to relevant rolls a la FATE's Aspects. That certainly sounds like it would make recalling new past lives during play very easy to adjudicate. Under BRP that's basically impossible to do.

Not to rag on BRP here. It's just that the system doesn't fit with Nephilim specifically. The setting goes against number of ttrpg conventions that are difficult for traditional systems to handle. Having past lives at all, much less recalling their skills during play, is so rare that traditional design doesn't account for it.

[MoonRightRomantic]

So I have some more thoughts to share.

To summarize the 3e rules:

• Characteristics and Difficulties are divided into five levels: Not (1), Little (2), Enough (3), "..." (4), and Very (5). E.g. Not Strong, Little Charismatic, Enough Initiated, Agile, Very Educated. These are compared on the Universal Resolution Table (URT) to determine the roll under number on the 1d20 roll; this is similar to the resistance table for BRP, but using d20 instead of d100.
• Skills are measured by four levels: Profane (P), Apprentice (A), Companion (C), and Master (M). These modify the Difficulty on the URT: P worsen by 2 levels, A by 1, C by 0, M reduces by 1.
• The Ka Characteristic is measured by Initiated. The Ka-Elements are then derived from this value. Initiated has a pool of 0-10 "bullets" attached that may be gained or spent. Gaining 10 bullets means the player may spent XP or Agartha Points (AP) to increase their Initiated level. Magical damage causes the PC to lose bullets, which may or may not recover depending on the source.
• Selenim don't have Ka-Elements, but they do have a Black Moon Pool that they may spend to cast Spells. (Nephilim don't have Ch'awe in French. They may cast Spells without limit.)
• Ar-Kaim may have 2-8 Ka of any combination, but track each independently. They spend Ka bullets to cast Talents, and recover bullets through various means.
• All three types of Immortals have their own sets of Occult Sciences divided into three Circles each: Nephilim have Magic (Sorcery), Kabbalah (Summoning), and Alchemy; Selenim have Necromancy, Conjuration (Black Summoning), and Anamorphosis; Ar-Kaim have Talents for each combination of Element and Zodiac House.
• Each Circle of an Occult Science has multiple Occult Skills that are tracked independently. To master a Circle and advance to the next, the PC needs 2 Skills at M and 1 at C or 8 levels total. Each Talent is measured as its own Skill.
• Mundane Skills are increased by gaining points through rolling Critical Successes in practical experience or studying. To raise P to A requires 1 point, A to C 3 points, C to M 5 points. Each successive point takes longer to earn.
• Characters have various degenerations measured as Characteristics: Khaiba, Narcosis and Black Moon's Curse for Nephilim, Khaiba and Instability for Ar-Kaim. Other handicaps aren't represented as Characteristics.
• Meta-Characteristics are no longer persistent but must be activated and gain Khaiba or Narcosis bullets for failure. Selenim don't have Meta-Characteristics, but may curse mortals with a similar penalty by casting the evil eye. Ar-Kaim use their Solar-Ka to calculate bonuses, but spend points from the associated Ka upon failure.
• Reaching Agartha isn't connected to mastering Occult Sciences, but instead the culmination of a Quest measured like Skills. All Immortals may reach Agartha by questing for it.

To summarize character creation:

• There are three steps of character creation: Sapience, Fall, and Finishes.
• Sapience is divided into four steps: Initiation, Aspect, Occult Way, and Past. Each is noted at levels A, C or M, but with bullets (• to •••). The player is free to note all steps at Master, in which case the PC is a Figure in the setting.
  • At Initiation, the player decides their PC's Ka value.
  • At Aspect, the player selects Metamorphosis.
  • At Occult Way, the player selects how skilled the PC is in his favored Occult Science. He may also note levels in one or both of the other two.
  • At Past, the player selects how many past life eras the PC remembers. He may select 1-3, and each is noted with its own level.
  • The above steps are for Nephilim. Selenim and Ar-Kaim are structured the same steps, but they differ in many ways.
• At Fall, the player selects an Injury or Enemy (flaws, basically) for each Sapience step, noted at the same level. This balances the PC's power, while giving more flexibility compared to the prior editions' tradeoff between Ka and Incarnations or distributing skills incarnation by incarnation.
• At Finishes, the player selects the invisible history intrigues that the PC was involved in, the Stasis item, the Simulacrum, and the PC's name.

I'm still translating the books, but I'm definitely going to be using 3e to inform the development of my own rules. The rules are much simpler and easier to track compared to BRP, such as magical damage to Ka bullets (no need to keep recalculating derived Ka-Elements). Additionally, I'll incorporate rules from 4e and 5e that I feel are genuine innovations and simplifications on the 3e basis, such as

• 4e's qualitative domains for occult sciences instead of 3e's multiple skills. IMO it's easier to track Circles as single skills rather than multiple: e.g. to master a Circle and start the next you need that Technique at M.
• 4e's accounting for Assets selected at character creation (e.g. artifacts, safehouses)
• 5e's accounting of Fraternities with point values
• being able to start play with some advancement in a quest from past lives a la 5e, as opposed to starting quests only during play. Although this depends on the players' experience: for new players it makes sense to restrict quests to current play.
• 5e's replacing the long lists of skills with using Past Lives "Experiences" as skills instead. Recalling these is tied into the mechanic "Mnemos Effect" (i.e. flashbacks). (Esoteric Lore skills are still listed separately in 5e. Life Experiences cover mundane minutiae.)
• 5e's more flexible "Approaches" 5e (provided by Ka, metamorphs, or Selenim aspects!) as opposed to Meta-Characteristics linked to specific characteristics in 1-3e or skills in 4e. Although I'd still use the latter as example guidelines.
• 5e's tracking all degenerations (Khaiba, Narcosis, Shouit) with points that have persistent side-effects for the PC, rather than just some of them or having effects limited to specific circumstances.
• etc.

Anyway, to summarize my current thoughts on revising the setting, using the US version as my foundation with stuff incorporated from the French:

• I'd offer Nephilim, Selenim, and Ar-Kaim as options at character creation. Each has different benefits, drawbacks, and backstories. Mixed groups are supported and preferred: ideally 2-3 Nephilim, 1-2 Selenim, and 1-2 Ar-Kaim.
  • To summarize: Nephilim have elemental occult sciences and stasis items, but Orichalc is deadly to them and they're hunted by evil secret societies like the Templars and Black Star.
  • Selenim are insensitive to Orichalc, invisible to conventional magic detection, largely unknown to the opposing secret societies, can perform black magic, and don’t age, but cannot perform elemental magic, must feed on emotions via psychic vampirism to survive, lack Stasis items by default and cannot reincarnate without certain Third Circle Spells (so a simple bullet can force the player to make a new PC).
  • Ar-Kaim are insensitive to Orichalc, can potentially cultivate any of the 8 elements in themselves (including Solar and Orichalc), have their own unique Talents and can potentially learn any of the other occult sciences if they have the requisite Ka and teaching, but their Ka is unstable as a result, they don't have Stasis items by default and they are limited to reincarnating within the bloodline/descendants of their first simulacrum (baring certain Third Circle Spells, but these have drawbacks).
• The Immortals are no longer body snatching parasites but unions of an elemental essence, which is a mindless beast at best by itself, and a human soul that provides the awareness, identity and will to competently use its magical abilities. (Inspired by Montgomery's blog posts on the subject.) Don't misunderstand: this isn't to say that the Immortals are merely awakened humans who use their magic for purely selfish reasons like in certain other games. Nephilim is fundamentally a game about revelation, spirituality and transcendence, not simple egotism. Anyway, to summarize their origins:
  • Nephilim are created when a proto-Nephilim elemental is born in a Nexus and merges with a spiritually suitable human who enters. The human's Solar-Ka provides awareness, identity and will, but also protects the Ka from the trace Orichalc in the magic fields that degrades other elementals. Every newly born/awakened Nephilim will find sanctuary among the Major Arcana, who will link their Ka to a Stasis item. The Stasis item stores the elemental Ka between incarnations, releasing the elemental when filled and allowing it to search for a new bearer. The elemental is instinctively drawn by fate to merge with a bearer whose personality and current living conditions are suitable. Outside of a bearer or Stasis item, the elemental will eventually fall into Narcosis and steadily degrade over the following centuries or millennia until it dissolves into the magic fields. (In the French version, all Nephilim are fallen Kaim who were present during The Fall of Orichalka. All Kaim were originally germs carried to Earth by a cosmic wind, so The Star was right all along!)
  • Selenim are created in one of two ways: Nephilim may become Selenim due to contamination by the Black Moon or a deliberate sundering of their Ka, and proto-Selenim born in lands of nightmares in the lower planes may hitch a ride on a passing dreamer and merge with them to create a new Selenim. The Selenim's Ka is too unstable to survive on the earthly plane for even a moment outside of a body, and they cannot enter their Stasis item if they retain one, so they cannot reincarnate as easily as Nephilim. (This is identical to French version.)
  • Ar-Kaim are born from a Nexus like a Nephilim, but only at the moment a suitable bearer enters. It's common for these bearers to be drawn to the Nexus by instinct, as though Fate was working through them. The Ar-Kaim's Ka is forever linked to their first bearer's bloodline, so they can only reincarnate in the descendants of that bloodline, leading to the oldest Ar-Kaim essences being preserved by occult dynasties. Like the Selenim, the Ka is too unstable to survive on the earthly plane for even a moment outside of a body, and they didn't develop Stasis items for themselves, but the ritual to transfer the essence to a new bearer is known to all the occult dynasties. (This is identical to French version.)
• Although the Major Arcana of the Bohemian Tradition (as I call it) are the most organized and powerful secret societies of Immortals in Europe, North America, North Africa, the Middle East and Oceania (basically everywhere that contributed to Hermeticism or was heavily colonized by Europe), they aren't the only ones in the world. As the campaign setting focuses on the modern United States, I will explore some of the other Traditions with representatives there: these include the Amerindian, the Afro-Caribbean and the Mesoamerican. The Mesoamerican Immortals in particular play a huge role in the backstory of the occult America: the Xibalbans (the Tradition behind the Aztec Empire) raised a Black Moon crescent that could've caused disaster before Cortez oversaw its destruction.
• The secret history is gonna be fuzzier. While I'm still using the timeline from GMC, I posit that the Immortals lack any reliable records of history prior to the rise and fall of Tarshish circa 10,000 BC. Tarshish will be the oldest past life available to PCs. The events prior to that are subject to myth and hearsay, and the elaborate millions of years of backstory the rulebook ham-fistedly shoved onto new players isn't necessary to understand the game. Although some whisper of civilizations predating Tarshish that built UFOs and such, most Immortals believe that Tarshish was the inspiration for the stories of Atlantis, Mu, Lemuria and so forth. Similarly, the idea that the dinosaurs were intelligent and precursors to the Selenim is considered laughable... at least until Chariot tried to create their own Jurassic Park with disastrous results!
• The cosmology is clarified and simplified of unnecessary complexity. The summoning worlds and the subtle planes are the same thing: the PCs can project into the astral and have adventures there, consulting entities for summoning research, etc. The upper planes (from where Nephilim draw most of their summons) have Elemental Ka and Solar-Ka, so elementals may be summoned from here and may even have human-like awareness. The lower planes (from where Selenim, Khaibans, and Fraternitas Saturnii draw their summons) are heavily corrupted by Black Moon and Orichalc, and have little Solar-Ka to spare, so most summons from here are beasts or rely on programming to counterfeit intelligence.
• The magic systems and so on will follow from Liber Ka/Enlightened Magic's conceits that magic is subtle and largely invisible to the uninitiated. Metamorphosis transformations and the like are now purely spiritual in nature rather than physically altering the body, but still affect the physical world the same way (e.g. an angel has spiritual wings, but these still allow him to fly!). Elementals, assuming they're not invisible to mundane senses, are perceived as the closest mundane if unusual phenomena (e.g. the Armors of Avalon are perceived as non-magical if bizarre clothing, elemental beasts are mistaken for wild animals or more mundane cryptids). If it seems odd that elementals would be perceived as other than what they are, then consider the occult concept of the "veil of Maya"; the cosmology is tied into occultism, and the spiritual blind not seeing the "clear evidence" of the spiritual is part of that.
• Likewise, the Summoning rules would be revised a la Liber Ka and Slaying the Dragon (reprinted in Enlightened Magic) for a system more authentic to Enochian magic albeit dumbed down for ease of play. It would still use the Good Ministers of the Ayres (albeit with accuracy to their names and descriptions) and have some Kabbalah influence (which corresponds to Enochian magic anyway), it wouldn't have incoherent and unnecessary complexities like the realms/thresholds (e.g. why is a ship that teleports you across the world sorted into the Realm of Violence? Make it make sense!). At least I would aim for authentic, but I don't know anything about Enochian magic.
• Stasis items can be replaced if destroyed, but destruction still has severe consequences for Nephilim. Their link to their past lives is provided by their Stasis item, so they lose the ability to recall past lives predating their current Stasis item. This means that any given Nephilim may be much older than their Stasis item suggests. (For comparison, in the French version the Nephilim died immediately if their Stasis item was broken.)
• PCs don't necessarily recall all the past lives they experienced, or all the memories of any given past life. They can forget a lot of knowledge across reincarnations and magical injuries. Since past lives are now simplified into their own skills, it is easier to gain points in their during play and recalling more details from known past lives or recalling entirely forgotten ones. (In case the "P/A/C/M" progression seems like it would make progression too fast, I still incorporate 3e's points, so it would be more like "P[1]A[1][2][3]C[1][2][3][4][5]M".)
• The Kaim were the first generations of Immortals, who had their own awareness without Solar-Ka and could create their own elemental bodies, but most were destroyed by the Fall of Orichalka circa 100,000 BC. Of those who survived, none were heard from again by the time of Christ's birth. Kaim are not available as PCs, and their very existence is speculative among the human Immortals.

And that's all I have for now. Hope you enjoyed!

Edited May 22, 2023 by MoonRightRomantic

[Ian Absentia]

On 5/22/2023 at 2:09 PM, MoonRightRomantic said:

• The Immortals are no longer body snatching parasites but unions of an elemental essence, which is a mindless beast at best by itself, and a human soul that provides the awareness, identity and will to competently use its magical abilities. (Inspired by Montgomery's blog posts on the subject.)

A theory and approach that I'll selfishly point out has been promoted for several decades now.  But who's counting? 😃

!i!

[mandrill_one]

On 4/4/2023 at 4:53 PM, MoonRightRomantic said:

I haven't translated 4e and 5e yet, but I hear that 5e further simplifies past lives by condensing them into skills and having them unrated. Instead, these "experiences" apply a bonus or penalty to relevant rolls a la FATE's Aspects. That certainly sounds like it would make recalling new past lives during play very easy to adjudicate. Under BRP that's basically impossible to do.

This is not exact: in the 5th edition, past or present "lives" ("vécus") are rated on a 1-10 scale, which is then multiplied by 10 to obtain a percentage to roll under. So, it is quite easy to devise a BRP variant, where each vécu is a "skill group" rated 1-100. Each vécu is a skill group since it includes all knowledges, abilities, skills and aptitudes that are commonly, or conceivably, associated with that vécu: e.g., a "medieval female condottiere" vécu could include abilities related to diplomacy, financial administration, accounting, sword combat, dodge, shield use, horse riding, communication skills, leadership, Italian geography, catholic religion, strategy and tactics, outdoor survival, encampment life, travel. All these skills have the same rating as the vécu itself.
If you want to enhance your success chances, you can use Ka-points, with 1 Ka-point = +10% to the vécu rating. However, this (called "approach") is risky, since it makes your metamorphosis visible and the Minor Arcana much more likely to pinpoint and find your location.
If none of your vécus can be construed as providing skills suitable for the task at hand, you can use "Sapience Points" ("wisdom points", basically experience points) for a one-off use of a skill that was until now not included in any of your vécus: you spend 1 SP for each 10% of success chance you want to buy. This is called a "Mnemos effect", because in-game you are supposed to suddenly have a reminiscence of events you didn't remember until now. Basically, you have to invent a story to explain why that specific vécu has acquired the desired skill (for example, if the needed skill was "mathematics", the condottiere came from a noble family and thus had learned mathematics from a tutor when she was young). If you spend 5 more SPs (in addition to the ones already spent to buy the success chance), this effect becomes permanent and you add this skill to your vécu's description.

Of course, in BRP you don't have experience points, so it's difficult to include the Mnemos effect in the system. 

Edited May 25, 2023 by mandrill_one
Added the description of the Mnemos effect

[MoonRightRomantic]

On 5/25/2023 at 11:33 AM, mandrill_one said:

This is not exact: in the 5th edition, past or present "lives" ("vécus") are rated on a 1-10 scale, which is then multiplied by 10 to obtain a percentage to roll under. So, it is quite easy to devise a BRP variant, where each vécu is a "skill group" rated 1-100. Each vécu is a skill group since it includes all knowledges, abilities, skills and aptitudes that are commonly, or conceivably, associated with that vécu: e.g., a "medieval female condottiere" vécu could include abilities related to diplomacy, financial administration, accounting, sword combat, dodge, shield use, horse riding, communication skills, leadership, Italian geography, catholic religion, strategy and tactics, outdoor survival, encampment life, travel. All these skills have the same rating as the vécu itself.

I wrote that before I really understood how the 5e skill system worked. Thanks for the correction and thank you very much for the house rule! I was going to retrofit the 5e skill system onto the 3e rules, not BRP, as 3e is a better fit for the setting than BRP ever was. I find it way better than 5e too, but I digress.

In 5e all traits are rated from 1–10 or so, whereas in 3e Characteristics are rated from 1–5 (noted as adjectives, translate to Not, Little, Enough, “…”, and Very) and Skills are rated P/A/C/M (Profane, Apprentice, Companion, Master). To give the sense of longer progression similar to 5e, I’d note the 3e Skill progression more explicitly, as Skills are advanced by noting points gained via practical experience (i.e. rolling a Critical Success) or study/training.

To type it out:

P [1] A [1] [2] [3] C [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] M

The first point is a month of study/training, the second and third are six months each, and the fourth and fifth are five years each. So to master any given Skill, a character must spend a decade studying and training in game time.

I’m still transcribing and translating the 3e books, so I don’t have time right now to properly convert your suggestion into that edition’s Agartha Point scale. Since I’m using the US version’s setting, I’ll need to localize the names: a vécu becomes a “Life Experience”, a Mnemos effect becomes a “Flashback”.

Good night!

[MoonRightRomantic]

On 5/24/2023 at 3:31 PM, Ian Absentia said:

A theory and approach that I'll selfishly point out has been promoted for several decades now.  But who's counting? 😃

!i!

I’m using it mostly for practical and thematic consistency reasons. The Nephilim in the original concept are quite frankly horrifically monstrous, what with experimenting on humans even before body snatching, which is fine… but the text portrays them as innocent persecuted victims!

So I ditched the body snatching to fit with the persecuted victims bit. This removes any hint of moral ambiguity from the secret societies who are enemies of Nephilim. Sure, many Nephilim are probably guilty of war crimes in one or more past lives, but nobody’s perfect.

This does raise the question as to why Rosicrucians wouldn’t just acquire Stasis items to bond with the Ka since they’d retain their consciousness, but the short answer is that there simply aren’t enough to go around (as of Major Arcana circa 1995, a century into the Great Awakening, the ratio of mortals to active Nephilim was around 300,000 to 1). Fortunately, the World Arcanum Quest exists for those who want to bring Agartha to the whole world, so if you want to play a mixed group that includes mortal Rosicrucians then that’s probably the best choice.

Edited May 27, 2023 by MoonRightRomantic

[MoonRightRomantic]

Also, another thing I’d add is more UFOlogy and Ancient Aliens stuff a la the History Channel. The US version explained that UFOs are actually leftover Atlantean magi-tech but, aside from featuring Area 51 as a plot hook, spacecraft aren’t integrated into the secret history at all. Which is just strange to me, considering all the UFOlogy buffs saying various historical events involved alien spacecraft.

So I’d have Atlantean (and non-Atlantean) spacecraft make appearances in the secret history, past and present. Maybe have outposts in other parts of the Solar System. Annunaki living on Nibiru, stargates, pyramid ships, spacefaring dinosaurs, panspermia, that sort of thing.

E.g. an adventure hook is that the PCs discovered a buried but functional pyramid warship, but someone knowledgeable hijacked it while they were investigating. They have to deactivate it before the thief uses its onboard weapons to conquer the world. The US government shoots an Orichalc nuke at it, but its shields effortlessly block the explosion. It turns out it was build by space vampires using a Black Moon power source!