The setting is actually pretty ludicrous when you think about it

[MoonRightRomantic]

I know the serious tone and mystical sounding jargon can obscure it, but when you try to describe the setting to someone who knows nothing about it then it sounds absolutely ludicrous. Especially when you include the French stuff that wasn't translated into English.

For example:

• The dinosaurs were intelligent, built their own civilization, placed a second moon in orbit, and invented vampirism.
• Jesus Christ invented a magic system that, at least in the French version, lets you summon Shai-Hulud. Yes, the giant sandworm from Dune. (The French version has several such references.)
• The player characters are wizards, immortals, Atlanteans, and a Paracelsan elementals all in one. In the French version, they're confirmed to be alien souls brought to the Solar system by cosmic winds. So they're thetans too!
• One adventure has three Aztec vampires summon a tyrannosaurus' ghost into a wickerman to stop the Knights Templar from taking over the world.
• In the French version, Alister Crowley was the reincarnation of Akhenaton and a tyrannosaurus.
• In the French version, Morpheus (the Greek god) has a palace on the Moon where he makes dreams for humanity. That is by far the least bizarre entry on this list imo.

You remember any other crazy details?

 

[Ian Absentia]

Well, shucks, when you put it that way...

It's always worth pointing out that the French had a sense of humor about their games, much like early Chaosium had a sense of humor about theirs.

!i!

[MoonRightRomantic]

Unfortunately the language barrier makes it difficult to tell what is supposed to be comedic and what isn't. The sheer surrealism of many concepts, delivered in what seems like a completely straight tone, makes this even more difficult.

[Mugen]

On 4/25/2023 at 4:27 PM, MoonRightRomantic said:

Unfortunately the language barrier makes it difficult to tell what is supposed to be comedic and what isn't. The sheer surrealism of many concepts, delivered in what seems like a completely straight tone, makes this even more difficult.

As a native French speaker, I never felt that anything in Nephilim was supposed to be comedic, even the most ridiculous points in your list. Nephilim just live in a world where occult and all "pseudo-scientific" theories are real. The game was heavily influenced by the book Foucault Pendulum,

Spoiler

where people create theories from crap, but discover everything they imagined is true.

On the other hand, in the French version of In Nomine, the humor is obvious. Its background also includes intelligent dinosaurs, and a first attempt from God to send a messiah to them named... Denver.