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For many years as a GM, I have focus on tightly-plotted campaigns. There is a main villain who initiate the chain of events, and the adventurers respond to them. My storyline include tragic lovers, a crazy mother, a twisted version of Santa Claus and even a temporal time-loop. However, for my Nobilis game (now in its second session), I decided to try a sand-box approach.

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For ages, I have been trying to get a group for Nobilis (I finally got one by asking on a FLGS forum – the last place I thought off. It’s my fault, really – I thought they were all just into D&D and Warhammer 40k). The group more or less understood the game, so I don’t have a hard time pitching them to play Nobilis. Throughout the process of creating characters, chancel and all that, I finally realised what I have been doing wrong when introducing the game to my other role-playing friends.

Usually, I begin with, “Would you want to play a game where you are a god-being? You represent a concept, say guns, and you can like do anything with guns.” The usual reply is “Heck, if I am so powerful, then where’s the challenge?”

There’s a couple of mistakes here; one reason may be due to I have been reading the GWB rather carelessly. First, the players are not god-beings. In fact, when pitching the games to others, I will suggest not trying to explain what’s a noble is. Remember, back when I mention HCI, people always try to frame new things with their own experiences. So to sell Nobilis, go for what they may already be familiar with.

“You play as an avatar which represents a component of creation”. Now this sounds easier to swallow.

(Though I have to say that people who read Sandman and other related novels, especially the series suggested in the GWB, will have less problems)

However, thinking through things, I think it is better to sell the world.

“Oh, Nobilis is a game in which everything and anything has a spirit and are semi-intelligence. You play as an avatar of a concept, or anything, in creation and you have to make sure it survives. You are being empowered by one of the many gods in creaton so in a sense you are superhuman. There are also others like you too around.”

I’m not sure if this sells better, but I am going to try this if I need a second group to play Nobilis.

Within Mythic Earth, four winds blow, from the chancel of four Wildlords. Each of the wind represents an aspect of freedom for the mortal-folk and for the spirits that make up creation.

The frigid wind from the north whispers of rumours, gossips and half-truth stories, and the ships it usually carried are the chancels of Imperators dealing with misinformation, lies, conspiracies, satirical art and politics. From the south comes a scorching wind, and it screams of primal rage, uncontrolled anger, bitter criticisms and damning accusations. Ships bore forth by the South Wind are usually chancels of quarrels, untempered violence, disharmony, primal urges and never-ending feuds.

The wind from the east is much more soothing. It talks of the wild unknown, the untasted fruits and urge the desire to go for those things. Its wind bore forth ships which are the chancel of Imperators whose domain could be summed up as exploration, curiosity, tabloids and being unrestrained.

And finally there is a wind from west. It is a wind of contridaction, urging reality to be unmade and then redefined (again and again), of changes and of being freed, even if freed from creation. Upon this wind sail a chancel, where its estates are that of escapism, games, abstraction, physics, war and the freedom to choose.

Freedom to choose is a contraction, for one must be free to choose, but once chosen, you are not free. Physics is a foundation of reality – it sails upon this ship so precisely it could be unmade and redefined – and each time it does so, mortal folk think they understand Physics more. Poor souls – it just have been remade by the whims of the Wild Lord. Escapism and abstraction urge the mundane to be freed from Creation, to go beyond the Weridling Wall, where the Wild Lords once came from and now are trapped. War is a choice due to conflict and it was said it is the result of the other three winds mixing together. Men go to wars for al sort of absurd reasons, but the thing is they chose to war.

Other chancels that sail upon this wind include Imperators who govern dreams (dreams are unreal, yet they are the mirror of a human’s soul), madness (for they have escaped from the mundane way of thinking), philosophy (one may say anything about reality yet none can disprove him), paradox, jail-breaks and chaos.

When Hogshead (and Guardians of Order later) went down, so did a couple of Nobilis resources (or maybe my google-fu is too weak to locate them). So I have uploaded here (and please do tell me if I should need to take them down) for the players of my upcoming games, as well as any others who may need it.

Finally, one of my dreams is coming true – I may be able to GM a game of Nobilis!

I have the Big White Book for years, but never had a chance to form a group to play it. I am excited, but at the same time, afraid. The rules are lite enough but the fluff is thick. There’s so many concepts to impart to a new player without the rules, and the game is not a ‘you stroll into the inn and the bartender tells you about a horde of Orc plaguing the area”.

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