Nobilis: A Game of Gifts
Josh wrote a lovely description of Nobilis:
You're playing demigods -- humans (or others) given great power and guardianship of one of the Roots of the World (your Estate -- something like "blankets" or "blueness" or "speed" or "inspiration" or "dolphins") by an Imperator -- one of the great powers: an angel, dragon, demon, being of pure light or darkness, True God, or other somesuch being. Your allies are your familia -- others ennobled by your imperator, and charged with guarding the place that holds your lord's heart -- your chancel. Your powers are far, far beyond those of mortals, and always work. All Nobles are able to perform miracles. Some can calculate faster than a computer or shoot down the sun with an arrow; some can use their estate in any way they chose, from knowing things about their domain to creating elements to changing the very nature of their estate across the cosmos; others can treat their chancel as if everything and everyone in it were part of their estate and they had near-absolute power over them; and still others are personally nigh-invulnerable and capable of operating through a great number of mortals, inspiring them to great feats while remaining personally inviolate, and even, through multiple mortal "anchors", acting in multiple places at a time.
Your enemies are other nobles, who scheming for power, acting in anger or pique, or acting from age-old feuds, wish to harm you or your familia--but the enemies of all are the Excrucians, the beautiful forces of uncreation, who do not intrigue (much), but attack the very roots of creation.
Your hazards -- in addition to all of the above, are the arcane laws that have been set forth for the Nobilis -- requiring them to avoid love, repay any insult, and numberous other impossible things besides.
That is the life of the Nobilis.
GMs: Jessica Hammer and Chris Hall
Players:
Me: Anne Butler, the Power of Decay
Josh: Monet's Impression of a Sunrise, aka Adam, the Power of Inspiration. He can take human form.
Tom: Kyriel, a dragon, the Power of Dawn. In human form, he looks like a child.
Travis Scott: Victoria Jarrell, the Power of Memoria
Kira Scott: Claudia Tentori, the Power of Fame
Jim: Mason Horn, the Power of the Wind
David: Only played for a few minutes. As he had generics and was only able to stay for an hour, and the gms were out of PCs, they suggested he play Steven Gift, the Power of Gifts. His job was to be rude and make trouble for the PCs. For some people, that would have worked, but he wasn't comfortable with this. It occurs to me that making him one of the opposing nobles might have worked, since the gms could then use other NPCs to make in character suggestions, but I'm not sure if that would have worked either, at least, not for this particular player.
The six PCs were a Familia all living together in the chancel known as the Hotel Mountain Laurel. It was a hotel, a huge one that could travel just about anywhere and change its appearance. Humans stayed there and just didn't notice the weirdness, but mostly, it was for strange folks like centaurs, dryads, and other nobles. The price to stay is a gift, and the hotel's vaults overflow with gifts. It's sort of like the bathhouse in the movie Spirited Away if there were no human protagonists.
The Imperator was known as The Fountain, and took the shape of a fountain. It communicated with its Familia by showing images on the water. Naturally, these images could be interpreted in multiple ways.
On this day, a very important guest had arrived, the Power of Gifts, calling himself Steven Gift. The hotel staff called Claudia Tentori, asking her to meet him, but she wanted to finish her martini and her soak in the hot tub first. They called Victoria, but she didn't want to come out of the library. Then, they called Kyriel.
Staff: It's very unusual for a Power to arrive and no one is there to meet him.
Kyriel: Oh, there's a Power here? I'll go meet him!
The staff was relieved. Shortly after Kyriel introduced himself, Claudia deigned to arrive. Gift was not impressed.
Claudia: But, surely, you must have heard of me?
Indeed, this is one of her powers as Fame. However, while powers work just fine on mere mortals, they do not work on all nobles. Steven Gift had not heard of her.
Meanwhile, a couple of problems were popping up.
Staff: Miss Tentori! The mermaids have leaked!
Claudia: What, again? I thought you fixed that problem last week!
She went up to the fourteenth floor to speak to the mermaids. They explained without ever drawing breath that they needed water to live, and without it, they wouldn't be very happy and they would die, and they wouldn't like that.
Jessica: You notice that, while they need water to live, they don't apparently need air to talk.
By the pool, a young giant had picked up one of the hotel guests. Mason talked to the giant to find out what was going on.
Mason: Room service? You want something like that sent to your room? (Giant nods) Can I -see- the guest, so that I can get you exactly what you want?
The giant put the guest down. Anne decayed the guest's unpleasant memory and, with difficulty, prevailed upon Victoria to come out of the library and give the guest a new memory.
Victoria: Isn't this what we have the staff for? Aren't they supposed to help us?
Mason: We're supposed to help them.
Victoria: Then, why are we paying them?
Nevertheless, she gave the guest a memory of enjoying a martini by the pool, and told him to have 7 or 8 more, creating the memory of his doing exactly that. She also created a memory for the giant of having enjoyed his food and being very full and very sleepy. I think Mason may have gotten the giant off the cloud where the hotel was currently located, but I'm not sure.
Steven Gift told the other nobles that he was there to officiate a contest between them and another group of nobles. Each side would give the other gifts, starting with a rose, the gift considered to be of the smallest possible acceptable value. The other side would then have to give a gift of greater value. This would go on until one side conceded that it could not give a greater gift than it had just received.
The opposing nobles arrived. They were:
Kalashnikov, Power of Guns, a fifteen foot tall robot bristling with guns. Claudia winced, but the hotel generally shaped itself to fit his size.
Ryu (which we pronounced RAI-oo), Power of Wealth, a Dragon, like Kyriel, but older
Arachne, Power of Spiders, clearly the mastermind of this group. She greeted Steven with a kiss, and they seemed to get along quite well.
All were from the same Familia with the same Imperator. Arachne said that the game would not be necessary if the other Familia would give to them one of the items in their vaults, a silver lighter with "KS" scratched on one side of it and an image of a fern on the other.
Kyriel wanted to play the game, and the rest of his Familia agreed, deciding that the lighter was a separate issue. Arachne presented the rose that opened the combat, or, more precisely, her spiders did, spiders so tiny that it was almost as if the rose was floating of its own accord.
Steven and the rival Familia retired. The Fountain's Familia pondered its next move.
Claudia: Victoria, please speak!
Victoria: Speak what?
Claudia: Say your mind.
Victoria: Don't put me on the spot!
Claudia: Everyone turn away from Victoria.
Some research, e.g., Victoria searching through memories, located the lighter, which was indeed in the hotel's vaults, though no one wanted to just hand it over. The lighter was a gift from a dryad who had stayed at the hotel a little while ago.
Mason gathered the wind spirits and asked them to push the hotel over to where the dryad lived. The wind spirits really liked him, so they were delighted to help.
Wind Spirit: Okay, let's push with Mason!
Another Wind Spirit: Push hard!
Chorus of Wind Spirits: Mason, Mason, he's the one! He makes pushing so much fun!
Meanwhile, Victoria sifted through memories about the lighter, a nerve wracking experience for the shy librarian.
Victoria: I know everything everyone's ever remembered, and I cannot forget! So please do not bring some things to mind.
Victoria had the memory of a soldier in the trenches during World War I, wishing, as he carved his initials on the lighter and carefully lit a cigarette with it, to get away from it all. He and his fellow soldiers charged toward the enemy, and the top of his head was blown off by flying bullets.
Then, she had a memory of two Neanderthals, one of whom somehow had this same lighter. The other beat him over the head with a club, killing him.
The nobles wondered whether anyone who had the lighter would get killed by being shot, stabbed, clubbed, or otherwise attacked in the head, and Anne wondered whether the lighter granted the user's wishes. After all, the soldier who wanted to get away from the war did just that, by dying. Claudia, who had the lighter, was more than a little nervous.
And, indeed, as Claudia opened the door from the hotel kitchen, she was shot in the head by a guest who had gotten the sudden urge to clean and load his gun in the hallway outside. He was horrified when the gun went off by accident.
Being a noble, and having other nobles with various talents around, Claudia quickly recovered, and Anne decayed the guest's memory of just how bad Claudia's wound was. In this, she was no doubt aided by the guest not wanting to believe he'd almost killed someone.
I think Victoria may have helped as well. She snapped her fingers at the staff, who were utterly terrified of the shy woman.
Jessica: You snap at them and put the memory of what you told them so you don't have to speak to them.
But why was the elegant Claudia in the kitchen to begin with? Glad you asked.
Claudia and her Familia had discussed the gift they should give their opponents. Remembering a catty comment that Arachne had made about the hotel piano, Anne suggested giving that to them. Claudia approved, and the two women were, for once, in agreement. But, ultimately, everyone decided to give their opponents a High Tea instead, making sandwiches out of insects and the like for Arachne. Claudia confirmed that Kyriel had no objection to dragonflies being served as food.
Claudia: What do you eat, Kyriel? I've never watched you.
Kyriel: I don't usually eat.
Victoria: Good, we're out of virgin anyway, what with Adam around!
Adam: Hey, I don't sleep with everyone. Just the interesting ones.
Meanwhile, Anne decided to decay the mystery of the lighter. The gms thought about this, and said that this wouldn't provide any immediate answers, but twice, it would make it easier for someone specifically searching for information on the lighter to find it.
The Familia was a little late getting to the next round of the game, but got off with mere scornful looks and words. The other nobles accepted the gift of High Tea, and Anne's power caused Arachne to slip and react when she saw that Claudia had the lighter.
Looking at Steven, the Mountain Laurel nobles spotted a spider leg winding through his hear. On taking a closer look, they saw that a huge spider had fastened itself to his neck. Clearly, their opponents had been tampering with the judge of the competition! And here, we took a brief break.
When we came back, the Familia decided that any interference with the judge it did was amply balanced by what their opponents had done. Victoria decided to read the spider's memories.
Victoria: What does the spider know?
GM: Go. Bite. Cling. Grow. Grow strong. Feed. Breed.
Anne decayed not the spider itself -- it was useful as evidence! -- but the spider's effectiveness. It fell from Steven Gift's neck, and he was surprised and displeased to learn what had been going on.
The nobles also learned that the spider had indeed laid its eggs in Steven, and that other spiders had laid eggs all over the hotel. Anne wondered if she should decay all of the eggs, but someone suggested that Arachne might claim that they were a gift.
Steven: Well, if they were very rare spiders... I'd have to say it would be a more valuable gift than tea.
Someone: If they're a gift, then an even more valuable gift would be a meal made of rare spider eggs.
We decided to hold off. Meanwhile, Kyriel offered to remove the spider eggs from inside Steven.
Steven: The four year old will do surgery?
Kyriel: I'm six.
On weighing his options, Steven Gift decided to let the six-year-old operate.
Anne: So, do you want me to decay the eggs as you take them out?
Kyriel: Oh, I was going to eat them.
Anne: So, they won't, like, hatch inside him?
Kyriel: Since I roasted them on the way down, I don't think so.
Jessica: So, while you were doing brain surgery --
Someone: Neck surgery --
Kyriel: Well, neck and brain surgery -- the brain stem.
Steven Gift went off to see if Arachne and her Familia wanted to bribe him properly to overlook their breach of manners.
Meanwhile, Mason was using his power over wind to bring the words of the rival nobles to his ears. While Ryu seemed uninterested in the lighter, Arachne and Kalashnikov were concerned. Why, if Claudia had the lighter and was not dead, she could wish them all into non-existence!
The Mountain Laurel nobles considered this, but thought it would be rude.
Anne: We could just wish them to be nicer.
Adam: They might still want to kill us, just nicer.
Kyriel: If they're nicer, they might be more generous and give us better gifts.
This would, of course, make it harder to win the contest.
Quote whose context I forget:
Claudia: Well... Victoria, smells like a job for you.
The Familia went to talk to The Fountain. This necessitated journeying to the heart of the chancel, into a downed plane, the one that Claudia, Mason, Anne, and Victoria had been on as passengers. Adam had been in the cargo hold. The plane had never reached its destination.
For a hundred and one days, it sat there, the sun whizzing by at blinding speed. Each day, one of the frozen passengers decayed into dust, the rest not knowing whether they would be next. The survivors and the painting, joined by Kyriel the dragon, became the Familia of the Imperator known as The Fountain. Going down into the plane was a surreal and somewhat frightening experience, bringing back old memories.
Anne used her second shot to make The Fountain more helpful and less ambiguous. The Fountain showed them what the rival Familia wanted: A mushroom cloud. A nuclear holocaust destroying life on Earth. A series of nested boxes, each larger than the one outside, and inside, Claudia's dead body.
Claudia: Why do they want to kill me so badly?
Victoria: Maybe they saw one of your movies.
GM: You remember what everyone who saw it --
Victoria: And I can't get it out of my head!
The staff approached Kyriel with a problem: A little girl seemed to have vanished. After talking to her parents to pick up her scent, and making them think he was a very odd boy, but perhaps he could find their daughter, Kyriel traced her to the pool, and found her scent and the giant's scent, but no sign of either. Uh oh.
He set off, flying, briefing Mason en route, as Mason was guiding the wind spirits to move the hotel to where the dryad who had given the Familia the lighter might be found.
Wind spirit: You've been caught by Mason, Kyriel. Your turn!
Kyriel found the giant some distance away from the hotel, holding the little girl like a rag doll. He managed to separate her from him. The giant woke up hungry, and Kyriel was able to supply some roasted animal for him. But, the giant was sad, because he wanted, well, a smaller giant.
Kyriel: Baby giant? That's harder to do. (to Mason) You have fun with that! (flies off with the little girl)
I forget how Mason satisfied the giant. Jessica emailed: "I believe Mason explained to the giant where little giants actually come from. The giant was very intrigued. Then Mason flew away very fast. :)"
Kyriel returned to the hotel, and set the girl's broken bones, while Anne decayed unpleasant memories and diseased tissue, and Victoria arranged that the girl would be found in the kitchen, having snuck in for some ice cream, and just missed by everyone. This is what the girl remembered, so it clearly was what happened.
Meanwhile, Mason and his wind spirits flew over the water.
Wind Spirit: Rain of fish!
Other Wind Spirit: I'll waft them -this- way!
First Wind Spirit: No, I'll waft them -this- way!
Jessica: This is why most rains of fishes don't get very far.
Finally, they arrived at the dryad's tree. She was terrified by the wind storm overhead, and she begged Mason not to uproot her. She had cousins in the American midwest, and she knew what had happened to their trees. She confirmed that she had given the lighter as a gift when she stayed at the hotel. She found it by her tree. Mason took the wind spirits away, leaving her in peace.
By the time the Familia was reassembled, it was time for the next round. Steven Gift was now covered in diamonds, having been most thoroughly bribed. Ryu, the Power of Wealth, boasted that he had a gift that would be hard to top: The most valuable object in the world. He handed Claudia a penny.
Claudia: -This- is the most valuable object in the world?
Ryu: Yes. I just made it the most valuable object. And, even if you create something new, it doesn't matter -- this is still the most valuable object in the world.
Kyriel: Oh, that's easy to top.
Ryu (startled, but recovering quickly): I like your style, kid! You might make a real dragon someday!
Steven: So, is the gift accepted?
Kyriel: Yes!
The two Familiae parted, to meet again in an hour for the next round. Since the spider eggs hidden throughout the hotel were clearly not a gift, Anne caused them to decay. After the session, Jessica and Chris explained that the eggs were merely intended to hatch spiders that could spy on the Mountain Laurel Familia, just as that Famila was using Mason's power over the wind to spy on Arachne's Familia.
The Mountain Laurel Familia discussed what to give their opponents next. The penny was the most valuable object on Earth, but what about something not on Earth? Perhaps the birth of a new star? This was considered, but ultimately, Adam's suggestion prevailed: He would create a painting to inspire Immortal Love.
Claudia: I was in a movie where I painted once.
Victoria: Oh, -that- one!
Claudia: It was more of a performance piece.
Claudia (or her player) was out of the room when Steven Gift came in.
Steven: They bribed me to start the next round in three minutes.
The Familia debated counter-bribing, but then decided just to bribe him to pronounce them the winners. He asked what they would bribe him with.
Kyriel: We have the most valuable thing in the world.
Steven: You want to bribe me with the most valuable -- Payment in advance!
Claudia returned, and, while reluctant, she agreed to part with the penny. Steven told them to make it look good. Adam explained his idea for the painting that would inspire Immortal Love.
Adam: Ann, I need you for the immortal part.
Anne: Why?
Adam: Destroy the decay of that love!
In other words, by decaying its mortality, Anne would make the love immortal.
Here, as throughout, the gms considered it their job to say "Yes", or "Yes, but," or, as in this case, "Yes, and it will cost you this number of miracle points".
Steven: Okay, fine, good -- you're giving them a most powerful weapon.
Anne: The face that launched a thousand ships --
Mason: Had nothing on this! We discussed what the painting was to be called. The first suggestion was "Monet's Impression of a Sunset", but we modified that to "Monet's Impression of a Sunrise's Impression of a Sunset".
Jessica: You realize this painting will be your mate -- and in the hands of your enemies.
The painting would not only affect mortals, but also nobles with a Spirit score of 1 or less (Spirit being somewhat akin to Amber's Psyche). I believe that this meant that everyone in the Mountain Laurel Familia except for Adam and Kyriel was vulnerable to the painting. (This was entirely our own fault, as we'd assigned the scores to our own stats.) The Familia stood behind the painting when presenting it.
Arachne and Kalashnikov were unaffected by the painting. Ryu took one look at it and was instantly smitten with Claudia. In other words, Wealth had fallen in love with Fame.
Steven: I don't think you have anything that will top this.
Ryu agreed.
Anne: Why don't we get a nice room for the two of you?
Claudia: A room? What kind of lady do you think I am? Let's go to the hot tub!
(Exeunt Claudia and Ryu)
(Arachne glares at her rivals)
Anne: You don't like it?
(Arachne spins the painting around)
This was an excellent move on her part, but Kyriel moved quickly to shield his more vulnerable Familia members. Thwarted, Arachne turned into a mass of spiders that carried the painting away. Kalshnikov joined her.
Ryu, as Kyriel had hoped, joined the Mountain Laurel Familia.
Someone: We just won Wealth!
Ryu, Power of Wealth: Honestly, I never really liked my Familia.
Someone: Allow me to introduce you to our Imperator!
GM: And we end with the seven of you sitting around a table laughing about how you averted nuclear war and arguing over what Claudia should wish for.
Ryu never really wanted nuclear war, but the rest of his Familia did, because their Imperator wanted it. To Arachne, it was just a job, but Kalashnikov very much wanted things to go kaboom, iirc.
Jessica and Chris said that they'd be happy to send all of us a copy of the scenario, and that it wouldn't be much trouble to stat up the NPCs. There's no set way of winning, and no set order of gifts. Indeed, whichever GM played Ryu when he said that his gift would be hard to top had a brief moment of wondering exactly what Ryu was about to give.
Another group made Steven Gift judge in their favor by discovering his True Name: Rumplestilskin.
The game worked very well. All of the characters were cool. There was a Dragon PC, and everyone did not instantly jockey to play him, because ALL of the characters were just that cool. Each PC had not only an interesting portfolio, but also enough of a personality to be more than just an archetype. The characters were a good compromise between totally pregenerated characters and characters created on the spot, as the gms taught enough of the rules that players could assign points to the four stats and choose special abilities. Better still, suggested special abilities were listed, along with costs and descriptions.
All of the players were pushy -- and we were all about the same degree of pushy, so it worked out. Having two gms also helped a lot. Among other things, it meant less waiting time when more than one person had a gm question or when different players wanted their PCs to interact with different NPCs. Jessica and Chris said that having two gms is more than twice as good as having one.
I am not sure if this is always, or even often, the case in tabletop games. However, Jessica and Chris had an excellent rapport. They traded off NPCs frequently, but I could always tell at once who was playing whom. For example, Arachne spoke softly, but always had an air of menace. Ryu was boisterous. Steven was blunt, and, when under Arachne's control, rude to the Mountain Laurel Familia.
Steven Gift had been very favorably impressed by the Familia.
Steven: You give good bribes. I'm raising the bar on that.
This meant that the next time the Familia needed him to judge something, it would be harder to bribe him. On the other hand, as his standards were higher, and he already owned the most valuable object in the world, it would also be harder for other people to bribe him.
