so i came across a game called nobilis. Does anyone play this?

continuing original thread: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/7703790/so-i-came-across-a-game-called-nobilis-does-anyone-play-this" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/7703790/so-i-came-across-a-game-called-nobilis-does-anyone-play-this</a> Nex Permalink Quote Report pretty much the title. id potentially want to try it but i saw basically no results for it anywhere as if its been completely forgotten&nbsp; August 20 (2 months ago) Shroud Pro Permalink Quote Report first written 20 years ago, not really&nbsp;popular, though it won awards. offputting is the diceless tasks resolution.&nbsp; I have never seen a game of it, here, never ran or played a game of it, not heard of it being run anywhere. Guardians of Order ceased operations in 2006, with an announcement that they would attempt to find other publishers for their games. Might google Nobilis, and find the remnants of a niche gaming community. August 21 (2 months ago) Nex Permalink Quote Report Shroud said: first written 20 years ago, not really&nbsp;popular, though it won awards. offputting is the diceless tasks resolution.&nbsp; I have never seen a game of it, here, never ran or played a game of it, not heard of it being run anywhere. Guardians of Order ceased operations in 2006, with an announcement that they would attempt to find other publishers for their games. Might google Nobilis, and find the remnants of a niche gaming community. Yeah i looked up a bit more and i suppose im kinda confused by the results. The game is really obscure it seems and yet basically every comment ive heart about it has been pretty positive, with several people saying its one of the better/best games they have played. I would run it but it seems like the type of game i would have to try out possibly as a player before i ever attempted to gm August 22 (2 months ago) Edited August 22 (2 months ago) Rerednaw Plus Permalink Quote Report I've heard of Nobilis but the following is pretty tiny.&nbsp; I suppose if you are looking for diceless narrative roleplay you may wish to consider&nbsp;Amber / Lords of Gossamer &amp; Shadow.&nbsp; There is a fairly active community.&nbsp;&nbsp; August 22 (2 months ago) Nex Permalink Quote Report Rerednaw said: I've heard of Nobilis but the following is pretty tiny.&nbsp; I suppose if you are looking for diceless narrative roleplay you may wish to consider&nbsp;Amber / Lords of Gossamer &amp; Shadow.&nbsp; There is a fairly active community.&nbsp;&nbsp; maybe but its more so nobilis' specific concept, not the dice-less aspect, that seems interesting to me Nobilis is my absolute favorite game. Far from forgotten, but definitely obscure. I don't think missing @Nex's post by two weeks should deprive them of this info. Guardians of Order took over the 2nd edition from Hogshead. Copies are pretty much gone except for expensive used copies. It's a shame since the book is legendary for it's beauty. It's also the absolute best available for guidance on how to actually run the game. When I get stuck thinking of ideas (which is easy when reading the scattered and surreal 3rd edition), I go back to this book and immediately find grounding. Although, even when this came out, the game had a hard time reaching people. Most found it too metaphorical/metaphysical. At the time, it really challenged the status quo (even among the nascent story game communities) by asking stories to be character driven, with the god-like powers and open-ended capabilities only being window dressing rather than conflict resolution. You have starting characters who can literally reshape reality on a whim (at least once per story) and shrug off nuclear weapons with a bit of bed rest. No other game at the time (and few still) gave players such power as story elements (a few games were starting to play with giving players narrative control, but they were much more explicit and contained). It feels like a nightmare to most GMs, and either takes an already poetic mindset or a lot of work to wrap one's brain around the balance of literally unlimited and often paradoxical and rationally impossible metaphysical ideas with the concrete rules. EOS Press published the 3rd edition, with much improved rules (much much poorer organization, editing, and almost no help in how to run a game). Although EOS press went defunct as well, a digital copy is still available: <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/89003/Nobilis-The-Essentials-Volume-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/89003/Nobilis-The-Essentials-Volume-1</a> There just may be a Nobilis curse on publishers. 3rd edition is the one to get. But it's not going to be easy to pick up a play. A GM going by GoldenH has run some streaming games that might help. He has a link to the first episode on the second page, and you can find the second episode from his twitch. Jenna Moran (formerly R Sean Borgstrom) still actively works on and pursues Nobilis material. There are rumors of an impending new game called Glitch, focused on playing Excrucians (the enemies of Nobilis).&nbsp; You can follow her work on her Tumblr and Patreon . 3rd edition refined the player stats, giving clarity and making some changes (older stats looked like a couple of dump stats, but were secretly quite powerful, it was a little clunky and lopsided). The rules around these stats, I think, make it easier to run as well. There's also a solid breakdown of running scenes, actions, and conflict. Unfortunately, guidance on stories for campaigns is hard to come by, unlike 2nd edition which has a length example of play and clear breakdowns on potential stories with dozens and dozens of ideas clearly laid out. One reason for this may be that Jenna wanted to put story drives more into player hands. There is better support here, including a mind-map/brainstorm style system for setting up stories with some basic structure, mostly goals and themes, with room for improvisation, surprise, growth, and change. It's really good IF you have inklings of where to start (or helped greatly by players familiar and somewhat comfortable with the setting, which is a tall order). Along with this is a better system for character growth and improvement, something that felt tacked on in 2nd edition. But the biggest problem is really the book's organization. It's plain difficult to look things up. Even solid, related rules can be broken up by pages of advice and discussion. Much of the book is setting description, done in a way that blurs the lines between in-game fiction, examples, and advice (in truth, they're often all three, which is fun to read, but bad -- at least for me -- when trying to get inspiration to start up a new game). All that said. The core of the game is the same. You play Nobilis, "Nobles" or "Powers" of creation, given a piece of reality, like Storms, Computers, Cold, Frogs, Hatred, Garbage, or Ambivalence and turned into a God-like being (not little g, but like the primal Creative and Destructive Force). Your Imperator rules your soul, has given you your power, along with that of your fellow players, to protect your shards of Creation. The details are often up to you, but usually this means nuturing and shaping the concept in whichever way you (the player) sees fit and protecting it from Excrucian attacks, beings from outside Creation who want nothing less than to erase Creation from existence. The Imperators fight this war directly, but you deal with agents that slip past them to attack Earth or other places within Creation itself. One of the delightful things about the game, other than the horror and wonder of possibilities, and the Sandman mixed with Hellraiser vibe of the setting, is how character driven it is. As difficult and daunting it can be to start a new game, trying to hew something interesting out of literally limitless possibilities, once you get going, the game practically runs itself. Every consequential action of every player is a potential seed of a new story hook. Does someone start a fire downtown? Perhaps the Power of Fire or the Noble of Skyscrapers will have some issue with that later. Same goes if they put out a fire! Everything in the game is a potential character, so you can easily and almost effortlessly follow players interests. There's also rumors of a future edition. I'm not going to hold my breath, it seems like Jenna's not running towards it, but I will wait in line to get it. It's a game unlike any other. I highly recommend it, even with the more difficult to grok 3rd edition being the only thing reasonably available.

Oh s**t! The 2nd edition is available on DriveThruRPG !&nbsp; Unless you've got $40 worth of interest, that's a tough choice between the two.I can say it's easily worth getting both, but my bias is clear. Which one if you're just trying to figure out if it's for you?&nbsp; Even though the art, look, layout, organization of the 3rd isn't very good (and there's reasons for that mostly to do with poor behavior from the now defunct publisher and a plagiarizing artist discovered at the last minute) I lean towards it. It will give you a better sense of the setting, a closer picture to the design vision as it currently stands, and you'll have the tools at hand if you get a change to play the game. If you are sold, if you are intrigued, if you feel the fire that you want to become a Hollyhock God (the term for GM used by the game) yourself, but you aren't sure how to start a story, then getting the 2nd edition will probably seem like a good purchase. If on the other hand, you're interested in a more historical experience, you want to start with a more beautiful experience, and a clearer picture of the paths possible with the game, knowing that some of the path and beauty will turn out to be a lie, then let the 2nd edition be your introduction. Or, if you're just looking for the practical, down-to-earth, no-bones, objective deal. The page count is slightly lower (~303 to ~363), but the 2nd edition has a smaller font, wider pages, and fewer large art pieces (and many more pages with no art at all). I'm not sure that should decide anything, but some people are in such devoted service to the Duchess of Practicality that no other consideration would make sense. Then, if you are moved to run a game, or to play a game and you want a copy of the rules the HG will use, then you can return for the 3rd edition for the superior rules, better story-progression tools, and broader, deeper character choices. You might also wait a few more years for the 4th edition, which is likely to have even better rules improvements, without as much change to the setting (and hopefully a return of the guidance and tools for starting up new campaigns and stories).

I have fond memories of finding nobilis and reading through the schizophrenic ideas, characters, and such.&nbsp; Literally has a supreme edgelord as the ruler of the setting, " Lord Entropy, Imperator of Desecration, Destruction and Scorn "