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| - A high concept role-playing game designed by J. K. Moran (a.k.a. Borgstrom).
- Created by Rebecca Sean Borgstrom (now Jenna Katerin Moran), also creator of Hitherby Dragons, Nobilis takes the standard Tabletop RPG and turns it up to 11: your character is an Anthropomorphic Personification of any concept, from Clocks to Lies, with enough power from the very beginning to conquer a nation, move the stars in their alignments, or even destroy the world... not that destroying the world is generally very useful. In order of cosmic significance, the game involves: and
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| abstract
| - A high concept role-playing game designed by J. K. Moran (a.k.a. Borgstrom).
- Created by Rebecca Sean Borgstrom (now Jenna Katerin Moran), also creator of Hitherby Dragons, Nobilis takes the standard Tabletop RPG and turns it up to 11: your character is an Anthropomorphic Personification of any concept, from Clocks to Lies, with enough power from the very beginning to conquer a nation, move the stars in their alignments, or even destroy the world... not that destroying the world is generally very useful. In order of cosmic significance, the game involves:
* Imperators (a.k.a.Ymerae), an assortment of angels (fallen and otherwise), Aaron's Serpents (really big snakes) True Gods and others commanded by Lord Entropy fighting the Valde Bellum, a Forever War for reality. Though some would have no problem destroying all of Humanity (or worse), no one wants the universe to die. This is complicated by the matter that Lord Entropy is a huge jerk.
* Nobles (a.k.a. Sovereigns or Powers) entrusted with one or two Estates or aspects of reality, let's say the Duchess of Gorillas or the Regent of Breakfast Cereal or the Marquis of Oceans. (The Player Characters play these.)
* Anchors, mortals metaphysically chained and linked to Nobles who had established a link of hate or love with them. So they may range from a despised Butt Monkey to a beloved ally.
* In first and second edition, at least. In third edition, the term 'Anchor' covers everything that's part of your Treasure, including the above. All of the above fight the Excrucians, mysterious, beautiful beings from beyond the Weirding Wall, who would like to nullify everything, bit by bit. (They have already destroyed some Estates.) The scope of Nobilis adventures is similarly epic in scale: in the few sample adventures in the second edition book alone, the party must defeat an invulnerable giant (this is merely a side encounter), arrange a party attended by other Nobles, help to resolve a centuries-old dispute (or stay out of the way as the involved parties "resolve" it themselves), unravel vast intrigue, kill the evil Santa Claus, and navigate the realm of dreams, or do a thousand other seemingly impossible things, which in a different game might form the basis for an entire campaign. The true point of Nobilis, however, is not the scale of the action, but the meaning of it: the Player Characters (and most of their allies and enemies) draw their power from a single aspect of reality, so the most powerful way to attack them is to weaken that aspect. Doing so allows you to steal the target's Miracle Points, and even cause them physical harm - a difficult task, in a world where your foe might prove to be literally immortal. Such interactions might happen unintentionally as well: when the Power of Addiction acts against the Power of Strife, the ramifications may be far longer-reaching for the Drug War, or the progress of Alcoholics Anonymous. Adding structure to this inconceivably vast world are the Imperators, even more powerful gods who invest a portion of their power to create Nobles. They run the spectrum from The Professor to Trickster Mentor to Evil Overlord, and are used both to enable plots and to drive home the vastness of the universe. They are not omnipotent either, however, and can be defeated even by a starting group of characters if they cooperate effectively. The book is full of short snippets of text written (primarily) by Moran, in a style similar to that of her fiction blog Hitherby Dragons, giving further detail and flavour to the world in which Nobilis takes place, which includes such passages as: and Equal parts The Sandman and the later, weirder volumes of His Dark Materials, Nobilis has attracted a tight-knit cult following that apparently like to make long and overly poetic descriptions of it whenever possible. The first edition (nicknamed the Little Pink Book, or LPB) was put out by Pharos Press. A revised and expanded version (the Great White Book, or GWB. Not to be confused with that GWB) was released by Hogshead Publishing. The third edition is brought to us by Eos Press, starting with Field Guide to the Powers (tentatively dubbed the Fully Colored Book), the first book in the "Nobilis: the Essentials" range. There's also a Nobilis webcomic, Chibi-Ex, written by Moran with art by Miranda Harrell, featuring the adventures of a group of Chibi Excrucians. A project has been started for Nobilis called Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine. It consists of an alternate setting/campaign for Nobilis, written in both novels and RPG rules.
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