Nobilis Hack: March for Alexander

Posted by peaseblossom on August 23, 2006 at 04:50 PM

Jere and I have been working on a Nobilis hack for his game concept (expanded here) of an army sent East by Alexander on an expedition into the unknown.  The basic format of the characters (four attributes with which the character performs miracles) will stay the same, but the names and functions of some of the attributes have changed, and the power levels have dropped.

Comments and suggestions would definitely be appreciated.

Polemos
Polemos scans to Aspect, and it represents the same thing: physical and mental acuity.
Level 0: Average
Level 1: Athletic/Intelligent
Level 2: Olympic Competitor/Philosopher
Level 3: Heroic
Level 4: Legendery
Level 5: Mythic
Polemos Miracle Levels
0: Everyman
1: Novice
2: Competent
3: Expert
4: Master
5: Champion
6: Companion of Alexander
7: Homeric
8: Argonaut
9: Herculean
The level of Champion represents the very best a (modern-day, non-mythic) human being could do.

Dynamis
Dynamis represents a character's supernatural abilities, both innate and learned.  A character with Dynamis might be a magician, or descended from the gods.  When taking Dynamis, the player must choose the form it takes (Thaumaturge, Thessalian Witch, Son of Aphrodite, Sea Nymph); players may take more than one form of Dynamis, as per Secondary Domains in Nobilis.  Players also must define their miracle levels, as they would for Domain miracle levels.
Level 0: Mundane
Level 1: Cunning
Level 2: Miracle Worker
Level 3: Blessed by the Gods
Level 4: Favored by the Gods
Level 5: Demi-God
Dynamis Miracle Levels
0: Hearth Magics
1: Phantasms
2: Lesser Divination
3: Lesser Preservation
4: Lesser Creation
5: Lesser Destruction/Major Divination
6: Lesser Change/Major Preservation
7: Major Creation
8: Major Destruction
9: Major Change
This is pretty much the Nobilis miracle set-up, with the caveat that lesser miracles affect an individual (one person, one thing), whereas major miracles can affect up to the entire army/city.  Nothing done by magic (by the characters, anyway) has global or universal effect.  Hearth Magics are the basic invocations to the gods, evil eye protection that everyone does, and Phantasms are, much like Ghost Miracles, simply illusionary effects and glamors.

Philia
Philia is a character's connection to the community.  Characters will often be in leadership positions and their Philia score determines what they can accomplish through their followers.
Level 0: Slave
Level 1: Freeman
Level 2: Tradesman
Level 3: Citizen
Level 4: Aristocrat
Level 5: King
Philia Miracle Levels
0: Assess your troops
1: Attendants/Entourage
2: Lesser Reconnaissance
3: Lesser Defense
4: Lesser Construction
5: Lesser Attack/Major Reconnaissance
6: Lesser Reassignment/Major Defense
7: Major Construction
8: Major Attack
9: Major Reassignment
Note: Philia works whether you are cavalry or camp follower, but since a lot of the characters will be military we kind of worked it out in those terms. Players will choose a smaller sub-set of the army, of which their characters are a part, and they can call upon the resourses of that group with lesser miracles.  Major miracles of Philia utilize the entire army/city.

Pheme
Pheme scans closely to Spirit; it represents how long your name will survive after your death.  Pheme will determine a character's Auctoritas, as Spirit does in unhacked Nobilis.  Since Jere's assumptions for the game involve a pool of second-string characters, it's possible that Pheme will determine how many such characters a player will get to play (as Spirit does for Anchors), but that's not yet determined.
Level 0: Candleflame
Level 1: Hearthfire
Level 2: Bonfire
Level 3: Conflagration
Level 4: Inferno
Level 5: Solar
Since Pheme also resonates with 'burning brightly', we kept the names of the levels more or less intact (though switched around a bit because the Nobilis way is a little clunky).

Gifts and Handicaps will be available to players as per the Nobilis rules, adjusted for the different power levels of the new attributes (and the genre expectations of the game).  The army/city itself will be created using similar rules to Chancel creation, although it's still up in the air whether we'll make up Alexander as our Imperator.