This is the out-of-character game thread from Nobilis: Where Only Lilies Grow. (This page is written by a number of people, and is not Creative Commons licenced.)

Ian This is the OC (Out of Character) chat thread. Please tag anything you post here with your name, so everyone knows who’s talking. Otherwise, anything goes!
Martin

Looking at your character creation stuff, I was wondering - are you insisting on human-based Nobles? I was under the impression Nobles could be virtually anything, from faeries to fictional characters to super-intelligent shades of the colour blue.
Ian You’re right, the chargen page is pretty human-oriented… =S I’m not intending to restrict it to humans at all, just about anything is fine. Since part of the action will take place outside the Chancel, it would be handy if any shades of blue had some way of appearing with physical form, but even that’s not necessarily a requirement.
Martin Jolly good - so a fictional human shouldn’t be a problem, right? (waves at character page)
Ian Oh dear god. Yep, no problems with that! =D
Martin Well thank you kindly, Ian.

Ian I’ve updated the Character Gen Instructions page to include information on Gifts, if anyone wishes to take them. (I was too lazy to type it all up on Monday!)
We’ve hit 5 starting players, so the game is now full. If Tom joins later in the game I’ll happily bump up to 6 player slots, but I’m sticking with 5 to start.
Cap Ok, a tad overwhelmed now; Nobilis is scarier than the pretty pictures make it look. First question, fluff-wise; we have been recently Nobbled, but how does it happen? Near death experience, actual death experience? Or just ‘BAM! NOW YOU’RE AWESOME! AHAHAHA!’ style of thing? (With optional amounts of maniacal laughter, of course)
Ian A Something Weird experience. I plan for this to be the first scene of the game, so don’t worry too much about the circumstances of your Ennoblement just yet.

Cap Right, pre-Nobbling, I’m thinking Art (short for Arthur) is basically a groupie, but for quite a few different artforms (bits of philosophy+Scientific thought too), and with very little talent himself. Post-Nobbling, becomes something in the style of the Greek Muses (himself, but turned up to 11, or … lots.) Lots of mindy stuff, with abilities related to manipulating inspiration, and expression. Can do horrible things like inflict writer’s block on people too ^^
That a bit too bland?
Martin Somebody clever came up with this a while back… http://07nobiliscampaign.wikispaces.com/file/view/So+You’ve+Been+enNobled… (grr - why isn’t the auto-hyperlink working?)
So you’re looking at the power of Art? That’s quite a large domain - if you’ve got a specific area in mind, it might be worth narrowing it down a bit. You mentioned scientific thought and the like - how about going for Enlightenment, or Inspiration?

I like the idea of a groupie muse, slightly desperate and pathetic as he stalks his ‘idols’…! Or the sort of tedious society art-appreciator who does the rounds of galleries and exhibitions, boring people with his opinions on the latest Hirst.
Ian Auto-hyperlinking doesn’t work because I haven’t coded it! I’ll add it tonight if you like. That PDF’s damn handy, I’ll add a link to it from the front page. Thanks!
Martin No worries. Only now, double-clicking on any word in this thread takes me to the edit page!
Uh… can I tentatively suggest we use PBwiki or similar? Less work for you, easier for everyone else…?
Ian Double-clicking has always done that. I have no problem with moving to PBwiki if people are in favour of that. My reasoning for running on my own server was a matter of downtime - it’s pretty rare, and I know who to shout at if it happens. One of my biggest annoyances in the Changeling game was RPoL’s frequent downtime and my complete impotence in the face of it. Also, Eric pronounced PBwiki too complicated, hence the simpler wiki here.
However, ‘s up to you lot to decide - all I really care about is getting the game going! Dare I put this to a vote, or have we had enough of those over e-mail already? =P (With apologies to the two late arrivals who missed that epic thread.)

Martin Fair ‘nuff - forgot Eric said she didn’t like PBwiki. Guess I’ve just got used to it - find it easier to use than this’un. Pictures and links, mostly. Incidentally, do I have to click on ‘Save’ and then on ‘Done’, or does ‘Done’ do both?
One main peeve with this wiki, however - the teeny tiny edit box. Is it possible to make that bigger?
And didn’t realise about the doubleclick thing. Was trying to highlight text!
Ian Et voila. No doubleclick Javascript, no confusing Save button, much bigger textarea. Inserting pictures etc. will be a gigantic pain, so if there’s call for a move to PBwiki, it’ll be done.
Mark I’d like to second PBWiki - it’s honestly no more complicated than this, simpler than RPOL and will mean you have to spend less time on coding wikis and can spend more on exciting things. Also, uptime has afaik never been a problem for us and I think Ramit’s canny enough that it won’t be going anywhere any time soon.
Haven’t had a chance to read book yet - it’s on the List for this weekend. Also, looks like the only idea I’ve spent any time fleshing out (Music!) would be stepping on the Cap’ns toes, so am back to the drawing board.

Think … think … think.
Power of Pooh Bear?
Ian I wouldn’t say that’s so close as to be stepping on toes. (Also, code-monkey, remember? Coding wikis is fun for me =P)
Martin Is it possible Eric hasn’t used PBWiki in a while? They revamped it a year or so back, and the interface is now basically a slightly simpler version of Microsoft Word.
Eric

Do we absolutely have to? I mean, we have a place now… it’s easier to keep things here rather than have to go elsewhere and then return… besides, Ian moves everything back after the game so we might as well do it here…
Martin Eh, if you really don’t want to move I’ll lose no sleep.
Anyways. So currently we have an Imperator with dominion over: Zephyrs Romance
Once we’ve got the five powers established, we can start going to town on what sort of creature would embody them, as well as designing a chancel which reflects those five concepts. I know we’re newly enNobled, Ian, but are we the first iteration of these Powers? Or has the Imperator had Nobles before, in which case what happened to the old ones? On a similar note, is the chancel new or existing?
I’m going to define and discuss my Estate on my character sheet page, when I’ve got time. Always found that helps make it a bit clearer what is and isn’t covered, especially if you include examples of each type of miracle.
Ian

With Romance, Zephyrs, and potentially Inspiration / Expression and Music, I think I can see where the Imperator is going! =P Ideas are welcome even before characters are finalised, though we need the final list of Estates and the total of all your Realm dots before we can finish the Imperator and Chancel respectively.
I intend for both the Powers and the Chancel to be new - that fits best with the plot I have in mind, assuming you lot don’t create such a weird Imperator that I have to completely rewrite it! =D
Martin I’m sensing an Arabian Nights theme, here, what with the storytelling/inspiration and desert winds… maybe our Imperator could be one of the Djinni, and our Chancel something out of old Baghdad? Hell, it’d be really interesting to just Chancel off modern-day Baghdad.
Was talking to Mark about possible Domains last night and he seemed casually interested in the Power of Mathematics, which would also fit quite nicely into the Arabian theme.
Eric, I’ve got to ask: how does an NSA supercomputer end up in charge of Zephyrs, of all things? Although I can see how a program designed to recognise patterns and extrapolate them into the future might become quite good at weather…
Ian The more I think about it, the more I suspect thay the emergent complexity of zephyrs is probably really interesting if chaos theory floats one’s boat.
I quite like the Arabian Nights theme, but… Benton Fraser? Baghdad?

Martin I first came to Baghdad on the trail of Inspector Meg Thatcher, once of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police but lately transferred to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, where she was instrumental in the destabilisation and overthrow of certain dictators, and for reasons which aren’t important at this juncture I remained, attached as Warden of the chancel of mythic Baghdad.
It’s a useful quote. :) Besides, a Canadian in the desert? I get to do Fraser’s fish-out-of-water Chicago schtick, while using Aspect to pull encyclopaedic knowledge about virutally anything out of nowhere…
Ian Is there anything that quote wouldn’t work for? “I first came to Alpha Centauri B on the trail of Q’zzfg Zpwwg…”
Martin The possibilities are endless, indeed. But the joy of Baghdad is that the bit about Inspector Thatcher is actually taken from the series finale. She really did have a hand in Saddam Hussein’s downfall, apparently - about a decade before he actually fell. Would be quite fun combining the fictional, muthic and prosaic versions of Baghdad…
Ian

Awesome, I didn’t know that! We’ll have to see what the other players come up with though - I can see why an AI might be in Baghdad these days (Mmm, conspiracy theories) but there’s still three more characters to go.
If we can’t come up with a single Earthly location for a Chancel that fits all the characters’ backgrounds, there are plenty of other options like Chancels apart from reality that have multiple entrances, or even that can be accessed from anywhere.
Martin Just remembered that Chancels are created by murdering 100 people over 100 days, or something like that. Would explain why the Sultan was executing his wives the morning after their wedding night… if Sheharizade was supposed to be number 100, I can imagine he was getting a bit impatient!
Eric Why can’t an NSA AI like zephyrs? I mean, Ian said it didn’t really have to make too much sense and I like zephyrs… I think the word is cute… (best ever reason to do anything ever (tm)
Martin I didn’t say it couldn’t. I asked how, and why, ‘cause I was confused. Also wondering if Ioun is mobile, or stuck in a Cray in someone’s basement? Has it built itself a robot body?
<DIV CLASS='QWHeading1' STYLE='text-align: left'>Danger, Will Robinson.

(and yes, zephyrs is a very good word.)
Domina
I’ve tentativelly got my eye on being the Power of Defiance, which is not necessarily out of character with me being a slightly darker side of above fluffy aspects. I have no problem with an Arabian Nights kind of theme for the Chancel, it’s certainly something I’ve not played with before!
Re Ioun, I’m getting images of Maria from Metropolis. My brain…
Eric Ioun is mobile, a proper android in fact. In a female shaped form so she doesn’t intimidate too many people. I haven’t really fleshed out her backstory too much because of NaNoWriMo and the fact that I don’t want to have my hopes up for this game to start imminently and then have to force myself to be patient (not a hint, just me being realistic)
Mark I quite like the idea of an Arabian Night themed Chancel/Imperator. Not quite sure how well the few vague ideas I have would/wouldn’t fit in with it though.
Should get chargen done sometime this week! :)

Domina If we decide to go for that I very much DO have an idea for how my character would fit into it… Well, you do know how advanced the Arabs’ mathematics were compared to the Europeans’ around the Year of Our Lord 1000 when we were tearing our hair out waiting for the world to end? ;)
Martin Woo, postage. Am like you, Eric, tend to get over-excited by the idea of a new game and then have to rein it in to avoid scaring people.
Does that mean you’re not still going with Defiance, Domina? Something more mathematical, instead? Don’t know if Mark’s still considering Cryptography; was one of the ideas we chatted about a few days back. But Defiance does fit rather nicely with the 1001 Nights theme, what with Sheharizad defying the Sultan every evening.
Ah, I love Nobilis. Equal parts roleplaying, philosophy and semantics.
Domina Erm, I thought I read further up that Mark was thinking of numbery things? May’ve misread, I’ve been quite ill all weekend. Fuck knows I couldn’t manage that one myself! No, I’m still thinking of Defiance. Actually, you read my mind re the 1001 nights thing - what if that’s how the Chancel was created? A sacrifice not of a hundred lives but a thousand and one stories.
[Re-edit to add my name…told you I’m zonked out]

Martin Ah, gotcha. No, just me mis-reading your post - thought you were deciding Maths-type powers would be more interesting after all. Yeah, fits with Sheharezade perfectly, although I’m still not entirely sure how you spell her name…
As to the sacrifice, think it’s written in the Chancel section of the BWB somewhere that creating one requires BLOOOOOOD. Aha: “The ritual requires a hundred nights, and a human death each night of it.”
Don’t know how familiar you all are with the 1001 Nights, but the story starts with the Sultan becoming disenchanted with women after his wife’s infidelity. He announces that each night he will take a virgin as his wife, and to ensure she cannot be unfaithful he will have her executed in the morning. Eventually there are so few virgins left in the kingdom that the Vizier is forced to offer his own daughter, Sheharizade. Which is where the stories really begin.
But 100 virgins, sacrificed on a daily basis? If we rewrite the Sultan as our Imperator, that meshes perfectly with the creation of the chancel. What do you all think?
Ian I’d be quite happy with a 1001 Nights theme - I think fun can be had in the odd juxtaposition of a Chancel / Mythic Reality of Middle-Eastern myth and the Prosaic reality of actual modern events in the region.
Two more players haven’t put thought to wiki yet, though, so we’ll have to see what they’re going to be (hint, hint)!
Cap

Ooh! Lots of artistic/historical expression/inspiration = Baghdad was (pre-bombing etc) famed for it’s historical and artistic museums’n’stuff. Curator, mayhap. Previously a bit of an art-snob with no personal talent, who landed a cushy job in insert museum here. Then explosions, kaboom, and we need some more art!
Ian This museum, perchance? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Iraq Half of its stuff is apparently still missing. =S
Domina I read at an exhibition that the curator of the national museum in Afghanistan risked his life to smuggle out the art before it got destroyed by the Taliban (quite deliberately. They were putting explosives to Buddha statues). Wait, someone who isn’t me is going to do a Noble of art history? Awesome :P

Cap Partially-amnesiac-awakened-museum! Also, Eric, do you think me playing an awakened Museum (Power of the Word) would step too much on your toes with Ioun? I may have had a flash of more-fun-seeming inspiration. Possibly courtesy of my previous idea…
Eric I don’t mind at all, but how will you move around?
Cap Animated human-shaped heap of rubble and broken glass. Or, y’know, jetpacks.
Martin “Animated human-shaped heap of rubble and broken glass.”

But is it art?
Less facetiously, how about a Lamassu (perhaps slightly bomb-damaged)? They’re Assyrian and Mesopotamian winged lion-man statues, usually used as gatekeepers and portal guardians. There were supposed to be some of them in the National Museum of Iraq, apparently. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamassu
Cap Ooh, I like, thanks. And I have a name, too! Nabu, Babylonian god of writing’n’such. The poor guy is a touch confused.
Martin Shiny. Like the little description. Am wondering what ‘The Word’ covers - the written word, or language, or ‘In The Beginning was The Word’ type scenarios…? I’m guessing the written word, since you’ve gone for Nabu? Fits nicely with the 1001 Nights, too. And you’ve even got a character point left for a suitable Gift!
Cap Yeah, written word. Which is partially why he’s so confused; he’s only ‘existed’ for an hour/week/month and has thousands of years of myth and history bouncing around in his head. Not to mention shopping receipts.

Domina Tom has made an offhand comment about how if he decides to jump in later on, he may want to be the Power of Retribution… Also fits with the theme, but damn, we really fail with the fluffy cuddly powers on this end. Will probably post my own character sheet by tomorrow evening…
Cap Hmm…I have one point left for a gift, as mentioned by Martin; was thinking that being able to comprehend any written language would be nice. Or possibly being able to make OTHERS comprehend, for a short period. Can anyone help me work out the points, or suggest something else sensible?
Martin Being able to comprehend any written language sounds like a fairly simple Domain miracle, I think - Lesser Divination, level 2. So if you’ve got Domain 3, I think you can pretty much do that whenever you want anyway.
The other would be a bit harder, as it’s a case of giving others understanding - perhaps slightly outside your Domain. But you could change the language in which something were written as a Lesser Change, which is level 6. Possibly too expensive for a 1-point gift, but with enough limitations (area, duration) you might be able to swing it.
Ian

It’s possibly a bit of a grey area, you may be able to bump the Area up from Self Only (-3) to One Person (-2) to achieve that kind of effect. The book isn’t really clear on that. My gut feeling is that Divination should probably always be Self Only unless you’re learning information about a target, so Martin would be correct.
If you want to go for that, in order to get the cost down you’d probably want to make it One Person (-2) and One Trick Only (-3) - for the one trick, it could be something like “another noble can read any written text right in front of them, but as soon as they put the book away (etc) the miracle dissipates”.
The disadvantage there would be that it wouldn’t be so flexible if you were using it yourself - you’d be losing the Full Flexibility that you could take if it was Self-Only Lesser Divination.
Domina I’ve got a point left also - I’m debating whacking it into miracle points for spirit (I do tend to stack the deck, and I do seem to be the only one stacking it in favour of spirit anyway), or whether I’m going to do the Gift I chatted about with Ian, which is immunity to coercion - one person to start with I’m guessing given the amouunt of points I’ve got left. For that matter, Ian, if I wanted to later beef up the Gift to apply to more than just me, would I have to pay for it as a new Gift entirely or just pay off the additional cost?
Martin

And on a similar note, I was thinking of swapping out Fraser’s Immutable gift for something a bit more personalised. Perhaps something reflecting his irresistable lure… Can I be of assistance, ma’am? Lesser Creation (4) of Romance, Automatic (1), Personal (-2), One Trick (-3), Uncommon (1) = 1 point. Any kind of personal interaction with Fraser leads in explicably to a mortal woman developing a romantic, and inevitably unrequited, crush on him. Which can be helpful, as it tends to provoke a desire to be both friendly and cooperative. But it can also be most awkward…
Ian @Domina: Again I don’t think the book actually says. My opinion would be that if it stays within the same type (Major Divination, Minor Change, etc.) you can just pay extra points into a gift. If it’s changing type, you probably ought to buy it as a new one, but it might depend on the specific case.
@Martin: Approved! =D
Domina Well, if I wanted to alter the gift, I imagine it’d stay the same type (Preservation in this case, I’m guessing?) If I wanted a new one, I’d, er, buy a new one! ;)

Martin, I’m really not surprised he approved this one, if only because the potential for lulz is absolutely stellar. I don’t think I’ve seen many parties odder than this one…
Ian Yep, I’d say your immunity to coercion would be, given you have only one point to play with: Domain, Lesser Preservation of Defiance (3), Automatic (1), self only (-3), Comprehensive (-1) or possibly Comprehensive up to Full flexibility if you take Automatic down to Simple.
Domina ‘Kay, I’ll have to read up on the differences between Automatic vs Simple and Comprehensive vs Full before I get back to you on what I choose :)
Eric

OK, because my brain spaffed out a random story I thought ‘what do i do with this now?’ and Ian said that I should make a new page on the Wiki for it… so I did… I made a whole new section so that people who wish to flesh out their characters a bit can make themselves a page about their character other than the character sheet… so if for example, you want to tell a story that’s not to do with their creation/ennoblement there’s now a place to do so…
Ian Righty, what do people want to do about getting this game started? I think we’re all pretty much ready to go apart from Mark, who’s ill and has no idea when he might be ready.
I guess my core question is “how long can we wait before you get bored?”. I want to give Mark the time he needs so that his character can start with everyone else’s, but on the other hand I don’t want to wait so long that the rest of you get tired of waiting and lose enthusiasm for the game. So, thoughts?
Domina I can definitely wait at least two weeks, considering my last essay’s due the 9th and thereafter I hope to be celebrating my birthday in a most inebriated fashion… PS: Hope you feel better soon, Mark! hug
Cap

Again, what Dom said ^^ Birthday on the 9th, dad’s the week after, then Christmas, so lots to keep me occupied! Which is not to say I’m not up for starting ASAP, just that if we don’t, I’ll probably survive.
Mark Thanks!
Feel free to start without me though, the more pressure I have to get everything sorted, the likelier it is I will do so. :)
Am going to have a look through the Chancel stuff now, so that can be finished off.
PS Couple of feature requests for stuff I’m missing from PBWiki: 1) RSS feed just for Nobilis and 2) Autosave when writing messages?
Ian FFFFFFFFUUUUU- Just the easy requests then, eh? =p
Ian

Latest word from the Markle is that he’ll be doing Nobilis stuff on Wednesday. I’d quite like to get this kicked off before Christmas so you don’t have the whole holiday season to lose interest!
Ian Mark’s character sheet is final, so we have all our characters. I’ve posted an intro to the game to try and get people’s enthusiasm back! Assuming we’re all roughly happy with how the Chancel’s turning out, shall we get that finalised within the next few days, then kick off the game?
Domina I’ve got a new PC and am ready to go when the rest are. (If my replies are delayed at this point, it is because I will be FAPPING OVER MY HARDWARE.)
Martin I’m trying to ignore the fapping noises from over there (waves towards Domina), so… is The Rose In The Desert where we start posting, or just introfluff?

EDIT: Have now actually read the note at the bottom of the page. Let’s pretend I never said anything, shall we?
Domina I have a response in mind, but I am substantially drunk and at least a little debauched, so I’ll wait until tomorrow to post it. Merry Wintereenmas everyone! PS: If you had a laptop with an i7 processor, 6 gigs of RAM, and 1 gig dedicated graphics card, you’d fap too. There, I said it, it’s out of my system! Coherence later.
Eric

I think I may wait until I have something coherent to add to the first chapter…
Ian Incidentally, as far as I can tell, we are now the longest-running Nobilis game on the internet. Yay us! (I only know of three others, none of which made it past Character Gen…)
Cap Sorry for taking so long to post! All should be well now, Christmas/New Year-madness being out of the way. Are we aiming for any sort of specific posting schedule?
Domina A little more often than this, maybe? I’m getting scared of posting lest Leilah monopolise the conversation (and military is really not her forte anyway)…
Eric Ioun genuinely has nothing to say.

Ian Sorry, I’ve let this one go on too long =S I’ll work up a post now.
Domina I’d really like to see where this game could go is all. Leilah’s happy to go with to the wall, but doesn’t feel particularly qualified to add to the discussion either (even though she has an opinion on everything…)
Ian This is a test post to see if the blank e-mail problem Mark and Eric reported is resolved.
Apologies to everyone I just sent six e-mails to. Only meant for it to be one :S
Domina You mean those emails weren’t supposed to be blank? :D

Ian Fuck me, Scheherazade is getting dangerously meta. :S Bets on how long before she or Alan work out they’re in an RPG? gibber thiswillnotbecomedreamingawake
Domina LOL. Well, if any RPG can deal with that without breaking, Nobilis seems it. I think I’m going to need to read a bit more on what Nobles can DO, now that we’re in a scene where it would be helpful to do it…
Ian If you’re thinking of combat mechanics, there pretty much aren’t any. I have a few ideas for what could happen if you guys do want to wade in and punch stuff, so we’ll see how the thread goes! :D

Martin Hey folks. From having read (and played in) a few other Nobils stories, the first combat seems to be one of those hurdles at which a game can come screeching to a halt. So, in an effort to break that particular curse, behold! IC postage a la Fraser! Let’s go with an Aspect miracle to encourage the invading thingumiebobs to break off the fight and head back where they came from. I’m assuming that won’t be higher than Aspect 3 (Improbable Feats)?
Domina Could I make the earth refuse to support them, or gravity refuse to hold them, or the air refuse to let them forward, or some such feat of defiance? I would attempt to make them refuse to act, but as these are Excrucian creatures, I doubt Leilah has of succeeding.
Ian Go for it both of you, it could be fun to see what happens when they both go off together… It’s been so long since the start of the game I’ll need to read the book tonight and remind myself of the Miracle rules, but I’ve no objection in principle to either of your plans! Poke me on MSN or somesuch if you want to discuss what you want to do. (Though Martin, you probably know the rules better than I do at this point! :S)
Martin I Has The Powah! Although Benton’s persuasive miracle won’t have any effect if they’ve got any Auctoritas at all, but it’s the thought that counts. Besides, knowing if they’re mortal, mythical or… other is useful enough.

Ian Okay, I’m calling Benton’s persuading of the gribbly attackers as a Level 3 Aspect miracle, and as you have Aspect 3, you can do it without MP cost. Shall I assume you’ve done it and respond accordingly?
Leilah, you’d be after a Lesser Creation of Defiance, which is a Level 4 Domain Miracle. You have Domain 2, so it’ll cost you 2 MP to use. Post something vaguely appropriate IC and I’ll have your miracle trigger as well as Benton’s.
Mark Ooops, didn’t notice the email for that one. Other thread looks much more exciting, maybe Alan will suggest an arm-wrestling match.
Ian Oh, I have plans for your thread, just you wait :P

Domina ETA for my post is tomorrow afternoon, atm I’m so exhausted I can’t brain…
Ian Domina, are you still alive? o_O I’m going to have to move the thread on somehow, so give me a shout if you still want to post, otherwise I’ll post for you! :P
Domina Sorry! Stuff happened, etc etc, thanks for the poke, I’m on it now :) [EDIT] There we go. I assume that is enough for a being of cosmic scale to invoke the power she doesn’t know she has?
Ian Ja, I will post the triggering-of-miracles text once I have sleep / caffeine.

Martin So, miracles. It’s naturally open to a lot of interpretation, but as I understand Domain what Leilah just did is outside its power. She could have increased the Defiance of our troops, making them fight harder and vanquish the mysterious beasties. She could also have made the air molecules around the mysterious beasties defiant, refusing to let said beasties pass and thus freezing them in place. Or any other kind of funky metaphysical weirdness Domina could think of.
But making mysterious beasties go ‘poof’ through sheer awesomeness isn’t how Nobilis miracles work, is it? Or at least it’s not how I’ve understood it.
Just trying to get an idea of the ground rules, here.
Domina Erm, you saw my thoughts above for what I thought could happen. Maybe they were a) very weak as critters go and b) Leilah made nature defy them right out of their unnatural existence? I was mainly just hoping to slow them down, not that I’m complaining about making them go poof and all but I really hope no one feels I stole possible thunder :/
Martin Not my concern at all. The thunder is all yours! I’m just slightly concerned that along the same lines, Benton would potentially have the power to make things dissolve into goo with his deadly Lurve-beams. Which is a little too Captain Planet for me.
Ian

Leilah’s attack was not as effective as it would at first appear - I was merely giving her and Benton a few seconds to freak out if necessary before carrying on, so apologies if it looks like Leilah has destroy-everything superpowers.
Domina Boo, I would’ve so loved that kind of superpower. Leilah is about bitchy enough for it, too. Well, here’s hoping I did something useful, anyway! Incidentally, Martin, you made me think of this. Seriously XD [EDIT] Oooh, dear, I’m getting Leilah in trouble. Then again, caution is not generally in her character…
Martin

Ian: That wasn’t my concern - I’m quite happy for anyone to have destroy-everything superpowers! I just wasn’t sure I agreed with your application of Domain miracles. Although it makes more sense now - Defiance forced them to recoil, regroup, come back stronger. I think a lot of whether Nobilis makes sense depends on the description - you can justify pretty much anything, with enough lateral-thinking and eloquent waffle. Domina: Hee. I’m not a Queen of Wands subscriber, so I’ve not seen that before. Awesome.
Domina Are all Familiae Caelestis this snarky or are we bringing a special gift to it? XD
Martin It’s us. Most are much more po-faced. Also, Benton Fraser: purveyor of the politest snark ever.
Ian

Apologies for the hold-up at the moment btw - I promised I’d show Andy how miracles work (since he wants to do one) but getting hold of him via any kind of reliable chat medium while I don’t have my head over a bucket is proving tricky!
Domina No worries. In fact, sticking the transcript on the wiki somewhere for universal benefit might not be a bad idea. Hope you feel better, hon… [Greater Creation of Long-Distance Hugs]
Ian Right, sorry for the hold-up - I’ve been in brain-freeze mode while I wait for Andy and I to be online long enough for me to explain the miracle system to him! To whit, I have given up and typed it all up anyway. Andy (and anyone else interested), here you go: Miracles Explained. Hopefully now my brain will unstick itself and I can get on with the actual game.
Andy Awesome! Thanks Mr Ian, will get right to posting.
Ian

Is it just me, or did Benton just kind of prevent one of the Chancelfolk lynching an Excrucian? o_O So much stuff makes sense in Benton’s head that really doesn’t in the rest of the world! :D
Mark He did whaa? [Lesser stretching of time for super-speedy catchup reading]
Ian Holy beebles, it lives! Right, give me a few hours to get back into game mode…
Domina Exams over early June, I should be back afterwards; feel free to puppet Leilah within reason till then.
Martin Excuse me, miss. I’m sure I parked a roleplaying game around here, somewhere. I don’t suppose you’ve seen it?

Also, Ian? Editing this page via Android 2.1’s browser is making my uberphone weep blood. The UI’s fucked to buggery, too. Details would follow, but typing is just too damn annoying.
Hugs&kisses, Martin
Ian Er… yeah. Sorry. Brain still not in gear. If anyone knows how to make it do what I want, please tell me… :(
And yeah, this page is waaay too big to be happily editable (probably even viewable) on a phone. My netbook suffers. There ain’t a lot I can do about that I’m afraid, editing 37KB of text in a textarea is not something most phones are going to be happy about.