Quote:
Originally Posted by Methariel
That being said, I would like to point out that I firmly belong into the camp that wants to keep the gap between celestials and mortals, as well as between celestials and ethereals. I like my canon-celestials having significantly higher Abilities (Am I using the right term here? I'm referring to Strength, Precision, Will etc.) than regular humans, and I want them being better at tasks they took the time to acquire the Skills for. That is one of the things that make the system/setting appeal to me.
I do not mind a trained IT professional being better at using computer systems than a regular Seraph, though. (That is, as long as the angel does not just spend some Essence on the problem and 'miracles' the system to work as the celestial wants it to, as shown in one of the rules' examples for using Essence.) So maybe a higher default to some Skills would be useful, too.
Even though Body Hits are not the main concern of the thread, I would like to add that I positively like the huge amounts of Body Hits celestial Vessels can have. The GMG's 'fix' to that has never been felt necessary to me. It is a game about Angels and Demons after all, about beings so far removed and above - or below - from ordinary humans, while at the same time being very close to them, and sometimes much more limited than them. I do like those beings to take a shotgun blast to the chest or three, shrugging and going on to politely punch their human attacker's head from their shoulders with their bare hands. (I do have to point out, that, in the games I used to participate in/run, combat had its place, but it did not happen often. The emphasis was a lot more on politics, conflicting agendas and intrigue, just like the (Cold) War apparently is being fought.) What I am talking about is shown nicely in that - in most other respects awful - Lucifer-wants-to-destroy-the-world-film with Arnold Schwarzenegger, when the First of the Fallen, played by Gabriel Byrne, gets smashed to almost pulp and looks down at his chest, being annoyed by it, but apparently not feeling any pain.
So, please 'mind the gap' when trying to solve problems that, admittedly, exist for some players.
Best regards
M.
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I'll deal with the crunchies later, but I'd like to address Methariel's thoughts a bit.
I like celestials being
potentially much more badass than humans, but that most such beings on the ground are not actually. Lucifer in a vessel makes sense getting run over by a Schwarnegger and laughing it off, because Lucifer isn't going to go to Earth over just anything. A minion with that kind of fortitude, though, is going to draw the wrong kind of attention because he's going to hang around a bit longer. If he's seen getting hit by a truck and is then seen walking around two weeks later, to me that breaks the setting (and ticks off Khalid to no end). Keep in mind that my background before IN was WoD and Constantine and in both those settings most people had no idea of the war just under their noses.
Superiors are quite capable of building high-powered vessels but I think (giving my setting assumptions) that they would generally refrain from doing so. Don't want trauma? Don't ask for a tougher vessel, just don't play chicken with trains.
Intelligence and Will are a little stickier there, since they're not vessel-dependent. I like the idea of angels as blazing experts in their fields but socially alien (especially Seraphim). Such a being could fluently speak several dialects of Latin because he's had time, but be as pointless as an old lady when it comes to programming a VCR, errr, TiVo? Firestick? He'd have historical noise to sort through to even know what device to use, nevermind how to use it. So--exceptional skills, but anachronistic deficits.
I'm sure it's in the rules somewhere (left my harddrive at home dammit) but a lot of basic skills are freebies for humans but must be purchased within Roles for celestials. Typing, driving, cooking, the kinds of things you just learn growing up I give to human characters but charge celestials for, because celestials don't grow up human.
But on PK's things--I like the 12 you fail bit and did something like that in my Red Queen LARP. No one should succeed on a difficult task every single time.
I use a different system for character vs character and PC vs environment, to the point where I occasionally confuse myself. CvC the higher number wins, CvE you must get below the target number. In a CvC I like having a clear winner, though I use the CD to soften or magnify it as the situation allows. In PlaybyPost I have the luxury of using Tarot cards instead of dice, giving a colorful and description CD, but in an actual tabletop game that would slow you down way too much.
I hope I'm making sense.