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Originally Posted by Doc
I guess my first question should be, have I bitten off more than I can chew here? Should I start off with something a little more light-weight, albeit less satisfying?
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Well, there's nothing saying you can't play
In Nomine in a "light-weight" fashion -- see also
In Nomine: Anime.
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Really I am wondering if anyone has any tips for someone starting out with In Nomine? For instance which resources are essential and which can wait a while (I could only afford to pick up maybe 3 or four books in the near future). Should I wait for a revised edition of the core rules?(I got the impression from one of the other threads in this forum that this may be coming in the forseeable future)
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Don't wait for a revised edition of the core rules. I have not been told anything about a chance to revise it, and I should know. I have many notions on
how to do it, and GURPS In Nomine could be considered an example of that, but I haven't been given a "Hey, we need to do a second edition" sign yet.
So long as you grasp that the book is not necessarily best-read from front to back, and it has a few quirks (mainly Songs) where information is spread out, you'll be fine. (How did I read it? I got up to the d666 mechanics, then I skipped ahead to the Choirs, Bands and Superiors sections, and finally went back and read the rest.)
What you want... Well, I'll try to order these and explain what's in them and why you might want them.
* The Core Rules, either plain IN or GURPS version. Duh. *grin*
* The Game Master's Guide. As a new GM, this could be very, very useful to you. You may also want to check out the Robin Law's Guide that SJGames published, which is system-neutral -- it's a 32-pager, as I recall, and may couple with something else useful.
* If you like anime, and your gaming group does, In Nomine: Anime. It's a 32-page book, so relatively inexpensive. It may also be a good lead-in for "practice games."
* The Liber Canticorum (Book of Songs) or Liber Reliquarum (Book of Relics), for "spells" or "magic items." The Liber Reliquarum has an adventure in it which, in hind-sight, presumes a more conflict-prone Heaven than the default seems to have shaken out to be.
* The Angelic Player's Guide, Infernal Players Guide, Corporeal Player's Guide, or Ethereal Player's Guide -- each of these are useful for what they focus on. Frankly, if you wanted to run a "small gods" campaign, you could get the core rules and the EPG and chuck 99% of the background. (See also a paragraph of
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=3268.) I am partial to the IPG and EPG because I had a lot to do with them, and the CPG is just plain useful if you want important humans. The APG, I didn't have my hands on the reins enough, in my arrogant opinion, but it still has a lot of useful stuff in there, like Kyriotates.
* The Superiors Books. Frankly, if you can get your players to "cluster" around the four Superiors in a given Superiors book, I'd say that one should be your third choice. They have all the data from the core rules (with any errata fixed) to reduce book swapping, as well as additional Servitor Attunements and Distinctions. Not only do they discuss the Superior, but also what it's like to be a Servitor of that Superior. They also have adventure seeds that can be fleshed out. (My web-page includes one of those. See also
http://www.io.com/~arcangel.)
* The Liber Servitorum (Book of NPCs and/or pregen PCs, basically), the Liber Castellorum (Tether-book; making and short samples), and You Are Here (a bunch of locations and the adventure seeds associated with them). None of these are in the top three you
should have as a GM, unless you happen to flip through and be the sort of person who'd be incredibly inspired by them, but I'm rather fond of them. (The Servitorum also expands on Roles and Servants.)
* The Revelation Cycle. For various and sundry reasons, you'll want to cherry-pick these. (I mean, eventually, you want it
all, but...) Don't feel that you have to use the "official adventure." (My own campaign has cheerfully jumped the tracks, for instance, before the Rev Cycle's adventure even "got started.") So unless you want more on a topic (Night Music = Austin, Tx; Marches = Marches; Heaven & Hell =...; Fall of the Malakim = Los Angeles; Final Trumpet = a lot of Superior write-ups), these are unlikely to be top-three picks.
I don't think I've missed anything...
And to order them... Well, there's always
www.warehouse23.com... O;>