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Old 05-04-2014, 01:36 AM   #1
Azel
 
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Location: South of the Town across from the City by the Bay
Default Share Campaign Premises!

Often you hear people having trouble figuring out what to do with In Nomine. It's such an open toolbox that the "blank page causes writer's block." So, let's throw out those campaign premises, for either short or long session runs, to get people into the spirit!

Here's a recent inspiration after watching one of those prison shows:

A prison rivalry between a Kyriotate of Stone and a Shedim of Factions. May be Party v. GM, or Party v. Party, or a mix. Soldiers of God/Hell and human allies/servants PCs are encouraged. Plenty of covert coordination is necessary to keep things from overheating.
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Old 05-04-2014, 01:59 AM   #2
Rocket Man
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Location: Longmont, CO
Default Re: Share Campaign Premises!

The Madison campaign arc I most recently ran sprang directly from the last one. That had been:

The angels must hunt down, and if possible convert, a powerful Greed Tether at the Ho-Chunk Casino. This is less simple than just burning it down, since the business is key to the livelihood of the tribe.

As it happens, our PCs had a reputation as a "Redemption Squad" who had brought several demons back into the fold, so they were due for some heavy attention. And after they successfully led the Tether takeover (and laid the groundwork for it to someday be a Creationist or Trade spot), that led to:

The fall of Greed's Tether has left other players stronger -- and some of those players want to strike back at this dangerous angel squad. The demons see their chance in undermining the power of a local Protection Tether (a women's shelter), aided by a Geased agent on the inside who appears to be a victim. Meanwhile, thanks to the casino's security tape, the party's Bright has been recognized by her old comrades in Lust, which is now sending a squad to try to "retrieve" her. The party must protect the Tether from collapse, their comrade from abduction, and possibly rescue the shelter's clients who have been caught in the crossfire.

Of course, to the players at first, the above looked like:

Harassment and violence have started to become the norm near the YWCA shelter that serves as Protection's Tether in Madison,and it's just gotten worse -- an old friend of yours who works there has been found nearly dead in an alleyway. Track down what's going on and why, and shut down the trouble.

The abduction attempt came as a complete surprise and became a game-changer for several of the characters involved.
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“It's not railroading if you offer the PCs tickets and they stampede to the box office, waving their money. Metaphorically speaking”
--Elizabeth McCoy, In Nomine Line Editor

Author: "What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger"

Last edited by Rocket Man; 05-04-2014 at 10:48 AM. Reason: Fix typos
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Old 05-04-2014, 03:32 AM   #3
Omegonthesane
 
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Default Re: Share Campaign Premises!

The last campaign I played:

A town with no particular known diabolical influences has fallen under the spell of the Seven Virtues megachurch, and since this event more of them have gone to Hell per capita. Investigate the megachurch and improve the community while you're at it. Unfortunately, the area is within call-for-aid range of a known demonic stronghold, so don't cause too much Disturbance or escalation. (The latter detail was added due to the GM wanting a change of pace from our usual superheroes-with-halos style.)

Our most frequent GM majored in politics, so a lot of his campaigns are political satire of some stripe or another - after he ran a Diabolical campaign in which we helped a Habbalite of Rapine by the name of Draka get promoted from Demon of Slavery to Demon Prince of Cruelty, the Arab Spring happened, so he ran a later campaign in which Gabriel and Lilith gathered a strike team to get rid of Draka's last remaining strongholds in North Korea ready for Gabriel to directly attack him in celestial combat.

The premise of our one historical campaign (which actually had a PC reappear in the aforementioned North Korea game):

Due to Emperor Nero's ridiculously awful leadership, the imperial palace has been due to become a tether to Legion for a while now. Work out why it hasn't and depose him while you're at it. Try not to draw too much heat from the local demons.

There was also a subplot about a group of early Christians who were being urged to fanaticism by a Habbalite of Fire, who we unknowingly assisted because we needed a distraction for one of our plans. The main upshot was identifying and destroying the various foci for a sorcerous ritual that was to take place during the Neronia festival - which we decided not to play along with, instead visiting the imperial palace on a different day while claiming to be a diplomatic envoy from a fictional nation led by Prince Ali (who was to be one of us in disguise; we ultimately decided on the Wind Ofanite, as he was generally best at escaping from bad situations if it went south.)

Last edited by Omegonthesane; 05-04-2014 at 03:55 AM.
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Old 05-04-2014, 09:05 AM   #4
alexondria
 
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Location: Atlanta GA
Default Re: Share Campaign Premises!

I like playing with themes. The first campaign I ran was based heavily on how much questions of collateral damage. Would it be worth the life of a single human if it meant winning the war? What about 10? What about 50? What about 1,000? ect... when is it acceptable and when is it not? The PCs ended up deciding that it wasn't at any level unless they wanted to be like the demons.
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Old 05-04-2014, 09:20 AM   #5
johndallman
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: Share Campaign Premises!

The only campaign I've run was set in Cambridge, England. The premise was a variant of the Mage: the Ascension idea that reality is defined by human consensus (not by celestials), which makes research universities places where the nature of reality can be influenced in the long term. However, I had trouble translating this into scenarios.

The only one of significance dealt with the way that a large library will have links to both Yves' Library and Kronos' Archives; this was discovered when a Servitor of Lightning found a network cable in the library he hadn't put there, followed it, and became sure he wasn't in Kansas any more. Since there were Servitors of Destiny on the library staff, it was possible to close that link by re-arranging the contents of the library. It might have been a better idea to do this when there weren't party members scouting the Archives, however. They all managed to escape in the end.
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Old 05-04-2014, 02:46 PM   #6
Rocket Man
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Longmont, CO
Default Re: Share Campaign Premises!

My current one, based in Boulder, Colo:

The young child of someone you know disappeared from their bed last night. On checking, you find that there has been a pattern of similar disappearances over the last few months, always on the night of the full moon or the new moon. The only other odd thing of note -- for Boulder, anyway -- is that there have been an unusual number of wolf sightings in the foothills.

The kicker (concealed because my current players are on this board) is that: while the disappearances are due to an "ethereal Lilith," the wolves are actually Benandanti, holy werewolves of the dream world that are trying to prevent Lilith's plan of murdering children and keeping their dreamshades in her Domain. Since they lack her raw power, the Benandanti have been quietly leading the children to a hideout and guarding them there, but they need help before their abilities are stretched thin. The wild card in all this is the real Lilith who might be very interested to learn of an Ethereal claiming her name ...

Side-note: Yes, according to the Ethereal Players Guide, Ethereals can't take the form of angels or demons. Lilith is neither. :P
__________________
“It's not railroading if you offer the PCs tickets and they stampede to the box office, waving their money. Metaphorically speaking”
--Elizabeth McCoy, In Nomine Line Editor

Author: "What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger"
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Old 05-05-2014, 04:03 AM   #7
Azel
 
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Location: South of the Town across from the City by the Bay
Default Re: Share Campaign Premises!

Good stuff guys!

I'm gonna make another one that I think should be easily approachable to a beginner GM:

A tourist agent is developing a reputation for absolutely devoted customers. However upon first audit these customers seem to have had their packaged deals collapse into a whirlwind of chaos. You (and guests) are sent by the parent agency as incognito tourists to find out any connection of bad service or kickbacks to this tourist agent.

Great chance for a new GM to run an all human campaign, thrust into the hands of Wind and Destiny servitors. GM doesn't have to keep track of celestial powers as much as keeping them guessing and having a good time. Good recurring NPC practice, especially for subtle tricks and "don't I know you?" moments.
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Old 05-05-2014, 07:25 AM   #8
tHEhERETIC
 
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Life imitates art--I'm in Pohang
Default Re: Share Campaign Premises!

I'm a bad one for ripping off tropes and Supernatural subplots, though I swear half the time I put a plot in play and then see it on SN! Sick minds think alike?

My current campaign on PbP is actually a ripoff of "City on Fire", with a twist. Hidden in case current players don't want to see it...I know the temptation is huge... Instead of a Windy accidentally starting Armageddon, a pack of Ethereals are doing it on purpose to weaken the Celestials' grip on them.

Previous campaign, though, started out thus:

A sorceror (in the first draft, a tent-revival preacher) claims he can summon angels, which is strictly impossible. Imagine the party's surprise when they show up in the middle of the summoning and are greeted by awestruck acolytes! How did he do that, and is he a threat?

This evolved a bit to include what would become the main arc of the story.
The party is gathered seemingly at random by an angel who's either ditzy or is deliberately keeping you in the dark about what your actual mission is. He just keeps throwing these people--like the sorceror, who apparently is a friend of his--in your path. These people are shady, difficult, steeped in vice and just plain annoying...but always seem to be helpful when you need them.
What your evasive friend isn't telling you is that they're his recruits, and you're his random trial guinea pigs to vet them before he presents them to the Host.


The one I most enjoyed was the plot I wrote for an In Nomine LARP, which I'd gladly upload except that its format is way, way off what the SJG folks want--it's a complete print, gather props and play kit. But it goes like this:

A French nobleman is damned to roam the seas, gathering souls for Fate to earn himself a lifetime to atone. Unfortunately for his keeper the demon of Death-at-Sea, he's figured out that his life on his yacht is eternal, and not so bad. The PCs are a rough bunch collected from different historical eras who he has to convince to sign their souls to Hell. This is the 11th hour--will Etienne find a way to cheat his demonic keeper?
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Old 05-08-2014, 09:16 PM   #9
Archangel Beth
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Default Re: Share Campaign Premises!

I was listening to the radio and came up with a justification for titling a campaign premise "The Wheel in the Sky Keeps On Turning." (Or possibly burning. Whatever!)

It's at http://archangelbeth.dreamwidth.org/1631811.html , or here:


======

The first anyone had warning was when Gabriel appeared at one of Belial's Tethers and blew it up. When Belial appeared, Baal followed after, and Michael showed up next to contain the situation.

But after Belial walked into the firestorm that surrounded Gabriel's vessel, it is reported that she cried, "You know what I know! Will you have this world destroyed by any hand but your own?"

And Baal claims the Prince of Fire said, "No."

Then Gabriel approached him, took his vessel by the shoulders in an embrace, and the firestorm became a twisting rope of Fire that leaped to the sky and spread to encircle the Earth in a twisting, spinning, cage of flame -- impossibly just above the atmosphere.

Michael called Zadkiel to form a shield between the twisting, blazing, tornado-like tether that linked the Tether to Earth.

Lightning and Technology both acted to preserve certain orbital resources they had interests in, uncharacteristically ignoring each other.

Jean, in the Seraphim Council, announced that he was fortifying his Jupiter-Io Tether, and suggested Stone act for any heavenly body he cared to defend.

It was only a day later that the unhuman fleet arrived, and moved to devour the outer planets.

====================

1: Alien Invasion, apparently. Unclear whether these are ships refueling, biological space things grazing, or what. They didn't get Jupiter, though Jean is using more energy than he likes from his most massive Tether. (GM's option what else might've gotten et, though suggested that be restricted to the outer planets and moons...)

2: War has become non-secret, and something of a moot point, with a greater threat. Humans are still kind of freaking out as "night" becomes a very different concept, what with threads of fire spinning across the sky at unimaginably fast speeds.

3: Gabriel and Belial are not Summonable, though their Servitors know they're still around. Remarkably, Lucifer has stepped in to allow Belial's demons a certain breathing room rather than let Haagenti chow down. Gabriel's... are pretty used to this sort of thing anyway, though Soldekai is busier than ever.

4: Kronos has vanished -- though again, his Servitors are keeping on in his absence, and some of them behave as though they are still in communication with him. (Lying to cement their position, or...?)

5: Yves... appears to have taken on much of whatever was causing Gabriel's madness. He continues to have moments of clarity, and moments of non-clarity that are nevertheless germane to those around him, but mostly wanders the Library (and mortal libraries, and perhaps even Fate's Archive) in amiable dementia. In Heaven, at least, he is attended by flocks of relievers.

6: Eli has reappeared, with the explanation that he was the first one who tried to share the burden of Gabriel's Word-sharing pain (that came to a head when the threads Gabriel had relied on for stability, his position in Heaven and trust in Yves, were nearly severed -- the anger he/she felt then was enough to allow Belial's mindset to gain enough of a foothold to start a downhill slide...). Eli explained that he'd dispersed as many instantiations as possible when he realized he couldn't actually contain the strain, to keep Hell's forces from figuring out what was going on and taking him out. He's lending his considerable Word-power to protect, well, as much of Creation as he can.

7: No one knows if this is some ploy of Lucifer's, Fate's, both, or if this is a known danger that God had been trying to find a defense against. There is some speculation that the entire War may have been necessary in order to provide Heaven -- and Hell -- with experience in combat and defense, and with Tethers to grant Essence. Lucifer has been enigmatic, but with the occasional report that he seemed... in a sour mood.

8: And just when everyone has adjusted to the status quo, smaller ships (space-whale eggs?) have been dispatched from the fleet (herd?) and are on a course towards Earth. Is this something to ignore and hope the combined Gabriel-Belial fire-web will catch them all? Are these going to try to devour the inner planets which are less-protected? Or is this a chance to communicate with and find some peace with the invaders of the Solar System?

And the Wheel in the sky keeps on burning...
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Old 05-08-2014, 10:09 PM   #10
ladyarcana55
 
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Default Re: Share Campaign Premises!

The one time I ran a game, it was a one off. They had never played and I wanted to give them a taste. This was the game...

A brilliant young doctor has made some incredible advances that has garnered the attention of Heaven. She is heading to a conference to speak. It is believed that Hell will send people to either kill her or discredit her. Heaven has sent the angels in to protect her. Do what they must but she must remain oblivious to the War at all cost.
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