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Old 05-08-2007, 03:16 PM   #1
Erstwhile
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Default In Nomine - Through the Ages!

I'm planning out a campaign that (as usual) may or may not materialize, but, hey, I can always add it to my Binder of Multitudinous Unused Campaigns...

Anyway, the idea is that the characters start out as beginning Celestials hundreds of years ago, and we play "episodes" through the years. Once we reach the modern day (if we ever do) it'll become a more "standard" campaign, but with significantly more powerful characters. Between episodes, characters can spend their accumulated XP and maybe spend a few on skills like languages etc. I don't have a lot of detail plotted out ('cause I wanna wait until it's definite that we're actually going to play) but here are some episodes I'm considering. I welcome any thoughts, suggestions for changes or new episodes, etc.

Start: The Great Fire of Rome (i.e. the one Nero fiddled through) and its aftermath (persecution of Christians). Start in media res - the city's afire, what do you do? And then move on to protection of the nascent Christian community. I considered Starting Big and have the campaign begin at the birth of Christ, but that was just too damn hard to sort out the implications.

The Fall of Rome - rescue people/artifacts/something-or-other from the advancing hordes.

The Rise of Islam/the Trial of Gabriel - not dealing so much with the corporeal realm, but rather with the Celestial politics around the whole thing.

The Crusades - hmm, not quite sure about this'un. Maybe set it in Constantinople and deal with inter-Crusader feuding. (Depending on the makeup of the party - if there are pro-Islam angels, actually setting this in the Holy Land has a lot of potential.) There's potential in the Albigensian Crusade and the fall of the Templars, too...

The Black Plague - deal with minions of Makatiel, Prince of Disease, and the aftermath of Makatiel's fall. Probably leave the Mediterranean and perhaps move to Merrie Olde Englande...

The Black Plague, redux - set a couple of hundred years later. The Plague returns thanks to an artifact of Makatiel, now in the possession of a follower of Saminga.

The Rise of Fleurity - based around the establishment of the Opium trade. Intrigue on the streets of London.

Across the Pond - I have a scenario that I used previously set in the 19th C U.S. - not tied to any great historical events but it'll serve to get the PC's over to North America. (If we get to the modern day it'll be set in Vancouver, B.C., most likely.)

A House Divided - Because, y'know. Why wouldn't you get the characters involved in the American Civil War, or at least the lead-up thereto? (Again, depends on the makeup of the group.)

That's as far as I've got. :)
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Old 05-09-2007, 04:13 AM   #2
Methariel
 
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Default Re: In Nomine - Through the Ages!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Erstwhile
The Black Plague - deal with minions of Makatiel, Prince of Disease, and the aftermath of Makatiel's fall. Probably leave the Mediterranean and perhaps move to Merrie Olde Englande...

The Black Plague, redux - set a couple of hundred years later. The Plague returns thanks to an artifact of Makatiel, now in the possession of a follower of Saminga.
Between these two you could have an episode in the Thirty Year's War, short of the two World Wars the most bloody war on the European continent - with religious issues (Catholicism vs. Protestantism (while the Protestants were being helped by the Catholic King of France)) as a "main theme" in this war. The demons of Baal, Beleth, Saminga (and, during the total destruction of Magdeburg, Belial) had surely reveled in that conflict - and Michael's, David's and especially Laurence's angels perhaps had a bad time, because on both sides of the conflict there were brave and noble people.

With hopes of being helpful,

Methariel
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Old 05-13-2007, 04:42 AM   #3
Sagitta
 
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Your lack of pirates disturbs me.
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Old 05-13-2007, 07:30 AM   #4
whswhs
 
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Default Re: In Nomine - Through the Ages!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Erstwhile
The Crusades - hmm, not quite sure about this'un. Maybe set it in Constantinople and deal with inter-Crusader feuding. (Depending on the makeup of the party - if there are pro-Islam angels, actually setting this in the Holy Land has a lot of potential.) There's potential in the Albigensian Crusade and the fall of the Templars, too...
There is something to be said for playing the other side. I ran a superhero campaign set during the First Crusade, with the PCs as "ghazi" granted miraculous powers by Allah, based on a suggestion by Ken Hite in his Pyramid column. I don't imagine you'd actually want to alter the outcome in your campaign, but a case could be made that trying to defeat the crusaders was the righteous course of action, given things like their slaughter of the people of Jerusalem—not just Muslims but Jews and even local Christians. If you wanted a campaign with a grim and tragic feel, of course.

Quote:
The Black Plague, redux - set a couple of hundred years later. The Plague returns thanks to an artifact of Makatiel, now in the possession of a follower of Saminga.
Try, for example, the outbreak of plague in the later 17th century that drove Isaac Newton out of London. That gives you interesting historical context such as the founding of the Royal Society and the bawdiness of the Restoration (good films for the latter are The Libertine and Stage Beauty).

Quote:
The Rise of Fleurity - based around the establishment of the Opium trade. Intrigue on the streets of London.
A bit more ambiguous back then. For one thing, opium was perfectly legal, and thus the trade in it didn't give rise to the socially disruptive effects of gangsterism and police corruption that it generates now; dealing in opium was more like owning a liquor store—that is, it's something that Marc might support. (On the other hand, the development of heroin, marketed as a safe, nonaddictive cure for opium addiction seems like a plausible feat for Fleurity, backed up by Vapula and possibly Kobal.) For another, well, opium really did have legitimate medical uses; it's often pointed out that when Marx called religion "the opiate of the masses" he can be read as praising it, as the only relief many people had from a life of suffering. A treatment that explored the moral ambiguities would perhaps be more interesting.

Quote:
Across the Pond - I have a scenario that I used previously set in the 19th C U.S. - not tied to any great historical events but it'll serve to get the PC's over to North America. (If we get to the modern day it'll be set in Vancouver, B.C., most likely.)

A House Divided - Because, y'know. Why wouldn't you get the characters involved in the American Civil War, or at least the lead-up thereto? (Again, depends on the makeup of the group.)
In dealing with North America and slavery, something might be made of picking a Caribbean setting, focused on sugar rather than tobacco or cotton. Caribbean slavery seems to have been more brutal than slavery in the United States; the working life of a slave averaged only a few years. And I've read comments about the morally inverted life of the white elite in Jamaica, where institutions such as religion and marriage were openly held in contempt. That would be a good hard posting for angelic PCs.

The other thing that occurs to me as a notable historical epoch is the Great War. I'm thinking, for example, of a Kipling short story about saints and angels on duty at the gates of heaven, trying to process the massive influx of victims of the war and get as many of them as possible into heaven—the scenes with the prostitute and the atheist are especially fun. But angels trying to help people down in the trenches could have an interesting time, too.

Bill Stoddard
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Old 05-17-2007, 04:31 AM   #5
alangriffith
 
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Default Re: In Nomine - Through the Ages!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Methariel
Between these two you could have an episode in the Thirty Year's War, short of the two World Wars the most bloody war on the European continent - with religious issues (Catholicism vs. Protestantism (while the Protestants were being helped by the Catholic King of France)) as a "main theme" in this war. The demons of Baal, Beleth, Saminga (and, during the total destruction of Magdeburg, Belial) had surely reveled in that conflict -
You forget Mahlpas, who I imagine was either the architect or at least the greatest benificiary of the entire protestant/catholic split (and all religious intersplits since). I know Laurence started it with luther, but where it led (war, torture, problems in Ireland which still persist) is so obviously a big Malphas thing.
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Old 05-21-2007, 12:45 AM   #6
Methariel
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alangriffith
You forget Mahlpas, who I imagine was either the architect or at least the greatest benificiary of the entire protestant/catholic split (and all religious intersplits since).
Ah, you're right, how could I forget that guy - after my players disrupted a plan of his and are now experiencing misfortune after misfortune... But I'm trailing off.
Yes, Malphas did indeed benefit of the Thirty-Years-War - and maybe incited the murder of Wallenstein...

Methariel
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Old 05-25-2007, 02:49 AM   #7
Glamourweaver
 
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One element you might want to play up in Rome is the conflicting patronages of Uriel (Malakite Archangel of Purity, at-the-time Commander of the Host) and Beelzebub (Djinn Prince of Corruption).

Obviously Beelzebub would love Nero; I can't remember if Uriel had endorsed Christianity yet by this period...

The conflict between the two ends with the soul-death of Beelzebub by Uriel's sword.
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