Ethereal/Mixed Campaigns

Jason · 10-08-2009, 03:39 PM

I just picked up the Ethereal Player's Guide, and I am impressed. It's practically another whole game in itself. I hate to be cliche, but the phrase "the possibilities are endless" comes to mind.

In fact, the possibilities are SO endless that it's actually easier for me to come up with ethereals-only campaign ideas, as if this were another game entirely, than to come up with ideas that actually fit well into a traditional In Nomine campaign with ethereal PCs. I imagine it could be especially tricky to fit angelic and ethereal PCs into a game together, given that the EPG specifies that Laurence has standing orders to kill/deport ethereals in the corporeal realm on sight. (Considering that it's dissonant for angels of the Sword to disobey the word or spirit of Laurence's orders, a "standing order" like this might as well be listed under his canonic dissonance conditions.) I guess Laurencians are to angel/ethereal games what Malakim are to angel/demon campaigns...

The EPG offers some tips for mixed campaigns at the end of the book, and I've got a couple ideas of my own, but I was wondering if anybody had any "war stories" of campaigns you've run or been in that could speak to this.

Acolyte · 10-09-2009, 02:40 AM

Well, I just joined a pre-existing angelic campaign (which features a Judgment angel as well as several other angels--including a Bright Lilim) run by another member of the boards (most of the players are likewise active posters here) as an Ethereal. I haven't quite played through enough sessions to have war stories, but here are my thoughts so far...

-- concept is key. A lot of the ethereal concepts/affinities/strains run pretty directly opposed to Heaven (or opposed to Hell), and forcing together two natural enemies isn't likely to end well. That said, some Ethereals that would get along best with a Flowers/Destiny/Dreams/Trade angelic team would be terrible for a War/Stone/the Wind game.

-- the Ethereal paranoia about death and resulting compulsion to obtain Essence whenever possible seems initially very selfish from an angelic point of view. An Ethereal working with angels has to be very careful about this. An Ethereal working with demons is likely to find them even more selfish and thus not worried about his thievery.

-- A good way to justify an Ethereal alongside angels, even angels serving The Sword, is to have the Ethereal renounce any pretensions of godhood/worship and sincerely believe in God as the One True God (this is the route I chose, invoking a Divine Intervention in the Ethereal's recent past). Angelic resonances--especially Superior-level resonances--can quickly exonerate an Ethereal of any ill intent, selfishness, or hypocrisy. Except possible on Infernal Interventions (impossible in Heaven...), angelic senses can't lie, and many angels (especially those with lingering Crusader's guilt, for more see http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=61741 ) might be relieved to see selfless and devout Ethereals swearing allegiance to Heaven and noting that their angelic senses report this as factual. I'm not sure what the GM told the other angels about my PC when I was resonated, but it made them all very willing to accept him--much to his surprise (he's convinced God is right, but not necessarily individual angels, and most of his contact with angels until recently has been being hunted by them).

-- Unfortunately, demons don't have this kind of obvious reliable intel; I suspect that an Ethereal working with demons has to make it very clear to them that cooperation will 1) serve him, providing them with a rationale for his actions, and 2) will assist them. With the EPG, though, the many unique abilities of Ethereals do in fact make them valuable assets. The difficult part is not getting used outright. Demons of Kronos should be disposed towards working with Ethereals, since an Ethereal doing all it can to serve Hell is probably well on its way to a Fated outcome.

Give us a few more sessions, and I might have more thoughts (the other players can chime in with their perspectives from the other side of the fence).

Regarding the EPG as a whole, though, it's really interesting and has great stuff in it, but I agree that it's more like an entirely new game than a supplement, and that on the same lines the affinity/strand mechanics don't really jive well with the attunement/Choir/Word ones. Ethereals are more unlike celestials or humans than celetials and humans are like each other, which is weird. I might be interested someday in an all Ethereal campaign where the War is only a backdrop, not a plot.

Jason · 10-09-2009, 06:10 AM

Thanks for the response; that's really interesting. You know, now that you mention it, the EPG brings up the ethereal "conspiracy theories" a lot, regarding beliefs that YHWH is just a buffed ethereal who pulled the wool over the world's eyes, but ethereals themselves tend to have REALLY high Intelligence ... so it's likely enough that some ethereals would know better.

alexondria · 10-09-2009, 07:33 AM

well you can go with a Heretical campaign where the Ethereals are right and YHWH is just a buffed ethereal, you can do a demonic campaign- a lot of the Ethereals fled to Beleth and Nybbas to escape the crusades and still get to work with humans, or you can do like I'm doing in my current campaign- I don't remember all the strands off the top of my head but the leader of a faction of Ethereals that had been hiding in the deep Marches rather than pledging alliegence to Beleth came to Gabriel's attention. The Ethereal in question had the fire affinity, glamour affinity, and I think something with the moon- not sure what though- this may or may not have been a legal character but was supposed to be a very old Ethereal- anyway in my campain Gabby has given him and his faction sanctuary and some of them even have been given vessels by her so that they can help mankind- I'm letting her take back some of the imspiration aspects of her word this way- and of course even Laurance is loath to walk into her volcano and say "no bad Gabby you can't do that" at least in my campaign.

Jason · 10-09-2009, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexondria

in my campain Gabby has given him and his faction sanctuary and some of them even have been given vessels by her so that they can help mankind- I'm letting her take back some of the imspiration aspects of her word this way- and of course even Laurance is loath to walk into her volcano and say "no bad Gabby you can't do that" at least in my campaign.

What a great idea! I need to get better at remembering to make good use of the "wild card" Superiors who might do zany stuff like this.

The approaches I have been brainstorming about since posting this include:

1) An alternative to Destiny and Fate

Every human has a Destiny and a Fate, but what about those wishes, hopes, and dreams that don't move them toward Heaven or Hell? From the perspective of an agnostic, reincarnation may seem a preferable alternative to permanent migration to the celestial realm. Even some celestials, disenchanted with the War, may see this as a valid alternative to trying to nudge humans in one direction or another.

The Society of the Crossroads is one organization that brings together Outcast angels, well-meaning ethereals, and Renegade demons who see themselves as the real rebels, interested not in corrupting humankind but in promoting the notion that humans should be free to decide their own truth rather than having one assigned from on high. Its council of elders includes the Angel of Crossroads, the Demon of Crossroads, and Hecate, Goddess of Crossroads. They're leaving a seat open for Lilith, but she isn't big on attending meetings.

2) Working for Servitors of Dreams on Earth

Broderick, Elohite of Dreams and the Angel of Only a Dream, is charged with keeping ethereals and Servitors of Nightmares from meddling in human lives on Earth. He grants a Servitor attunement (Disturbing Dreams) that allows an angel to distinguish ethereal disturbances in the Symphony.

Dorothea, Seraph of Dreams and the Angel of Dreams Come True, sees mortals' dreams as worthwhile in and of themselves, and thus considers herself something of a patron and friend to dream spirits who "know their place" in the food chain, as it were, as servants and shepherds of humanity. She grants a Servitor attunement (Impossible Dream) that allows an angel to make a Dreaming skill roll to mask Symphonic disturbance when Essence is used to improve a skill roll.

Aislin, Mercurian of Dreams and the Angel of Daydreaming, promotes imagination, relaxation, and escape, often employing or collaborating with Servitors of Creation and Fire. She grants a Servitor attunement (Waking Visions) that allows an angel to focus completely on a daydreaming mortal, making a Perception roll to perceive CelF + CD seconds of daydreaming, once per day per person.

These three angels have often crossed paths and collaborated, and all three are rumored to employ selfless and well-intentioned ethereals to aid in their goals.

Archangel Beth · 10-11-2009, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason

I just picked up the Ethereal Player's Guide, and I am impressed. It's practically another whole game in itself. [...] In fact, the possibilities are SO endless that it's actually easier for me to come up with ethereals-only campaign ideas, as if this were another game entirely,

In truth? I can totally see this as a viable option. Call a 111 a crit success, and a 666 a crit failure, and run with it. Or, heck, make 116 a crit success!

I would be able to make comments about this, but for the most part, the characters who went traipsing through the Marches picked up no ethereal buddies, and in the end, they didn't even fight the dragon. *headdesk*

ISNorden · 10-11-2009, 07:53 PM

In a campaign centered on the Marches as a "third faction", I'd be tempted to recommend my Gray Celestials as possible player characters--especially servitors of Imagination, Memory, and the Twilight (three Words that define what the Ethereal is).

If you feel like bending canon a little less, why not have Lilith refuse Lucifer's offer, seek freedom from both Hell and Heaven--and become Queen of Dreamshades after her death...a power that even Blandine and Beleth have to pull out all the stops to defeat?

Rocket Man · 10-11-2009, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ISNorden

If you feel like bending canon a little less, why not have Lilith refuse Lucifer's offer, seek freedom from both Hell and Heaven--and become Queen of Dreamshades after her death...a power that even Blandine and Beleth have to pull out all the stops to defeat?

And one very heretical idea for achieving that can be found in the first post here: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=794562

And here's ISNorden's earlier work on the Grays she mentioned: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=59015

William · 10-14-2009, 08:57 PM

I set an entire campaign in the Marches: Civis, an outpost of Heaven in the Far Marches attempting to overcome bad old memories, fight Beleth's and Nybbas' active recruitment among ethereals, establish some trade relations, curtail ethereal influence on human dreamers, and "other purposes as required."

The logs are entirely up here. It was one of my longer campaigns, and I had good players, so I'm fond of it. Feel free to browse, steal to your heart's content, and declare any of our interpretations of canon and rules completely banned from your campaign.

banditangel · 10-15-2009, 01:41 AM

It'd be interesting to run an ethereal campaign, where the players are from the Far Marches and genuinely unaware of the war. The Purity Crusade was long enough ago to have faded in to distant memory, a story told to scare young spirits and gods in to obeying the rulers of the realm. It'd require a world where the corporeal realm is fairly sparse with celestial influence, of course :)

10-08-2009, 03:39 PM	#1
Jason Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Boston, MA	Ethereal/Mixed Campaigns I just picked up the Ethereal Player's Guide, and I am impressed. It's practically another whole game in itself. I hate to be cliche, but the phrase "the possibilities are endless" comes to mind. In fact, the possibilities are SO endless that it's actually easier for me to come up with ethereals-only campaign ideas, as if this were another game entirely, than to come up with ideas that actually fit well into a traditional In Nomine campaign with ethereal PCs. I imagine it could be especially tricky to fit angelic and ethereal PCs into a game together, given that the EPG specifies that Laurence has standing orders to kill/deport ethereals in the corporeal realm on sight. (Considering that it's dissonant for angels of the Sword to disobey the word or spirit of Laurence's orders, a "standing order" like this might as well be listed under his canonic dissonance conditions.) I guess Laurencians are to angel/ethereal games what Malakim are to angel/demon campaigns... The EPG offers some tips for mixed campaigns at the end of the book, and I've got a couple ideas of my own, but I was wondering if anybody had any "war stories" of campaigns you've run or been in that could speak to this.

10-09-2009, 02:40 AM	#2
Acolyte Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Seattle	Re: Ethereal/Mixed Campaigns Well, I just joined a pre-existing angelic campaign (which features a Judgment angel as well as several other angels--including a Bright Lilim) run by another member of the boards (most of the players are likewise active posters here) as an Ethereal. I haven't quite played through enough sessions to have war stories, but here are my thoughts so far... -- concept is key. A lot of the ethereal concepts/affinities/strains run pretty directly opposed to Heaven (or opposed to Hell), and forcing together two natural enemies isn't likely to end well. That said, some Ethereals that would get along best with a Flowers/Destiny/Dreams/Trade angelic team would be terrible for a War/Stone/the Wind game. -- the Ethereal paranoia about death and resulting compulsion to obtain Essence whenever possible seems initially very selfish from an angelic point of view. An Ethereal working with angels has to be very careful about this. An Ethereal working with demons is likely to find them even more selfish and thus not worried about his thievery. -- A good way to justify an Ethereal alongside angels, even angels serving The Sword, is to have the Ethereal renounce any pretensions of godhood/worship and sincerely believe in God as the One True God (this is the route I chose, invoking a Divine Intervention in the Ethereal's recent past). Angelic resonances--especially Superior-level resonances--can quickly exonerate an Ethereal of any ill intent, selfishness, or hypocrisy. Except possible on Infernal Interventions (impossible in Heaven...), angelic senses can't lie, and many angels (especially those with lingering Crusader's guilt, for more see http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=61741 ) might be relieved to see selfless and devout Ethereals swearing allegiance to Heaven and noting that their angelic senses report this as factual. I'm not sure what the GM told the other angels about my PC when I was resonated, but it made them all very willing to accept him--much to his surprise (he's convinced God is right, but not necessarily individual angels, and most of his contact with angels until recently has been being hunted by them). -- Unfortunately, demons don't have this kind of obvious reliable intel; I suspect that an Ethereal working with demons has to make it very clear to them that cooperation will 1) serve him, providing them with a rationale for his actions, and 2) will assist them. With the EPG, though, the many unique abilities of Ethereals do in fact make them valuable assets. The difficult part is not getting used outright. Demons of Kronos should be disposed towards working with Ethereals, since an Ethereal doing all it can to serve Hell is probably well on its way to a Fated outcome. Give us a few more sessions, and I might have more thoughts (the other players can chime in with their perspectives from the other side of the fence). Regarding the EPG as a whole, though, it's really interesting and has great stuff in it, but I agree that it's more like an entirely new game than a supplement, and that on the same lines the affinity/strand mechanics don't really jive well with the attunement/Choir/Word ones. Ethereals are more unlike celestials or humans than celetials and humans are like each other, which is weird. I might be interested someday in an all Ethereal campaign where the War is only a backdrop, not a plot. __________________ “The world is going to Hell in a hand-basket, but I’ve got Good News: I saved my soul by switching to Heaven.” —Baruel, former Djinn of the Media, now Cherub of Destiny and the Angel of Good News

10-09-2009, 06:10 AM	#3
Jason Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Boston, MA	Re: Ethereal/Mixed Campaigns Thanks for the response; that's really interesting. You know, now that you mention it, the EPG brings up the ethereal "conspiracy theories" a lot, regarding beliefs that YHWH is just a buffed ethereal who pulled the wool over the world's eyes, but ethereals themselves tend to have REALLY high Intelligence ... so it's likely enough that some ethereals would know better.

10-09-2009, 07:33 AM	#4
alexondria Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Atlanta GA	Re: Ethereal/Mixed Campaigns well you can go with a Heretical campaign where the Ethereals are right and YHWH is just a buffed ethereal, you can do a demonic campaign- a lot of the Ethereals fled to Beleth and Nybbas to escape the crusades and still get to work with humans, or you can do like I'm doing in my current campaign- I don't remember all the strands off the top of my head but the leader of a faction of Ethereals that had been hiding in the deep Marches rather than pledging alliegence to Beleth came to Gabriel's attention. The Ethereal in question had the fire affinity, glamour affinity, and I think something with the moon- not sure what though- this may or may not have been a legal character but was supposed to be a very old Ethereal- anyway in my campain Gabby has given him and his faction sanctuary and some of them even have been given vessels by her so that they can help mankind- I'm letting her take back some of the imspiration aspects of her word this way- and of course even Laurance is loath to walk into her volcano and say "no bad Gabby you can't do that" at least in my campaign.

10-11-2009, 07:53 PM	#7
ISNorden Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Madison, WI	Re: Ethereal/Mixed Campaigns In a campaign centered on the Marches as a "third faction", I'd be tempted to recommend my Gray Celestials as possible player characters--especially servitors of Imagination, Memory, and the Twilight (three Words that define what the Ethereal is). If you feel like bending canon a little less, why not have Lilith refuse Lucifer's offer, seek freedom from both Hell and Heaven--and become Queen of Dreamshades after her death...a power that even Blandine and Beleth have to pull out all the stops to defeat? __________________ Ingeborg S. Nordén

10-14-2009, 08:57 PM	#9
William Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan	Re: Ethereal/Mixed Campaigns I set an entire campaign in the Marches: Civis, an outpost of Heaven in the Far Marches attempting to overcome bad old memories, fight Beleth's and Nybbas' active recruitment among ethereals, establish some trade relations, curtail ethereal influence on human dreamers, and "other purposes as required." The logs are entirely up here. It was one of my longer campaigns, and I had good players, so I'm fond of it. Feel free to browse, steal to your heart's content, and declare any of our interpretations of canon and rules completely banned from your campaign.

10-15-2009, 01:41 AM	#10
banditangel Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Portland, OR	Re: Ethereal/Mixed Campaigns It'd be interesting to run an ethereal campaign, where the players are from the Far Marches and genuinely unaware of the war. The Purity Crusade was long enough ago to have faded in to distant memory, a story told to scare young spirits and gods in to obeying the rulers of the realm. It'd require a world where the corporeal realm is fairly sparse with celestial influence, of course :)