In Nomine : Ethereal Players Guide

[brass]

Possibly my favourite source book for In Nomine is the Ethereal players guide. Well layed out easy to read and a complete plausible reworking of the Marches. So far I've got a once off and a short campaign (set on a ship mini domain in the far marches) and a frind of mine was so inspired by it (and Neil Gaiman's "American Gods") that he's taking his first GM steps into In Nomine next year and running a just ethereals campaign in a city.

What does everyone else think of the book? And has anyone else made use of it?

[Jennifer]

Me, I'm not so big on the ethereals. I like to play corporeals and celestials mainly, and only use ethereals as NPCs for the most part.

I loved the EPG anyway. It fixes the rules for Ethereal combat, which are very useful for anyone involved in the War, corporeal or celestial. Ethereal combat is a great way to harass enemy Soldiers, for instance. Their celestial handlers have to either respond (which takes them away from their other nocturnal duties) or watch their Soldiers turn into useless nutjobs.

Best of all, the EPG has Tsayadim rules. I played a Seraph of Purity using those rules and had a blast. I love Tsayadim.

[Lucius Drake]

It is nice to have the new rules for Ethereal combat, and a couple of Purity Attunements (I think it would have been nice to include them all - even if there are few Tsadyim of the particular choirs).

I found the EPG to have a complete set of confusing rules for creating characters that I don't need, and was happy to have remain as fringe beings/creatures.

I'm glad that the book exists, but after reading my friend's copy, it didn't make it near my list of books to own.

My humble 2 essence.

[fadethecat]

It's easily my favorite In Nomine book ever. If I ever run an In Nomine game, it will be about ethereals, and I nearly ran an entire furry Vikings ethereals game once using alternate history and the EPG... I find the character creation methods there so much more satisfying than the standard ones, the setting of the Marches full of possibility, and the possible characters far more interesting.

What can I say? I like more choices in character creation, and the EPG really gives that to me. I like characters who have more personal agendas, and most of the ways I can do that with angels and demons in In Nomine just aren't satisfying to me. I'd still love to run an EPG campaign some time; where the rest of In Nomine makes me nod, think it's cool, and admire other people's ideas, I have so many ideas of my own for the ethereals...

[harlecerule]

I adore the EPG. Its beauty is only exceeded by its grandeur and its grandeur is only exceeded by its beauty. I have more than one Ethereal kicking around my brain, and get more ideas every time I leaf through it again, and I also hope to foray into the Marches sooner or later in a game I've been planning for a while. >)

[Dr T. Jackson]

I consider it reference material - even though a good portion of my games have been run in the Marches, using the EPG to come up with Ethereals is just too long a process. You can whack out a Celestial in moments compared to the work you have to do to create a Ethereal.

I'm glad it's on my bookshelf though.

[Archangel Beth]

Originally Posted by Lucius Drake

I found the EPG to have a complete set of confusing rules for creating characters that I don't need, and was happy to have remain as fringe beings/creatures.

As a note, one of the first playtest comments ever on the EPG was, roughly, "Good lord, this is confusing!" The person in question later came back and said, "Okay, after making a few, this isn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be." (With the implication that it wasn't a steep learning curve.)

Mind, if you don't neeeeeeeed to design one, it's still not going to be a book you Need. But it ought to be easier to make them than it looks at first blush when you actually start.

(The various charts and whatnot that are sprinkled liberally throughout were supposed to make it *look* easier, though. Oh, well.)

So if you wind up wanting a fully-designed ethereal for some reason, I hope you give it a try. Look, I'll do big shimmery anime eyes! O8>

[brass]

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

As a note, one of the first playtest comments ever on the EPG was, roughly, "Good lord, this is confusing!" The person in question later came back and said, "Okay, after making a few, this isn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be." (With the implication that it wasn't a steep learning curve.)

Personally my players had a easy enough time of it, (only one being a In Nomine veteran).and they seem to quite enjoy it after picking stereotyppes and mythic figures. The elements and dreads imparticular worked really well.

[Isawa Brian]

Originally Posted by brass

Possibly my favourite source book for In Nomine is the Ethereal players guide. Well layed out easy to read and a complete plausible reworking of the Marches. So far I've got a once off and a short campaign (set on a ship mini domain in the far marches) and a frind of mine was so inspired by it (and Neil Gaiman's "American Gods") that he's taking his first GM steps into In Nomine next year and running a just ethereals campaign in a city.

What does everyone else think of the book? And has anyone else made use of it?

The EPG is pretty high on my list for a number of reasons. First, while I prefer angels, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for other religious interpretations- especially Norse, Greek, Hindu, and Shinto. Second, I rarely restrict the IN campaigns I come up with to a single or even dual scope- so sooner or later, I want the Ethereals involved. Finally, since I like to mix IN into out-system settings, Ethereals brings in a lot of important cultural information about adapting to worlds where, say, there wasn't a Purity Crusade.

Technically, I also like it a great deal. It's very clear, and it makes a lot of earlier problems when dealing with the Ethereal stuff (not just the Ethereals themselves) go away. I also like the character generation summary, of which I hope to have similar versions of included in the basebook if we ever get another edition.