New to In Nomine - Story

[GodBeastX]

I'm new to In Nomine play and I'm about to host a new game for friends. Specifically, I'm going to use GURPS rules since we're all familiar with them, but information in either ruleset is welcome.

Playerws will be a band of demons. I'm trying to work my head around a few concepts to prepare the flow. Firstly, I'd welcome any advice because it's my first time and haven't gotten a good "This is how it SHOULD be run" feel from it yet.

And something that I can't seem to answer at the moment is, other than Dissonance effects of Band and Demon Prince (They're all servitors) is there any advantages to being "demonic" as in just plain malicious to Humanity?

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

I'm new to In Nomine play and I'm about to host a new game for friends. Specifically, I'm going to use GURPS rules since we're all familiar with them, but information in either ruleset is welcome.

Have you got GURPS In Nomine? It's not 4e, but it's an easier starting point that reinventing the lot by yourself.

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

And something that I can't seem to answer at the moment is, other than Dissonance effects of Band and Demon Prince (They're all servitors) is there any advantages to being "demonic" as in just plain malicious to Humanity?

Take a look at Rites; most demonic ones involve doing something unpleasant to someone, and you get Essence for it.

[GodBeastX]

Yeah, using that source book and just some changes to make it 4E. So Rites and Dissonance is about the only reasons you have compelling your character to misbehave as a demon? Understood.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

Yeah, using that source book and just some changes to make it 4E. So Rites and Dissonance is about the only reasons you have compelling your character to misbehave as a demon? Understood.

From a game-mechanic sense, I believe that's correct. So you have to go past the game mechanics.

Stated in its most simplistic, The War is between the selfless (angels) and the selfish (demons), with humanity caught in the middle. Play that up - have NPC demons wonder why somebody would want to do anything for the "talking apes", or for other demons. "What's in it for me?" is the most common question a demon will ask, and "You'll owe me one" is the most common reply when asked for a favor. Back-stabbing the rest of the party should be expected, even if it never happens. Take a hint from the Paranoia game: Stay Alert, Trust No One, Keep Your Laser... er, Unholy Pistol Handy.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by robkelk

From a game-mechanic sense, I believe that's correct. So you have to go past the game mechanics.

Stated in its most simplistic, The War is between the selfless (angels) and the selfish (demons), with humanity caught in the middle. Play that up - have NPC demons wonder why somebody would want to do anything for the "talking apes", or for other demons. "What's in it for me?" is the most common question a demon will ask, and "You'll owe me one" is the most common reply when asked for a favor. Back-stabbing the rest of the party should be expected, even if it never happens. Take a hint from the Paranoia game: Stay Alert, Trust No One, Keep Your Laser... er, Unholy Pistol Handy.

The Infernal Player's Guide has a great piece on the psyche of a demon, but this is it in a nutshell. No one else is quite real for a demon, the world only makes sense in terms of what it can do for you or what it can do to you. And humans exist to have things done to them, as far as Hell is concerned.

[tHEhERETIC]

An amusing thought just crossed my mind that you might consider:

Your PCs' party is made up of a bunch of demons--don't trust each other, expect to be paid for every little thing, expect to get their backs stabbed for no reason, otherwise think canonically. However, your players are good humans who understand that cooperation works, so while the characters think like demons they act like a party.

Some angel notices this and congratulates them on their unselfishness, and are you sure you want to work for Hell? Or maybe that "angel" is just a servitor of Malphas (factions) or Asmodeus (internal affairs) who's looking to snitch on your party before he throws the appropriate Song into your mix.

There's a power that directly causes hissy fits within groups--the name escapes me at the moment but I'll edit this post when I find it. I also found Fog of War to be fantastically useful, since your buddy will never believe you when you say you shot him by accident...

--edit-- "Imbroglio" servitor attunement for Malphas. Makes people within range emotionally hypersensitive, interpreting anything said or done in the most offensive possible way. Core rulebook.

"Fog of War" servitor attunement for Baal. Pick an armed opponent and bend his perceptions to believe one of his allies is an enemy. Nearly got my main NPC beheaded that way--actually the roll had him beheaded but for story's sake the PC merely took off his arm at the shoulder. The Baal writeup including this is in the book Revelations 4: the Final Trumpet.

[Jason]

Aside from rites that encourage you to be a jerk, the Shedite resonance is the one mechanically-supported thing about demons that really makes them out to be the bad guys. Shedim are REQUIRED to regularly corrupt their hosts, which can present issues to a group that prefers "backwards" In Nomine (demons as individualistic freedom fighters battling the Heavenly fascist regime of groupthink). But then again, the original rule book specifies that even other demons find Shedim creepy and distasteful, so there's definitely room for interpretation.

I think there are some other threads around here that offer ways to spin demonic powers as not necessarily quite so bad, or even helpful to humans, if you're interested in exploring that at all. It all basically boils down to thinking of demons as kind of like those who have "freed their minds" from The Matrix: This reality is an illusion imposed upon us all by a distant and uncaring overlord, and forcing humans to transgress against arbitrary laws can only help them take charge of their own lives. But of course, any human can be possessed by an Agent—errrr, Kyriotate—at any time, so sometimes you have no choice but to blow their brains out.

[alexondria]

Originally Posted by Jason

Aside from rites that encourage you to be a jerk, the Shedite resonance is the one mechanically-supported thing about demons that really makes them out to be the bad guys. Shedim are REQUIRED to regularly corrupt their hosts, which can present issues to a group that prefers "backwards" In Nomine (demons as individualistic freedom fighters battling the Heavenly fascist regime of groupthink). But then again, the original rule book specifies that even other demons find Shedim creepy and distasteful, so there's definitely room for interpretation.

You could still work a backwards game by just defining what corruption is. If you define the axis as slave to the conformist regime that is currently in charge as the status quo and anything that brings someone further away from that making them more individual as corruption there you go.

[Omegonthesane]

Originally Posted by alexondria

You could still work a backwards game by just defining what corruption is. If you define the axis as slave to the conformist regime that is currently in charge as the status quo and anything that brings someone further away from that making them more individual as corruption there you go.

I think if there was a 2nd Edition that wasn't allowed to fundamentally rethink everything about how Kyriotates and Shedim work, the best solution would be that Shedim had to corrupt the host relative to the host's own standards. This way, no mechanics have to change for the demons to be the good guys - the Shedite just consistently has a host violate the mores that are holding them back and/or making them a terrible person. For example, under this model a Backwards Shedite might possess a Tea Party member and slowly bring them around into an LGBT rights activist by repeatedly violating the bits of the host's morals that define homosexuality as wrong, while a forwards Shedite could just act like a traditional stereotype of a Shedite since basically everyone has some standard that on its own sounds non-evil.

[GodBeastX]

Thanks for all the replies. It's given me food for thought. What comes from the players is pretty much up to the players, I was just checking if there was something I missed.

Motivators for behaviors is primarily what I'm investigating right now so I can makes conflicts and story a lot easier for the team.