Cyberpunk In Nomine

[Shadowmourne]

So in a couple of months I'm going to start up my own IN campaign after playing a very enjoyable, quite high powered campaign over the past couple of years. As the title might indicate the campaign will be slightly heretical being set preceding March 22nd 2112.

The campaign will focus on the week leading up to the death of Eli and will follow the team of low force, newly fledged Angels sent back a week to figure out what happened (and intervene if possible).

To head off a couple of questions quickly: -
Why hasn't Time Travel been used before if it's possible?

Well it creates a huge amount of disturbance - and the greater the number of forces the exponentially greater the disturbance. It's too risky a tool to employ frequently - the very Wordbound/Sensechal of the Tether to the Past is kept under lock and key in Heaven.

Hopefully that will explain why newly fledged angels are being sent back as well - less disturbance that way.

Players will be allowed to play Angels of Eli and will still have all their rites working (given that he'll still be around once the game proper starts). Most are in service to another Superior anyway. They're welcome to even try and summon Eli and explain the situation to him if they wish.

“March 22nd 2112. A body was found dead this morning. We have identified it as Eli but a cloud hangs over who killed him and why. Raphael, the Angel of Time is sending back a small unit of low forces angels a week to Eli's arrival in Paris – in order to find out who in hell – or heaven – managed to kill the Archangel of Creation with the minimum amount of disturbance; and if possible to prevent this dire loss to the forces of Heaven.

“So Agents, what exactly do we know – what information can we provide you with before with re-transpose your Forces?

“Eli was killed in the café Bataclan on Passage Saint-Pierre Amelot in Paris where he was apparently bound in a role as a chef there. He appears to have been killed by a group of Hellsworn who call themselves “Le Fraternitie Beelzebul” or “The Brotherhood of Beelzebub” who claim to hold affiliation to Saminga.

“These facts do not seem to hold much water however. Saminga very rarely deals with mortals and we do not consider it likely that he was capable of such an act. Additionally, Eli created a good deal of disturbance as he died – a fact that on its own is quite strange and worthy of investigation. Finally, we found nothing in the Brotherhood's possession that indicated a Celestial origin – all of the weapons they employed were wholly mundane.

“Furthermore, due to the high density of Celestials within the Paris area, we find it surprising that we were wholly unaware of Eli's presence there (though not incredibly so) and that we had no inkling that anything was going on – surely players on both and neither side within Paris must have heard and known something.”


Next up - 22nd Century Technology and the War...

[Shadowmourne]

22nd Century Technology and the War: -

Jean and Yves have officially signed off on the use of Cybertechnology by humanity so worried Angels can rest easy that yes, it is part of humanity's destiny as a whole to develop this technology and yes, they are responsible enough to make use of it. That doesn't of course put everyone's mind at ease. The issues of cybertech and Celestials are manifold here are a handful of the hot topics and the current state of the debate: -

AI – the first human driven Artificial Intelligence appeared in the early years of the 21st Century. Whilst there have been so called AIs produced by Lightning and Technology previous to this, they have always been, pardon the pun, artificial – created out of raw forces rather than organically evolving from pieces of code. It was discovered that sufficiently advanced AIs could not only become Symphonically aware but also capable of producing dreamscapes in the Marches and causing dissonance for unwary Celestials. In Hell this has meant business as usual and each Prince takes their own approach to the new technology; for Heaven this resulted in the event casually referred to as the Rogue AI Meeting.

Rogue AI Meeting – it was soon after the discovery of dissonance producing AIs that the Council of Archangels met to discuss the Heavenly policy on the matter. Jean headed the meeting with Yves sitting to his right in acknowledgement of his role in the proceedings. The debate over the AIs was a long one that pitted the Council against itself in a way not seen since the debate of the Purity Crusade – something that Blandine (having already assigned several servitors to tend nascent Intelligences) accused others on the Council of trying to recreate. Suddenly, the sole Kyriotate, Jordi, spoke up - “These beings have the capacity to touch the Symphony as [and here he almost choked on his words] humans do? We are to encourage them and their growth so long as that growth is towards their Destiny and the Destiny of the world. A growth that nurtures and does not halt the growth of others.” Here, Christopher, Novalis and others murmured in agreement. Two resolutions were passed at that meeting – to acknowledge all AIs both grown and nascent as belonging to the same group of beings as humanity and to recognise the capacity in all life to reach a similar status. Many Angels commented on the irony of a meeting that many thought would herald the age of the downfall of Jordi, instead saw him move towards the rest of the Heavenly Host and they towards him.

Cyber-implants – a human in a plastic shell is still a human. The proof as it were, was in the dissonance and was rather conclusive. Implants are capable of increasing the abilities of a human but it does not affect the number of forces they have (for good or ill – the chrome body neither provides one with more Corporeal Forces (however much it will raise your strength) but neither does it sap one's “Humanity” or their Celestial Forces). This is important for Celestials because they hold a different relationship to their Forces to humans and whilst a Cyber-body may increase a human's capabilities, because the forces are unaffected, a Celestial is as capable (or not as the case may be) regardless of whether their vessel is flesh and blood or chrome and oil. Many implants still have a use for Celestials who wish to travel down that path but equally, a Laurentian Scabbard is as effective as the built in machine gun if not more so.

Some of these decisions have been made to make the rule changes fewer, whilst others (notably the shift in Jordi's position) are to make certain character types more viable for players.

What I'm looking for from you fine people are tips, advice and ideas both for running a IN campaign in general as well as specific ones for 22nd Century In Nomine. Obviously a lot will depend on the characters the players make - Dominicans and Laurentians will focus on different things to Creationers and Destinians. I've got some ideas for NPCs for the characters to come across but other than that it's wide open (up to and including the "real" cause of death). So hit me with everything you've got!

[Attercap]

Nybbas would be an interesting figure in a cyberpunk world. Seeing that he's not yet been able to get his fingers into the Internet, would the evolution in methods of information distribution begin to weaken his influence or has he finally been able to adapt to the more non-regulated styles of media which surely have developed since?

(As an aside: is Hulu.com the brainchild of Nybbas and is that what finally allows him to connect his Word to the Internet, or at least the Web?)

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Attercap

(As an aside: is Hulu.com the brainchild of Nybbas and is that what finally allows him to connect his Word to the Internet, or at least the Web?)

Not Hulu - YouTube. And that was a joint project with Kobal...

"Let's get the talking monkeys to show off making complete fools of themselves!"

"I don't have that much room on the schedule for reality shows, baby... Kobal."

"No need - just get your ex-boss to set up an Internet thing where they can do it themselves. The Internet is still popular on Earth, isn't it?"

"Only among the geeks. The Other Side has a Wordbound looking after it, so I'm showing it as something scary and un-understandable."

"Is that even a word?"

"It is now!"

"Go ahead, erode the language. At least Malphas might get a laugh out of that. But you have to get the talking monkeys to want to use the Internet, or they won't give you all that self-mocking content for free..."

"I see where you're coming from! Yeah, let's tap the pipeline for a change instead of trying to shut it down."

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Attercap

Nybbas would be an interesting figure in a cyberpunk world. Seeing that he's not yet been able to get his fingers into the Internet, would the evolution in methods of information distribution begin to weaken his influence or has he finally been able to adapt to the more non-regulated styles of media which surely have developed since?

OTOH, Orc might be the Arch Angel of networks now. A lot of this technology is going to boost his Word a lot.

[hcobb]

Why not just combine GIN with Gurps Cthulhupunk?

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Why not just combine GIN with Gurps Cthulhupunk?

Making the various Lovecraftian horrors Ethereals? That just might work...

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by robkelk

Making the various Lovecraftian horrors Ethereals? That just might work...

The two great powers have worn each each other down in their mighty conflict, leaving nobody to watch the marshes.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by robkelk

Not Hulu - YouTube. And that was a joint project with Kobal...

"Let's get the talking monkeys to show off making complete fools of themselves!"

"I don't have that much room on the schedule for reality shows, baby... Kobal."

"No need - just get your ex-boss to set up an Internet thing where they can do it themselves. The Internet is still popular on Earth, isn't it?"

"Only among the geeks. The Other Side has a Wordbound looking after it, so I'm showing it as something scary and un-understandable."

"Is that even a word?"

"It is now!"

"Go ahead, erode the language. At least Malphas might get a laugh out of that. But you have to get the talking monkeys to want to use the Internet, or they won't give you all that self-mocking content for free..."

"I see where you're coming from! Yeah, let's tap the pipeline for a change instead of trying to shut it down."

And it seemed like such a good idea until Janus and Valefor discovered it and began sinking Nybbas' network advertising revenues ... "They're posting the GOOD bits there? Without all the surrounding drek? Without the COMMERCIALS???"

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

And it seemed like such a good idea until Janus and Valefor discovered it and began sinking Nybbas' network advertising revenues ... "They're posting the GOOD bits there? Without all the surrounding drek? Without the COMMERCIALS???"

Remember, Kobal was involved. Nybbas misunderstood (a) what the joke was, and (b) who the joke was on.