bluegargantua

I know! :(

Tom

From:

jmspencer.livejournal.com

That is the best thing I've heard all day... and it far beats out what me and my friends have come up with, including the Power of Accidentally Getting Run Over By A Bus.

I'm still trying to figure out the excruciation of the Power of Disco... cause it had to have happened.

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It's not that Disco got excrutiated. The Power of New Wave collaborated with the Power of House to take Disco down, and nettled Disco something fierce, so now all Disco can do is curry favor with the Power of Nostalgia. New Wave in turn got smacked by the Power of Techno, who is sharing turf with the Power of Hip Hop, both of whom have a detente with the Powers of Country and Line Dancing.

From:

jmspencer.livejournal.com

Sadly, I got that comment before midnight, and it just supplanted the above entry on the funniest thing I'd heard all day. What I want to know is where does the Power of Rap fit into all this. Also, is the Power of Oldies slowly gaining in power and influence until it becomes so enormously powerful it covers all of music made before, say, last Tuesday? And is music going out of style merely a representation of the Power of Oldies getting another point in Domain and expanding to cover the now "old" style?

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What happened was that the Power of Popular Music was so irritating that the Imperator withdrew his Shard, and Ennobled a bunch of lesser concepts, like Ragtime, Big Band, Folk, and Rock, who've been duking it out ever since. Classical, starting in the 60's, wanted nothing to do with any of the lot, and prevailed upon the Power of Taste to do something. Taste dropped a Domain Miracle, and Disco was born. Classical still won't talk to Taste. Oldies has been playing his cards right, mostly because Nostalgia sees a chance to expand her Domain and has been giving him advice. Others are starting to notice, though, and this may be the next big battleground. Rap is a subset of Hip Hop, and not a separate Domain. Bet you didn't think music was such a cutthroat concept, huh? (Incidentally, I agree with

jerengest below about the Balkanization of Estates.)

If I were going to run a Nobilis game around music styles, I would paint it as part of a struggle between the Imperators of Tradition and Innovation, and make it a crucial step in bringing about the Age Which Is to Come. Maybe my games never work because I like epics too much.

From:

mpgalvin.livejournal.com

and then, there is Intergalactic Funk.

"free your mind, and your ass will follow."

From:

bonisagus.livejournal.com

Two word....TV Land...

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Bah, people always want to make every little thing an Estate. Drives me nuts. Of course the darn book doesn't help with its Power of brave little toasters (or whatever).

From:

robotnik.livejournal.com

I kill puppies for Lord Entropy.

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It could work. You'd be all bout killing hope or something. It might makean amusing one-shot and it brings the Nobilis fandom oen step closer to the Amber fandom.

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"it brings the Nobilis fandom oen step closer to the Amber fandom."

Because we apply a completely different game concept (killing puppies) to a prefered setting/system (Nobilis)? Or something else.

I've always considered Nobilis and Amber to be very, very closely related. Basically, Amberites have no Domain but are otherwise Nobles.

And do you see the intersection of Nobilis and Amber to be a good thing, bad thing, meh?

Tom

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Amber fandom is interesting. They take their concept, Ambe, and run anything and everything in it. Regency Romance, gothic horror, toon. Half the time they are not een using the Amber RPG as their rule system.

I thought for a while that Nobilis was going to absorb the Amber fandom, lots of hardcore Amber folks were all of a sudden playing Nobilis, but that faded and they all seem to be back playing Amber.

I have a lot of respect for Amber fandom, they are like their own little subset of gaming. And they have lasting power. I'm thinking of heading out to Black Road later this eyar with bryant to do some anthropological research.

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That's because the Amber concept is all-encompassing. All worlds exist in Shadow. There is no setting you can't kitbash into Amber, especially if you're willing to fudge a little. Amber players are used to diceless and GM fiat, and their pet system is so broken and unbalanced that pretty much anything is an improvement, mechanically speaking. Ah, Amber.

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You know, this Amber/Nobilis intersection would make a great article for 20by20...

I think it's very interesting how both of them don't have a ga-jillion supplements but both have very strong followings. Perhaps not the largest sub-genres, but there's an undeniable passion there. True,
Nobilis doesn't support it's own convention circuit, but I suspect it's only a matter of time. (hmmm....Nobilis Convention....)

Tom

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I think the Amber con circuit is one of the key things about keeping Amber alive and thriving. Frankly Amber should be a dead game given the wy this hobby works. But its not, and I give a lot of credit to that to the cons.

I'd be up for a Nobilis con, or Nobilis LARp, oh my lazy lets ahve another kid ass.

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I think it's very interesting how both of them don't have a ga-jillion supplements but both have very strong followings.

Neither Amber nor Nobilis was created directly for profit, near as I can tell. Amber DRPG was some guys writing down what they'd been doing in their living rooms for 10 years, and was driven by pure raving fandom. Nobilis is just plain art. Arguably, the lack of supplements is a strength for preserving the mystique of the games. There's no marketing drive. Players don't get burned out by having to own 30 books to make a character, or buy into the "Real Secrets of the Black Hand Revealed--No, Really, We Mean It This Time!" arms race. So the people who find and stick with either system are interested in storytelling and world-building more than in the level treadmill, hack'n'slash, or angstfests. Don't get me wrong; I like a good bloodbath as much as the next Fighter-Ranger-Monk-Paladin, but there's a reason Amber is my favoritest game evar.

From:

mpgalvin.livejournal.com

soon to be published:

Sabbat Gone Wild!

From:

And do you see the intersection of Nobilis and Amber to be a good thing, bad thing, meh?

Definitely a good thing. They both have mythological underpinnings and an epic feel.

It would be beyond easy to make an Amberite in Nobilis, though it means that somebody has to compromise on whose metaphysics are "real." Take the World Walker gift, put points into Aspect and Realm, and buy yourself a hyooge AMP pool. And there's nothing that says you can't make Oberon or Dworkin the Imperator, and assign the kiddies various Domains based on their strengths; Corwin gets Endurance, Benedict gets Warfare, etc.

I had visions of an Amber-Nobilis crossover when I first got Nobilis, where the World Ash was the reflection of Ygg in Undershadow, and the Amberites and Chaosites were the Excrucians, who erased concepts entirely inadvertantly by Shadowalking. Then I realized I can't GM my way out of a paper bag and gave up on the idea, but it would have been glorious.

From: (Anonymous)

I am quite exited about my Hybrid system:

60% nobilis
30% Amber
10% FATE rpg

Basic idea:
Amber powers, nobilis system, player defined stats (called Aspects) that work as Aspect or Spirit depending on situation.
Aspects come from FATE rpg.

I use dots, dot is 3 Nobilis points or 10 Amber points, so conversion from either system is quite direct.

From: (Anonymous)

"Corwin gets Endurance, Benedict gets Warfare"

I would say 'Corwin gets Survival, Benedict gets Weapons master'

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