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      Wind in the Flowers: Re-inventing a Game

    The Changing of the Guard

*R. Sean Borgstrom*

January 21, 2002

I'd like to show you the backstage view of the reinvention of a game

system and setting.

*Nobilis* became available to the public in late 1999, but a number of

distribution and printing problems made it very hard to obtain. Hogshead

Publishing obtained the rights to *Nobilis* and intends to release a

new, better-distributed version in early 2002. As part of this

transition, it seemed only appropriate to incorporate the feedback and

reactions of those who /did/ manage to get their hands on the game.

Thus, the development of a new edition of the game began.

The Hogshead edition of the game is not a "version 2.0." The game spent

eight months on the shelves between initial release and my diving back

into the text. Although the new manuscript is extensively playtested,

*Nobilis* hasn't had enough time out in the world to grow.

Rather than guessing at the future opinions of the gaming world, we

changed the rules and setting very little, and only when necessary. We

did not seek incremental changes but rather a transformation: from a

difficult game to approach to an easy one. Most of the changes take the

form of new supplementary material, intended to help people run the game

smoothly.

This column provides an overview of the changes and what's going into

Hogshead's *Nobilis*. I intend to write about five more going into

detail about specific additions and modifications.

Looking over the online reviews of *Nobilis*, from the review on Pyramid

to the reviews on rpg.net, I see one fairly consistent complaint. I've

been very pleased at the tone and contents of the reviews, and consider

them quite favorable overall, but many reviewers noted that they would

find the game hard to run -- that they aren't sure what to /do/ with it.

We took a three-pronged approach to this problem. (In other words, we

jabbed it with a pitchfork.) First, I've replaced the sparse advice on

running *Nobilis* with a meaty section on the matter. It lays out what

the player characters do with their time, what obstacles they face, and

how to solve them. It discusses non-player characters, story plotting,

and campaign development in depth. There's a lot more. Very little of

this is standard boilerplate that applies in any roleplaying game -- I

mean, yes, one has to go over keeping the players happy and standard

descriptive techniques, but most of this section focuses specifically on

running *Nobilis*.

Second, on the advice of James Wallis -- actually, a lot of this is on

the advice of James Wallis, or Bruce Baugh; they're driving the new

edition as much as I am -- I've added a sample campaign. Normally,

sample campaigns are things that players shouldn't read, which made me

nervous about including one in the core book for the line. The high

concept for this campaign, accordingly, was a setting and storyline that

the players could read without spoiling the game experience. I'll talk

about how we tried to achieve that in another column.

Third, the old example of play was about 1250 words long, less than 1%

of the length of the manuscript. I own up to an error, here. There are a

lot of unusual concepts in *Nobilis*, and a fair number of unusual

rules, and the example didn't suffice to show them off. The new example

of play should greatly clarify how a typical game might go.

James Wallis, who runs Hogshead, requested that I write about using the

*Nobilis* setting and general rules structure in a live-action game. As

those who have involved themselves with LARPs know, this kind of thing

isn't easy -- it'll take me a column just to scratch the surface of the

issues involved in translating tabletop *Nobilis* into something

suitable for live play. For right now, I'll just say that you'll be

seeing the results in an early supplement, and that /I'm/ happy with the

translation.

Discussion on the Nobilis list suggested a few more areas meriting

adjustment. Most of the things the player characters do using the

Nobilis rules are called "miracles" -- and it's usually a pretty

accurate term. However, the old manuscript shoehorned normal actions --

the things you or I do daily -- into the system as level 0 mental and

physical miracles. Some people constructed fun metaphysics based on

this, but most people felt it just complicated the world.

In the new system, mundane actions are just that -- mundane actions,

normal things that people do. We've given characters a free mundane

action to use instead of or together with their normal miraculous

action; added a new defense against mundane attacks, since the standard

defenses against miracles no longer work against them; and created a new

very small sort of miracle for the level 0 mental/physical miracle slot.

(If you haven't read *Nobilis* and the discussion above confuses you,

don't worry. I'll hardly ever dip into technical issues of game

mechanics without a more detailed explanation.)

Other people mentioned that the wound system confused them. We've

replaced it with something cleaner. I'm not terribly big on combat, but

I think that the new system is nicely dramatic and playable.

I won't go further into the rules changes here. Instead, I'll move on to

some of the most important things: what happened /after/ it left my

hands. (Although my hands kept sneaking back in.)

Bruce Baugh, author, coauthor, or developer for a number of World of

Darkness products -- including *Wraith: the Great War*, *Ends of

Empire*, and *Adventure* -- agreed to edit the Hogshead edition of

*Nobilis*. I will be frank: it needs, and has always needed, an editor.

It didn't have one for the Pharos edition because of Pharos' limited

resources, but /every/ author needs a good editor looking over their

shoulder. I'm fortunate to have someone so eminently qualified to

perform this service. He's also going to handle line editing duties in

general for future products in the *Nobilis* line.

Readers of the Pharos edition may have noticed that it had, essentially,

no art. (To see this, flip to a random page. If there is no art there,

take one gulp from your drink. When you are drunk, stop.) The Hogshead

edition of *Nobilis* has art. Moreover, this art is good. I'm quite

happy with most of the pieces actually /used/ in the Pharos edition, but

I'm looking forward to a richer presentation. James Wallis intends to

produce a lush, beautiful book, and from what I have seen, he is

succeeding.

In future columns, I intend to talk about the sample campaign; the rules

changes; the editing and production; the major new setting element; and

the live-action rules. Not necessarily in that order.

R. Sean

      What do you think? <http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=88>

Go to forum! <http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=88>

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 Topics 	Author  	Date 	Latest Reply

 James and the Small Caps

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=81&t=81> (2) new 	Kibo 

08-20-2002 16:29  	02-10-2003 01:23 new

 Art <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=77&t=77> (1) new 	Lxndr 

04-26-2002 07:36  	04-26-2002 07:36 new

 The Original Nobilis Club

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=76&t=76> (3) new 	Bret Gillan 

04-17-2002 11:28  	03-17-2003 17:48 new

 Questions & Thoughts

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=64&t=64> (3) new 	Pyske 

03-20-2002 18:31  	05-01-2003 13:03 new

 Noble Buddhism?

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=61&t=61> (9) new 	Tlaloc 

03-20-2002 12:17  	12-10-2004 01:20 new

 Noble Suicide <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=58&t=58> (9) new

Eric Christian Berg  	03-20-2002 07:43  	01-18-2005 16:27 new

 Art Notes <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=54&t=54> (4) new 	R.

Sean Borgstrom  	03-14-2002 16:31  	03-21-2002 03:44 new

 Ack...you just lost my sale

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=45&t=45> (10) new 	SteveD 

03-14-2002 04:06  	03-15-2002 06:29 new

 Onomastikon working URL

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=36&t=36> (4) new 	Jorge

Hernández  	03-06-2002 12:51  	08-20-2002 16:10 new

 Why do angels change names ?

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=33&t=33> (10) new 	philippe

tromeur  	03-06-2002 10:13  	12-10-2004 01:34 new

 R. Sean, some examples?

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=32&t=32> (3) new 	Arref 

03-05-2002 08:17  	03-13-2002 20:28 new

 Sounds great, BUT...

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=28&t=28> (2) new 	Kane 

02-27-2002 16:43  	02-27-2002 17:30 new

 Sort of backwards?

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=21&t=21> (8) new 	Eric Finley 

02-20-2002 14:25  	02-28-2002 09:35 new

 Programmer nature slips out!

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=20&t=20> (2) new 	Sean

McCarthy  	02-20-2002 13:18  	02-21-2002 10:30 new

 Object Lesson Damage

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=15&t=15> (1) new 	Darren

Miguez  	02-13-2002 12:45  	02-13-2002 12:45 new

 How about this?

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=12&t=12> (2) new 	Kristian

Lund  	02-13-2002 11:30  	02-14-2002 01:17 new

 Now, this was strange!

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=9&t=9> (7) new 	access.denied 

02-13-2002 07:44  	02-16-2002 21:44 new

 Briefs on the other two?

<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=5&t=5> (5) new 	Eric Finley 

01-31-2002 18:39  	02-13-2002 10:36 new

 Forum now works <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=4&t=4> (1) new

Sandy Antunes  	01-31-2002 17:36  	01-31-2002 17:36 new

 limited series <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=1&t=1> (2) new

Sandy Antunes  	01-21-2002 17:41  	01-31-2002 17:36 new

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------------------------------------------------------------------------

    * Editing, Development, and Production

      </news+reviews/columns/wind27mar02.html>

      March 27, 2002

    * Affiliations </news+reviews/columns/wind20mar02.html>

      March 20, 2002

    * How to be a Hollyhock God </news+reviews/columns/wind13mar02.html>

      March 13, 2002

    * Naming Conventions </news+reviews/columns/wind06mar02.html>

      March 6, 2002

    * Art Notes </news+reviews/columns/wind27feb02.html>

      February 27, 2002

    * Dynamic Nobilis </news+reviews/columns/wind20feb02.html>

      February 20, 2002

    * Systems Change </news+reviews/columns/wind13feb02.html>

      February 13, 2002

    * Treachery </news+reviews/columns/wind06feb02.html>

      February 6, 2002

    * The Emperor to Come </news+reviews/columns/wind31jan02.html>

      January 31, 2002

    * The Changing of the Guard </news+reviews/columns/wind21jan02.html>

      January 21, 2002 

      Other columns </news+reviews/columns.html> at RPGnet

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