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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>

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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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