randomling said:
Amy: I've read the Nobilis book and think it's utterly beautiful and a very cool-sounding game, but I've never played it. What's it like in an actual session?
I can't really describe it, because we never really got to that point. The only Nobilis game I ever tried to run fell apart before we even had the first session.
This is pretty much because Nobilis is a game that requires quite a lot of investment of time and resources on behalf of the
players, and a lot of players can't deal with A) working themselves through thinking abstractly enough to "understanding" Nobilis, 2) the existence of far-ranging choice and, fundamentally, the ability to do whatever you want, and iii) autonomy in having to make your own campaign setting (Chancel) and patron (Imperator).
I lost a lot of players with A, and another set with 2, and by the time we got to iii, which was the point when I said, "Okay, now I'm going to let you guys discuss on your own and write up your Chancel details and Imperator properties," that was kind of where it fell apart. I'm afraid that it's the kind of game that requires some serious hardcore roleplayers, i.e., the sort of people who go to roleplaying message boards and talk about roleplaying. Which, um, I fall into, but nobody else I know does.
So I'm eternally searching for a set of players to run a Nobilis game for. ...well, for the purpose of eventually putting down the Hollyhock Goddess reins and letting someone else take it up, because really I'd love to play. But still. [looks for players]
(And by the way, books on cognitive linguistics in politics are exactly my idea of fun, and I'm a feminist too.
Bi though.)
Oh, that's okay, I won't hold it against you. ^.^ If you're interested in that kinda thing, or in fact American politics at all, you might wanna see George Lakoff's
Moral Politics, which has some very interesting things to say about the metaphors used by the populace in American politics. To the point where I can now predict, like, virtually everything that people on TV are going to say.
Acquana - how've you managed a "mostly chicks" game? I keep trying, but I can never find the players unless I want to do a solo game (me running and my friend playing, or t'other way around).
Um... Well, having been in several mostly-chicks games, in general, what
I do is, I walk up to some girl I know and say, "Hey! I'm running D&D! Do you want to play?" and they say, "Yeah, I'd love to!" But maybe it's just weird where I live.
I have also been in a World of Darkness character creation session in which everybody was female and also non-straight, which is probably so stereotypical to the point where Mariah said, "Hey, can we just assume that everybody here is gay?" to which the collective reply was, "Yeeeeeeees." Assuming that, y'know, lesbian vampire sorceresses are your thing. ^.^
