Weird In Nomine/Anger of Angels /d20 Modern /Psychic's Handbook hybrid

[Macbeth]

Okay, I've got a pretty ambitious idea for a campiagn I'm going to run this summer, with an introductory adventure/rules test run in as soon as a few weeks.

Heres the basis: I'm using the general setting/feel from In Nomine, but the d20 rules, in particular the Angels from Anger of Angels.

The campaign will be history. I plan on starting with war in heaven and Lucifer being cast out, i.e. "the fall." The campaign will then move through all of history, starting with creation and possibly reaching the present day. the PCs will play a role in major events, both religous and secular, and I hope to create a kind of "mysterious history" feel, where the PCs find that historical figures/events are not exactly as they thought.

As for the rules sie of things:

Races: PCs from Anger of Angels, humans and monsters as standard for d20.

Classes: I have the idea that I don't want to use the standard d20 classes, since these have a connotation of standard sword and sorcery fantasy, so i plan on allowing the base classes from Arcana Unearthed to begin with, and d20 modern classes as the time period shifts. Another possiblity is that angels/demons/soldiers (humans who are aware of the divine war) use AU classes while "normals" use d20 classes. A final option: Early on the PCs use AU, in more recent times they use Spycraft. Normals always use d20 Modern.

Magic Items: When we reach more modern times, i fully plan on throwing in +1 Flaming Shotguns Just for some more unique flavor. If Au is used, I'll definatly use those item creation rules. I haven't decided wether to use d20 Modern or Spycraft for firearms.

Setting: The setting is for the most part canon In Nomine, with a slightly more christian bent, becuase of my own background, and the background of the players involved.

Alignment: Nope. This is a 'shades of grey' game, all alignment effecting abilities from Anger of Angels will either be thrown out or replaced with similar abilites from AU.

Things I need to work on:
Songs: d20 magic is definately significantly different from in Nomine, so I am thinking about either just going with standard d20, or finding a more interesting d20 magic system. Skill based, perhaps? Or maybe Recharge Magic from Unearthed Arcana?

Power Investiture: Instead of having a specific power rating in each realm, I'm thinking of just having a feat for each realm that increases DCs against spells you cast in that realm.

Tethers: this is juts a matter of creating d20 rules for tethers, which shouldn't be too bad, I've got some rough drafts, which I'll probably post here later.

Servitor Attunements: I'm thinking of making the attunments for each superior a feat, which is given for free to all their servitors. These feats will likely be slightly modified versions of the Angel of [whatever] feats from Anger of Angels.


And I think thats about what I have so far. Any thoughts? Recommendations of books that would be good to use? Any ideas for "strange history" that my players could encounter?

PLEASE NOTE: I do not want religious discussion, i want help with the rules/feel of my campaign. Please stay away from religion as much as possible.

Mods: I know this is a little close to the "no religion" rules, but I really am not shooting for religious discussion, i just want advice for my campaign. If this is too religious-oriented, feel free to close it, no harm done.

 

[BSF]

Interesting concept Macbeth.

OK, I can see wanting to stay away from DnD classes, but you are talking about using a variety of classes from different books that are, theoretically, interchangable. However, they are not necessarily balanced against each other. Are you looking at advancing through different time periods and swapping characters out at each stage? Or is there the possibility for one or more characters to be able to carryover from a previous time period?

 

[Stormborn]

The Bard brings up a good question about your over all campaign in regards to time periods. It makes sense for Angelic characters, or maybe even quasi-angelics (Nephelim perhaps), to exist through ages,but not neccesarily mortals. Unless you want to introduce reincarnation, even on a limited basis.

I suggest using Green Ronin's Testament for both Pre-history and the Pre-CE historical era. I think it would give your players a nice "feel" for the setting. An antedeluvian mini-campaign would be perfect, as you would have free reign over setting, and even geography.

For modern I suggest sticking with d20 Modern, many of the race and advanced class options presented in Urban Arcana would work well in this kind of campaign ( I have considered doing somethign similar with it myself.)


Your plans are ambitious, I wish you well, but I would be intimidated about blending so many rule sets. I'll think about some of the more specific issues you bring up and try to get back to you. I like this idea.

 

[Stormborn]

On further thought:

Alignment: "Nope." - What about using d20 M's Allegiances instead. You can make them more specific. Rather than just the vague "Good" say " The 8 Fold Way" or some moral code appropriate for your setting. By having an Allegaince to an organization and a moral code there can be some tension that the players need to work out, creating those shades of gray you wanted.

Songs: Incantations as a general mechanic can work here. You need to change the Knowledge checks required to something appropriate for your campaing, but that is just a matter of terminology. A slightly more radical change would add a Skill that was only used for that purpose, which could be based on any Ability you chose, or none at all. You might allow Feats that reduced the number of "singers" in the "choir," possibly even to the point of allowing certain angelic/demonic entities to perform some songs w/o the aid of others in certain situations.

Power Investiture: Instead of having a specific power rating in each realm, I'm thinking of just having a feat for each realm that increases DCs against spells you cast in that realm.

You might consider allowing this to be a free feat, or one tied to a particular background/starting occupation. If used in conjunction with the suggestion above about Songs, perhaps the same feat could do both?

Tethers: this is juts a matter of creating d20 rules for tethers, which shouldn't be too bad, I've got some rough drafts, which I'll probably post here later.

Look forward to seeing them.

Servitor Attunements: I'm thinking of making the attunments for each superior a feat, which is given for free to all their servitors. These feats will likely be slightly modified versions of the Angel of [whatever] feats from Anger of Angels.

OK, now I have to go find my copy of In Nomine.

 

[Macbeth]

The balance issues have me worried too, but I'm dealing with those as they come up.

As for classes vs. time period, I plan on keeping the same angelic characters throughout, so it would be possible to have an angelic character with levels in Champion (from time spent as a heavenly champion of a cause) Strong Hero (from years of battling demonic interference in a more recent time period, lets say World War II for example) and Angel of Destruction (I think I'll always allow tha angel prestige classes from AoA, no matter the time period). The balance does have me concerened, but I think it will work out, since at any given time period the Angelic PCs and NPCs will be drawing from the same classes. If I did create, say a demon who was recently formed, and only had d20 modern class level, he might be weaker the n the PCs, but I think for the most part at any given time, all Angels/devils will have roughly the same classes available, so most of the time we won't have a character built mostly on AU classes against a character built mostly on d20 modern.

Thanks for your input, and any more questions/comments would be greatly appreciated. I have tentatively scheduled a trial run of the rules set with a one shot adventure with some of my friends who are already interested, who are going to be in Albq. in a couple of weeks. I'm thinking the trial adventure will be set during the fall, adn set up the basis for the campaign. Then I'll have a few months before the campiagn really starts, when I get out of school for the summer.

 

[Macbeth]

Hate to post twice in a row, but I didn't see Stormborn's second post until after I hit 'submit.'

WOW! Those are some things I hadn't thought of! The Allegiance idea definately sounds good, I'll have to reread some bits of d20 modern just to refresh my memory, but that sounds good. Still a very definate system, but not the same Good vs. Evil dynamic as standard Alignment. Great idea!

Incantations are also a good idea. Just on the spur of the moment, I'm thinking of dropping all spellcasting classes, or making class spells just special abilites, and making all Songs incantations. I'll proabaly expand on incantations as originally presented, possibly expanding the system to use a different skill for Corporeal, Etheral, and Celestial. Another option would be to make each Song a different skill, but that would make things a little too hard. maybe I can group skills into related groups? A skill for each related song group? Regradless, I'll probably bump up the power of songs vs. incantations, but I like this idea. All of my experience with incantations comes from Unearthed Arcana, are the ones in Urban Arcana worth checking out?

Thanks for the great ideas! I'll think about these for while... Keep 'em coming...

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I haven't read In Nomine, but you might check out Green Ronin's Testament. It has some cool stuff for Biblical-era campaigns, and I gather at least a portion of this will be in that time frame.

It has alternate wizard classes for Egyptians and Babylonians, and a bunch of monsters and spells.

 

[Macbeth]

Testament is definately on my "to buy" list, thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Macbeth]

Okay, I've started putting together Player info, here's what I've got:

Choirs of Angels:
Angelic races are know as choirs. the choirs available for this campaign are:
Seraphim - The Most Holy: Seraphim are the highest choir of angels. ECL 9
Cherubim - The Gaurdians: Cherubim are the gaurdians of people, skilled at protecting their charge. ECL 7
Ophanim - The Wheels: Appearing as rings of fire, the Ophanim are angels of fire and motion, the messengers of heaven. ECL 7
Malakim - The Virtues: Malakim are the warriors of heaven, champions of light. ECL 6
Principalities - The Stewards: Principalities are the stewards of religions and nations, acting much as a cherubim acts towards his ward. ECL 6
Dynamis - The Soul Wardens: Dynamis guide mortal souls, and avenging evil acts against mortals. ECL 5
Mercurians - The Friends of Man: Closest to humanity, Mercurians are experts in mortal relations. Mercurians use the Memunim stats from Anger of Angels, but -2 Wisdom and +2 Charsima in place of their normal modifiers to those attributes. ECL 5

Classes:
Classes, at the outset of the campaign, are:
Akashic, master of the knowledge of heaven
Champion, defender of a cause
Oathsworn, who take power from solemn oaths
Totem Warrior, fighting in the style of a wild beast
Unfettered, masters of unarmored combat
Warmain, Heavily armed and armored warriors
I may add one or two more base classes, I'll send out another email if I do add more.

Prestige Classes:
Prestige classes available in the begining are:
Angel of Death
Angel of Destruction
Angel of Fury
Angel of Terror
Angel of Spoken Fire

Superiors:
Heaven is a heirarchy, and with all lesser angels serving a superior. Each Superior grants his/her followers an attunement, a free feat that reflects that superior's word, the concept he/she is charged with protecting. Superiors are as follows:
Blandine, Cherub Archangel of Dreams, grants the Angel of Nourishment feat.
David, Malakite Archangel of Stone, the Angel of the Earth feat.
Dominic, Seraph Archangel of Judgement, grants the Angel of Announcement feat.
Zerachiel, Dynama Archangel of Healing, grants the Angels of Healing feat.
Gabriel, Ofanite Archangel of Fire, grants the Angel of Fire feat.
Uriel, Cherub Archangel of Lightning, grants the Angel of Lightning feat.
Jordi, Dynamis Archangel of Animals, grants the Angel of the Zodiac feat.
Laurence, Malakite Archangel of the Sword, grants the Angel of the Flaming Sword feat.
Michael, Seraph Archangel of the War, grants the Angel of War feat
Raphael, Seraphim Archangel of Knowledge, grants the Angel of Knowledge feat.
Yves, Archangel of Destiny, grants the Angel of Inevitable Consequences feat.


Most of this is pretty obvious. I liked the feel of the choirs from In Nomine, but didn't feel like making my own races, so the Elohim and Kyriotates have been replaced, and the Mercurians are just modified memunites. The grigori will show up, but only after the fall, since I'm sticking with In Nomine for that bit. I know that technically, the malakim should be created after the fall too, but I just see theme being to much a a player favorite to put off. Though I guess the fall is only a one shot... Eh, well see.
The other thing worth noting is that I have mixed Superiors from In Nomine and AoA, but I think I like how they turned out. My superior list is looking good, for my taste, I think.
Lastly, so far I have not inculded any spellcasting classes. I am debating including the Greenbond, and the Runethane, Magister and even Mageblade, likely with new names. I am sure I will have incantations play a major role, but I'm not sure if I should still add some normal spellcastin for angels. Any ideas?

 

[Stormborn]

I have been looking over my copy of In Nomine for some ideas regarding songs. I think the Incantation mechanic works well, and certainly has the "choral" aspect to it, but probablly you will want your players to be able to use songs some how. I think a skill based mechanic works best as adaptation of the IN mechanic. Set a DC for a Song and then have them make a check. The difficulty is in "improving" songs and learning new ones.
If you are willing to deal with songs slightly differently than In Nomine, I may have a solution.

Have each "Song" actually be like a spell list. With an increasing DC for each level. When you first learn a song you only know the first level. Spend skill points equal to the "essence" cost when you level up to improve the song. You may only improve one level at a time.

In IN, you can only learn new songs if granted them by your Superior. You can either do it that way, or make each Song a Feat for "balance."

Essence, the fuel for the songs and maybe some other things, can be handled different ways. Simply it could be your CHA mod + WIS mod, with even the most powerful song level only costing 4 or 5. Or you could add a mechanic where you gain X level of essense per level. Or you could have a good, average, and poor progression for essence points. If the later I suggest making the costs for songs higher.

Not that you asked for all that (I think) but this may solve you spell casting issue. If you allow humans in your campaign you might want to consider making a human only class with some bonuses to learning and using songs and incantations.