In Nomine LARP in play-test mode

Alex Liddell is testing an In Nomine LARP game on the 3rd Saturday of every month at Auckland University in the Commerce Building. It starts at 7 finishes at 10.

The game is currently a “closed beta”, but may open up if sucessful.

Here’s a brief description on what it’s about.

[quote]The game is set in New York City 2005. For years the city has existed in a forced stalemate between the Angelic and Demonic forces. The reason, a exceptionally powerful Demon named Terridian imposed a law that no sweeping change to the Corporeal landscape of New York was allowed. Terridian made it clear that he was not to be challenged and installed himself as the self-proclaimed “King of New York”. For over 20 years the city has lived in relative harmony. Small skirmishes between Angelic and Demonic factions occur but nothing of any great magnitude has befallen the Big Apple. Those who have tried, have been destroyed by Terridian.

But things are now different. Terridian, The Demon of Lost Hope, Seneschal of The United Nations, has gone.

Throughout New York, the cries of battle are heard as decades of pent up aggression and planning come to bear. Diabolicals storm Angelic strongholds while desperatly trying to defend their own against massive Angelic incursions. Humanity still by and large are unaware of the conflict raging around them but sometimes and more frequently these days the war is becoming a public problem.

Demons are vicious bastards doing what they please. Angels are vicious bastards doing the Lord’s work. Neither are very nice. Angels still try to keep humanity on the straight path to righteousness while the Diabolicals attempt to drive them into pandemonium and hate.

Make no mistake, this time, it’s War.

This game is set in the Steve Jackson Games In Nomine universe. The premise is the standard Judeo/Christian belief that Lucifer rebelled against God taking 1/3 of the Host of Heaven with him. Now he as the leader of the Demons tries to subvert God’s will and control and damn humanity. PCs play either Angels or Demons. My game is set entirely in a Diabolical setting.

The game is controlled by a system of rules adapted from the tabletop In Nomine rules. These rules have been created by me and as such are always available to be revised should something not work. The system is based around the paper/scissor/rock mechanic.

At present the majority of the players in the game are all current/ex Vampire players and as such tend to view things through the eyes of a Vampire LARPer. I’m trying to instill a sense that the game cannot be played like that. In Nomine, while political, is not a “sit back and wait” game. If actions aren’t taken, more ambitious and motivated forces will take the initiative and overtake them.

Because the PCs are taking on the roles of incredibly powerful (by human standard) Celestial beings, combat is resolved through the use of the system while referring to a controlling character sheet for statistics. Props are acceptable and encouraged but at no point should anyone be expected to wield a sword with the skill and experience of a 5000 year old Demon.

The game is played out in real time. 3 hours of game time equal 3 hours of real time. I’m leaving a month between games out of habit and because there are a lot of other live games running in the months as well, some of which I’m a part of. During the “down time” PCs are expected to promote their characters portfolio, make alliances, file reports, perform acts of aggression against opponents, defend against GM related encounters. The results of all this are revealed at the start of the next game.[/quote]

While it’s a “closed” game, everyone knows that enough chocolate fish will get you anywhere. Alex can be contacted on terridian@gmail.com.

This has been suspended for the moment - message from Alex:

[quote]Good afternoon all.
Through some long deliberations with my fellow GMs I’ve decided to cancel
the In Nomine game tonight and suspend its running until further notice.
I’ve treated the exercise as a “beta test” of In Nomine’s ability to adapt
to a continuous live game and I’ve come away from it with some very good
information. I’ve also learned some hard lessons about players, downtime and
information assimilation. The next time it runs, it will be a new game, a
new set of characters and a much more “hands off” game where the GMs are
concerned.
Thank you to everyone who played in to for these last few months. I hope
that you’ve enjoyed at last partially the ability to get out of the WW scene
for a bit and… heh… spread your wings. I’m sorry that I couldn’t have
more information for you about the universe available before the game
actually began. I’m having to write all this stuff out manually because well
there isn’t a live system for In Nomine. At least, not yet.
So, you can all have your 3rd Saturdays back for now. Come the new year,
perhaps March I will announce a new game and get some more people into it
this time.
Again, thank you all for your participation, it’s been fun for me and my
crew.
Regards
Alexander Liddell[/quote]

I’m really looking forward to this starting up again!