Nomine. In Nomine is a role-playing game designed by Derek Pearcy and published in 1997 by @Steve Jackson Games. You can learn more on the official website here: http://www.sjgames.com/innomine/ or the Wikipedia page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Nomine_(role-playing_game). You can buy In Nomine products here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/12199/Steve-Jackson-Games/subcategory/28908_30775/In-Nomine?affiliate_id=50797
Time Stamps:
- 0:00 Intro
- 0:26 About the Superior
- 1:25 Dissonance
- 1:46 Choir Attunements
- 3:27 Servitor Attunements
- 4:12 Distinctions
- 4:39 Relations
- 5:09 Basic Rites
- 5:28 Chance of Invocation
- 6:24 Outro
About In Nomine
Written by Derek Pearcy + Illustrated by Dan Smith
Edited by Jeff Koke, Steve Jackson, and Susan Pinsonneault
Cover art by John Zeleznik (first printing) and Christopher Shy (second printing)
In Nomine is a modern roleplaying game in which the players take the part of celestial beings – angels and demons – as they struggle for control of humanity and themselves. The celestials, powerful though they may be, are merely pawns in a much larger game being played by their Superiors, the Archangels and Demon Princes. Based on the best-selling French RPG by the wonderfully diabolical Croc!
In Nomine won the Origins Award for Best Graphic Presentation of a Roleplaying Game, Adventure, or Supplement of 1997.
Transcript
Cold Open
The world is an animal, wild and quick.
Intro
Welcome to Eviliv3 Play, a celebration of my favorite tabletop role-playing games. This is a sister channel to Eviliv3. Subscribe if you’re new to the channel, because today we are continuing our In Nomine series with this episode, Superiors: Jordi, Archangel of Animals.
Discussion
About
Jordi fervently believes that civilization is a shared hallucination, and that it is a lie. Lucifer has tried to play on this to turn Jordi, but he remains loyal to the divine. Jordi is a Kyriotate and wanders the world’s countryside in animal form. His strong disdain for most of man’s works only allows him to connect with those humans who share his love for the animal kingdom. He truly believes that mankind must regain its wild nature, or die.
Angels who don’t work for Jordi think he’s insane, but his Servitors understand that he is just a passionate eccentric who is exceptionally intelligent. Jordi is always willing to grant some leeway to servitors who show consideration of his behavior, and he demands that they remain wild and untamable. They must not act cruel or with hate, but they must act with passion! Jordi rarely grants audiences in a city, preferring the country.
Dissonance
Dissonance is what you earn by acting against your nature as a celestial being. For servitors of Jordi, they also gain dissonance if they value human life above animal life. Killing must always be clean, and without pain. His servitors must not be swayed by human society, its rules or expectations of behavior.
Choir Attunements
Attunements are supernatural gifts granted by superiors. For servitors of Jordi, they are well-versed in the language and culture of animals. Each Choir is attuned to a particular type of animal, and can communicate basic concepts through sounds and gestures. All of his servitors, except Kyriotates, must purchase at least one animal vessel. Nothing they do in that vessel, except for the performance of a Song or use of Essence will disturb the Symphony!
Seraphim are attuned to amphibious and marine life. They prefer to live in and fight the war in watery darkness. Cherubim are attuned to cats. They traditionally operate in urban settings punishing animal abusers, but they may also have big cat vessels. Ofanim are attuned to flying animals like birds or bats. They exact revenge on those who kill and abuse the creatures of the air. Elohim are partially restricted, and are attuned to reptiles. Their resonance extends without difficulty as far as they can see. Malakim are attuned to dogs, wolves, and other pack creatures. They are eco-terrorists, protecting nature from humanity. Kyriotates are partially restricted. They are Jordi’s eyes and ears with the ability to control animal hosts whose Forces are equal to their total number of Forces times their Corporeal Forces! They are particularly attuned to insects, with each swarm counting only as one Corporeal Force. Mercurians are attuned to apes. They are charged with studying animals in their natural habitats and communicating their similarities to humans.
Servitor Attunements
There are a few Attunements that may be purchased at character creation or granted by Jordi directly. Call of the Wild allows the angel to summon a small group of local animals at a cost of 2 Essence. The angel chooses the animal type as long as they are not more than the total forces of the angel’s Celestial Forces. Roll die equal to the summoner’s Corporeal Forces to determine how many will appear–arriving in 2 minutes. They are not controlled by the angel but they don’t harm them either. The second attunement is Animal Magnetism. For an Essence, the angel can charm a single animal with eyesight, if it’s not already celestially influenced. The animal’s forces must also be less than or equal to the angels’ Corporeal Forces.
Distinctions
If you please Jordi with your service, he may reward you with a Distinction. Vassal of Animals allows you to always know the intentions of any animal you see. Friend of Beasts protects you from ever being attacked by wild beasts–though trained and charmed animals may still harm them. And finally Master of the Creature Within allows you to know how much any human likes and treats animals, at a glance!
Relations
While Jordi doesn’t care about Celestial politics, his indifference grants him a swing vote. This also means other Archangels often try to influence him either through his servitors or directly. He will rarely speak but he may appear, cast a vote, then leave. Most angels see Jordi as mad, but he is allied with and gets along with Novalis who may carry his proxy in some votes. He is associated with Eli and Yves, but hostile with Jean, Marc, and Michael.
Basic Rites
There are a few basic Rites Jordi offers his Servitors to gain Essence. The first is to spend eight hours with no trace of civilization in sight. The second is to live in a city for a full day as an animal without spending Essence, and the third is to rescue an animal endangered by man.
Chance of Invocation
There is a slim default chance of 2 to summon Jordi, but if there are no human buildings, roads or vehicles in sight, that is raised by 2 more with 2 added to the check digit. There are a few other invocation modifiers that may be leveraged like occupying a street mutt or alley cat vessel, holding a work of man, created out of love of animals, have the egg of an endangered species, be with twenty cats, living in the same dwelling, be with a mountain gorilla or being with a Panda.
You can see that Jordi would make the perfect environmentally based campaign superior, but also, if you wanted to go down the Werewolf: The Apocalypse route with your campaign, Jordi would fit right in there as well. I would probably take a more horror based werewolf approach as angels can do just as much damage as demons, under the right circumstances.
Outro
Thank you for watching today’s In Nomine episode. Subscribe and ring the bell if you are new to the channel. Don’t forget to click the like button and comment to let others learn about this award winning role-playing game and this channel.
And as always, remember that evil spelled backwards is live, so get out there and Be Evil!