Let’s learn about the Superior: Kobal, Prince of Dark Humor in the tabletop role-playing game In 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
- 0:25 About the Superior
- 1:21 Dissonance
- 1:38 Band Attunements
- 2:47 Servitor Attunements
- 3:18 Distinctions
- 3:59 Relations
- 4:12 Basic Rites
- 4:32 Chance of Invocation
- 5:26 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 a joke, and humanity is the punchline.
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: Kobal, Prince of Dark Humor.
Discussion
About
Kobal is Hell’s court Jester. Lucifer permits Kobal to say, with wicked wit, what no other Demon Lord dare say, or even think for that matter. On Earth, humor may be one of God’s greatest gifts, Kobal takes it to the next level. He perverts humor into mockery, hatred and despair. Kobal is an Impudite and used to spend much more time on earth, he’s become jaded in the 20th century and becoming more bored and angry. Deep in the recesses of his mind, there is the ultimate joke taking shape, but whether it gets played or not, who is to say. He rarely even goes to Earth to help a servitor. Always appearing in a different guise to fool people, though his servitors always recognise him. All of his servitors have the duty of serving Evil by turning thought to laughter, concern to callousness, reverence to blasphemy–all in the name of good fun.
Dissonance
Dissonance is what you earn by acting against your resonance or nature. But you may also earn notes of dissonance by acting against your superior’s word. For servitors of Kobal, it is dissonant to go a single day without worsening someone’s misfortune by laughing at them or making others laugh.
Band Attunements
Attunements are supernatural powers or abilities granted by your superior at character creation or later. Band attunements are purchased, and Kobal’s are all geared toward the generation of Essence by demeaning humanity in some way. These attunements may be considered Rites and can only be used once per day–twice if the demon can laugh in their victim’s face afterwards. Balseraph’s need to lie to someone making them feel gullible or stupid. Djinn must embarrass whomever they are attuned to by making a scene or implying some dark secret. Calabim must make someone discover an ironic moment when something has been destroyed. Habbalah needs to make humans embarrass themself with an inappropriate outburst. Lilim earn Essence by daring, or geasing, a human into doing something foolish or dangerous. Shedim’s is restricted. They add their ethereal forces toward making their host do anything silly or degrading. And finally Impudites are also restricted. They must play a practical joke, making the victim’s life miserable. They do not generate dissonance if the human is killed.
Servitor Attunements
Kobal may reward you with a Servitor Attunement like Prank. It allows you to create an illusion worthy of cartoon madness. With a Will roll and 2 essence it affects a number of viewers equal to the check digit. The illusion breaks reality and must serve humorous or ironic purposes. The victims may resist with a Perception roll minus the demon’s Celestial Forces. They will believe the illusion for a number of minutes equal to the check digit of the demon’s Will roll plus the failed Perception roll’s check digit.
Distinctions
There are also distinctions that Kobal will reward especially effective demons. The first is Knight of Derision. These demons may make anyone see the humor in a cruel situation, laughing at the unfortunate. If they fail at resisting they demean both themselves and the object of scorn. The next is Captain of Repartee. This demon allows anyone to shrug off the importance of any event or news received by making a pithy remark. And finally Baron of Hysteria reveals what kind of humor would affect the target, distracting them for 1 round and reducing their successful rolls by the demon’s celestial forces.
Relations
Kobal is allied with Haagenti, he’s associated with Malphas and Saminga, hostile to Baal, Kronos, & Valefor, and abject enemies with Asmodeus.
Basic Rites
There are a few basic rites Kobal offers his servitors to gain essence with also. These include making someone laugh before they die, making a psychotic joke at the expense of celestial–which makes the GM laugh, and finally disrupting a serious occasion, involving at least 30 people, with inappropriate laughter.
Chance of Invocation
Kobal has a base chance of invocation of 3, making him pretty easy to summon, but there are also some invocation modifiers that bring that chance up higher. These include telling an original and cruel joke, performing a five-minute comedy sketch that makes the audience enjoy something evil, making a busy stretch of road slick, performing a malicious stand-up routine for an hour, saying or doing something that would make Kobal smirk or saying or doing something that would make Kobal laugh.
Including Kobal in your campaigns brings with it cruel and unusual humor of which I am here for. But it’s not suitable for every age or individual, so as the GM make sure you know the sensibilities of your players so that if you do include Kobal, it can be done with relish! And if a PC is having him as their superior, lean into it as much as possible.
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!