This page is primarily for people interested in the Nobilis role playing game. Included here is a summary of the system, house rules that I have developed, and assorted other tidbits. The official unofficial page is at www.chancel.org if you are interested. There is also a mailing list archive at Nocturne . Note that my rules and take on the setting differ in several regards. (Which is why players are welcome to read through the campaigns and information on these sites - they may or may not be true in my campaign.)

Very Very Short Summary

Nobilis is a diceless role playing game set in the modern times. Players role play incarnations of reality, called Nobles or Powers. Examples of this sort of character and genre include the Sandman series by Neil Gaimen, "Creatures of Light and Darkness" by Roger Zelazny, and the anime film "Princess Mononoke". The characters are quite powerful, although they serve still more powerful beings, called Imperators. Typical services include:

Serving their Imperator
Running their Imperator's chancel (a "place" created by their Imperator that serves as their home. The chancel is designed by the players ahead of time and can be anything they wish. Basically, it serves as the divine realm of their Imperator. The realms of the various incarnations in Sandman are pretty good examples of this.)
Coordinating actions with (or against) other families of Nobles. (There are many, many Imperators and most of them have several Nobles. While virtually all Imperators wish to protect creation, there is a good amount of disagreement as to what course creation should take. Heaven has one opinion. Hell has another. The Light views humanity as of the highest value and it should be protected (even against itself). The Dark holds the opposite view. The Wild values freedom above all else. And then there are other Imperators who are not affiliated with any of these factions and have their own ideas how things should be run. (The players get to choose their character's affiliation as well as their Imperator's affiliation which need not be the same.)
Protecting and expanding their particular aspect of reality.
Protecting creation from the Excrucians. The Excrucians of a race of beings from outside creation who are attempting to destroy it. Full Excrucians are as powerful as Imperators and most Imperators spend most of their time in the spirit realm keeping the Excrucians from the Earth, but sometimes shards of Excrucians (about as strong as a Noble) are able to get through. The Nobles are the last line of defense.

The game is character based with most of the action consisting of problem solving. Political savvy would run a close second. Combat comes third. It happens occasionally, but most of the time characters try to work around it since the god-like powers of the PC tends to wreak havoc on the mortal world when they start lashing out at each other.

A more complete summary of the system as described in the book is provided by my friend Ry in the following synopsis. Please note that Ry is summarizing his take on the game. Most of the mechanics remain the same, although I differ on one or two minor points.

As stated before, the setting (at least in the Earthly realm) is the modern world. From this perspective, the setting is much like Call of Cthulhu except now, players are Mythos creatures. :) Specifically, most humans go about their day-to-day life completely ignorant of Nobles, Imperators, Excrucians, or any of the other fantastic elements of the setting. There are isolated groups that have learned of the existence of these supernatural beings and have formed cults to learn about them and gain power from this knowledge. Most cults are devoted to a single Imperator or Noble. The rest of humanity remains in the dark. In fact (much as in CoC) they risk insanity if exposed to miraculous powers or otherworldly creatures.

I have included some topics of consideration for those thinking of playing. This section is a combination of house rules, setting clarifications, and general thoughts about how to think about the game. It will be expanded periodically whenever I have other things I should probably be doing (such as right now).

This page is maintained by Charles Schmidt.

Nobilis, is designed and written by R. Sean Borgstrom. This document references the first edition, copywrite 1999. All copyrighted information mentioned is for information purposes only. All copyrights remain the property of their owners and/or their official licensee. No infringement on these copyrights is intended and none should be inferred.