I've Got Nobilis 3e On My Mind...

[amechra]

So I've decided to rewrite Influences to basically be some of the Attributes from Nobilis.

Don't judge me, just this.

Influence

Ephemeral Beings possess terrible and discomforting control over the facets of reality - they command the waters to part, the fires to burn, and commerce to flow smoothly. As they grow in power, their influence also grows to encompass more and more of what things are. To anger them is to anger the storms and the seas, the cities and the earth itself.

Other than Holistic Knowledge (which is automatic and takes no action), using an Influence is an Instant action. An Ephemeral Being may not have an Influence with more dots than their Rank. Influences do not involve rolls, are not Resisted, and cannot be Contested. Instead, if one of their Influences would directly affect an unwilling character, they may spend one Willpower to reject it entirely. If they happen to be an instance of that Influence themselves, they may take a Beat if they choose to forgo spending Willpower to reject the Influence.

By default, Influences are only "in force" for about a Scene - after that point, reality sort of blinks and realizes it has been sweet-talked into something. At this point, the Influence no longer shields what it did from outside consequences, and whatever happened is handled with the "standard protocols" for local reality. This can cause even gross but implausible changes in reality to revert, with memories of the scene developing a dream-like haze.

Influence (0) - Holistic Knowledge [0 Essence]:
Ephemeral beings possess an instinctive knowledge of the state of any Influence they possess; as such, they are automatically aware of the overall "health" of their Influence in the area. A Spirit of fire would feel the ebb and flow of arsons and the Fire Department funding in the area, while a Spirit of a river would be roughly aware of the swell and shrink of that river's waters due to drought or flooding.

Influence (1) - Demonstrate [1 Essence]:
This level of Influence covers a wide field of parlour tricks and minor shows of might; a Ghost associated with water can douse candles, increase the humidity in a room, or generally create some minor effect related to water. A Spirit of suicide wouldn't be able to convince someone to blow their brains out, but would be able to supply that small, final push.

Influence (2) - Speak [1 Essence]:
This level of Influence allows an Ephemeral Being to learn the answers to a single question directly from a local instance of that Influence. In addition, they can "convince" a specific instance of their Influence to do something it would naturally do - a Spirit of dogs could convince a dog to start barking at nothing, while a Spirit of architecture could make a roof leak.

Influence (3) - Preserve [2 Essence]:
At this level, the Ephemeral Being may make an instance of their Influence last longer, become more potent, or harder to get rid of in unnatural ways. For the duration, an Angel of guns could prevent you from discarding your gun, could improve your gun's aim or structure, or could make the echo from a gunshot echo for far longer than it would naturally. A Spirit of joy could make someone even happier or could preserve happiness in the face of tragedy.

Influence (4) - Invoke [2 Essence]:
An Ephemeral Being with this level of control can create instances of their Influence from scratch, can summon nearby instances to themselves, or can force an instance to act in impossible but plausible ways. A Spirit of storms could draw stormclouds to them or could make some from scratch - a Spirit of lightning could cause some to strike out of a blue sky or could make a lightning strike make sharp turns to strike someone out in the rain without touching their umbrella.

Influence (5) - Destroy [3 Essence]:
With this level of Influence, an Ephemeral Being may unmake a specific instance of their Influence in whole or in part. A Spirit of fire could unmake an entire fire or could remove the smoke it produces - the Spirit of a forest could remove a path or clearing, or could conversely remove trees and undergrowth to do the exact opposite.

Influence (6) - Change [3 Essence]:
At this point, the Ephemeral Being may arbitrarily change the details of an instance of their Influence. A Ghost associated with dreams could move the dreams from one person's head to another - a Spirit of fish could let a specific species of fish live on land with no problem whatsoever, or could render a person deathly allergic to seafood.

Influence (+3) - True Influence [+2 Essence, 1 Willpower]:
This does not constitute a single level of Influence, but instead applies as a modifier to a different use of their Influence. If the Ephemeral Being pays the additional costs when using a different level of this Influence, any inherent limitations with regards to duration, specificity, or proximity are waived, though any imposed by Manifestations must still be respected. A Spirit of fire could make every candle in the city (or the entire world) flare at once, or could use their Influence to learn information about any fire burning anywhere in the world. In addition, any change pushed through with this Influence is considered perfectly natural by reality - a Spirit of cats could declare that cats are carnivores, and that would retroactively be entirely true. Even with this added push, Demonstrate Influences are still parlour tricks - they can create isolated (if global) events, but lack the oomph necessary to create persistent modifications to reality.

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New Numina

Aspect
An Ephemeral Being with this Numina may spend one Essence when spending Willpower on an action related to one of their Influences to gain additional dice equal to their rating in that Influence. If they have at least three dots in that Influence, they may instead spend three Essence to gain that many Successes instead of rolling.

[amechra]

Dharma

In certain cases, a given Ephemeral Being's influence over the world is best represented by their control over a certain form of being, rather than the concrete nature of the standard Influences. This is oftentimes most appropriate for Spirits of places or truly abstract concepts, though it is not entirely beyond reason for Ghosts to possess such capabilities. In fact, having a Dharma related to their mission is almost commonplace amongst Angels.

Dharma functions almost identically to the standard Influence progression - the Influences are used as an Instant action, may be rejected for one point of Willpower, and are "maintained" for about a Scene before the nature of the world reasserts itself. The main exception here is, of course, the ability to sense their Dharma in their surroundings - much like Holistic Knowledge, Dharma Sense is reflexive and free.

Dots of Dharma may be taken instead of dots of Influence. It is important to remember that Dharma and Influence do not stack for the purposes of determining which dot ratings may be used.

Dharma (0) - Dharma Sense (0 Essence):
To the Ephemeral Being, the essential nature of their Influence is as clear and obvious as a bright, flashing light. For a Spirit of guilt, anyone who was guilty of something would be easy to pick out of the crowd - an Angel is capable of almost immediately determining whether or not someone would be willing to go along with their mission.

Dharma (1) - Colour (1 Essence):
At this level, the Ephemeral Being is capable of flavouring or colouring a person or thing, giving it a bit of the essential nature of their Influence. This manifests, like many Dharma Influences, on the metaphorical level as well as the literal level. While a Spirit of fire wouldn't be able to turn someone into fire with this level of Dharma, they could make someone a little more fire-y, shield someone from minor burns, or perform other simple, minor tricks.

Dharma (2) - Incarnate (1 Essence):
Incarnation is a strange trick, more of a Manifestation than an Influence. Essentially, the Ephemeral Being may dissolve themselves into an instance of their Influence. For the duration of the Incarnation, the Ephemeral Being essentially ceases to exist - it has no real control over whatever it incarnated into, but it does experience everything that whatever it incarnated into experiences, and is indistinguishable from whatever it becomes. While this level of Influence is in use, the sole action the Ephemeral Being can take is to end the Incarnation early. For the rare beings with both this Influence and a physical body, ending this Influence snaps their consciousness back into their bodies - otherwise, they simply reform in Twilight (or the nearest substitute) when the Incarnation ends.

Dharma (3) - Emulate (2 Essence):
At this point, the Ephemeral Being may make themselves more "like" their Influence. A Materialized Spirit of fire could turn itself into fire without any harm to its consciousness - it could also choose to make itself leave ash wherever it goes, or could consume copious amounts of oxygen simply by existing in a place. For Ephemeral Beings still in Twilight, these changes are more metaphorical - that Spirit of fire could spread like wildfire, or could purify things by interacting with them.

Dharma (4) - Enchant (2 Essence):
This particular level of Influence is essentially an externalized version of Emulate - the Ephemeral Being can make other characters or objects more like their Influence, either metaphorically or literally. The Spirit of fire could turn someone else into a fire without any harm to their consciousness or the integrity of their body - it could also set some of their memories on fire, or could make an idea spread like wildfire. An Angel could use this level of Influence to make other people and things more useful to its mission, or more "like" their mission in some way.

Dharma (5) - Strip (3 Essence):
This particular level of Influence allows the Ephemeral Being to make characters and objects less like their Influence. A Spirit of fire could stop someone from burning, or could slow the spread of an idea or rumour. An Angel could use this level of Influence to remove interest in their Mission, or cut loose tools and patsies after it is done with them.

Dharma (6) - Bind (3 Essence):
At this level, the Ephemeral Being may alter how something that isn't normally subject to their Influence relates to their Influence. A Spirit of water could make someone treat water as sacred or as something utterly repulsive, or could make a raincoat entirely permeable by water. Theoretically, Ephemeral Beings with this level of power could create new types of Supernatural creature, though without the use of True Influence, such creations are going to be mostly unique and degenerate.

Dharma (+3) - True Dharma [+2 Essence, 1 Willpower]:
This mimics True Influence in practically every respect other than affecting Dharma rather than Influence.

[amechra]

You may post, if you so wish.

You may also go try to get your hands on a copy of Nobilis - it's a damn fine game, and the hardcovers are gorgeous.

[StSword]

I was actually expecting something more along the lines of rules for Nobles in nwod, truth be told.

[Maina]

Nobilis is one of those super fascinating games that I really want to play some day, but it's too niche for that to ever happen.

[amechra]

I was actually expecting something more along the lines of rules for Nobles in nwod, truth be told.

I've tried that, honestly.

It don't work.

Nobilis are, essentially, True-Fae-In-Arcadia levels of power. It works in Nobilis, because it's about having tea parties where each person sitting around the table could seriously wreck reality if they felt like it. If I were to do it, simple rules would be giving each player an Influence as given above, make Aspect a universal thing, and make Persona it's own dot progression.

And then have their Power stat just apply discounts to the costs of using their Influences, rather than increasing the size of their power pool. Because effortless power and how it doesn't really matter is a big part of their theme.

Hence why I'm cannibalizing it for Ephemeral Beings, mostly because I feel that Nobilis has a better progression.

[Raistlin]

Actually I prefer these to the original ones. It shows more clearly how spirits can manipulate their enviroment.

P.E: (pssss... amechra can you answer my message please?).

[amechra]

P.S: (pssss... amechra can you answer my message please?).

When I be good and ready! Given that this thread is actually relevant to your message, in a weird way...

I decided to do Persona as its own dot progression, because that's less weird than having a Numina you have to purchase multiple times.

I should probably explain something. Namely, I feel scenes where Ephemera get involved should take on a dream-like air. They need to be something deniable - mortals that stumble into the scene should be able to brush it off as a dream or a nightmare. Hence the whole fact that Influences lose steam after about a Scene or normalize themselves.

[ajf115]

amechra, do you mind if I use these rules for the Idigam-equivalent in my WIP fan game Demigod: the Empyrean?

[amechra]

Yeah, sure - why not?