My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

The rules for magic resistance and magic damage in Nephilim: Revelation are scattered, so I’ve decided to centralize what I've been able to find for easier reference. I found this fansite article very helpful in explaining things. I might use house rules in the future... Magic Resistance Magic Resistance in other editions works via the Nephilim resisting using the Spell's Ka-element (or one of the two opposed starting in 2nd edition onward), but this gets complicated when trying to adjudicate Selenim, Ar-Kaïm and mortals who don't have Pentacles. (In the US version at least, muggles cannot resist at all, awakened humans resist with half their Solar-Ka value, and Mithradites resist with their full Solar-Ka value.) Immortals do not make any resistance tests against Spells in third edition, only a few Spells here and there that increase the attacker's Difficulty. I assume this is because it would be difficult to cover all three magical races (see below), so no resista...

The US version mentioned dragons a handful of times, but never went into detail. The most we got comes from Major Arcana , where both Strength and The Devil are apparently quite knowledgeable about dragons. The dragons were apparently one of the "old races" from before the evolution of humanity and the Fall of Orichalka. Like Nephilim they're composed of the five elements, but that's where the similarities end. They're bestial monsters that Strength Knights set out to hunt when discovered, while The Devil venerates them. Strength and The Devil believe in the existence of an entity or force known as The Dragon, among other names (e.g. The Beast), of which the dragons are manifestations. Strength fights it as an eternal enemy, while The Devil worships and emulates it. ( One issue of Chaosium Digest gave The Devil the goal of becoming dragons themselves!) Both are aware of the existence of sacred sites known as "Gates of the Dragon," where the power of the...

The degeneration named "Instability" is the price that Ar-Kaïms pay for being able to utilize all eight elements without being limited by the Nephilim's Cardinal Balance or the Selenim's Entropy. The following rules are adapted from the French 3e. The Ar-Kaïm's Instability POT is equal to the difference between the highest and lowest Ka-elements in the character's Heart. This calculation uses the current/temporary values, not the permanent values. If an Ar-Kaïm overcharges his Heart or fumbles any magical roll, then he must make an Instability check. The character contests his Ka against his Instability POT on the Resistance Table, with the following effects: Effects of Overload FAILURE: 10 points from the Heart evaporate into the magic fields. This loss is distributed at the player's discretion. FUMBLE: 20 points evaporate. SUCCESS: Nothing happens immediately, but the character must release the excess as quickly as possible to resolve the overload. Anoth...

In this post I will recount how Nephilim become Selenim. Although the planned USA Selenim book was never published, the French version has a wealth of material. The BRP rules for becoming Selenim first appeared in the Selenim book and were revised in Le Ka . I will refer to the French along with Ian Young’s surviving notes  and print outs . This process was known by several names in French. In 1st, 2nd, and 5th edition it is  la Transformation Selenim ,  le Changement , la Métamorphose , la Ténèbre , le Basculement ,  « hanté » , etc. In 3rd edition as  la Malédiction de la Lune Noire , la contamination , and la transformation sacrificielle . These translate respectively to "The Selenim Transformation," "The Change," "The Metamorphosis," "The Darkness," "The Transition," "haunted," "The Curse of the Black Moon," "la contamination," and "the sacrificial transformation." Ian’s notes rendered le Ba...

These are my thoughts on elementals and some comparisons with the French. See  Nephilim  rulebook p220,  Gamemaster’s Companion  p42,  Serpent Moon  p14, and  this  Chaosium Digest  article  for the rules on elementals. (A fan-made bestiary doc may be  found here too .) What follows is a brief recap. Elemental creatures are ephemeral compared to nephilim and mortals. Without Solar-Ka to anchor them, they require natural sources of Ka to maintain themselves. Those born from natural phenomena will vanish as soon as the weather clears. Those born from magical phenomena like a plexus or nexus last longer and can seek out new sources of Ka to counteract their expiration.  Orichalka creatures are inherently anathema to the magic fields and deteriorate even more rapidly. This is probably a blessing, as they are typically extremely dangerous even by the standards of elemental creatures. None of the normal methods for controlling elemen...

The Ka characteristic was… complicated. While the US version adapted the rules from the French 1e, the French version continued to revise in subsequent editions. There was a single Ka characteristic, equivalent to the POW characteristic in standard BRP. However, it had 5 derived characteristics named Ka-elements arranged in a “Pentacle” with specific distributions: Dominant Ka (=Ka), Major Neutral (=Ka×0.8), Minor Neutral (=Ka×0.6), Minor Opposed (=Ka×0.4), and Major Opposed (=Ka×0.2). The French version named this distribution the “Cardinal Balance”. In the US version the Ka-elements were basically only ever used for Ka vs Ka contests. If the character suffered Ka loss (due to sacrifice, orichalka, ghost wyrm attack, etc), then it was always applied to their Ka stat. In the French version, damage could be applied to individual Ka-elements. For example, damage could be inflicted by traumatic magical experiences and several elemental creatures could drain individual Ka-elements. The Fre...