My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

In the past, I have noted that the Basic Roleplaying rules were not a good fit for the Nephilim game and setting. The French version abandoned it after the second edition in the 1990s and every edition released since has used its own bespoke system. The third edition used a roll under d20 task resolution with attributes measured by 5 adverbs and skills by ~3 guild ranks, the fourth edition used a convoluted Pythagorean percentile task resolution that measured attributes from 1 to 25 with skills as one-note or guild ranks, and the fifth edition used a percentile task resolution that measured attributes and skills from 1 to 10. It is all pretty complicated and difficult to convert between. While researching, I discovered that a fan in the French fandom created his own system that cherrypicked aspects of the various editions. This marries the various measurement systems on the following table: Main Generic Table Numerical value ...

As explained in Major Arcana , there are several ranks of membership and non-membership in the “Western” Tradition (or as I call it: the Bohemian Tradition). To reiterate these and add my own clarifications: Adopters : the majority of Bohemians are Adopters, also known Adoptees and "outer members". They have self-identified with or "adopted" an Arcanum as their path to Agartha, but only hold exoteric or outer membership. They fraternize with and perform favors for other members, but aren't trusted with the same level of knowledge or responsibilities as Initiates. Initiates : a minority of Bohemians are Initiates or "inner members". They have been initiated into their Arcanum. They have access to greater occult knowledge, such as Initiate Spells, but are obligated to perform tasks for higher ranking initiates. Orphans : Orphans have dropped out of their former Arcanum, been expelled from a stricter one like Strength or The Hermit, or are one of the 1-in...

In  a prior post  I mentioned relict athanors from third edition. I wanted to give an update on that, as since I wrote that I translated  The Gamemaster's Book  that provided more details. Basically, the athanor develops sapience as the alchemist progresses through the circles. It remains benign, and a master alchemist can transfer the athanor's Ka into a golem to create a familiar, or even into a living human body! If the alchemist disobeys certain limits, the spirit may become malignant and attempt to possess the alchemist's simulacrum. It cannot actually kill the alchemist, as this would kill it too, but it can become quite troublesome.  I read a French fanbook on alchemy collating and expanding the various canonical alchemy traditions in an unofficial revision/fork of third edition. (For reference, the fanbook was written by a Hubert "Ouroboros" Terrieux. It is divided into three files:  alchemy rules ,  western formulae ,  spagyrie artifacts ...

In the third edition, the lores for arcana and secret societies were divided into two different skills: one for the uninitiated and one for initiates. I like this division and intend to expand on it in my campaign based on the third edition rules.  The Exoteric or Outer Lore represents knowledge about a particular secret society, including their philosophy: a Major Arcanum, the Templars, etc. The Inner or Initiate Lore represents initiation into the secret society, their secret teachings, and the initiate’s rank within the organization. As usual in third edition, these break down into Profane (Layman), Apprentice, Companion (Journeyman), and Master. (Occultists  use trademen ranks irl btw .) Initiation into secret societies like the Templars grants an awakened Solar-Ka. The Initiate can see in monochromatic Ka-Vision and resist magic with their Solar-Ka. Different secret societies have different benefits for initiates. For example: the Mithradites cultivate their own Solar-Ka ...

In this post, I’m gonna explain "Approaches" and provide some lists of correspondences. When an Immortal performs an action that resonates with a Ka-element, then he may apply a bonus to that action; these were known as Meta-Characteristics in editions prior to 4e. Each Ka-element is associated with a Characteristic (1-3e), a list of Skills (4e), and an Approach (5e), as I'll explain below. Meta-Characteristics Characteristic associations were introduced in 1e and modified in 3e. For Nephilim and Ar-Kaïm, the associations work like so: Ka Characteristic Air Intelligent Earth Endurant Fire Strong Moon Magnetic Water Agile In 1e/2e these bonuses were constant, whereas in 3e they must be deliberately activated. A Characteristic under the influence of the Pentacle is a "Meta-Characteristic." Fumbling a Meta-Characte...

Fifth edition replaces the long list of skills from previous editions with past lives used as skills instead. But this isn’t the first edition to do so.  Nephilim: Initiation , fast-play rules simplified from third edition, did this back in 2006. (For more information on Initiation , you can download the whole thing here , overviews here , web bonuses  here , and a bonus scenario here .) The way Initiation handled this was by introducing Vécus or “Life Experiences”, measured as Characteristics rather than Skills; Skills proper didn't exist in the fast-play rules. These were labeled with the adjective  Doué  or “talented, gifted.” The adverb was determined by the “degree of implication”: Pas  Doué  at Apprentice degree, Assez  Doué  at Companion (Journeyman) degree,  Doué  at Master degree. If a relevant Vécu applied, it would substitute for the Simulacrum’s Characteristic on that action; rather than modifying it like Skills...

A syntactic magic system is one in which casters can create spells on the fly using a system of "nouns" and "verbs" (or "realms", as GURPS parlance puts it). Ars Magica is the classic example.  In the French version, both alchemy and sorcery would use some variation of the concept in different editions.  Starting in the 1e Alchimie supplement and continuing thereafter, alchemy used verbs in the forms of processes : Destruction (Powder), Transformation (Liquor), Mastery (Metal), Revelation (Vapor) and Creation (Amber). The elements provided the noun. However, the actual lists of formulae didn't respect these themes at all Sorcery, renamed Magie (Magic) in French, gained verbs starting in the third edition. Again, the elements provided the noun, with a table of analogs for each element being given at the back of the book. In third edition, the first circle had the verbs of Perceive, Modify and Sense, the second Commune, Displace, and Transform, and the...

5e revised the skill mechanics to treat past lives as skills in and of themselves. As suggested by “mandrill_one”, here is a house rule for adapting this to BRP rules: in the 5th edition, past or present "lives" (" vécus ") are rated on a 1-10 scale, which is then multiplied by 10 to obtain a percentage to roll under. So, it is quite easy to devise a BRP variant, where each vécu is a "skill group" rated 1-100. Each vécu is a skill group since it includes all knowledges, abilities, skills and aptitudes that are commonly, or conceivably, associated with that vécu : e.g., a "medieval female condottiere" vécu  could include abilities related to diplomacy, financial administration, accounting, sword combat, dodge, shield use, horse riding, communication skills, leadership, Italian geography, catholic religion, strategy and tactics, outdoor survival, encampment life, travel. All these skills have the same rating as the vécu itself.  If you want t...

The Major Arcana book retroactively altered gameplay by introducing mechanics like Exaltations and Arcane Techniques, available to any PC who self-declared as a member of an Arcanum and increasing in value if they were initiated. The organization of the Arcana is highly variable, but there are basically three ranks: outer members, initiates, and the leadership (although less hierarchical Arcana lack this rank). Initiates had access to even more goodies in the form of Initiate Spells and the like. Anyway, for ease of reference I decided to consolidate the list of Skill bonuses provided by Arcanum membership. These are percentage bonuses equal to one-fifth of Dominant Ka+Arcanum Lore (in that Arcanum). These generally apply to 1-3 relevant mundane Skills (but not Occult Lore or Magic Techniques), whether they're in the rulebook or invented by the GM. See the table below: Major Arcanum Bonus to the Skills… ...

I'm still translating the 3rd edition, and my knowledge of the 4th and 5th editions is fragmentary, but I think I know enough of the rudiments to start thinking about my own rules revisions. The BRP rules aren't a good fit for Nephilim . So I've decided to devise a new system based on the French version, third edition and beyond. Currently my ideas are like so: The Nephilim's Ka, Personality Traits and Degenerations are treated as Characteristics and measured from 1-5 levels. Instead of numbers, Characteristics are described using adjectives and adverbs. E.g. Not Strong, Little Strong, Enough Strong, Strong, Very Strong. Each Characteristic has attached a pool of 0-10 "bullets" used to track progression: when the character accumulates 10 "bullets", then the "bullets" are erased and the Characteristic increases by 1 level, and vice versa.  Instead of persistent Meta-Characteristics, each Ka has an associated “Approach” that must be deliberat...

In the French version, subsequent editions after the first introduced the idea of sub-skills and sub-paths within the occult sciences. You had paths associated with the various Dominant Ka, and you had various skills which determined the exact applications, and the paths and skills within an occult science may or may not have been associated with each other. It was all very complicated and varied across editions. Sorcery For Sorcery ("Magic" in French), the paths were: The Central path of the stray Principle (Pyrim) The primal path of the Rising Spiral (Hydrim) The Natural Path of the Winding Trail (Faerim) The Torturous path of the Schematic Labyrinth (Eolim) The path of the Maze of the soul (Onirim) The skills were: Perceive (mundane phenomena), Feel (magical phenomena), Modify at First Circle; Commune, Transform, Move at Second; Create and Destroy at Third. Summoning For Summoning ("Kabbalah" in French), the paths were: Aresh, world of conflict (Pyrim) Meborack, ...

I'm currently translating the French third edition rulebooks from 2001 in order to get a good look at the rules and setting. That edition replaces BRP with a new system. I'll try to describe that below. Task resolution The 3e rules use much smaller numbers than BRP. Characteristics and Potentials have been consolidated into Characteristics and Difficulties. Characteristics and Difficulties are rated from 1-5, while Skills are rated from -2 to +1. However, the rules describe these with adjectives, adverbs, and shifts rather than numbers, like so: For Characteristics and Difficulties: Not (1), Little (2), Enough (3),  “…”  (4), and Very (5). For Skills: Profane (↓↓), Apprentice (↓), Companion (no modifier), Master (↑). Every task is resolved using the Resistance Table, or as it's called in this edition the "Universal Resolution Table", by comparing the Characteristic against a Difficulty level shifted up/down by the relevant Skill. Instead of a d100, a d20 is rolled...

To keep this stuff straight, I’m putting it all in once place for reference. The Occult Sciences As explained on  Nephilim  rulebook p44, each occult science only becomes available after a certain date. Sorcery Sorcery is prehistoric and all three circles may be learned in any incarnation period. This is the only Third Circle technique that may be learned at character creation. Summoning For Summoning, the first two circles of the Kabbalist Tradition may be learned from circa 350 B.C. onward (rulebook p63, Chronicle of the Awakenings p13). The Third Circle technique, Keys, cannot be learned at character creation [this isn’t explicitly stated but is implied by the lack of eras offering it]. It is only practiced by advanced initiates among the Major Arcana (rulebook p170). With the GM’s permission, a different Tradition of Summoning may be taken instead and potentially earlier. I’ll explore Traditions of Summoning in future posts. Alchemy The First Circle technique, Black Stone...

I’m currently waffling back and forth on whether the obscure sciences (as the Selenim’s occult sciences are called) should be their own skills or not. Maybe these should be Initiate Spells using the existing Nephilim occult science skills plus Arcanum Lore (Unnamed). For comparison, Secret Societies has Saturnian spells use the existing occult sciences rather than inventing new ones. At the very least, I would allow former Nephilim who undergo initiation to  start with base chances  in the obscure sciences equal to one-fifth or one-fourth of their percentage in applicable occult sciences. Anamorphosis I'm still working on at this time. Wait for my posts on that... Conjuration aka Black Summoning is closely comparable to Summoning and thus a higher base chance based on the latter makes sense. I still need to work on revising the Summoning rules before I detail Conjuration… Necromancy is most analogous to certain applications of Sorcery and Alchemy (to reiterate, I’m ...

The rules for enlightened alchemy in the Enlightened Magic supplement mention that Third Circle meditations are rolled under a Meditation specialty. However, there is no Meditation skill in the Basic Roleplaying rulebook! Some old supplements and variants like Mythras list a Meditation skill, which seems to be essentially useless and has no specialties. It’s a strange oversight in what are otherwise pretty coherent rules. Snead’s draft for the Nephilim rules doesn’t mention a Meditation skill at all. The alchemist just rolls Philosopher’s Stone to design the meditation and Ka to cast it. Somewhere in the adaptation process the writer referenced a Meditation skill that didn’t exist in the BRP rulebook or else forgot to include it in the supplement. If you don’t have a supplement explaining a Meditation skill (and none of the publications I’ve found list specialties either), then I’d let PCs substitute another appropriate skill like Art/Craft (these were combined in Call of Cthulhu ...

I can understand having an Astrological Lore skill to calculate magical times and places, or a Tarot Lore skill to perform divinations and identify symbols, but do we really need Hermetic Lore and Kabbalist Lore? I feel like the uses of these skills (i.e. identifying spell designs and castings) could easily be folded into the Occult Sciences themselves. Right now the Occult Sciences are only used for the practical application of magic, but I think it would make sense if they doubled as Lore skills regarding the history of their development and their theoretical underpinnings. For comparison, the study of real science normally includes learning the history and philosophy of science too. Let me know what you think in the comments!

The rules for Summoning used the Kabbalistic Tree of Life as their foundation. Indeed, in the French version the occult science was literally named “Kabbalah” and the Realms were named after the Sefirot . While thinking over revisions to Summoning and non-Western Nephilim, it occurred to me that the occult science could be decoupled from this Kabbalistic foundation. Then I glanced over the French again and noticed something interesting. Figure 1: Tree of Life diagram. Sefirot in black, Olamot in red.  In the French version In the French version, the occult science was called Kabbalah (renamed "Summoning" in the US version). The exact arrangement of the Sefirot  differed between editions : First, US & Second Edition Seals: Malkut, Yesod & Hod Pentacles: Netzah, Tiphereth & Geburah Keys: Chesed, Binah, Hokmah & Kether Third Edition aka  Nephilim : Révélation Untrained: Malkut (= Assiah) Seals: Yesod, Hod & Netzah (= Yetzirah) Pentacles: Ti...

What’s the difference between occult sciences and magical techniques? Well, all occult sciences are magical techniques but not all magical techniques are occult sciences. An occult science has three circles of proficiency, other magical techniques do not. So sorcery, summoning and alchemy are occult sciences, but the Major Arcana’s arcane techniques and the Mithradites’ solar techniques are not.

Taking a page from the French 5th edition, my idea for revising and simplifying the rules would be to use past lives as skills. This would be similar to the concepts of backgrounds, careers, or professions that are used in other games in lieu of a traditional skill list. Though of course you can easily customize this to suit particular past life concepts. Past lives would be rated, in much the same way as the Life Experience skill was. Additionally, the simplification of past lives means that it is easier to recall new past lives during play. So then you'd potentially have an additional rating, which Ex Oculis calls "recall", that determines how much of the past life you recall and in practice acts as a cap on the Life Experience rating. In the original rules it was possible for skills to go beyond 100%. Under this system, I would approximate that by allowing past life experience to stack for appropriate skill usage. Occult skills (e.g. occult sciences, arcanum lore, ar...

One of the problems with the Nephilim game was that its rules, a variant of the venerable  BRP , were overly complicated and probably not all that well suited to it. The French version eventually dropped BRP entirely starting in its third edition, and the current fifth edition uses a dramatically simplified rules system. This has inspired me to devise my own simplified rules system for the English adaptation. I'm not going to convert to Fate like certain others have tried . The task resolution system will still be BRP's roll under d100 with difficulty levels and variable results. But all the character traits will change. The standard attributes/characteristics are Air-Ka, Earth-Ka, Fire-Ka, Lunar-Ka, Solar-Ka, and Water-Ka. These represent the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of the character. For nephilim characters, these also represent supernatural aspects. Rather than distinct skills, characters are described in freeform terms and given general competence ratings....