My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

In a prior post I discussed how the French version liked to classify Metamorphoses by qualities like hot, cold, wet and dry. In any case, the metamorphoses aren't limited to any particular genders. Although some metamorphoses are inspired by mythological beings with particular genders, there's no rule that the Simulacrum must match that gender. So you can have a Satyress (Satyr), Tritoness (Triton), Undino (Undine), Dada Yaga (Baba Yaga), Fear Sidhe (Bean Sidhe), and so on, regardless of the gendered flavor text. Recently I discovered an old French netbook of metamorphoses , and what struck me upon reading was that it associated metamorphoses with specific genders (of the Simulacrum), neutral Ka-elements, and opposed Ka-elements. I recount these on the table below: Dominant Ka Metamorphosis Simulacrum's Sex Major Neutral Major Opposed Pyrim Djinn Man or Woman Earth Water Pyrim Phoenix ...

In this post I’m gonna present my ideas for adapting the Emotional Metamorphoses mechanics from Chronicle of the Awakenings  (p56-8) to the d20 system in Nephilim: Revelation , with some ideas taken from Ex Oculis . In the NR core rules In NR, Metamorphosis Transformations are noted with adverbs from Not (1) to Very (5) like other Characteristics. The associated adjective is Hidden: Not Hidden to Very Hidden. Mortals who encounter the Nephilim test their Solar-Ka against Hidden on the Universal Resolution Table (hereafter URT) to glimpse the Metamorphosis.  These Characteristics have associated “bullets”, a line of 10 per level.  When the Characteristic overflows with "bullets," then any these are erased and Hidden increases by a level. When the line is empty and loses "bullets", then the Hidden decreases by a level. The characters  gains  bullets for acting  against  his elemental nature, thus becoming more Hidden, and  loses  bullets for ac...

Inspired by some things I've read in 5e, and the mailing list, I've got some ideas for simplifying and standardizing the Degenerations in 3e. These are tentative... All Immortals have three lines of Degenerations on the character sheet, and may only have three at a time. Each magical race has a different set: For Nephilim, these are Khaiba , Narcosis , and Shouit . For Selenim, these are Ahasuerus , Malediction , and Narcosis . For Ar-Kaïm, these are Instability , Khaiba , and Narcosis . Each Degeneration has its own symptoms. These symptoms may be persistent, or these may be latent until the Immortals suffers a seizure with magical consequences. Degenerations are measured with adjectives and adverbs like Characteristics and Difficulties. Khaiba represents a Nephilim's or Ar-Kaïm's elemental nature becoming unstable, going berserk and taking control at the expense of their human side. A Nephilim in such a terrible state is known as a Khaiban or Mahrimè  (Romani for “unc...

In a prior post , I went over how various editions ruled the "Sundering", the transformation into Selenim. Mostly verily clunkily, as usual for this game. It turns out that I forgot something, not that I'm surprised given how incoherent and scattered the Nephilim rules are in every single edition.  Bizarrely, 5e  La Toison d'Or  p127 introduces the rules for "Lunar Entropy" rather than the 5e  Selenim  book released prior. The latter lazily copyedited the text from the 1e supplement, ignoring every supplement published since, and which wasn't properly adapted to match the 5e rules. By contrast, the new Lunar Entropy is written in line with the other rules for Downfalls of Khaiba, Narcosis and Shouit. The text doesn't explain if this supersedes the older rule or not, but for simplicity's sake I will assume so.  Recap of Lunar Entropy rules Lunar Entropy "degrees" are gained by: Accepting a physical consequence from a Black Moon creature ...

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...

When Chaosium adapted Nephilim from the French version to the US version, they renamed Kabbalah to Summoning and introduced the Kabbalistic Lore Skill that covers understanding Ka-energies in general. Why do this? IIRC, it was because they felt it was inappropriate to reduce an entire mystic tradition to just the flavor for a summoning system.  Practical Kabbalah  is an extremely dense mystical tradition and has nothing to do with magical evocation. Most of the summons are drawn from the Good Ministers of the Enochian Ethers recounted by the Aurum Solis, in name if not effect, which have nothing to do with Kabbalah. I agree with Chaosium’s decision here. Kabbalah makes more sense as a mystical tradition underlying all the Nephilim’s occult sciences, not just one. Since each Sefira is associated with a planet, they can be associated with specific Ka-elements. Each Olam has its own Tree of Life with all ten Sefirot too, so it can represent the Ka-elements within the Ka-eleme...

In Liber Ka , Third Circle Sorcery Spells have a “Power Threshold” ranging from 10 to 90. This is the minimum value that the Sorcerer’s corresponding (and unadjusted) Ka-element and High Magic Technique must meet in order to attempt casting the Spell. In Enlightened Magic , this was tweaked slightly so that it applied to the Sorcerer’s ratings after accounting for circumstantial modifiers. Thus, Sorcerers could wait for opportune times, places, ritual paraphernalia and other conditions to cast High Magic Spells that were otherwise out of reach. Similarly, Slaying the Dragon (unpublished) and Enlightened Magic applied a Technique Threshold to Alchemy procedures that the Alchemist had to meet or exceed before he could even attempt the procedure. This didn’t have a Ka-element threshold, fortunately. Nephilim: Revelation , the third edition of the French version whose rules I’m adapting, uses a different task resolution system. While the Technique Threshold for Alchemy is trivial to conv...