Sell me on Nightbane

For the discussion of Nightbane™ and its supplements.

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Zamion138
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Re: Sell me on Nightbane

Unread post by Zamion138 »

Litterly the best astral play area in any megaversal game.
Veriety of pc'sGear the game to how you wanna play from deep infiltration military and so on. How ever you wanna take it.
Good factions to play around with or make your own verriety thats not already there.
You can make a nightbane(spawn) that meets your desire for aperence and ability or random roll it and make it crazy.

Pretty good all around , i like it
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Neo
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Re: Sell me on Nightbane

Unread post by Neo »

It's also one of the darker games in the palladium catalog, so if your a fan of the horror genre you'll like Nightbane. Also like Zamion138 they handle psionics very well, with great gameplay into the astral plane and dreamstream. I should also mention that I think 'Through the Glass Darkly' is THE BEST book on magic around anywhere. With rules on how to make your own spells and ideas on what makes magic what it is, it will definitely inspire you to make some great magical characters. I think you should pick Nightbane up.
What the Bloody Hell are you freaks all talking about
-- Rayven

The line I was referring to was the "If I step over this line I officially become so stupid that I no longer have a right to live" line
-- Shaded Helios

mmmm, time to make the chocolate chili. Yup! I prefected it
-- Sara The TG
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flatline
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Re: Sell me on Nightbane

Unread post by flatline »

It's basically a dark supers game. You've got a "normal" form and a "monster" form. There are lots of factions, some of which you can deal with directly, some of which you have to be extremely careful with lest you become more than just an annoyance to them.

It has several interesting twists to it. One is that there is more than one plane of existence that you can run your game in. There's the real world which is in the process of being invaded. There's a mirror world which is where the invasion is coming from. Then there's the astral plane (which, of course, can host an infinite amount of astral realms if you're so inclined).

The settings have enough wiggle room that it's not really a victims game like Splicers or Dead Reign (or even BtS, depending on the GM), but it's dangerous. Risk management to preserve your survival is definitely more important than it is in a HU or Rifts game. On the surface, the setting looks and feels similar to the World of Darkness setting by White Wolf (before WW ruined it), but once you get into it, you'll realize the similarities are pretty superficial.

All in all, I like the setting. It's been a long time since I played it, but I just recently read the books again and it's a fun setting with lots of campaign potential.

--flatline
I don't care about canon answers. I'm interested in good, well-reasoned answers and, perhaps, a short discussion of how that answer is supported or contradicted by canon.

If I don't provide a book and page number, then don't assume that I'm describing canon. I'll tell you if I'm describing canon.
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Neo
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Re: Sell me on Nightbane

Unread post by Neo »

If anyone is interested I run a NB/Heroes game on Fridays at 7 pm EST.
What the Bloody Hell are you freaks all talking about
-- Rayven

The line I was referring to was the "If I step over this line I officially become so stupid that I no longer have a right to live" line
-- Shaded Helios

mmmm, time to make the chocolate chili. Yup! I prefected it
-- Sara The TG
mastermesh
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Re: Sell me on Nightbane

Unread post by mastermesh »

Ever watched a Hellraiser movie and thought it'd be nice to see as an rpg? Here you go...
Rallan
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Re: Sell me on Nightbane

Unread post by Rallan »

Not much to sell really, since they never really supported the game line.

What it does have though is a "we are the monsters" horror game that is hella more action-oriented than the White Wolf stuff they were obviously inspired by (and by "inspired by" I do of course mean "cashing in on"). It's lacking when it comes to character-driven stuff since the main splat is basically just "you're people, only you look freaky and you're HELLA BADASS", but it rocks out on the over the top action front because it's basically just "you're people, only you look freaky and you're HELLA BADASS". It also has the absolute best material on the astral plane (SB1: Between the Shadows) and the best book about magic (SB3: Through A Glass Darkly) in Palladium's entire catalogue. Plus the Nightbane books are full of art by Ramon Perez and R. K. Post, and they are hands down the two best black-and-white illustrators that Palladium ever hired bar none.

All in all I'd say that mechanically it's one of the biggest examples of where Palladium falls down (combat is ridiculous because everything has crazy stats and ten zillion hit points, and hte ideas in BtS and TaGD are too subjective to mesh really well with Palladium's oldschool rules), but thematically it's definitely one of their better efforts. Twee stereotypical supervillains and all.
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Re: Sell me on Nightbane

Unread post by Semi-Retired Gamer »

mastermesh wrote:Ever watched a Hellraiser movie and thought it'd be nice to see as an rpg? Here you go...


Hell, that's got my interest way up!
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I blog (mainly) about role-playing interests at The Semi-Retired Gamer.
Niji

Re: Sell me on Nightbane

Unread post by Niji »

I am gonna answer this in why I like it, the hellraiser is a good hint though.

If you've ever seen the darker Magical Girl anime, nightbanes are essentially magical transformation of awesome and/or grotesque! IT IS SO MUCH FUN and even the basic story is very dark(and actually includes a more fleshed out option of being the villains too!(all goal dependent).

Their abilities are fully customizable so if you have a certain "special attack" or "ultimate technique" ala street fighter style(or any video game with unique chracter attacks) nightbane (and ninja's and superspies) are your only option in palladium books XD. Its really great for developing a CHARACTER of great intensity and role playing their journey.


The dreamscape and astral worlds are AMAZING and really fleshed out in terms of comprehendable physics and explination of how it works so sky's the limit, if you enjoy sleeping/dreaming as much as I this is the only game world that really opens up, and brings up a lot of solipsism like elements (is the megaverse just another part of the dreamscape and someone's dream that others have delved into?) which can offer a lot of mind bending story plot points.

Its very good as well if you like the darker side of comics, vigilantes and mercenaries (batmanye, deadpools, lobos, etc), instead of a more goody twoshoes type setting(supermayne, darkwingsduck, etc). Kinda like playing in the metalocyplse world + hellraiser + magical girl style universe with Australian dreamscape elements
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