so I opened my big Mouth and...

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Rimmerdal
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so I opened my big Mouth and...

Unread post by Rimmerdal »

I'm GMing a Nightbane game for the first time. I have cool intro planned (or I think it is atleast.) now is there a good set up to use? any classes I should or should not use that sort thing?

I have Between the shadows and a copy of Nightspawn/bane..any key books I should target?

Plan on using HU and Comendium of Contempery weapons and sdc items from GAW (rifts settings).
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Rimmerdal wrote:mmm Rifts street meat..


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Re: so I opened my big Mouth and...

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

Nightbane Survival guide is by far the best book for getting a feel for the setting and how to use it. Basically, a game of nightbane has 3 main factors at work, to the extent different adventures focus on them varies and depends on the needs of the adventure.

1: Big Brother is watching. the NSB is an all-encompassing agency that A: is full of supernaturally potent beings who use their powers to further their task of monitoring/controlling the population, and B: will try to kill you the moment it finds you. it may do this directly (sending armored cars full of hounds to kick in your door and stab/shoot you to death), or indirectly (If your security is too tight for a brazen assault, it has a variety of supernatural assassins at its disposal). bottom line, you have to keep your exposure as "off the grid" as possible at all times.

Fortunately for you, there are a variety of organizations (factions) that exist to provide the infrastructure and technical expertise needed to bypass or forge official channels. This is probably the root of understanding how factions work. All factions, fundamentally, are a collection of manpower and resources dedicated first and foremost to ensuring its survival and that of its members so far as possible. Each also has an ideological agenda that guides it's goals. but ideology and grand strategy are for the higher ups and leaders--for the average member of the underground or the lightbringers or the warlords, membership is primarily about exchanging service for the resources and assistance needed to avoid big brothers gaze. They are the interface by which off the grid people interface with the larger, modern, interconnected world and government bureaucracy.

Using the NSB doesn't have to just be providing antagonists (although human or doppelganger suits do provide good ones), the mere existence of big brothers eye effects all aspects of the game. it's not just "how do we accomplish the present goal", it's "how do we make sure we don't get caught". Even if not a single NSB agent or hound shows up, their mere presence in the setting is felt by the lengths PC's have to go to AVOID seeing them whenever possible. the Nightbane survival guide is a great read on practical tips and tricks to doing this, and is in fact the entire ostensible purpose of the book, as it exists in game--it's literally a primer on "So you are a Nightbane, here's how to not get caught and die"

2. Nightbane are badasses. Get used to it.

This is not entirely true--a series of bad rolls can result in a subpar/unremarkable Nightbane. but a good series of rolls can result in a veritable juggernaut--and from medium to heavy weight hitters too. used normally, the tables tend to result in above-average supernatural PC's, and wise Talent (And maybe spell) choice can magnify this greatly. The reason why the books are so full of supernatural threats is the fact that the average gun-toting thug is simply not a reasonable threat. You have to factor your game around this. Understanding that your players can reasonably fight their way out of anything short of a secured paramilitary base is a feature, not a bug. The primary limitation is point 1. Yes, you CAN level a night cultists house. in fact it likely won't even be difficult if they play it smart. They might have trouble dealing with the apache helicopters chasing them while shooting anti-tank missiles at them however. A Nightbane has vast power, but they must be constrained in the exercise of it or risk being caught and subjected to modern military response.

3: The setting doesn't provide a path to victory. Sure, there's "The resistance" with a vague goal of fighting off the Nightlords. but there's nothing resembling a strategic end game. Do you kill them? how? Do you overthrow their puppet governments? how? Do you show the truth to the masses? How do you get them to believe you?

These questions are explicitly never addressed, and they and the lightbringers are the only factions making a real stab at answers. other factions, like the nocturnes, warlords, and smaller ones, are interested only in survival and largely accept the current reality as the new order--unpleasant, and to be resisted--but mostly they are about surviving the current problems and wait for others to fix it.

In short, you must come up with a specific strategy that the players can achieve. it can have to do with the Nightlords, it could be uncovering lost mystical artifacts, lost magic rituals. it could be setting up a reliable network of recruiting/training to overthrow the Nightlords by main force, or an extensive propaganda campaign to educate the masses. or it can be a story of a small group of bane surviving the best they can.

Nightbane is closer to Rifts than it is to HU. While HU is a generic marvel-esque universe, it has no specific setting features to craft games around--most of them are just tidbits you can take or leave or ignore entirely and still be running HU true to intention.

Nightbane, like Rifts, has a specific setting with specific themes, but no clear direction on where to go. it's a toolkit for crafting stories suitable to its theme and design conceits, but doesn't really give you any clear idea what you are supposed to do with it. It is, in the end, whatever you make of it.
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Rimmerdal
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Re: so I opened my big Mouth and...

Unread post by Rimmerdal »

So I'll probably be in my element then. Will need to scrape a copy of the guide and have at it. thanks for the tips.
taalismn wrote:
Rimmerdal wrote:mmm Rifts street meat..


Flooper. Fried, broiled, or chipped.
It's like eating Chinese.
FLOOP! And you're hungry again.
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Re: so I opened my big Mouth and...

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

I would suggest you pick out now which conversion notes to use when converting to Rifts and other MDC/high magic setting right now before you even consider crossing the setting lines.
The Three places with conversion notes are: NS/NB MB, NB:BTS, and the RDC.

The ones in the MB and BTS are complementary to each other....mostly. While I find the ones in the RDC stupid.....Munchkinized.
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Tor
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Re: so I opened my big Mouth and...

Unread post by Tor »

Dark Conversions introduced the Nightbane OCC, which much like the Shadow Warlock in Nightlands, allows humans to emulate the Nightspawn RCC from the main book.
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