Le OSSR : In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas, deuxième édition
Posted: Sat May 19, 2018 9:27 pm
Le OSSR : In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas, deuxième édition
In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas (INS/MV) is a French roleplaying game who went through four editions between 1989 and 2006, and crowd-funded fifth one released in 2015.
Obviously, there are not going to be a lot of deners that ever heard about it, let alone played it. So I'm not expecting a lot of comments. I'd just wanted to make an OSSR and that one seemed like a funny one to do.
This is French, so here it is the totally unnecessary yet mandatory picture of the Eiffel Tower that go with it
If the name happens to be familiar to some in the international audience, it is likely because Steve Jackson Games released In Nomine in 1997, which was based on INS/MV system and setting. More accurately, a sanitized, dead-serious version of the setting.
Much like they did music or movies, France got a large local production of role-playing games, nearly none of which would ever be sold in other countries. You could mention INS/MV, Nephilim, Rêve de dragon or C.O.P.S. to any French person who played through the nineties and early century and at least get an opinion, if not fond memories of entire campaigns.
This is Croc, the French expy of Mark RheinDotHagen and the main author of INS/MV, along with Bloodlust, Nightprowler, C.O.P.S. and other games you never heard about
Some times ago the publisher thought it was perfectly ok to allow a fan website to give away PDF scan of every previous edition sourcebooks. At first, they just required the rulebook to be left out so as not to hurt fourth edition corebook sales. And once the game tanked for good, that limitation was lifted. So yes, if you can read French, the entire line is up to grab on http://www.xxiemeciel.com/
( and here's the link to the book I'm ossring here https://www.xxiemeciel.com/download/Liv ... omplet.zip )
INS/MV was supposed to be two different games sharing the same system: in In Nomine Satanis you play demons and in Magna Veritas you play angels. The first edition was a box with one book titled INS, one book titled MV and one book with adventures. The two book described the exact same rules (except for chargen, more on that later), with examples of different characters doing about the same thing (and rolling slightly different results).
The second edition, released in 1993 dropped this non-sense for a single book (boxed games had fallen out of fashion anyway). Since that is the edition I got at home, that's the one I picked for le OSSR.
French roleplaying can be just as snooty as you ought to expect from French people. Everyone here has been playing D&D, yet "PMT" (Porte-Monstre-Trésor, "Door-Monster-Treasure") was a widespread derogatory term for games focusing on maps and combat. If you listen to them, French players are here for drama, style and fun. White Wolf Storytelling games were at the time highly praised, all the while mocking how munchkinely US players were alledgedly playing it (and often nonetheless playing a katana-wielding Toreador).
Unnecessary yet mandatory picture of Paris
So is INS/MV about playing in a Jean-Luc Godard movie with angels and demons in hour-long discussions that never address the lingering issue of true nature of Beauty? Hardly. If you have to pick a movie, Kevin Smith's Dogma would be right on spot. And the book would be Pratchett & Gaiman's Good Omens. While I think the latter certainly has an influence over the line, it is not the original inspiration, as INS/MV first edition was released in 1989.
The only thing that would prevent Dogma plot to be directly used as an INS/MV adventure is that the INS/MV canon establishes God is never leaving his mobil home in La Bourboule in central France.
But let's open the book. And flip through the pages.
Yes. Each and every of its 190 pages have the same horrible, ugly layout, that also eats up space.
La suite : Background
In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas (INS/MV) is a French roleplaying game who went through four editions between 1989 and 2006, and crowd-funded fifth one released in 2015.
Obviously, there are not going to be a lot of deners that ever heard about it, let alone played it. So I'm not expecting a lot of comments. I'd just wanted to make an OSSR and that one seemed like a funny one to do.
This is French, so here it is the totally unnecessary yet mandatory picture of the Eiffel Tower that go with it
If the name happens to be familiar to some in the international audience, it is likely because Steve Jackson Games released In Nomine in 1997, which was based on INS/MV system and setting. More accurately, a sanitized, dead-serious version of the setting.
Much like they did music or movies, France got a large local production of role-playing games, nearly none of which would ever be sold in other countries. You could mention INS/MV, Nephilim, Rêve de dragon or C.O.P.S. to any French person who played through the nineties and early century and at least get an opinion, if not fond memories of entire campaigns.
This is Croc, the French expy of Mark RheinDotHagen and the main author of INS/MV, along with Bloodlust, Nightprowler, C.O.P.S. and other games you never heard about
Some times ago the publisher thought it was perfectly ok to allow a fan website to give away PDF scan of every previous edition sourcebooks. At first, they just required the rulebook to be left out so as not to hurt fourth edition corebook sales. And once the game tanked for good, that limitation was lifted. So yes, if you can read French, the entire line is up to grab on http://www.xxiemeciel.com/
( and here's the link to the book I'm ossring here https://www.xxiemeciel.com/download/Liv ... omplet.zip )
INS/MV was supposed to be two different games sharing the same system: in In Nomine Satanis you play demons and in Magna Veritas you play angels. The first edition was a box with one book titled INS, one book titled MV and one book with adventures. The two book described the exact same rules (except for chargen, more on that later), with examples of different characters doing about the same thing (and rolling slightly different results).
The second edition, released in 1993 dropped this non-sense for a single book (boxed games had fallen out of fashion anyway). Since that is the edition I got at home, that's the one I picked for le OSSR.
French roleplaying can be just as snooty as you ought to expect from French people. Everyone here has been playing D&D, yet "PMT" (Porte-Monstre-Trésor, "Door-Monster-Treasure") was a widespread derogatory term for games focusing on maps and combat. If you listen to them, French players are here for drama, style and fun. White Wolf Storytelling games were at the time highly praised, all the while mocking how munchkinely US players were alledgedly playing it (and often nonetheless playing a katana-wielding Toreador).
Unnecessary yet mandatory picture of Paris
So is INS/MV about playing in a Jean-Luc Godard movie with angels and demons in hour-long discussions that never address the lingering issue of true nature of Beauty? Hardly. If you have to pick a movie, Kevin Smith's Dogma would be right on spot. And the book would be Pratchett & Gaiman's Good Omens. While I think the latter certainly has an influence over the line, it is not the original inspiration, as INS/MV first edition was released in 1989.
The only thing that would prevent Dogma plot to be directly used as an INS/MV adventure is that the INS/MV canon establishes God is never leaving his mobil home in La Bourboule in central France.
Yes. Each and every of its 190 pages have the same horrible, ugly layout, that also eats up space.
La suite : Background