Nephiloth (English)

A role playing game for at least two persons were we play mythological entities who need to steal the body of a human to survive, and have sparse recollection of their millennia-long existence. The game is thematically about their relation with humanity, myths and memory.

This game is for you if

• You prefer drama and mythology to history.
• You get overwhelmed by even a single page of rules, and the slightest bit of maths pulls you out of immersion.

At the moment, only a small part of the game has been translated from French (the rest is here if you read French). It consists in a two-player, GM-less, one hour-long narrative trajectory. In that standalone game, we play two immortal entities conflicting throughout millennia and mythes, who finally settle their differences in a duel. The duel trajectory consists in a series of mechanically independent mini-games that will allow to create the two duelists, the myths they have influenced, their worldviews, their antagonisms and their similarities, then to tell their climatic confrontation during which they will grow closer, whether through death or reconciliation.

The broader game

Nephiloth is made of mechanically independent mini-games that are bound together by fiction and recurring symbols.

Nephiloth can be played as one shot or campaign. Instead of playing a protagonist, one of the players can choose to be "dealer in secrets", plotting with any player to build surprise to the rest of the table. This role is optional.

• For a one-shot with a tight schedule, some combinaison of mini-games will be more appropriate to deliver a satisfactory narrative experience. The duel trajectory is one of this preset succession of mini-games. Others are possible and will be translated in the future.
• For a campaign, players have the time to decide of the next game among the 30+ available (in French, to be translated).

Adapted to online and offline

Mini-games and trajectories have been developed for a vocal-only online style of play. No virtual table top is necessary. Some mini-games require the use of a text channel, or to look at a picture or the rules. However in any case a player need to look at most at one single thing. This design constraint has been praised by playtesters with attention disorders. By the way, this style of play translates seamlessly to offline in-person sessions.

Inspirations

Every mini-game has its own list of inspirations. However, the general structure of Nephiloth is inspired by

• Swords without Master for its phases that are mini-games of sort, and for its symbolic motifs picked up from within the narration to be reused later.
• Mobile Frame Zero Firebrands for the structure made of mini-game with no mechanical link.
• La fine fleur a game to be published which take the mini-game structure of Firebrands and extend it to play in campaign.
• La clé des nuages for the use of recurring symbolic motifs, for poetic magic and for the question

  What do you expect ?

• Nephilim which strengths and weaknesses have motivated the present game.