Damage, Secrets, and Lies
Characters may defend normally against divination effects -- against people using miracles or even serious mundane investigation to learn their secrets. In a casual game, you can even specify your miraculous defense retroactively -- that is, you can wait until someone is, e.g., interrogating your shadow to formally declare that you have bolstered your shadow's loyalty to you with miracles. If you enacted this defense during the current story, treat it as an action, spending MP, choosing an action level, and taking a wound if you used a Word of Command; if you enacted this defense in a previous story, treat your description of this defense as an entertaining anecdote you're offering to the HG in the hopes that it will affect the course of play.
In four cases, a character who fails to defend against a divination effect -- so that it "should" discover accurate information about them -- can take wounds to prevent such information from getting out:
* when the character has some way to know that they're being investigated;
* when the character has taken relevant precautions against specific information getting out;
* when the HG offers the player the opportunity to take a wound to guard their secret; or
* when the information in question is subjective enough, or rooted enough in Avatar background, that a player and not the HG is the canonical source for that information.
In each of these cases, the character may take a suitable wound -- or potentially no wound at all, if they defeat the effect, don't object to the effect, or have used up the relevant Health levels -- and describe what the opponent learns. The effect of the wound, if taken, is that the character must live as if the description given were so. Such a wound either represents a reflexive act of spiritual camouflage or a false face that your character has worn for quite some time.
For instance, someone conducts a cursory mundane investigation of your affairs. They might discover the love letters you wrote to an Anchor. You can't stop them -- you're out beyond the Weirding Wall, politicking with Excrucians -- but you as a player are the only one who knows how damning the letters actually are. So the HG asks, "Just what do they find? How bad is it?"
It's pretty much the same. You are actively fighting off the effect. For instance, someone tries to turn you into a newt. But you don't want to become a newt. Instead, you get a wound like:
* "When my concentration slips I get newt-like"
* "Exhausted from the struggle to not be a newt"
* "Looks like a newt, but my capabilities are mysteriously unchanged"
* "Slowly accumulating newt-like features"
* "Must constantly mutter to myself, 'Don't be a newt.'"
If you *want* you can take a wound like
* "Newt"
but in practice, because you have a wound but are not totally defeated, that is going to boil down to
* "Fighting not to be a newt" or
* "Fighting not to let being a newt get in the way"
For something like "stubbed toe" or "influenza," this matches normal natural-language practice---we think of influenza, not as having certain microscopic organisms in our body, but as the set of symptoms that that creates when our body fights it off, and more generally as the burden we have in dealing with it. We think of stubbed toes as pain to fight off and blood to clean up. It's the same way with the Nobilis, except that their system can fight off newtening, nuking, magical loyalty enforcement, and digging into their secrets as well as viruses and minor structural injury.
Level 0-2 miracles have specific hooks into the mundane actions system.
Level 3 is basic "you are perfect"
Level 4 adds a ton of power and speed
Level 5 adds total body control and lightfoot
Level 6 gives you as much force and speed as you need
Level 7-8 are fairy tale/cartoon level abilities
Level 9 lets you keep a level 7-8 ability for the rest of the story.
Vriska Serket, Thief of Light, Power of Kismesisitude
Aspect 2 (6 AMPs)
Domain (Kismesisitude) 0 (6 DMPs)
Persona (Kismesisitude) 1 (6 PMPs)
* Kismesisitude produces fertility from animosity. (2)
* Kismesisitude requires outside mediation to avoid disaster. (2)
* Kismesisitude may turn into matespritship, moirallegiance, or auspiceticism at any time for any or no reason. (2)
* Kismesisitude is confusing. (1)
Treasure 3 (6 TMPs)
Gifts: Flight, Steal Luck (Lesser Motion of Fortune, local, normal miracle, uncommon, limited use, 2 CP total), Manipul8 (Lesser Anim8ion of Minds, glo8al, normal miracle, uncommon, flexible, 3 CP total)
8ond: I must destroy all my opponents! (4)
8ond: I must do something to Tavros. I'm not sure what. (2)
8ond: I have conflicted and confusing feelings about Terezi. (2)
8ond: I have so many irons in the fire. (2)
8ond: My Flourite Octet is a totally amazing weapon in the hands of a very lucky person. Such as me! (2)
Affliction: I've 8urned so many 8ridges. All the 8ridges. All of them! (2)
Affliction: I don't know when to quit. (1)
Skill: Flarp 3
Skill: Murder 2
Skill: Troll Romance -1
Skill: Manipulation 0
Passion: "Basically a huge bitch" 2
Passion: "Stupid lousy goddamn supportive friend!"
A Project is a story, a premise. "How I labored to save the souls that burn in Hell"
They are built like Imperators- one central circle holds the story's name and meaning, while orbiting circles hold related ideas and twists.
Multiple Powers may be part of a Project, but one ultimately speaks for it.
Various kinds of story events (Relevation, Failure, and Victory most prominently, with Trivial Failures and Victories rounding out the corners) add Destiny to one of the orbiting circles of the Project.
Powers can also earn Personal Destiny, which they can use to push Projects forward- Personal Destiny is earned by facing Change and coping with Struggles.
When one of those circles is filled with 15 Destiny, Things Happen. Effectively, the project owner speaks an Imperial Miracle, driving that part of the Project towards truth, and no one- not Angels and Devils, not the Light nor the Dark, not the meanest man nor grandest queen, is unmoved by the Destiny wrought by the Power.
Additionally, the Project moves closer to completion. Draw a mark in the old circle, and add a new Circle, linked to the one that was just completed. The Project has moved on to a new chapter.
Depending on the depth of the Project, it may take as few as one completed circle to complete the whole Project- but never more than 7.
Powers may also use Projects to gain additional traits. There's not a strict conversion between the amount of Destiny needed and the new traits, but I'd wager that around 1 circle per 1cp is a good rough guideline, to a max of 5 circles.
The way to get lots of Destiny is to talk a lot,
and worry a lot, about what things mean to you — to respond to the
unexpected with debate, and exploration, and a will to find and wres-
tle with uncomfortable truths. This is balanced against the fact that
such considerations slow your reactions and compromise you when
facing the enemies of the world. You can use Avatar Destiny to ad-
vance whatever Project you like, adding it to the Destiny in any circle
to reach the magic number 15 and move that Project forward.
Gibts eigentlich Limits noch? Also die "Behinderungen", mit denen man die Start-XPs erhöht? Die anderen Handicaps sind ja alle irgendwie wieder aufgetaucht. Bonds sind die gepimpte Auflage von Restrictions, Afflictions sind die verallgemeinerte Auflage von Virtues. Was geht mit Limits?
Völlig unklar bleiben mir Treasure-Wunder auf Stufe 8 Communion. Was soll das bedeuten, Charakter und Anker arbeiten zusammen?
Und imperiale Wunder auf Stufe 9 find ich irgendwie merkwürdig. Wie sollen die sich in den Spielverlauf einfügen? Ich mein, wenn der Spieler tatsächlich so viel Treasure hat, dass er das regelmäßig abziehen kann, dann sollte er auch was Verwertbares dafür bekommen. Das riecht für mich nach einer Stelle, die ich hausregeln würde.