GURPS In Nomine: Earth is the Battleground for Heaven and Hell

In Nomine

by Elizabeth McCoy, Walter Milliken

In Nomine comes to GURPS!

A GURPS adaptation of the In Nomine setting, featuring the epic struggle between Heaven and Hell, between angels and demons – both here in the mortal world and in the realms beyond. The focus is on converting the setting – all of In Nomine's Bands, Choirs, Superiors, and realms are adapted for use with GURPS – but GURPS conversions of In Nomine mechanics are included as well, covering artifacts, attunements, Discord, dissonance, disturbance, Essence, Intervention, resonance, Rites, Songs and more. Get ready to play with the big boys!

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming, Fantasy, Games

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

Reviews

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The English language translation of a French RPG about the modern day clandestine war between Heaven and Hell gets GURPSified, which buries the already complex and hierarchy-obsessed fluff under an intimidating and complex mountain of crunch. I like GURPS and I like In Nomine, I'm just not convinced they're great in combo. Still, if you want to do modern angels and demons ala The Prophecy or Good Omens, this is a good resource - maybe strip out the more fiddly mechanics to build a more narrative-focused game engine, though.

[Wbenetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aside from the original french version of the game, there are two US versions: In Nomine and GURPS In Nomine. The ideal way for the game system to work would be to have a thought out and well written mechanics system that is simple and straight forward. The game system requires smart roleplaying, not tweaking and min-maxing. This isn't a hack and slash, it is very much a story driven game. The issue with GURPS In Nomine is, uh, the GURPS system. If you're already accustomed to it, you'll do fine. There are conversion rules for most of the mechanics listed in the additional supplements. But if you're looking at these two books, wondering which you should pick up, go and look for the non-GURPS In Nomine book. It's better to deal with a mildly broken, inconsistent mechanics ruleset than an overly complicated one, and all of the interesting supplements are written with the original system in mind. Hell, SJGames is still publishing supplements in the In Nomine system (on E23).

[Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

The In Nomine system is great, also it is specifically tailored for the game. In my opinion In Nomine does not translate well to the GURPS system, though there are rules for Grigori and other bits of information and flavour-text that make GURPS In Nomine worthwhile.

The In Nomine system is quite simple in comparison to GURPS. GURPS models a lot more than the In Nomine system needs and the game experience looses something in the translation. In Nomine mechanics are specifically designed to handle The Symphony (the In Nomine system's philosophy of Creation) and all of its workings. GURPS is much more of a realistic system than a "Symphonic" one.

While I own GURPS In Nomine, I also own almost every In Nomine book. I do refer to GURPS In Nomine for a few things that are not covered in the standard rules and sourcebooks.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a valiant but flawed attempt to translate the rules-light, broken-but-playable mechanics of the original In Nomine system to the crunchy-gears GURPS system. Given that it's very easy for two starting PCs in In Nomine to vary by as much as a thousand points when you write them up as GURPS characters, it worked about as well as could be expected. I would really not recommend trying to run a GURPS In Nomine campaign; if you like the setting, use the original system. However, this book is worthwhile if you want to add In Nomine-flavored angels and demons to an existing GURPS campaign.

[Elizabeth McCoy]

It was very tricky to write in some places, and there are a few places where I'd personally house-rule based on knowing the In Nomine system, but overall I think we did a pretty good job.