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The Game Contract and Statement of Intent With everything starting up anew, I thought it would be a good idea to lay out what RSB calls a 'play contract' and state a few things for the record.

First, the Play Contract:

General Players (including me) should refrain from any deliberate attempts to make other players uncomfortable. In addition to physical or verbal harassment, this includes inappropriate descripts of in-character behavior or drives, sadism, child abuse, and other miscellany that may offend. Character can certainly engage in controversial or deviant behavior (if necessary for their character concept), but if the issues raised are known to make one or more players uncomfortable, we'll keep the descriptions of such things short and to the point.

That said, we are all adults with (I think) both an interest in a strong and compelling story and a level of maturity that can allow for elements of the game to become uncomfortable ("grin and bear it") in order to achieve a 'good' scene. I will proceed with that assessment in mind.

Autonomy You control the minds and emotions of your character(s). If I or another player describes your PC's mental reaction to something, you can always correct them. They can always clarify why they made that description, but that can't argue -- it's your character.

This is 100% true of your Nobilis characters and about 70% true for your mortal anchors: keep in mind that I or another player might be playing one of your anchors (in order to be involved in a scene). Hopefully, everyone has a good idea of the character's involved and can play them accordingly. Purposely 'messing' with another character's anchor will not be permitted, but as we are adults, I expect the shared roleplaying of some characters will only add to the game.

Sex & Violence Not to put too cynical a point on it, but most stories boil down to sex and violence and since this is a story we're all telling, we can expect both elements to make an appearance.

Sex Plots and character actions can feature the full range of consensual human behavior, but descriptions of same will not be lascivious or unnecessarily graphic.

Emphasis, Genre, and Expectations Just a few bits to give you an idea of the sorts of things I tend to end up running, one way or the other.

Estates It's difficult to give good advice on what type of characters will work. Part of the wonder of this group is that you all will think of character concepts that I never would have and then make them work.

I think that general Estates work better than specific ones. I think that responsible/dedicated characters will work better than irresponsible/desultory ones. I'm willing to be proven wrong on both points.

Theme There are many kinds of stories you can do in a Nobilis game; it works for a light-hearted, comedic, over-the-top powerfest -- it also works for dark and brooding metaphysical horror. Different groups (in fact, different characters) might be doing either or both in a single session, but it can ruin one story if another type of story overwhelms it, or if a character just doesn't fit.

Generally, I think it helps you predict the feel of the game if you know some my current influences.

Overall feel I like to have fun and laugh, and I like things to get creepy from time to time. Hopefully, I'll creep you out sometimes without going into that Call of Cthulu zone where your chance of survival is a joke. That said, actions have consequences.

Characters should be capable of treating their responsibilities seriously and of dedicating the greater part of their lives to the often unsavory tasks associated with defending reality (and themselves) against those who would destroy everything. At the same time, the character should also have some interests and pursuits other than those necessary for the maintenance of their Estate.

Experience Level With a few exceptions, everyone's assumed to have had some experience as a Noble: enough to learn pretty much everything in the rulebook (excepting those described as a secret).