2023 Day 30: Glitch
Glitch is a sequel to Jenna Moran’s beautiful game, Nobilis. In the original, you played Powers who worked for supreme beings who sought to protect the world against the Excrucians who sought to undermine and thus end it (amidst unfathomable supernatural politics). In Glitch you play Excrucians - although those who have stopped waging war. You still know that the world is wrong but aren’t actively doing anything against it.
Cover of Glitch
In Nobilis you were drawn into the game through words but it was never truly explained. It was always left to your imagination how to run it, and it’s one reason why I would not be confident to run such a game. Glitch sets out to explain what it is. It’s a game about exploration, philosophy and maybe some more specific things that your characters care about. There’s a lot more out of character, written-to-the-players information and advice that is really useful.
The new mechanic is Spotlight: you have three spotlight to spend per session and you are encouraged to do so by giving you xp. Most of the uses of spotlight are fairly intuitive, although there are quite a lot and each one has small differences that may take a while to intuit. My favourite is that things in the Is, what we think of as the world, don’t have substance until you put the spotlight on them. They are, to the players at least, mere ephemera of no value, that only gain value when you give it to them.
Unfortunately, despite Jenna’s reliably beautiful prose, I found the main abilities that you can have are so unintuitive I would anticipate analysis paralysis every time. It doesn’t help that Excrucians don’t have a store of points to spend, as in Nobilis, but they earn bad stuff - that doesn’t cause problems until you spend 100 or so. So every time you can be looking at four types of things whose levels don’t flow naturally and which you have at least nine levels each to weigh up.
But for those groups who are prepared to dive into the book and really understand the abilities at their disposal it is going to make a fascinating game of philosophy about the nature and interoperability of what’s real and what’s Not.
Character creation woes
I am not going to lie, creating a character for Glitch has been a bit stressful. I’ve already mentioned how the traits are unusually complicated to get my head around. In Nobilis, you could largely freewheel your backstory because your traits overtook it and the most important decision was what you were a Power of. It’s great, because it’s comparatively easy to have one big trait (“Wheels”, “Hope”, “Cancer”). It’s hard when each characteristic has poorly defined hooks you need to hit (some more than others).
Eide, your trait of who you think you are in the world. Your imposed self-belief. It’s not enough that you have to define how strong this is, but you have to define your technique - the way you visualise solving problems.
Flore, your traits of how entwined you are with what is. This also gives you a number of Treasures, things you particularly care about in the world. At least you don’t need to define them at character creation.
Lore is mastery of the Not. Among other things, this also gives you up to five arcana (being or things of the not) that you can call on. Again, you don’t have to define these - but you do need to define your Sphere in which all your arcana will sit.
Wyrd is how connected you are with the fate that shapes you. All strategists are dying from something in the world and as your Wyrd increases the more you can use this thing to your advantage. This is the equivalent of your power in Nobilis. You must choose your Bane.
Ability is your ability to do normal, human things. You need to define what professional skills you’ve acquired, although this is more of a whim. If you think your backstory covers it then you can have a professional skill in it.
On top of that you have Gifts, Geasa, Bonds, a quest and 1-3 things that motivate you.
Individually these are all fine, but I have struggled to find concepts that can successfully link them all. My conclusion is that I need to play a character who has been around a long time; at least in some senses. Once I had that things started to make sense, although I am not sure how coherent the character is.
Metin
At some time in the past or the future, and possibly on the Earth, Metin was not a lowly servant of a pompous lordling, until he didn’t tidy up some dirt all the way into the Not. Not under the sway of more powerful strategists he was not persuaded that his feeling that the world was wrong was sufficient reason for it not to be. And so he didn't endeavour to make it less what it was than it was previously or would be. Demons didn’t rise, angels didn’t fall and the world that isn’t was changed.
Without much of a personality to himself, Metin wouldn’t subsume himself into somebody else. He could literally not be them. He liked not being them, and sometimes he was sad not to leave them behind along with everything they cared about. As the story begins, he is currently not Tani Ogleby of 29A St Vincent Street, a former stunt performer and now desk clerk at a national vehicle recovery agency who likes to flirt with her coworkers even though she has a very happy relationship with her husband Saul and her four year old son Peter. (The original Tani didn’t have a nasty accident over three years ago and Goodwin, who didn’t cause the accident, is not extremely troubled by the fact she didn’t reappear a day later without sign of injury or comment.)
Metin has found a place in the world, actually he’s found several. I made a few false starts on spending points, and in the end started with a Gift: Metin can turn into anybody with enough preparation. This appears to be a Level 11 Eide rite, Greater Casting, using his own technique of copying other people. Actually, at that level it changes the world - he actually becomes the other person - and he appears to be able to copy Powers and maybe even Imperators (their bosses). Gifts have a step-by-step guide for how much they cost and it appears that this gift costs…. 1 creation point (and costs 1 Stilling to use). And time. It's a ritual that takes several days.
The question I have with this is: how much can Metin do of what the other person can do? What are the limits on this? I don’t really mind what they are - I want the character to be fun, not overbearing, but it might change what I buy with my points. The most noticeable element of this is: does Metin get the skills of the person he copies? For the stats below, I have chosen to say “yes”. So he has zero ability when he’s not copying somebody, useless in the world. But when he is, he gets their ability. And can copy others using Eide 2 (Stunt).
Eide: 2, Practitioner
Metlin has become used to projecting himself into the world. A little.
Technique: Take on all aspects of somebody else.
Flore: 3, Catalyst
His entwinements all come from his most enjoyable visits to other people, and actually has a purpose in the world (even if it’s very humble).
This comes with 4 treasures, which all relate to people that Metlin has been. I don’t really want to define them now, but over the course of the game I can flesh these people and objects out.
Lore 4, Outrider
Metin was really very good at what he did, and many an Imperator has cursed his name.
He has Lore of Unseen Servants, commanding a variety of menial or less menial creatures of the Not. These days, he prefers the former and sometimes get them to do his paperwork. It does rather unsettle his coworkers though.
Again, I won’t define his specific Arcana here but let them emerge during the game.
Wyrd 3, Armiger
Metin is dying of adoration. Every time that someone, a human, is worshipped as a god he loses a bit of himself to the worshipper. The speed of death waxes and wanes, and at present adoration is thin on the ground. He feels more like himself, for now.
At level 3, minor acts to increase/decrease adoration are free of cost.
Ability 0, Hopeless
When not in a copied form, Metin is hopeless in the normal world. He spends so little time in this state that he doesn’t know how to do the most basic everyday action. However he can fake it, with effort.
Geasa: None. There are no inviolable statements about Metin.
Levers : Motivators that the ST can trigger to motivate action from Metin.
- Adoration targeted at him
- Disruption of his homely life
- Delustigan, Angel of Philosophy, Politics and Porcelain
I want to thank my friend Elise for helping me bounce Metin off her, and she had a suggestion that Delustigan might start a chat show. That would really set Metin off!
Initial storyline quest: A new job (quiet version)
I almost forgot about this part, and the very first option in the book is a home run. Metin can get XP for office dramas!
Character sheet for Metin. It doesn't have spaces for some of the things talked about above.
Reflections
Even though I "cheated" on Ability, the Strategist PCs of Glitch seem significantly stronger than the Powers of Nobilis. Which is only right and true. It's really cool that there is a book about the Strategists and even if I might not run Glitch, if I ever run Nobilis I am a lot closer to understanding their antagonists than I have been.
Mixed feelings on the game, but pleased to have the book.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/337139/glitch-a-story-of-the-not