In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.
Just before that, though, a very interesting argument had just ended.
Different aspects of the mind of God had incarnated long before the start of time, with the intention of making their opinions heard. Gabriel, Michael and Uriel formed a power block and refused to give up on the concept of determinism. Samael favored free will, and wanted a democratic decision made about it, but Phanuel refused them all point blank, saying that as the Face of God, He/She/It had to have the last say. Israfil tried to set Himself up as mediator (as usual), but was distracted as Raphael and Haniel almost came to blows over whether humanity should experience pain. Only Azrael, the Angel of Death, stayed out of it. As It watched the ensuing threats and complaints, It found Itself shaking Its head. With the entirety of creation at stake, a metaphysical argument could cause a fall from grace for eternity. It would be a miracle if they got it all started without killing themselves.
Looking at the universe we got, who said it was not created by a committee?
Archangels : In the Beginning is a Freeform LARP (Live Action Role Play) event game using A Token System, set at the dawn of time for sixteen parts of the mind of God. If costuming is desired, togas are recommended, but Archangels wearing Italian suits, or medieval armor, or anything appropriate to the sphere they control would be amusing. I wrote this game after an overdose of Vampire, Cthulhu and ghost games, and wanted to see life on the Other Side. Divine power, infinite possibility, boundless ego. Does that spell trouble? You betcha. Knowledge of any gaming system is unessential, and in fact may give headaches
A Plot Device Game
Genre;
Yup!
Combat; Immortals carrying around flaming swords...
Probably.
Problem Solving; Some.
Comedy; Probably.
Intrigue;
You bet!
Catharsis; Anything is possible.
Adult Concepts; Some
(Angels and Sex? Who knows?)
Religious concepts; What do you
think?
You can get the full sixty page, 30,000 word game, with all the rules needed to run it, in PDF format from www.rpgnow.com in the later half of 2004.
Freebie: Example Extra Characters (Require Adobe Acrobat Reader)
If you have purchased the game and want advice or need more characters for the event you have planned, email me and I will see what I can do to assist. This game has been run numerous times at game convetions in Australia, and some groups overseas have had a go as well. Here is a web page about an Archangels : In The Beginning verson 2.1 event that was run in Taipei in 1999 with greater references to the In Nomine system than the original and current versions of the game.
Coming Soon...
Archangels 2: The Fall, The Flood, The Tower
In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth
Just after that, though, the real problems started
Humanity: the precocious children were upsetting everyone. They kept asking uncomfortable questions, but then accepted the answers regardless. Their innocence was obvious to all, as was their simplicity. And no one was happy with it.
Different aspects of the mind of god incarnated to make their views known. Phanuel was annoyed that the humans had everything they could want, so they saw no reason to be thankful. Gabriel was concerned that since the Humans were eternal, they had nothing to strive for, and there would be no improvement. Even Raphael and Haniel, the angels of healing and love, were deeply troubled that everything they had gone to such great lengths to create was empty and hollow of any meaning.
Collectively, God looked down the ages of eternity into the unending future. They saw it as a beautiful picture, worth a thousand words, each word of which They now had read ten thousand million times.
Azrael, the angel of death, fumed quietly to itself, and tried not to say I Told You So.
Then Samael, the bringer of light, came up with a revolutionary plan. No one liked it. No one came up with a better one. So two trees growing in Eden were revealed. And humanity's innocence came to its first test.
Facing an eternity of unchanging perfection, would you create evil? And, if you did, what would you do when the power of it rose to be greater than good?
This game will be run at Macquarie Con XX, in December 2004, and will be available for purchase at that time.