Nephilim: Occult Roleplaying

by Frédéric Weil, Sam Shirley, Greg Stafford

Nephilim is a contemporary role-playing game of the occult. Players adopt the role of mystic beings composed of magical elemental fields (Air, Water, Fire, Earth, and Moon). Mysteriously, the Nephilim are now awakening en masse after a long slumber, incarnating in humans, and continuing to acquire occult knowledge. Their ultimate goal is to attain a superior consciousness called Agartha. They face numerous dangers, the principle threat being secret societies, the most determined being the Templars.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming, Fantasy

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This turned out to be startlingly interesting. Conceptually it's a little bit like Kult, In Nomine, and Vellum had a baby, and can I just say that even typing that out was a sploosh moment. System-wise it is very crunchy, but given its age and country of origin, that's not terribly surprising. It's also not necessarily unappealing–the predominant use of percentile dice makes the complicated setup fairly straightforward to actually use, and all the calculations for the (necessary) celestial calendar could just be handwaved, if one so desired. This is definitely going on my "run someday" stack, although I'm going to have to wait for just the right group of players to come along.

[Matthew J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tough one to review. Here's the thing. I think this is a very well done game and I think it would be a ton of fun for the right game group. It just isn't really my thing and I don't know if I can put my finger on just why. In some ways, it's very 90s. A lot of tabletop RPGs from that decade were about the occult, conspiracy theories, and playing supernatural beings. Obviously, Vampire: The Masquerade was the most popular and most famous, but the concept was explored in countless games. Among them, Nephilim stands tall as one of the highest quality. Originally published in France, it was translated and brought to American (and British, I'm assuming) audiences by Chaosium, including the late, great gaming god Greg Stafford. There are mechanical similarities to Call of Cthulhu and other Basic Role-Playing -based games, yet it has a feel all its own.
In the 90s, I was lucky enough to game with a wide variety of people and able to sample a wide variety of games. I did get a chance to play a session or two of Nephilim, but if I'm honest, it left me cold. Reading the game again for the first time in 25 years, it still kinda does. The concepts are cool and they're well handled. They just don't especially interest me.
It's a game I'd happily play if I were in a regular group and someone really wanted to run it. Sign me up. I'll be there. But would I go out of my way to play? Nope. Do I have any interest in running it? Double-nope.
If you read about the game's concepts and it sounds interesting to you, go for it. I think you'll really dig it.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Chaosium BRP book which infuriated me for its editing problems, Nephilim still remains an intriguing role-play experiment. The basic premise has the players taking the role of immortal body-jumping spirits, attuned to a particular element, and having them appear in a particular time period. The spirits, having manifested in a human shell, are subject to be hunted or helped by dozens of secret societies, which are detailed in supplements, and most of which are drawn from historical sources and urban legends. The authors lean heavily on Grail myth and Templar legends, specifically referencing Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which was later incorporated into Dan Brown's books (and movies).

[Francisco Becerra · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most original settings ever done, and a almost perfect catalyst of real occult ideas, contents and history into a RPG. It was very ambitious, a lot of times confusing, required a lot of previous knowledge of history and the occult, character creation was one of the longest, but still it challenged gamemasters and players to think in more abstract terms, to go read and get aquainted with history, to create complex characters. For me, albeit all of its mistakes, one of the best RPG settings ever done.

[Veiltender]

An interesting book to think with. I like the magical world and its grounding in real-world occult thinking. Its metaphysics are certainly better thought-out than anything in the World of Darkness, for example. Unfortunately real world esotericism can be kind of racist and incredibly elitist, and this game definitely drunk from that well. Reading this book, I was sometimes struck with the idea that the book was having you play the bad guys, but was unaware of it.

[g026r · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful ideas contained within, however the book feels rushed and incomplete. As a result of this, many of the ideas never get more than the barest of explanations or expanded on.

[John]

fiction,fantasy,theology,role-playing game