It turns out my game can be a bit of a downer, some sessions.
Yes, I'm referring to Nobilis, again. Time and again, Suriel (the PCs' Angelic Imperator) has lost something. He's lost Atlantis (his home) and his Familia (the PCs starting the game), near the beginning. When he got that back, it wasn't long before he lost face with his brother angels for hiding one of their own from Creation. And then he got kicked out of the Coucil of the Metatron (think elder Angels) for hiding perhaps the most feared and dangerous of the Fallen in a similar way. He stood up for the Grigori. He's lost a few more Nobles since. And now it turns out he was actually killed over 7000 years ago and transformed into an what was supposed to be an enemy of Creation. Fortunately, he's the Angel of Loyalty, and still has a job to do. After that's done, though...
I'm in my third year of running my Nobilis game, my third year with Suriel. I've known it wasn't a happy tale from the get-go--the subtitle, "Legacy," implies it, if you think. The game started with a handful of PC Nobles who were destined to lose. I told each the players to have an Anchor--a more human, more limited character--handy to play sessions with different scope than the typical Nobilis game. And then I told each player individually that their starting Noble characters weren't really their main characters--that they'd switch to their Anchors full-time at some point. And halfway through the summer, I killed the whole group, and their Anchors got their jobs as the Powers of Waves, Rock and Roll, Loyalty, the Subconscious, Discovery and Masks.
I could go on listing the losses the players have suffered, but it would take a while, and it's not the point. I like the heroism spurred on by this sort of tragedy, and the PCs have risen to meet the challenge. I love the heroes who have every reason to give up, to cut their losses or to at least get hung up on them, but don't. They go on anyway, even though they know it's going to hurt even more before they are done.
My girlfriend and I are playing in a Changeling game together as a brother and sister who were kidnapped by the Fae as children--our brother at age 4, her character at age 5 and mine at age 8--one night after another. The growing horrible knowledge that these things aren't your brother and sister, and that something GOT them in the night, and that your all-knowing parents couldn't tell the difference...it's just too much fun. And to come back physically a 11-year old after a handful of years (maybe) in captivity to find that around 30 years passed, and that those things took your life from you...now that is a hero's origin story if I've ever heard one.
I've been kicking around an idea about D&D clerics and paladins, especially the later. It seems most concepts for those classes involve a great deal of education--they imply well-to-do if not noble families. Heck, the paladin class isn't complete without the Knowledge (nobility and royalty) skill. What of the peasant who shows up to the Temple with his jaw set, telling people he wants to be a paladin--that he knows he's been chosen? He's tested, or course--even if they aren't normally, he would be. Senior paladins and/or clerics react with at best patronizing looks and helpful advice (that they're all sure he needs), to at worst outright scorn (because he's taken a child's game too far), but he knows it's real. He passes the tests his way--technically legal, but with unexpected twists and use of a commoner's strength, perseverance and wisdom. His peers think he's doomed, or a blight on the order, or a little brother they should protect from the real evils of the world. That'd be an interesting paladin to me.
Start from the mud. Maybe even fall in it a few times, just so you know which way is up.
~j
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