An In Nomine Horror Story

Several years back, a friend of mine picked up the new (at the time) game of In Nomine, a game allowing players to take the roles of the angels and demons of Judeo-Christian mythology. Going with my "heart character" I made an angel who was once allied to the archangel of Dreams but has since fallen from God's grace. You see, my angel served in the dreaming realm, where he met and fell in love with a mortal dreamer. He went to earth to be with her but then she was murdered. Using his power over dreams he ripped apart the mind of her murderer with nightmares. This began his fall. He didn't fall all the way to Hell, but he's closer there than ever. He is now living as a con artist on earth, a character inspired as much by Vertigo's John Constantine as by anything else.

I built my character so that he was the equivalent of a mortal human in physical stats and spiritual stats. It was only on the sphere of Ethereal (mental) that he excelled. As the game started, my character was arriving in New York's LaGuardia airport when he came across a fight between a few angels (the other PCs) and a demon.

I ask, "How do we figure out initiative? Who goes first?"

My friend looks confused for a moment and begins looking through the book. He can't find it. Instead of making something up, he keeps looking. We all take turns. In Nomine has a very pretty book, but its horribly organized. (Possibly worse than White Wolf.) None of us can find it. GM still refuses to move game forward. "It must be in there." I'm wishing I kept my big mouth shut. Finally I convince him of a way to handle it and the game continues...a half hour later.

It was a physical fight and my character would be completely outclassed, so he stands back and waits for a critical moment to toss somebody's luggage at the demon, distracting it when the other PCs could finish it off.

So, then the plot starts developing and I decide my character would slip into the ethereal realm to research the origins of the demon. The GM says, "You can't do that yet."

I ask, "Why?"

""The ethereal sourcebook isn't out yet. I don't know how to run it."

"Can't you make stuff up? It's your game."

"Yeah, but the sourcebook may contradict me."

The whole game was like that. Another physical fight broke out and once again, I couldn't use by mental powers in the fight because the GM didn't have a sourcebook. As my fellow angels fought the demon in the street, I went to the truck of the car. I pulled out my suitcase and pitched it at the demon.

I recently borrowed a whole bunch of In Nomine books from some friends. Unfortunately, I don't think they ever came out with an ethereal sourcebook.