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Rating: 
Summary: Too many big layout errors for this price
Review: I bought Nobilis yesterday, went home and started flipping the book through. First I just started from random pages somewhere in the middle to check out the layout and art. In my scale, this was an expensive book as rpg books go. So, you can perhaps imagine my frustration when I noticed that the first pages all the way to the list of illustrations and again the pages from 19 to 24 appear to be twice in this book. The missing first chapter is available as .pdf-file in the official Nobilis' site. Adter they answered my mail enquiry I did as they suggested and took the book back to the store and got an errorfree volume.
Rating: 
Summary: Most provocative and imaginative game in a long age!
Review: I have been playing rpgs since 1975. In that time I've played OD&D (the Three Little Books that started it all), Traveller, RuneQuest, Paranoia, Metamorphosis Alpha, Chivalry & Sorcery, GURPS, Harmaster, Ars Magica, Champions, Golden Heroes, TORG, Castle Falkenstein, Werewolf, Mage, Star Trek, Over the Edge and a host of other games. I got into gaming because of a twin love of storytelling and mythology/folklore. While I have loved and questioned many games, this one has caught my imagination the most. While it would be difficult to put together a game (see below), I have a deep and abiding love for the product and would wish to see it do well.
The game is based on the notion that the PCs are themselves demigods, powerful entities with near absolute control over some aspect of reality. What aspect? Well, it could be traffic. Or it could be guns. Or it could be the colour yellow. Or it could be treachery. Or you could incarnate (as showed up on the maillist) as the Power of Magnificence in the form of a weasel.
Yes, this is an odd game.
Within your sphere of influence, as I say, you have nearly complete power. The problem, of course, is that no one is going to have utter dominance over all matters and, due to various reasons (hey! this is a roleplaying game!) there are many groups and individuals opposed to you and your boss, the greater being who acts as the nearly silent patron of the combined group of PCs.
One of the biggest twists to this game, of course, is that no dice or cards are used as randomizing agents. Instead you have a certain number of points each session you can use to "bid" in an effort to make certain events take place. The GM also has these points, but in the end the feeling is not adversarial, but rather an attempt to create a larger myth, because sometimes the GM would use those points to bid up your efforts (or similar ones). While I am not fully explaining the mechanics here (both for copyright reasons and space limitations), take my word for it that this is the only diceless/cardless system I have ever seen that both works and makes sense.
Now I said this would be a difficult game to put together. Why so? Well, you have to find just the right group of players and just the right GM similtaneously. You have to have players who are less interested in gold, guns, and other objects and more interested in building a larger mythological framework to the game. Equally you have to have a GM who is able to coherently come up with plots where, to use one negative reviewer's comment, an assault on the colour yellow makes sense. I have run a couple short sessions of this game and the group has enjoyed it, been blown away by the possibilities. We have not tried a full campaign yet, but it has been intense fun to date!
I must also give kudus to the "micro-fiction" in this game. Scattered about on the pages are 1-2 paragraph snippets that overflow with ideas, much like the mini-stories from Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities". One has the devil worried he might not get it right when he has been given the burden of evil in the world, another has two men fighting over flowers, and another recounts the circular nature of all journeys. I found these not only inspirational for this game, but actually serving as "whack to the side of the head" moments for life, other games, and how I did/wanted to view reality.
This game is about as imaginative and provocative as it gets. No, it is not for everyone, but for the right person, this game is perfection itself.
Rating:
Summary: Clearly different
Review: I've been plaing RPGs for as long as I can remember, and looked forward to the time when my own copy of Nobilis would arrive. I was not disappointed when it did. It's *like* a lot of games, yet is different than all of them. The sheer scale of the setting is amazing; and the prose of the text (along with the great art) makes this more than just a game. I must, and do, highly recommend this to anyone who plays or is interested an RPGs. This is a once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece. ...Now if it can only keep with a single publisher for a while so people can find it...
Rating:
Summary: Completely Excellent
Review: Nobilis is both an excellent diceless RPG, and wonderful, inspiring reading. There are many fine reviews of it at RPG review websites, but very briefly, it elegantly captures the feel of such authors as Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker, as well as Susan Cooper and other powerful fantasies, through the empowering of ordinary people as the godlike Nobilis, guardians and embodiments of the fundamental principles of the universe. The primary narrative themes of the game are love, duty, and sacrifice, while the playstyle theme emphasizes empowerment and choice for the players.
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