Valiance City

[Carthrat]

It is cold in Valiance City this December.

As the season turns towards their time, the Winter Court rules the Freehold- and the fifty-three changelings in the city have gone to ground, locking their doors and edging about corners. For as the leaders of the Winter Court say- the Fair Folk cannot steal what they cannot find. For many, it is a time of rememberence- and a time of planning for the spring that is yet to come. By the power of pledges made by and to the Winter Court, in the month of December, any changeling in his home within Valiance is safe from the Fae- as long as they hang real mistletoe upon their doors. The Summer Court may bridle at the implied cowardice, but their time is far away.

Yet whilst the changelings are as safe as they could be, the depredations of Arcadia still make themselves known on the streets of Valiance, or so the Wizened of the Autumn Court suspect. Emotions run high throughout all levels of society, and in places, it seems to be breaking apart. Some see the hand of the True Fae seeping through the Trods- the gateways between our world and the Hedge. None would suggest the True Fae have plotted these events in detail- but their dreams are contagious.

Street gangs of teens terrorize the population inbetween their private wars. A darwinist contest is taking place in the alleyways, leaving only the toughest and most brutal youths free to roam. Too many changelings recall the Jager der Jager- the Hunter of Hunters, and the bloody contests that they escaped from. Now they see one spilling into the streets. Their fears are confirmed when a boy dies, leaving behind scraps of wickerwork and webbing- telltale signs of a fetch.

A series of scandals rocks societies elite; the mayor and certain high-profile public servants were forced to resign when their association with a group of 'secret clubs' becomes known; places where no act is too taboo, and people are given the opportunity to give in to their basest urges. Blackmail forces them to remain, becoming both clients and employees. Some men are driven to suicide; changelings remember the Reine des Glacons, and her ability to turn one's greatest desire into their ultimate torture.

Some changelings are driven to try and make things in Valiance better- but this is Winter, and most would rather hide away. But some will not, or cannot. Even in this time, the Freehold needs people to watch for incursions from the hedge, and to maintain the Trods that fuel the pledges of Valiance. A few members of all four courts work together, under the guidance of the Mountain King- the leader of the Winter Court. Some do so because they feel they should; some are repaying favours to (or seeking favours from) the Winter Court; some are glad for the opportunity to study the Trods, and some do it to be with their friends.

On a winter midnight, when the snow beats down and the work seems almost done, the clock built by Handspan the Wizened ticks one hour forward, but instead of chimes, the Hounds of the Hunt wail from within, eager for a chase. On a winter midnight, someone escapes from Arcadia. But he cannot reach safety alone. Who are you, who waits on the Winter Court, that goes forth to save him?

[Carthrat]

Character Generation!

We'll be following the characters generation rules outlined in the WoD Core book and the Changebook. Changeling sort of 'plugs in' to the World of Darkness; it provides certain additional traits to your previously-ordinary character. Summaries are found on p34 of the WoD book and p76 of the changeling book. You'll need to consult both. I'll outline it myself here, as well as point out a few things of importance. Changeling's got a lot to grasp conceptually, it'll be well worth skimming the book a bit and getting a handle on how the setting feels.

Changeling 101: Each Changeling was once an ordinary human who was stolen away by one of the True Fae, who took the human to Arcadia and transformed them into a plaything; a toy for use in their own crazy dreams. The Changeling, however, was able to escape Arcadia and reach the real world once again. However, they did not come through without scars; all Changelings bear telltale marks of their transformation, becoming creatures that belong only in fairy tales or fanciful dreams; no two look alike. A Mask of Glamour prevents ordinary humans from seeing the Changelings in their midst, but even this illusion is sometimes imperfect, with faint traces of their time in Arcadia still evident in their features. Often, it is their minds that bear the more noticeable warps; few think quite like ordinary people anymore, and most are quite paranoid about the thought of being recaptured by their masters. Indeed, some wonder if they have truly escaped, or if this is all just another elaborate torture.

There are certain commonalities in the way some Changelings were transformed, and a number of clear groups have emerged- called 'Seemings'- that refer to what the Changeling endured in Arcadia, and how they appear now. You'll need to pick one of these- they're put out in more detailed in the Changeling book, starting on p100.

The Seemings: The inborn classification of the Lost, representing the scars of each Changeling's time in Faerie and the manner of their keeping. Each Seeming is associated with a number of Kiths or subgroupings.

Beasts: Those who were transformed into animals by their keepers. This Seeming includes those who are associated with real-life animals such as hounds, lions, and eagles, as well as those associated with fictional or mythical animals such as griffons, mermaids and sphinxes. Beasts gain supernatural composure and animal magnetism from their Seeming, but lose some of their mental ability as they have had trouble regaining their human faculties.

Darklings: Often taken for breaking some obscure or arcane law of the Fae, Darklings were taken to lands of nightmare to become nightmares themselves. Boogeymen, face-changers, gargoyles, succubi, and scholars of lore mankind ought not know make up the ranks of this Seeming. Darklings are witty and adept at lying and hiding, but find their magic less effective during daylight hours, due to their bond to the darkness.

Elementals: Humans taken and transformed into inanimate 'things' - statues, snowdrifts, pools, streams, puffs of air, dolls, and other, more obscure items and substances. Connected as they are to the "bones of the earth," to the most primal, basic, and often durable of substances, Elementals have the ability to endure stunning amounts of punishment and damage, but they have trouble dealing with and understanding humans. How do you identify with standard-issue mortals when you've spent time as a tree, or a bonfire, or the sky itself?

Fairest: Of Them All. Mortals taken by the Fae and sculpted into images of beauty (or, at least, of intriguing attractiveness), then kept in torturous ecstasy by their keepers. The Fairest were often used as pleasure slaves or concubines by the Fae. Others were singers and dancers, or cast as statues to be viewed and enjoyed by the Gentry. Due to their preternatural beauty and grace, Fairest wield advanced presence, persuasive skill, and social poise, but their separation from humanity (and, in some ways, from other Lost) tends to hasten their descent into madness.

Ogres: Victims of monstrous brutality, Ogres had to become brutal monsters to survive. Often, but not always, big and imposing, Ogres can be cunning cyclopes, massive giants, nimble and bloodthirsty redcaps, or surly trolls. Their strength and fighting skill have been boosted by their Durances, and they can be terrifying when they wish, but the workings of the Others can leave them gullible and sometimes dull-witted, often with short tempers.

Wizened: The Wizened endured endless tortures, then lives of undignified, often pointless drudgery, at the hands of their Keepers. They cleaned the houses, dens, or lairs of their Fae captors, crafted tools and machines, healed (or helped to alter) other Changeling captives, and sometimes served as butlers or cooks in the Fae households. Each Wizened has been 'reduced' in some way - height, weight, size, or sheer physical presence has been shrunk. Some are dwarfish, others unnaturally thin, and still others seem less 'real' than other people. Wizened are clever and nimble, often able to dodge attacks with unbelievable skill, but most are spiteful, shy, or otherwise have trouble dealing with people.

After escaping from Arcadia, Changelings usually fall in with others of their kind, who approach them with an offer to join the local Freehold- a slang name for the Changelings within any given city (in this case, Valiance City.) Freeholds are arranged in a vaugely-feudal-anarchistic fashion; in the US, seasonal courts hold sway over each Freehold. The Summer Court rules in their namesake, the Autumn Court follows, and so on. Most changelings (including you) are part of one court or the other, and each court stands for different ideals and has a different method of dealing with the Fae. Although one court is dominant during each season, the others remain intact and tend to cleave together. Courts offer a support network- as well as a source of magical power, as contracts and pledges have been made on behalf of the Court with the rules of the world, giving them power over a certain emotion, and a certain physical phenomena. Courts are detailed on p46 of the Changeling book; you'll have to pick one, so consider wisely.

The Seasonal Courts - The most commonly-followed Court system in Europe and the Americas, this court system changes power with the seasons, the Spring Court handing over rule of the Freehold to the Summer Court on the Solstice.

Spring Court - After being twisted and stunted by the Gentry for so long, changelings should have the ability to grow again. The Antler Crown is all about growth, healing, and rejuvenation. Their court emotion is Desire.

Summer Court - If the Gentry return, we'll be ready. The Iron Spear is focused on martial prowess and being strong in all fields, and often stands as the freehold's army. Their court emotion is Wrath.

Autumn Court - The best way to beat the Gentry is to understand how they work. The Leaden Mirror consists of occultists, Hedge wanderers, and sorcerers. Their court emotion is Fear.

Winter Court - We drew the attention of the Gentry once, and we sure as hell won't do it again. The Silent Arrow deals in stealth, secrets, and obfuscation, with the main goal of keeping the Lost safe by keeping them secret. Their court emotion is Sorrow.

Changelings can't often return to their old lives- many find that an unlikely number of years have passed since their capture (and these years don't match up with the time they think they spent captures); it can be anywhere from a few weeks to fifty years. Some spend what feels like only a few moments away and return to a world transformed by science; others are gone for decades, but emerge to find they whilst they have grown, their world stayed the same.

Even if this time difference is overcome, the True Fae do not make life easy for any escapees. They have invariably been replaced by a Fetch; an identicle twin, of sorts, who picked up their life where they left off. The Fetch may or may not know what it is; it may be quite similar or radically different to the original. Many are unhinged and somewhat sociopathic. It is often exceptionally difficult for a changeling to do away with their fetch and step back into their lives; even if they succeed, the changes in their mind can make their former colleagues suspect them an impostor.

I'll cover some stuff on Changeling powers tomorrow. This is as much for my own benefit as anyone's, I've never run this before.

[Roukanken]

Posting here, because I don't seem to be able to start my own topic.

Just a heads-up saying I've applied my Attributes, Skills and Advantages so far, but the Wyrd/Glamour and Oath systems are making my head spin a little. I have a good idea what I want the character to come out as, but it's pretty heavy stuff for my first serious RP session. -_-

I should still make Friday, but some pointers would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Carthrat]

Sure, here's some notes.

Wyrd: Wyrd is a measure of just how much the character has transformed from their human state, physically, mentally, and magically. A Changeling with low Wyrd has little power, but is the closest thing to 'human' a Changeling can really be (which isn't saying much.) Characters with high Wyrd tend to have more extreme and intense emotions, and they view the world through the lens of their own personal daydreams more and more. Wyrd tends to grow with time, experimentation, and proximity to the Hedge or other faerie magics; the stuff suffuses your Changeling's spirit. It provides an innate defense against most supernatural phenomena.

Mechanically, all characters begin with 1 Wyrd, which can be increased by 1 with 3 Merit points. The most immediate effects of concern to you are the following

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-How much Glamour you can spend each turn. Because some abilities require multiple glamour points to be spent, this basically means that anything with a glamour cost higher than what you can spend is going to take you more than one turn to do, which is only going to be an issue if you're in a hurry.

-When someone attacks you with something supernatural, Wyrd is added to your dice pool (so some magical disease would be defended against with a pool of Wyrd+Stamina, say, whereas a normal mortal would just get Stamina.)

-Similarily, your magical abilities often use your Wyrd as part of their dicepool. High Wyrd means more power!

-Wyrd puts a limit on the number of glamour-enforced vows you can make at any one time; I believe the limit is 3+your wyrd. So you can't make more magically binding pacts than that.

-Wyrd puts a limit on the number of goblin fruits you can carry. This is unlikely to be an issue this game, but it might be, so here it is.

-Wyrd does a lot of other things which won't really matter here. Super-high wyrd increases your lifespan, makes you shine like a beacon to the Fair Folk, allows you to improve your attributes to superhuman levels, causes you to develop strange taboos and banes. We're talking 6+ here- stuff for longtime changelings, not you guys.

There's a table of figures in the book on Wyrd on page 84.

Glamour: Glamour is the dreamstuff that Changelings can use to work their magic. It's made out of hopes, dreams, strong emotions, and the like. Most changelings are, in fact, somewhat addicted to the stuff, and it comes in many forms. As the book says, it's 'distilled from the stuff of human sentiment'. Many changelings have an addiction to Glamour; harvesting it provides the ultimate rush. This addiction accounts for many of the strange urges of changelings and, in turn, the fair folk.

It comes from emotions; a man who has a powerful fear of spiders coming across a dozen in his home; a widow leaving flowers at the grave of her spouse; the thrill of defeating a hated rival for good, the wonder and exhilaration of someone's first kiss... any action with sufficient emotional investment can, perhaps, be used by a changeling to reap some glamour.

This power can be used for the following

-Powering contracts. Most contracts have a cost in glamour that needs to be paid, unless the catch is met; this is listed in the contract description.

-Using your Seeming/Kith blessings. Just like contracts above, they have a cost in glamour as well.

-Activating tokens. These relics of the hedge don't usually function without a bit of dreamstuff to prod them along.

-Strengthening the Mask: If you don't want to look like a changeling in front of other changelings, you can spend a point of glamour to look human. Your shadow will give you away, however.

-Dropping the Mask: If you spent your entire current glamour pool, the Mask will fall away and reveal your nature to all who see you. Note that this has a chance of reducing your clarity, and can attract all sorts of unwanted attention. It is, however, the quickest way of showing humans what you actually are, without bothering with pledges and all that.

There are three main ways to gain Glamour, as well.

-Harvesting powerful emotions from humans; many changelings have a fondness for a particular emotion- they have different flavours and textures. As long as the changeling goes to a place where humans are undergoing something of sufficient emotional weight, they can try to harvest some Glamour. A roll is usually required; the actual pool varies depending on circumstances. A hands-on approach will almost always reap better rewards than just being nearby or watching; if the human girl is deeply in love with the changeling, then that will net more glamour than being a voyeur, for example.

-If you go into the dreams of a human, you can soak up some of their deepest feelings. This is a bit tricky- I won't go into too much detail here.

-You can make a pledge with a human that demands glamour from him, though it's not usually phrased as such; the key is to force the human to perform some task that is laden with emotional or symbolic importance, such as ringing a bell at a certain time every day. For a large burst of glamour, you could have them do something truly dramatic ('give me your firstborn daughter!') or the like. This does require you to do something for them, however.

Pledges, Vows, Oaths

I'm going to be honest. There's a whole lot of rules stuff on making pledges and vows, but I'm far more interested in the spirit of the law rather than the letter, here. The key thing to remember is that changelings can make binding deals with humans or other changelings), as long as the terms are clearly set. The glamour invested into the oath gives it power, and the changeling can grant either service, or numerous boons. Mystically speaking, they can grant a human the power to see through Changeling masks, thus enabling them to see the world the way a changeling does; they can also give a human or changeling boosts in ability, giving, say, an unskilled artist a boost in talent, or a boxer great strength for his next fight.

A pledge has a few components it needs to make it a real pledge. There's supposed to be tracking on math and such, but we'll wing it for now.

-Is it a Vow, or an Oath? A vow is invested into your changeling's Wyrd (basically, you can only have a certain amount of vows active at one time.) An Oath is invested into something else- the Changeling's True Name, the Name of his Court, the Name of his Keeper. Suffice to say that this allows a changeling to swear more pledges- but the penalty for breaking an Oath is always much worse than a vow. If you swear something on the name of your keeper, for example, and then renege, you'd better be prepared for your former master to take an interest in your situation soon enough...

-Task: The task is the expectation of one or both parties of the pledge to actually accomplish or fulfill. It can be something like an alliance (neither party will assault the other, and will aid them when in trouble), a task that must be completed (build me a shrine!), or perhaps a set of actions the parties may not commit (do not visit the docks on Tuesdays).

-Boon: The swearing of a pledge is not without rewards. A group that swears an alliance can find itself empowered, as long as all cleave true to the ideals of the alliance; the human who performs a task for a changeling may be granted great skill. There are a few different boons that are possible; most grant a bonus to abilities or advantages (upon waxing the sensei's wall, Daniel suddenly became a karate master.) Changelings can gain glamour from the adherence to a pledge (between changelings, this is fairly straightforward; between a changeling and a human, the human often leaves out some token that the changeling can reap glamour from; there's no need for a human to know exactly what the token stands for.) Favors can also be granted, to be cashed in at a later date.

-Sanction: If someone breaks the terms of the pledge (by NOT building the shed, by visiting the docks on a Tuesday, by not actually coming through with that favour, etc), bad things happen. Terrible luck might befall the oathbreaker; the boons they were granted may invert themselves (daniel-san loses on tournament day), or whatever horrible fate specified by the pledge will come to befall those affected.

I don't think it's very productive to give more guidelines than this on making a pledge. There are a few examples in the book which I think show what kind of stuff is expected out of them, including some common pledges- they're worth checking out. As long as any vow the changeling chooses to enforce carries suitable weight, you can rest assured that the benefits will be reaped.

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Hope this helps a bit. There's no need to worry too much about how Wyrd and Glamour 'work'- as long as you know what your wyrd score is and how much glamour you actually have, it'll be fairly intuitive once in play.

As for oaths, the mechanics aren't too important. If you want any presworn oaths on gamestart, let me know.

[Dracos]

Posting here, because I don't seem to be able to start my own topic.

Just a heads-up saying I've applied my Attributes, Skills and Advantages so far, but the Wyrd/Glamour and Oath systems are making my head spin a little. I have a good idea what I want the character to come out as, but it's pretty heavy stuff for my first serious RP session. -_-

I should still make Friday, but some pointers would be appreciated. Thanks.

*Reads* Sorry 'bout that.  There's a limit of a couple posts before it lets you do topic creation.  Mainly to block spam and runners.  You should be able to do it now though.