[Minor Template] The Titov Family

[amechra]

Yes, this is the Titov family from Chuubo's. I'm breaking a minor rule of mine by doing this.

The Titov family has a secret - they're guarding something. They're keeping it asleep, kept away, and bound. No-one really knows what it is that they're holding away, but do know that, should they fail at their duty, the results would be...

Better not to speak of such things.

As recompense for their stewardship (or perhaps because of it), the Titov are magic. To put it simply, they can get what they need.

A warm meal? Easy.
A warm body to share a bed with? Child's play.
A cure for the cancer ravaging their body? I hope you weren't considering that difficult.
A cure for being Titov? Now you're asking far too much.

You see, a line of credit only goes so far. You have to pay at some point - and the Titov pay with their souls and sanity.

Welcome to the family.

You're stuck with them.

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The Titov Family Magic (Supernatural; • - •••)
Prerequisite: Mortal only, a member of the Titov family.
Benefits: You're a member of the Titov family. You take part in their rituals to keep their charge sealed away, and can use the Titov magic to help yourself. It's simple, really - reflexively spend one Willpower and make your "wish". You may demand benefits from your magic that have an Obstacle equal to or lower than the number of dots you have in this merit.
Special: Of course there's a drawback to this. Each time you make a wish, you gain [Obstacle] instances of the Strained condition.

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The Titov Wishes
The Titov have the power to grant wishes - their own, and those of others. Some wishes are harder than others; as such, each wish has an Obstacle that it must meet.

I'm Fine (Obstacle 1) - The Titov may hide her madness with her magic - she may suppress any outward signs of madness or emotional turmoil, negating any appropriate Social penalties for a Scene. As an exception to the normal use of the Titov's magic, she may use this wish without spending Willpower whenever she suffers a Breaking Point.

What I Need (Obstacle 1 or 2) - The Titov may use this wish to twist the world into bringing them what she needs. When making this wish, state a desire - at Obstacle 1, the wish merely assures that she will run into someone or something that can fill that need within the next few days. At Obstacle 2, the wish makes it easier to get what she needs - reduce the Availability by 1, remove one Door in the way of convincing someone to help her, and add one additional Success to any successful roll made to pursue that someone or something. If a person that fulfils the need does not exist within range (or is shielded from this magic in some way), this wish instead defaults to I Need This.

What You Need (Obstacle 1 or 2) - The Titov may use this wish to determine what someone wants. At Obstacle 1, a glance at his face lets her know what she would have to give him to secure his cooperation - if she can get it to him, he gains one Willpower, and treats it as both soft leverage and as if it fulfilled an Aspiration for the purposes of Social Maneuvering. At Obstacle 2, she can hold onto that desire - in addition to the benefits of this wish at Obstacle 1, giving it to him prevents Social Maneuvering from failing due to requiring him to suffer a Breaking Point or rendering one of his Aspirations impossible. More importantly, the next Breaking Point roll he suffers at her request does not happen - her bribe was good enough to literally kill for.

This Is For You (Obstacle 2) - The Titov may make this wish to fill an object with emotional meaning. This is subtle - it doesn't create emotions, it just makes them meaningful. All it does is convey an appropriate emotion in a way that can't be misconstrued - and any Supernatural power that would render that impossible enters a Clash of Wills against a Breaking Point from the Titov.

I Need This (Obstacle 3) - The Titov pulls, and the world complies. At it's most basic, this functions like an Obstacle 2 version of What I Need, except that all of the benefits are doubled. However, it can call for people that don't actually exist - the magic of the Titov can create them out of thin air, or out of the earth at their feet. As a rule of thumb, consider people made out of nothing to be three-dot Retainers or Mentors with at most one Dread Power.

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Members of the Titov Family start with one dot of The Titov Family Magic, as well as a dot of Status (Titov Family). They may also purchase the Dynasty Membership (B&S 112) merit, substituting Status (Titov Family) for their (non-existent) Clan Status.

Finally, the Titovs find themselves with the Cursed merit more often than the general population,

[amechra]

Yep.

I might do one of the other Shrine families at some point - but the Titov have a special place in my heart for being so uniquely fucked up. Their magic is so damn powerful, and they can convince almost anyone to do anything for them - for the proper price.

As a note: What I Need and, by extension, I Need This do not stack. You can't get a massive number of bonus Successes or open Doors by chaining transactions. If you want to steamroll resistance to your social attempts, use them to get your target what they want, and then give it to them with a hearty use of What You Need.

Just remember - just because you wish for a cruise liner doesn't mean you don't have to find a way to pay for it.

[Raistlin]

So, are the Titov beloved by the Wyrd or did some ancestor of the family strike a bargain with a powerful Fae?

[amechra]

So, are the Titov beloved by the Wyrd or did some ancestor of the family strike a bargain with a powerful Fae?

Neither, really. It's all a byproduct of keeping their "guest" (who could be that powerful Fae) chained away - it's really helpful to have a way of getting food, clothes, companionship, and money without having to leave your post. Now that the family has grown, the individual members have much more choice when it comes to lifestyle... but the magic remains.

They do really well in organized crime - Don Marconi might be able to offer you a ton of money, but Don Titov can offer you a pro-bono cure for your daughter's lukemia. A thug might be able to beat an answer out of you - a Titov can bribe you so well that you'll sell out your own mother.

(It could be a "present" from the Chancellor, come to think of it...)

[Vent0]

(It could be a "present" from the Chancellor, come to think of it...)

Well, someone's gotta keep those Old Gods Bound, after all.

[Michael Brazier]

This misses the aspects of the Titovs that IMO most mark how they're warped. First, learning the family magic makes them emotionally numb, forcing them to eat Outside dust (basically motes of chaos and decay) to function among normal humans. Second, a common consequence of using the magic is for the Titov to be literally incapable of seeing anything - including their own relatives - except as tools to be used for their benefit and to keep the thing in the shrine bound.

The Addicted Condition could represent the first aspect, if it's stipulated that you only get rid of it by losing the Titov Magic Merit. For the second, you'd want some special Conditions for dramatic failures on breaking point rolls. Madness fits them well, Broken and Fugue ... not so much.

[amechra]

This misses the aspects of the Titovs that IMO most mark how they're warped. First, learning the family magic makes them emotionally numb, forcing them to eat Outside dust (basically motes of chaos and decay) to function among normal humans. Second, a common consequence of using the magic is for the Titov to be literally incapable of seeing anything - including their own relatives - except as tools to be used for their benefit and to keep the thing in the shrine bound.

The Addicted Condition could represent the first aspect, if it's stipulated that you only get rid of it by losing the Titov Magic Merit. For the second, you'd want some special Conditions for dramatic failures on breaking point rolls. Madness fits them well, Broken and Fugue ... not so much.

The first is a subtle thing that's one of the ways that lost Integrity can manifest. Plus, Outside dust isn't really a thing in CofD, so... I wanted to keep this as light as possible.
And the second is not actually a direct effect of their magic - it's a side effect of being able to convince anyone of anything.

[malonkey1]

The first is a subtle thing that's one of the ways that lost Integrity can manifest. Plus, Outside dust isn't really a thing in CofD, so... I wanted to keep this as light as possible.
And the second is not actually a direct effect of their magic - it's a side effect of being able to convince anyone of anything.

Well, you could demand Essence intake, and give them an Essence reserve of up to their Composure.

[amechra]

Well, you could demand Essence intake, and give them an Essence reserve of up to their Composure.

Nah. I don't like using power sources that have a tonne of baggage attached.

If you use them, though, you can do it that way too! It's just that I kinda like the way I did it better - it's more in keeping with how I like my games.

[malonkey1]

Nah. I don't like using power sources that have a tonne of baggage attached.

If you use them, though, you can do it that way too! It's just that I kinda like the way I did it better - it's more in keeping with how I like my games.

Fair enough. Though, making a modified version of the Addicted condition keyed to this "Outside dust" could work as well.

[PenDragon]

Amechra, this and your previous homebrew (the nails one) are just splendid. Imaginative, concise and evocative. Both have inspired separate arcs in my upcoming game. Thank you.

[amechra]

Amechra, this and your previous homebrew (the nails one) are just splendid. Imaginative, concise and evocative. Both have inspired separate arcs in my upcoming game. Thank you.

I can take no credit for this one. Send your thanks to Dr. Jenna Moran - this is just a port.

The Titovs are a shrine family in her game Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine. In the default setting (the Town of Fortitude), a psychotropic poison made from dreams and the stuff outside reality blows in over the lake. The shrine families sterilize the stuff via various sacred tasks - canon ways of getting rid of it are glass-making, burning it in incense, purifying it in sacred pools, and making candy out of it.

Or, if you are a member of the Titovs, you eat/drink/snort the stuff to keep your ability to feel emotion - they are monumentally fucked up, codependent, and unwilling to fix their problem (out of the fear of destroying the Town of Fortitude before the person or thing that can cure them of their curse can get there). They all hate each-other, but can and will use their magic to call black sheep back into the fold.

Chuubo and Nobilis are alternate settings of each-other (more-or-less), with different focuses. I... might have to write up Iolithae Septimian (the canon prisoner of the Titovs) at some point. Which might be... kinda hard.

The Lies Of Iolithae Septimian...
• doubt the world
• [are] sacred
• grow in the telling
• shatter walls and dynasties
• [are] made false by the nature of the world
• must never be forgotten
• must not be spoken

Or, in a more joke-y fashion:

Idigam? True Fae? Abyssal Incursion that inverts and supplants the Prime Arcanum?

I don't know!

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The Spike Men are mine, though. Pretty confident about that one.

[amechra]

Now that I've gotten my hands on a copy of the CofD core...

I'd say that, as an alternate rule, I Need This creates a Minion (under the Brief Nightmare rule). The Titov gets to declare what its Best Pool is, what it (generally) look like, and its Aspiration; it also always has Miracle (Fulfil an Aspiration), though everything else falls to the ST to decide.

Of course it sticks around once you're done with it - why do you even feel the need to ask?