More Contracts?

[Sedda00]

I just began a campaign of Changeling 2e, and I felt that the contracts offered in the book to chose from are too few. Having a group of 5 players and chosing 6 contracts each one of them leads to a total of 30 Contracts, with a lot of overlapping between the PCs.

Is it there any freeform way to create new Contracts? Some rules to distinguish between creating Common and Royal Contracts when I try to invent new ones?

[espritdecalmar]

There are a handful more in Oak, Ash, & Thorn, and it's possible we'll get a new batch as well in Kith & Kin. In the meantime, a while back I made a thread where I posted a bunch of my own homebrew Contracts, if you're interested.

Common Contracts tend toward subtler and more restrained effects, while their Royal cousins are more extravagant. Although it's not a perfect comparison, the distinction is somewhat similar to that between Embeds and Exploits, if you're familiar with Demon. Unless I've missed one, every Contract that transforms the self or another (Props & Scenery, Riddle-Kith, Skinmask, Chrysalis, Hidden Reality, Tatterdemalion's Workshop, Whispers of Morning, Talon & Wing, Red Revenge, Flames of Summer, Mien of the Baba Yaga, Ermine's Winter Coat, Mantle of Frost) is Royal.

[Unahim]

Two different Seemings using the same Contract will have a different Seeming bonus, so they're not exactly the same. Like the book says, the seeming bonuses given are only examples, and you should feel free to make one Seeming bonus for each Seeming per Contract.
I'm doing that right now, but I still have a lot of work to finish it.

Also, when playing Vampire, you get only 1 Clan discipline and 2 "common" disciplines, so you always share a lot of your powers. In practice though this has never seemed to bother anyone in my groups. It reinforces a feeling that everyone is of the same class of beings. The interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts are what make a CoFD game, in my opinion, so I feel the ~60 or so (?) contracts on display are sufficient for play.

More is always fun to have, of course.

Also, there's Tokens and Goblin Contracts (which are pretty easy to make and have some guidelines to make new ones in the book), too.
And Kiths!

Changelings are surprisingly customizable out of the box, honestly. ^^

[Meghan Fitzgerald]

Kith and Kin will indeed have new Contracts--in fact, it contains multiple entire new Regalia.

[Unahim]

Kith and Kin will indeed have new Contracts--in fact, it contains multiple entire new Regalia.

New Regalia? Waaaaat! Mind blown. ;o
And I saw it moved from second draft to "development" recently... pretty hype now!

[Firefly Night]

Kith and Kin will indeed have new Contracts--in fact, it contains multiple entire new Regalia.

does that mean we will have new seemings?

[Unahim]

does that mean we will have new seemings?

Hmmm! Now that would be interesting. I can't think of any Seeming theme they could still do, though!

Maybe combination Regalia, that you can only learn Contracts from if you have 2 specific other Regalia as favoured? ^^ You'd end up with a lot of combinations though! But I guess you'd need far less Contracts per combo-Regalia, only 3-5 or so.

[Tessie]

Hmmm! Now that would be interesting. I can't think of any Seeming theme they could still do, though!

Maybe combination Regalia, that you can only learn Contracts from if you have 2 specific other Regalia as favoured? ^^ You'd end up with a lot of combinations though! But I guess you'd need far less Contracts per combo-Regalia, only 3-5 or so.

It's 15 combinations so a total of 45-75 Contracts. That's a lot of Contracts that won't be used the majority of the time because only 3-5 of them will be available for any given character. Even if they're not gated behind favoured Regalia, I doubt it's going to be combination Regalia. The Contracts we have are already extremely floaty about which Regalia they should belong to. Both Contracts that grant armour ratings are Sword instead of Shield. two of the Shield Contracts are about hiding which you'd think would fit Mirrors better. The one that makes you invisible is Jewels rather than Mirrors as well (which also means that Darklings doesn't inherently favour any of them).

[Unahim]

It's 15 combinations so a total of 45-75 Contracts. That's a lot of Contracts that won't be used the majority of the time because only 3-5 of them will be available for any given character. Even if they're not gated behind favoured Regalia, I doubt it's going to be combination Regalia. The Contracts we have are already extremely floaty about which Regalia they should belong to. Both Contracts that grant armour ratings are Sword instead of Shield. two of the Shield Contracts are about hiding which you'd think would fit Mirrors better. The one that makes you invisible is Jewels rather than Mirrors as well (which also means that Darklings doesn't inherently favour any of them).

It is a lot, that's for certain! For that reason I probably wouldn't do it! ^^

But note that if you add 45-75 Contracts in any way, the majority of those won't be used the majority of the time, since you only have so much Contracts you can get with your xp.
The fact that you couldn't buy some (or couldn't get a discount on some) will have a far lower impact than just the basic fact that there's not enough XP to get more than a handful to begin with. :P

And yeah, you're right, Regalia are already pretty broad, that's for certain. Makes me wonder how they'll fit even more of them in. ^^

[Tessie]

But note that if you add 45-75 Contracts in any way, the majority of those won't be used the majority of the time, since you only have so much Contracts you can get with your xp.

Those two facts just exacerbate each other. If you could freely choose among them a lot of them would see use sooner or later if you just play enough. If only a handful is ever available at a time, you lose out on a lot of options that could've (and would've, given enough playtime) been used if they were allowed.

[Demigod Beast]

does that mean we will have new seemings?

Probably not. They're probably just adding new Regalia to existing Seemings.

[Tessie]

That'd be six new Regalia. I think it's more likely the new Regalia aren't tied to Seemings. That way they also wouldn't have to rewrite the rule about how many favoured Regalia you have.

[Unahim]

Those two facts just exacerbate each other. If you could freely choose among them a lot of them would see use sooner or later if you just play enough. If only a handful is ever available at a time, you lose out on a lot of options that could've (and would've, given enough playtime) been used if they were allowed.

Yeah, if we assume they're full-length Regalia, 6 seems like too much.

Having a few Regalia that no Seeming favours and thus can only be favoured if you pick it as your second slot feels slightly odd but would work.

Still think some sort of requirement for access to them could work, but something a bit more straightforward than "combination of two other regalia".

[Tessie]

I disagree. There's no requirement for learning Contracts from any of the six preexisting Regalia, even those you don't favour, so I don't see any reason (either for gameplay purposes or in-setting) for additional Regalia to be gated. As seen in their latest games, Onyx Path really prefers freedom of choice to personalise your character as much as possible.

[Master Aquatosic]

Semi-related lore/flavor question for Changeling STs. How do you tend to deal with homebrew Contracts lorewise when you allow them, especially those made by your players for their characters. Do you just make them canon parts of the Regalia in your game and thus also part of the True Fae repertoire from the beginning? Do you allow Changeling to in-universe create/negotiate new Arcadian Contracts? How does that work and does that make them now available to other fae?