'Once Upon a Time' as Changeling 2ED game

[wyrdhamster]

We have now Playtests documents, all Seemings and most of Kiths. Now is time to deconstruct most beloved modern fairy tale TV series in television as Changeling 2ED game.

For those that do not know the series - short trailer...

Now, Omegaphallic proposed some Kiths and Seemings combinations...

Henry would be Author.

Emma Riddleseeker Kith Fairest.

Red, Hunterheart Beast.

Charming Fairest Soldier.

Many of the less magical characters, like Mulan Soldiers with varying Seemings.

Agree on those whole heartly.

Regina Witchtooth/Flamesiren Darkling, any dude that gets close to her gets burned (metaphorucally).

This is always the problem to me with 2ED Kith/Seeming system. Regina is not a Darkling - she is Fairest. Wicked, submerged in death and nihilism because of low Clarity - but still "leader queen". The new system makes here Darkling because of one choice when she is "Fairest of them All" all time in the series, walk, talks and breath as such.

It's also clash later on - in modern seasons she clearly is working as Fairest also, becoming counterbalance Hero Role to the Emma's darkening. Hell, I even think that Emma is Regina's Touchstone!

No, Regina is leader - that she use her talents and psychology to submit whole kingdom to her knee is even more apparent. She is Queen, Mayor and later Hero, looking perfect all the time ( like half of cast ) - How can she not be Fairest?

She only is Darkling in your eyes because the practice Black Arts - and this is cruel stereotype. Fairest can also do "dark stuff" and still be at part this "Fairest as True Fae" archetype of 1ED. And even you pointed her as Witchtooth Kith, so it can encompass her all "Dark Arts" fascination.

Or there should be some way to change or expand your Seeming later one in the game. Dual Seeming Merit?

Dwarves, Wizened Miners.

Oh, I like this. Only in OUAT, Dwarves do not have pickaxes instead hands.

Jimmy Cricket, Dearheart Beast, with zero merits in striking looks.

Nailed it!

Hook is hard, Darkling Soldier.

Would go with "Pirate", but there - Kiths Blessing would be really a similar to Soldier, so...

And my own proposition...

Rumplestiltskin is Witchtooth Darkling- He looks like Darkling, acts like Darkling and is called as the Beast in the sho only to makr parallels to the diary tale. Heck, he even was multiple times betrayed before and his heart gone cold!

[Omegaphallic]

I almost said Fairest too, Regina is hot, but if you look at her origins as the Evil Queen it involves her being betrayed and then betraying in turn.

Not all Darklings have to be ugly turds.

Regina was betrayed in her past, then asa response betrayed others, and became a Darkling.

Even when Regina starts leaning more towards being a hero you can see how she struggles with it, it doesn't come naturally or easily, and you can practically see the Clarity rolls when she tries to trust someone, and some times she wins the roll and gets acuity and eventually gains Clarity, and sometimes she loses and loses Clarity. Henry is her touch stone.

Yes she's hot, stylish, and even regal at times, but that's a byproduct from her predarkling Princess days, when she was relatively innocent. It comes from her mortal, not Fae side. She's hot, because she's always been hot, its not a Fae magic byproduct or enhanced directly by it.

[Dataweaver]

The single biggest problem with doing Once Upon a Time in CtL is that nobody is a changeling. Nobody was kidnapped from the real world and forced to undergo a Durance where they were transformed into semi-human beings; the closest you get to that is Wendy and her brothers, who were abducted but not transformed. Rather, the vast majority of the cast were natives of a fairyland who were forced out of that land and stranded on Earth. The closest you get to what they are in CtL terms is the Charlatan — a whole town of Charlatans.

As it happens, I've been working on a hack to address the above issues. I haven't released it yet because it's still in Alpha, as it were: a few tentative ideas, but nothing of substance as of yet. I'm wanting to have this hack cover such things as Fables, Namesake, and Tenth Kingdom as well as Once Upon A Time: in effect, a Shard for CtL where protagonists include people who visit fairy tale lands, fairy tale characters who visit the “real world” (both the famous ones that we know because of the likes of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, L. Frank Baum, etc., and unknown ones who are related to the famous ones or just happen to live in the same fairy tale lands), and Authors (e.g., the Brothers Grimm, Hand Christian Anderson, L. Frank Baum, etc., as well as lesser-known or totally unknown Authors — their defining feature being that they bring fairy tales to Earth in some way).

As much as possible, I intend to repurpose existing CtL templates: the Changeling template gets repurposed for the Fables (Snow White, Mowgli, King Arthur, Thumbellina, etc.); the Fae-Touched template gets repurposed to represent the likes of Dorothy, Wendy, Alice, the Pevencies, etc. (Authors would likely be something new.) The trick is to find a way to incorporate as much of CtL's concepts as reasonable into this alternate framework.

Of course, to do that, one of the things that I need to do is to finish establishing this alternate framework. What I'm stuck on right now is exactly what an Author is, beyond being the reason we know anything about the Fables and their homelands. What role do they play in the connection between fairy tale lands and Earth? And to what extent do they influence the lives of the Fables? One possibility: Authors are humans who somehow got their dreams entangled with a fairy land, and now serve as a kind of bridge between the two (I'm thinking of co-opting something vaguely along the lines of Inferno's Testaments for this). Another possibility: Authors are mortals who can engage in Talecrafting. Another possibility: Authors are what allow natives of the fairy lands to gain a spark of humanity and to become Fables.

Conversely, it's possible that the Fae-Touched are what bridge the gap between worlds and possibly even what allow fairy tale natives a chance to become Fables, and that Authors merely assist the Fae-Touched in some way. It's also possible that all natives of a Fae Realm are Fables by default.

Like I said: Alpha stage; needs lots of work before it's ready for use.

[Cleverest of Things]

You could let an Author be a specific kind of fae-touched that can use tale craft and similar abilities, and have a direct link to the Arcadian miasma of raw creative potential. I think talecrafting covers what the authors can do to the real world. Wyrd shaping in the Hedge, Oneiromancy, and some oracular talents. Then again, maybe authors are standard CTL changelings of a sort, people whose dreams touched aArcadia, changed it, and were changed in return.

[Omegaphallic]

You could also make them all Incubi who escaped from someone's dream.

[wyrdhamster]

Once Upon A Time will have 100th Episode this Sunday! For this occasion there was made special trailer sum up all 5 seasons to this day. Cool to watch and maybe something inspirational you will find.

[wyrdhamster]

As in now shown season five of Once Upon a Time dwell in to it's Underworld, I have some questions/ thoughts on subjects - As I see most of Underworld mechanics are the same between between OUaT and CoD settings. both Realms of Dead are containing people and things "lost in afterlife". In OUaT take this are "those with unfinished business". It's tangling idea and I do not see it somehow contrary to CoD Underworld, where are living ancient ghosts or long lost items or places, like Library of Alexandria. I just cannot get precise how those "unfinished business" related to lost Anchors with the world.

Other things to consider - Could CoD Underworld look like OUaT one, with just being weird looking real world location? Also, interesting idea is that every citizen of Underworld Realm have a grave in that Realm to communicate with him. And as we are with citizens - it looks like every previous villain or dead one ended in OUaT Underworld. I suspect that CoD Underworld is not that crowded with every dead one in it?

There are also other "afterlives" in OUaT, dark and bright one, with Underworld being between them. I suspect that "place of dark fire" could eaily be Inferno Lower Depths realm, and bright one could be Empyrean?

And final question in topic - How could Changelings get in to Underworld in CoD? I vaguely remember one Contract in 1ED corebook, but there could be more powers in 2ED to get there for the Lost?