Ask a Simple Question, Get A Simple Answer (Changeling) [new thread]

[TheStray7]

The old thread is huge and is now closed, so I'm starting a new one for all your Changeling questions!

[orathaic]

Are there rules (official or homebrew) for making hobgoblins as player characters?

[ArcaneArts]

Are there rules (official or homebrew) for making hobgoblins as player characters?

None officially. Kind of counter-productive for the goals of Chronicles on the whole. Wouldn't be too surprised if someone's done a homebrew though.

[Taidragon]

Thanks for starting a new thread TheStray7!

This is something I have been pondering on for a while. I was in a discussion a while back with someone over the nature of Contracts and their writeups - that anything not about the strict mechanics of a contract was up for changes, including things like "Pipes of the Beast Caller" not requiring a silver flute to be used or "Tumult" not needing a leaf at all, much less origami folding. This always struck me as off because these bits are mingled with how the Contracts function mechanically, and at times even end up in the Loopholes of the contracts (such as with "Pipes of the Beast Caller" and "Tumult").

Am I off here? Are these bits just flavour, or are they part of how the Contracts are evoked and thus not subject to change with the visuals?

[Tessie]

Are there rules (official or homebrew) for making hobgoblins as player characters?

No official rules for making a regular hobgoblin playable, but there are the Hedge Denizen and Goblin Queen Conditions for playing a non-hobgoblin character becoming a goblin.

[Taidragon]

Do Changelings have the ability to draw glamour from the air without getting involved in 2e anymore? I was in a game where this was a thing but I can’t find it in the book proper.

[Stupid Loserman]

Harvesting Glamour in 2e has to harvest from a person and drains one point of Willpower from the target, but doesn't have to involve direct interaction with the person.

[Cauthon]

How would you update the Goblin Contract Seven-Year Gift* to 2e? Just a Goblin Contract? A Token ("Flask of Youth")? Or a type of Goblin Fruit ("Fruit of the Tree of Life")?

*Spend 2 Glamour and a dot of Willpower to halt the target's aging for seven years, or permanently reverse their aging by seven years on an exceptional success

[Super Vlad]

How would you update the Goblin Contract Seven-Year Gift* to 2e? Just a Goblin Contract? A Token ("Flask of Youth")? Or a type of Goblin Fruit ("Fruit of the Tree of Life")?

Option 1:

Seven-Year Gift (Goblin)

Seven Years. The changeling summons terrifying power that saps the will to continue on into longevity. This Contract only works on mortals, and to use this Contract, the changeling must touch the target. However, the target does not need not know what is being done.

Cost: 2 Glamour + 1 DOT of Willpower
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant

Effect: The target will not age for the next seven years (though she is not protected from disease or other potential ills).

Loophole: The target is a blood relative of the changeling within three generations.

Option 2:

Flask of Youth (•••••)

Effect: Anyone who drinks the entirety of the contents from the Flask of Youth will not age for the next seven years. Only works on mortals.

Catch: You give the Flask of Youth to someone else with the intent of giving them eternal youth.

Drawback: The Flask of Youth, to be active once again, must have a DOT of Willpower sacrificed into it.

[Cauthon]

Option 1:

Seven-Year Gift (Goblin)

Seven Years. The changeling summons terrifying power that saps the will to continue on into longevity. This Contract only works on mortals, and to use this Contract, the changeling must touch the target. However, the target does not need not know what is being done.

Cost: 2 Glamour + 1 DOT of Willpower
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant

Effect: The target will not age for the next seven years (though she is not protected from disease or other potential ills).

Loophole: The target is a blood relative of the changeling within three generations.

Option 2:

Flask of Youth (•••••)

Effect: Anyone who drinks the entirety of the contents from the Flask of Youth will not age for the next seven years. Only works on mortals.

Catch: You give the Flask of Youth to someone else with the intent of giving them eternal youth.

Drawback: The Flask of Youth, to be active once again, must have a DOT of Willpower sacrificed into it.

Thanks! "Mortals" here applies to most splats, right? Only those who don't age, like Vampires, aren't affected?

[Super Vlad]

Thanks! "Mortals" here applies to most splats, right? Only those who don't age, like Vampires, aren't affected?

Ehhh, sort of? Usually mortals tends to regard anyone who doesn't have a Supernatural Tolerance (half-splats are ok).
The reason why I put it like that is so Mages, Werewolves, Geists, etc. don't go living forever with a simple Goblin Contract.

[Cauthon]

Ehhh, sort of? Usually mortals tends to regard anyone who doesn't have a Supernatural Tolerance (half-splats are ok).
The reason why I put it like that is so Mages, Werewolves, Geists, etc. don't go living forever with a simple Goblin Contract.

Heh, I was actually asking because I think it makes a good plot-point for a Mage game. Liches aren't usually seen as a good thing, self-harm to achieve Lichdom is bad, and relying on the gifts of the Hedge to achieve it is worse. If the Heirarch never seems to get older, but doesn't have active magic keeping them that way, people'll start asking questions.

I'll admit to being quite uninformed on Werewolf and Giest, but aren't both functionally unaging? I though Werewolves aged like sharks, and Giests were age-locked to when they take their bargain.

[21C Hermit]

Heh, I was actually asking because I think it makes a good plot-point for a Mage game. Liches aren't usually seen as a good thing, self-harm to achieve Lichdom is bad, and relying on the gifts of the Hedge to achieve it is worse. If the Heirarch never seems to get older, but doesn't have active magic keeping them that way, people'll start asking questions.

I'll admit to being quite uninformed on Werewolf and Giest, but aren't both functionally unaging? I though Werewolves aged like sharks, and Giests were age-locked to when they take their bargain.

Dunno how sharks age, but IIRC, werewolves had about twice a human’s lifespan (it’s just that they have a far shorter life expectancy…) and Sin-Eaters are still open to death by old age. (Their Geists are, well, ephemeral entities.)

[orathaic]

Dunno how sharks age, but IIRC, werewolves had about twice a human’s lifespan (it’s just that they have a far shorter life expectancy…) and Sin-Eaters are still open to death by old age. (Their Geists are, well, ephemeral entities.)

But a Sin-eater could due, become a Ghost, get to the required Rank to become a Geist, and Bind a new sin-eater... Reproducing in a very slow but weird way.

Question:

Someone suggested Mages meeting in the Astral (possibly as a security measure).

Could Changelings do similar? Have a regular freehold meeting in someone's dreams? Would it be safer/more secret?

[Satchel]

But a Sin-eater could due, become a Ghost, get to the required Rank to become a Geist, and Bind a new sin-eater... Reproducing in a very slow but weird way.

Intro fiction from 1e aside, I'm pretty sure being metaphysically dead precludes the Bound leaving ghosts since they're functionally already a weird type of ghost.

Could Changelings do similar? Have a regular freehold meeting in someone's dreams? Would it be safer/more secret?

Bastions do have the benefit of putting an extra layer of defense between you and whoever's outside, but the nature of oneiromancy is such that it's a bit fraught even without the hike you'd need to take to get there through the Dreaming Roads — without some special Contract or token or other circumstance, you can only show up straight into someone's dreams in their physical presence.