Beauty in Madness: what do you want in Changeling's Chronicle book?

[Dataweaver]

What it says in the subject. Who or what should be the default plot motivators (like the God-Machine, the Strix, the Idigam, or the Fallen World)? How would you update the rules?

[atamajakki]

Did we ever hear if those rumors of "the Sidhe Chronicle" were total BS or not?

[The Yann Waters]

Did we ever hear if those rumors of "the Sidhe Chronicle" were total BS or not?

I've never even heard about that. Rose Bailey has certainly mentioned before the possibility of pitching a Goblin Chronicle for Changeling, though.

[Epimetheus]

I'd like to know we were actually getting a chronicle book before getting into wistful daydreaming.

[Eremite]

Personally, I'd go in a very different direction as dealing with Goblins and True Fae is very much the core game. If you want to shake it up without adding a new enemy... Ask who was pulling yours string all along? How gives, only to take? Fate. The Wyrd itself. We've got fate-based creatures already existing, too, in Dancers in the Dusk.

[Tatterdemalion King]

There isn't a whole lot I'd like to see altered or dug into too much more that hasn't been already, but there are some minor points on my end I wouldn't mind beyond straight GMC updates. This is keeping in mind changes or emphasis I'd like to see in the core book of this; I'm aware many of these ideas have many optional presentations in later supplements already to various degrees, I'm talking more default setting flavour shifts and tweaks, though the majority isn't all that drastic.

-I -think- it was Claire Redfield that mentioned this in the old forums, and it seems a like a great idea; the use of Mask and Mien as the Virtue and Vice replacements. This, big time.

-More reasons/reinforcement for Courts to clash, both those within a dynamic and outside courts. For a survival mechanism to ward of the True Fae, beyond the usual complications you get with any groups of people I'd like to see the conflicts emphasized more, and reasons why one would go against what seems to be in everyone's best interests to play nice and keep running smoothly. Perhaps a bit more compulsions/pledge based. I'd like to see more thought placed on the vicious politics that would happen from a cluster of traumatized, half-mad things dealing with each other. I want to see that Changelings really don't play any nicer than vampires when it comes to all these intrigues and political schisms.

-Looser Contracts. I know, I know; Changelings are presented to only deal with a fraction of the power of the True Fae in this respect. Oddly enough though, I find the linear 1-5 progression to be out of place with these. Arcana with their Rotes? Cantrips and Unleashings of Old DA: Fae? Being able to buy alternate or skip clauses? Changeling always seemed to be the place where very flexible progressions would work, and now with some peeks at Mummy and Demon, I'm really starting to stray away from the current Contract system. Goblin Contracts I'm a-okay with as is. That being said, I'm not really wanting the potency of the Contracts themselves to be increased, just the fluidness and versatility. A lot of Contracts could easily be condensed into one conceptual set, even if effectively it's just changing the window-dressing.

-Bedlam and Hedgescaping to be lowered in its lofty requirements of Wyrd. I feel it takes far too long before you get much traction out of this, especially given Wyrd increase costs. Even if Bedlam had a weaker form at lower levels, I'd be happy, right now it's too high to be relevant in most games I run or play. Easy to house rule, but I'd like to see a bit more on this, especially when it comes to Freehold Hollows and their creation. On the Bedlam end, think the Predatory Aura we've seen spoiled for Blood and Smoke and potentially for werewolves; just emphasize madness, unbridled emotion or similar things instead.

-More Gentry love in the core; for the primary antagonist I really don't think they got enough word count, especially when the corebook should have everything I need to present them.

-Simplified Pledge-Crafting; it's not a bad system for balanced Pledges, but I want one-sided Pledges and more to be default assumptions from the get go, including for cursing others. I'd like to see a system that's much faster to do quickly and on the fly compared to it's current incarnation.

-Some system-based oomph and further detailing as to why Courts actually help keep the True Fae at bay. Or, a presentation that really... they don't in any meaningful fashion beyond mimicry of the interplays the True Fae themselves do. A lie of sorts; rationalization and justification for Changelings acting like the Gentry. The Gentry by comparison... just don't find it interesting to be involved in until the stakes raise, the acting Changelings Wyrd rises or something of that vein. Just not a new enough experience for them, so the Courts go under the radar compared to if the Changelings are on their own and acting so delightfully alien. Either or. Even some nods to the collective Wyrd and pull of fate that large gatherings of Changelings following internal stories and story logic with their interplays posing a problem for Gentry meddling.

[Jesuncolo]

-Simplified Pledge-Crafting; it's not a bad system for balanced Pledges, but I want one-sided Pledges and more to be default assumptions from the get go, including for cursing others. I'd like to see a system that's much faster to do quickly and on the fly compared to it's current incarnation.

This, a thousand times.

[KismetRose]

-Bedlam and Hedgescaping to lowered in it's lofty requirements of Wyrd.

I'd like to see Hedgescaping tied to something other than just Wyrd and the luck of a very restricted roll, as well. This is one thing that has made PCs in my games very leery of Hedge-diving (to the point that they feel so ineffective that they'd just rather not do it).

I'd like to see a lot more oomph given to fetches. Echoes have never felt like enough, and all of the restrictions just mean that you have to find some other way to beef them up to make them seem truly scary.

I'd like to see a more thematically aligned Contract of Darkness.

[Pilgrim]

I'd like the core themes of the setting to remain(alienation and being lost) but I want the setting to be overhauled to make the True Fae more than one dimensional solipsists(i've always thought that the Gentry could essentially be representations of primal concepts with a fairy-tale twist). It's my biggest complaint for Changeling the Lost. I otherwise love the game's themes. In terms of an overarching antagonist for a chronicle? Forged nightmarish horrors made real from our dreams.

[The Kings Raven]

I'd like to see a lot more about changeling having problems and managing them. Take the courts, there should be things like pledges saying that Summer has to get paranoid about spies and root them out for one, and only one, week a year during summer. Basically lots of pressure release valves that prevent real problems from forming. Everyone knows that Summer will get paranoid about spies, so there are rules about it to make it safe and not cause Arcadian flashbacks in Changelings who's durance involved being really careful not to say the wrong thing. Everyone knows winter will spy, so there are rules about it to prevent flashbacks in Changeling who were spied on or blackmailed in Arcadia. Spring romances have rules, because there were a lot of sexual abuse in Arcadia: If someone's not wearing the available-pin no flirting, and no wearing the available-pin unless you mean it (because the flirts have traumas too, and it helps them if they know exactly what the pin means).

For Virtue and Vice; I'd quite like something like: New Life and Never Again. New Life is about how you move on from Arcadia, do you reconnect with your family? Join a Hobgoblin village? Find fufillment as Spring Queen with a cute summer boyfriend? Never Again rewards you with willpower when you do something to avoid the risk of going back to Arcadia. Everything from turning down a great oppotunity because of a bad omen to killing your keeper.

I think dreams could use work. For starters no meditation, that's not very faerie. Instead why not dream into your own Dreamscape and Skeinwalk to others, dreaming pledges just makes a direct path. More importantly, I want the realm of Dreams to tie into more things. With the right powers, Changeling can enter dreams bodily. Even build their homes there instead of in the hedge (which leads to some guy having constant dreams about a faerie doing domestic things). Travel between the Hedge and Dreams directly. Travel between Dreams and Earth (hopping into and out of people's heads / floating thought bubbles)

Better powers for Entitlements. Powers are the least important part of a Z-splat, but lets be serious. Most Entitlement powers suck.

Perception rolls. Every one should potentially trigger a very short halcuination.

Diplomacy with the elements. AKA something for Spring to actually do. A Freehold should be build by striking bargains; this bridge promises not to transport the Gentry from Arcadia (or the other side of the river). That tall tower promises to flash warnings if it sees any gentry. The Seasons (or their equivalents for other courts) give quite a bit for free since the founders paid upfront but you can never have enough. This also gives something for Spring to do other than have fun (Spring are the diplomats, but on a Freehold scale without crossover there's no one to be diplomats too. Freehold to Freehold diplomacy is rare, hobs normally keep to themselves and the Gentry is out of the question).

Wyrd Sorcery. Make it cannon; right now Autumn is full of sorcerers, give them some rules for it. Something that really makes them sorcerers rather than just spending more exp on Contracts.

Goblin Vows. A duration of Instant for one time use that has no cost. You should be able to do something with Lesser Tasks. Also, put them in the core book, they're too awesome to be left for supplements.

[Eremite]

I
Diplomacy with the elements. AKA something for Spring to actually do. A Freehold should be build by striking bargains; this bridge promises not to transport the Gentry from Arcadia (or the other side of the river). That building promises to flash warnings if it sees any gentry. The Seasons (or their equivalents for other courts) give quite a bit for free but you can never have enough. This also gives something for Spring to do other than have fun (Spring are the diplomats, but on a Freehold scale without crossover there's no one to be diplomats too. Freehold to Freehold diplomacy is rare, hobs normally keep to themselves and the Gentry is out of the question).

This, so much. I've done a bit of it in my games (with character forging relationships with the city of London itself) but, man, I'd love this to be expanded.

[Xenorath]

A consolidation of rules. Seriously, the rules for Changeling are scattered all over the place. It can get rather annoying having to flip between the core book, Rites of Spring, Equinox Roads, Dancers in the Dusk, and Swords at Dawn to find all the little things Changelings can do. Obviously cramming all that information would take a lot of space, but it can be abridged.

I could see the focus of the book going two ways: hobgoblins or Morpheans. While hobgoblins are not anywhere as powerful as the True Fae, there are a lot more of them. Think of all the hob civilizations that could be out there amongst the thorns. Merchant Republics? Warring city-states and feudal kingdoms? There is a lot of untapped potential there. Morpheans are just plain cool, and they seem to rely on Changelings as intermediaries between dreams and the material.

[NightTrace]

I'd like rule consolidation for sure, and maybe some expansion on themes for things like Entitlements. An awful lot of the Entitlements have rumors sections that suggest that they may or may not engage in the opposite behavior as the book describes, maybe that's a valid approach?

To clarify that, take the Family of Silent Nights for example. There's rumors that they're up to some absolutely abhorrent things, but it's all just a rumor, but rumors tend to have some basis in truth. Can we see something that clarifies these options as full on choices? <.< I feel like I rambled that one a bit.

[atamajakki]

Personally, I'd want to see a greater focus on Freehold politics; your role in your Court, what exactly a Court does, and all that good stuff. Changeling has the potential to be just as political as any Camarilla game.

As for the Sidhe Chronicle, it was some unsourced rumor that the chronicle book for Changeling was "the Sidhe Chronicle," but that it got pulled from development just before this last Gen Con due to the lead writer backing out. The story goes that something (there were going to be a number of options; one might be the intervention of the God-Machine, while another was a brutalw ar between the Gentry) that had the True Fae fearful for their own existences. It was supposed to introduce the Sidhe, who were essentially a Title that belonged to a True Fae, given human form and ejected into reality. The Sidhe were ignorant of what they were and generally terrified, but most Changelings were hesitant to accept what amounted to a piece of one of the Gentry. They were supposed to be playable alongside Changelings. It came up in one thread on /tg/, given by an anonymous poster, so it's hardly proof that such a thing ever existed. I still thought the idea sounded neat.

[Eldagusto]

I would like it if they completed the rules for the Sun and Moon Court. And add the two courts that go with the Dawn and Dusk Court.

But they need to make the emotion of your Court matter more when you harvest, because there doesn't seem to be need to harvest from only your Court Emotion.

Tighten up the True Fae rules, preferably so they all go along with the Equinox Roads rules. Explain more how their Contract powers work more flexibly for the True Fae.

Explain some missing rules, like what happens to Fetches in the Hedge.

Make it so that their time in Faery isn't just the same kidnap story. So have some changelings that liked their time in faery, even if it made them crazy, and reflect things like humans making bargains to go to faery, perhaps getting more then they bargained for.