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

[NightTrace]

Because while Privateers make deals with True Fae,these deals are with specific True Fae, not every single one. And whatever shape the Wild Hunt takes, it's a mass of True Fae and their servants in full-on attack mode. Not likely to make deals.

Call the Hunt is the A-Bomb of the Ling game. It's mutually assured destruction all wrapped up pretty in a contract. A Privateer may have bribed off a specific True Fae, and a Loyalist might still be working for another, but if they use Call the Hunt there's no reasonable way for either to feel safe from the consequences.

[ChairKicker]

There's a reason if the drawback for Calling the Hunt is the same as the desired effect.

[The Kings Raven]

This is probably too specific for a book that's not even planned yet; but I think a great rule would be to say it's a Clarity breaking point to do anything that reminds you of your Durance, unless you have a pledge that makes it safe.


For example: Your durance was cooking, and if it wasn't perfect you got tortured. Cooking for anyone except yourself is a Clarity risk, unless you have a Pledge that says they won't hurt you if they don't like it. (A general pledge saying that no one in the Freehold can attack any other member might cover it).

I think this would do wonders for capturing the Changeling idea of a society where trust can only be found if it's signed and sealed in a Pledge.

[nofather]

More of an urgent threat from the antagonists. I love the true fae but I've found players can think they're in the free and clear rather easy.
More thematically appropriate stuff from pledges. The system for it is great, and I appreciate that it's just sort of a baseline and you can do what you want with it, but I've also found players look at it and just see that pledges = dots.
More incentive for changelings to interact with and be a part of mortal society. As it is you can dive into mortal society when you need a pledge or to scare/anger/depress/cheer some glamour out of folks. Either pushing them towards the mortal side or pushing them towards making a clear choice of which side of the hedge they want to spend their life on (some are willing to make that choice, which should be fine, but of course not safe).
Expanding upon fae sorcery, just some...things you should be able to do with wyrd. They had some stuff in (I think) Equinox Road, with wizened getting smaller or dots moving around as ones wyrd evolves, but I was thinking of things more like the kith blessings. Maybe like an innate goblin vow?

I've a hard time getting all my ideas together for these 'what would you like,' and often find more ideas or better ways to word them later, but in the depths of my own game these are some points that could use work.

[SunlessNick]

Datawever:
Who or what should be the default plot motivators (like the God-Machine, the Strix, the Idigam, or the Fallen World)?

I see three things that could serve in this capacity.

1. Starting with my least favourite, the Gentry. They certainly loom large in the lives of changelings, and they may well have the capacity to inflict harm on the world at large. They're easy to scale in consequence-tiers the way the God-Machine chronicle is (if such a scale is intended to be the standard way of arranging Tales). The reason it's my least favourite is that it has the least to distinguish it from the Strix and Idigam.

2. The Hedge and the Skein. Changelings are creatures of two worlds - they're far from alone in that, of course, but what's more unique is that they have other worlds between the two they're part of. The Hedge and the Skein are both buffers and paths between Arcadia and Earth. Changelings have reason to want to control them, avoid them, cut them off, understand them, explore them, and help them be as independent (which means from the Gentry as well as them) as possible.

3. The Fetch. It's the most personal antagonist - and not necessarily antagonist - a changeling can have. But they don't always have to be personal - there are logically more of them than changelings, and it's not unfeasible for them to find out what they are, and aren't. Are they satisfied with the lives the Gentry made them for, or do they want more? Will they seek out fae things on their own? Will they organise? Will they get proactive in attempts to become real? All of the above, naturally.

[The Kings Raven]

Don't forget: 4. The Durance. The plot is motived by either coping with traumas, overcoming phobias or constructing elaborate lifestyles to avoid them. Alternatively it's about reclaiming what the durance took from you.

[SunlessNick]

Like the Pilgrimmage for Promethean, the Durance is too individualised to each changeling to be a good basis for generic scenario seeds.

[The Kings Raven]

I don't recall anyone saying that was the criteria? I thought it had to create good stories rather than good generic stories.

[SunlessNick]

The Tales are scenario seeds that have to be useable by any group - that's what I mean by generic. That means any inclusion of the PCs' Durances can only be in the vaguest terms. Doable, but not as solid. Focussing on NPC's Durances are doable of course, but it still doesn't grab me the way the other options do.

[The Kings Raven]

Somehow I have completely missed these Tales. Link me please.

(A good writer could probably write Durance related tales that are easy to slot characters into. You just need traits X and Y. Such as, terrified of people wearing masks. But I should see what these Tales are before commenting further.)

[NeoTiamat]

This is mostly based on what my players and I have found.

1) Don't mess with the Contracts. Pretty much all of my players find the Contract system to be the best of all White Wolf powersets. Why? Couple of reasons. First, they're simple and easy to learn/understand. Compare this to Werewolf Renown, Geist Manifestations or Mage Arcana. Contracts go up in 1-to-5 dots, you get a dot, you get a specific power, it's very easy to understand (important when dealing with less than rules-savvy players). Secondly, Catches are a BRILLIANT idea, because they encourage you to act like a faerie creature. You want to minimize glamour usage, you act like a weird pixie by not wearing shoes or talking to inanimate objects or the like. Finally, Contracts tend to be quite evocative and flavorful, and have a pretty consistent tone throughout. Vainglory is about being exceptionally pretty and persuasive, say, or Fang & Talon is about animals.

Now, this doesn't mean don't muck about with the specific contracts. Some of them could definitely use some fixing (looking at you, Cobblethought), and remixing contracts and the like is one thing. But I would really want to keep the current structure.

2) Similarly, Harvest is a very good system, so keep that. Again, if you want to get glamour, you are encouraged to act like a faerie creature. Make deals, provoke emotions, explore the Hedge, explore dreams. All of these are interesting things to do. As opposed to, say, werewolf or mage where there's a certain element of "get a place, keep it".

3) Now... many of the ancillary systems could be tightened up. Pledges come to mind immediately as a very cool idea but also one that's a bit clunky and complex. I think it's simple enough, but some of my players are put off by the sheer size of it, and I would like to see something more in the way of checks and balances. I think the classic question is why can't you just pledge yourself three dots of Resources in exchange for, I don't know, never going to Australia or some such. Players, I find, are endlessly inventive in coming up with Pledge tasks that don't harm them much. Not to say that pledges shouldn't give dots in things, but I would like to see more pushback on it.

4) Similarly, dreaming systems can be fixed up. They're divided over several books and are not particularly clear, especially when one has to change mechanical systems on the fly. ("Is my health based on Willpower now?")

5) Talecrafting, I think, is a system that is ostensibly interesting but has some serious pitfalls in how it interacts with free will. So if you and your stepsister have a good relationship, and suddenly some changeling talecrafts you, you turn into a b****? The concept intrigues but again, checks and balances. And talecrafting addiction needs some work.

6) Finally, I would love to see more about Fetches, in particular some high-Wyrd Fetches. Pet peeve of mine, but the books say there are no fetches above Wyrd 5 because any such fetch's changeling would have long since destroyed it or been killed himself (freezing the Fetch's Wyrd forever)... except then they go and present a Wyrd 7 Fetch in Autumn Nightmares and ignore ways in which a fetch and changeling may just not be trying to kill each other. I've got two high-Wyrd fetches in my game, would be nice to have some guidance on them.

[Dataweaver]

Somehow I have completely missed these Tales. Link me please.

(A good writer could probably write Durance related tales that are easy to slot characters into. You just need traits X and Y. Such as, terrified of people wearing masks. But I should see what these Tales are before commenting further.)

God-Machine Chronicle, Chapter Two.

[Azahul]

6) Finally, I would love to see more about Fetches, in particular some high-Wyrd Fetches. Pet peeve of mine, but the books say there are no fetches above Wyrd 5 because any such fetch's changeling would have long since destroyed it or been killed himself (freezing the Fetch's Wyrd forever)... except then they go and present a Wyrd 7 Fetch in Autumn Nightmares and ignore ways in which a fetch and changeling may just not be trying to kill each other. I've got two high-Wyrd fetches in my game, would be nice to have some guidance on them.

Agree with a lot of what you said, but this is particularly relevant right now. I have a player who gets on pretty well with his Fetch, they've signed pledges that stop them from harming one another, and the character in question just hit Wyrd 5.

[Dataweaver]

Indeed. I, too, have a changeling who is on relatively good terms with her fetch: they still hate each other, but they’ve come to an understanding that they’ve got more important things to do than to try to kill each other. And I’ve got another changeling for whom the war with his fetch is central to his story, to the point that I’d have to radically rethink the character if he were ever to succeed in killing his counterpart. That runs directly counter to the implication that fetches never last once the changeling starts climbing the ladder of power.

[NeoTiamat]

Nothing would make me happier than making the Changeling part of this the Fetch Chronicles, for reasons I go into more in other threads.

Really, I don't mind them saying that high-Wyrd fetches are extremely rare, even more so than high-Wyrd changelings. But it's something that I think comes up more often than one might think. I mean, they have a Wyrd 7 Fetch in the books!