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

[NeoTiamat]

Looks like my ideas got a good reception. Thanks everyone


One more thing, back in the days of yore I once had real trouble choosing which Court my Changeling characters should go into. I asked one of the writers and I got some of the best nWoD advice ever. I think that it should be placed into a prominent sidebar for everyone, sadly I can't find the old thread so here's it after several years of refinement inside my brain.


Each court has one core goal.
Spring: Wants to reconnect with the mortal world.
Summer: Wants fight back against the True Fae.
Autumn: Wants to find a home in the faerie world.
Winter: Just doesn't want to be hurt ever again.
(I particularly like the way Spring/Autumn and Summer/Winter form a duality; with the former being about "new lives" and the latter being about "never again")


Pick the Court based on that goal ignoring everything else about the Court. Then afterwords start assigning Court Goodwill based on all the other aspects of the court. If your primary goal is to get a mortal life, but you're a bookish scholar and only make friends with people you trust: Spring with some autumn and winter good will.

I like two things about this: Firstly it makes it easy to pick a court despite the courts all having several different aspects that your PC might agree or disagree with. Secondly it makes nearly every Changeling allied to multiple courts. IMO that fits very well; the courts are allies, their conflicts are in many ways internal conflicts (Spring/Winter, dare I risk opening my heart and getting hurt again?). Having them blend into each other like this just feels right.

This was brought to my attention by one of my players, and I seriously think this is some of the best Changeling advice I've seen anywhere. Why is it not in the Corebook. >_>

One of the issues with the Courts before is that they've tended to be a bit unclear as to why someone chooses this Court or the other. One thing you ended up with (or at any rate, as I saw in my games) was that people would end up joining a Court because... well they're social characters so that's Spring? Combat types are summer? And so on. (Werewolf has also had this issue traditionally). Giving the Courts an actual ideology goes a long way towards making them more interesting and active entities.

[atamajakki]

I'd love to see the Courts get more love; a number of players in different groups have expressed a profound distaste for both the Summer and Spring Courts, and while I disagree, an effort on deepening both in the core material would be lovely.

On a slightly more niche track, I adored the cities in Blood & Smoke and have high hopes for those in the Idigam and Fallen World books. Changeling getting some of those as well would be fantastic; seeing international variations on the Courts would be great, as would delving into some diverse mythology and folklore. Any cities jump out for you guys?

[ArcaneArts]

If the idea is to center it on the biggest threat to the gameline's characters, it has to be the Wyrd Chronicles.

It is not the broken mirrors and pathwork shadows of fetches, the blazing hearts and cracking minds of your fellows, the alienating stares and awkward questions of humanity, the muddy hands and thorny grins of goblins, and the terrible beauty and scything ecstasy of the Strangers that a changeling confronts every day. It is the hands of Drosselmyers, the visions of Del Toros', the directions of Tchaikovskys', the records of Grimms and Andersons, the scores of Sondheims' and Holopainens' and the choreography of Reisingers' that turn skyscrapers into Towers of Revolution, homes into the Abode of the Goddess, dreams into Omens and Shadow Plays, the Hedge into a Refiner's Fire, Arcadia into the Underworld, and changelings into Masters of Both Worlds every day. It is the living story that ruins and raises people at the whims of themes, moods, and that most fickle of mistresses inspiration.

THere is no greater tragedy than for a person to become entwined into the weaving chaos of the Wyrd.

EDIT: Or to put it another way, Changeling's Chronicle game has to sort of be about how everything that happens to your changelings is completely your fault. But that's just me being a jerk.

So, what do I want? Two things.

1)I want the glamour as drugs rules in there at the very beginning.

2)I want to write for this product when it inevitably comes.

[Raistlin]

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.

All of this. Specially the expanded rules for Goblin Vows aka open spellcasting.

[The MG]

The only thing that springs to mind at the moment would be a rejection of the Fae as presented in Equinox Road. I want a changeling's view of them, and nothing more.

[Xenesis]

The only thing that springs to mind at the moment would be a rejection of the Fae as presented in Equinox Road. I want a changeling's view of them, and nothing more.

I love Equinox Road. It is the book filled with the most content that is both fantastic and you're also never realistically going to use. I'm glad it exists. But yeah, for a Chronicle book any focus on Endgame Equinox Road is...silly.

What I'd want to see in a Chronicle book?

Really playing up the areas of things like:
•Changeling is all about stories, parts, players and games.
•Play up the part of how much of changeling is about Identity and raw emotion.
•Fleshing out the 'Thousand Courts' section. Each of the Seasonal courts have everything they need (Philosophies very well laid out and explicit, Contracts close to their heart and focus, ideas of how the crown is passed around, etc.), but the Directional/Diurnal/Dusk/Dawn courts can use a bit more fleshing out. I'd like to see a bit more of a 'worldly' focus here and a bit of a loss of the concept that 'Seasonal' courts are the default. One's philosophy is flexible and varied, the courts system should reflect this.
•The contract system is perfect at its core for Changeling as it is (I'm just echoing it because I agree so much). I remember doing a "I read a clause a day thread" and for the most part I could find some argument as to why I'd want even some of the less desirable contracts, and as others have said it is intuitive and easy. It'd need a bit of spit-shine in a few places to fit with the GMC system, but by and far it works excellently.
•A smartening up of how Kiths have been done. Some are ridiculously amazing, some are barely worth it as a cost break on a speciality (seriously). I imagine it to be something like the Interlocks in Demon: The Descent - they're interesting, unique toys that only that character gets. If it can be duplicated by a merit or a one-dot contract, it's probably not worth existing. Stuff like the Ask-we-da-eed's blessing is one that Changeling really needs more of in the Kith section - it does something different and it's useful. (Actually, that's about the perfect idea. Demon interlocks...damn, now to do things)
•More stuff on how to really storytell the hedge, its denizens and its dangers - it's an amazing part of Changeling, but even with a few years' experience I still *struggle* at times to convey the danger and wonder of this place.
•More Markets stuff - everyone loves the Goblin Markets (and its one of my favourite mini-supplements).

But considering how fabulous GMC, DtD and (supposedly) Blood and Smoke have been, I'm not super-worried.

[JackalopeVegas]

I asked someone about whether we would be seeing God-Machine updates to the other venues after Mage, and he said to hold on and wait until we see how Blood and Smoke, Idigram, and Fallen World does demand-wise. Though a naughty idea came to mind being that what if when a Gentry settles down in our world, that the existence of said Gentry bleeds her Arcadic essence into our world, slowly transforming it into another part of Arcadia, and thereby letting them gain a foothold into our world without penalty (much like how a Promethean's Wasteland is, but with Arcadia logic.

[Dataweaver]

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).

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.

I see a potential connection between these two ideas: at least part of the former can be addressed by giving the Spring Court an edge in the latter. That said, I think the secret behind giving the Spring Court something to do is to give them people to engage in diplomacy. (I use the term “people” very loosely: if it can have opinions and emotional reactions and can engage in debate, it’s a person, no matter what form it takes.)

[The Kings Raven]

Personally my preference is to avoid giving any Courts much of an edge in anything beyond their mantle bonuses and Contracts. Autumn aren't better at Sorcery because Autumn has unique bonuses (or at least, nothing bigger than a +1 from Mantle). They're better because Autumn characters tend to spend their dots on powers, Occult and related tricks.

So I'd be fine with goblin vows keying of social skills, if they work better unrolled there's still room for the longer term treaties, but I wouldn't like it if there's a unique Spring only bonus to Goblin Vows.

[SirPants]

I'd like to see a focus on the Hedge and Freehold poltics. I love books like Dancers in the Dusk and Equinox Roads, but it really feels like between all of the exciting novelties the books offered the more down to earth stuff got forgotten.

[Morty]

I think I'd like Contracts split into powers you can pick individually. The post-GMC nWoD material seems to have been moving away from the old "five dots, one largely unrelated power for each, buy them one after another" model - see also Blood & Smoke Disciplines. And it's fitting for changelings to be able to cherry-pick an individual set of weird powers.

[MCN]

I think I'd like Contracts split into powers you can pick individually. The post-GMC nWoD material seems to have been moving away from the old "five dots, one largely unrelated power for each, buy them one after another" model - see also Blood & Smoke Disciplines. And it's fitting for changelings to be able to cherry-pick an individual set of weird powers.

Like, oh, Goblin Contracts?

[Morty]

Yes, only applied to all or most of them.

[Epimetheus]

Man. I think I forgot about this but damn. I want Entitlements and tokens to get a buff. It's hard to bother with them when most of them don't justify what you get out of them. I mean fluff wise it's pretty neat most times but I can't name more than a handful of Tokens I'd want to get (This is including almost all of the Legendary tokens and Entitlements).

[Epimetheus]

I think I'd like Contracts split into powers you can pick individually. The post-GMC nWoD material seems to have been moving away from the old "five dots, one largely unrelated power for each, buy them one after another" model - see also Blood & Smoke Disciplines. And it's fitting for changelings to be able to cherry-pick an individual set of weird powers.

I'd prefer contracts to have more of a Magelike quality. With the ability to learn multiple clauses rather making everything like demon powers. The ability to use the contract of dreams should mean you should be able to eventually learn all facets of dreams. Not just five random powers and the rest of the contracts which should be in dreams go into the nebulous realm of Goblin contracts just because.