Changeling: The Lost, Play By Post?

[darkfire]

Greetings all you Drunk and Ulgy folks!

I'm Darkfire, an avid listener to numerous podcasts including the Drunk and Ulgy podcast. Some time ago, I expressed interest in taking part in your online games but due to the size of your player group and scheduling restrictions I never got the chance to game with you folks. In the past I have tried to run some white wolf games over Skype, only to have problems in finding a dedicated player base. I then turned to Play by Post on RPOL, only to have it crap out on me a few weeks into running a play by post. Still my experience has taught me that white wolf Play by Post games can work so long as there is a functional forum and a dedicated player base.

Anyway for those who do not know, Changeling: The Lost is a game of a Beautiful Madness. It is a game based in the modern day world but with supernatural elements that exist below the surface of common knowledge. As for Changeling it is a game where you play as a human who once lived a normal life, but unfortunately came to the attention of one of the Gentry, beings of great power from the realm of Arcadia. They took you away from your life and whisked you away to their mad realm, where the laws of reality need not apply. There you were fundamentally changed, by direct alteration from your Gentry master, forced adaptation through learning contracts or simply long term exposure to the mad realm. You became less of a human and more of a creature of Arcadia. How one is changed varies from person to person. Some might take on the aspects wild animals, nightmares or terrible giants. Or perhaps you are transformed into a thing of beauty or a being of elemental power.

Whatever the case, the longer one remains in Arcadia, the more humanity is lost and the more you become of that realm. Eventually though, something urged you to escape. A spark of memory, a desire for freedom, a torture that went too far. Whatever the case you escaped and left Arcadia, braving the thorns of the hedge to find your way home. Only home may not be all it is cracked up to be. For time and space are mutable in Arcadia and you could end up in a difference place and a different time. You may seek to go home only to find out you are legally dead, or worse yet the Gentry may have left a Fetch behind, a forged copy of you who is living your life so that no one knows you are lost. Most of all you cannot escape yourself, for no matter how much you can delude yourself, you are no longer fully human and to deny what you have become only quickens the path to utter madness. What will you do? Will you reclaim that was lost to you? Will you forge a new identity for yourself? Will you seek vengeance on the Gentry who stole your life? Will you revel in the new powers you wield? In the end, you are Lost. Find yourself!

Game Ideas

Now as for the game I'm willing to run, it depends on the preference of the players. As for setting choices, I can do my more traditional setting, based in Detroit and using the Seasonal Courts (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter). The setting should be pretty familiar to you considering that your monster's game is based in Troy which I've learned is a suburb of Detroit so some places might be familiar. I have a more developed setting for the city as I've run numerous WOD one shots and mini-campaigns in the city so have a good deal of the supernatural element fleshed out.

Here is the an introduction to my setting.

Detroit, Motor City, D-Town, The Dead Engine. A city that has stood for generations on the Detroit Michigan river. This once great city is an urban ruin, a place where the darkness and depravity of the human (and inhuman) condition thrives. There are hundreds of murders a year, many which go unsolved by an understaffed, overworked and corrupt police force. Exodus from the city has left countless abandoned buildings and structures lost and forgotten through the passing tide of history. The populace is poorly educated, low income and highly unemployed. Crime runs rapid in the city despite efforts of the local government to clean up the city. In a place as corrupt as Detroit, the supernatural element thrives on the existing misery.

Many years ago, Detroit was a thriving metropolis where numerous changelings were proud to make their home. The balance of the seasons was kept as every year during the changing of the seasons, the current king or queen would step down and allow the king or queen of the respective season to take the throne. Such balance kept a prosperous society among the lost, until the coming of the Oil Crisis of 1973, which would bring the downfall of the motor industry in the city of Detroit that the city has never recovered from. This began the age, the lost have dubbed "The Long Winter". People left the city in droves over the years including many more well off Lost looking for greener pastures. This left a power vacuum in the city, which allowed the Winter Court to gain an unprecedented amount of power. This allowed Edmond Rictor, a Leachfinger later renamed to King Sorrow claim the throne in 1978 and since then the Winter Court has ruled as king in the city. His justification for ruling is that so long as the city is in winter, the Winter Court by all rights should rule. While he has promised several times over his 33 years of rule to step down once the city has gone into recovery, this has not happened and thus he has and has held the position of king for a long time. While King Sorrow affords the other courts positions of power within the freeholds, the winter court remains the strongest. There are many among the courts who wish to restore the cycle of the seasons, but this has yet to come to fruition.

___

Now the next option I'm putting out, is a game based in Tokyo, Japan. This uses a different court structure than Detroit and has a different "FEEL" than the standard western game. For one thing, instead of the Seasonal Courts, there is the Directional Courts, four courts based on the directions (North, South, East and West). Could be interesting to run a setting with an oriental feel to it, although I must admit the Directional Court contracts are fairly limited as there is only one set of Directional Court powers, while the Seasonal Courts have 3 power sets for each season, giving PC's more options. Although it isn't too limiting considering that there is plenty of non-court contracts in the game to chose from.

Anyway, just putting it out there, who might be interested in a Changeling: The Lost Play By Post?

[eliasswift]

I'm a big fan of the World of Darkness system and have always wanted to do one of the supernatural games, so I'm up for it! I personally would prefer to do the first one just for the sake of being classic.

[luffy316]

showing my interest, but mind you only heard of WoD stories second hand. familiar with the setting, but would need to be helped/read over the rules

[darkfire]

Glad all of you are interested in playing the game. I certainly can teach you the system although having the books would be a good idea. You may be able to find the books on the web at some sharing sites if you look. Can't tell you where in the post as it may violate this boards terms of service.

In general, Changeling: The Lost uses the storyteller system. Rools use d10, usually involving a stat+skill as a pool, but this can vary depending on the action being performed. Bonuses/Penalties add or remove dice from your pool rather than adjust the difficulty of the dice. As for the dice themselves, the difficulty is almost always an 8. 8 or better is a success and the more successes, the better you do. 10's are better than a normal success, as they count as a success and allow you to reroll the die potentially getting more successes. 5 or more successes on the dice gives an exceptional success on an action, usually giving an additional benefit top the player. If penalties reduce your die pool to less than 1, you roll 1 die called a chance die. This die is a hail Mary risk/reward die, where only 10 is a success, while 1 is a terrible "dramatic failure", or "botch" by older reckoning.

As for changelings themselves, they as supernatural creatures have powers called "contracts". Contracts are agreements made between the Gentry and elements of nature and as Changelings are part-fey, they can tap into these agreements to do wondrous things akin to magic. In addition to this, changelings also have innate abilities based on their seeming and kith, giving them some small innate benefits outside the preview of contracts. Although in Arcadia, there is balance of foul and fair, so changelings also bear a curse as well based on their seeming. For instance, the Beast seeming has animal magnetism that makes them better at social rolls, but due to their instinctive beastial soul, get penalties to intelligence based checks as their minds are less logically inclined.

Anyway, I have places to go and things to do, so more shall be explained in the future. Thank you for your interest in the game and have a good day!

[luffy316]

will read up on it, but sounds like my understanding of Dresden Files and their fey courts might make it easier on me. also some secondhand White Wolf stories, like my Blockbuster manager who played a kid who turned into flying squirrels and was a master thief. he also screamed and passed out at the mere sight of blood, leaving the fighter to have to stand guard over his unconscious body every fight they didn't see coming

[darkfire]

The Courts are somewhat different from that of the Dresden Files. The Seasonal Courts are the social structure of the Lost, mainly followed in North&South America and Europe, while in Asia the Directional Courts are the ruling body and in Scandinavia, the Dawn, Noon, Dusk and Night courts govern the changelings. The courts are support structures, political allegiances and philosophy towards life as a changeling. One does not have to be a member of any of the courts and be an independent "Courtless" changeling, which can be good as it gives the changeling more independence but they do not get the support structure and benefits of being a part of a court. Each court follows a philosophy that gives them a tangible benefit when harvesting a certain kind of emotion. Indeed, Changelings require a energy source to fuel their powers, this being Glamour. Glamour is the energy of emotion and dreams. While Changelings can harvest it from the Hedge and Arcadia, the safest and most abundant source is humans themselves. By provoking emotions in humans or going to places of heavy emotional feedback a Changeling can feed on such emotions to get Glamour. Changelings can also dream-ride people and feed off of people's dreams as a source of Glamour as well. Glamour is used for many things such as activating contracts, fueling some innate blessings, using tokens as well as giving dice bonuses to certain traits based on one's Seeming. So having Glamour is an important thing for a changeling. Any Changeling can feed on any emotion but being with a court means you get more Glamour from feeding on an emotion relating to your court.

Anyway the Seasonal Courts include Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter courts. The Spring Court (Emerald Court), believes in living life to the fullest and embracing what they have become, rejecting the pain and sorrow they endured in Arcadia. They draw strength from feeding on human desire. The Summer Court (Crimson Court) bear a heavy grudge toward the Gentry and wish to fight for their freedom and prevent themselves from ever being slaves again. They gain strength from feeding on Anger. The Autumn Court (Ashen Court) believes in getting power through fae magic, believing the best way to defend themselves against the fae is to master their power. They feed on fear and gain it by provoking fear in others. The Winter Court (Onyx Court) believes in deception and hiding from the fae and acting through subtle methods. They gain strength from feeding the sorrows of humanity.

As for the seemings, there are six of them. These are:

Beast: Changelings who have been made into some kind of animal/human hybrid. They take on some part of an animal's nature and appearance, bestial sensation and instinct ever struggling for dominance with human thought and reason.

Darkling: Changelings that have been made into the employment of darkness and nightmares. They can be hideous monsters or darkly beautiful, but whatever form they take they embody elements of shadow, stealth, fear and/or deception.

Elementals: Changelings that have either been infused with elemental energy or transformed fully into an elemental being. They have the power to command and control the element of their creation, but their contact with such energies alienate them more from their former humanity.

Fairest: Changeling who have been made into creatures of beauty and grace. They often were the best treated of the changelings, kept as concubines or things of adoration by their Gentry masters. But below the surface, the Fairest inherit some of the cruelty of their fae masters and find it easier to lose clarity in the mundane mortal world.

Ogre: Changelings that take the form of brutish creatures of strength and prowess. Due to the intense tortures and trials they endured, they are often angry and bad tempered toward others.

Wizened: Changelings who were taken and given the form appropriate to a trade. The Wizened were made to be the menial servants of the Gentry, doing the various tasks within their realms. Their years of slavery have left them spiteful and bitter but possessing of uncommon dexterity and skill.

Anyhow, there is my next burst. More coming in the future.

[darkfire]

As for the character creation process, White Wolf has a "Standard Build" through a point allocation system. Pretty much all characters use this system and any additional templates are added on top of them. The standard character generation is as follows.

5/4/3 Attributes
11/7/4 Skills
3 Specialties
7 Merits

For a breakdown of character generation, check this link out:
http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/index.php?title=Character_Creation_%28World_of_Darkness%29

As for character sheets, there is an online character generator/sheet storage at:
http://sheetgen.dalines.net/wiki/WikiStart

There are also a few secondary stats.

Health Levels = Stamina + 5
Defense = Lowest of Dexterity or Wits
Initiative Modifier: Dexterity + Composure
Speed: Strength + Dexterity + 5

Once you have generated your raw character, you apply the Changeling Template. This gives the following adjustments.

+1 Skill Specialty from your role and experiences in Arcadia
A Seeming (With benefits of blessing/curse) and a Kith (With an additional blessing)
1 dot in Wyrd
10 Glamor
5 dots in Contracts
7 Clarity

In addition, as a house rule I like to give players some starting experience to round out their characters. Players in this game will start with 20 experience. May gain additional experience by lowering clarity (5 XP per dot and can be done up to twice at character generation). Just remember that raising your clarity at a later time is expensive in experience.

Experience breakdowns are as follows:
Attribute: New level x 5
Skills: New level x 3
Skill Specialty: 3
Goblin Contract: Dots x 3
Affinity Contract: New Level x 4
Non-affinity Contract: New Level x 6
Merit: New Level x 2
Wyrd: New Level X 8
Clarity: New Level x 3

Anyhow, I'ed like to put it to a vote for how the game should start. The options are below.

A. The PC's start as children in the same school and end up later captured by the Gentry and taken to Arcadia where they spend their childhood until they make their escape and reunite with their old friends and make their escape into a brave new world.

B. The PC's are already adults (or close to it) and have been captured at different intervals, but meet one another during their escape and work together to find their way back to the mortal world.

C. The PC's have already been inducted into the seasonal courts and have an established Motley with a hollow they maintain in the hedge. This option gives the most starting out, but also will force me to reveal the big players in the changeling courts right from the start.

So in the end its up to the players how things should start out. The first option will probably delicate time to develop the back-stories of the characters and likely spend some time building up to the event of their kidnapping as well as going in depth into the Durance that these kids endure. The second option allows PC's to write their own Back-story and ad lib their experiences before bringing them together to make their escape. Both these options give discovery as the PC's will know jack about Changelings in Detroit and will have a chance to learn things as they go along. The third option allows the PC's to decide everything about their character's back-story as well as gives the large amount of information and support to start with, but may spoil some potential Role-play. Anyway, I leave it to the the players digression to decide how we will start out.

[luffy316]

leaning towards B for a setting (starting out with the Great Escape), and at a glance over the rules here, I'm leaning a bit towards an ogre, slight inklings for Elemental and Fairest if a particular idea strikes me or someone else wants the brute role (thinking of him being stuck with a role of a slightly glorified pack mule/horse end of a horse-drawn carriage)

but as I understand it, the changelings have a passibly human form, and then become something relative to their seeming when they got full fey? and assume flavor-wise, the alternate form has some flexibility in terms of what it is, so one darkling doesn't necessarily look like another?

and would a Wizened with "a form appropriate to a trade" possibly have hammers for hands?

[darkfire]

Well changelings are weird in appearance, those who see their true forms can definitely tell they're something funky although the variations are many. Some Fairest might be pretty close to being human looking, just some kind of idealized Adonis, while a beast might have a snout and a jaw of razor sharp teeth and covered in fur. Variations are many so even two Changelings of the same Kith might have a completely different appearance (Although similar blessings). But whatever the case, Changelings can pass as human in the presence of most things due to the Mask. When in the mortal world, the Wyrd wraps their body in a potent illusion that fools all the senses and even transposes itself into video and photographic media. The illusion is so potent that it takes some serious supernatural detection powers to actually piece the mask. Changelings, Gentry and Mortals who have been Ensorcelled however can see through the mask most of the time, unless a glamor is spent to "Strengthen The Mask" and thus hide from this perception. The mask compensates for inhuman attributes and is form-fitting so generally does not alter the height and weight of the person (In appearance). So a large 7 foot tall ogre with a massive gut would look like a large 7 foot tall man whose been on an all cheeseburger diet. To shut down the mask, a changeling either has to go into the hedge/arcadia (Where the mask shuts down while there) or burn out their remaining Glamour to shut down the mask.

As for the Wizened being made into representatives of a trade, generally they take the form of their profession. So yes a Smith Wizened might be made into a Dwarf-Like being with good upper body strength to better hammer steel. Or a Drudge (The Maid-Like Kith) would be crafted into some sort of House Elf resembling Dolby from Harry Potter (Although maybe not as short although many Wizened can be short). In theory a cruel Gentry could craft a changeling so that they have hammers as hands, although you'd probably have to take a flaw representing that you don't have functional hands. In general most changelings have functional limbs, 2 hands, 2 feet, although might have stuff like extra arms, a tail, wings, horns or other weirdness. Heck, some changelings have very little remaining of their original body. The Manikin Elemental Kith for instance might have a body like a wooden marionette after having their brain extracted and implanted into a Fae Construct or have their consciousness transferred by some weird mechanical device. Still even in this case, the changeling still follows the same rules as other changelings and gets no intrinsic benefit from their construct body. They can still be cut, bleed and die (Although he/she might bleed out Oil or Sap instead of real blood). Anyway I hope that clarifies things a bit.

[luffy316]

totally. will do my best to have something presentable or at least comprehensible next week

[darkfire]

It seems I've not heard much from any changeling fans at the moment. Just wondering if people are still interested in joining?

[luffy316]

come week's end, should have pieced enough together to have either a very clear layout or a genuine character sheet

[Juju-Monster-Man]

I"m interested but have none of the material necessary to make a character.

[darkfire]

Well like I said, you can probably find the books for the game online somewhere. Generally to play you should get the World of Darkness core book (For the Core Rules) and Changeling: The Lost. I do have other books for changeling that give some new kiths, contracts, courts, merits and a few optional things that can come into play.

One of the more interesting things introduced is Talecrafting, where someone wielding the power of the Wyrd can shape fate through weaving an engaging and narrative story. This can allow someone to alter reality in small ways to conform to their narrative that has been weaved. For instance say you're lost in the woods at night with no bearing of where to go. You could tale-craft some kind of legendary tale of following a trail of white pebbles that will lead you on the path toward home and literally there will be a trail of white pebbles will be around to follow. That's just an example of what can be done.

The game does have some build in mechanics to prevent abuses of this however. First of all, if you don't roll an exceptional success on a Talecrafting roll, there is a "Tragic Twist of Fate" that will affect your narrative in some way. So yes a trail of pebbles might lead you home, but a twist of fate might be "The way home is fraught with danger" and thus leading to maybe some powerful Hobgoblin beast crossing your path as you follow the trail. The second downfall is that Talecrafting is addictive. If you use talecrafting too much, you have to make rolls to avoid addiction, rolls that can become more difficult as you continue to do it. Become addicted to Talecrafting and you're on a fast track to insanity as you start developing a "God Complex" over bending fate. This leads to complications such as Clarity loss, Derangements and alienation from reality.

I personally like Talecrafting but I am fairly restrictive on who can do it. Talecrafting is a very specific skill that only the Gentry and a few changelings possess. To know talecrafting you either have to A. have it be taught to you by the Gentry, B. Learn it from a changeling that can Talecraft or C. An in game justification for learning it yourself. Whatever the reason, I require that a PC have a occult specialty of Talecrafting before they are able to use it as I don't like allowing such a power without some XP put toward it.

Anyhow there are the books you should look over if you want to play. If you still have trouble making a character, I could build a character for you so long as you give me a good back story and character description. As there is numerous kiths in the books, generally to decide on what your character is, think of some kind of mythological creature and probably there is a Kith that will fit the legend in some way. As for Murdane stats I'm pretty good at assigning characters that have realistic stats. I frown on Min-Maxing characters though so don't try and make yourself Captain America and the like. Try and mold your character towards someone that could realistically exist in the modern world.

[Juju-Monster-Man]

Just a quick update. I recently acquired the nWoD corebook and all the Changeling books. I never done Play by Post but I'd be down if anyone else is.

I haven't read the books yet, so tell me if this isn't possible, but I'm leaning toward a darkling Changeling. Specifically someone who, while wearing the Mask, appears to have his shadow stretch to other shadows. Then when the Mask drops looks kinda like anti-Sora from Kingdom Hearts 2.
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080112031920/kingdomhearts/images/thumb/b/b7/Anti_Form.jpg/345px-Anti_Form.jpg