|
Yawgmoth posted:You can't mention that without the sequel, Rape Stove: The Stove That Rapes People So, uh, is one of those old timey stoves with a pipe? Or does it just cram itself in there? Edit: Oh, that's a wonderful post for the top of the page.
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 19:14
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 27, 2024 11:17 |
|
|
Changeling: 112k. No new stretch goals, but manuscript preview #3 is out for backers. It covers NPCs (Fetches, Huntsmen, etc.) and city write-ups. Your fetch is made of part of your shadow and then whatever random poo poo is lying around. A fetch's personality is built out of the circumstances of its birth, and the ST and player design them together by answering five questions: 1. Where were you abducted, and what do you remember of it? This shapes your fetch's first thoughts. 2. Who knows or suspects the truth? Maybe someone saw you get taken but had no idea what was going on, or maybe someone can just tell that something's off about your fetch. 3. What is the fetch made of? A fetch made of your clothes is probably better at superficially passing for you but has little real empathy, one made from Fae-stuff might have more affinity for magic and the Hedge, and one made from an animal or animal corpse might grow more feral or impulsive over time. 4. How is the fetch flawed? No fetch is perfect - they all tend to have some small bit of humanity they just aren't good at, usually not in a dangerous way but just an off way, though not always. Some even have physical flaws - hole in the back, stuffed with leaves, say. 5. Did you see the fetch? Do you know you have one? Not every changeling does, see, at least immediately. Some, though, spot them being made, have some idea what to expect - but also have to deal with the loss of focus during their escape that can come from knowing someone else is living their life. Often, changelings that know of their fetch want to destroy them, which can be a problem if they then learn the fetch has actually been doing a decent job. A fetch is made the same way a PC is, generally with identical Attributes to their mirror and any Merits that reflect innate capabilities. However, their skills and other merits can differ wildly. In part this is because of differing development after being taken, and in part it's because the fetch immediately knows when its mirror returns to the world, which can cause it to gain knowledge of skills it otherwise wouldn't have, in a conscious or unconscious effort to develop the tools needed to survive. The ST or PC can design the fetch, either works, and it doesn't even need stats unless it's going to be important. Fetches also have a Needle and Thread, not a Virtue and Vice. Their Needle will usually be similar, but their Thread can often be very strange - Obedience or Surveillence, say, thanks to the unconscious drives of the True Fae. It is stated that some changelings are taken not because they're wanted, but because the Gentry wants the Fetch unconsciously serving it in the mortal world. Where do they differ? 1. Fetches don't have Contracts, seemings, kiths or access to court Mantles. In theory, they could gain Court Goodwill, technically, but most don't and none can have Mantle. (Since most changelings see the fetch as a reminder of the Gentry and their crimes, it'd be a rare fetch that got into a Court.) 2. Fetches have Wyrd, but do not raise it. Rather, their Wyrd is always identical to that of their mirror. 3. Fetches have mortal Integrity, not Clarity. Since they're NPCs, breaking points aren't really a thing, but Integrity's a good benchmark for the ST to know how well the fetch holds its stolen life together, with lower Integrity usually meaning the fetch never really thought of itself as human at all, while high Integrity tends to identify strongly with its life and view its work as valid, even after it knows it's false. 4. Fetches begin play with the Attuned to the Wyrd Echo, plus 1 Echo per dot of Wyrd, and whenever it gains Wyrd, it gets a new Echo. So, what's an Echo? Well, fetches can't do most of the stuff other fae can. They can't seal pledges or make oaths or bargains, though it's nigh impossible to seal their words because they are still fae. However, because a fetch is a secondary creature, a placeholder, they get...well, an echo of changeling power. Most Echoes work only in the presence of changelings, and some only with the mirrored changeling. Others work based on other metaphorical echoes - shadows or reflections, say. Attuned to the Wyrd is the one every fetch has. All fetches can recognize changelings for what they really are, even before their mirror returns to the mortal world. Much like changelings, fetches see both Mask and mien. They can also sense when a changeling gets within around 50 feet of them, though nothing more specific than that...except for their mirror. They can always tell if their mirror is within 50 feet. As a result, however, fetches can't be surprised by changelings. Call the Huntsmen (Wyrd 5+): The fetch can put out a beacon for Huntsmen, usually as a last resort, and they'll usually respond quite fast, as this ability is known to belong only to the more powerful fetches. The ST may allow this to summon Gentry instead. No matter what, this Echo costs all of a fetch's Glamour, no matter how much that is, and takes an action. Death of Glamour (Wyrd 4+): The fetch becomes a Glamour sinkhole, making a zone in which no Contract works and no fae magic functions. It costs 10 Glamour and a Wyrd+Resolve roll, plus an action, which means it usually takes several turns. If it works, however, no Contracts function within 50 feet of the fetch, and any being that holds Glamour in that area loses 1 Glamour per turn - including the fetch. This lasts for one turn per success. Enter the Hedge (Wyrd 1+): The fetch can enter the Hedge like a changeling can. Heart of Wax (Wyrd 1+): The fetch feels no pain, suffers no wound penalties and can spend 1 Glamour to reflexively ignore a Tilt causing physical impairment for one scene. Mimic Contract (Wyrd 2+): The fetch can use any Contract its mirror has. It must have interacted with its mirror at least once, face to face. This costs 1 Glamour or the Contract's cost, whichever is greater, and fetches can't use Loopholes. Normalcy (Wyrd 1+): The fetch is totally undetectable by any fae magic. It may reflexively turn this off if it feels like it, and must do so to use any other Echo except Attuned to the Wyrd. Shadow Boxing (Wyrd 2+): The fetch can predict its mirror instinctively. It can spend 1 Glamour reflexively to cause its mirror to lose Defense against it for the rest of the scene. Shadow Step (Wyrd 3+): The fetch can teleport via shadows, spending 1 Glamour to step into any shadow large enough to step or fall into, reappearing out of another within 100 yards. This is an instant action unless 3 Glamour is spent, which makes it reflexive. The fetch need not see where it's going. Summon Shard (Wyrd 1+): The fetch may draw a mirror-blade out of any pane of glass, reflexively, for 1 Glamour. The blade is a 1L weapon, or 2L if drawn from an actual mirror. It fades at the end of the scene. Fetches are not always antagonists - most believed themselves human until their mirror turned up, and they can be anything a human can be, personality-wise. They are often somewhat traumatized by the sudden discovery that they're not actually real people. Some are monsters, sure - but some just want to live their 'new' lives as best they can. Often they are angry at their mirror, though, for forcing them to confront their falseness and for threatening to take away what they are. Some changelings believe they can merge with their fetch - an act that kills the fetch, but gives their memories to the changeling, if it's possible. If it worked, it would also make the changeling whole again, returning their entire soul to them. However, if it's possible, it takes a lot of work and the right circumstances.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 19:17
|
|
|
One of my Mage players is playing a sniper with five dots in Dexterity, Firearms, and Resources. Would it be reasonable for him to build a railgun with Crafts, lighten it enough with Matter 3 so that a Strength 1 character could wield it, and then use Matter 3/Forces 2 to create a bunch of supercapacitors to power the thing? (This would of course require a bunch of ritual casting and would eat up active spell count.) I figure that I should reward his hyperspecialization, seeing as how he’s going to be good for very little else, and I think the drawback of heavily relying on enhanced gear and the accompanying extreme vulnerability to dispellation would make up for the power behind it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 19:29
|
|
|
Archonex posted:So, uh, is one of those old timey stoves with a pipe? Or does it just cram itself in there?
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 19:48
|
|
|
Deviant got a post about Theme and Mood. http://theonyxpath.com/variations-on-a-theme/ I bet there's going to be people who complain about the 'Punching Nazis' part. We have such an eclectic community.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 19:52
|
|
|
Section on the Loyal. The Loyal are hard to deal with in a nuanced way, for most changelings, because changeling society is built on opposition to the Fae. The Loyal are more than traitors - they betray the entire idea of safety and mutual survival, the backbone of the Courts. Most of those known as Loyalists are courtless, though not all, and only a few of them are actually, truly loyal. Some are driven by greed, some shame or addiction. Broadly, however, traitor changelings are known to fall to one of three types: Bridge-Burner, Privateer and True Loyalist. Once revealed, their best case scenario is exile or swift and merciful execution. More likely is a harrowing public execution by cold iron. Most courtiers actually see all courtless as Loyalists, because the courtless rarely interact with those in courts. This makes them suspicious, even if all they're really doing is sticking their heads in the sand and trying to be human again. The courts aren't always right about this - but it's hard enough to spot a traitor in the courts, let alone outside them. Mostly, the courts don't especially care about the distinctions, though - their motives don't matter. Bridge-Burners are the most understandable. They hate the Fae - they just endanger everyone by openly refusing to take up a Mantle and by using scorched-Hedge tactics. Their hearts are in the right place, at least. Privateers and true Loyalists tend to be painted with the same brush, however, and are much harder to spot. Bridge-Burners are rarely subtle. Privateers sell their own kind to the Fae or to slavers at the Goblin Markets, entirely for profit. True Loyalists, on the other hand, serve the True Fae directly, for any number of reasons, and are both most pitiful and most reviled. Bridge-Burners believe that using the tools of the enemy is a losing game by nature - and therefore, Arcadia must be forcibly decoupled from Earth. They tend to wear the name as a badge of honor, and hate that others call them Loyalists. They range from 'controversial Courtless' to 'terrorist and dream-murderer' in terms of actual danger, and they have some undeniable logic. Dreams, bargains, pledges, belief - these do fuel the Gentry. Cut them off, and the Gentry cease to find humans interesting. Destroying the supply does work. The problem is, that means destroying anything the Fae might take interest in. Bridge-Burner tactics include encouraging science without wonder, eliminating music programs, encouraging Brutalist architecture, murdering fetches and eradicating locations with any Arcadian resonance whatsoever. They also like to burn down the minds of lucid dreamers or those touched by the poisons of the Fae. They don't give up their own magic, however. Far from it. They don't especially care if they destroy mortal capacity for empathy or creativity, because this is a war, and all's fair in war. They also tend to work closely with hunters (mortal kind) and engaging in propaganda campaigns aimed at other Lost, to convince them to become Bridge-Burners - or at least to remind them that if a Bridge-Burner can find you, so can a True Fae. The entire idea apparently draws back to the Age of Enlightenment, using the ideas of Thomas More and Francis Bacon as jumping-off points. They apparently noticed a statistical uptick in the Lost coinciding with the spread of belief and wonder across the world during the Victorian Era. (Also, apparently ancient changelings were able to find their way out of the Hedge thanks to early movie sets - they specifically cite a fleeing motley managing to show up in the special features of The Ten Commandments.) Privateers are pretty simple. Holla holla get dolla, sell your brethren into eternal slavery. Privateering is always a death-by-iron offense, even in the most liberal and compassionate freehold. At least Bridge-Burners and True Loyalists have a belief. Privateers don't. They're just mercenaries, usually hired by Huntsmen (or sometimes Gentry) in exchange for Glamour, tokens or wealth. It's not impossible to buy them off, but given the cost of breaking an oath with a Fae creature, most favor keeping their contracts. Their contracts of marque keep them safe from the Huntsmen, but they rarely maintain strong Clarity long. The job is usually a temporary one, eventually becoming too demanding of their minds or their safety. It's not unusual for older Lost to have had Privateer periods - though few will talk about it - and so elder Lost can sometimes show shocking mercy to Privateers, despite the fact that most younger ones view them as the worst possible thing. Privateers also have a tendency to hook up with mortal hunters as cover for their activities, or at least to sell out changelings to anyone who comes asking. They really became most common in the Elizabethan period, likely due to the number of actual real-world privateers also skyrocketing. For a while, entire cities became Privateer hubs, or 'utopias' of slave trading with the Fae, but the last of these (Puerto Vallarta) fell in the 80s. True Loyalists serve the Fae. Most changelings can't even understand this, not understanding why anyone would willingly accept slavery. The True Loyalists often hate and fear the Gentry as much as any changeling...but in serving the predictable (if dangerous) whims of the True Fae, they make themselves safe from victimization by the unknown. They see other Lost as victims. Some Loyalists were changed by their durance and now need something only the Fae can provide if they don't want to suffer terrifying, draining withdrawal. And some? Some deny their own humanity and long to return, losing the defiance that let them escape along with their Clarity. They come to believe their time there was good, and want to bring others with them to blessed Arcadia, to the roles they were remade for. They've been around as long as the Lost have, and in areas without strong Courts, they tend to not be hated nearly as much, as without Courts, many changelings lack the support structure needed to address what has happened to them.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 19:56
|
|
|
Has there been any word on when we'll see the Wraith20 draft? How long do they usually take to sign off on things?
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 20:13
|
|
|
moths posted:Has there been any word on when we'll see the Wraith20 draft? How long do they usually take to sign off on things? Between 2 weeks and several months.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 20:20
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:... This is severely Not Good unless you want to pull the game back into the Banality Debates again. Science is not some scary boogey man.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 20:21
|
|
|
It seems fine to me. It's not saying that all science is evil and bad. It's saying that people like Carl Sagan are unintentional tools of the Gentry because they encourage wonder in science and push people to dream about science.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 20:39
|
|
|
Gerund posted:This is severely Not Good unless you want to pull the game back into the Banality Debates again. Science is not some scary boogey man. Seems like the 'without wonder' part is the linchpin, here. Although it's not like these things actually remove glamour (yet), such that I can't imagine a random scientist is sucking away Arcadian Magic just by going to his day job. If it were the concerted effort to run soul-crushing and repetitive lab experiments that sucked away the fun-juice, I'd understand.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 20:41
|
|
|
Outside of the wealthier areas of Europe, was the Victorian era really a time of spreading belief and wonder? I mean, this is a time of harsh colonial oppression for huge swaths of the population, and the post-industrial revolution life was banal and, well, industrial on a scale unimaginable before to most of the people involved in it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 20:43
|
|
|
Kaza42 posted:Outside of the wealthier areas of Europe, was the Victorian era really a time of spreading belief and wonder? I mean, this is a time of harsh colonial oppression for huge swaths of the population, and the post-industrial revolution life was banal and, well, industrial on a scale unimaginable before to most of the people involved in it. Yeah that's a really weird choice. Kind of feels like someone doesn't know the difference between Victorian and Romantic even before you get to your point about colonialism. On the other hand the way it's written you can kind of take all of this as just being the Bridge-Burners' say-so, and it's a short hop from there to "... and they're full of poo poo."
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 20:46
|
|
|
Spector29 posted:The concerted effort to run soul-crushing and repetitive lab experiments that sucked away the fun-juice, I'd understand. According to the scientists I know, this is actually the majority of scientific research.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 20:49
|
|
|
Picking the Victorians as the bursting-out of wonder is a weird one and I would definitely chalk it up to the Bridge-Burners growing out of colonial nations primarily and being kind of lovely people.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 21:00
|
|
|
Archonex posted:
I like the VtR 2e summary of this: "What are you going to do to make it through tonight? What about tomorrow night? And after the deeds are done and your belly’s full, how are you going to live with yourself? What are you going to do with your damnation that makes it worth all the sins along the way? That’s the Requiem. That’s only half the question, though. Mortals are dinner, but they’re also what you’ve got for dates. No matter how callous you become, you’ll need to move among them. How will you keep your connection to Humanity, even as a sham? That’s the Masquerade." sexpig by night posted:yea the 'stereotypes' bits are almost always forgettable but the fact that literally all of them involve 'ugh, vampires? Assholes, all of em. Just try not to be their snack and let them do their dumb poo poo alone.' is a great running goof. It's hilarious, too, since Demons also spend a lot of time lurking in the shadows, claiming to be important, clinging to secrecy and self-preservation, and staying alive by leeching off humans.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 21:04
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:You can't mention that without the sequel, Rape Stove: The Stove That Rapes People I'm too scared to look up if that's a real thing.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 21:13
|
|
|
Xinder posted:I'm too scared to look up if that's a real thing. It isn't. If it were, someone in the horror thread would have watched it and written a review.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 21:24
|
|
|
Xinder posted:I'm too scared to look up if that's a real thing.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 21:34
|
|
|
nofather posted:Deviant got a post about Theme and Mood. Deviants keep sounding like the best.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 21:34
|
|
|
Are we going to get the give and take and example contracts for the regional courts? Otherwise, theyre kind of unuseful!
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 21:38
|
|
|
I had a big writeup for hedge ghosts and hobs, but it got eaten. So, short form: hedge ghosts are ephemeral entities made out of either people that die in the Hedge, emotions or Icons given life by the Hedge, or deliberate creation by powerful hobs or Gentry. They have Wyrd and Numina and there's some neat Hedge-specific ones. They can sense the locations of Glamour sources and Goblin Markets. Hobs are horrors but with Wyrd and Contracts as well as Dread Powers, and will happily make deals with you not just for Goblin Contracts but for one-off favors or simple magical goods that break after a use or two. These deals each give you one point of Goblin Debt, and they'll make them with anyone. Mortals can pay Goblin Debt only by accepting fairy tale rules - give up your firstborn, be silent a year and a day, find the hob's buried heart.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 21:45
|
|
|
Huntsmen mechanically: Huntsmen are made as hobgoblins, except for a few changes. 1. Huntsmen have no story of their own, unless they get a Heart somehow. Rather, their concept is built around the Title they bear, their panoply and one Aspiration that defines them. Their panoply is two pieces of signature equipment, plus another for every 3 dots of Wyrd. Their Aspiration can be anything - 'Regain my Heart' or 'Impose order' or 'Hunt something that cannot die' or 'Kidnap the moon.' They have this Aspiration only when in the Hedge. They have two other Aspirates that they always have, drawn from their Title. One of these is always their Gentry's craving. 2. Huntsmen cannot have Contracts. However, they have access to a few unique Dread Powers, and all Huntsmen receive free four Dread Powers: Among the Sheep, Command the Herald, Heart of Iron and Hunter's Panoply. 3. Huntsmen cannot make Goblin Contracts, but can swear fae oaths, though they cannot initiate them. 4. Huntsmen do not have Frailties. They suffer no ill effects from staying in the mortal world. They can reap Glamour, but cannot otherwise harvest it save via goblin fruit or other such sources. While they bear a Title, they can perform oneiromancy inside Bastions, but only subtle shifts. They can alter the Hedge like changelings. They are also better at navigating the Hedge than anyone else, even the True Fae, and need 2 fewer successes than normal when in the Thorns, or 1 anywhere else. Among the Sheep: The Huntsman may take any roughly humanoid form for 2 Glamour, though not specific people. They are always between Size 4 and 6, and have the same tell as their Title, but it manifests more subtly. The Mask always keeps them from looking out of place, and they cannot change their panoply. Command the Herald: The Huntsman may view things remotely via a small, specific creature it has touched. The herald must be appropriate to the Huntsman's nature, generally a predator. This costs 1 Glamour per hour of use. The creature remains aware, and may speak with the Huntsman's voice. It is completely, perfectly loyal, no matter what. If it is a goblin, it can survive in the mortal world until this power ends. Heart of Iron: Huntsmen are not weak to cold iron, and can wield it without fear. Hunter's Panoply: Huntsmen get 8-again on any roll involving their panoply. They can call their panoply to hand if lost or dropped for 1 Glamour. If they have to do something that uses a panoply tool they currently don't have, they lose 10-again. They regain Willpower whenever they get an exceptional success on a roll using their panoply. Other Dread Powers they can have: Apex Predator: The Huntsman can summon a swarm of small predatory beasts or one larger one, appropriate to its nature. These animals obey it and understand it clearly. Hungry Heart: The Huntsman can spend Willpower when attacking a changeling or True Fae to make their attack steal Glamour if it hits as well as deal damage. This explicitly fails on hobs or anything born of the Hedge. Kindred Spirits: The Huntsman understand changeling minds, having also been held captive in a durance. They can spend Glamour to learn a changeling's Needle, Thread, Aspirations and Clarity automatically, and more to learn about the circumstances of the target's last Clarity damage or the identity of their closest Touchstone, learning older ones the more they spend. If they use this knowledge against the target, they get exceptional successes on 3, not 5. Surprise Entrance: The Huntsman can spend 1 Glamour to suddenly appear out of nowhere, and any witness must make a roll or be Shaken. If the characters have made active means to keep the Huntsman out, it takes a full turn for the Huntsman to break through, but if not, the Huntsman is just there, reflexively, and can take an action before anyone else can react.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 22:00
|
|
|
The Gentry! There are actually a shocking number of True Fae that aren't Keepers; most changelings neither know nor care about that, except insofar as they can play such True Fae against their Keeper sometimes. True Fae are not people - they are names. A Name, capital N, wrapped up in oaths and deals. They made a deal, long, long ago, with Arcadia - a deal declaring they would exist and own the land entire, claiming it as their vessel, in exchange for a web of rules so complex that no one could ever know them all. The Fae are ravenous creatures that want. Not anything specifically, just want. They want to possess and to sate their desires, and even changelings rarely learn much of them. Only a few ever learn the truth - that a True Fae's Name is its heart and its weakness, and that all of its possessions are made of promises, which can be broken. A Fae's Name is its core, and it rarely manifests comprehensibly unless all of its Titles have been lost or stripped from it. A Title is a role a Fae has agreed to play, one of several, and within that Title, it has limited omnipotence. The Princess of Red Crowns, say, can nail her hats to the heads of her victims and conjure up her terrible Crimson Keep, because she has that Title. She has nearly infinite power over nailing hats to heads, dragging wicked children to her Keep and so on, but no power over dragons, say. No matter what form a Title takes, its nature always bleeds through, no matter where it is. No matter how she manifests, the Princess always has elements of torture, blood and nails, no matter where she is. Killing your Keeper means you killed a Title's manifestation - but eventually, its oaths would let it recast part of itself in that role, eventually, and pick up where it left off. Only by breaking the deals that formed a Title in the first place can that Title be permanently destroyed, though another Fae might still devour it and claim it. A Title might become a Keeper for any reason, and might not be one forever. A Keeper might abandon you for years not to torture you specifically, but because its Title got distracted for a while and forgot it was a Keeper. A Title is kept going by its pact - the pact sworn on its Name. This pact is existentially binding, and gives the grandest and most fundamental parts of the Fae's nature, the things that are true across all Titles. Breaking such a pact will kill the Fae in truth. Lesser pacts, sworn on a Title, give smaller powers that only that Title can use. Breaking these will not kill the Gentry, but might destroy a Title or at least sever its powers. True Fae never appear in the game as characters of their own. They appear as manifestations of a Title, or if they have none left, of their Name. A manifestation can be a character - but it could also be a piece of scenery, a machine or a flock of birds. Still, they all use the traits of a character, even if some of those traits aren't really usable in some forms. Every Title has its own set of traits, and the ST only really needs to stat the ones that will be interacted with meaningfully. It can be hard to tell if two Titles are part of the same Fae, without use of some kind of narrative device to allow it - a bargain with a goblin queen for a rare genealogy of the Gentry, say - or by existentially threatening or harming one Title and seeing which Fae react. Mechanically: A True Fae Title has three Aspirations, like a character. Whenever it fulfills an Aspiration, it gets a point of temporary Willpower that, if unused, vanishes at the end of the scene unless it was earned pursuing a craving or a changeling. Aspirations of the Gentry could be anything, but one will always be a craving, something the Title wants to possess over all other things, like 'the love of a human' or 'a million loyal subjects', and no matter how often it's fulfilled, it never goes away. These aspirations can be very abstract ('become a star') but should always have a route to be fulfilled so that the PCs can, y'know, interact with it. True Fae have between 0 and 5 Titles, and you should know how many any given fae has, even if you're only statting one of them. This determines how powerful each Title is. A fae with no Titles is cornered, a Name that is desperate to make deals and steal weak Titles from other Gentry. A fae with 5 Titles is a god among fae, with power over every Regalia and a massive domain. A Gentry's Name can be simple ('John') or abstract (the sound of waves, a picture of an eye). Being strange doesn't protect them - once heard or experienced, a substitute's as good as the Name itself, provided the speaker witnessed the true Name and uses the substitute with honest intent. Titles are abstract concepts, but always refer to an emotion, sensual experience or object, and every manifestation somehow incorporates this Title distinctly. This shape or theme is the Title's tell. A Gentry's Titles each have Wyrd 5, +1 for each Title the Fae has, to a max of 10. So one Title means Wyrd 6, two means Wyrd 7, etc. In Arcadia, a Gentry's Titles begin any scene with full Glamour. Otherwise, they recover Glamour as changelings do, but all of them suffer Glamour addiction outside Arcadia or the Hedge. They suffer frailties as per changelings, including iron. Titles receive (Wyrd*5) dots to spread across all of their Attributes, and the same number of dots to spend on Skills. They have no Specialties. They have no kith, court or anchor, but they do have access to a Seeming's blessing and always bear some of that Seeming's trappings, though they don't actually have a Seeming. In Arcadia or the Hedge, they may use oneiromancy or Hedgespinning (either one) to freely shape reality, as long as they act within the legend of their Title. They treat other characters as though they were important eidolons, and they automatically succeed unless their target spends a Willpower to get the chance to resist. Titles have every Contract in (Wyrd-4) Regalia, one of which must match their associated Seeming. In the mortal realm, they can use their Regalia and can take any form, but cannot shape reality. Fae Titles can have any Merit a Changeling can, as long as it makes sense, and has (Wyrd*2) dots to spend on Merits. They do not have Clarity. They have a Mask, but it is imperfect, and their tell always shows through somehow. Anyone that a True Fae targets with a Contract while speaking or otherwise using their own true Name gets the Obsession Persisent Condition targeting that fae, with a context of their player's choice. A changeling that learns a Fae's true Name can speak it aloud when acting against any of its titles, causing any Contract targeting that Fae to achieve an exceptional success. Gentry can make pledges, but it costs them. They can seal any statement, even those of other fae or changelings, but must swear it on something they consider a possession - anything works as long as it's not a manifestation of one of its Titles, as long as it's something they consider they own. If the subject of the sealing follows through on their promise, the Fae must give the subject the sworn possession. A Title or Name can swear a personal or hostile oath to any fae creature, including a changeling, but must swear on itself to do so. If it breaks the oath, it doesn't become an Oathbreaker, but instead loses access to one Regalia and becomes vulnerable to lethal attacks during the scene it broke its word in. If a Title loses its last Regalia that way, the other party may choose to permanently kill the Title, demand any three wishes from it and give it back its last Regalia, or force it to inhabit the physical key of its Regalia and become a token. Such items retain their power in the real world, but changelings must be cautious, as dormant Titles can awaken unpredictably. A Title can make a bragain by swearing on its Name. Both parties must agree to do something or oetherwise uphold some clear, concretely communicated task. If the True Fae doesn't hold up its side of things, it dies. Permanently. The other party must swear on something crucially important - their life, maybe, a loved one, a favorite memory, etc. If they fail to uphold their end, whatever they swore on is forefeit to the Fae, and the Wyrd will back that up. Fae do not make pledges lightly - it's hard to convince them to do without setting up an untenable situation for them first. A Fae in mortal danger will always try to make a pledge and save its own life, but it can't force anyone to agree...though they're more than happy to trick others into promising them things without pledging in return, if they can. True Fae cannot take Bashing damage except from banes, and only take Lethal damage from banes unless the attacker speaks their Name or they break an oath. Only cold iron can deal agg to them. However, if you can find a Regalia's physical representation and learn a rule that binds a Title to the Fae, you may be able to force them to break an oath, and you can buy such knowledge from goblins or learn them by observing the Titles at work or tricking them. To explain, the book has an example: The Storm King of the Bloody Throne, who wears a false crown and rules with an iron fist. It has sworn an oath to do so forever...but its Contract with its Name says it's an usurper, and will rule only as long as the land has no true monarch. Only one that can remove its Sword from the stone it is embedded in can be the true monarch, and the Storm King hides the stone and Sword deep in a dark forest guarded by goblins. If you were to brave the forest, defeat the goblins and find the stone, then pull the Sword, you would become the true ruler of the land - and because the Storm King has now broken its oath to rule forever, you would holds its fate in your hands.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 22:27
|
|
|
Neopie posted:Are we going to get the give and take and example contracts for the regional courts? Otherwise, theyre kind of unuseful! They get full Mantle dot write-ups, but not explicit discussion of their Court Bargains or Contracts.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 22:32
|
|
|
I really hope there's a good storytelling section that offers advice on how to deal with 3-6 characters all having Keepers or Huntsmen after them. Personally life as a Privateer sounds fun.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 23:36
|
|
|
Did they do away with rolls to shape shift in wtf 2e? I don't see anything mentioned in the shape shifting section or primal urge section. Do they shift directly to the desired form, or go through each step, so human to wolf would take five rounds?
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 23:37
|
|
|
Soonmot posted:Did they do away with rolls to shape shift in wtf 2e? I don't see anything mentioned in the shape shifting section or primal urge section. Do they shift directly to the desired form, or go through each step, so human to wolf would take five rounds? No roll. They just shift directly. How long or how much energy it takes depends on their Harmony. At Harmony 4-6, it's a reflexive action. The more you get to 10 the more it takes (an instant action or 1 Essence to shift reflexively, then 1 Essence to shift as an instant action). The more you go to 1, the more you automatically shift, and you start having to shift forms and automatically shift to appropriate forms for whatever you're doing (one space at a time) or you can force a shift. All on p96. That's barring curses and external things that might hamper shapeshifting. nofather fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Nov 28, 2017 |
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 23:42
|
|
|
I would play. Sign me up.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2017 23:58
|
|
|
nofather posted:Deviant got a post about Theme and Mood. Yup. One already. On Twitter. Goddess, how I hate Twitter.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 00:18
|
|
|
Cities in Changeling: No Tokyo, thank god, those kept getting worse. Hong Kong seems neat, and Morninf/Day/Night is a good cycle. Iceland I'd weird and seems to assume I know the references it makes without context. New Orleans is nice and a good example of what look to be a Court system without Bargains, relying on being a permanent Market near another freehold for safety. The rural Massachusetts one us standout best, imo, though, with a great local hook and tide cycle.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 00:25
|
|
|
I know it's referring to things more like Eleven going Scanners on the DoE agents in the Stranger Things Season One finale, but how many Nazis are you even going to run into in Deviant? Are the Boys from Brazil a character archetype?
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 00:37
|
|
|
Speaking of Iceland! Given that WoD developers have kept an eye on SA WoD threads in the past, I might as well do a writeup of what I think about the Iceland section of the Changeling kickstarter. Because it's kind of a weird mess, speaking from an Icelandic perspective. The language bit I'll address some basic language stuff first: I get that the "Spring Lög" and "Winter Lög" is supposed to mean "Spring Law". And someone very well-intentioned went online and found the singular of the word "Lög" and wrote "The Spring Lag." There's a problem: "Lög" is not one word in Icelandic. There is: -Lög, as in Songs, singular Lag, Song -Lög as in Layers, singular Lag, Layer -Lög as in Law and Laws, no singular. So I'd commend them for the pun if I thought it was intentional, since music is associated with fey things over here. But it sounds weird and asinine, even so, like you're referring to the Spring Layer of some kind of season cake. If you want to use a word for "territory ruled by law", the best word is Lögsaga - literally "legal history", from a traditional Althing recital of law by speakers of law explaining the rights to a territory and precedent in that territory, and later used as a word for the territory itself. It's still modern, too: Iceland's territorial waters are commonly referred to as Iceland's Lögsaga. Lögsaga singular, Lögsögur plural. oh and the beginning of the section misspells Gyđa Hjálmarsdóttir's last name. Gotta love those diacritics, right. "Rúna Tryggvisdóttir" is also not a name, regarding the characters at the end of the section. The daughter of Tryggvi is not "Tryggvis" but "Tryggvadóttir". The history bit The history section is weirdly focused on Norway. Where is the tale of Grettir the Strong wrestling with the zombie (or "the draugr", literally the origin of that particular WoD word you might all be familiar with)? Where is the mythic origin of Ólafur Liljurós, the knight whose song is sung in all Scandinavian countries to this day (we sing it 13 days after christmas every year) famous for being murdered by an elf? Where are the bishops and magician-priests who made deals with dark spirits and even tricked the devil himself, even to the point of making treaties with them? Where is the story of the Landvćttir, the great natural spirits who made a deal with the land to protect Iceland from foreign invasion (and who are represented on the back of every modern Icelandic coin)? There's even one for every land-quarter, not to mention the seasons, and there you've got your hook. (And it's not like there's just four of them, there's tons "great and small". There's even these ladies.)  Dragon, eagle, bull, mountain giant. Also, why would Hákon Hákonarsson The Old be referred to as a "conqueror" in the history section worthy of being cursed to death? He is somewhat famous for having brought a peace to Norway that has lasted all the way into the modern age. He was a diplomat and his reign is often referred to as a golden age. He was big on expansionism but it feels a bit strange; I get that he's important for having been the king who brought Iceland into the Scandinavian kingdoms until 1940, but still. The point of that is that he did so peacefully! ALL THAT SAID, that an Icelandic elf-maid would have cursed him to death is absolutely the kind of story that would be told, but it would probably be about how the king already had the largest territory Norway would ever have and enough is enough. I have no idea what the hell any of the rest of the history bit is saying, so I'm going to assume it's all referring to in-setting changelings. There certainly is no "king Eiríkur" anywhere in Iceland's history of foreign rulers in the 15-1600s.  Look, "rich in peace" and "Christian man" are auspicious names okay? They're still doing this poo poo over in Denmark. The whole notion of Vörđur (a pile of rocks guiding your way) being a guide to elf-portals is incredibly strange, too. This is simply not the case to any Icelander. Those piles of rocks are piled in long lines from farm to farm, or settlement to settlement, along roads that pre-modern Icelanders travelled. They're meant as a guide to help find your way if you get lost in winter, since they stick out of the snow close enough to each other to be seen in sleet or fog, and were piled since Iceland's settlement - some of them are over a thousand years old, which isn't bad for a pile of rocks in earthquake and wind. They were so effective we adopted the technology for modern roads.  elf technology, apparently You want to know what an Icelander considers to be an entry to the elf-realms?   You'll see this dotted around the landscape. They're "elf doors", markers for these entryways, not to be disturbed beyond maybe taking some tourist photos. They're generally cliffsides or rocks that stick out of the landscape, often with lots of little holes or a place where a human can easily disappear from sight seemingly into thin air because of some local visual illusion thing. The defining feature of these places, in fact, is that there is absolutely no other sign of human disturbance there. That's kind of the point. A pile of rocks that enters the elf-realm is not piled my human hands, it's like that by nature and clearly so. Think of Icelandic belief in elves as being essentially animistic spirits of nature like that. And only a very few, relatively speaking, are decorated like this. Most of them aren't, like this infamous elf-rock in Kópavogur (Reykjavík suburb) that has its own street number - Yes you can send Icelandic elves mail. The postal service doesn't appreciate it.  And the road is narrower right where it is because otherwise the elf-rock would have been disturbed, geddit? It's an "elf crosswalk." Of the four mythologized elf-places I know of in my immediate locality, only one is marked like that. Neat, right? I once gave my old beat up CD player to one of these places. Tried to spy on them to see the elves come out. Walked up to where I hid it an hour later when I saw no one and poof, it was gone. You'll find a lot of modern Icelanders with stories like that, despite them also claiming to be atheists. It's hard not to when the country believes in you right back, see. I give extra hard thumbs up to making one of your iconic characters a Polish immigrant. You can't possibly move Iceland's mythical history to the modern age more viscerally than that and it would make many racists I know terrifically angry. "Hafnarhúsiđ" is the Reykjavík Art Museum in real life so that's a weird location for an elf council. Ţingvellir being a place of Elves is also a bit weird, given that it's basically where humans in Iceland made law, including that famous decision in 1000ad to become a Christian nation, but hey it looks all mystic and cool so whatever. And drat me if that description of the overall feel of the Uni of Iceland doesn't match what some foreign students told me over the years. Did you get someone who studied here to write this bit? Tighten up the language a bit and use more Icelandic history in the actual history section and I'd upgrade this to "good" any day of the week.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 00:41
|
|
|
Dave Brookshaw posted:Yup. One already. On Twitter. ... ...how were they fans of OP games
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 00:42
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:... You would be astonished how good nerds are at being fans of things that say the exact opposite of what they think/want them to. I mean, gently caress, look at Starfleet Battles, which is some kind of entire weird off-brand alternate reality where Star Trek is *military sci-fi*.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 00:46
|
|
|
I'm incredibly happy 2e is fixing my few issues with Changeling, nice to see my favorite WoD property is surviving the update well.Rulebook Heavily posted:Speaking of Iceland! this is also a very neat post!
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 00:53
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:...
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 00:54
|
|
|
Basic Chunnel posted:There isn't a necessary schism between goths and nazis yea my old vampire nerd days have more than a couple 'oh, I shouldn't tell that dude I'm a Jew huh...' moments. There's a weird, but very real, goth/nazi overlap that I think branched from the punk/metal/nazis?
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 00:59
|
|
|
Oh, I get White Wolf. It's more modern OP stuff that is weird for this.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 01:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 27, 2024 11:17 |
|
|
It's not like you can't be an aficionado of something based on your long-term hatred for it—particularly if you used to like a past version of it!
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2017 01:12
|
|
