Alright, it's a slow monday and i'm bored as shit, so it's Changeling: the Lost time.What's your best True Fae you've ever made/seen in a campaign you've been in? Or at least memorable/fucked enough lol
kys hedgefag?
>>97803972I've only recently bought Vampire, Werewolf and Hunter, but I want to get to all of them one day, at least for a read through. Changeling's cool?
>>97804420I'd say yes! 1e or 2e? And anything that interested ya?
>>97804420Do you like Sandman, Labyrinth, Jonathan Strange, etc? I really like CtL as an urban fantasy setting. It's got a great blend of horror and whimsy. That random basement stairwell in the side of a building you pass every day actually leads to an underground museum of all your childhood memories. You were captive of an insane fairy and sometimes wake up from dreams unsure if you're screaming in agony or ecstasy. You have a big Changeling subculture with seasonal courts and all sorts of possibilities for intrigue. It can be a hard sell for players(when it dropped in 2008 the RPG.net talking heads poisoned my friends against it by talking about how it was just an abuse metaphor) but the books are fun to read if nothing else.
>>97803972The last time i ran CtL (2e) i had the plot revolve around 2 feuding Gentry. The Watcher In Darkness and The City In A Bottle, at least that's what they players called them.They had a feud over the Title of The City In A Bottle, and The Watcher help-stalked the motley while The City attempted to steal the city the story took place in. To do this it manifested as a number of bottles all around the city that, under the correct circumstances, would have devoured the mundane world and placed it inside The City In A Bottle within its Arcadian Realm, citizens>>97804420 included.The players mostly interacted with the Watcher, although it was not helpful (only responding with half-sentences like ,,no answer, only watch" or ,,no touch, only watch" whenever spoken to. But i had it managed to infiltrate the local Freehild by going invisible and hanging off one PCs back like a weightless backpack. That was pretty cool)
>>97804430I just dig settings that make various mythologies real and hidden in the shadowsAs for editions, I've been mostly looking into the Revised era of things, so I'll probably go with whichever is release-wise closest to that>>97804485yeah urban fantasy is the termthe idea you could be living your boring life and accidentaly slip into a world of vampires/werewolves/fairies is fun
>>97804420>Changeling's cool?The only judge for that is you.However i think it's the best rpg for urban fantasy and rules wise pretty easy to get into. I would encourge you to give it a read.Unlike the other splats changelings are extremely open for all kinds of chars, so with one or two purchases any pc can fix most "mistakes" or gaps in capability.Changelings are simply a catch-all term for himans turned faeries, so your group can be a minotaur, a living bonfire and a maid with pointy ears without it being weird. Mechanics are also easy to learn, just attribute+skill(+wyrd) in most cases
>>97804535Oh yeah, i agree on the "extremely open on all kinds of chars"As an example, in a campaign i'm doing the other three players are an ex-guardian dragon, a bush who took energy from the sun to run away and a porcelain doll... plus, i did once make a character that was a living aquarium.
>>97804497Oh, that's pretty cool (and creepy, lol)I'll share an example too, which is Emperor Bloodybones.Imagine this red sludge with twisting and whispering black bones inside it, carried around in a vat crossed with a golden palanquin by servant Hobgoblins. Its desire is to take remains from humans and other supernaturals and preserve them, even if it does tend to absorb them or discard them by mistake. A Changeling escaped from it, and while giving chase, it got interested in the freehold where the players are...
>>97804535Is it the "let's hunt vampires in dark alleys" type of urban fantasy, or the "almost cyberpunk action flick"?
>>97806038After long consideration ... Yes.Let me explain:Like all games CtL has layers, or tiers if you prefer, going roughly from 1-4 (street, City, nation, world) with rising stakes. A low tier game will not focus/involve larger organisations like the courts and instead more on individuals or small groups that cause trouble on tge street level. In my experience non-fae supernaturals mostly fit the best here as changelings get rather funky&unfair to the point where werewolves are just comedic relief.However, there is also a prewritten Gentry (Baron Fairweather, The Dragon Of The Free Market) who will literally turn the game into low-tech shadowrun as he hires PCs for corporate sabotage, espionage, etc.It of course depends on the ST (StoryTeller, equivalent to Dungeon Master) how extreme it gets, but hunting vampires to keep your block clean, or just because you disagree with their treatment of mortals, is the more common of the two. For me it works best if there is some convoluted plot of a Gentry at work that slowly unveils more and more parts until the players finaly understand what the point of it is. Bonus points if the global terror the Gentry weaves, killing untold thousands and breaking millions more, is done for miniscule gain that could've been solved with €500 and asking nicely.Gentry btw are the big bads of CtL. The True Fae as they are also called are practicaly omnipotent within their purview while in Arcadia, and when they decide to leave their realms it's always a bad sign for everyone not wearing cold iron full plate and a cyanide capsule.Kinda like the Antediluvians of vtm, just more active and extremely petty
>>97806139Pretty cool, thanks for the explanation anon
>>97804516>I just dig settings that make various mythologies real and hidden in the shadowsVarious pagan pantheons in CtL are Gentry that simply forgot humans existed or got bored of being worshipped. CofD has less of a hard canon than OwOd though, so you can go wild. Slipping into the world of Faeries is funnily how changelings are made. Any human might attract a Gentries attention and get stolen away while a simulacrum (fetch) takes their place and pretends to be you. The game starts after the pc manages to break out after the Durance, their stay in arcadia during which harsh labour, torture, magic and/or made deals turned the human into a changeling
>>97805937I'm realy itching to play again. Especialy with all the new things in kith&kin.>>97805997Non humanoid Gentry = best Gentry>>97806179De nada. If you have any questions i'm willing to help.
>>97806206Plus, it's very damn easy to make a kith from scratch (and it helps that in 2e they're not bound to the seeming anymore)In addition, i do want to play an actual game with irl people, but the system is basically unknown here... oof
>>97803972>What's your best True Fae you've ever made/seen in a campaign you've been in?I think my favorite I made for a campaign was the True Fae that created the current King of the Autumn Court. This particular True Fae manifested as a plague and would bring disease and misery to the realms of other Gentry, often with their permission. Because what else shakes up a story like some plague? The Wandering Miasma would always have a herald go in front of him to announce his coming. The last of these heralds was a Changeling Chiurgeon who looked like a plague doctor with syringes for fingers. He alone of any of the Miasma's changelings would try to linger behind and take care of the sick.
What are your thoughts on the Directional Courts?
>>97807888Directional Courts?
>>97807933An alternate Court system that is apparently dominant in Asia, as opposed to the Seasonal Courts that are dominant in the West. https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Directional_Courts_(CTL)
>>97807888Can't say much, haven't looked into them yet. Interesting, but not fully sure in what context to put them in
>>97807888Not a big fan of them. The cardinal directions lack the evocative flair of seasons. I like the Traders Courts though. Mantles build on and around business feels proper for modern fantasy set in the real world. What are stock traders and bankers if not the alchemists and oracles (and gamblers) of today.
>>97803972Why are True Fae such assholes?
>>97811111I don't know but look at those digits!
>>97803972>when you play Cyberpunk 2020 but it's secretly Changeling The Lost with the corporate war being a conflict between the Gentry>the Blackwall is the Hedge
How whimsical can CtL get? The theme of changelings being afraid of returning keepers grinds down a bit too much for me, and it's worked into so many aspects of the setting it makes me question if it's possible to get away from that. I just wanna be a fairy, man.
