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electricpaladin) wrote2008-07-25 01:08 am
electricpaladin) wrote2008-07-25 01:08 am
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As Promised, Changeling: the Lost
The Game: Changeling: the Lost
Publisher: White Wolf
Familiarity: Medium. I’ve read the core and every book produced thus far (except Lords of Summer, which we haven’t bought yet) and I’d love to run it one day soon. If only I had more players…
What is Changeling: the Lost? In my mind, it’s a game about being abused. Not just by parental or authority figures, but by life. It’s a game about how the worst thing about being hurt is that the thing that hurts you gets into you, becomes a part of you, changes you.
All changelings are hurt, all of them have a bit of what hurt them inside them, and all of them have been changed.
That’s the long of it. The short of it is that in Changeling, you play a poor goon kidnapped by faeries. They took you away and did horrible things to you (or were just their horrible selves, which probably wasn’t good for you).
I'd like to note that this is one of my favorite games in the New World of Darkness line, surpassed only by Mage and Promethean. Overall, it's a great game, and I can't wait to get a chance to actually play with it.
The theme I like pursuing most with a Changeling character is… honestly, envy. First I take something I always wanted, and then I give it to the character in some absolutely horrible way (usually involving his Durance in Arcadia).
So, I’m going to make a musician – a violinist – who was stolen as a teenager and taken away to Arcadia to play in some Faerie’s demonic orchestra. In fact, he was a child prodigy, but with loving parents who never pushed him. His first experience with that kind of pressure was his Keeper. He spent a lifetime being forced to practice mind-bending music by his shadowy master, a Conductor of the Damned. When he failed or complained he was punished, cruelly.
My character escaped when, after what seemed like centuries, the Conductor finally ordered his orchestra to perform. My character deliberately and spitefully played a wrong note. Seeing how it made the Conductor squirm, he tried it again and again. While the Conductor was incapacitated by rage and pain, he made his escape into the Hedge. Memories of his early days as a musician took him home…
Where he discovered that his fetch was doing quite well for himself, a gradually rising star in the classical music scene. My character can’t quite bring himself to interfere with his fetch (though he does find his fetch’s music quite bland) and has decided to just let him be.
But he doesn’t want to have anything to do with what his Keeper made him. And yet, he can’t turn his back on the music. Always strong in him, the music is now an undeniable force, roaring in his ears if he refuses to let it out.
So he’s dedicated himself to the electric violin. And he plays rock and roll.
He’s a passionate guy who tries to laugh off (and party away) his inner conflicts. He can’t stand that he can’t escape what his Keeper made him, and he can’t leave music without hating himself even more. He has a wide streak of mischief that wakes up when he plays. To quote an LJ friend speaking of Yo Yo Ma, when he gets down with the violin his face lights up and you can tell that he is about to perpetrate some shit on that stage.
His name is Nicholas Ard, but these days he goes by Amati, the name of a lineage of violin makers famous for making two of every (now rare and expensive) excellent violin they crafted.
Appearance-wise, Amati is tall and slender, with long, spidery fingers. His hair and eyes are dark, but reflective, and his skin is very pale. People who can see through the Mask hear the sound of maddeningly complex music following him wherever he goes, growing louder if he becomes agitated.
That covers Step One: Choose Concept quite nicely.
Step Two: Select Attributes
Here it goes! This is a White Wolf game, so I start by prioritizing my Attribute categories into Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. I think I’ll make Mental Primary, Physical Secondary, and Social Tertiary.
Primary gets five points. I’ll put 2 in Intelligence, 2 in Wits, and 1 in Resolve. He’s quick and bright, but not extraordinarily tough.
Secondary gets four. Strength and Stamina can stay Average. Dexterity is 3.
Tertiary gets three. I’ll give him a 3 in Presence, to reflect stage presence, 2 in Manipulation, but only 1 in Composure. He’s excitable, wears his heart on his sleeve, and isn’t quite used to a world where mouthing off doesn’t mean he has to spend five days in the white box.
Step Three: Select Skills
Skills are categorized just like Attributes, but in this case Primary gets 11 points, Secondary gets 7, and Tertiary gets 4. Oddly, my Skills end up the opposite of my Attributes. Social is Primary, Physical is Secondary, and Mental is Tertiary.
For Social, Empathy, Intimidation, Persuasion, Socialize, and Subterfuge get one dot each. Expression, however, is at 5. After all, Amati is a musical prodigy.
For Physical, Athletics, Brawl, Larceny, and Survival all get one dot each. The legacy of his Durance, really. Stealth, however, gets 3. He spent a lot of time hiding from his Keeper in the shadowy recesses of the Pit.
For Mental, Academics and Medicine get one dot each, the relics of long-ago high school classes and some first aid training. Crafts gets 2 points, for a basic familiarity with woodworking and instrument-making.
Step Four: Select Skill Specialties
I get three Specialties, which are narrow areas of expertise in which I will get a bonus die. Expression gets ‘violin’ (of course). I’ll put a specialty in ‘seduction’ for Persuasion. I think Amati likes to drown his sorrows in women. Finally, I’ll put a ‘jokes’ in Empathy. He likes to make people laugh, and helping them drown their sorrows helps him drown his.
Step Five: Add Changeling Template
This is the fun part. Now I get to add the stuff that makes Amati magical.
First of all, I choose Amati’s Seeming. I like Darkling, mostly because there’s a kith that is perfect, but also because he spent so much of his Durance lurking in the shadows, trying to avoid the Conductor, and because of the maddening, unearthly music he was forced to play (and still does, really). I also get to choose his Kith. Amati is definitely, enthusiastically a Nightsinger (from Winter Masques). This, incidentally, means a second Performance Specialty.
Wait. What? There isn’t a Performance Ability! Aah… I think they mean Expression. I’ll take a second specialty in ‘mad’.
I should also note Amati’s Seeming Blessing and Curse and Kith ability. Which I do. Amati is naturally sneaky, but he’s no good at doing magic when the sun is visible. Also, he can play music that makes people more suggestible.
Court? Amati is definitely a member of the Spring Court. He’s about music, passion, and laughter. These are the things he uses to keep his pain at bay.
Now, I get 5 points to spend on Contracts.
I practically can’t afford to not take one point of Contracts of Darkness. I mean… it’s favored by his Seeming, and it’s resisted by Resolve. Scaring people isn’t Amati’s favorite thing to do, but sometimes it’s a good idea, and when he has to, he’s good at it, especially if he can play a mind-bending dirge first. I’ll also grab a dot of Contracts of Artifice, because it would come in handy for a musician to be able to fix instruments with a touch and a kind word. The second dot of Contracts of Vainglory would also come in really handy, as it’s meant to boost Expression rolls. I’ll take that, too. Finally, I’ll take a dot of Fleeting Spring. Seems handy.
You know? The detailed character creation forgets to mention this, but I get a free Specialty in Athletics, Brawl, or Stealth for being a Changeling. I’ll take Stealth: deep places, to reflect finding hiding places in the Demonic Orchestra’s dark Pit.
Step Six: Select Merits
I have seven dots to spend on Merits.
First of all, I want to buy a dot of Mantle (Spring), because Amati is a member of that court, and would have bought into it. I’ll also take a dot of Harvest (Emotions) to reflect the small but dedicated fan base he has constructed for himself in his New Identity 2 as a rock violinist. Amati is also definitely a Barfly. My last two points I’m going to sink into a Token. I don’t know what the violin Amati brought back from Arcadia is going to do, but it should do something.
Step Seven: Determine Advantages
This is where I do all the bookkeeping. I won’t bore you. If I wanted to, this is also where I’d melt down points of Clarity for experience, but I don’t think I’ll do that. Amati has been living pretty easily as a musician, playing clubs, staying out of politics, avoiding making friends… I don’t think he’s been tested yet.
Virtues and Vices? Vice is definitely Lust. Amati likes to loose himself in base pleasures. Virtue, I think, is Faith – faith in the music, in that delicious, burning transcendence that he cannot give up.
And there we have it. A young Changeling musician, fresh from the Hedge, with a head full of painful memories, a life full of bad habits, a muse he can’t get away from, and nowhere to go but… well, we’ll see.
And if you don’t think the violin can rock, check out:
And:
Up next? Probably I’ll post that Call of Cthulhu character I made already. Then? Probably back to the schedule with Changeling: the Dreaming followed by Dark Ages: Fae and CthulhuTech, or as I like to call it EvangelionTechRun Plus: The Apocaypse :P.
Publisher: White Wolf
Familiarity: Medium. I’ve read the core and every book produced thus far (except Lords of Summer, which we haven’t bought yet) and I’d love to run it one day soon. If only I had more players…
What is Changeling: the Lost? In my mind, it’s a game about being abused. Not just by parental or authority figures, but by life. It’s a game about how the worst thing about being hurt is that the thing that hurts you gets into you, becomes a part of you, changes you.
All changelings are hurt, all of them have a bit of what hurt them inside them, and all of them have been changed.
That’s the long of it. The short of it is that in Changeling, you play a poor goon kidnapped by faeries. They took you away and did horrible things to you (or were just their horrible selves, which probably wasn’t good for you).
I'd like to note that this is one of my favorite games in the New World of Darkness line, surpassed only by Mage and Promethean. Overall, it's a great game, and I can't wait to get a chance to actually play with it.
The theme I like pursuing most with a Changeling character is… honestly, envy. First I take something I always wanted, and then I give it to the character in some absolutely horrible way (usually involving his Durance in Arcadia).
So, I’m going to make a musician – a violinist – who was stolen as a teenager and taken away to Arcadia to play in some Faerie’s demonic orchestra. In fact, he was a child prodigy, but with loving parents who never pushed him. His first experience with that kind of pressure was his Keeper. He spent a lifetime being forced to practice mind-bending music by his shadowy master, a Conductor of the Damned. When he failed or complained he was punished, cruelly.
My character escaped when, after what seemed like centuries, the Conductor finally ordered his orchestra to perform. My character deliberately and spitefully played a wrong note. Seeing how it made the Conductor squirm, he tried it again and again. While the Conductor was incapacitated by rage and pain, he made his escape into the Hedge. Memories of his early days as a musician took him home…
Where he discovered that his fetch was doing quite well for himself, a gradually rising star in the classical music scene. My character can’t quite bring himself to interfere with his fetch (though he does find his fetch’s music quite bland) and has decided to just let him be.
But he doesn’t want to have anything to do with what his Keeper made him. And yet, he can’t turn his back on the music. Always strong in him, the music is now an undeniable force, roaring in his ears if he refuses to let it out.
So he’s dedicated himself to the electric violin. And he plays rock and roll.
He’s a passionate guy who tries to laugh off (and party away) his inner conflicts. He can’t stand that he can’t escape what his Keeper made him, and he can’t leave music without hating himself even more. He has a wide streak of mischief that wakes up when he plays. To quote an LJ friend speaking of Yo Yo Ma, when he gets down with the violin his face lights up and you can tell that he is about to perpetrate some shit on that stage.
His name is Nicholas Ard, but these days he goes by Amati, the name of a lineage of violin makers famous for making two of every (now rare and expensive) excellent violin they crafted.
Appearance-wise, Amati is tall and slender, with long, spidery fingers. His hair and eyes are dark, but reflective, and his skin is very pale. People who can see through the Mask hear the sound of maddeningly complex music following him wherever he goes, growing louder if he becomes agitated.
That covers Step One: Choose Concept quite nicely.
Step Two: Select Attributes
Here it goes! This is a White Wolf game, so I start by prioritizing my Attribute categories into Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. I think I’ll make Mental Primary, Physical Secondary, and Social Tertiary.
Primary gets five points. I’ll put 2 in Intelligence, 2 in Wits, and 1 in Resolve. He’s quick and bright, but not extraordinarily tough.
Secondary gets four. Strength and Stamina can stay Average. Dexterity is 3.
Tertiary gets three. I’ll give him a 3 in Presence, to reflect stage presence, 2 in Manipulation, but only 1 in Composure. He’s excitable, wears his heart on his sleeve, and isn’t quite used to a world where mouthing off doesn’t mean he has to spend five days in the white box.
Step Three: Select Skills
Skills are categorized just like Attributes, but in this case Primary gets 11 points, Secondary gets 7, and Tertiary gets 4. Oddly, my Skills end up the opposite of my Attributes. Social is Primary, Physical is Secondary, and Mental is Tertiary.
For Social, Empathy, Intimidation, Persuasion, Socialize, and Subterfuge get one dot each. Expression, however, is at 5. After all, Amati is a musical prodigy.
For Physical, Athletics, Brawl, Larceny, and Survival all get one dot each. The legacy of his Durance, really. Stealth, however, gets 3. He spent a lot of time hiding from his Keeper in the shadowy recesses of the Pit.
For Mental, Academics and Medicine get one dot each, the relics of long-ago high school classes and some first aid training. Crafts gets 2 points, for a basic familiarity with woodworking and instrument-making.
Step Four: Select Skill Specialties
I get three Specialties, which are narrow areas of expertise in which I will get a bonus die. Expression gets ‘violin’ (of course). I’ll put a specialty in ‘seduction’ for Persuasion. I think Amati likes to drown his sorrows in women. Finally, I’ll put a ‘jokes’ in Empathy. He likes to make people laugh, and helping them drown their sorrows helps him drown his.
Step Five: Add Changeling Template
This is the fun part. Now I get to add the stuff that makes Amati magical.
First of all, I choose Amati’s Seeming. I like Darkling, mostly because there’s a kith that is perfect, but also because he spent so much of his Durance lurking in the shadows, trying to avoid the Conductor, and because of the maddening, unearthly music he was forced to play (and still does, really). I also get to choose his Kith. Amati is definitely, enthusiastically a Nightsinger (from Winter Masques). This, incidentally, means a second Performance Specialty.
Wait. What? There isn’t a Performance Ability! Aah… I think they mean Expression. I’ll take a second specialty in ‘mad’.
I should also note Amati’s Seeming Blessing and Curse and Kith ability. Which I do. Amati is naturally sneaky, but he’s no good at doing magic when the sun is visible. Also, he can play music that makes people more suggestible.
Court? Amati is definitely a member of the Spring Court. He’s about music, passion, and laughter. These are the things he uses to keep his pain at bay.
Now, I get 5 points to spend on Contracts.
I practically can’t afford to not take one point of Contracts of Darkness. I mean… it’s favored by his Seeming, and it’s resisted by Resolve. Scaring people isn’t Amati’s favorite thing to do, but sometimes it’s a good idea, and when he has to, he’s good at it, especially if he can play a mind-bending dirge first. I’ll also grab a dot of Contracts of Artifice, because it would come in handy for a musician to be able to fix instruments with a touch and a kind word. The second dot of Contracts of Vainglory would also come in really handy, as it’s meant to boost Expression rolls. I’ll take that, too. Finally, I’ll take a dot of Fleeting Spring. Seems handy.
You know? The detailed character creation forgets to mention this, but I get a free Specialty in Athletics, Brawl, or Stealth for being a Changeling. I’ll take Stealth: deep places, to reflect finding hiding places in the Demonic Orchestra’s dark Pit.
Step Six: Select Merits
I have seven dots to spend on Merits.
First of all, I want to buy a dot of Mantle (Spring), because Amati is a member of that court, and would have bought into it. I’ll also take a dot of Harvest (Emotions) to reflect the small but dedicated fan base he has constructed for himself in his New Identity 2 as a rock violinist. Amati is also definitely a Barfly. My last two points I’m going to sink into a Token. I don’t know what the violin Amati brought back from Arcadia is going to do, but it should do something.
Step Seven: Determine Advantages
This is where I do all the bookkeeping. I won’t bore you. If I wanted to, this is also where I’d melt down points of Clarity for experience, but I don’t think I’ll do that. Amati has been living pretty easily as a musician, playing clubs, staying out of politics, avoiding making friends… I don’t think he’s been tested yet.
Virtues and Vices? Vice is definitely Lust. Amati likes to loose himself in base pleasures. Virtue, I think, is Faith – faith in the music, in that delicious, burning transcendence that he cannot give up.
And there we have it. A young Changeling musician, fresh from the Hedge, with a head full of painful memories, a life full of bad habits, a muse he can’t get away from, and nowhere to go but… well, we’ll see.
And if you don’t think the violin can rock, check out:
And:
Up next? Probably I’ll post that Call of Cthulhu character I made already. Then? Probably back to the schedule with Changeling: the Dreaming followed by Dark Ages: Fae and CthulhuTech, or as I like to call it EvangelionTechRun Plus: The Apocaypse :P.
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*raises hand to be willing victim*
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It's down the list, though. Abby's Exalted game and my wanting to run Mage: the Awakening are higher priority.
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It's really easy to miss that, actually.
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Doesn't this mean its dead middle of the pack? IIRC, we've only got 5 at the moment.
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I suppose, in retrospect, that it is a pretty meaningless statement. I like the game. It's nifty. It's probably up there in my top ten.
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