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General Discussion => The Speakeasy: OOG/Off-topic Discussion => Topic started by: Andreus Ixiris on 15 Mar 2012, 11:25
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"No. Listen. I know you're scared. I know you're hurting. You clawed your way back home from that... place kicking and screaming and now the face you see in the mirror isn't quite the one you used to know. Your memories are all fucked up and you don't know what's real anymore, and you're scared that if you try to tell anyone, they'll think you're batshit crazy. But we know. All of us do. We know what you've been through. We know what happened to you. We've been through the same. You're terrified, and you're alone, but you don't have to be either. We can face this together, if you just trust me for a second."
- Tim Hollow-Bones, Searce of the Spring Court
So Changeling: The Lost is a roleplaying game in the (new) World of Darkness, a game world that I'm deeply in love with - and which is published by White Wolf, a subsidiary of our lords and masters CCP Games. Changeling happens to be one of my favourite settings within nWoD. If perhaps not the most well-written setting, it's certainly the most compellingly written setting, and that's because it tells a very emotionally-charged story. It's a story about suffering, abuse and the struggle for identity in situations far beyond the scope of what the human mind was built to tolerate. It's a story about pursuit and flight - metaphorical and literal. It's a story about monsters - human and inhuman. It's a story about the power of trust and the pain of betrayal. It's simultaneously the bleakest and most hopeful story ever told in the World of Darkness product line. It's a story about...
... goblins, faeries and elves.
Wait? Why are you looking at me like that? No, really! It's totally hardcore and grimdark! Come back!
The story of Changeling: The Lost is simple at first glance but hides a great deal of nuance. You, a blissfully oblivious human, were snatched from the life you know by one of the Fae - capricious, immortal, soulless creatures from a place far beyond the Earth. Dragged back to that place, Arcadia, you were changed - into a servant, into a slave, into a tool, or into something even less definable. What few memories you have of that awful place are fragmented and plague both your waking hours and your dreams. For a time - maybe days, maybe months, maybe years - you suffered at the alien whims of the creature that took you, but your memories of your former life were the key to escaping. Following those memories, you clawed your way back through the Thorns that seperate our world from theirs, and returned to Earth. But you brought the changes wrought upon you with you, and you can't go back to the way things were.
The game itself is a complex affair - there's a lot of concerns the average changeling will have to concern themselves with. There are the same day-to-day matters of general survival normal humans have, complicated by the fact that you may have been gone from your life for years of Earth time - and worse, a false thing may have been living it in your place. Then there are the far more specific concerns of fae life: the Seasonal Courts, feuding political structures into which changelings arrange themselves. The Hedge, a mysterious, labyrinthine place beyond the mortal realm that can open many doors to a changeling - and present many, many dangers. The Contracts, agreements with aspects of reality itself that allow you to reshape the world around you. There are always a thousand things to concern yourself with, lest you be buried under them - including the nagging sensation that you can't trust your own perceptions anymore.
And always, always, close behind you is the looming shadow of your Keeper, looking to regain his property.
So I was thinking that if enough of you were interested, we could run a Changeling chronicle right here on the forums. I'm very familiar with the setting and I already have a few story ideas in mind, but I wanted to sound it out with you guys before committing to any serious work.
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Aaah, forum role-play. Used to love it. In a way I still do. Role-played allot on the old Planet Baldur's Gate forums for BG1 and BG2 and BG2:TOB. Then emigrated to the Nexus Archanus forums years ago when PBG was "upgraded" into non-functionality and the players were all entirely feed up with the place.
And last I looked the NxA, a place I've been gone from for years due to no-one-around to play with anymore and a chronic lack of time, was locked down and archived. Dear gods I miss that place already...
Tell you what Andreus. Provide me links to explore the setting your talking about and I'll look into it. I'll honestly look into it and consider what time is available to me and if there is any genuine interest in taking part. Ever since dropping from NxA I've always had this pang of regret and guilt over leaving - I never finished any of my stories and all my efforts to write characters was ultimately for nothing. Perhaps if I had time it would be different this time. Perhaps we will see.
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Tell you what Andreus. Provide me links to explore the setting your talking about and I'll look into it. I'll honestly look into it and consider what time is available to me and if there is any genuine interest in taking part.
This.
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One of my friends who is a great table top RPer described changeling as "the only RP game that actually freaked me out".
Ive heard good things.
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Links, you say? Sure thing! :D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling_The_Lost (Wikipedia article)
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost (TV Tropes article, but be warned, it contains massive spoilers)
http://www.flamesrising.com/changeling-the-lost-review/ (Review)
http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Changeling:_The_Lost (White Wolf Wiki)
Problem is, they used to have a demo version but White Wolf's had their website whacked around a bit due to *CCP* so I can't actually show you the demo version :/
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Colour me tentatively intrigued. The 'pre-Tolkien' fae, if you will, are an underused concept. Elves should not be nice.
Did a bit of hunting, found the demo you mentioned - http://flamesrising.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=28293 (http://flamesrising.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=28293). What would people actually need to get hold of for this?
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Hmmm. Good question. I'll do a bit of searching for an interactive character sheet - I think the only thing you guys would absolutely need to have is a copy of Foxit Reader, which allows you to save altered copies of interactive PDFs. I'm perfectly willing to provide in-depth explanation of the game mechanics, but it would certainly benefit those involved to procure copies of the core World of Darkness rulebook and Changeling: The Lost sourcebook. You'll also need to have a method of rolling d10s - I have on my desk roughly 20 ten-sided dice. Given that you guys are all pretty well-versed in the spirit of collaborative roleplay, I think we can trust each other to be honest about our dicerolls.
I possess pretty much every World of Darkness book ever (http://mxdcorp-radio.com/filehost/DSCF3381.JPG) so I'm perfectly happy to act as the Wiki for any enquiries or questions people may have. I know pretty much every single one of these books like the back of my hand.
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I read all of this awesome shit, and I realize that these guys work for CCP.
CCP isn't incapable of managing their own universe, they quite purposely don't fucking want to.
(sorry to derail)
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Well, I've been meaning to look properly into World of Darkness at some point, and this is as good an opportunity as any to grab some books to read... already got some ideas flitting from reading the various bits and pieces around the web. Might be able to pull in someone else as well.
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Hmmm. Good question. I'll do a bit of searching for an interactive character sheet - I think the only thing you guys would absolutely need to have is a copy of Foxit Reader, which allows you to save altered copies of interactive PDFs. I'm perfectly willing to provide in-depth explanation of the game mechanics, but it would certainly benefit those involved to procure copies of the core World of Darkness rulebook and Changeling: The Lost sourcebook. You'll also need to have a method of rolling d10s - I have on my desk roughly 20 ten-sided dice. Given that you guys are all pretty well-versed in the spirit of collaborative roleplay, I think we can trust each other to be honest about our dicerolls.
I possess pretty much every World of Darkness book ever (http://mxdcorp-radio.com/filehost/DSCF3381.JPG) so I'm perfectly happy to act as the Wiki for any enquiries or questions people may have. I know pretty much every single one of these books like the back of my hand.
I actually have no plan too :cry:... but also think I is maybe the right time... I think in the past has the whole twilight thing keep me away, but after a first sight over the links it could be interesting.. Which would be a good starting point?
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I promise you, these are nothing like Twilight. Vampire: The Requiem has real Fright Night, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Underworld, Blade etc. vampires, and Changeling: The Lost is most certainly not a game about stroking the softly glistening chest of an effeminete immortal either - or, rather, on the few occasions that it is, you're probably in the middle of a mind-twistingly unpleasant subversion.
Or a nightmare.
Changelings can quite literally walk straight into those.
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Well, I've gone through the WoD base rulebook and the Changeling core book, and I'm definitely intrigued. Assuming I'm not the only one, count me in. No harm in trying, eh? As I said, I can lure a (non-Backstage) friend to join as well, if that's agreeable?
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Sure! I invited Vince along myself, and he doesn't really play EVE anymore.
The optimal number for a Changeling game is roughly 6. That gives at least the opportunity for one Changeling of each Seeming, and likely gives an imbalanced Court representation in the motley, which provides a source of conflict and keeps things interesting.
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I'd need to read up on stuffs, but count me in. I have very much enjoyed the WoD games I've been part of.
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I would join in , but I am in the middle of an Ars Magica campaign.
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Posting from phone, so apologies for formating/spelling.
I've never taken part in either forum RP or any world of darkness RP, and am extremely intrested in any opportunity to do so. So while I'll need to read up on things, and quite possibly some help and advice, you can count me in.
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Interactive Character Sheets ahoy. (http://mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/ctl.html)
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I would very much be interested in joining should this take off.
Also, I'm Mortis's 'outside' friend so forgive the completely new account.
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Interactive Character Sheets ahoy. (http://mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/ctl.html)
Epic! Thank you very much!
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Couple of questions for character conception (well, honestly, I'm scribbling together a character sheet already to run by you :P).
1. Are we going to be starting as a group straight out of the Hedge, or is there room for someone to be already somewhat established in the world?
2. Will this be a Changeling-only world, or the generalised WoD with all the other beasties on the edges?
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Couple of questions for character conception (well, honestly, I'm scribbling together a character sheet already to run by you :P).
1. Are we going to be starting as a group straight out of the Hedge, or is there room for someone to be already somewhat established in the world?
2. Will this be a Changeling-only world, or the generalised WoD with all the other beasties on the edges?
1. It's easiest for the players who are new to the system if you start off as beginner Changelings. You don't even have to have formed a motley yet (although it saves the trouble of contriving an excuse to throw you all together if you have, or if you at least have some reason to hang out with each other).
2. The World of Darkness is there in all its glory, with mages, vampires, werewolves and... less definiable things scurrying about in the shadows. Be wary! But don't worry too much - they generally keep to themselves.
Unless you have something they want.
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So... that puts us on how many people so far? Five?
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Well so far I count the following as a definite:
- Me (as Storyteller, not as a player)
- Mortis Tyrathlion
- Tsym Danlis
- kalaratiri
- Victoria Stecker
There were a few other people in this thread who were "maybes", so I'll await confirmation from them.
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Any news?