lost chronicle storytellers guide

8/10/2019 Lost Chronicle Storytellers Guide

1/6

C h a n g e l i n g : t h e L o s t : C h r o n i c l e S t o r y t e l l e r s G u i d e

Changeling: The Lost

Chronicle

Storytellers Guide

Some materials are copyright 2012 and trademarked by CCP hf. All rights reserved.


2/6


The Gentry

Using True Fae in

Your Game

The Gentry are the prime antagonists forChangeling: the Lost. As such, the use of thesecharacters in a Storytelling capacity is veryimportant.

That said, the limited number of 24 TrueFae, each with potentially hundreds of actors inthe 2013 chronicle creates challenges for

Storytellers at any level. It certainly raises thefollowing questions for storytellers, which welladdress one by one.

How can I portray such an important entity ona local level and be in line with Regional,

National and Global plot?

Weve established for the chronicle that eachof the 24 Gentry possess hundreds of titles, andmanifest these titles regularly as actors. Whatthis means is a particular True Fae will manifestmore important actors with many titles, and less

important actors with fewer.

Storytellers on a local level will be utilizingthese less important actors. True Fae areknown to behave in bizarre and erratic manners.This means that as long as a Faes vanity, truces,feuds and tells are portrayed per the PlayersDocument, you have free reign to portray yourlocal actor how you like.

Just because these actors are less importantto the overall motives of the True Fae, however,it doesnt mean they should be unimportant to

your players. The Gentry are very real threats,even when theyre not manifesting their fullpower.

Similarly, a low-titled actor you create as amanifestation of a particular True Fae can bedestroyed (or is she?) without drasticallyaffecting the overall entitys ambitions.

With True Fae and their actors so common,how can I keep Loyalists, Privateers, Goblinsand other threats interesting to my players?

Id like to stress that while our goal was toincrease flexibility for storytellers and relevanceof plot for players, we were definitely leery ofmaking a True Fae of the week gamecommonplace.

While this may be the right model for youand your players, the Lost venue is chock-full of

fantastic antagonists that should be utilized tonot only make True Fae encounters more rare,but enhancethem.

Consider the following two examples:

1. A game who encounters the Queen of Ice as aface in the crowd among a parade of weeklyGentry antagonists, defeats her, then moves onto the next generic Fae, versus


3/6


2. A game who has spent the last four monthsbumping heads with icy hobgoblin-trolls andloyalists working strange plots. In the end, theydiscover the machinations of a mysteriousqueen-figure. Pursuing her into her icytemporary lair in the hedge, the freeholdexperiences the loss of a member but forces herto retreat to Arcadia. They know, however, shesonly been bested for the moment and is enragedat their interference.

Whats the point of my players defeating anActor, if another one spawns in its place?

One of the key themes for the Lost in thischronicle should be one of hopelessness againstan overpowering adversary versus the courage tofight the good fight, even if its a losing one.

Each actor, even one with only a couple oftitles, is a daunting foe and to defeat one onlyindicates the barest of progress if any towardthe defeat of the True Fae itself.

This is by design. With only 24 True Fae,the complete destruction of even one would be amomentous event rocking the entire Lostcommunity.

Sell your players less on the struggle asWhy bother? and more on the notion that just

because one is losing (or at very least doesntseem to be winning), survival and the will topush on in the face of adversity are traits thatshould be shared by any with the strength of willto escape Arcadia in the first place.

Make sure players feel this whenencountering a member of The Gentry. Theyrenot designed to be disposable adversaries, butchallenges that test the skills and mettle of yourplayers characters.

These are strong people that fought like hellto escape Arcadia. They certainly wont give up

the fight now that theyve gotten out.

What about my question? It wasnt addressedhere.

The development team put a lot of thoughtinto the decisions we made about the newchronicle. We couldnt cover all of the issueshere, but please consult your storyteller chain

with any additional questions or concerns.

Tells

Tells are an important aspect to this take onTrue Fae they let the Lost know which of TheGentry a particular actor belongs to. If youd

like to make Tells less obvious, or if a True Fae isattempting to hide one, have your players roll

Wits + Occult, with a number of successesrequired as suits the situation.

Because of the importance of tells, they needto be included even if they dont seem to becompatible. Working in a tell that doesnt seemimmediately compatible with a concept can bedifficult. There are a few ways to address this:

1. Does a different member of The Gentrywork better?

Because each True Fae has a unique tell, seeif theres another True Fae that suits yourconcept and has a more compatible tell. Givethe list another glance.

2. Can you make the tell itself symbolic orabstract?

What about the case of the Patriarchmanifesting as a literal Alpha Wolf. He

wouldnt be wearing a physical golden crown,wouldnt be wearing a pin, and a tattoo wouldntbe visible. Rather than a literal crown in this

case, The Patriarch might manifest with a ring ofblonde among otherwise raven black hair.

As in the above example, try to see if theresan alternate interpretation that works. Even if

you think youre being too abstract, you canallow your players a Wits + Occult roll to havetheir characters come to a conclusion they mightnot themselves.

3. Could the True Fae be concealing it?

Lets say the Architect is manifesting an

actor as a literal architect, a suave business type.Clay-caked hands dont seem to quite fit thatsaid, the actor may be aware of this himself, and

wearing gloves to conceal it.

A True Faes concealment of the tell, if itsobviously incompatible, can illustrate the tellquite accurately as a weakness The Gentry cantovercome and might serve to enhance, ratherthan detract from, the character.


4/6


Creating a TrueFae Actor

Actors are created using the following process:

1.

Attributes: Attributes are assigned likemortals, but Actors are much morepowerful. They get 9/7/5 dots plus 1 dot toeach priority for each title held. Fifth andhigher attributes cost only a single dot, butare limited to 5 plus the number of titlesheld. Attributes are purchased with XP at 5times new dot. While in the hedge, attributesare doubled, increasing the damage limit.

2. Skills: Skills are prioritized as 20/12/6 dotsplus 1 dot to each priority for each title held.Fifth and higher skills only cost a single dot,

but are limited to 5 plus the number of titlesheld. They are limited to only one dot inComputer, Empathy, and Expression in theHedge or Arcadia, but a max of three in themundane world (Autumn Nightmares p69). Skills are purchased with XP at 3 timesnew dot. While in the hedge, skills aredoubled, increasing the damage limit.

3. Skill Specialties: True Fae get 3 skillspecialties at creation +1 free skill specialtytowards Changelings. True Fae cannot havespecialties the Courts. Specialties cost 3xpeach.

4.

Wyrd: True Fae can not purchase Wyrd. AnActor's Wyrd is 5 plus the number of titlesheld.

5. Merits: True Fae do not get merit creationdots, but may purchase character creationmerits with XP, and pay double the XP costfor mundane merits.

6. Contracts: True Fae get 20 dots incontracts to spend. The fifth clause in acontract costs only one dot. Mantle

requirements are ignored, but only True Fae

with 4-5 titles may purchase Courtcontracts. Contracts may be purchased at

Affinity cost except Goblin Contracts whichare normal cost.

7. Mask: A True Fae's Mask is alwaysimperfect (Autumn Nightmares p 67)and costs a glamour to turn on and remove.

8. Mein: Actors get one Seeming and 3 kiths.Kiths must be chosen from within theSeeming or the True Fae kiths (AutumnNightmares p 68). Kiths may be changedreflexively.

9. Other Advantages: True Fae have a Virtueand Vice, but gain willpower as per theRuled by Passions aspect. True Fae may gain

Clarity as Changelings if they are Banishedbut otherwise are Clarity 0. Size and SpeciesFactor (to determine speed) are limited to 10dots + 2 per title and Defense is the highestof Dexterity and Wits.

10.Other Traits: All Actors possess theImmortal Flesh and Ruled by Passionsaspects. They have one Major bane or tabooin addition to those gained from High Wyrd.True Fae have a limited time in the real

world as per Autumn Nightmares p 69and can harvest Glamour as per AutumnNightmares p 67.

11. Determine the True Fae, andIncorporate the Tell:Suggestions for howto do this are included in the GentryStorytellers document on page 2. The list ofTrue Fae, their tells, and their vanities isincluded in The Gentry Players Document.

12.True Fae in Arcadia do not have stats. Theyare only limited by the deals they have madeand can make their manifestations aspowerful or as weak as they please.


5/6


Truths

Trod Boundaries

Trods will simply need the approval of theStoryteller chain in control of each end. If twostorytellers decide that characters can travel viatrod between their games, then there is no goodreason to hinder that.

Often times, how a PC arrives to game isglossed over in favor of jumping intoroleplay. We will leave it up to the ST runningthe game to decide what is best. It was decided

that the chronicle would not start with anyinternational trods connecting to the US. Thesefar-reaching trods may be developed at a latertime.

Hedge Geography

While someone can travel in any direction inthe hedge and traverse distance, they can alsotravel "deeper" into the hedge. While onecharacter could pick a direction, and strike offthat way and cover a great distance, anothercharacter might initially head off in the samedirection, but travel "deeper", experiencing acompletely different journey, and while travelingdeeper they get closer and closer to Arcadia.

In this way, the Hedge locations mentionedin the books could be accessed (with properapproval) from any Domain, by traveling

"deeper" into the Hedge rather than being tied toa real world location.

This allows us to bring story and plot to thelocal game, rather than relying on proxies to goto new and unique locations. Also, with theever-changing nature of the Hedge, once aplotkit is over, the path to that location deep

within the Hedge could be grown over and lost.

Forces, Concepts,

and Hedge Magic

It was decided that the Fundamental Forcesthat power contracts (Summer, Darkness,Smoke, Dreams, Artifice, etc) would neverappear as personifications. In other words,Summer would never take on human form andhave a conversation with other characters.

When the founder of the Autumn courtmade a compact with Autumn, it was throughachieving some sort of cosmic-universal-onenesslevel of understanding and clarity (probably big'C' Clarity) that allowed them to change andharness that primal aspect of the Wyrd.

In addition, the idea of "concepts" being veryreal forces in the world of their own accord,

without a physical or spiritual manifestation,ascribes a unique take on how Changelings usemagic literal Hedge Magic to interact with


6/6


the world. They have a very different point ofview than say, a Mage or Werewolf.

Concepts expressed like this might be quitefreeing to storytellers to express Concepts intheir own game accordingly. If Summer doesn'tlike how a particular freehold is handling its

business, it wouldn't manifest and say "I'm veryunhappy with you." It would cause droughts,heat waves in particular areas, and be generallyunpleasant to the people it was upset with untilthey "righted the ship."

This was done to preserve the mystery of theorigin of Contracts and where they draw powerfrom, as well as differentiate them from the nearinfinite power and personifications of the TrueFae.

Fae Arcadia versusSupernal Arcadia

Fae Arcadia is different from AwakenedArcadia. These two (basically inaccessible)realms are indeed different places. No oneknows which came first, if they are related, or ifone is a reflection or shadow of the other. This

was done to avoid OOC confusion, cross-contamination of theme, and elevating onesetting over the other.

lost chronicle storytellers guide

Documents