Changeling/Rules: Difference between revisions

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===Pregnancy & Childbirth===
===Pregnancy & Childbirth===
* Lost do not have any special inability to become pregnant or cause pregnancy; previous statements to this effect were staff misunderstanding and carrying over information from 1e which doesn't exist in 2e. Still no surprise babies on an OOC level, but now only because we have a game policy about both the gestational and non-gestational parents having to consent OOC. There's no special inhibition for Lost to become pregnant.
* Lost do not have any special inability to become pregnant or cause pregnancy; previous statements to this effect were staff misunderstanding and carrying over information from 1e which doesn't exist in 2e. Still no surprise babies on an OOC level, but now only because we have a game policy about both the gestational and non-gestational parents having to consent OOC. There's no special supernatural inhibition for Lost to become pregnant on a game level. If you want your Keeper to have a policy about that, or just have to done that to you specifically if you share a Keeper with others, go nuts.


===Sealing===
===Sealing===

Revision as of 07:17, 6 October 2022

Here are our House Rules & Clarifications. Hooray!

General

Clarity

  • Regarding psychotropic drugs and what counts: Does the drug actively confuse your reality? Then it's a Clarity breaking point. So that does mean that THC taken in large enough quantities would be a Clarity Break, as would alcohol. If you get drunk enough to get to the 'what is going on???' stage, then you're endangering your Clarity, but a glass of wine won't do that. As with all other Clarity items, this is a judgement call.
  • Meditation has no effect on Clarity Breaking Point rolls. Changeling Breaking Points are about the event itself and the modifiers are all based on how the event is more or less important to you; there are no modifiers in the book based on what you do.
  • The illusions caused by Nightmare 1 are not sufficient to cause a Clarity check in Lost. The fact that there is no resistance roll and the fact that Blood & Smoke was written literally years before 2.0 Lost means this requires a bit of handwavium for balance purposes. You can't induce Clarity damage in Lost with illusions that have no resistance roll.

Clash of Wills

Even if not specified in the book, Clash of Wills require an active power. Some of the powers (e.g. Mirrorskin, Lost Visage, Rigid Mask, Wayward Guide) do not specify this; this is merely unclear writing. They do not work differently from any other Clash of Wills. The only power which has an actual Clash of Wills difference is Hostile Takeover. If you have an active power which allows you to see through illusions or not be deceived by them, for example, you may roll to not be deceived by Rigid Mask. If you have a power active which fortifies your mind against deception or perfects your memory--a power, not a merit, Eidetic Memory isn't a supernatural power!--you may roll to not have your memory tampered with by Lost Visage.

Cold Iron

  • Siderite does not count as Cold Iron.

Court Contracts

  • Court Contracts for your Court use Favored XP costs. Court Contracts for other Courts still use non-Favored.

Goblin Debt

  • We use Beat Trackers to track Goblin Debt. Please open a Beat Tracker ticket when your character first uses a Goblin Contract; we will keep that open and use it to track your Goblin Debt -- acquired and paid off.

Kenning

  • Items carried by an individual do not ping for Kenning done by that individual. If Alice uses Kenning while wearing her Hedgespun underpants and carrying her Token basket, these items do not ping.

Mien

  • A Changeling's Mien does not provide for extra functional limbs, functional wings, or functional antennae, etc. It is permissible to pose cosmetic extra limbs, wings, antennae, etc., but they have no function: you cannot lift items or fly. You could potentially pose antennae as a bit of fluff for Acute Senses, for example, but you wouldn't lose that if your character had her antennae cut off by Huntsmen.

Motley Merits

Can characters who are not in a motley purchase motley merits as a shared group?

The short answer is: No.

The slightly-longer answer is: No, because those are benefits exclusively for characters which commit to being in a motley, which is a basic thematic social block of the sphere, and we want to retain those benefits for the characters who are doing that. It's a benefit of committing to a motley oath that those resources become pool-able, and allowing people to do so without committing to the motley oath sort of shorts the characters who do commit to motleys. Why would anyone commit to a lifelong oath if they can get most of the the bennies without one?

Oak, Ash & Thorn

IN USE From Oak, Ash & Thorn:

  • The Freehold Reputation System and the Sample Freeholds
  • Trifles, Baubles, and the Token Creation system
  • Crystal Web contracts, substituting Wyrd for Mantle.

NOT IN USE AND WILL NEVER BE IN USE FOR PCs from Oak, Ash & Thorn:

  • Empty Hearts/The Empty
  • Custom Mantles. We will always only offer Seasonal Courts/Mantles.

NOT IN USE BECAUSE WE'RE STILL TALKING ABOUT HOW TO USE THEM

  • Entitlements

Pregnancy & Childbirth

  • Lost do not have any special inability to become pregnant or cause pregnancy; previous statements to this effect were staff misunderstanding and carrying over information from 1e which doesn't exist in 2e. Still no surprise babies on an OOC level, but now only because we have a game policy about both the gestational and non-gestational parents having to consent OOC. There's no special supernatural inhibition for Lost to become pregnant on a game level. If you want your Keeper to have a policy about that, or just have to done that to you specifically if you share a Keeper with others, go nuts.

Sealing

  • When a Changeling seals the words of anyone who does not have a Glamour pool (that is, anyone except for a Changeling, Fae-Touched or other Fae creature), the subject of the Sealing is unaware of the sealing unless otherwise informed by supernatural power or merit. For example, a human with the merit Unseen Senses (Fae) would be aware something has been done using Wyrd powers, though not the specific fact that their words have been sealed. Likewise, if the subject breaks the Sealing and suffers consequences, he would not typically be aware that the consequences are connected to his broken promise. Under very limited circumstances, unsubtle bindings could, in theory, be traced back to the one that bound them. Contact Staff if you believe your circumstances qualify before acting on that hunch ICly.

XP Spends

  • Most items do not require justification of any sort. If you have the XP and any prerequisite stats, you can just buy it.
  • Mantle 4+ requires justification as above.
  • Tokens or Hedgespun require pre-approval of the item and a number of scenes roughly equivalent to the level of the item. This can be preparatory scenes, scenes about checking up on the item if you leave it in the Hedge, scenes of going to find or buy it in the Goblin Market. Please discuss Token or Hedgespun plots with staff before starting them so we can help you.
  • Goblin Contracts must be purchased from a Goblin and therefore require a Goblin Market scene which is pre-approved by staff or run by staff.
  • Pupil's Oaths, whether with an NPC or a PC, should by preference happen on-screen, though this is not required, and the Oath itself should be submitted to staff for recording, as with all Oaths.
  • Hollows acquired after character creation should be built on-screen. Hedgespinning a Hollow or Trod.

Contracts

Please carefully re-read the text of the Contract -- the book answers most basic questions!

  • All Contracts which have Wyrd-related bonuses are an exception to the rule that your bonuses can only go up to 5 from a single source. If you have Wyrd 6, you can grant +6 if that's what the contract says.

Blessing of Perfection

  • For armor, Blessing of Perfection replaces both ballistic and general armor. 0/1 reinforced clothing becomes 2/2 armor when Blessed by a Wyrd 2 character.
  • For weapons, Blessing of Perfection replaces the weapon damage with the Wyrd of the contract-user.
  • Blessing of Perfection replaces all relevant bonuses.
  • The skill portion of Blessing of Perfection cannot be used on yourself. You can only use that on someone else.

Changeling Hours

  • When used to 'freeze the clock' on an item worn by or containing a living being, this contract lasts only one turn. With the Wizened clause and the expenditure of a willpower dot (which you can purchase back for 1 xp), you may still permanently freeze an item. Yes, this means you could potentially kill someone by freezing their shirt in place. You could also punch someone to death. There are many means to any given end, and some of them are Contracts.
  • Any supernatural attempt to break free of a frozen item triggers a Clash of Wills. This includes things which supernaturally increase your strength like Vigor, Might of the Terrible Brute, Red Revenge, Physical Intensity etc.
  • Portaling still works if your shirt is frozen in place. Changelings are really hard to contain. You can spend a glamour and do a Clash of Wills and if you win you will be shirtless and free.
  • The contract works normally on items held by a person as long as they could let go of the item and move normally. So if someone freezes the sword you are swinging at them in place, it's going to stay there for a chapter.
  • Using this contract on something which is worn by or contains a person constitutes one heck of a Clarity break, because you are acting like a Gentry and kidnapping or jailing a living being.

Chrysalis

  • Players may purchase a second (third, fourth, fifth... ) instance of Chrysalis in order to accumulate more animal forms.
  • Doing so requires finding teacher(s) for those animals. They may be PCs or NPCs. Pupil's Oaths are not required for this unless you're buying one of the Seeming Clauses too.

NPCs who can teach large quantities of animals (ask them!) include Roswell Green, Alice Jordan, Liane Fuchs, and Izzy Higgins.

Crystal Web

  • Crystal Web contracts are in use, substituting 'Wyrd' for 'Mantle.'

Dance of the Toys

  • All objects use the rules on p 134 for completing their tasks, whether they are a car running someone over or a gun firing.
  • The successes on the activation roll become a gun's attack roll, for example, or a sword's.

Helios' Light

  • This contract does not specify a duration, and the Blinded Tilt specifies that it ends when the damage caused is healed, but Helios' Light causes no damage.
  • Therefore, the Blindness caused by Helios' Light lasts for one turn per use, which makes it equivalent to Murkblur in duration, another Common contract which causes Blindness.

Hostile Takeover

Clash of Wills for Hostile Takeover requires the supernatural in question to be home, and resistance is Supernatural Tolerance + [Safe Place/Haven/Hollow/etc.]. In the case where more than one supernatural dwelling merit applies, the highest dot level is used. Group dwellings with shared merits require only one person to be home, and that is the person who rolls; the shared dot value for merits is used. If multiple people are home, each person may roll.

Locus, Hallow, and other 'place of power' merits are not dwelling merits and are not used. You don't live inside your locus, you live inside your house.

Mastermind's Gambit

This Contract creates A Thing which grants the +5 equipment bonus. Whoever has The Thing gets the +5 equipment bonus. It does not grant the +5 equipment bonus to anyone in earshot hearing your Amazing Plan. You can choose to have the Thing manifest however seems Super Cool to your character. Maybe it manifests as a lucky coin or a scrap of paper or a small book. Whatever. It's a Size 1 object that lasts as long as the contract does, and whoever has it? Gets the bonus to The Plan. If you use the Loophole, that piece of old paper becomes your Thing.

This is really the only sane way to handle what the Contract says it does.

You can have up to Wyrd active plans at one time, and you can only have one plan per goal.

Riding the Falling Leaves

  • Elemental Blessing may or may not be able to interact with this to allow the Elemental to use their Blessing while in leaf form. It is entirely subjective and up to the storyteller of the scene based on individual circumstances.

Talon & Wing

  • This contract does not grant flight. A single Glamour and no activation roll for the ability to fly and additional 10 Speed would be incredibly unbalanced and is not the intention of the contract; that clause only grants 10 Speed.

Custom Content

  • We are currently accepting pitches for custom Needles and Threads, Kiths, Tokens, and Hedgespun.
  • Custom Needles and Thread pitches must contain a description of how the Needle or Thread helps to define the character that has it, and the one willpower/all willpower conditions.
  • Custom Token pitches must follow the rules in the core book. Hedgespun rules are pretty straightforward; ask if you need help!
  • Custom Kiths must follow the rules in the core book and fill a mythic niche not currently filled by another Kith. 2.0 is specifically moving away from 'function' based Kiths and to 'mythic niche' Kiths. Be prepared to demonstrate in your writeup how a new Kith would add a new mythic niche and how it fits into fairy tale archetypes. Pitching a new Kith just to get a new Kith blessing is not what we're after, here.
  • Custom Conditions can be found here.
  • Custom Merits can be found here.

Fae-Touched

  • Fae-Touched are not Lost and may not have Mantle, though they may swear to a Court as per p315 of CtL 2e core; they may have Court Goodwill.
  • Fae-Touched may swear Oaths and may use Tokens.
  • Freehold membership is open to (and required of) Fae-Touched. Better close and watched than potentially swiped by Them without anyone to watch them. The relationship between individual Fae-Touched and Lost may be anything, but the official position of the Freehold is that they are part of Lost Society. (Therefore, we require that all PC Fae-Touched follow the same rules about Freehold Membership as Lost.)
  • Fae-Touched may not buy Supernatural Merits intended for M+ characters. They have access to Contracts. :)

Fetches

  • This is not a House Rule or clarification but a restatement of a rule that is oddly placed in the book: Fetches cannot swear Oaths or be party to Bargains.
  • Fetches are 'almost immune' to having their words Sealed. If you're trying to Seal a Fetch, please involve a staffer in the scene, Shenanigans May Occur.

Goblin Fruit Cultivation & Preparation

This system details means of cultivating goblin fruits, as well as means of using goblin fruit in changeling cuisine and medicinally. Players are encouraged to use goblin fruits in their roleplay, and these methods of preparing the fruits likewise. The system can be found here.

Kiths

Antiquarian

  • The Kith blessing Secrets and Whispers may be used once per week. If this Kith becomes too disruptive to plots, it may be removed from play.

Artist

  • The book text is unclear as to whether this effect lasts for a single roll or for a scene. The ability only applies to art forms for which the Artist has an Expression specialty, and lasts for a scene.

Bequerel

  • This Kith from Kith & Kin is presently not in use due to mechanics. It will be reviewed again after errata for Kith & Kin are processed.

Chatelaine

  • An unconsenting target may roll Composure + Supernatural Tolerance to contest Will That Be All? as modeled on the Hunterheart power resistance.

Chimera

  • If the Chimera only has one Goblin Contract, that contract benefits in perpetuity.

Cloakskin

  • This Kith from Kith & Kin is presently not in use due to thematics. It will never be approved. Changelings always have a Mask; this Kith breaks what staff consider to be essential Changeling physics.

Cleverquick

  • This Kith is the only Kith from Dark Eras 2 which is not in use due to mechanics. It will never be approved.

Draconic

  • This Kith from Kith & Kin is presently not in use due to mechanics. It will be reviewed again after errata for Kith & Kin are processed. You may use our custom Draconic in the meantime, and once Kith & Kin errata are processed, you may choose which version you prefer, if we use the Kith & Kin Draconic, but you may not have both benefits.

Helldiver

  • The Elemental Seeming Blessing and Helldiver do not permit a Helldiver who is discorporated to use their Seeming Blessing to manipulate their Element of choice in the real world. They are discorporated and cannot be surrounded by/touch the element in question in a meaningful way.
  • Depending on the element, they might be able to use that Element wherever they are. For example, the Earth or Water of the Underworld or Dreams may or may not count as 'Earth' or 'Water,' depending on the element and the location where the Elemental is trying to use it. This is entirely at the discretion of a scene ST. There are simply too many potential variables to nail down each one.
  • Helldivers who are Diving shift into Twilight. Twilight is not a place, it's a state. This power therefore works in every place, realm, etc., unless otherwise contraindicated directly (example - all ghosts are solid in the Underworld, which is specifically called out in the book).
  • Helldivers **cannot** simply 'shift' into other Realms or create Gates to step through. They require an existing Shadow Gate, Avernian Gate, or Gate to any other Realm they wish to pass through, either existing already by its own means or created by other powers (such as a Spirit Mage or Fetish creating a Shadow Gate).
  • Upon spending a point of Glamour to open such a Gate, the Gate acts like a Hedgeway and follows Hedgeway rules, including staying open as a **two-way door** passable by any entity for a number of turns equal to the Helldiver's Wyrd.
  • Additionally, that Gate will remain passable by any Lost with the ability to do so (i.e. other Helldivers) *without* an expenditure of further Glamour until the turning of the next season. (This is also how Hedgeways work!)
  • If a power is used to _close_ the Gate, the above does not apply, because it's been forcibly closed. Think of it as the difference between a door being closed vs closed and locked but the Helldiver has a key.
  • If the Gate gets destroyed or the spell or effect creating it expires, the Helldiver must seek another way out. _Good luck!_
  • **Loci are not gates.** Loci are thin places in the fabric of the world where some entities, such as werewolves and certain spirits, can osmose through like water passing through cheesecloth. Helldivers therefore cannot pass through loci with their Kith power.
  • The powers of Helldivers who still have their Silver Threads and are still bound in service to a Fae may differ and be more powerful. Everything costs something, even freedom.

Mirrorskin

  • While normally it is possible to, with a supernatural power and a Clash of Wills, see through the changes that Mirrorskins (and those who have been Mirrorskinned via a Darkling using Riddle Kith on them) make to their Masks and Miens, it is the considered ruling of staff that this simply does not work in the cases where Riddle Kith & Mirrorskinning has been used to make gender-affirming changes to Masks and Miens. If you want to change your face and become another person entirely, the Clash of Wills will still occur. If your character uses Mirrrorskinning as a sort of supernatural HRT/FFS/top surgery replacement, there is no power on this game that will let you 'see through' that. This has nothing to do with any RAW and everything to do with the fact that this is a game run by queer people for queer people and their allies, and ain't nobody got time for 'oh no your affirmation is destroyed by Auspex.' It is pure handwavium. It just doesn't work.

Nymph

  • As with other Kith Blessings, the Nymph's ability to switch between legs and a tail costs a Glamour. Additionally, the act of changing from legs to a tail or vice versa is an instant action.
  • The book specifies that the Nymph may always breathe both water and air; no Glamour or action is required to switch between these activities.

Playmate

  • Playmates may heal themselves as they would heal anyone else, trading Clarity for wounds.

Plaguesmith

  • This Kith from Kith & Kin is presently not in use due to thematics. It will never be approved for the same reason that we don't have COVID-19 ICly on the game: this game is our escape, and staff don't want to deal with the thematics of this.

Shadowsoul

  • This Kith from Kith & Kin is presently not in use due to mechanics. It will be reviewed again after errata for Kith & Kin are processed.

Merits

Court Goodwill

  • Court Goodwill can only be purchased by Changelings and Fae-Touched.
  • Court Goodwill is restricted to 3 at character creation.
  • When calculating dice pools for the effects of Goodwill-granted effects, use Goodwill-2. Therefore, someone who has Winter Goodwill 3 would penalize rolls as though he had Winter Mantle 1.
  • Goodwill does not add any dice to Court contract rolls. Unless you have the appropriate Mantle, you roll only the base 2 stats.

Hedgebeast Companion

  • This custom merit's writeup is available here.

Hollow

Easy Access When a Hollow has Easy Access, the normal Portaling rules are amended. Each Changeling must enter and leave separately, expending a Glamour every time they either enter or leave. The Hollow has no permanent entrance from the mundane world, and every Lost returns to the same mundane door that they entered at.

If Bob and Alice share a Hollow, and Bob spends a glamour and enters the Hollow from a door in China while Alice spends a glamour and enters from a door in Algeria, Alice may not 'follow' Bob out to China when Bob spends a glamour and exits to the mundane world. To exit to the mundane world, Alice must also spend a glamour, and she will exit to Algeria.

If Clarice the vampire is brought through the Easy Access portal by Bob, she may exit with Alice. As she is unable to expend glamour to open her own Portal, she is at the mercy of whoever will ferry her through.

If a Changeling enters through an unlocked door that is subsequently locked, she may not exit into the mundane world until it is unlocked. She must exit into the Hedge.

Such is the tradeoff for being able to enter your Hollow from literally anywhere.

Hollows with Easy Access may still only be accessed by their owners normally. You can teach someone who has not bought in the special whistle, but they aren't one of the owners. Breaking-in rules still work for Hollows with Easy Access if the secret code is known.

Mantle

  • Mantle is restricted to 3 at character creation.
  • When requesting to raise Mantle above 3, please link in your request a number of logs which demonstrate your character as an exemplar of your Court equal to the number of dots being requested. So if you're asking for Winter 4, please give us 4 logs which show your character acting in a particularly Winter way. (If we aren't sure what your log is supposed to demonstrate, we'll ask!) If you use logs to buy Winter 4, you can't use those same logs for Winter 5.
  • Please give at least a month between Mantle raises. Mantles should rise gradually, over time.
  • Examples for what constitutes a scene that counts for Mantle 4 or 5 are here.

Rigid Mask

Rigid Mask is a weirdly-written merit, and does not specify that an active power is required in order to trigger the Clash of Wills. It's also the only merit we could find in either book which specifies a Clash of Wills in the contexts of a merit as opposed to a Contract and/or Discipline. However, the Clash of Wills section on p126 of CtL 2.0 makes it clear that all Clashes of Wills happen when powers come into conflict. Therefore, without Auspex or other supernatural powers active, the Clash of Wills simply doesn't happen. 'Being a vampire' does not trigger a Clash of Wills. Some other merits, such as Acute Senses, may come into play if a Lost is affected by a Changeling's strengthened Mask or a Vampire wishes to see through their attempts at emotional deception. Some psychic powers may trigger a Clash of Wills, such as Aura Reading, though the Mortal+ has no Supernatural attribute and will only be rolling their Finesse attribute.

Stable Trod

When a motley submits for the Stable Trod merit, they must follow the rules on p201-202 of the CtL core book to determine the Trod's length and how well the motley cares for the Trod. A length 3 trod which is "well cared for" is a 5 dot trod. You must submit the start and end points for your Trod on the request where it is first purchased.

Tokens

  • Token/Hedgespun bows and pistols require mundane ammo. The power is in the thing doing the firing. You have to have arrows for your keen-ass magical bow. Unless, of course, 'infinite ammo' is the power of the bow/pistol, which is potentially a thing.
  • The baseline weapon for a Token or Hedgespun weapon can be any item that can be created with our crafting system. Hedgespinning cannot create any item that violates our crafting system as the base item. No swords with 8-Again, no axes with Incendiary, no knives with 5L damage ratings, etc before adding the bonuses from Hedgepinning.

Workshop

  • Workshop (for Hollows) may be set up for Expression, Crafts, or Medicine. As per the books, you must declare one Specialty per dot, you may not use the Workshop unless you have at least one of the designated Specialties, and a given Workshop location may only be set up for a single skill. You may not have 2 dots of Crafts and 2 dots of Medicine in the same location. We may consider other skills on a case-by-case basis.

Custom Content