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Changeling: The Lost: Difference between revisions
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[[File:CtL3 6694.jpg|frame|When [[Karma Meter|morality]] and [[Sanity Meter|reality]] fall apart, [[Loss of Identity|so do you]].]]
The successor to ''[[Changeling: The Dreaming]]'' and fifth of the [[New World of Darkness]] games, following ''[[Vampire: The Requiem|Vampire]]'', ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken|Werewolf]]'', ''[[Mage: The Awakening|Mage]]'' and ''[[Promethean: The Created|Promethean]]''. Player characters are Changelings, humans who were stolen from their lives by the [[The Fair Folk|True Fae]] of Arcadia and kept as slaves or servants. Changelings are no longer entirely human, having been tormented in positively [[H.P. Lovecraft|Lovecraftian]] ways until they were broken in either body, mind, soul, or all of the above, and then rebuilt according to the True Fae's whims. The player characters, and many non-player character Changelings, are those who managed to fight, sneak, run, or trick their way back to freedom and the mortal world, but even when they return they bear the scars of their experience. Their very bodies have been changed into inhuman shapes. Their eyes have been opened so that they can see the truth of things, but they are also beset by hallucinations and tricks of perception. Worst of all is the constant, nagging worry: ''what if I never escaped? What if this is all a trick... or if I was '''allowed''' to leave?''
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'''Terminology, with translations:''' Every ''Changeling'' (Character) was once a perfectly normal (or at most mildly exceptional) human taken by one of the True Fae, enduring a ''Durance'' (length of time) in Arcadia, and frequently replaced by a ''Fetch'' (almost-twin) created by their True Fae abductor to fill their place in the real world. Surviving in Arcadia shapes the abducted into a member of one of six ''Seemings,'' (races) probably with an associated ''Kith'' (sub-race). Once they have returned, most Changelings choose to join a ''Court'' (class) of like-minded Changelings, which gives the Changeling extra power and an infrastructure to draw upon. Changelings enact powers known as ''Contracts'' (spells), which represent clauses in ancient deals brokered between the Fae and aspects of reality itself. A city full of Changelings is known as a ''Freehold'' generally made up of one or more ''Motleys'' (parties), small groups of allied Changelings. Some Changelings further join an ''Entitlement'' (prestige class) for more power, allies, or what have you.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[A God Am I]]: Or so say the members of the entitlement known as The Lost Pantheon. And considering the fact that they get more perceptive and long-lived the more delusional they get, they can derive Glamour from being worshiped, and they get bonuses versus the True Fae and their servants, well, they ''may'' have a point.
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* [[Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?]]: The True Fae are incomprehensible. One time a Changeling encounters his True Fae keeper, it might hunt him down to recapture him or torture his closest friend. The next time it might just pat him on the head and offer him a chocolate-chip-and-maggot cookie.
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Some Changelings ''do'' manage, by cunning, strength, or both, to defeat (or even destroy) their True Fae master. This is easier in the mortal world, as Fae are weakened while in the Real, but it's technically possible even in Faerie - just very, ''very'' difficult.
** Of course,
*** Or worse:
* [[Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?]]: A method of dealing with the True Fae that is ''slightly'' less likely to end in death or capture than all-out battle. Some Changelings manage to escape captivity by catching their Keepers in pledges or obscure oaths. Caution is advised, though, as the Fae have had millenia to practice that sort of scheming.
** There exists an Entitlement, the Legacy of the Black Apple, that exists in part to do exactly this. Officially tasked with negotiating with Fae invaders to get Them to leave without kidnapping anybody, Legates are more than happy to oathbind a Fae so that it ''can't'' kidnap anybody, even if it wants to. This is a '''''very dangerous job.'''''
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* [[Instant Expert]]: One of the early Clauses of the Contract of Animation is to give the Changeling who uses it an innate knowledge of how to use a device. Combined with the ability to gain Skill and Merit bonuses through Pledgecraft, or to use a Merit to draw knowledge from the collective dreams of mankind, this means that a Changeling could go from computer illiterate to Googling away in a few moments, and become a fairly serviceable hacker overnight.
* [[Invisible to Normals]]: The Mask, mentioned above essentially fools all five human senses, rendering their mien invisible to the eyes, removing anything clearly supernatural from their voice, muffling any odd scents or tastes, and convincing a human's sense of touch into believing that odd features like fur or horns are simply unaltered skin. Supernatural creatures with special sensory powers can pierce the mask, but it's ''extremely'' difficult.
* [[Invoked Trope]]: The book Swords At Dawn introduces a new mechanic called Talecrafting, which essentially lets canny players spot Tropes in motion (or good places to shoehorn them in) and tweak the Wyrd to cause them to come to pass. Changelings often get the inspirations for this power when they realize that they're, in a sorts, LIVING in a Faerie Tale, as they are Fae creatures. For example, a Changeling loses two huge bets at Vegas, but suddenly realizes that [[Rule of Three|the Third Time's The Charm]] and goes for one last bet, hoping to win it all just like in all the stories. Conversely, the same Changeling might set up events to fool the Wyrd into thinking it should enact the trope, such as using rigged 'failure' dice, intentionally blowing bets, etc. The Wyrd doesn't like it when it catches you doing this, and so inflicts a dice penalty on the attempt. The system has a dangerous caveat: unless the player gets very lucky on their Wyrd roll, their success comes with a Cruel Twist of Fate, such as the casino busting the Changeling for 'cheating', who gets a blunt lesson in [[All That Glitters]]. Needless to say, the possibilities in this system are as endless as this very website's bottomless resources, and
* [[Karma Meter]] / [[Sanity Meter]]: Clarity. This tracks how much a character has mentally grown to resemble her Fae captors, both in her moral uprightness and her ability to tell reality from the dreams and hallucinations that come from her fae perceptions.
** It is worth noting that Clarity is somewhat unique amongst the various World of Darkness Morality tracks in that it can drop through no fault of the player- their sanity has become much more fragile, and general disruptions and chaos that disrupts their day to day routine can be just as jarring and detrimental to their mind as actively doing something reprehensible.
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* [[You Sexy Beast]]: All changelings with the Beast seeming have as their blessing an animal magnetism that lets them increase their Presence and Composure.
** ''No, my place is a pigsty. Let's go to yours. So. What was your name again?''
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Horror Tabletop Games]]
▲[[Category:Tabletop Games]]
[[Category:Tabletop Games]]
[[Category:New World of Darkness]]
[[Category:Tabletop Games of the 2000s]]
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