IC: Changeling: The Dreaming...
I'm considering running a Changeling: The Dreaming game set in an urban environment. Top possibilities: New Orleans, Boston, or New York. There will be some house rules to speed up things like combat for PBP and I will be incorporating some of what we know of C20 into this game. When the C20 books are released we will switch over, though one of two house rules will remain intact.
The drama and adventures this game will focus on are drawn from several conflicts presented in Changeling: The Dreaming. Namely the tension inherent in balancing your Mortal and Fae lives and obligations. The game will also draw on the following conflicts: Unseelie vs Seelie Courts. Nightmares vs Dreams. Grumps vs Wilder vs Childlings. Nobles vs Commoners. Mists vs Bedlam.
The characters have loyalties all over that conflict map. Your mother needs you to do something for her and no one else can help, but the Duke wants you to watch some redcap commoner who's stirring up trouble. The Unseelie court contacts you for a bit of a favor, but the Seelie court has warned against any contact. You have a physics test in the morning but your Oathcircle needs you to help clear the monsters out of a freehold they just discovered. This game is about how you juggle those.
Going on the mythic quest and securing a new freehold but getting home in time for lights out. Doing that one favor for the Unseelie because as long as no one finds out, what could it hurt? Helping your mom, but sneaking out to watch the redcap and finding out he's not a rabble-rouser but was once a loyal friend to the Duke and was betrayed... only to get home and get the third degree.
The tone of the game will vary. We will draw from the original, sometimes nightmare-like Grimm's Fairy Tales and from the sillier side of children's daydreams. This is part of the Nightmares vs Dreams conflict mentioned above. We will tend toward a balanced approach that dips into both silliness and horror from time to time.
And since these always seem to come up: Science can inspire. Age only makes it a bit harder to resist Banality. Unseelie embody Nightmare and Ravaging; Seelie embody Dreams and Musing. Glamour is inspiration. Banality can be the absence of inspiration or the Nothing that consumes it.
My plan was to run a more character-focused game than specific plots and adventures, though there would definitely be some hooks and story starters to kick things off. Create some threats, complicate the characters' lives, poke at the conflicts, cultivate tension, and play to see what happens. But nothing resembling a predefined plot.
Any takers?
This message was last edited by the user at 03:42, Fri 16 Sept 2016.