Changeling: The times, they are a-changin'
So our NWoD mashup game folded. Sorta. It was a mutual decision that we'd be better off focusing on a single type of supernatural creature so we can focus on the themes and ideas present in that system instead of having a mish-mash of all sorts of themes. So we opted for changeling. We used the system from My Life with Master to create one Keeper who captured all of the player characters.
Our keeper was a hulking toothy beastlike creature who had an insatiable need for teeth. His lair was a series of cages suspended from the ceiling of an enormous cavern; the bottom of the cavern was obscured an roiling mist. The cages were spun together from sinew and bone, and teeth were scattered everywhere. Our keeper, known to us as "The Landlord" had lost his heart to the other fae, and desired more than anything to get it back.
First, the dramatis personae. Note that we spent most of the night making characters and deciding on setting elements, so there wasn't much time at the end to get to know the characters. Also, we didn't set out to have one of each seeming, it just worked out that way.
The Fairest: My character, and thusly the one I remember the best. Kidnapped in the 90's, he's desperately out of touch with the times. He was an army brat, but the base he remembers from the time before his durance has long since closed. He's got a unique sense of style and a great deal of enthusiasm. In Arcadia, he was bound in the smallest of the Landlord's cages, and forced to sing to the teeth that littered his lair.
The Ogre: A Viking, who due to the twisting nature of time in Arcadia, was kidnapped almost a thousand years ago, but came out younger than he went in. How much time he feels he spent in Arcadia is still unknown. He's adapted fairly well to the 21st century, having fallen in with a punk crowd. In Arcadia, his job was to grind the teeth into a fine grey paste, then smear that paste on the bodies of the other changelings.
The Beast: A young girl at the time of her capture, she was twisted into a fiercely protective guard beast. Now she's an adult and coping with having never really grown up.
The Elemental: A burning monstrosity, made to warm the eternally icy toes of his Keeper. Although he only lost 2 days of real world time, he feels as though he's been gone an eternity. He was expecting flying cars when he came back.
The Wizened: She was a child kidnapped during WWII. She was tasked with the forcible extraction of teeth. Appears to still be a child, although the blood spattered apron she wears means she tends not to get treated like one.
The Darkling: A quiet type, with skin polished like glass. He learned how to blend in and quietly get teeth while no one was looking.
With our characters made, we settled on a location for the game (Berlin, after some general wrangling over latitude), and did some introductory roleplay. Fresh out of the hedge, we met with a representative of the spring court, who gave us each a key to an apartment building. We were told that staying there might refresh our memories....
What worked:
Most fun I've had in a long time with character/setting creation. Creating the keeper was especially fun, it was a fun collaborative process and in the end we have the monsterous villain in common for all our characters.
There's a lot of energy at the table, particularly from the GM. I can tell people are excited about playing it.
What could be improved:
I really need to take notes if I'm going to do the AP report thing diligently. Usually I just rely on seannittner to do all the note taking, but he's not in this game so I can't slack.
Starting a new game is a little bittersweet (although light on the bitter, heavy on the sweet), since I was enjoying my old character and had just bumped her wyrd up to two. But I'm already thinking about how to tweak my new character.
Our keeper was a hulking toothy beastlike creature who had an insatiable need for teeth. His lair was a series of cages suspended from the ceiling of an enormous cavern; the bottom of the cavern was obscured an roiling mist. The cages were spun together from sinew and bone, and teeth were scattered everywhere. Our keeper, known to us as "The Landlord" had lost his heart to the other fae, and desired more than anything to get it back.
First, the dramatis personae. Note that we spent most of the night making characters and deciding on setting elements, so there wasn't much time at the end to get to know the characters. Also, we didn't set out to have one of each seeming, it just worked out that way.
The Fairest: My character, and thusly the one I remember the best. Kidnapped in the 90's, he's desperately out of touch with the times. He was an army brat, but the base he remembers from the time before his durance has long since closed. He's got a unique sense of style and a great deal of enthusiasm. In Arcadia, he was bound in the smallest of the Landlord's cages, and forced to sing to the teeth that littered his lair.
The Ogre: A Viking, who due to the twisting nature of time in Arcadia, was kidnapped almost a thousand years ago, but came out younger than he went in. How much time he feels he spent in Arcadia is still unknown. He's adapted fairly well to the 21st century, having fallen in with a punk crowd. In Arcadia, his job was to grind the teeth into a fine grey paste, then smear that paste on the bodies of the other changelings.
The Beast: A young girl at the time of her capture, she was twisted into a fiercely protective guard beast. Now she's an adult and coping with having never really grown up.
The Elemental: A burning monstrosity, made to warm the eternally icy toes of his Keeper. Although he only lost 2 days of real world time, he feels as though he's been gone an eternity. He was expecting flying cars when he came back.
The Wizened: She was a child kidnapped during WWII. She was tasked with the forcible extraction of teeth. Appears to still be a child, although the blood spattered apron she wears means she tends not to get treated like one.
The Darkling: A quiet type, with skin polished like glass. He learned how to blend in and quietly get teeth while no one was looking.
With our characters made, we settled on a location for the game (Berlin, after some general wrangling over latitude), and did some introductory roleplay. Fresh out of the hedge, we met with a representative of the spring court, who gave us each a key to an apartment building. We were told that staying there might refresh our memories....
What worked:
Most fun I've had in a long time with character/setting creation. Creating the keeper was especially fun, it was a fun collaborative process and in the end we have the monsterous villain in common for all our characters.
There's a lot of energy at the table, particularly from the GM. I can tell people are excited about playing it.
What could be improved:
I really need to take notes if I'm going to do the AP report thing diligently. Usually I just rely on seannittner to do all the note taking, but he's not in this game so I can't slack.
Starting a new game is a little bittersweet (although light on the bitter, heavy on the sweet), since I was enjoying my old character and had just bumped her wyrd up to two. But I'm already thinking about how to tweak my new character.