[Open] Changeling: the Dreaming - Yours to Keep

A jumpstart adventure for Changeling: the Dreaming
CHIVALRY ISN'T DEAD

There is magic hiding everywhere. You just need to know where to look.

You are a changeling, a faerie soul hiding in a mortal body, fighting the chill of Nightmares and the oppressive weight of Banality with the pure creative power of Glamour. You have lived many lives, but the story of this one? It outshines them all.

In this hidden world, knights in steel and leather clash sword to sword outside the homecoming dance, dragons fly between skyscrapers, and fantastic castles rise from suburban lawns. A world of magic, intrigue, and adventure, and now that your fae side has awakened, it's your world too.



Characters
There are pre-generated characters available, or players may make their own. If the motley agrees to continue the game beyond the initial adventure, then you will be welcome to continue using the pregen. If you suspect the game will have legs, you may wish to create your own either initially. Lastly, if we do continue the game to Detroit, we can discuss character changes at that time.

The Pre-Generated Characters
Erissa Brightwood - Seelie Autumn Sidhe Wilder, House Liam
Errant Sharely - Seelie Piskie Childling
William Ashe - Unseelie Sluagh
Cid Steelskin - Seelie Troll Wilder, House Liam
Lily Stoneheart - Unseelie Redcap Wilder



Post Frequency & Commitment
Players in this game should try to post daily. I expect the initial adventure to take about 3 months to complete if we can keep to this schedule. Expect some amount of slow-down during major holidays.

Big Dream: This scenario is a jumpstart, and is intended to serve as a starting off point for a full campaign. As such, I've spent some time workshopping a broader setting of Detroit. Should we all love the setting and the characters as set up, then following the introductory adventure, we can open the door to a broader world and step through. However, if we decide not to continue, then we'll have seen CtD in action and can be satisfied with that.

Themes and Tone
Changeling: the Dreaming is seen by some as a lighter, more fantasy-based setting in the modern-day, and by others as the darkest game White Wolf had yet created as players have to face the question of what happens once creativity and magic fades from their world.

Who can Apply?
Anyone is welcome to apply if they can keep up with the post schedule and are in it for the long haul. A positive experience for all players is my number one priority, and I will strive to be sensitive to the needs of all players.

How to Apply
To apply, leave a comment in this post to tell me about what intrigues you about Changeling: the Dreaming. I'm most interested in their mood, energy, and personality. If you do have a concept that you would love to see come to life, I'm all ears (but again, pre-gens are available).

I'll take my favorites and use a die roll for a tie breaker. My optimum motley would have two users I know to be reliable, one or two with lots of zeal for this particular World of Darkness game, and someone I've not played with before. Knowledge of Changeling: the Dreaming is not required.

This post will be open until Friday, July 25, so take your time. I'll take four or five players.

Questions?
Ask away in this thread, or feel free to private message me.

I have zero knowledge of the gaming system.But I do love the atmosphere of the setting.

I like the mixture of modern day fantasy combined with fae / fairytale magic. It is among my favorite fantasy tropes.

I am fine going for a pregen, but I would generally favor to make a custom character. For that I would need to learn a bit more of the rules and detailed themes first.

My character idea I'd like to explore would be someone who goes through daily life dismissing magic. Trying to be party of a cool gang. But is actually the soul of some Seelie nobility.

Thanks for expressing interest, Heyde!

The Storyteller™ system that underpins the World of Darkness line of games is a simple d10 dice pool system - you match an attribute with a skill, both rated from 0 to 5 dots, and roll the sum of those many dice, with each die result on or over the difficulty (target number) resulting in a success.

Character creation involves first choosing a kith (class/ancestry), court (seelie/unseelie), legacy (personality archetype), and seeming (age: chilling, wilder, or grump), then spending points between 9 attributes, about 30 skills, some background points, and some magic abilities. Then merits and flaws can be chosen to give you additional flavor (such as being a reborn noble soul, or not really believing in magic). Most of that could be easily guided without having the corebook, except the magic system which would be more difficult to summarize in a post. There are wikis online that do have most of it spelled out.

That sounds cool, and I will be looking into that a lot more in the comming days. As for character creation; I have the outline draft of who she could be. Depending on the motley, I will finalize her idea and then add the mechanics of the system.

A wild Changeling chronicle appears! Kinda have mixed feelings.. I really enjoy the core ideas of Changeling, but the light dnd-esque fantasy portion never quite appealed to me. I would still be interested in exploring it, however few things stop me from screaming "YES ME":

1) lesser understanding/memory of rules (pretty meh reason, i suppose)

2) post frequency - i run two games and have joined a mage game here recently. both of my games seem like they will have enter a more active phase soon and while the Mage game doesn't seem like it's going to have a galloping speed, it is still a time commitment that i've made because i want to play mage. so i'm not sure if i'll be able to match the posting rate. implying that most of the messages will be medium to long, which seems likely for WoD, but maybe the format of a chronicle with a determined plot points will be tighter?

3) themes and moods. you've described them for the line (and maybe the jumpstart), but what about the game itself? will it be leaning more into lighthearted fantasy adventures, depressive exestencialia or ubran/gutter punk gloom? i'm definitely more dark/dramatic-themes leaning type. which in Changeling terms would be the explorations of the nature of a man Banality - why is it and how to keep it bay without going insane? are you the kith or is the kith you? nightmares are just a type of dream. inspiration vs obsession. that sort of thing.

4) i don't particularly mind the present kith, but i think they lost a good opportunity to distinguish CtD from other oWoD lines by having a kith "configurator" instead of preset types, like with Clans or Tribes. so i'd be more interested in making a new kith rather than picking one. not for any mechanical advantages (don't care much about those), but to fulfill the core - create something.

Hopefully this made sense, because it is very late and i'm going to bed now. Good evening.

I'm very interested in a Changeling game! Personally, I enjoy Changeling's lighter, more ambiguous themes of "technically good-aligned" in contrast to the more blatantly monstrous WoD splats(Vampires, Werewolves, etc). It allows for more of a neutral standpoint to work from in my opinion, and for greater contrast and depth of storytelling than if one was simply limited to the perspective of someone or something that actively lurks in the night.

The concept I would like to try out most would be the stereotypical Troll Knight of House Scathach, who would ordinarily have been full of fire and brimstone to do good and right wrongs, but as the years progressed and the animosity House Scathach is afflicted with begins weighing down on him, he'd need to puzzle out what exactly drew him to chivalry and kind deeds. Was it the glory and recognition all along, or was it something closer to home? But further workshopping can be done once the game starts and I hammer down the concept to more specific points.

In regards to the tone of the full campaign, should it proceed that far, here's the summary for the Detroit seeing from AI workshopping* I did:

* While I've used ChatGPT to suggest ideas and directions for the game, any content will be hand written.

Detroit, Michigan: the city of broken industry and buried potential. Glamour once flowed here in rivers of steel and Motown rhythm. But Banality choked it, and now only fragments remain: half-awake Freeholds hidden in forgotten theaters, in the heart of a shuttered auto plant, or beneath a crumbling jazz club where echoes still dance.

The Dreaming is thin here, stretched taut—but not broken.

I think that feeling of the rusty decline of Detroit is a wonderful analog to Banality, and a strong contrast to the albeit infrequent wonders of Glamour.

Hi Qralloq!

Thanks for offering such a chance to play CtD. I played it for a one-shot 20 years ago and would love to revisit. I never fully got Changeling, to be honest, but I would love to try. :)

Sidhe, Eshu, Satyr—the ideas are many, and I would have to consult the rulebook (which I just found) before coming to a decision. Listened to a lot of Harry Dresden the last few months, so there may be some blatant stealing and being "inspired" to come.

The commitment is not a problem on my part. Normally the DMs give up, long before I do. But I want to be clear that there are a few things upcoming in August that will delay me getting into the game (holiday with the kids for 2 weeks in FAR away, a wedding where I am the best man, my wife's birthday). It all should be over on the 20th. Hope that's alright.

But if that could be managed I would love to join your game and flee the banality of my existence through the dark winter and beyond! :D