I’m going to keep my talk on this short, because there’s a ton of great content to speak for itself. In Second Edition Changeling: The Lost, the default assumption is that when you make your characters and plan your chronicle, you build your Court. You can use one of our robust examples as well, since we’re featuring quite a few of them. But I wanted to move away from the assumption that seasonal courts were “default”, and let every city tell its own story.
Here’s Court Creation for Second Edition.
Here’s Toronto, an example Court.
And here’s my challenge to you: Test this live. I want to see your city. I want to see your Courts. Share a link in the comments! I’d love to see what people do with this system.
Normal rules for my sharing/open development apply:
- First off, notes need to be in one place. I’ve set up a forum thread for discussing the Court Creation rules, and a different one for Toronto. I’ll pay attention to those threads.
- Don’t bother commenting on grammar, spelling, and punctuation. These are raw drafts.
- Please don’t reiterate points. I’m not looking for consensus or “votes”. If someone said, “this issue exists”, don’t second it. I don’t want to bog down the conversation. If you have a new point or thought, cool. But don’t dogpile the conversation, please.
- Some points don’t need context. “This has seven dots, Merits don’t go to seven dots” doesn’t need context. But, “This is unbalanced” is not really a point that helps anyone. That’s subjective. Now, if you played with it, and it created a specific experience at your table, I want to know.
- Speaking in experiences is good. If you played with something, I want to hear the experiences it created at your table.
- Please note the positives. This is partly because I want my team exposed to positive notes as well as negative, but also because I want to see what works for you and creates positive experiences. I’m in the business of creating positive experiences.
- Don’t be insulting. Don’t insinuate motives from my team. Just address the material; don’t try to bring in assumptions and political issues.
- If you make a “this doesn’t work” style note, couple it with what you think would work. That’ll help us frame your commentary.
- At a certain point, I’m going to call an end to notes. At that point, I have to send over my notes to my team, and I can’t go back and integrate more ideas.
This is a bit overwhelming. In a good way!
When the idea of courts in 2e was first talked about, I loved the idea. Now that I’ve read these draft mechanics, even more so.
There’s some tremendous flexibility for really interesting and engaging things here.
I am surprised that you selected Toronto to host a changeling court. I hope that this an indication that Toronto is becoming a dynamic city. It used to have a reputation for being deadly dull
Look up Mayor Rob Ford.
MY CITY
Seeing Toronto as a sample freehold was a really pleasant surprise. The Court system works well and really captures the essence of the city.
MY CITY
Toronto’s a really interesting choice for first sample freehold, but also one that fills me with happiness. This is a city with a lot of different approaches and outlooks, and it’s been captured very well with the Court creation rules.
Now, you say the Seasonals are no longer “default” (which I never saw as a problem, but different strokes), but you also mention multiple examples, and the text references Autumn in detail. Will there be full writeups for the original four in the book? Because as much as I love customization, it’s important to have something to fall back on.
That seems to be the plan. Here are the court systems Dave indicated in the greenlit 2e outline (http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-new-world-of-darkness/changeling-the-lost/385867-changeling-the-lost-second-edition-outline).
Courts:
Dave Brookshaw – Budapest
Marianne – 1001 Arabian Nights
Me – Tokyo
Eloy Lasanta – I’d love you to do a take on Miami from Changeling 1e within the new paradigm. IE: Show us how the new rules can make the old thing cool.
Elaine Zantedeschia – Capetown
Miami’s sticking with the seasonal courts in 2e. The Toronto example also mentions that “… the Seasonal and Seelie courts exist on an international scale …” It’s not impossible Miami’s system may have some local Miami-specific touches, but should do the trick for covering the Seasonal courts.
Thank you for the reply! Ideally, at least for me, the “international” part means that the Seasonals and Seelie/Unseelie could have entries that aren’t tied to any one Freehold, but if they come with specific examples that’s still better than what I was fearing.
I like that Courts are more open concept this time around, and that characters take a more active roll in how the Courts function.
Love the American Magee’s Alice reference. The Huntsmen sound like they have more than white hounds and monstrous steeds to pursue their quarry.
In fact I just realized they bear a resemblance to a certain other party of starry eyed riders :).
My Chattanooga Freehold:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sIODTroqSwTqeqtKVBI1Yu0F8ftRw-ATKiyCEo0bPb0/edit#
I’ve been working on this idea for a week now. This system was easy to port over and its helped me flesh out more of an idea of the Freehold as a whole.
The new spin on the Huntsmen intrigues me.
I find it interesting that the Seelie and Unseelie Courts from Dreaming are finally making their debut in Lost. Can’t wait to see how they are portrayed in New World.
Probably not to differently mechanics wise from the Sun and Moon Court, since they were already kinda a Eastern Europ take on the Seelie Courts. My guess is that besides the mechanics not really much will change between them and their Dreaming counterparts besides the history.
I think this is a really great change. I’ll always have a soft spot for the Seasonal Courts, and the Diurnal/Seelie Courts are great fun.
But the fact that now many freeholds’ are inspired by the story (or a story) of the freehold is exciting. Changeling has always been about stories, and stories within stories. It has a mythic feel to it that the other games don’t have, and this new vision of the courts ties into that.
A bit random here but while skimming old discussion posts I noted someone who suggested the idea that the Dragon Kith play up the sens of awe dragons inspire, so it seemed like a good time to suggest it be in the mix.
Love how story is placed front and central now as an aspect of Changeling 2ed and its Court system. Nice Job!