Oh my, More Changeling Contracts Part 2 of 4

Below are seeming contracts each set of contracts are easier for a particular seeming to learn and harder for all others. As before anytime they document references another power or vampire go to vampire.echoesofempires.com for the appropriate rule text

Seeming Contracts-----

Contracts of Artifice: uses crafts to retest. Catch - crafter must create and give away for free an item of difficulty equal to the level of power used to someone he does not know

lvl 1 MacGyver - may repair an object without a scrounge roll for materials, repair lats a number of days per level of power.

lvl 2 Gremlinize - mental challenge vs 10 mentals look a complex mechanical device (must have multiple moving parts) and suppress its function for as long as gaze is maintained

lvl 3 Shoemaker's Bright Hammer - gain a an additional discipline retest on extended crafting challenge

lvl 4 Eye of Balor - spend a willpower as per Kuldonic's way of fire Shatter

lvl 5 Wings of Wax - Spend a willpower and create in one hour, without a scrounge roll needed for materials any object the crafter can normally craft, item lasts a number of days per level of power.

Contracts of Darkness: Uses intimidate as a retest Catch caster must have in their possession a vial of tears of someone they have frightened, the tears are consumed in the casting
lvl 1 Whistling to the Dark - as per obtenebration 1
lvl 2 Numbing Teror - as per nightmare lvl 1
lvl 3 The Following Dark - as per obtenebration 2
lvl 4 Fell Countenance - as per nightmare lvl 2
lvl 5 Form of Nightmares - as per obtenebration 3 except player may decide the look of the creature, i.e. the tentacles could be tendrils of vine or lobster claws or whatever, no game effect difference though.

Contracts of Elements: uses survival as retest, this is actually seven paths that must be purchased separately the path options are: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, Lightning, for damage, lightning and metal do lethal, fire does ag all else does bashing. Catch: character must sit in meditation of their element with that element present for half an hour for each level of the power to be used. This catch lasts one day.

lvl 1: Cloak of Elements: spend a survival and take one less damage per attack for the round from that element

lvl 2: Armor of the Elements: spend a survival, the caster is surrounded by a swirling shroud of their element that does a level of damage to anyone using a non-reach or ranged attack against them, and includes the effect of the lvl 1 lasts one round

lvl 3: Gladius of Elemental Wrath: costs 1 glamour, the character's weapon is sheathed in substance of their element and adds one level of damage to the damage done by a weapon the character is using. after this level of damage is done the effect dissipates. effect does not stack with other elements or itself. if the damage is not done within an hour or the weapon is sheathed/put down by the caster the effect ends. lasts an hour

lvl 4: Elemental Passage: Costs 1 willpower
Caster must step into an amount of their element larger than their surface area and can step 10 feet per level of Contract to another amount of their element of a size larger than their total surface area. note unless other powers are used the caster still takes damage from passing through a fire for example.
If the destination for some reason is not present (i.e. someone knows what you're moving to and extinguishes the fire, turns off the electricity) all people going through transit take 4 levels of appropriate damage type and are spat out at their point of departure.

lvl 5:Form of the Elements: costs 1 glamour 1 willpower. Character becomes a living embodiment of their element, gaining an additional healthy health level and a discipline retest (like might) on all situations where might would apply. they also gain the benefits of the armor of the elements. character does not actually entirely become the element but their hair may turn to fire, skin to steel etc. lasts one hour

Contracts of Fang and Talon: this is actually 8 different disciplines that must be purchased separately but the beast seeming discount applies to all of them even those not of their specific kith. these eight disciplines govern the eight kiths of the beast seeming: broadback, hunterheart, runnerswift, skitterskulk, steepscrambler, swimmerskin, venombite, and windwing. all use animal ken as a retest. Catch: character must care for and feed an animal of the appropriate type for a day per free use of the power. these free uses all disappear when the character stops taking care of the animal.
lvl 1 beast speech - as per animalism but only communicates with the specific group of animals related to the seeming.

lvl 2 beast's keen senses - costs one animal ken as per auspex 1 heightened senses

lvl 3 pipes of the beast caller - as per animalism beckoning

lvl 4 borrowing - as per subsume the spirit

lvl 5 cloak of borrowed form - character can turn into any animal in the appropriate group. All attributes remain the same.

Contracts of Stone: has no appropriate retests Catch: Character must be outnumbered by 3 to 1 or better. these powers do not take an action to activate. when active they activate for one hour. a glamour must be spend for each.
lvl 1 Strength of the Wold - as per potence 1
lvl 2 Enduring Stone - Caster does not suffer wound penalties beyond bruised.
lvl 3 Strong as the Hill - as per potence 2
lvl 4 Hale as the Stone - Caster has an additional healthy health level.
lvl 5 Redcap's Hungry Maw: Must spend one hour devouring all food in sight, and must devour at least one's head's weight in food. heal 3 health levels.

Contracts of Vainglory: retested with leadership Catch: Character must have exchanged bodily fluids of some sort with subject(s)within the past month. a kiss will do.

lvl 1 Mask of Superiority - lasts 1 hour character gains +1 social trait as per potence's physical trait
lvl 2 Splendor of Arcadia - as per awe lasts one hour
lvl 3 Fanfare - character gains an additional social trait, stacks with lvl 1
lvl 4 Mantle of Terrible Beauty - everyone in sight of character must make a Courage test difficulty of the character's level in the power or flee. spending a willpower will automatically cause the challenge to succeed.
lvl 5 Echoes of the LLano - as per Melpominee Siren's beckoning using leadership

Very Interesting...But Stupid

A prime difference between larp and tabletop is plot. In tabletop players want plot and want the plot to be about them. In larp plot is a deadly, venomous, crotch seeking viperbadger with a heart full of hate and rage. The formula is simple. Anything that is interesting in tabletop or interesting to the storyteller is bad for the player.

Interesting means there is some kind of plot or action

Plot Requires Drama.

Drama Requires Conflict.

For something to be a Conflict and not merely scene description Conflict must be of an approximately equivalent challenge or have a chance (or seem to have a chance) of causing the Player Character to genuinely fail.

Chances of failure when there weren't any before is aggravating as buggery.
Getting rid of said chances of failure inevitably costs you one of the three things our character doesn't have enough of. Time, Wherewithal, or Hit Points/Health Levels.




Tl:Dr
If it is interesting to you it is probably causing painful forced entry for someone else. If this appeals to you, you are probably destined to be a storyteller. If you do not, however, understand this point and plan accordingly, you are probably a bad storyteller.

Things To Do at The Table When You're Dead

If you are going to be a gamer there is going to be a lot of downtime. There is only one Storyteller and as a rule there are at least three players. As your characters are not likely to be joined at the hip at all times the storyteller is going to be running a scene for one or two of you and not the other. Sometimes your storyteller will commit the cardinal sin of having the person they are running for not be you. All is not lost. I have seen several players use downtime productively and several others not. Here are the seven habits of highly effective downtime. You can do one or all of these during a lull in play.

1. double check the math on your sheet, when you last leveled or gained exp did you change all of your derived values? When you got that last magic item did you factor its bonuses into your various abilities? if not the time to do so is now, not in the midst of combat when it will frustrate and annoy everyone as you do math in the midst of what is supposed to be a tense fight for life.

2. Actually read the rulebook, if not for the game you're playing now, for some other game that you are currently in. Believe me, knowing what your powers do or don't do can save your character's life.

3. Stat out something you have left fuzzy and vague. DO you know your familiar's will save? how about your cohort's feat selection. Do you have followers? Making actual sheets for these people can be a very very effective way of getting more in character and getting more of a sense of scale for the world in which you play and the people your character meets each day.

4. Do homework. Many if not most gamers are in school of some sort, take this time to do a few problems or read a textbook. Gameing can overwhelm the study schedule of even the strongest minds.

5. Talk with the other players who are out of the scene, if possible and if it makes any sense talk in character. This helps the mood of the game and more importantly this will help you get a better feel for the other pcs. Also helpful, the noise of talking will keep you from hearing what's going on in the other payer's scene and if you're polite and o it right you won't drown out their scene.

6. Learn a simple craft, no really. I have seen the following things learned while at the gaming table, figure drawing, painting, sculpting, crochet, needlepoint, origami and on two memorable occasions juggling. Useful skills that will serve you elsewhere, but keep in mind if you juggle, learn to juggle away from the battleboard.

7. Plot. If there are any other players out of the scene, or even if you're all alone, use this time to plot and plan what you will do against the next big bad guy, spend this time trying to puzzle through any mysteries that remain. if you can use this time to prep your battle plans or so the math for the various situational modifiers and buff spells your character will need for their next challenge. Or if its not that kind of game just plot against someone, maybe the person in the scene, preferably an npc because in many games party unity is important.

Whatever you do, try not to fall asleep. everyone does it, game narcolepsy happens a lot, storytellers stay storytellers because they have nice or soothing voices, the chairs are comfy and the game room is warm. Still nothing tells a storyteller to stop storytelling and makes them feel bad like a player falling asleep.

Spring!

I heard the first ice cream truck of spring today, it was beautiful. It sounded like a toy piano, not all beepy. It is a sad thing about adulthood in general or perhaps mine in specific that I can no longer hear an ice cream truck without volumes of experience rushing back. I remember seeing the tragicomic, drug fronts/ice cream men of Madison bringing smiles to young and old. I am both proud and ashamed of the many times the distant dulcet tones of the truck has resuced me from uncomfortable conversational moments. Many is the character in roleplaying games that owes his life to the five minute reprieve and regroup for thoughts afforded me by a distracted storyteller made all the more tractable by cold dairy treats. A truism I leave you with this evening. It is impossible for anyone regardless of station to look dignified while eating an ice cream cone. One of the first memories I have of politics is of GHW Bush when he was vice president, and former head of the CIA eating an ice cream cone during a white house easter. It was precisely then that I knew in my heart that adults were not inherently dignified, no matter their station. As a matter of fact, if you have an enemy or even a friend or associate who intimidates you, meet them over ice cream cones. If nothing else you at least get ice cream out of the deal.

On Preparation

When choosing to run a tabletop game one often has a great deal of prepared material. Sometimes this is in the form of sourcebooks, sometimes modules, sometimes its your own campaign notes and sometimes you've just made it up and holding it all in your head.

Inevitably the players leave the edge of your map or decide to investigate a portion of the world that you thought you had fleshed out and it turns out, not so much. Perhaps you have set your campagn in a Venice-like city of trader princes and political intrigue and they instead decide to, for perfectly good and cogent reasons investigate what is going on with the city's plumbers guild or canal maintenance workers. Often storytellers will just handwave this and say that thir plan works or doesn't and everyone happily skips past the glaring inconsistancy.

Lets say in this Venice-Like you are running some sort of politcical intrigue , secret gathering mystery and for perfectly good reasons they have decided to get control of the plumbers and waterways as a method of vanishing the bodies of their political opponents and having a set of eyes and ears throughout the city, thus unbalancing or at least changing your game, as now instead of running courtly balls you have to run scenes with burly tradesmen in smelly sewers.

Don't panic, roll with it. This is why most storytellers smoke. Take 15 minutes, breathe, make something up. Take notes on what you made up. Better yet, tell the players to take notes because the clues are very important and just read their sheets when they hand them in at the end of game. This will tell you not only what you said but also what the players were paying attention to. I'm not advocating smoking mind you but often gamers get chair-butt or their legs fall asleep or it gets very stuffy in the room. Take a fresh air break, walk around the building you're in. When you've gotten good at this you can make up at least something to run out the rest of the night during this time and spend the time between sessions finishing fleshing out the plumbers.

Sugar We're Going Down

Downtime is a tricky issue in larps and tabletops. Some points of view favor more downtime, some favor less. I personally like having as much of it as I can reasonably get away with. Some of the best games I've seen basically could have been just talking heads exploring character and nuance of a game world. Now this doesn't mean I'm some kind of pantywaist, artiste, role-playing-not-roll-playing wussbag. I love D&D I like MechWarrior. Battles are awesome and frequent and ignominious character death makes for a tense and exciting larp. It boils down to an amount of simulation and verisimilitude in games. Most people most days don't do much, they don't fight or change careers or fall in love. and from time to time exploring what a character does on a typical day in their life really helps flesh out the world. Exercise for the day for new players or staffers: write down or try to take note of any time in your day when you do something hard, something where you have a real chance of failure and where that failure has consequence. At the end of the week see how many times that has happened. Think about what your character does when the game is not in session or what they did before the game was in session. What did they do easily, what are they like at home?

Music, Interview, and Radio Blogging

Now the Textbook we have recently downloaded for class, Journalism 2.0,says that in order to have sound podcasts on your blog you need some kind of ftp or other file hosting site. I ran this idea past the wonderful human being who A. thoughtfully archived my interviews from last year's Otakon and B. runs the servers in my house and he says such sites have at least one standard deviation more viruses and horrible spyware than any other net site. So I am at a quandary, if anyone out there has any good ideas how to host 2.2 gigs of sound without catching something nasty please do speak up. Since I had planned to upload one of my old interviews in my trademarked soothing baritone and am stymied by the lack of hosting, here's Steven Fry once again with a much better story.