#CofD

[graintourette]

classic doctor who: the doctor and the master have some sort of a complicated relationship. they were once friends, now they are rivals. every second writer wants to make them brothers

modern doctor who: soo the nature of their relationship is definitely something more than just ex-friends... they have a certain tension that we love to explore. every writer ships them

doctor who wilderness era: yeah you got it right they fucked. OBVIOUSLY

[cyberturbine]

vampire!E.C. x mage!Goodsir

[awakenedsalamander]

This is gonna be a long walk. But I’ll get there. I promise.

In a lot of Chronicles of Darkness games, there are “minor templates” for players to take for their characters. These are basically lesser types of supernatural beings— undeniably marked by magic, but not transformed by it like the main templates are. So instead of being a werewolf, you might be a Wolf-Blooded, i.e., not the monster your stronger cousins are, but still recognizably having a connection to that world.

Again, a bunch of games have these. Mage has Sleepwalkers (and Proximi), Vampire has ghouls, Geist has the Absent, Demon has stigmatics, etc.

In Changeling: The Lost, there are the Fae-Touched. We’ll get to them in a bit. First, more on Lost.

In Lost, like many stories about faeries, oaths and vows are very important. They are, in the form of magical Contracts, the source of many fae powers. Changeling have a neat ability to make any spoken promise binding, invoking the force of the Wyrd to force even minor vows to be taken seriously. And many changelings are taken by the True Fae by getting ensnared in some kind of oath.

See, if you didn’t know, Changeling: The Lost is about humans taken to the home of the True Fae, and then transformed into changelings as the True Fae torment them. The game is very much about the way trauma changes a person, and how even recovering from trauma still doesn’t bring you back to the way you were— you’re healed, but you’re not the same.

And much like trauma changes a person, it isolates them too. Lost represents this in the fiction with fetches— the faerie-forged simulacra left behind in the stolen person’s wake, acting the roles of parent, sibling, friend, and so on while the original person is actually suffering with no escape.

But the Fae-Touched won’t stand for that.

Because while Changeling: The Lost recognizes that many promises aren’t serious, that when people swear, “I’ll always be there for you,” they don’t always live up to that, it also recognizes that some promises are different.

The Fae-Touched are the mortals who remember the words they swore, and will not ignore them. They can tell, in their dreams, through the nagging impulses they get in their waking moments, that the person they promised to help needs them now more than ever. They are lead by the Wyrd into the land of faerie to live up to that promise, and they follow it gladly.

A Fae-Touched is the father who knows the smiling fetch who claims to be his daughter isn’t the real thing, and that somewhere the girl he swore to protect is in mortal danger— and so he delves into a world of dreams and nightmares to bring her back.

A Fae-Touched is the woman who fights off briar wolves in a mad, twisting forest so she can find her wife, because when she said “I will never abandon you,” she meant it.

A Fae-Touched is the young man staring down a Lord of the True Fae and refusing to yield. He and his brother went through hell together years ago when their parents died, and they promised one another then that they’d always stand by each other, and some monster in a crown can’t change that.

Not every changeling is helped by a Fae-Touched, and not all of the Fae-Touched succeed. Sometimes you have to claw your own way back home. But God, what a beautiful concept.

I know that Changeling: The Lost is very dark, and the reason I love the Fae-Touched isn’t really because they’re the light to that darkness— I think that simplifies it too much.

I like the Fae-Touched not because they take away the darkness, but because they remind me we don’t always have to face the darkness alone.

Sometimes, when you think there’s no point going on, when you think it will just be the pain and the fear again and again and again… it’s not true. Because sometimes, maybe even more often than we think, there’s someone out there who knows you need help. And they ready themselves, they set out into the darkness, saying only,

“This is gonna be a long walk. But I’ll get there. I promise.”

[gehennatruther]

Artist: Sam Arraya

Book: "World of Darkness: Slashers" (2009)

Gameline: Chronicles Of Darkness

Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing

[lillyloon]

A death metal/EDM fusion singer, Kevin often plays DJ in the Spring Court's main bar, turning into hot people to feed on other's desires. Spring also hires him for minor espionage missions, but he tends to fumble them. Secretly suffers a hunger for human flesh, which he abides by buying from both fae and mundane black markets.

Finally introducing my silly guy!

[spectrolitha]

My Promethean the Created OCs. Narkizo, Galateid gentleman, tells Sharla, Frankenstein lady, whom to bonk. They have a dynamic not unlike some spoiled royal and his loyal knight/bodyguard.

[vurthshistorian]

I spent like a solid 2-3 hours on this, so You people get to see it Too.

This is a Deviant the Renegade character I cooked up when I realized that you could basically make 90's Shin Kamen Rider in Deviant, because my buddy wanted to run a game. We're playing Hunter instead by popular demand, so I'm choosing to explore the character myself until that game finally runs.

So because we're not playing that CofD game I went whole Hog and just went full sail on making him a KROC.

Here he is Fernando Rodriguez-Hernandez.

Kamen Rider: Darkness.

[hypothetical-karma]

Beast the Primordial's Purpose?

Every once in awhile I am taken by the urge to reread parts of Beast the Primordial. And every time I'm taken aback by the entire lack of purpose within the game. What are these creatures supposed to do? They have one antagonist to fight against, and its not a very interesting one.

Compare that to Mages, Vampires, and Werewolves, who each have dozens. It especially doesn't help that the antagonists they fight are people they've abused. Which is gross given the context of the game's creator.

I can't think of any thing interesting or unique that Beast does that Requiem, Forsaken, or Awakening doesn't do better.

The only thing I can think of is making them low rank bad guys for other splats to fight. Except the book explicitly states that all other splats fucking love these guys. The exception being demons for some reason. There's a million and one rules about why everyone wants to be pals with these guys. The guys that go around causing nightmares with very few redeeming qualities? Perfect for a multisplat game.

Personally I like to use these guys as enemies for Princess the Hopeful. Making them a sort of dark mirror to them.

[arabiidhound]

Some Sin-Eater NPCs I made for my Geist the Sin-Eater Chronicle I just started

[not-a-very-good-dungeon-master]

Purely hypothetical, but i/some1 just as (if not more) foolish as i wanted to, how would we go about human-centipeding together World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness together into 1 Darkness?

God, that is a good question.

It would work in some splats more than others, unfortunately.

It's just that most Splats don't explore the backstory of a lot of the supernatural things you can be. Sure, some explain enough, Changeling the Lost goes out of it's way to be unexplainable, and I like that.

But then you get to stuff like Vampire and Werewolf, which are interesting but completely different to what their original WoD versions are.

The best theory I've heard, connecting the two, is that the "God Machine" in Demon the Descent is actually a result of the Technocracy winning in Mage the Ascension and recreating a more orderly universe.

But that doesn't plug every plot thread you might be thinking of.

This is something that could have a whole team making a book for it really, and these are just my two cents

and remember

I'm not a good dm

[bekandrew]

Hey! I make a little horror/dark comedy story podcast called "Gather 'Round the Trashfires" about my Deviant: the Renegades chronicle that's been going on for 3 years now. I have the logs saved, so I started from the very beginning. I have 8 episodes out so far and I publish weekly. A group of young adult strangers find they’re victims of the same secret project on the water system that gave them both fantastic powers and horrifying consequences. What’s worse, the hospital they ended up in isn’t what it seems, either. They must band together to protect themselves and their loved ones, seek vengeance, and expose those responsible. And maybe, hopefully, learn to live with each other along the way. It's also available on most podcast platforms including: Spotify Apple Podcasts Youtube

[cyberturbine]

VTR Ventrue OC, Knyazev Nestor Nikolaevich

[awakenedsalamander]

By the way it’s crazy to me that there’s an online culture that seems to promote a strong niche market for stories about trauma, myth and fantasy, and the wonders and perils of personal identity, AND YET Changeling: The Lost isn’t a smash hit.

Like obviously it’s one of the more popular Chronicles of Darkness games but it should take the world by storm. It’s not even my favorite and I think it should be the most popular, just cause the premise is that appealing.

(If you’re wondering, yes, my blog is largely gonna consist of me being like “Aren’t CofD games good?” for awhile, it’s the mood I’m in.)

[gehennatruther]

Artist: Sam Arraya

Book: "World of Darkness: Slashers" (2009)

Gameline: Chronicles Of Darkness

Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing

[lillyloon]

Something inhabits these waters...

[spectrolitha]

I've storytelled Changeling the Lost one-shot!

Players were changelings, still in Arcadia, who one "day" awoke to their usual place becoming a vast ocean with ruins of modern buildings sticking out here and there. Their Keepers disappeared, and so they decided this is their chance to escape Arcadia for good.

Stökk, Raud and Tauma – three changelings from different times and places, who banded together in Arcadia to become some sort of pirates. Only they aren't unnecessary cruel, so they easily switched from trying to rob players into cooperating with them to get... rocks. Because normal rocks are rare in this water-concrete post-apocalypse. And because they are a frailty of one of local True Fae, Mortician.

Stökk is a way too good swimmer who swam into Arcadia while trying to cross a dangerous river. Raud is an actual pirate from 18th century, who was obsessed with finding new land and eventually found Arcadia. And Tauma is simply a marine biologist who looked into sea too eagerly, bringing attention of True Fae onto herself. By the end of one-shot, player saved this trio alongside themselves.

Pythia and Jules. Pythia is an oracle who forsaw his own death not long before players arrived. Pythia is a former lover of Mourner, local True Fae, and they fall in love easily, most of their beloved dying the moment they move on, either to heartbreak, to environment or to jealous Mortician. Pythia survived due to his insane luck and sharp mind, and for a long time he was trying to help people Mourner dragged to Arcadia. Fruitlessly, unfortunately. Players prevented his death and helped him escape with them in the end.

Jules is a new beloved of Mourner, who has spent only several hours in Arcadia, hence his human appearance. He didn't understand what was going on, thinking it to be a mere dream. Pythia helped him survive and hid him from Mourner, before the truth came out and Mourner tried to drown everyone in their tears. That's where Pythia was about to die, and Jules finally understood that this not a mere dream afterall. Players got him out as well.

And now onto True Fae of this game:

Mortician

A Leviathan-type creature (literally, ocean boils around them) using their appendage with human-like scales to pretend to be less of a threat than they are. Madly "in love" with Mourner and spent their days imprisoning Deceased, their first beloved and another True Fae, before Deceased escaped and the cycle began anew. All three Fae were having something like fun leaving in this cycle, before Mourner broke it by falling in love with a mortal human, thus making other two realise humans exist as well.

Mortician chased after players, trio of pirates, Pythia and Jules (all crowded on one boat) in the game's finale. But players managed to slow Mortician down with a candy that was inedible for anyone who wished to harm someone (it's a reworked goblin fruit from the 2e book) and rocks. Yeah. And when the bastard trashed around, one of waves created carried everyone out of Arcadia safety. Hooray.

Mourner

A True Fae who started this whole mess when they began to take in human lovers, making Mortician and Deceased realise humans existed in the first place. After that all three began capturing humans somewhat regularly for their own reasons.

Mourner almost drowned everyone in their tears upon realising Pythia lied to them about whereabouts of Jules, but players distracted her with Deceased, their original lover, and escaped on the nearby boat.

Deceased

Mourner's original lover, a True Fae who got bored of being constantly imprisoned by Mortician on their "beloved's" behalf long time ago and especially after Mourner starting taking lovers among humans.

Deceased seeked to leave Arcadia, or at least this part of it, for a long time. Players initially assumed Deceased was another changeling and agreed to make a deal with them, thus learning about the way out, but promising to assist Deceased and not to leave them when faced with trouble from other Gentry.

In the end, upon realising what Deceased truly was, players fed them another reworked goblin fruit, fish who made Deceased lose their fear. So Deceased went to get revenge from Mourner, and players escaped, technically not breaking the bargain.

And lastly, a guy who greeted players upon them emerging on their boat in Amsterdam's canals at night.

Adlar, King of Summer in local freehold. He hasn't actually been to Arcadia, but because he is a son of mortal woman and banished Gentry (so-called Charlatan) (a fact Adlar abhors and hides to the best of his ability) he is still technically a Changeling stuck in this whole changeling business. He welcomed newcomers in and invited them to local sport complex, owned by Summer Court, to stay the night, and the game ended on this happy note.

I actually added him the night before the actual game, because one of my players, who played with me before, asked if he'd appear. And I said "oh yeah! of course! I've totally accounted for that!" and went to draw him at 1 am. That's why Adlar's sprite looks better than previous ones, which were ready a month before the game. But I like this, since Adlar appears in reality, unlike all others whom players saw in Arcadia.

There was also a map, drawn by Raud in-universe, but Tumblr doesn't allow more than 10 images per post, so yeah. That's it. Thanks for looking at my guys.