Char-Gen Orgy '10 - Changeling: the Dreaming

The Game: Changeling: the Dreaming
The Publisher: White Wolf Game Studios
Degree of Familiarity: A great degree, though a bit rusty. Played in numerous games, ran a handful of short chronicles; of all the old World of Darkness games, Dreaming was the one I know and love best.
Books Used: Changeling the Dreaming 2nd Edition Core Rules, Blood-Dimmed Tides, Kithbook: Satyrs

Okay, it's been several years since I created a character under the old Storyteller rules, and poor, oft-derided Dreaming never got so much as a Revised edition. Sure, the game had it's problems, and sure, folks didn't understand it at times -- the art didn't help there , in places (and that hurt it, just like it hurt Hunter: the Reckoning), and I'll even grant that the game was somewhat all over the place and trying to do too much at once with a lack of a coherent focus; in short, it's younger, grittier brother Changeling: the Lost is an improvement on it in almost every way.

But then, in fairness, you could say that Dreaming and Lost are both the same story, the story of a world that left you behind, a tale that your part has been erased from without having the good graces to erase your sad existence too, and the story of raging against the darkness and overcoming it to find your happy ending -- even if you know, in your heart, that it can't last.

Even for immortals.

Okay, okay, enough waxing poetic!

So, concepts! Well, I don't feel like playing the young teen rabble-rouser, and child characters are great -- in games that focus entirely on children. Anything else.. no. So, despite the delightful threads of ageism through Kithain society.. lets go for a Grump. That starts us with Glamour 3, Willpower at 5, and unfortunately, a Banality of 5 as well (as a sidenote.. Banality? No, I do not miss it at all. Even if it was core to the themes of Dreaming... good riddance).

So, an aging burnout still trying to hold onto the glory days of youth? Sounds like a good description for an angry old rocker or metalhead, so... heeey. Sex, drugs.. rock and roll... prodigious stamina?

Yep, I think we've got ourselves a concept... and by extension, we got ourselves a Satyr; these Greek party animals (toga toga tooooga, to make a Zeus: Master of Olympus reference) gain the Gift of Pan to allow them to turn the power of ROCK against the evils of Banality, propriety, and temperance, and on top of that, they gain the blessing of Physical Prowess: +1 Stamina, the ability to barrel along at great speeds when Straights aren't about or when calling on the Wyrd, and the blessing of being unable to botch an Athletics roll if they tried. Of course, the downside is that Passion's Curse bites a poor Goat hard, and are prone to both wild mood swings and a total loss of self-control, and so all Willpower rolls to resist temptation are at a +2 difficulty.

Next on the list.. is our rocka-billy goat (...that pun made it all worthwhile. It did.) of the Seelie or Unseelie Court, and what are his Legacies in both? Yeah, courtly love, honor, beauty, duty? Those aren't metal! So, we're Unseelie then, baby... and for our Unseelie Legacy, I think we'll go with Knave: This old goat is not about to hide the grim realities of life from the kiddies, or tone down his music to appease the media watchdogs, and few things bring him as much fulfilment as showing the unenlightened the joys of sex, drugs, and rock and roll; keeping with the Satyr aspect and dovetailing off our Unseelie Legacy nicely, we'll go with Sage as our Seelie

Okay then, the backdrop is set, so we'll get into the real hard crunch now. Attributes need prioritized, and Social is an obvious Primary; we'll make Physical our Secondary, and after a rough education and too much medicinal marijuana, we'll leave Mental in last place.

So, how do we envision our man Buck (and that shall be his name, Buck)? Well, obviously He's got to have stage presence, so we'll toss in three of our seven points into Charisma, and three more into Appearance, leaving one dot to go into Manipulation; Buck's not a subtle chap, but he'll bludgeon you with his sheer presence. That gives us Charisma 4, Manipulation 2, and Appearance 4. Next, we'll hit Physicals... We have five dots to distribute here. Buck's not a burly sort, strictly average really -- after all, carrying heavy equipment is what the roadies are for, isn't it? However, Buck's fairly agile for all his lankiness, so two dots go into his Dexterity, and we'll put the last two into Stamina, which with out Kith bonus from being a Satyr, is as good as adding three; that leaves Buck's Physicals at Strength 2, Dexterity 3, and Stamina 4. Lastly, we'll hit his less-than-sterling Mentals -- flatly, Buck's about as oblivious as you could expect, so Perception goes untouched, and he's strictly average at raw intellect, so one dot in Intelligence; his only saving grace is that once his brain finally sees through the purple haze, he's got a good set of wits about his horned head, so we'll add two dots there, finishing him out at Perception 1, Intelligence 2, and Wits 3

So now, that finished, our current spread of Attributes reads as:

.

PHYSICAL
Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Stamina 4
SOCIAL
Charisma 4
Manipulation 2
Appearance 4

MENTAL
Perception 1
Intelligence 2
Wits 3

Attributes finished, it is now time to move on to Abilities.. gods, I don't miss the old layouts from these days; Mental/Physical/Social is a far, far cleaner approach, but we'll work with what we've got. Reviewing the old lists to repair the dodgy memory banks on what is where, it becomes obvious that while a couple skills we'll want good ratings in fall under Skills, the majority of what will be our heavy duty investments fall under Talents, so priority goes there, with Talents as Secondary and.. yeah, Knowledges as Tertiary. We're making up for that braniac from last week, aren't we? Anyway, we have a generous spread of 13/9/5, and a cap of 3 in any one Ability just now -- any higher will take us some bonus points. So, lets get to work...

We've got 13 dots for Talents, and we want a good, all-around capability here, so we'll put two dots each in Athletics, Brawl, and Dodge to give us some raw physical talent, leaving us at 7 dots; though he's a little addled, Buck reads people quite well, so two dots into Empathy, two into Persuasion to back up those rockstar looks with a few honeyed words, and with 3 left we'll put a dot in Streetwise, the better to find the local pot-peddlers, for those sticky situations ("Honestly, Officer.. that television unbolted itself from the wall and flew out the window all on its own!") we'll add the last two dots to Subterfuge. Moving onto Skills next, we plainly are going to put as many as we're allowed into Performance right off the bat, so 3 of our 9 dots are spent already; since you should always have someone who knows how to fix the van should it break down, a dot in Drive and another in Crafts leaves us at 4 dots left here. Two dots of Leadership will keep the Band together, and for those times when you just gotta be Breakin' the Law, a dot each in Security and Stealth. With our paltry five dots of Knowledge, we'll say that running crisis control for a few ODs and backstage mishaps will give Buck a dot of Medicine, and breaking it as often as he has will teach one a dot of Law; we'll add a dot of Politics to represent Buck's grass-roots attempts at social awareness, and put the last two into Science.. or as he would put it.. "recreational chemistry". Well, that has Attributes done....

TALENTS
Athletics 2
Brawl 2
Dodge 2
Empathy 2
Persuasion 2
Streetwise 1
Subterfuge 2

SKILLS
Crafts 1
Drive 1
Leadership 2
Performance 3
Security 1
Stealth 1

KNOWLEDGES
Law 1
Medicine 1
Politics 1
Science 2

With our attentions now turned to Advantages, we'll start with something I truly miss under the new Storytelling System rules, even though Merits really do cover the same ground to a degree: Backgrounds Right off the bat, we'll give our man Buck a dot of Contacts -- his Major Contact is his long-suffering Agent and PR man, who doesn't tend to come along for Buck's misadventures, but can be relied on to sometimes talk Buck down from his worst ideas. Sometimes. Since Buck refused to sell out, he's never hit the big leagues despite the talent for it, and so his Resources stay at a humble one dot. The last three dots will sink into Retinue -- Buck's got a small entourage who can also double as roadies. And thus..

BACKGROUNDS
Contacts 1
Resources 1
Retinue 3

With Backgrounds done (for now), we must now face the darkest dread of any Dreaming

Yes, you did just see a shudder. Anyone who's had to deal with this mess before would shudder too, I'm sure. Anyhow...

Honestly, none of the corebook Arts really suit where we want to go with Buck, so we'll need to delve a little deeper... thankfully, our Sourcebook-Fu is strong, and thus we home in on the World of Darkness-wide supplement Blood-Dimmed Tides... it was a bit odd in places, sure, but it had some great Arts.. including... no, not Aphrodisia, but Skycraft! Thunderclaps, gusting winds, hazing fogs? Hot damn, this baby's its own heavy metal effects shop! Regrettably, since we'll mostly want to shock and awe audiences, we have to use the putrescent Actor Realm, which takes a solid four of our five dots to just use our magic on a stranger, and the last dot will go into Fae. We may need to revisit this with Bonus Points (Scene would be nice), but for now I feel vaguely dirty, and we have the following:

ARTS
Skycraft 3

REALMS
Actor 4
Fae 1

Well, normally we would do our Tempers next, but we recorded those up above, so that leaves us with what I truly miss most in the new Storytelling System, compared to the older Storyteller: Bonus Points. Sure, starting XP can compensate, sort of, but.. it just doesn't feel the same.

So, with fifteen to spend, we'll first look into the thing I miss second-most: Flaws. Again, they still exist, and from a rules-balance standpoint I can see why they got the axe.

But I still miss 'em, and so.. will I indulge, why, yes I will. A two point Addiction to Marijuana is stereotypically par for the course, and just to make it worse, we'll take a second, milder one for Alcohol; Buck's a party animal, and he occasionally pays the price for it.That's three of our allowed four dots of Flaws; for amusement, years of substance abuse and one night stands have left Buck just about as competent at life as the heavy metal god-kings of Dethklok: He's downright Absent-Minded, and as the final point, the picture of a shaggy, hirsute rock god is only fitting, so cracking Kithbook: Satyr, we'll pick up our final allowed Flaw dot as Swarthy.

So, with that said, we've gained a total of seven Freebie Points to play around with, and gained...

FLAWS
Absent-Minded 3
Addiction (Alcohol) 1
Addiction (Marijuana) 2
Swarthy 1

With the book already open to that section, we'll go ahead and buy a few Merits now; Entertainment Ties for three points is an obvious choice, and to ground ourselves in the setting and give the ST some hooks to play with, we'll say that by now Buck has settled into trying to play 'legitimate businessman' and after much protest of his agent, sank his savings into a small, hard rock/metal Nightclub, for another two points. We'll spend a point each on Animal Magnetism and Poison Resistance to round it all out; Buck's got it and knows how to work his mojo baby, and after so many nights partying and being wasted out of his mind, casual toxins, recreational or malevolent, just aren't going to take hold in his system easily. We may buy a few more later, but lets tend mundane needs, first... thus, at current:

MERITS
Animal Magnetism 1
Entertainment Ties 3
Nightclub 2
Poison Resistance 1

So, with our standard fifteen Bonus Points left, we'll spend four of them to make Buck the Rock God he should be by boosting his Performance to five dots, and three more into a dot of the Scene Realm; three more besides will boost our Glamour back up a dot, as though Buck may be getting older, he's still rocking hard and living the dream. Five dots left; we'll add an additional dot of Retainers (Entourage is important!) and we'll pick up one more Merit -- Inspiration for four points, from the Satyr Kithbook; when Buck plays his music, the audience feels something, man -- and what that something is depends entirely on what Buck decides to play.

Well, freebies are done, so that only leaves Specialties in Appearance, Charisma, Stamina, and Performance; Appearance gets "Sex Appeal" -- Buck is a Horned God, baby -- and we'll add "Confidant" to Charisma -- people just feel at ease opening up to our man Buck for some reason. Stamina is our last Attribute in need of a speciality and that goes into "Party Animal" -- Buck can rock and roll all night, and party every day; to that end, our Performance speciality becomes "Guitar Solo" -- Buck will make you wish you never dared to lay a hand on that Axe.

And so, that said, we're done save the little details.. like a last name.. perhaps more as an in-joke to the last time I made myself a hard-rocking OWoD character (though he was, in that case, a Toreador), we'll say Buck's surname is "Valentine."

And so.....

-------

NAME: Buck Valentine
CONCEPT: Rockabilly Goat

COURT: Unseelie
LEGACIES: Knave/Sage
HOUSE: -

SEEMING: Grump
KITH: Satyr
MOTLEY: -

-ATTRIBUTES-

PHYSICAL
Strength 2
Dexterity 3
Stamina 4 (Party Animal)

SOCIAL
Charisma 4 (Confidant)
Manipulation 2
Appearance 4 (Sex Appeal)

MENTAL
Perception 1
Intelligence 2
Wits 3

-ABILITIES-

TALENTS
Athletics 2
Brawl 2
Dodge 2
Empathy 2
Persuasion 2
Streetwise 1
Subterfuge 2

SKILLS
Crafts 1
Drive 1
Leadership 2
Performance 5 (Guitar Solo)
Security 1
Stealth 1

KNOWLEDGES
Law 1
Medicine 1
Politics 1
Science 2

-ADVANTAGES-

BACKGROUNDS
Contacts 1
Resources 1
Retinue 4

ARTS
Skycraft 3

REALMS
Actor 4
Fae 1
Scene 1

-OTHER TRAITS-

TEMPERS
Glamour 4
Willpower 4
Banality 5

MERITS
Animal Magnetism 1
Entertainment Ties 3
Inspiration 4
Nightclub 2
Poison Resistance 1

FLAWS
Absent-Minded 3
Addiction (Alcohol) 1
Addiction (Marijuana) 2
Swarthy 1

--------

Buck has the potential to be a lot of fun, if only for the sort of comedy his very nature could bring to the table. Maybe one of these days, if another Dreaming game comes along, he might get to rock the Kithain like a heavy metal hurricane!