Changeling The Dreaming FAQ

Changeling: The Dreaming FAQ
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CtD FAQ
I. Basic Questions. II. Magic Questions III. Tempers Questions IV. Kinain Questions V. Inanimae Questions VI. Kith Questions VII. Crossover Questions VIII. Seeming Questions IX. Mortal Questions X. Combat Questions XI. Land of 8 Million Dreams.
Basic Questions Q. What is CtD? A. CtD is Changeling: The Dreaming - the fifth storyteller game in White Wolf's World of Darkness. It is a game in which you take on the role of the fae who hide behind mortal shells to allow them to survive in the world of darkness. Q. Do I need cards to play Changeling? A. No. Not at all. Put that thought from your mind. Q. What are all these weird terms - seeming, mein, kith, etc? A. Those are terms that the changelings use to describe themselves and their world. A seeming is the mortal shell that a changeling hides behind to avoid being destroyed by banality (the force of disbelief), the mein is the "real" fae spirit that makes the character a changeling. A kith is like a race - what type of faerie your character is - wether boggan, pooka, sidhe, etc... Q. What is a Dauntain, and Autumn person? A. A duantain is a changeling who serves banality - often by hunting and killing other fae. An Autumn person is a mortal who so actively opposes imagination and wonder that their presence is painful to fae.
Magic Questions Q. How do you detect cantrips? A. Kenning. Generally the glamour of a cantrip being cast in your vicinity makes the casting obvious. Perception + Kenning with a diff 8 will tell you what the art is, with more successes telling you about how much power is behind it. Detecting cantrips after they have been cast is also a kenning roll - the difficulty depending on how subtle the caster was, and whether or not they took any steps to conceal their casting.
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Q. How do you counter/undo cantrips? A. There are several ways. The first is to counterweave - which can be done at any time. The second is to resist with banality - which can only be done while the cantrip is cast. The last, and probably rarest way, is by doing a quest/feat/fior to make the dreaming/character release the magic (like the old crone telling you that if you can make the brogan who stole your child reveal his name backwards three times he will have to release his haunted heart...). However, this should be kept rare generally - once a cantrip is successfully cast it can be a difficult thing to reverse. Q. What's the deal with Fae 5 and counterweaving? A. Okay - here is the situation - in the chart for the realms it says along with the description of Fae 5 "Note: You need to posses this level to attempt to counter any cantrips cast." This has lead to a myriad of interpretations of exactly how Fae 5 and counterweaving work - especially as the rules for counterweaving never, ever mention this realm. The two most common house ruling on this are: 1) You need Fae 5 in order to counterweave at all. You still have to have any other realms that the casting uses as well. 2) Ignore the little note on the realms list - it never says anything about it in the actual rules for counterweaving. Fae 5 has no special effects for counterweaving. Q. Do the mists eventually cover actions taken by Wyrd form Changelings? A. I'm going to have to say yes to this one for a very simple reason. One of the main themes of CtD is that the world will never believe you, and you yourself often have trouble being sure of what you are. The mortals in your life cannot see you as you are, cannot remember the truth. Allowing the Wyrd to change this by not being subject to the mists would totally ruin that aspect of the game. All you would have to do to convince your parents/ friends/ lover that you really are fae is to call on the Wyrd and the issue would be solved. In order to maintain game balance the Wyrd has to be covered by the mists and human rationalization over time. However, there are a significant percentage of players and St's who feel that the Wyrd does in fact break the mists. I would suggest you consider the possible implications of this in your campaign and decide for yourself Q. Okay - when you cast a cantrip it talks about secondary realms and primary realms (pg 206) - how do you know which is which? A. This one is fairly simple in theory - just takes a bit of experience to get used to. The primary realm is the one most necessary to the cantrip - the others are more marginally related. For example, if you are trying to Fuddle your dad into thinking you are a dog... The primary realm is the target - your father (Actor), and that is all you absolutely need in order to cast the cantrip. However, having the secondary realm of Nature 3 (Feral Animal - because the illusion is of a dog), and Fae (because you are what the illusion is being laid over) makes the cantrip easier - as you know all about dogs, and all about fae, and so can complete the Fuddle easier - so it lowers the difficulty by 1 for each extra realm you can justify. Q. It seems like to use Eldritch Prime with any real effect you need to have Nature 5 - is that right? A. Well - the way the cantrip is written in the book - pretty much. However, many people play the cantrip this way - the Cantrip it's self is responsible for summoning the elements - so you do not need nature 5 just to summon them. The realm you use is determined by what you are doing. For example - if you want to set fire to a log you would need Nature 1, to make it rain on you eshu buddy you'd need Fae 1, to make roots entangle a chimera you'd need Fae 3. In other words - what the element is being cast on determines the realm needed. There are, however, a couple of cases in which you will need nature 5. It says in the rules for the cantrip that you can recast the cantrip to control the substance you summoned - and in this case you would need Nature 5. You could, for example, start a tree on fire with Nature 2 - but to keep the fire from spreading you would have to recast the cantrip with Nature 5 (as you are now effecting the base element). Also - if you wanna get fancy (the example in the book talks about making it 'rain' fire from the sky...) you will need Nature 5. Q. How do the realms work for nuenehi/gallain/thallain? A. Okay - there is no official word on this one - however, all the realms other than fae work the same for everyone. The fae realm is a little different though - as it is biased depending on what group you are a member of. I would recommend using the patch created by Lisa Nichols and Balrog from Emerald Dreams. Check it out here. Q. Okay - I'm a little confused about Elder Form. In the write up it talks about how if you changed yourself into a tree you
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might be able to change yourself back, but if you became a rock you couldn't Does elder form give you the mind of something you turn into, or does it just change your form? A. Well, there is no official word on this, and as the rules are so ambiguous I'm just going to chicken out and say that it depends on the story needs and ST decision. (However, if you want my non cannon opinion you can check it out here Elder Form Suggestions).
Tempers Questions Q. Okay - does your temporary banality start off at 0 or at a number equal to your permanent banality? A. Well - despite the fact that you would think that all tempers start out with a temporary score equal to their permanent score Ian Lemke has said that banality should start with a temporary score of 0. However, he also said that he doesn't have it reset in the down time between games - you want to loose banality you have to do it in game. Q. When you swear an oath and it talks about investing a point of willpower/banality whatever is it talking about temporary points or permanent ones? A. Generally unless the oath says otherwise specifically then it is temporary. However, losses for breaking an oath are permanent. Q. Is Glamour the same as Quintessence? A. Yes and no. Deal with it. Q. Do places have banality? A. Nope. The atmosphere can be banal - but that has more to do with people and perception than the location. Q. What is banality exactly? A. Oy vey. Banality is basically anything that denies magic and belief. It tries to reduce the world to simple logic with no room for wonder. Once you get past that definition things get really tricky. As with most things in Changeling banality is what it is seen as being - perception is everything. If your sidhe thinks guns are banal then he'll get banality for using one. If your nocker thinks guns are magical then he probably won't get banality for using one (though he will if he kills another changeling....).
Kinain Questions Q. Can fae have those cool Kinain gifts - like the Bardic Gift? A. No. Those gifts are absolutely kinain only. Q. If my kinain has mixed blood does the gift "Honored Birthright" give him the birthrights of both (all) the kith whose blood he has? A. No - he only gets the benefits of the Birthright for one kith. Your Storyteller may allow you to purchase the gift more than once to get extra benefits - but it is recommended that the cost double each time you do this. (So if you have a troll/sidhe blood kin and want him to have the +2 strength and +2 app you'd have to pay 5 points for the troll gift, and then 10 more for the sidhe gift - a total of 15 points). Q. Can I buy extra fae gifts for my kinain with freebie points? A. Well - the book never says. However most ST's allow this - most at a 2 freebie per gift point rate, though some up it to 3 freebies per 1 point of gifts.
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Inanimae Questions Q. What are the Mannequin birthrights? A. No official word on this one yet - we'll keep you posted. Q. What is the "Empire of Flickers?" A. A group of inanimae who's husks are from motion pictures and tv. They may or may not be real. Q. What is the Undines "Heart Riddle?" A. Once again - no official word. However I would bet money that it has to do with Undine's obsession with the how's and whys of human emotions. Q. Okay Anchors. The anchor has a "house" aspect to it that is in the Near Dreaming. Does it occupy the same space in the Near Dreaming as it does in the Autumn World? Or is it located in the Court's Empire. So is the kuberas house in the Near Dreaming of the park that his tree is located or is it in the Empire of Seeds? A. The answer is - Near Dreaming. However - by the rules in Dreams and Nightmares, the near dreaming does not always correspond to the autumn world (in fact, due to firclis (dream storms) the near dreaming is often very different then the autumn world). So the anchor doesn't have to either - a tree in a park could be thousands of miles into the near dreaming and hidden in a deep forest. Q. Okay if its in the Near Dreaming aspect of the park, then what happens if the inanimae's anchor is mobile? Like a paroseme that lives in a tuba or something. Is there this big floating tuba-house wandering around the near Dreaming? What would you say? A. ::Grins:: It's okay - it happened in my camping too (I have a solimond that >lives in a gun). The answer we came up with is that it depends on the anchor and the house form. My solimond's gun becomes a castle - and does not move. It sits on the far edge of the near dreaming (not to far from the far dreaming) no matter where the gun goes in the autumn world. However, an anchor that is a giant floating tuba (or cloud - like the parasome in the templates section) probably could move around in the near dreaming - though it would not have to move when the autumn world anchor did, as the near dreaming and the real world don't have to directly correspond.
Kith Questions Q. Where can I find the write ups for selkies/ ghile dhu/ clurchuain? A. Selikes are in The Toybox, Ghile Dhu in Isle of the Mighty, and Clurchuain in Court of all Kings. Q. Can my satyr use the Gift of Pan to make someone sad, or to put someone to sleep? A. As for the making someone sad - only if you have the merit Inspiration. Putting someone to sleep is under the bardic gift and outside the limit of the GoP. Q. Do you have to respond to the Gift of Pan with lust? A. No. The GoP just releases stuff that you are repressing - it can be anger, fear, lust, hunger - whatever. That's why the gift is so exciting - and so dangerous. Use with care around unseelie trolls and redcaps. Q. Can a redcap bully browbeat a member of House Fiona? A. That really depends upon role play. If the cap just tries to make the Fiona afraid for themselves then no. However, clever caps may think to threaten the Fiona's love, or to push them about in ways that aren't per say fear induced. In this case it's really up to RP and Storyteller decision. Q. Does a commoner member of a House get the benefits and flaws of that house?
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A. Okay - first off lets make a few point clear about commoners and houses. First - just because you work for/with a member of a house does not make you a member of that house. Think of it in terms of Batman - with the House Wayne. The people that work for Bruce Wayne are not members of his house. Second - working with someone closely and with great loyalty does not make you a member of a house - though it probably means you are affiliated with the house. This would be like Alfred - who is not a member of House Wayne, but who does have a very close and reciprocal relation with it. The only commoners who are members of a house are those who are adopted into the House as full members. A House is a family and the only way to be a full member is to be adopted as a member of that family. This is, of course, very, very rare. However, once a commoner is made a member of the family with formal oaths then they do get the benefits and flaws of the house (as explained in the Book Of Houses, page 25). Note that most members of a house (most player character sidhe for example) Will Not have the authority to adopt you into a house. That right is exclusive to high ranking members in the houses internal hierarchy. Q. Okay, Thallian. What is there relation to regular changelings? Is the only difference that they only have Unseelie legacies? Some of the texts insinuate that they came back from Arcadia with the sidhe and others mainly that they've always been on earth. A. The truth about their origins is - no one really knows. It is possible that some came from Arcadia with the sidhe, and some have always been on earth. As for their relation with regular changelings - they are essentially a different creature, the way Inanimae or Nuenehi are. All of them are born of dreams, but Thallain are born of evil dreams and nightmares. (If you play Werewolf a good way to think of it is that Thallain are Black Spiral Dancers - corrupt and evil reflections of the fae). If you don't have the book Shadow Court I'd recommend getting it - it's >full of stuff about thallain.
Cross Over Questions. Q. Can a Changeling become a wraith if they are killed? A. If they are killed with cold iron yes. Otherwise they go on to be reborn another day. Sidhe are unknown in this respect that would be up to St fiat. Q. Are Changelings immune to the delirium? A. Yes - though they probably will still be scared of Crinos form wolves (who wouldn't be?). Q. Is the Dreaming part of the Umbra? A. No - though the two are connected at various points and in mysterious ways. (See Dreams and Nightmares)
Seeming Questions. Q. When I look at another changeling do I see their fae mein or their mortal seeming? A. Short answer is you see both. The fae mein will be dominant if your glamour and theirs are higher than the respective banality score. However, you can still be aware of their mortal seeming. Changelings essentially see the world with split perceptions - dream and mortal worlds are both real to them. Q. Okay - what do I see when my banality is higher than my Glamour? A. You can still see fae seemings - but the world of the dreaming starts to fade slowly. You begin to loose track of it and slip slowly into the mists. If the split is bad enough I would recommend making the character roll Perception+kenning at the beginning of the scene to see if they can keep their vision straight. Q. Okay - what do others see when my Glamour is lower then my banality? A. They see your mortal seeming as being the dominant one - though they can still tell you are fae. To really see them though they have to roll Kenning+Perception (diff 6) to see the details. (So they could tell you were fae - but not that you were an Eshu wearing a cloak of 1000 colors until they made the roll).
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Q. Does a fae's mein age when they gain banality? A. Nope - the mein ages as the body does. (The only exception being the Ghille Dhu). Q. Could you have a fae who's mein if a grump, but his body is that of a child? A. Well... I suppose anything is possible.. But by the rules - No. Q. When a fae is permanently undone does their soul leave their body to be reincarnated? A. Nope - the soul is trapped and forever forgotten inside the body. Only when the mortal shell dies can they go on to be reborn. Q. What happens when a changeling is killed chimerically? A. A changeling who is killed chimerically goes into coma. This lasts for period of time based on the Mists Chart (see page 230, CtD). When he wakes up the changeling is temporarily undone, which means they can't remember their fae life. Their temporary glamour is also reduced to 0. They can be re-awakened by another fae giving them a bit of glamour. Q. What is the difference between being temporarily and permanently undone? A. When you are temporarily undone you have for one reason or another forgotten your fae existence - but you can be revived if someone else gives you some glamour. If you are permanently undone your fae soul is dead and gone, lost until you die an are reborn. (Unless you're killed with cold iron - then it's all over). Q. This is confusing - anybody come up with a way to do it without seemings? A. I'm working on it - check out this page on Seemingless Changelings (kinda).
Mortal Questions. Q. When a mortal's enchantment runs out do they go into coma? A. I'm going to have to say no to this one, despite the wording of the passage in the rule book. The sourcebook The Enchanted goes into great detail about enchantment and it's effects, as well as detailing a kind of "enchanted economy." It never mentions this "enchantment coma" and in fact makes several statements that would be ruined if this coma did happen. Think about it - would you enchant your playmates if you knew they would spend a month in a coma afterwards? And wouldn't that make it a bit to easy for hunters to track you (just follow the unconscious bodies...). The only time I have mortals go into coma is when they are enchanted and then chimerically killed. Then they go into coma as per the chart in CtD (pg 230). Q. Can you muse things other than mortals? A. No. Some dauntain may be able to ravage changelings - but it is outside the scope of most fae's power. Changelings rely upon mortals for their glamour - allowing the to muse other beings will destroy one of the fundamental aspects of mortal fae relations in the game.
Combat Questions Q. What does aggravated damage to Changelings, and what can they soak/not soak? A. Okay - by the current systems Changelings can soak everything all the time. They heal aggravated damage slower, and it is more difficult to fix with Heather Balm - but they can soak However... now that I've gone through that spiel I have to add this note in: The above statement is as close as I can figure to the current official word on the matter - and goes along with both the Changeling Storyteller guide and Vampire Revised. It is not the system I use in my personal games - for that system follow this link. Changelings and Damage.
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Q. What kind of damage should be applied in this cases either in Mundane World or Near Dreaming? A. This one is a pisser for a lot of reasons. However - I'm going to cast a vote for this. Q-1. In Brawl Combat (unarmed) between two changelings A-1. If the fight is in a freehold or the dreaming, then it is chimerical bashing damage (as the fae seeming is essentially real without mortal disbelief to screw it up). Chimerical armor can soak. Any other time it is real bashing damage, as the mortal bodies are bashing on each other. At this point is gets tricky as to wether chimerical armor works or not - it will if no mortal witness are present, it will not if mortals are about. Q-2. Done by an enchanted mortal in brawl combat A-2. Enchanted mortals do damage the same as fae in this respect. Q-3. Done by an enchanted mortal in Fire Arms Combat or Melee Combat A-3. Mortal (real) guns always do real lethal damage. Chimerical armor cannot soak this. Same goes with melee weapons unless you are in the Dreaming or a Freehold. Q. Quicksilver seems way to powerful, any tips for controlling it? A. Yes actually. First, remember that the extra actions don't occur till the next turn. Second, make sure the players burn the glam for casting a wyrd cantrip. Impose a "one cantrip per turn rule" - to keep people from stacking quicksilvers. No matter how many actions you have you can never cast more than one cantrip a turn. Finally - use the new Vampire rule about multiple actions - namely that if you have multiple actions in a turn you may not split the dice pools to take further multiple actions - you simply are allowed to use your full pool many times.
Land of 8 Million Dreams Q. I heard that Wayne Peacock, the illustrious author of Land of 8 million Dreams, is doing an unofficial FAQ for the setting - any idea where I can find it? A. Yes - though Wayne isn't all that illustrious, and he wasn't the only author. You can find it right here. Hsien FAQ. Q. No character sheet? A. Sorry - screw up during printing. Wayne Peacock is gonna make an html sheet and I'll post it here. Q. Hey - the hsien are really cool. Any suggestions for making fae work the way they do. A. Why yes - so glad you asked. Check out my page on that subject at the link Making fae more like hsien
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Changeling The Dreaming FAQ

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What are the main terms used in Changeling: The Dreaming and what do they mean?

How can cantrips be detected and countered?

Changeling: The Dreaming FAQ