NO ART, BUT LOTS OF WORDS

CHANGELING CHANGES

PURPOSE - Why did I bother>
HISTORY - Me as a White Wolf consumer (long, self-pitying and tiresome)
THE CAM - Why I'll never be a paid member again (love and loathing)
CHANGELING - What I love what doesn't work (juxtaposition and confusion) BUNKS - Dear God, Why are they SOOO complicated? (some alternatives)
ARTS - Alright, I'm just going to do the whole powers and kith thing over. It'll all have to go (but I'll save what I can.)
TOR of a THOUSAND TOWERS - a LARP Scenario I first wrote when I was really, really mad. (I've fixed it some since then)

yokeltania@yahoo.com) and I have an on-again, off-again love affair with White Wolf. Every time it seems like they've done something brilliant, they throw in three buckets of muck to even it out. Every time it seems like the World of Darkness games do nothing but breed contemptable cowards, I run into a shining example of humanity among their players. I'd like it to be cut and dried, but nothing's that easy.

So, what I'd like to do is offer some suggestions that I think would make games run smoother. I'd like to record a few of my observations of the Camarilla (official fan club of the World of Darkness) and say why I go and why I stay away. I've given the URL to this site to a couple people in the "Cam" who've earned my respect (although, admittedly, more as people than anything else.) Maybe it'll serve as appropriate feedback. Maybe I'm fucked in the mouth.

This first part is a lengthy and argumentative essay. You may want to skip down to the alternate rules and see if they catch your fancy.

CAM commentaries for a good time. The remaining paragraphs are from the 2001 version of this page and I think they're still pretty good.

THE CAM
Before I say anything else, you should know that, at long last, after almost a decade, I have played in a fun Camarilla game. No, I swear to god, I head fun. Of course, the usual complement of mean little bullies was there (people who think roleplaying means skulking in the corner and threatening anyone who talks too loudly - sadly, according to the original Mind's Eye Rules, they may be right), but people like Mike Webb and the other thoughtful members of the Pueblo, CO domain of the Camarilla, Shared Hallucinations made up for it. They are willing to take a chance, willing to learn and willing to change. They're straightforward and open minded and the kind of people the Camarilla really needs. Of course, I just found out today I can't make it to any more games, but who knows, maybe I'll have a day off sometime soon.

As you may well know, the World of Darkness has its own very special fan club. Called the Camarilla or the Cam for short, it focuses mostly on Live Action Roleplaying. As an organization, it makes an effort to contribute to the community, in the form of charity events (mostly) and seems to have its civic heart in the right place. Unfortunately, I always seem to regret going to Camarilla games and that's not right.

Recently, I went to a game that was an exception. It was run by none other than Mike Webb, a friend of mine from college, who has a very straightforward and enviable style. He was certainly a notch up on most Camarilla STORYTELLERS I've run into in that he can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Okay, that's not fair. The problem with observing Cam games is that the STORYTELLERS take a lot of unneccessary abuse both coming and going. I have no idea what's going on in the nightmarish infrastructure of that horrible organization, but the guys who work for it seem to hate it as much as the players hate the STORYTELLERS. Now, it used to be that only guys willing to shell out extra cash got to run stories. I've been assured it isn't that way anymore, but there still seems to be a wary vagueness to the whole thing.

Don't let anyone tell you that a good organization always generates some resentment, because that just isn't true. Power generates resentment and unneccessary or disorganized power even more so. Without a doubt, that's what the whole Cam is about. It's about power.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this. It's a basic drive to seek power and if a gaming club offers it, then there's no reason not to pursue it. But one of the questions you have to ask yourself before pursuing any individual type of power is "is it worth it." So far, for me, the answer has been no.

That's not to say that I don't desire power. I do. But I'd like to have a different kind of effect on the world. I go to LARPs to relax and have fun (an important element of power seeking, I've come to beleive.) I want to pretend to struggle for power, not really to grab for it.

Perhaps this is the biggest problem with the Cam. It mixes the power it offers up. Pretend power and power within the organization are awarded hand in hand. Therefore, when someone comes along just to play a game, you practically have to portray a powerless buffoon just to have any fun. Otherwise, you find yourself faced with a hopeless waste of time and money. I like playing a buffoon sometimes, but I also like to have other choices.

There are some other problems with the Camarilla members, too. But that's just the human affinity for sprouting a few new asses in big groups. People can usually live with these guys if there are other elements to balance it out.

I still like LARPs. I refused to show up at Cam games for a long time, but I fear I was being unreasonable. Unfortunately, I've said this before and lived to regret it.

That having been said, here's what the Camarilla has going for it:

Anyone can play. The first game is usually free and more and more groups seem to be moving away from sucking that double eagle outta your pocket. Unless you break a law, you're probably not gonna get kicked out.
It's big. The Camarilla is all over the place. You can go to other countries and probably find a troupe and a game to play. That's a pretty good resource right there.
It's friendly. At least, the first time you show up, if you make an effort to play (and play it big), you'll get lost of praise and awards. It does a faltering ego no end of good.
They usually have someplace... interesting to play. The Cam has enough resources and clout to accomodate its players in big, unusual spaces. Other LARPs may leave you playing in a park or, even worse, a public mall. Not good. The Camarilla, on the otherhand, is pretty good at finding private places where people won't look at you funny.

Here's what doesn't work:

You have to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" over and over and over again. God I hate that game and it just doesn't get any better. In the first addition rules, you could, at least, relent (give up, let the other guy's view of the world hold sway in exchange for not playing that damn game.) Now they got this static challenge crap where you gotta play it, even if it has nothing to do with your persona. It makes using your powers and trying to challenge other players, and yourself, something to absolutely, totally and completely dread. As in all White Wolf products (I have never found an exception to this), this is the biggest problem. The concept is cool, innovative even, but the system just starts to hurt after a while. I mean really hurt.
ALTERNATIVES: Alas, I have no alternatives at this time. I'm too busy with other things to think of one.
The storyline. They got this big, over-arcing storyline that they're super proud of at the Cam, but, man is it ragged. The Storytellers groan and scramble when it changes suddenly (and it changes very suddenly) and the players never seem to grasp it, let alone being directly affected by it. You get this sense of muffled tympany a long way off, but there's no way to get any closer to it. It only adds to the feeling of powerlessness and desperation that already pervades the games. Man, that is no fun.
ALTERNATIVES: Actually, Mike Webb and the Pueblo, CO Camarilla group seem to be working on some promising ones. Mike has some sort of award system in place where you can make drastic changes to the local storyline. In addition, he gave every player one "wish" (within reason) that could alter the local plotline any way they wanted. This is cool. Certainly, the way to handle it would seem to be splitting things up into local level events and just letting the big plotline die away. The Camarilla is supposed to exist as scattered enclaves, anyway. Maybe you could have a few rustlings, but it really doesn't MEAN anything if it doesn't directly affect local players.

The Cam does seem to be improving here and there. Back when I stuck my foot in that beartrap in Oregon, the arrogant little shits that ran the club were so lazy that they said "Any player worth his salt can easily work himself into a storyline." That is just plain wrong. New players have neither the experience nor the contacts to work themselves into a story. Nor do they have the motivation. They are trying the club out, not the other way around. The Cam, in its self-perceived greatness, often forgets that. Followers are just as important as leaders, just not in the same way.

Anyway, it appears that I'm neither a good roleplayer or a clever LARPer, which is fine. A good game should appeal to both the Lowest Common Denominator and still have a little left over for those who are a little better. People seem to like Shakespear because you can be at a comedy for the witty puns or the bawdlery or watch a tragedy for the blood and gore or the drama. The good and the bad aren't exclusive, you can have it both ways, but you gotta care about people more than power.

CHANGELING
I really don't like playing a vampire. I only liked mage for the mad scientist character class and I found that Werewolf and Wraith are more playable games if you switch the rules governing the two species (the shadow idea from Wraith is pefect for reflecting the uncertainty of werewolf transformations and the eco-terrorist nature of The Apocalypse just seems to fit in better with wraiths, especially from my rather limited folklorist viewpoint. It works even better if the worm is a more generic corruption of the soul that wraiths are moved to fight. They can see it, being dead and all, while no one else can. You can leave the fetters with ghosts and the rage with the wolves, though.)

But my boat really ran aground when it came to Changeling. Of all the games I'd run into so far, it seemed to have the most promise. I loved the idea of a magical world superimposed over the modern one. I had really enjoyed Jack the Giant Killer and Greenmantle by Charles deLint, so I got all hot and heavy over the game. What's more, at the time, it didn't have too many promising competitors. In fact, I couldn't wait for the game to come out as a LARP. The costuming possibilities alone made me do a little dance. Here was a game where I could wear tennis shoes and ermine and get away with it.

As with most White Wolf products to date, it was all promise and no delivery. All the experiences I had with the game were pretty miserable, though, and the main reasons soon became obvious.

I tried a few games with my regular group, but they soon voiced vigorous complaints and demanded we return to playing R. Talsorian's excellent Castle Falkenstein (which I didn't mind at all.) My group's complaints fell into two categories:

They didn't really want to be any of the faerie species listed in the book (they would have preferred to be able to create their own)
For a game about breaking all the rules, you were sure stuck with a whole bunch of complex rules.

I got really The LARP scenario I wrote was meant to appeal to both types of players, clever ones and the ones like myself, as well as being quick-start (the most appealing thing about White Wolf LARP rules is that they don't always require that much prep time.) I also came up with a few other rules and world modifications, which I include here and hope someone will adapt.

CHANGELING RADE

The Rade is a term I dug out of Katherine Briggs. It refers to an eerie moonlit parade of lorldy faeries, usually the Seelie court. Often times, souls of the recently departed can be seen amongst their number. Sometimes the Rade leads to a great feast or tournament on some lonely spot and that is exactly what the Tor of a Thousand Towers scenario is about (you may want to use the Tor link right now if you don't want to read rules changes.)

The Tor storyline uses Motleys, which are sort of skimmed over in the main rules, to provide artificial motivations for players like myself. It also provides these players with friends and allies that share a common motivation. They also provides players with history, problems and powers. You can still make up an individual character, but that character comes into the game with friends and resources relevant to the story.

The original version of the Clans in MET was like that (no one actually provided Nosferatu players with any secrets, etc., however), but that got skipped for a system that actually forces you to play rock-paper-scissors, no matter how much you "relent."

I hate rock-paper-scissors. I knew I'd wasted thirty bucks when I bought the first, boxed version of Minds Eye Theatre, but I attempted to recoup anyway. There are many other ways you can solve disputes. Here's some simple ones.

You could have a simple numbers-comparing system. This system could even use the traits that come with the basic game. Whoever has the most traits would win the conflict, although it would not always be necessary to reveal how many traits you had.
You could modify traits so that certain ones worked only under specific conditions. That would make it more uncertain whether or not any given player would win conflicts in general, but make it obvious that certain fights/arguments or puzzles would probably go to that player. For instance, you could have Tenacious work only in a fight where the character is facing tremendous forces or Alert work only when a player is trying to gain information off another.
Greg Stolze, who writes stuff for WW's Hunter had a pretty good variation on rock-paper-scissors which he presented in the Usagi Yojimbo RPG (I read about this on the Unknown Armies mailing list.) Instead of bidding rock, paper or scissors, you make a Full Effort, a Cautious Effort or a Complete Defense. A Cautious Effort beats a Complete Defense. A Complete Defense defeats a Full out Effort and a Full out Effort beats a Cautious one. If you lost to a Full out Effort, you forfeit double the amount of traits you bid on the conflict. If you lose to a Complete Defense, no traits are forfeit on either side and if you lose to a Cautious Effort, you lose only the amount of traits you bid. I guess you could still use the Rock-Paper-Scissors hand game for this, substituting Rock for Full out Effort, Scissors for Cautious and Paper for Complete Defense, but I'd find some other way.
You could have everyone carry around playing cards (actually, this is a suggestion for how glamours might work and is explained below.) Certain suits could be played to correspond to abilities you may want to use. For instance, if your character has Spades and Hearts (or even swords and cups, for the Tarot-oriented) in Fighting ability, that player could play any Spades or Hearts cards they carried to attack another (who could use similar means to defend themselves.) Players would compare the ranks of the cards to see who won. Whenever you play a card on another player, for attack or defense, thay other player would keep the card for later use.
You could use modified improvisational rules or street theatre tactics I have a full system for UA dedicated to this idea which you may wish to investiage, but there are no links leading back here.

CHANGELING BUNKS
Magic in Changeling is really wonky. (So I redid the whole dang system, but I tried to leave some of it in... let's call it: Changeling: The Abrogation.) It takes way too many steps and it isn't very much fun. The system calls it "glamour" and explains its complex nature in saying that the fey must do quite a bit to overcome the boring nature of the real world with that of dreams. It also means that LARPers, already pressured to work themselves into non-existant plots, break through cliquish barriers and invent their own storylines must learn to exploit even more confusing game dynamics than social interaction. No wonder all my friends gave up. There are two ways I would prefer to handle glamours.

Playing card or Tarot cards should work very well to represent glamours, especially if you like Lewis Carroll imagery. Assign each Art that your character can use a number of suits, depending on how advanced you are in it. Whenever you cast a glamour on someone, you have to give them a card. You can use as many cards as you want, so long as they all have the same suit as the Art you are invoking. If you want to keep the "overcoming banality" part of the game in there, then the rank of whatever card you play must be higher than the area's Banality. If you want to keep bunks in there, then you have to perform a Bunk of equal rank to each card you play (which might mean you have to do several silly stunts in a row to cast one difficult spell. That seems right.)

Alternately, you could make a Bunk the only thing you really require to cast a glamour. Just pull out one randomly and do the trick and "poof" the spell goes off. That saves a lot of time and trouble.

Some other changes I suggest making in the game are to the setting, so you may want to stop reading now if you like the World of Darkness version of fay life and go back to the Tor lest you get really angry.

The first thing to do is allow other players benefits from the noble houses rather than reserving these pittancs for the already over-powered and preposterous Sidhe. Now, I'm from the US, so I don't much like the idea of a bunch of bluebloods taking over the magical parts of my country. I really dislike nobility. That doesn't mean the invasion from Arcadia didn't happen, I just don't like the Sidhe being unstoppable tyrants. I think they should be tyrants who can be hindered by heroes or commoner mobs. (You try raising a commoner mob in a Changeling game sometime. It's damn near impossible, but better than sitting around wondering what the fat bastards playing the nobles are whispering about. Try reading Alan Moore's V for Vendetta first, but that might inspire you to flush most of your RPGs down the toilet, so be careful to have a plumber's number on hand.)

Now, most people who play Sidhe don't consider themselves tyrants, which is great. Tyrants who don't think they're oppressors are the best kind to overthrow. I encourage this kind of thinking from all players who like being high-born. If you play a nobleman, try and corrupt the other noble fey as much as possible and lead them to acts which will enrage the commoners (watch Quills for some ideas.) Part of the fun of this kind of LARP is such machiavellan politics.

Also, I would recommend making all Glamour tactile. Using playing cards as I have suggested above is one good way of doing this. (You could make the two black suits be glamour that came from Nightmares and the two red ones, hearts and diamonds, magic from daydreams and wishes your heart makes.) You could also use poker chips, bags of sand or even little chocolate coins. Glamour works really well if it stands in as an alternate monetary source for the fey, both because characters start out with some and because quests for gold are very high fantasy.

Try to work money into your Changeling game in some way, anyway. The easiest way to give yourself a reason to interact is to try and sell people stuff. This, of course, requires that each player have a certain amount of cash at the start of the game. I don't see this as a problem.

You can read more about the Tor of a Thousand Towers now because that's all I've got to say.

Or you can read the horrific new set of powers - Changeling: The Abrogation - and there's new Kith, too. I tried to smush KITH and HOUSES together. I mean, BOTH is way too complex and bad politics.

This was originally written in 2000 by Rp Bowman. It got altered in May, 2001 and again in October, 2002, as the wounds slowly heal. Then I did some more work after Munchkin BITES came out in 2005. Feel free to pester him with questions, praise or frenetic defenses of the big WW at yokeltania@yahoo.com. Remember, I don't hate White Wolf, I just don't play with them much anymore.