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setting:arts_and_realms

Changeling House Rules

Arts and Realms

Arts:
Each of the Arts detailed in the book, starting on page 197, begins with a summary of the Art and a description of how the magic of the Art manifests when Unleashed. Each power corresponding to the five dots includes the name of the ability, a summary of the effects, the game system for the power, and the type (Chimerical, Wyrd, or either).

Chimerical cantrips do not require the player to spend Glamour. Wyrd cantrips require the player to spend one point of Glamour. Using a Realm or level of a Realm the character does not possess (C20 p. 232), increases the total cost of the cantrip by one Glamour for each Realm “cheated.” Players pay all Glamour costs for a cantrip before rolling the dice.

Under your Art, in the book, for each level there is a category called “Type” you can see if you are sending Glamour or not there.

Chemical = No Glamour
Wyrd = Glamour

Learning New Arts In Game: You need a teacher.
Learning Arts 4 and 5: You need a teacher.


Realms:
Taken alone, the Arts of the Kithain are powerful yet inchoate, great storms of potential energy which cannot be brought to heel or directed into the world. It is solely through the province of the Realms that changelings are able to master the old magic of the Dreaming, or to deploy any but the rudest and most innate miracles of Glamour.

Like all else of the Dreaming, contradictory tales abound as to the origin of the Realms. The sidhe speak of the Tuatha de Danaan taking up great tools by which they set into place the elements of the Autumn World and the Dreaming itself, and naming each in turn. The nockers and boggans speak of canny contracts signed at the dawn of time with the substance of the world itself. Some eshu speak of distant gods playing at dice for control of this or that bit of reality, and how some handed down authority over those pieces to favored children, and how less-favored children stole other pieces. The pooka simply say that magic can only ever be the marriage of aspiration and experience — what you dream and what you know — and that Glamour, and indeed life, are useless without both components.

In the end, the practical result is this: Arts must always be combined with one or more Realms, which describe what the Arts can do. Speaking broadly, the Realms of Fae and Actor allow cantrips to enhance, attack, or enchant people (or people-like things, in the case of chimera), while the Realms of Prop and Nature mostly allow cantrips to ensorcel things(and, sometimes, animals). Odd edge cases exist, of course, but those are the general rules, and these are the four great primary Realms that every changeling finds at least some facility with. More esoteric are the supplemental Realms of Scene and Time, which may never be used alone, but always enhance cantrips aimed at Fae, Actor, Nature, or Prop.

Realms are rated in dots which each grant broader and broader dominion over that which is governed by the Realm. In order to use a cantrip on a desired subject, the changeling normally must have purchased the relevant Realm (or Realms) up to the dot rating that best describes her target. However, if she lacks an appropriate rating, then all is not lost — the changeling may fold together imagination, Glamour, aspiration, and will to force the magic to bend to her will anyway. Players may target a cantrip with Realm ratings they haven’t purchased by spending a point of Glamour per “missing” Realm. Putting it all together, the final result, in game terms, is this: When casting a cantrip, the changeling rolls her rating in the Art being used + the rating of the lowest primary Realm being used. Time and Scene never change the dice pool.

Description of Realms and Supplement Realms:

  • Actor:
    This Realm grants power over the folk of the Autumn World. Its purview encompasses ordinary people, of course, but also the enchanted, Kinain, mages, and even Prodigals such as vampires and werewolves (though not the Kithain and their fae brethren).
  • Fae:
    This Realm grants power over the things and children of the Dreaming — the Kithain themselves and their stranger cousins. Its most rarefied heights also grant dominion over the odd and incomprehensible mysteries of the world, since mysteries are, in the final estimation, also gifts of the Dreaming.
  • Nature:
    This Realm encompasses the raw elements and awesome forces of nature. It is defined by a classical and holistic understanding of natural phenomena and substances, rather than a clinical one.
  • Prop:
    Prop is the Realm governing objects of all sorts, from table knives to telescopes. Props are worked objects not falling into the parameters of the Nature Realm, including all refined metals, plastics, and compound materials. Prop can never, under any circumstances, affect objects made of cold iron.
  • Scene:
    Scene is one of the two modifier Realms. It cannot be used to ground an Art on its own, but must instead be used in conjunction with Actor, Fae, Nature, or Prop. Scene expands the effects of the Realm it modifies to encompass as many relevant targets as the changeling desires within the described zone — for example, if Scene were coupled with Actor 4, a cantrip could be used upon all of the changeling’s enemies within the area; if it were combined with Prop 4, the changeling might enchant all of the cars in a parking lot. Using Scene always raises the difficulty of a cantrip by 1.
  • Time:
    Time is one of the two modifier Realms. It cannot be used to ground an Art on its own, but must instead be used in conjunction with Actor, Fae, Nature, or Prop. Time allows the changeling to manipulate a cantrip in various ways, winding its Glamour through time in increasingly complex permutations. Using Time always raises the difficulty of a cantrip by 1.

You can learn realms on your own, but they need to be accompanied with scenes of your character working on them.

setting/arts_and_realms.txt · Last modified: 2022/Jun/25 20:09 by dro