Roleplay Brainstorming

First topic message reminder :

Firstly, if I need to move this someplace else I will...

Now... This will be where we think over everything I just didint want to litter up the CBOX with logistical things. SOOZ here we go. Remember to be respectful of all ideas because they are all important.

I would prefer keeping werebeasts more traditional. If we go with the route you are proposing Zalgo, then there would be a time within each month that were would be animalistic and unable to really contribute much more than murder to the roleplay. Keeping at just one day, then the werebeasts would be more able, depending on the phase of the moon to contribute instead of having to worry simply about protecting their territory or accidentally killing people.

Oh, no, what I'm trying to convey is they're all fully available whenever. They're just named for moon phases, and some are more dangerous instinctually than others. Werebeasts can learn to control themselves in Gibbous and Full after years of practice, but some Werebeasts aren't really in control. Full Moon'd still be a night all Werebeasts turn and go full-on lunatic.

On the Werebeasts, what if we met halfway? So the "juvenile" Were's are almost always out of control in the latter half of the moon stages, but with practice, they're able to exercise control over their stages? But I agree with Faith, that it seems a bit complicated. Why don't we just say that Were's can always access their hybrid forms (eg, bipedal wolves a la Dragon Age: Origins) which retain their human self control, but when the full moon rises, they turn into giant bestial wolves. With practice, an adult can learn to carry his human mind through into that form as well, but it usually takes years of tough study. That way, Zalgo gets his unpredictable nature, and Faith gets her more traditional simplicity As for weaknesses, aye, I think that silver would probably be the best way to do things....maybe add another weakness in, but I reckon they can get beaten up and battered, but can only really be seriously wounded or killed by silver. I also think that, whilst they can access their form anytime, maybe they're markedly stronger if the moon is up (regardless of what type of moon it is)?

As for Skinchangers, I would say reflective glass and some other reflective surfaces, yes. It's common enough to be a problem they have to think about, but not so common that they are effectively depowered.

As for Glamours, the way I always looked at glamours was just a tangible illusion-in-a-bottle, not emotional magic. At the moment, we don't really have a Fae spellcaster, and I always envisaged Fae glamours being personal to them, regardless of whether they could craft it themselves. I only suggested Warlocks because all an Animoid would need is a tangible illusion, which a Warlock should be able to create with ease. It also balances the races a little; he Changelings already have quite a bit of utility, and this adds a specific role that the warlocks fit into. If you were deadset on having the Fae able to make slightly more powerful glamours, however, it could be that those glamours are more expensive and some people are slightly distrustful of Fae...they distrust warlocks as well, but "Better the Devil you know," after all.

What does everybody think?

Like I said earlier, all Changelings deal in Glamour, emotional energy that they leech from strong emotions being felt by humans nearby. The weaker the Changeling's Wyrd is, the less Glamour they can store. Glamour keeps their Mask up so normal humans don't see their Mien, which is their true form so to speak. Glamour also lets Changelings use their Contracts, which are pretty much all magical. Contracts can be made with anything, from animals to fire to other people to mirrors to summer to luck and everything in between. That said, some Contracts are more taxing than others. For instance, one Contract held with Darkness, commonly called "Contract of Night's Subtle Distractions", asks the senses of a person or group of people to become more perceptive to background noises, darkness, and strong smells. This Contract costs little Glamour and produces a small effect that increases Stealth for the Changeling for a small time. Another Contract, this one held with Reflections, commonly called "Contract of Mirror Walk", allows a Changeling to use a reflective surface as a sort of gateway to another reflective surface within a mile that they have been reflected in for at least one minute in the past week. This Contract costs a much larger amount of Glamour, generally depleting a Changeling's Glamour for the day if used more than once. This may make Changelings seem overpowered, but certain Contracts can only be taken by certain Seemings, with the only Contracts that can be taken by any and all Changelings being Contracts of Communion (communicating with Elements but not controlling them.), Contracts of Dreaming (Dream Magic, generally shaping them), Contracts of the Hearth (Minor Blessings, usually involving good luck), Contracts of Moon (Madness sense, Madness invoking, Madness curing), Contracts of Mirrors (Disguises galore), Contracts of Omens (Minor Divinations, not as well as Oracles would be able to, only usually about a month at most in either direction), Contracts of Reflections (Use mirrors for transportation, spying, and that's about it.), Contracts of Smoke (Misdirection in its purest form), Contracts of Spirit and Soul (Obligatory "Commune with the dead"), and Goblin Contracts (Very dangerous Contracts that always backfire on their user. Proceed with caution.). Contracts of Darkness are Darkling specific, Contracts of Vainglory are Fairest specific, Contracts of Artifice are Wizened specific, Contracts of Fang and Talon are Beast specific, Contracts of Elements are Elemental specific, and Contracts of Stone are Ogre specific. No other Seemings may take these Contracts other than the ones specified, and Court Contracts are only available to members of their given Courts.

That said, I would call some Illusion spells glamours, lowercase G. A Changeling's Glamour can do more than an Illusion glamour could, but an Illusion glamour can be done more often. For instance, a Changeling could enact a Contract of Mirrors maybe twice a day, whereas a Warlock might be able to cast an Alter Appearance spell any number of times, so long as they had the spell components. Quality vs. Quantity.

I may have overcomplicated things again. Sorry if I did, I just like to try and make these things more clear. I also may seem like I'm favoring Changelings. I'm not trying to, they're just the ones I have the most experience with. I've never played a Werebeast nor a Vampire to my knowledge, and the only Mages I've played were in D&D and Pathfinder. Anything I played that could use magic in most roleplays have been due to weapons' special abilities primarily.

I think we should probably simplify it to a couple of "Contracts" per Seeming, Zalgo. It seems way too overly complicated right now, especially for four Changeling types. As for Glamours, the Mask is good for Changelings, but my impression is that it's hard to make one for non-changelings. I think it's probably better if we just say that Changelings don't need to go to a Warlock for Glamours, but other creatures do because it is far easier and cheaper to get a Warlock to give you an "Illusion in a bottle." As for "Fae Glamours can do more," how do you know? These are our warlocks, and considering that Warlocks specialise in illusions, I would actually suggest that Warlock illusions are just as good as Changeling illusions...they can just be applied to anything. I know you have most experience with Changelings, but this is about balancing the races. Even if Changeling glamours are stronger, I think we should stick to "Changeling glamours are non-transferrable," just to give the Warlocks something that they can do that the Changelings can't. It's all a matter of balancing it properly.

I know I don't like basing things (plot especially) off shows and whatnot, but as a suggestion... 

In Wolf's Rain, the wolves can shift into human form at will, however if some people look veeeeery carefully they can kinda see the wolf. Also their shadows remain wolf-shape. So they can hide as humans if they need to but have to be careful still because some people can still tell (that helps with avoiding RP God-Modding as well). They also have the ability to communicate with other animals, and in their natural wolf forms they can still speak to humans (although they generally don't because they freak people out that way. Like "wtf is that wolf talking to me??"). In human forms they still have canine-like senses (advanced smells, sight, hearing, etc.) and eat what a wolf eats (raw meat, berries, etc. They can eat things like hotdogs but they don't find them all that tasty. The usual canine poisons (chocolate, bananas, grapes, etc.) are still poisonous to them). 

TL;DR: They are wolves, but can shift into human form at will. They still maintain some canine aspects (what they eat and their advanced senses) and this sometimes causes limitations.

In the anime, wolves can heal very quickly, especially during the full moon, so while they can die, they don't die easily. They can also jump in their human form to crazy heights and lengths. Because this is a roleplay, I think maybe we should ignore those traits because that would make the characters way too powerful. Although they already have some weaknesses, I feel the traits I just mentioned sort of make up for that, and I don't really like having characters that are too powerful, or the roleplay isn't fun anymore.

That seems good to me, Jadey-kins...we were just thinking that maybe Glamours would be available to help disguise the creatures that find it harder to hide, so it wouldn't be entirely unreasonable to have these creatures getting a small glamour to cover up the ears and tail and whatnot, haha.

=D Yey! Sounds like a good idea! Happy!!

So. A little side question. Would the mate's magic have to be taught from a parent or is the magic naturally learned?

Magic'd be naturally learned. An Awakening of sorts would happen around the character's 13th-20th birthday.

Murdoch, I dunno if I like the loss of Contracts. That list I made is already cut down, removing Contracts of Hours, Contracts of Thorns and Brambles, Contracts of Board, Contracts of the Directional Courts, Dusk Court Contracts, Dawn Court Contracts, Sun Court Contracts, Moon Court Contracts, Contracts of Entropy, Contracts of Lucidity, Contracts of the Wild, Contracts of Animation, Contracts of the Den, Contracts of Oath and Punishment, Contracts of Separation, and Contracts of the Board. If it were to be cut down any further, however, I wouldn't say no to removing Contracts of Omen and Contracts of Dreaming, since Omens are covered by Oracles, and I don't see Dreams happening a lot in-game.

Also, another thing I forgot to mention, each Contract Group (i.e. Contracts of Darkness, Contracts of Vainglory.) has only 5 Contract Clauses that can be accessed. The only exception is Goblin Contracts, but if you're using a Goblin Contract, you're either extremely naive or extremely desperate at the moment.

I didn't mean cutting them out; I only meant that the contracts available would only be those that would be available to the four Changelings that we have at the moment. Besides, I think we should remove certain contracts that are already covered by other races (as you say, like the Contract of Omens) so that the Changelings aren't the "We can do EVERYTHING so you other species are obsolete!"
I'm just trying to think of a way of balancing everything and stopping one species from being able to do too much and render another species obsolete. When you have several species that you're trying to balance properly, there are things you'll need to edit or remove to make each species playable within the larger setting. *shrug*.

Alright, redundant Contracts'd be Contracts of Omen, Contracts of Spirit and Soul, and Contracts of Dreaming. Other than that, all the other contracts're pretty unique, save for Contracts of Elements, but those're only available to one Seeming and that Seeming isn't being used currently. Keeping it in there for in case a later appearance from our Elemental friends. Same with Contracts of Fang and Talon for Beasts.

The ones that're Seeming-dependent are as follows.
Vainglory (Social Bonuses) - Fairest (Shadowsouls)
Darkness (Stealth and Fear) - Darklings (Nightsingers)
Artifice (Item Creation, Repair, or Destruction) - Wizened (Smiths)
Stone (Strength Bonuses) - Ogres (Gristlegrinders)

The "Universal" Contracts are as follows.
Communion (Communicate with Elements, but can't control them.)
Hearth (Luck Enhancers with Major Restrictions, i.e. can't be used more than once a day without major consequences.)
Mirrors (Appearance/Voice Mimicry. Not permanent, only last about 3 hours at most.)
Moon (Make others crazy at the cost of your own sanity.)
Reflections (Walk/See through Reflective Surfaces.)
Smoke (Make yourself easier or harder to track.)
Goblin Contracts (All are easy to learn and cost little Glamour, but are all flawed in that they later cause problems for the Changeling. Contracts include "Clause of Sight of Truth and Lies", "Clause of Diviner's Madness", "Clause of Fair Entrance", "Clause of Fool's Gold", "Clause of the Blessing of Forgetfulness", "Clause of the Burden of Life", "Clause of Goblin Midwife", "Clause of Mirror, Mirror", "Clause of Goblin Oath", "Clause of Royal Oil", "Clause of Blood-Binding", "The Fatal Clause", "Clause of Mad Trespass", "Clause of Riot", "Clause of Sabotage", and "Clause of Lost and Found". Drawbacks are told when Contract is taken [I'll PM anyone who takes a Goblin Contract.])

We'll ignore Court Contracts for the moment. I know I'm not planning on being part of a Court at the beginning, if at all, so we'll get to those if/when it happens.

Any objections from the court?

I'd say....get rid of "mirrors," since that is too much like what a Skinchanger can do and we don't want too much overlap between the species. Go through the contracts that are there and remove any that are too much like another creatures power, and we should be fine. As for the glamours, do you have any objection to the Changelings glamours being unique to the Changeling, so everybody else has to go to a Warlock to get their glamour, which is expensive but - depending on the warlock - just as good/convincing as a Changelings (considering that the Warlocks primary power is illusion, saying "but it isn't as good as the Changelings isn't exactly fair. )?

Contracts of Mirrors are different to Skinchangers in that you can also change your size, change what Kith you appear to be, change parts of your body without changing the whole, or turn yourself into an inanimate object for a short time. That's why I kept them in there.

Changelings don't have glamours. Changelings have Glamour. The difference being glamour is a type of illusion magic alongside phantasms, figments, patterns, and shadows, whereas Glamour is emotional energy used to enact Contracts and keep the Mask active to camouflage their Mien from mortals. After doing some minor research, I have discovered no Contracts that can mask other species' looks within Changeling Contracts, so Warlocks can have it all. My apologies.

Eh, ok. Is there a limit to the amount of contracts a Kith can have at one time? The sheer amount of Contracts available to the Changelings seems...excessive if there isn't a limit of some kind besides financial.

As for Glamour/glamours, I would possibly think about changing the name of one of them to avoid confusion later down the line, but besides that, meh. Seems like we're all sorted on that aspect.

Depends on their Wyrd. Where I got these from, it was "Max Contracts = Wyrd+5", so that'd translate to a maximum of 15 for someone with maximum Wyrd, which is exceedingly rare. Most Changelings would have a Wyrd somewhere between 2 and 5, so 7-10 Contracts maximum. Since we're not using stats, I'd say base it off how much power you think the Changeling has. Someone who just escaped Arcadia'd only have, like, 4-5 Contracts, whereas someone who's been practicing for a while might have upwards of 13. Character I made only has 6, since he's been out for about a year. Contracts aren't the easiest things to come by.

Well....that still seems excessive given the power scale of this RP. You have Mages, which have two general powers, you have Shifters which can shapeshift so only have one power really, you have Vampires which have enhanced physical abilities +1 power...and then you have Changelings which can have anything from 4-15 powers. Even if Contracts are difficult to come by, that still seems potentially hugely overpowered to me. I don't know how everybody else feels, but don't you think that 6 separate powers of the strength you are suggesting is way too much given the nature of the other species in this RP?

Oh, no, don't get me wrong, to get the higher level powers you gotta go through the meh-tier powers. As an example, I'll type out the 6 Contracts I've taken, none of which is higher than a 2nd-tier power, where each Contract has 5 tiers (Save for Goblin Contracts, but those one's fuck up their user more than they fuck up who they're used against.)

Darkness Contracts:
Clause of Creeping Dread: This clause causes those affected to become less resistant to fear or intimidation. The target or targets initially feels a mild shudder of fear and then becomes considerably more susceptible to any event that could make them afraid or intimidated, including anything that might trigger a Phobia. This clause can only affect one person every hour.
Clause of Night's Subtle Distractions: This clause allows the Lost to avoid notice by enhancing physical conditions that limit perception. A dark night seems darker, background noises that obscure the changeling's footsteps seem louder, distractions become more distracting and strong smells can even block a bloodhound's ability to track the changeling. This does not remove the possibility of being found, it just increases the chances of not being found.

Mirror Contracts:
Clause of Riddle-Kith: This clause has its roots in purely Fae intrigues, allowing Changelings to interact with one another without being recognized. It works with the fundamental nature of Changeling physiology to allow a Changeling to seem as if s/he hails from some Kith or Seeming other than her own. Riddle-Kith works exclusively on the general features of a Mien, meaning that it creates only the impression that the individual is of a certain Seeming. In other words, it won’t allow the Changeling to selectively alter her features, nor will it permit the changeling to emulate a specific Changeling, but it will give a clear impression of belonging to an entirely different Seeming or Kith. This Clause does not affect the Mask.
Clause of Skinmask: The Changeling alters his/her flesh to appear as another individual. This change affects only a single limb or other aspect of the character, so only his/her hands or his/her face or his/her back can be made to resemble that of another person. This clause is often used to enhance disguises, though it is sometimes used to emulate unique birthmarks, signature tattoos, etc. It affects both Mask and Fae Mien. The feature so modeled must be a real feature that exists on a known subject, and it must come from a human (or at least partially human) source.

Reflection Contracts:
Clause of Reflections of the Past: The changeling can look into any reflective surface, from a mirror, to a pond, and see anything that has been reflected there in the last week. Said reflections may be seen by anybody nearby for up to 1 hour and may not be photographed or otherwise recorded except by memory.
Clause of Glimpse of a Distant Mirror: The Changeling can look into any reflective surface and use it to see out of another reflective surface in which his/her face has been reflected in the past week. If the surface reflects poorly, like a somewhat dirty pot lid, the image the changeling sees is similarly distorted and blurred. This Contract may only be used once a day and only for up to 5 minutes.


They're all Contracts. They're binding for both parties.

I think you're missing the point, Zalgo...your character still has more powers and abilities than any other species in the RP. My concern is that the sheer amount of contracts will mean that you have no need of other characters. I don't mind these contracts being diverse, my only qualm is with the sheer number that you have access to at any one time. Look at the Skinchangers; they have ONE power. Same with the Were's. The Vampires have two powers, with a few abilities that stem out of those powers or physical characteristics (like the Nosferatu's climbing). The Mages all have two general powers...your character has six of the damn things, with the potential to get more as the RP goes on. Can you not see why I would be hesitant to agree to a character that has that many different abilities?

That's true. Eh, fuck it, take Changelings out. I'll save this character for another game, make a new one for this game. I don't mind.

And before you say "No, wait, we don't have to do that, we can find a way to fit them to the roleplay," don't. I've made my choice, and I highly doubt anyone else was going to play one. Jade's thinkin' of the animal-to-person species, I know Kristie's character due to us talking about it in the Chatbox, and Faith's plannin' the half-human. You're the only wildcard, Murdoch, and I sense you'd rather play a Vamp or a Mage than a Changeling. We'll stick to Vamps, Shapeshifters, Mages, and Humans.

Well....so long as you're sure. I know you said not to say it, but you don't have to take them out if you don't want to. Just making that clear, heh. If you're sure about taking Changelings out, then I won't argue. Just saying that you don't have to.

As for my character...I haven't decided yet, but looking at what everyone else is doing, you're right. I would probably go for an Ordo Dracul or a Mage of some description. It depends how I feel when I create the character. *shrug*. Who knows? I might go for a human, if we make a Hunter faction. I honestly don't know myself, which might be why I'm so intent on balancing the different species properly, haha.

Really, the only reason I was so intent on Changelings was so I could play a Nightsinger whose only modes of communication were body language, writing, and singing. Like, could only "speak" through song lyrics.

Alas, new character concept is in the works. Prob'ly a Mage. Seems more my style than the other races.

Heh...sounds like it would be interesting, but would get very difficult to keep up very quickly.

Hmm...well, let me know what type of Mage you're thinking of, so I can avoid doubling up.

After looking back at the list you made again, I noticed you left Force Magic off of Magus. Are we not including Force Magic or are we tossing that into another category?

As for what kind of Mage I was planning, it's currently a toss-up between Magus, Enchanter, and Necromancer. Magus because Offensive Capabilities, Enchanter because it's usually my go-to, and Necromancer because Blood Magic, yo.

Did I? Huh. Well, what do you mean by "Force Magic?"

Aaah, ok. That reminds me, we need to kind of specify what Blood Magic actually is/can do, so we have a record to refer back to. We need to also specify things like the limitations and capabilities of Necromancy and Magus magic...so with Necromancy, can you raise corpses AND summon Ghosts and wraiths? And do you just utter some spells, use rituals or does it depend on the person as to what helps them focus? With Magus, what "Elemental" spells do they have access to, or is it just a "Conjure a natural 'element' and use it to attack?" Little details like that, haha.