[C:tL] Tidbits from the Demo Copy

[Jadasc]

Preamble
I've just gotten home from the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas. There's all sorts of news and anecdotes to share, but I'm following up on a statement I'd made in the main Changeling: The Lost thread: as part of the White Wolf retailer swag bag (along with a free copy of Scion -- awesome), we got early copies of the C:tL demo game. I'm not going to transcribe the whole thing; no desire, and Ms. Barnes-Herman would be sad if I did. On the other hand, a few spoilery bits here and there seem to be par for the course.

Vocabulary
Contracts are the special Changeling powers.
Wyrd is the Changeling power stat, analogous to Gnosis, Azoth, and so on. Having a Wyrd that's too high can gain you a Ban.
Clarity is the morality stat, and is said to be "a measure of how well [the characters] can distinguish the elements of Fairie [sic] from those of the mortal world." Characters with high Clarity can easily distinguish between the two worlds, and have some facility with detecting other supernatural things; characters with low Clarity often confuse dreams with reality.
The Mask is the illusion that makes all things fae appear as mundane versions of themselves, Changelings included. You can spend a point of Glamour to allow individuals to see through the mask, or to strengthen your Mask enough that other fae things cannot see through it -- but your shadow will betray your true nature. (No caps; it may be your actual shadow.) You can empty your whole Glamour pool at once to allow everyone in the scene to see your fae form; this is an exception to the rule that your expenditure of Glamour per turn is capped by your Wyrd.
Glamour is the resource, naturally. There are apparently many ways to gain Glamour, but the only one detailed in the Demo involves finding a human who's experiencing strong emotions and and tapping that wellspring of energy. Attempting to harvest from someone feeling an emotion that's in accordance with their Court gets an additional point of Glamour from a tapped target.
Iron that is at least 90% pure and unalloyed "ignores defenses contrived by the fae or their magics." Cold Iron — that which is shaped without benefit of a forge — has the added power of doing Aggravated damage to the True Fae, also called The Others.
Mantle appears to be a Nimbus-like Merit that offers benefits based on Court.
Keeper refers to the particular True Fae who owned your character. It seems that the act of breaking an Oath sounds a call that can be heard in Arcadia that alerts your Keeper to your location, and may lure them out to hunt you down and drag you back.

Splats
There seem to be three in play: Seeming, Kith, and Court. It's not clear to me how the line between Seeming and Kith are drawn; my guess is that Seeming is the archetype you follow, while Kith is the form you have. Seemings offer a Blessing and a Curse; Kith grants a single power. Court is the social/cultural splat; the Status merit is called Court Goodwill.

Kiths in the demo: Windwing, Dancer, Manikin, Cyclopean, Smith, Tunnelgrub, Oracle
Seemings in the demo: Beast, Fairest, Elemental, Ogre, Wizened.
Courts are the seasons.

Contracts
There are probably more than these, but those detailed include Darkness, Mirror, Vainglory, Fleeting Spring, Elements, Stone, Fleeting Summer, Artifice, Dream, Fang and Talon, Eternal Spring, Fleeting Autumn, and Hearth. I'm guessing that the Fleeting/Eternal pairs go all the way through.

Miscellany
* There's an entry on each sample character for "apparent age," with the number of years Gone in parentheses.
* The cover is, indeed, green, with a mess of thorns concealing an obscured clock face on the left hand side. (The clock face has an entry for 29 1/2 seconds.) A pale moth is skewered on one of the thorns.

That's stuff. Questions?

[KreenWarrior]

How do Contracts work?

Edit: Oh, right, thanks for the post.

[Christian A]

Thanks a lot for posting this. You don't mind me linking from other fora to this thread, do you?

[JustinCognito]

Wheee! Thanks, Jadasc. I, uh, hope you don't mind if I send this out to the Cam folks?

[Christian A]

Does the demo explain some details of the setting? What's it like being abducted and returning? What are changelings? What is it that makes them changeling? How did the entire process of abduction affect them? What does Clarity work like?

[Jadasc]

Originally Posted by KreenWarrior

How do Contracts work?

They're hierarchical, like Disciplines, and seem to be of the form "Spend [x] Glamour and roll [Attribute or Ability] + Wyrd to [achieve cool effect]."

[Jadasc]

Originally Posted by Christian A

Thanks a lot for posting this. You don't mind me linking from other fora to this thread, do you?

You're welcome, and I don't mind a bit.

[Christian A]

Also, what's the demo about, story-wise?

[Jadasc]

Originally Posted by Christian A

Does the demo explain some details of the setting? What's it like being abducted and returning? What are changelings? What is it that makes them changeling? How did the entire process of abduction affect them? What does Clarity work like?

Changelings are "men and women who had their lives stolen from them... enslaved and changed into something not fully human. They struggle to make a new life for themselves in a world of promises and dreams."

"Kidnapped into slavery by the True Fae, your characters escaped back through the Hedge, the magical barrier between our world and Faerie, to find that they no longer fit into the normal world. No longer having a place in the world, but not wishing to return to Arcadia, they are caught between the two, forever balancing the dual nature of their existence."

Clarity is detailed in the original post.

[Jadasc]

Originally Posted by JustinCognito

Wheee! Thanks, Jadasc. I, uh, hope you don't mind if I send this out to the Cam folks?

Could I stop you? Just be sure to mention where it came from.