Changeling LARP

hey guys,

Starting June 6th the current longtime running Vampire the Requiem Live Action Role Playing game Black Hearts and Bitter Rue is closing. In Place of BHBR the staff will be opening a new Changeling the Lost LARP called Court of Seven Bridges. Randy and Billy permitting, i'll drop some flyers off at the store for anyone who wants info concerning this upcoming game. I am joining the staff of Court of Seven Bridges and can field any Q's you might have when i'm at the shop.

Tai

Not a problem at all Tai. More than welcome.

Lates,
Randy

I'll be posting two primers on what a LARP and what Changeling is all about. Here's LARP

Live Action Role Play:

Players physically portray characters in a fictional setting, improvising their characters' speech and movements somewhat like actors in improvisational theater. This is distinct from tabletop role-playing games, where character actions are described verbally. The setting, characters, and rules may be defined in a publication or created by the arrangers or players. LARPs may be played in a public or private area, and may last for hours or days. There is usually no audience, and bystanders are typically either ignored or treated as part of the fictional setting. Players may dress as their character and carry appropriate equipment, and the environment is sometimes decorated to resemble the setting. LARPs can be one-off events or a series of events in the same setting, and events can vary in size from a handful of players to several thousand.

Changeling will be every other Saturday from 8:00 pm to 3:00 am, but you don't have to stay the whole night, few people actually do.

The game is set in the World of Darkness, a fictional analogue to the real world, but is a darker depiction thereof. Not only is the world cast in a more violent, malevolent and horrific manner, but humanity unknowingly coexist with legendary monsters and the supernatural. The "Changelings" of the title are ordinary human beings who were kidnapped by the Fae and taken to serve a durance of slavery in Faerie (alternately known as Arcadia). The player characters represent changelings who have escaped their otherworldly captors and through the netherworld that separates Faerie from Earth, known as the Hedge. The game focuses on the experiences of these changelings, the self-titled Lost, as they re-discover the world of their birth, try to cope with the changes they have undergone, and seek to evade recapture.

Changelings refer to themselves as "the Lost": they were kidnapped by the immortal Fae, taken to an alien realm, and held prisoner. While trapped in Faerie (referred to as their "Durance"), they were forced to serve their otherworldly masters and endure servitude ranging from menial labour to torture. In being dragged through the Hedge to Faerie, some essential piece of their humanity was torn away by the thorns of the Hedge, and over the course of their Durance, they are forced to forge compacts with the realm that triggers a change in their physical and metaphysical nature to survive under the twisted laws underpinning Faerie.

Many escape only to find that in their place has been left a Fetch, faerie simulacrum forged from leaves, twigs, and other debris, and that their experience of the passage of time may be greatly different from the passage of time on Earth since their theft. While some will seek to kill and replace the Fetch in hopes of reclaiming their lives, many more discover that either the world or their selves have altered far too much to resume where they left off.

In turn, many of the escaped turn to others of their kind, establishing political havens and refuges amongst the enclaves of humanity. Partly to provide mutual protection against external and internal threats, partly to provide a support network of fellow survivors of Faerie that they can identify with, and partly to hold society and court in the absence of true integration with humanity. For even under the best possible circumstances, the Lost are no longer fully human, and having been exposed to the wonders and horrors of Faerie, they cannot subsume themselves within the bliss of ignorance.

While it is possible for a story to exist without the backdrop of a changeling society, the customary society model for most cities containing changelings is that of the freehold, a collection of changelings who are declared liberated from Faerie rule. Changeling society represents aspects of both human society and the nature of faerie accords. As changelings are creatures bound to an imperceptible flow of fate known as the Wyrd, they can forge with each other verbal pledges that are mystically binding. This is itself a reflection of Faerie, where the entire fabric of its reality functions by a process of conceptual contracts and interrelation. In this manner, changelings use the art of pledge crafting as the basis for building trust amongst themselves, and social decorum, so verbal pledges and codes of etiquette serve in stead of formal written laws as in human society.

While the freehold contains many of the trappings of feudal society, such as fealty, a court system, codes of etiquette, patronage and peerage, the functional model is unique to changelings. Rulership is a shared function, in that rulership is expected to cycle through a number of holders on a reasonably equal basis as accorded to the power of the various courts of a freehold. This division of power is held by the various courts, with each court representing one section of a group of natural phenomena. As well, each Court has a specific plan for resisting and turning away the True Fae.

The Seasonal Courts, which are said to be predominant to Europe and North America, include:

Spring
The Emerald Court, affiliated with the emotion of Desire and the aspect of New Growth and Rejuvenation; revel in delight and pure joy to turn away the True Fae.

Summer
The Crimson Court, affiliated with the emotion of Wrath and the aspects of Heat and the Sun; seek to destroy the True Fae who come to earth with military might.

Autumn
The Ashen Court, affiliated with the emotion of Fear and the aspects of the Harvest and Decay; use stolen Faerie Magic (Contracts, Tokens, Oneiromancy, and Pledges) against their creators.

Winter
The Onyx Court, affiliated with the emotion of Sorrow and the aspect of Cold; attempt to go "underground" and avoid the attentions of the True Fae.

This seems interesting....

Where exactly will this take place?

How does one partake?

The Changeling larp will kick off in june, but the current larp runs over at the midnight espresso cafe at the corner of university and arlington. Just show up on saturday june 6th and make a character. I'm up at the shop most Sunday's and some Saturday's hit me up if you got questions. I'm not hard to miss, only Hawaiian floating around.

i know who you are

You helped me learn how to play 40k

yeah, i remember you. The one with the Orc army right. Coolness on wanting to check out the LARP. Try it out, make some new friends, enjoy the role play. It's not for everyone, but for those that like it find LARPing to be a very enjoyable aspect of gaming.

what are the costume requirements?

there are no costume requirements per se. The world setting is a modern one,so your PCs wear what everyone else wears. A caveat though. The game has a merit that can be purchased called Hedge Spun Clothing. This represents the outlandish costumes you can wear. fire woven coats made from the furnace of Dwarven smiths and nightmare silk dresses created from the dreams of spider kings. The outfits are formed from the dreams and ethereal of Arcadia. This can be represented by a red suit coat with flame designs or a black lace gown with leering faces woven throughout. Costuming can earn you extra XP but is not required.

character creation night will be a opportunity to get to know the staff and the players you'll be interacting with in the LARP. A central theme will be how your PC interacts with the courts, the True Fae, and the other supernaturals. On creation night background interactions and connections and the motleys' will be addressed. While a full history isn't required it's nice to have some idea of where your PC is coming from. I'll throw up the list of local keepers we'd like you to use if possible, and the O'Keefe family and how they play into the world setting.

These are the ‘local’ True Fae, both foul and fair. Most PC’s should connect themselves to these True Fae in preference to coming up with their own.

Unseelie:

Mr. Sawgrass: He has a huge antebellum Plantation, occupying roughly the same space as Sawgrass in the mundane world. He has scores of changelings working as his slaves, of every seeming. Most of the kiths are appropriate to slaves and servants working on such a plantation, like his hunting hounds, his field hands, his overseers and guards, his cattle, and the like. Oddly, he also keeps sheep. Most oddly, he usually appears as a tremendously attractive black man. His realm is a huge plantation, nestled in the bosom of an infinite swamp. The grasses, by the way, are actually razor sharp as their name suggests. Most Changelings avoid the Sawgrass area, even in the mundane world. A very large number of local changelings are escapees from his domain.

The Dark Man: He rules the Dark City, the core of Jacksonville. He is Master of Shadows, King of Blood. His thugs are ogres and goblins. His pimps and whores are Fairest. He has big black Hellhounds and his own Wild Hunt…an Urban one. Many, if not most, vampires serve him. Few have seen him and escaped to tell the tale, but rumour describes him as a living shadow, and the extreme epitomy of the ‘O.G.’

Haggard, The Fisherman: Also known as the King of the Sea. Keeper of the Soul Cages, wearer of the Carrion Coat. Has a hook for a hand. His domain is the docks, the angry ocean, the shipyards. His realm teems with mermaids, merrows, wizened shipbuilders and wrights, elemental water spirits, aquatic beasts and more. He cannot resist a wager. Served by a massive creature called the Red Bull. He has sworn never to love…and has only broken his word once.

The Sky King: A mighty giant, with a castle in the clouds. Rules an area analogous to NAS Jax and Cecil Field…has many aerial Beasts and Elementals in his service, as well as strange Ogres. He has hundreds of Hornets… Beasts who scramble and swarm when he feels threatened…which is often. His castle extend below the clouds, as well, and lightless dungeons there hold prisoners and bat-like sentries. His armies march among the clouds, made up of ogres and wizened alike.

The Northerner: A twisted dream of carpetbaggers and Union officers, the Northerner is the quintessential ‘barbarian’ invader, throwing her changeling armies against Mr. Sawgrass and other local fae over and over again. Many warlike fae start in her ‘employ’.
She takes, most often, the shape of a stunningly beautiful Caucasian woman in a union General’s uniform, blood dripping from her fingernails and hair. She always smells of sex and cigars, and takes many lovers. Her domain is the area North of Jacksonville…never the city itself. She is also called the Red Queen…until the Civil War, she reputedly dressed as a British soldier…


The Gnome Queen: Lady Worm, the Dark Skitterer. She rules a lightless realm Underearth, a realm of gnomes, and dark elves, and worms, and crawling insects. Fungus, slime, weird crystals…all the expected trappings of a subterrene domain. She often resembles a cross between a Geiger Alien and a bloated nightcrawler. Her realm overlaps Jacksonville only underground, but does so in most places.


The Deep Lady: Master of the Hole, an aquatic underworld realm overlapping Kingsley Lake. She is weaker than many of the other Dark Fae, but holds some mighty secret that keeps the others at bay. Only a few changelings serve her, most commonly the cold blooded , fish scaled Beasts and Ogres known as Deep Ones.

Seelie:

St. John Drake, Dragon of the Rivers, Lord of Storms. He faces the Unseelie and combats them. Most powerful of the Seelie Fae, at least in this region. Riverside and Arlington are in his Arcadian territory.

Amalthea Waterborn, Ocean’s Lady, Mistress Whitecap, Unicorn Sovereign. Many kindly water fae, unicorns, and other gentle folk call her beach realm home. She offers refuge, but will not engage in conflict.

Raguel, an angel fallen for excessive zeal. Lord of White Fire, Paladin of Purity, the Light that Burns. He and his servants destroy all that they see as evil. They allow neither mercy nor compassion to stay their hand. But the righteous have nothing to fear.

The Gryphon King: His territory overlaps the northern wilderness as well as the family home area of Ireland. He it is, that the O’Keefe’s have their compact with.



The O'Keefes are a crime family, but they consider themselves to be good people, so it behooves us to examine what sorts of crimes they are involved in.
Smuggling and Black Market sectors:
Drugs, Illegal Immigrants, Liquor, Tobacco, Art objects
Other Luxuries, anything highly taxed.
Notably, they do not deal in slave labor.

Protection Services:
Unlike traditional protection rackets, the O'Keefes provide what is paid for. Those who pay the fairly reasonable premiums are actively protected from criminal activity, either from within the O'Keefes or outside. In addition, they are provided with insurance that pays any losses they may incur due to such activity, and are guaraunteed vengeance against the perpetrators. They are also given protection against a wide variety of supernatural threats and normal accidents via use of Contracts, gifts, and other magic. Pledges help a great deal in this regard.The O'Keefes also investigate violent criminal or supernatural activity in their patch, whether actively being payed to do so or not, and help to keep the peace in their territory. This gives them a decent reputation with the common folk.

Theft and fencing: The O'Keefes have a simple rule regarding what they call creative reallocation of wealth: harm no one, and take no more than the target can afford to lose. Except when taking vengeance on an actual enemy of the family. O'Keefes are involved in high stakes robberies, burglaries, etc...but almost never involved in *armed* robbery, kidnapping for ransom, or the like. They do an extraordinary amount of what is called Hooding (stealing from the rich and from big companies to give to the poor) and Goodfellowing (destroying assets of extremely affluent persons or companies to make a socially consciou point): both acts are lumped together as "Robining". In fact, thieves working directly for the O'Keefes owe only 10% of their take to the family... another 10% must actually go to charity of some kind. Many of their targets are supernatural creatures or their servants, especially vampires and Atlanteans. And the Unseelie, of course. To refer to a person as a 'Robin'; is to call them one of these professional thieves.

Murder-for-hire: The O'Keefes *are* involved in the occasional assassination or hit. But you have to convince the Griffin that the target deserves it. He then chooses an asset to carry out the hit and sets a price. Coming to him for the wrong reasons can be fatal.

Prostitution: The O'Keefes provide high class call girls and call boys for discerning clientele. Many of these are Spring Court changelings, and all are voluntary. They don't have pimps, they have bodyguards.

Sports:They are *not* involved in dogfighting, cockfighting, or any 'sport' that pits hapless animals against each other...but they do sponsor underground human and supernatural fighting rings for those interested in such competition. The Griffin himself is said to own large percentages, or outright control a number of local sports teams. Which ones varies from story to story.

Financial services: Last but not least, the family provides loans at far more reasonable rates than most such organizations, but defaulting on them is...unwise. Oathbreakers are in deep trouble, when dealing with Changelings...They are also deeply involved in local gambling, book making, etc.

And of course, the O'Keefes have legitimate business interests in many fields: Import/export, adult entertainment, restauraunts, clubs, book stores. Diversity is strength, says the Griffin. And all of their interests receive the best protection.

Please PM me with directions and start/end times.

Alright,

Kick off for Changeling is this Thursday, which will be dedicated to making Player Characters.

The address is 5551 arlington rd.

Doors open at 7pm and we'll be there late into the morning hours

There is a 1 dollar site fee on this Saturday with a 3 dollar site fee on game nights, none of this is for profit or white wolf would sue the crap outta us.

Hope to see any interested players there.

If anyone is interested in LARP but not changeling then the alternating saturday nights a Vampire the Requiem game called three houses runs at the same site.

do you know if there are any other kinda of larp going on in the area?

The Camarilla fan club, White Wolf's official club, has a Vampire the Requiem LARP on fridays and a Werewolf the Forsaken LARP on saturdays. The club requires players to join to play, dues are 20 dollars a year. They meet over at the Storytellers house for both games, he lives off of Lee and monument.