Venue Name: Myst’s Refuge
Genre: Changeling
Storyteller: Stacey Lewis
Email: weisslapin@gmail.com
Passed Ordeal of Narration (y/n): Yes
Place/Time: TBA

Themes/Mood:

“People say sometimes that Beauty is only superficial.  That may be so.  But at least it is not as superficial as Thought.  To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders.  It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.  The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible… Yes, Mr. Gray, the gods have been good to you.  But what the gods give they quickly take away.  You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully.  When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats.  Every month as it wanes brings you nearer to something dreadful.  Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses.  You will become sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly…. Ah! Realize your youth while you have it.  Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar.  These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age.  Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you.  Be always searching for new sensations.  Be afraid of nothing…  A new Hedonism – that is what your century wants.  You might be its visible symbol.  With your personality there is nothing you could not do.  The world belongs to you for a season… “  Lord Henry from The Picture of Dorian Gray

There is a fine line that the Fae must walk between the “real” world and that of the Dreaming. Too much of one part of their life and they can lose it all, too much of the other and they won’t remember what they had to begin with.  Winter is coming, which is making the mixture of the two even harder to handle and deal with: the real world forcing its boring and common place belief on the fragile fae soul.  The Dreaming is becoming more dangerous a place to explore and to be as it tries to protect itself from the outside world.  Those who do not walk the path carefully are lost, or even worse become our own enemies.  The monsters, goblins and ogres that go “bump” in the night are just as deadly as the Dauntain and Hunters who walk the street looking for these monsters. 

The only way to survive the upcoming Winter is to work together: to protect each other from the onslaughts of both the mundane and the Dreaming.  To work together to prepare against the Ravages of Winter and the horror and loss that it will bring.  During this time, old hates and past grievances must be put aside in order to survive.  Neither title, nor kith mean anything when the Monsters and Dauntain come knocking on your door.  To them, you are the enemy and must be destroyed.  Commoner and Noble, Seelie and Unseelie, Kithain and Kinain even Fae and Mortals need to put aside their differences and work as one in order to survive the Winter that approaches.

Style:

Changeling is a High Fantasy game, set in the modern, or rather, a darker today.  The game gives a wide range for storytelling potential styles and game settings.  In the end, the game is for the players.  Game style will change depending on what the majority of players like and prefer.  Personal plot lines are strongly encouraged.  There will be very hands storytelling approach, more in the style of a table top game can achieve but done thru the larp style.  Depending on weather conditions, games taking place outside will become more frequent if it seems the games will be taking place in the dreaming. 

Antagonists:

One of the biggest antagonists in the game will be the players themselves: their own battle between their mortal and fae selves.  There will be the natural conflicts that occur between Commoners and Nobles, the Seelie and Unseelie, the various kiths and kinain.  There will be the conflicts between those who wish to destroy the Fae and how the Fae deal with that in return.

Venue House Rules:

If anyone wishes to have a mid approval or higher item, they are required to have at least a basic background written up and handed into the Lead ST.  Until this is done, approvals at mid and higher will not be approved.

Using influence for banal actions or harmful actions will be when a character gains banality for their influence actions.  Attacking and destroying another’s influence is considered a banal action.

In order for a player to earn experience for IRC or email role play, an email must be sent to both the ST list [ shadowhurst-st@yahoogroups.com ] and the Lead Venue ST [ dragonsigh@rogers.com ].  The player must also be prepared to submit logs or emails of said activities at the ST’s request.

Highly encouraged will be the Jester Rules (found on page 203 of the Players Guide).  The Cantrips in Combat rules will also be used during the game if needed.  This is to encourage higher forms of creativity during the course of game play.  IMPORTANT NOTE: the maximum number of bunk traits that can be awarded is 5. 

Picking the correct realms will be strictly enforced, in that, the correct realm or realms must be picked or else the cantrip fails.  Using a higher level of the Realm does not affect all of the Realms below it.  Combination of various realms can and may be required to affect things (i.e. Scene and Hearty Commoner) 

The Lead ST running the game has full Low and Mid approval abilities, provided that the items approved at mid approval are reported and recorded in the Lead ST report each month.  The DST has an overall veto right on any mid approvals that the Lead ST has approved. 

Any Scene that has to be put into a Time Freeze either due to time constraints or due to players needing to be called for the scene or having to leave due to time constraints, these scenes will be put on hold till a time when players can meet with an ST to resolve the scene.  The scene will be resolved no later then before the start of the next scheduled game.  If players and/or ST's cannot arrange a time before the start of the next game, the ST will force proxy the characters needed to resolve the scene. 
 
Realm: Scene. 
Use of the Scene realm as approved by the Canadian National Addendum will be used. It will be listed here for ease of referance. 
Level     Title      Discription 
  1       Chamber   up to 25 sq. ft. 
  2       Cottage    up to 200 sq. ft. 
  3       House      up to 750 sq. ft. 
  4       Park       up to 2000 sq. ft. 
  5       Kingdom   up to 50,000 sq. ft. 

Sovereign: Geasa.  Any use of Geasa must be written down with the exact wording, and results if broken down on a piece of paper and handed to the Lead ST.  If this is not done, then the Geasa ends at the end of the session or night. 

Sovereign: Weaver Ward: Clarification.   
Use of Weaver ward over an opening requires the use of the Realms required for what is wished to be prevented from passing thru the opening.  Use of Weaver Ward on an object only prevents it from being picked up or used by anyone or thing except the Caster and those the Caster has allowed to pass thru the ward.  Use of Weaver Ward on an object only requires the use of the Realm of what said object is.  A Weaver Ward may be placed on a Weaver Ward to prevent the first Weaver Ward from being Unwoven.  The second Weaver Ward would have to be unwoven before the first one can be attempted to be unwoven. 

Companions: Clarification: Unless another Reed is being used, the one level of damage that a companion inflicts is Bashing. 
Companion Reeds:
Aggravated Damage: clarification: When used without the Wyrd reed, it does Chimerical Aggravated damage.  When used with the Wyrd reed it does Real Aggravated Damage. Weither it is real or chimerical damage, it has to be healed as per normal aggravated damage. 
Breath: Clarification:  All breath attacks must use standard attack challenges to be re-tested with appropriately as per ST discression. 
Fester: Clarification: The Chimera must some how successfully touch or harm their target in order to Fester someone.  Type of damage is as appropriate to the disease at ST discretion.  
Scuttle: Clarification: The max amount of glamour that can be spent into this is 10 glamour. 
Venom: Clarification: Damage caused by this is Lethal, unless specified as bashing when Chimera is created. 
Weaponry: Clarification: Damage caused by this is lethal, unless specified as bashing when Chimera is created, or the Aggravated Damage Reed is being used in effect with this. 

Character restrictions:

Please refer to the standard character creation guidelines out of the Shining Host, Shining Host: Players Guide, the Camarilla Version 6.0 Rules Supplement and the Canadian 6.0 Rules addendum. Storytellers reserve the right to send you ‘back to the drawing board’ if you’re character concept does not fit in well with the style of game we are trying to run, but to be fair we’ll tell you what our problems were with it and give you some suggestions/alternatives on what else you could play. We will try to be accommodating to a variety of concepts, but there are some things that are just too wild and outlandish even for us – the best bet is to ask first.

Proxy rules:

Proxies both to and from the city are highly encouraged, as they help spread the global aspect of the game.

All characters proxy-ing to the city must send a complete copy of their character sheet, exp log and any high or top approvals that are on the characters to the Lead ST.  In the proxy, it must state if it is a Hard [full challenges allowed] or a Soft [no challenges allowed] Proxy for the character.  As well, the Proxy-ing player must provide contact information for their Venue Storyteller and their Chapter Coordinator.  Characters coming in with the sole purpose to kill characters for no reason are frowned upon.  It is highly encouraged for players having their character visit the city.  Soft proxies need not send their experience log or approval items (though, character sheet and approval numbers, and Venue ST contact is required). 

Local players’ proxy-ing out to other cities are required to send an email to the local ST list and ensure that the Lead ST is also notified.  The player is required to follow the proper proxy rules of the Domain they are going to.

Visiting character/plot policy:

No Cross Venue player characters with out High Approval notification can visit our game.  This means that characters from another venue require to send an email to the Lead ST, the ST list and the appropriate ANST of the venue coming from and the ANST Changeling at least ONE week in advance.

At least 48 hour notice should be given of any players visiting the game.  At least a copy of the character sheet should be send with the notice, if not the entire character sheet, experience log and high/top approval items.  If this is not done, the player risks being turned away at the game if the character is considered to be too game unbalancing. 

All visiting players must bring a copy of their character sheet, experience log, item cards, Venue ST contact information and CC contact information to the game with them. 

All high and top approvals must be accompanied by their approval number, item card or write up of complete powers and/or abilities of said items.

Travel risks:

Low. Though, the local trods have not been fully mapped or explored.  If traveling via the Dreaming only, the risk increases to Mid.

Intrigue (politics and negotiation): 3 
Action (combat and challenges): 3
Mystery (enigmas and investigation): 3 
Drama (ceremony and characterization): 5 
Darkness (probability of character death or corruption): 4
Adventure: 4

Threat of Banality: 4  
Threat of Bedlam: 4

Humanity and the Autumn World: 3.5

Seelie versus Unseelie: 2 (mostly player driven) 
Commoner versus Noble: 3