Changeling
Oct. 26th, 2011 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aumentouIt seems to me that the game is dying. I think this is down to a lack of PvP, which is one of the things that makes a live game purposeful. I put this lack down to two things: first that the Changeling setting is too grim to make PvP worthwhile, and second that we have passed a critical point in numbers which makes it both less practical and less necessary. There's nothing for us to fight over, and plenty of reasons not to fight.
On the bright side, I wrote a bunch of stories for this month. One of them (which was also the most optimistic IC) contained a potential solution to this OOC problem.
"Sometimes you win."
The hybrid grass works.
I didn't know how to get it to grow, wild. The headman at the farm told me. It needs a sacrifice where it's planted. A little blood. Considering how much it has already claimed, this seems presumptuous of it, but also a small price. I bleed, it grows, and within a week the humans, fae, and hobs are all apparently eating the yellow hybrid instead of the original.
A victory, then. The first this year, I think. If I die facing Rose, or rescuing Calliope, or facing the Soulless, I will still have done this. These people are free.
They agree to help with Calliope. They will dig a hole, and we will make it a hollow, and then if we can get her to it we can make our escape. Simple? No, it will not be. But it might be possible, and that is the difference. One of them - the leader - even offers to help fight. I don't want him to, but I can't afford to turn him down.
---
I wonder sometimes how many we have won. How many for the Lost at large, how many for this freehold, how many for this Autumn court, how many I have, personally. I can't remember anymore. Too many fights, too many years. Too many memories to hold, and I could never write them down. It couldn't be allowed, because everything was so secret under Huntsman. I want to read the history of the freehold, to see. I want to write some of it, too. To bring it up to date. I wonder if Huntsman's secrecy was a weakness, or a strength? Or merely a property with advantages and disadvantages, as so many things have. It is fair, I think, to say that in his days the Freehold was more powerful. But was that due to him? Or due to the greater numbers we had at the time? Some have died, some have left, some have simply vanished, but either way we are few now. It would not take much now for us to lose a season. Not much at all. Without a season, what would we be? Still a freehold at all? Or just a motley with delusions of grandeur?
Grim thoughts, especially to arrive at from a victory. But every thought trail is grim, these days. The year is dying, and the freehold is dying too, it seems. Death is in everything I look at. Perhaps my eyes are at fault.
Would it be so bad to be a motley, though? To abandon our deluded claim to control the city? We can be Autumn or Spring or Summer or Winter in concept, with no need for titles or pretense at revels or responsibilities. We can't hold the ground we claim, can't even watch it. So why claim it? It is probably useful to be visible in the city centre, ot pick up anyone newly out of the hedge, but it seems foolish to make more of it than it is.
The victory, too. Whose was that? The Freeholds? Perhaps, because I am part of the Freehold. But perhaps not, because it was mine. I did the lab work, I found the answer, I made it happen. As a motley, or even just as myself, this would still have happened. I plan to rescue Calliope, if possible. I command only myself, two other Autumn courtiers, one summer courtier, and one volunteer who is not part of the Freehold. Is this a Freehold mission, a Freehold army? No. It's a motley at best.
The thought occurs: everything we have done this year, everything we plan to do this year, we could do or have done without declaring ourselves anything more than that. A motley. A small group, working for small goals. Exactly what we are, but honestly.
I wonder where Lord Summer and Lady Winter are. Neither of them is answering their phone.
Do the fae from the farm wish to join? We would be many, then. Perhaps we could keep the title of Freehold, then. Have courts and offices and titles and balls and a wild hunt, as we used to. I doubt it, though. For one, I don't feel the wind blowing that way. For another, it would be our title but their court. But perhaps that is for the best. New blood, new rulers. Old ways and old grudges abandoned. Perhaps we have been unchanging for too long? Change is the way of this world, and to be without it is the way of Theirs. Perhaps our current weakness is down to being too static.
I wonder if Lady Winter will be in touch to receive her crown? Or if Lord Spring will be, in his turn? If not, I suppose this Freehold is over.
Somehow that does not seem so sad as it used to. The death of a person is sad. The death of a concept? Not so, any longer.
The thought occurs: My duty is with the Freehold. Without it, I am free. Free to do what, I wonder?
I remember once, as a child, reading about Cathedrals. I had never seen one. Even now I've only seen Sheffield's, which is not much to look at. I think perhaps I could go and see a proper one.
That thought feels strange inside me. Unfamiliar, to think of this, it is a different kind of thought completely. This is... something I want. For myself.
On the bright side, I wrote a bunch of stories for this month. One of them (which was also the most optimistic IC) contained a potential solution to this OOC problem.
"Sometimes you win."
The hybrid grass works.
I didn't know how to get it to grow, wild. The headman at the farm told me. It needs a sacrifice where it's planted. A little blood. Considering how much it has already claimed, this seems presumptuous of it, but also a small price. I bleed, it grows, and within a week the humans, fae, and hobs are all apparently eating the yellow hybrid instead of the original.
A victory, then. The first this year, I think. If I die facing Rose, or rescuing Calliope, or facing the Soulless, I will still have done this. These people are free.
They agree to help with Calliope. They will dig a hole, and we will make it a hollow, and then if we can get her to it we can make our escape. Simple? No, it will not be. But it might be possible, and that is the difference. One of them - the leader - even offers to help fight. I don't want him to, but I can't afford to turn him down.
---
I wonder sometimes how many we have won. How many for the Lost at large, how many for this freehold, how many for this Autumn court, how many I have, personally. I can't remember anymore. Too many fights, too many years. Too many memories to hold, and I could never write them down. It couldn't be allowed, because everything was so secret under Huntsman. I want to read the history of the freehold, to see. I want to write some of it, too. To bring it up to date. I wonder if Huntsman's secrecy was a weakness, or a strength? Or merely a property with advantages and disadvantages, as so many things have. It is fair, I think, to say that in his days the Freehold was more powerful. But was that due to him? Or due to the greater numbers we had at the time? Some have died, some have left, some have simply vanished, but either way we are few now. It would not take much now for us to lose a season. Not much at all. Without a season, what would we be? Still a freehold at all? Or just a motley with delusions of grandeur?
Grim thoughts, especially to arrive at from a victory. But every thought trail is grim, these days. The year is dying, and the freehold is dying too, it seems. Death is in everything I look at. Perhaps my eyes are at fault.
Would it be so bad to be a motley, though? To abandon our deluded claim to control the city? We can be Autumn or Spring or Summer or Winter in concept, with no need for titles or pretense at revels or responsibilities. We can't hold the ground we claim, can't even watch it. So why claim it? It is probably useful to be visible in the city centre, ot pick up anyone newly out of the hedge, but it seems foolish to make more of it than it is.
The victory, too. Whose was that? The Freeholds? Perhaps, because I am part of the Freehold. But perhaps not, because it was mine. I did the lab work, I found the answer, I made it happen. As a motley, or even just as myself, this would still have happened. I plan to rescue Calliope, if possible. I command only myself, two other Autumn courtiers, one summer courtier, and one volunteer who is not part of the Freehold. Is this a Freehold mission, a Freehold army? No. It's a motley at best.
The thought occurs: everything we have done this year, everything we plan to do this year, we could do or have done without declaring ourselves anything more than that. A motley. A small group, working for small goals. Exactly what we are, but honestly.
I wonder where Lord Summer and Lady Winter are. Neither of them is answering their phone.
Do the fae from the farm wish to join? We would be many, then. Perhaps we could keep the title of Freehold, then. Have courts and offices and titles and balls and a wild hunt, as we used to. I doubt it, though. For one, I don't feel the wind blowing that way. For another, it would be our title but their court. But perhaps that is for the best. New blood, new rulers. Old ways and old grudges abandoned. Perhaps we have been unchanging for too long? Change is the way of this world, and to be without it is the way of Theirs. Perhaps our current weakness is down to being too static.
I wonder if Lady Winter will be in touch to receive her crown? Or if Lord Spring will be, in his turn? If not, I suppose this Freehold is over.
Somehow that does not seem so sad as it used to. The death of a person is sad. The death of a concept? Not so, any longer.
The thought occurs: My duty is with the Freehold. Without it, I am free. Free to do what, I wonder?
I remember once, as a child, reading about Cathedrals. I had never seen one. Even now I've only seen Sheffield's, which is not much to look at. I think perhaps I could go and see a proper one.
That thought feels strange inside me. Unfamiliar, to think of this, it is a different kind of thought completely. This is... something I want. For myself.
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-26 09:57 pm (UTC)From what I can see, for PvP, you need:
i) Critical Mass
ii) Characters with conflicting goals
iii) Players who are proactive, not reactive, or passive.
iv) No strong PvM/PvE threat that the players can fight against (an entirely overwhelming threat that can't be defeated is probably fine).
Also, for a salon game:
v) Methods of conflict available that aren't combat.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 12:07 am (UTC)4: Setting wise, the threat from the True Fae has to be something it's actually possible to fight. Otherwise the summer and autumn courts are pointless. If the Fae can be fought and beaten, then you've got a strong but not invincible PvM threat.
5: Changelings are very very vulnerable to... well, just about everything except (in some cases) physical combat. The clarity sin list includes "sudden unexpected life changes" right down the bottom, which means anyone who decides to fuck your mortal life up can break your sanity. So what field is there left to have conflict in?
---
It's worth saying, the game has had some really intense and at times disturbing roleplaying of some remarkably fucked-up characters. It's been a real pleasure to be part of that aspect.
On the other hand, you can't just do that every time. We've also had sessions where our characters have sat around in a pub. If all I'm doing is sitting around in a pub, what do I need a character for?
(rhetorical question is rhetorical)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 12:29 am (UTC)2) and 3) are general larp issues. If you have enough Critical Mass, the 'dead-weight' (not meant in a nasty way) for 2) and 3) doesn't matter so much, so small games have this issue more.
You've got a good point on how long you can keep intensity going for. (Thinking about your pub comment, I'd like to see spring court being portrayed as more desperate to fit back in with society - like when you're 16, and your party has to be the best thing ever, or you'll just die. Like that, every time you have the chance.)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 12:47 am (UTC)"I think 4) is an issue of presentation..."
I can sort of see that, but I think it'd take the active co-operation of the people in charge of summer and autumn. Also, slightly creepily, it gives the violent courts a good incentive not to do that well in the actual fighting. After all, if the war is going badly, then that just means you need to argue with them less and work harder!