This week is all about entitlements. We’ve aimed to provide choices and character directions for everybody. We’ve had to make some decisions though in order to support our themes and goal of reducing complexity for new players.
Entitlements that are ‘in play’ (see below) will be available at character creation.
Making entitlements available slowly over time didn’t make a lot of gameplay sense, even if the potential for discovering forgotten entitlements in play was a somewhat neat bit of plot that players could pursue. Often players like to build their characters around the idea that they might join one. Deciding to join one later is harder at low xp where purchases to meet prerequisites are expensive.
Entitlement regret would be the unfortunate consequence of us introducing them slowly, since you can’t switch entitlements once you have one and we want a good number of them in order to allow for a wide range of concepts.
From a flavour perspective, entitlements will be reframed from a group that you join, to a personal attainment, a dedication that one makes with wyrd to the notions bound up with the entitlement. We will write our players handbook with updated descriptions.
However there are plenty of reasons not to include all the book entitlements. We want to control the width of the game space, and some of the entitlements just aren’t appropriate for a low xp chronicle. We want our game to have a distinct feel, and so we’ve prioritised some entitlements over others. Other entitlements were winnowed out for being too complex, over-powered or underpowered (though this was not a critical factor in decision making).
| Removed from play | Available in play |
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Not all entitlements will arrive in play entirely intact. We have problems with some of the entitlement names, which can be confusing especially to new players. For example: What is a Bodhisattva of the Broken Cage or a Member of the College of Worms? Why don’t Dragonslayers have anything to do with dragons and slaying them? Compare to The Guild of Goldspinners – that’s a friendly new player name.
We are also bringing in some entitlements that fit well in the reframing to a game of intrusion fantasy. The Phantom Tong will be introduced as The Firm, borrowing on the popularity of the legend of the Kray twins and Peaky Blinders. The Bronze Beylik will be The Honourable Order, playing with the idea of political advisors, whips and the civil service. As Sir Humphrey Appleby put it in ‘Yes, Minister’ – its not what you know, it’s who you know.
You’ll notice we’re also bringing in The Order of the Hallowed Garden. There was some chatter about people wanting to play this entitlement, but it has a city scale superpower that we’re not comfortable with, and so we will return to how we are changing their power in a future blog.
Courts and Entitlements
Eight of these entitlements have court requirements. We will be replacing the mantle requirement with a contract clause requirement – this makes the entitlements open to those with Court Goodwill as well as true courtiers.
The changes are:
- Margravate of the Brim no longer has a “No Mantle” requirement
- Satrapy of Pearls now requires the contract clause Cupid’s Eye
- Scarecrow Ministry now requires the contract clause Tale of the Baba Yaga
- The Bodhisattvas of the Broken Cage now requires the contract clause Growth of the Ivy
- Magi of the Gilded Thorn now requires the contract clause Warlock’s Gaze
- Knighthood of the Utmost Silence now requires the contract clause Slipknot Dreams
- The Duchy of Truth and Loss now requires the contract clause Fear is Nothing
- The Guild of Goldspinners now requires the contract clause Font of Inspiration
Rules changes
- Margravate of the Brim entitlement bonus applies to areas within an anchorage. This makes them much more relevant than their old ability, which honestly was terrible.
- Knights of the Knowledge of the Tongue’s ability doesn’t really do much in our LARP setup so instead we replace the bonus to an ability that grants fruit each month as though their combination of Hollow:Garden and Harvest: Hedge Bounty were one higher. And they get a +3 bonus when they are sourcing materials to craft with cooking in the hedge. Which is in the same spirit we think.
- The Order of Oneirophysics is a wonderful entitlement, with a power that breaks the balance of the game. For right now we’re removing “The Plunge”, it might be added back in, in a modified form later on. The dream-healing tiers are still valid.
- The Family of Silent Nights have their prerequisites dropped to Wyrd 3. There’s not really a reason that we can see to keep it at Wyrd 4 – our conclusion was that they wanted a Wyrd 4 entitlement in both Swords at Dawn and Dancers in the Dusk and picked randomly off the list.
- The Order of the Hallowed Garden will have a change made to it, but these changes are placeholder while we decide what they should be. Current thinking is that they will get to pick an Influence (like allies or contacts) and an opposing influence. The area of your ‘garden’ should be decided in consultation with your ST, but will represent a nameable area and the range/population restrictions should help act as guides to the ST. Rolls by the positive influence groups are at +1 and -1 for the negative influence group.
Entitlement Tokens
Because you’re no longer joining an institution, you may transform any suitable item into your token. You can only have one such item at a time, and can create it once per day. Thematically, any halloween mask worn by a member of the Scarecrow Ministry can become a Bugbear Mask. It is usual for people to have a signature example of their token – a member of the Honorable Order is likely to treasure their particular Bronze Spearhead for example.
Entitlement Tasks
Tasks are designed to inform the player and the storytellers what sort of day-to-day activity is expected of the entitled character. Although there are no actual mechanical downsides to not performing your task, it might have story implications. In this manner they also provide a soft cost to taking an entitlement, but we expect them to reinforce or inform the sort of play we would expect from the character.
| Name | Description | Task | Requirements | Privileges |
| College of Worms
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Diviners who seek to study Fate and its signs wherever they may be found. | Must spend time divining threats | Wyrd ••• Investigation •• Occult •• | Awarded The Diviner’s Instrument token
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| Margravate of the Brim |
Guardians of all Changelings, who spurn the courts and operate outside of them, but do everything they can to protect the Freehold. | Must guard the anchorage from threats | Wyrd •• Clarity 5 or higher |
When within your local Anchorage you gain +1 to initiative, perception and stealth.
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| Sacred Band of the Golden Standard | Vain in the extreme, this band of warriors serves the freehold diligently for the praise and glamor it brings. | Must serve the ruling changelings | Wyrd •• Presence ••• |
May spend a glamour to add any physical attribute’s dots to a presence roll.
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| Satrapy of Pearls |
Hedonistic merchants who sell all things, even abstract concepts,. They frequently take a fancy to random items that they will exchange anything to obtain. | Must be willing to negotiate – everything is for sale | Wyrd ••• Persuasion •• Fleeting Spring • |
Free specialty in a social skill relating to commerce. Goblin market merits can be purchased at half price
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| Scarecrow Ministry |
Inflicters of horror upon mortals, frequently the stuff of urban legends, in order to warn them away from dangerous places and actions. | Must perpetuate their myth | Wyrd ••• Manipulation ••• Fleeting Autumn •• |
Awarded the Bugbear’s Mask token |
| The Firm
(Phantom Tong)
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A criminal organization with a secret membership, working under the pretense that the chaos they cause keeps the Courts honest. | Must propagate criminal corruption and enterprise | Wyrd •• Larceny ••• |
Free specialty in Larceny or Streetwise. Contacts or Allies merits with the Underworld influence can be purchased at half price |
| The Honourable Order
(The Bronze Beylik) |
Secretaries who are supposedly cursed never to be rulers themselves. They seek to select a ruler that is best for the freehold, or become the secret power behind the throne. | Must not take a leadership position | Wyrd ••• Politics ••• Clarity 6 or higher |
Gain access to the Bronze Spearhead |
| The Knighthood of the Dragon- slayers | Policers of Lost society, who see it as their task to root out corruption and purge it by any means necessary, infamously including torture. | Must fully excise corruption when it is discovered | Wyrd •• Intimidation •• Wits + Composure of at least 6 |
Gain access to the Grand Cross of Saint George. |
| Bodhisattvas of the Broken Cage | Social reformers that encourage individuals to break free from social mores and the rut of habit.
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Must have a target they are trying to change | Wyrd •• Wits ••• Fleeting Spring • |
Gain access to the Sprung Door token. |
| Magi of the Gilded Thorn |
Wandering hermits that seek to understand the power and treasures of the Hedge. |
Must explore areas of the hedge that they can get to reasonably | Wyrd •• Occult •• Survival ••• Spellbound Autumn • |
No penalty to degeneration when in the Hedge and can go a number of hours equal to Wyrd before losing Glamour to the Thorns
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| Knighthood of the Utmost Silence |
Knights that help Changelings leave situations by stealth and guile, be it evading the eyes of the Gentry, or getting out of jail quietly and setting up a new name.
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Must go into dangerous situations to perform extractions | Wyrd ••• Stealth •• Subterfuge •• Weaponry • Fleeting Winter •• |
May use Shadowkiss: Impose a -3 penalty to anyone wanting to discover information about the recipient. |
| The Barony of the Lesser Ones | Investigators and diplomats to hobgoblins, judges and enforcers of relations between Changelings and hobgoblins. | Must face dangerous hobgoblins or hedge-denizens | Wyrd •• Intimidation ••• Persuasion ••• Skill requirements lowered to •• if you have Gentrified Bearing or Hob-Kin |
When dealing with hobgoblins and hedge denizens you gain a +2 to Intimidation and Persuasion rolls, a +1 defense to attacks made against you, and a +1 bonus to find them. |
| The Duchy of Truth and Loss |
Fetch hunters and killers, but doing so discreetly so it seems the person vanished. |
Must deal with fetches when presented with the opportunity | Wyrd •• Resolve ••• Investigation ••• Sorrow-Frozen Heart •• |
Gain a free 2-dot Hedgespun Armour, and you are granted access to the False Face of Truth token. |
| The Guild of Goldspinners | Creators of gold and wealth. Enforcers of bargains. | Must always invest what they earn | Wyrd •• Crafts •• Crafts(Textiles) Crafts(Smithing) Verdant Spring • |
Access to the Gildwheel token, and access to the Gildwheel Pledges. |
| Knights of the Knowledge of the Tongue | Gourmands are always experimenting with new foods and ingredients. Usually outlandish. | Must never compromise on quality | Wyrd ••• Crafts •• Crafts (Cooking) |
+1 hedgefruit point a month and a +3 bonus when searching for fruit in a game for the purposes of making food. |
| The Order of Oneirophysics | Mystics and healers that focus on the real of dreams and their power. | Must obey the hippocratic oath | First Rank: Wyrd •• Medicine •• Empathy • |
May use Dream healing, based on Rank (The Plunge has been removed) |
| The Family of Silent Nights | Dreamtrappers. They watch dreams for intrusion by the true fae, and can bind almost any oneiropomp in the physical world. | Must fight against nightmares when they hear about them | Wyrd ••• Empathy •• Dreams •• |
Can craft a Dream Prison – Same as crafting a new dream, but instead is a hole where a dream will fall. Can specify what kind of dream. |
| The Squires of the Broken Bough | A nomadic order that moves soldiers to where they are most needed. They fight off whatever danger a freehold faces before moving on to the next distant threat. All have nearly lost everything to the threat and so this task consumes them. | Fight so that others can rest, and die so that others will live | Wyrd •• Resolve ••• Brawl, Firearms, or Weaponry •• |
Gains access to the Broken Blade Token |
| The Twilight Gleaners | Devotees to fate. Often come into conflict with the College of Worms. Worms seek to understand fate, Gleaners seek to simply enact fates will. | Must never fight against fate or destiny | Wyrd ••• Empathy •• Occult •• |
Spend 1 glamour and discover if an action is fated to succeed or fail. Successful fate gives a +1 to any roll for directly furthering the plan, and -1 to anyone attempting to hinder it. If the plan is destined to fail, bonuses are reversed. |
| The Adjudicators of the Wheel | Judges of fate who task themselves with making sure that the worthy get success, and the unworthy fail. | The innocent must be guarded, and the guilty must be punished. | Wyrd ••• Investigation ••• Hearth •• |
May activate Fortune’s Wheel when using the Contracts of Hearth. +1 Glamour to store the contract activation opposite of the one enacted, and may use it against a second person. |
| The Order of the Hallowed Garden | Architects of urban renewal and change. Designers of ‘gardens’ where people can rest and keep the community peaceful. | Must ‘tend’ their gardens | Wyrd ••• Politics ••• Socialize ••• |
To be decided. |
If an entitlement doesn’t exist to cover your particular idea, then we suggest talking to your Storyteller who might be able to work out alternative options for you.
Thank you for reading our blog, and return next week when we will be discussing merits and contracts.