Monday, 11 December 2017

The Anatomy of a Changeling Part 04 - Bedlam


Changeing editions: unlike 1st ed. Bedlam is now a state that any changeling can incite regardless of Wyrd rating.

Faerie is a place full of intense and conflicting emotional situations. Fear wars with joy, anger fights against happiness, and all the feelings in between rage through the magical realm. The Lost, though now escaped, can still feel those emotions, and sometimes tap into them. By drawing on his own strong passions, a changeling can convert Glamour back into an outpouring of emotions and send them coursing through the people around him, overwhelming them with extreme emotional responses.

Targets who fail to resist become consumed by the urges the changeling has released, and abandon other activities in favor of following the whims of their incited emotions.

Incite Bedlam
Cost: 1 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Wyrd vs. Composure + Supernatural Tolerance (contested separately by each target)
Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The people around the changeling do not experience the desired emotion, but instead turn against her, feeling extreme antipathy toward her.
Failure: The changeling fails to create a strong emotional response.
Success: Anyone within sensory range of the changeling is overcome with the emotion the changeling is channelling. The person must be able to sense the changeling somehow; even cameras or recording devices convey Bedlam’s effects. The changeling chooses a single Condition at the time he incites Bedlam associated with one of the four Elemental courts: Competitive for Fire, Paranoid for Earth, Spooked for Water, and Lethargic for Air. Those who fail to successfully contest this power gain the Condition. The target rationalizes the change of emotion as perfectly natural while it's going on, but after the effects end he may question why he felt that way. Supernatural creatures may very well suspect a magical cause.
Exceptional Success: As success, and the changeling may pick a second Condition to inflict as part of his Bedlam.

Suggested Bedlam Modifiers
Changeling:
+3 The changeling unleashes his court's chosen emotion.
+1 The emotion is from the court most closely associated with the character's own
(Spring/Summer, Autumn/Winter).
+1 Each additional Glamour spent, up to a maximum of five.
−1 The emotion is from the court of minor opposition (Summer/Autumn, Spring/Winter).
−3 The emotion is from the court of major opposition (Summer/Winter, Autumn/Spring).
Target:
+2 The target is feeling emotions strongly in opposition to those unleashed.
+1 The target is relatively calm and relaxed.
−1 The target is already feeling emotions similar to those unleashed.

This is a wild, unrestrained release of emotional energy. No one made an agreement with these emotions, like a Contract, and so all bets are off. Bedlam is a blunt-force instrument, incapable of sending thoughtful direction, or even bold commands. The changeling may attempt to guide the behavior of the targets via mundane methods, such as attempting to draw the attention of an angry mob toward a single target, or shouting "run for your lives!" after unleashing a wave of fear through a crowd, but even this method is not perfect. Mob rule takes over, and sometimes drawing attention to yourself is more dangerous than just letting it run its course.


This power targets anyone who can sense the changeling, and cannot distinguish between friend and foe. The changeling cannot choose to selectively remove targets from the effect, nor direct the effect at a small group of targets out of a crowd. Once per scene, a player may choose to have his character involuntarily incite Bedlam to gain a Beat. Inciting Bedlam in this way does not cost Glamour, but the changeling has no control over which emotion she is unleashing, which is instead at Storyteller discretion.

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