The Doctor is a True Fae?

[graymachine]

I just had an idea: could you design a Changling the Lost game with the Doctor (Doctor Who) as a True Fae? He seems to fit the bill; he comes to the real world, takes a 'companion', the go across the Hedge to his 'TARDIS', and so on, eventually returning them to the world greatly altered. Granted, they usually don't have the powers of normal changlings, but there seems to be something that rings true with the unintended wake of misery the Doctor leaves behind and the True Fae. How would this work? Anyone have an expanded opinion on this concept?

[Hopeless]

Wouldn't that be more like the True Fae wishes it was the Doctor... all of them?:smallwink:

Sorry couldn't resist but how would you place the (the Arthur Conan Doyle versions I mean!) fairies in that Torchwood episode?

[Anarion]

It's completely doable, but I'm not sure it would play out the way you're thinking. If the Doctor is the True Fae, all the fun adventures are the durance, written before the game actually happens. Changeling is a game about coming home and finding that the world doesn't quite want you back, and I'd worry that everyone would be too busy idealizing their adventures with the Doctor to actually play the Changeling game.

On the other hand, if you had a group of very powerful changelings that needed to venture into Arcadia for some reason, the domain of the the Doctor would be spectacularly fun to play. So, I'd probably save it for that, if anything.

[Mono Vertigo]

Admittedly, when you see what's the fate of most of his companions and recurring buddies, it's very easy to conclude that no matter how nice the Doctor is and how wonderful the things he showed you were, you're always better off never meeting him at all. And even if you do come back in one piece, it's terribly difficult to readjust to mundane life without his presence.
Which is pretty Changeling-y. (See: most Fairest that were not clearly tortured physically or mentally, and who tend to experience a creepy longing of Arcadia.)
The only real difference is that the Doctor combines the best part of human and alien point of views. He loves, he empathizes greatly with others, he regularly questions his own policies and opinions.
All those go against the basics shared by all True Fae. They only mimic love if they can get something in return, they have as much empathy as sociopaths, and they constantly impose their will and desires on others without ever considering introspection. The closest thing they can do is decide on a whim that being The Forest's Hunter bores them, and turn instead into The Prettiest Princess, or The Cruel Demon Lord, because these roles are more amusing.

So you've got to change the Gentry!Doctor's behaviour and mind enough to make his benevolence much more ambiguous. Focus on all these episodes that revolved around his role as the sole saviour, where nobody else could do anything nowhere as important as he did, and where he was guaranteed to be remembered somehow by the survivors. Or those where he won't save people because that would greatly disturb Time and Space, and only he knows for certain what things can be done without disturbing Time and Space. Those are perfect for stroking a True Fae's ego.

... again, that would just be the Durance.
If he wants to get old companions back... he could just arrange for horrible events to take place, and walk in once the Changelings have realized their doom is coming.
"What a coincidence, is that my old companions I see there? Just as the Sontaran invasion is about to take place? I wish we'd met again under better circumstances! You should come with me. It's safer. Don't worry, I will find a way to make it better. Like I always do. Come with me. I wouldn't want to see you get hurt. Or killed. If you don't come with me, I can't make sure you'll be safe, should I need to blow up the city, or something like that. I'm sure your help will be precious, too. Hopefully, this time, none of you will have to sacrifice themselves. I wouldn't want to find myself traveling through time and space alone again. It's soul-crushing, really. Soul-crushingly boring. Allons-y."

[graymachine]

"What a coincidence, is that my old companions I see there? Just as the Sontaran invasion is about to take place? I wish we'd met again under better circumstances! You should come with me. It's safer. Don't worry, I will find a way to make it better. Like I always do. Come with me. I wouldn't want to see you get hurt. Or killed. If you don't come with me, I can't make sure you'll be safe, should I need to blow up the city, or something like that. I'm sure your help will be precious, too. Hopefully, this time, none of you will have to sacrifice themselves. I wouldn't want to find myself traveling through time and space alone again. It's soul-crushing, really. Soul-crushingly boring. Allons-y."

That is excellent.

[Mono Vertigo]

Having written this, I realized a Gentry!Doctor would sound an awful lot like the Master.
And I'm okay with this, personally.

[graymachine]

We all should be ok with that.

[comicshorse]

It's completely doable, but I'm not sure it would play out the way you're thinking. If the Doctor is the True Fae, all the fun adventures are the durance, written before the game actually happens. Changeling is a game about coming home and finding that the world doesn't quite want you back, and I'd worry that everyone would be too busy idealizing their adventures with the Doctor to actually play the Changeling game.


Which adds another layer as talk like that is going to get them strung up as Loyalists. Or of course they could join up with other Loyalists he has left behind and the ensorcelled mortals who serve them, y'know,Torchwood

[Project_Mayhem]

Well. I've now got a nifty idea for my next Changeling live character :smallbiggrin:

Thanks guys.

[graymachine]

Which adds another layer as talk like that is going to get them strung up as Loyalists. Or of course they could join up with other Loyalists he has left behind and the ensorcelled mortals who serve them, y'know,Torchwood

Yeah, I was thinking of something along these lines. I like the Doctor being in the position of the Gentry because most players are simply going to look at Loyalists as the Bad Guys (tm). Cool adaption of popular media aside, other players (that like Doctor Who) are going to feel a greater degree of sympathy with this Loyalist, leading to an uncomfortable feeling when this conflicts with them knowing Loyaists are the Bad Guys (tm).



Well. I've now got a nifty idea for my next Changeling live character :smallbiggrin:

Thanks guys.

No problem, although credit goes to the regular CtL players here. Do you think you would go with a straight clone of the Whoniverse (The Doctor, TARDIS, Daleks, etc.) or mimic the main themes enough to wait for the other players to catch on?

[Sith_Happens]

All I know is that I have a friend who would go crazy reading this thread if he knew anything about Changeling.

On a semi-related note, I suddenly find the Weeping Angels in need of nWoD stats.:smallamused:

[Project_Mayhem]

Yeah, I was thinking of something along these lines. I like the Doctor being in the position of the Gentry because most players are simply going to look at Loyalists as the Bad Guys (tm). Cool adaption of popular media aside, other players (that like Doctor Who) are going to feel a greater degree of sympathy with this Loyalist, leading to an uncomfortable feeling when this conflicts with them knowing Loyaists are the Bad Guys (tm).

It's interesting you should say that actually. The general feeling in our group, IC, is that Loyalists are often victims. Most of the free lost were basically loyalists during their durance, and very few people serve the True Fae willingly. While loyalists aren't to be trusted, the goal is normally to help them rather than treat them as unambiguous villains.

Privateers tend to get the bad guy (tm) marker. :smalltongue:



No problem, although credit goes to the regular CtL players here. Do you think you would go with a straight clone of the Whoniverse (The Doctor, TARDIS, Daleks, etc.) or mimic the main themes enough to wait for the other players to catch on?

I tend not to like making really obvious rip offs - I'd use the idea of Arcadia being a combination of exciting adventure and straight terrifying horror, with a magnetically charismatic true fae, and go from there. Probably be a Truefriend or a Playmate, and focus on a degree of adventuring Stockholm syndrome.

Amusingly, our ST is currently running a plot where a group of stronger Gentry are attacking the weaker local keepers, which would lead to some ... conflicted motives.

[SiuiS]

I just had an idea: could you design a Changling the Lost game with the Doctor (Doctor Who) as a True Fae? He seems to fit the bill; he comes to the real world, takes a 'companion', the go across the Hedge to his 'TARDIS', and so on, eventually returning them to the world greatly altered. Granted, they usually don't have the powers of normal changlings, but there seems to be something that rings true with the unintended wake of misery the Doctor leaves behind and the True Fae. How would this work? Anyone have an expanded opinion on this concept?

There's a way to get out of Arcadia without a seeming. Perhaps that's how it works? Still have access to contracts, just the boring ones.


It's completely doable, but I'm not sure it would play out the way you're thinking. If the Doctor is the True Fae, all the fun adventures are the durance, written before the game actually happens. Changeling is a game about coming home and finding that the world doesn't quite want you back, and I'd worry that everyone would be too busy idealizing their adventures with the Doctor to actually play the Changeling game.

On the other hand, if you had a group of very powerful changelings that needed to venture into Arcadia for some reason, the domain of the the Doctor would be spectacularly fun to play. So, I'd probably save it for that, if anything.

Aye.

[Xallace]

On a semi-related note, I suddenly find the Weeping Angels in need of nWoD stats.:smallamused:

They're called "the Silent" and you can find them in Promethean: The Created. :smalltongue:

I like the Doctor being a True Fae. Kinda explains the regeneration process.

"Well that body and personality combination was fun, time for a new pair." Maybe the limit of 13 was some oath he made. Oh, yeah maybe that's how you stop him in the end - you trick him into wasting all of his "lives," and then -poof-.

I think a "Doctor's Wife" changeling would be pretty cool, too. Totally enthralled with the guy because he brainwashed and subsumed her into the Tardis (that is, himself). Maybe he picks up one of those every so often and then tosses them out when they stop producing glamour or whatever. Sounds like a good candidate for Contracts of Hours.

[Mono Vertigo]

Hours is, indeed, a must.
I'd also suggest Vainglory 3, Verdant Spring 4 or 5, Spellbound Autumn 1, Diviner's Madness (for all those times our famous time traveler already knows what happened or will happen to the poor fools he meets), Good and Bad Luck (same), Fair Entrance (or a Token sonic screwdriver that does exactly that). Steel Mastery, Smiths' blessing, is also a mandatory effect of the sonic screwdriver.
I suppose his Changelings are either:
- Companions; they'd be Oracles because, duh, time travel, Authors due to the translating side-effects of the Tardis, Telluric for having seen many astral bodies and phenomena, Romancers for having their ties to their own reality disturbed, Playmates for helping the Doctor, and Gandharvas for picking up on the Doctor's amazing persuasive abilities. Therefore, mostly Fairest and Wizened. Or you might even go with No Seeming.
- Aliens/enemies; they may have abandoned their role in the Doctor's story, should they have managed to escape, but they could still be anything. Cybermen-shaped emotionless Metalflesh. The zombies from Waters of Mars are dual Kith Waterdwellers/Renders. The villains in Pompeii are Fireheart/Oracle. Oods, Drudges. And so forth. You don't even have to be limited to canon species. These ones could be tracked down by the Doctor because he "won't allow them to threaten his favourite planet" and he "still has a chance to reason them". Or you could replace them all with Hobgoblins, though I think it's less interesting than a few Changelings who struggle to get rid of their role as a (ruthless or unintentional) threat to innocents.

This True Fae would certainly be the sort to want his escaped slaves back, all of them, only desiring to get new ones in order to fulfill new roles in his adventures, or if the previous ones have died. That alone can provide a lot of story hooks. One can certainly have base a whole campaign designed around that single Big Bad, his Loyalists, and all the other people who may side with him or against you.

EDIT: oh yeah, do check for crossovers. Promethean is indeed the best bet for a few memorable monsters of the week.