Freehold Location

[Cayce]

It's an interesting idea, but I also have a few reservations that I'd love to hear people's thoughts on.

For one, I'm worried that setting the Freehold in a theme park would pretty radically divorce it from Sacramento itself. I mean, the city I grew up in had an amusement park by the river, pretty close to town, but it was still not what I would consider "in the city". I'm worried the park would just become it's own sort of city, whereas a Hotel could still be its own territory, but definitely still connected to the city in a very intimate way.

Secondly, there's no precedence. The Four Seasons has a huge history, whereas a Theme park appearing from nowhere would take a bit of a retcon. Like, 'hey, remember that abandoned park by the river? That no ever talked about? Ever? Really? It's that scrap heap right by Tower Bridge! Yeah, it's suddenly magic again, let's go check it out!'

I don't know, feels a bit forced.

But, if you're in favor of the park idea, then just answer me a few questions.

1. How would the park interact with the Blue Note and Edna's?
2. How would it interact with the City?
3. What role in the park do you see your character play?
4. What would convince your character to move to the park?

[Saber Sloth]

I completely understand how the theme park could and probably would draw the Freehold away from Sacramento, but at the same time I'm seeing the amazing plot and story potential the unsettling theme park could be. Also, the Glamour out put a theme park would be able to produce.

I want that feel of paranoia, fear and wonky magic to thread through the venue, even if it's simple ventures out to town, or to the market or whatever. Something that make Changeling something more then just a group of people that look mystical going about their daily lives, and eating amazing soups.

For the forced nature of Suddenly A Theme Park. I got nothing to help with that. :P Well, maybe some wacky Fae magic something-or-other.

As for the questions, here's some answers!

1. I seem Edna's and the Blue Note still as 'Outposts'. Places where we can great new 'lings, and slowly introduce them into the Freehold at large, as well as places where the Lost who've moved to the Park can use as touchstones to tie them back to the city.

2. It would be a working Theme Park, bringing Glamour and an Income to the Freehold, while the rides or whatevers, that lead Elsewhere, would be off-limits until the 'hold figured out what to do with those places, and how to make them safe for the mundanes.

3. Autumn would naturally claim the Haunted House, so Mhairi would maintain that, while most likely setting up real rooms for those within for her Court. As for Mhairi alone, she might want to set up a Fortune Teller's Booth.

4. The change to study and interact with all this Unknown Magic.

(and I'm getting kicked off the computer, so! I might be back later, with more words!)

[Orianna]

Being pretty new to Ling, I don't have a whole lot to support how cool it would be game mechanic wise, cause, still learning:P But if we were still going with the whole abandoned carnival filled with horrors and all that...why not take a page from Silent Hill? In both the game and movie, the sinister part of Silent Hill is only accessible to those it wants. Why couldn't some psycho Keeper have it setup to pull in Lings and fuck with em? *shrug* I played a TT WoD game that was based in Silent Hill, and it was AWESOME! But...just the opinion of a Ling n00b:P

[Saber Sloth]

Aaaaand if the Theme Park doesn't take off for the Freehold, Mhairi just might want to invest in something spectacularly creepy for herself. Like say a theme park!

A Silent Hill LARP?-maybe-something-or-other! Like what Universal does around Halloween after dark, but year 'round. Probably after dark too. Because trying to scare park goers in the day'll take more :P But it could be a cool idea for a site, a cool place for City Shards.

[Yumyumcrow]

It is an interesting idea, but I am not sure how well it would work with the Setting. Taking Ling out of Sacramento would be counter productive because the "official" game (the Big 3 Venues) is set in Sacramento, Cal. Now, if said theme park could be located in or around Sacramento...* Having it suddenly become the focus would seem forced to me, unless its tied with logically with some spectacular plotting.

A theme park does fit the ambience of Changeling but again, I think its more thematic for some Courts over others (Spring and Autumn, for sure. I have trouble seeing what value the Summer and Winter Courts would have in the place, other than it possibly being a source of revenue for the Freehold).

As a player-character, I can't see Green finding much to do with the place. But thats an aside.

Questions!

1) I still view existing sites such as Edna's and the Blue Note as outposts of the Freehold. As Saber notes, they'd be the places where Lings would still congregate - and I can't see that changing especially since both sites are Sites (as in, owned locations belonging to PCs).

2) I got no idea here, If its a full on replacement - ah no. If its a new location, possibly. I don't think a ret-con would be needed myself (unless its an abandoned site, in which case see what I said earlier). Conceivably, it could be purchased from elsewhere and located on the city fringes*. The Freehold exists in Sacramento, but the exact territorial space (if any) it lays claim to can, and perhaps should, change with time.

3) Logically it would have to be a working site as anything else would probably be too much of a ret-con. An abandoned theme park would have been a backdrop for so much other stuff over time for it to suddenly just appear. Claiming an abandoned site would necessitate leaving Sacramento, and again that defeats the purpose.

As noted above, I cannot see what role Green would take in such a place. Labour, maybe? Security - if the site was deemed private property and left apparently vacant. Green doesn't see himself as a carnie, unfortunately.

4) Logically... Nothing :( If it was part of the Freehold he'd rock up when and where he is needed but otherwise... he'd view it as some other Ling's toy.

*I would like to note that not all splats are distributed equally through Sacramento. This isn't 3-4 years ago when the Vampire Rack, the Changeling Freehold, a Mage Cabal (and the key mage sites), shared the heart of downtown with potentially two Werewolf Packs.

Currently the Rack is in Downtown. The Mage's holding has shrunk back to the Circle of Creation, which is now out in the fields near Rosemont-Mather at the eastern fringe of the city; the two cabals of the Consilium are in West Sacramento and South Sacramento respectively. The Ling Freehold is... up for grabs.

So, yes, it is conceivable that a purchase of a theme park could be made and it could be located anywhere around Sacramento. But it would be just another outpost / infrastructure of the Freehold rather than the Freehold itself.

Just my two cents

[Saber Sloth]

Yes! Thank you Crow! You've out it into better word then my haphazard way.

When I was picturing the theme park as a freehold site, or a site owned by Mhairi, it was always a site attached to Sacremento. Somewhere, probably a little removed because of the size invoked but always apart of Sacremento in someway.

And for all mr pro-theme park posts it doesn't mean I'm Anti-Four Seasons.

If the For Seasons is better for the Freehokd and venue I'm deffenatly all for it.

I just think that the theme park if a nift idea.

(Also sorry if this sounds rambling or weird, but in a sleepy Sloth. But I just can't sleep :C )

[West]

So... let me get this right. The Four Seasons can (re)appear overnight, but a theme park can't?

I don't really follow the logic there.

And... so what? I mean, if we've learned anything over the years of telling Stories here, it's that in 3-6 months it won't matter anyway. Sure, we talked about the Circle reappearing for like a month... now it's just a fixture again. Things like this are only a big deal if someone makes it a big deal IC -- and eventually it won't be a big deal no matter what.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not pushing for this*. I just don't think Story / setting opportunities should be hamstrung by transient IC logic. It's about what's going to provide good backdrops, not whether or not your character ever rode a pony there before. We appear and disappear Sites all the time. We ignore character drops IC absences.

Because at the end of the day, sometimes you just have to suspend disbelief to find the best way forward.

* Mostly because if it's not used I'll probably re-purpose the concept and pow-wow with all the STs as shared set-piece with a Verge or the like. Maybe do some Park Wars style x-over.

[Yumyumcrow]

Fair points.

[Saber Sloth]

Word.

[Cayce]

Alright friends, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to institute a pretty grand change that struck me a few days ago when I was talking about the idea of Faceless NPCs with West.

On the Winter Solstice (Dec 21st), a sudden flood of Changeling refugees will come swarming into the city, running both from other Freeholds and fresh from the hedge itself. Faced with this sudden influx of NPCs newcomers, the current members of the Freehold (the PCs), will need to step up to positions of Leadership. This will mean assuming the senior roles in your Court, and also taking charge of Freehold Infrastructure, like managing sites, and etc.

Now, as for why in the world I think this is a good idea?

Well, there's a couple reasons. The first is that I realized that having a stock of NPCs would actually make plots and PrPs incredibly easy to make, and this would even extend into interpersonal/social plots.

The second reason is that I think this well help flesh the setting out more, and help give people more things to bounce off of. Instead of just being, like, 'oh, i has job, and occaisonally do hedge when I'm not 7 people at a barbeque', there would be much more room for you to flesh out what your characters life is like living in a Freehold.

Lastly, I think this will also help give everyone what they want. For those that are excited about a spooky amusement park, you could have that, and also have a cast of people that likewise interested. For those who like the Four Seasons best (like meeee), we'd have a cast of characters invovled in that. Same for Edna's and the Blue Note, not to mention various other stuff around town.

Also, I'd like to change the Freehold Oath. I think keeping loyalty to the crown is important, as is fighting the gentry and their allies, and secrecy for mortals, too. However, I want to take out the "do no harm and follow all the ruuuulez" clauses, because those get in the way of stories. Just for example, with the current oaths, no one in the Freehold can have Hedge Duels. That's going to be incredibly boring if you suddenly can't duel NPCs that are doing bad stuff, or talking smack about yo mama, or whatever.

Oh, and for those that are really desperate for a second character, of which there's at least one of you, I think that the inclusion of NPCs could also work as a trial run for a 2nd PC. How it would work is this: if you're interested then you would submit a brief character write up of a new 'ling coming to the Freehold, and stat them with just starting stuff, no XP. You still couldn't have this NPC interact with your PC, but you could interact with others. So if you're all about that theme park, the NPC could be at the Four Seasons, or vice versa. Or, if you're Winter, then you could have someone in Summer, and thus help flesh out interactions among Courts.

Now then, let me know your thoughts!

(Also, only Sites can be used in Shards, so the themepark, edna's, 4 Season's, etc, would just be in the Ling venue ONLY...unless they were bought as a Site. Note, however, that Shards don't matter for the purposes of the Venue)