Board
From Edge of Darkness Wiki
The Lost possess an intimate understanding of the magic of metaphor, how one thing can be so like another thing that altering one magically alters the other as well. Long ago, some clever changeling recognized the connection between games and war, and forged these Contracts with a power referred to as “the Great Board,” the embodiment of strategy play. Each of the great Courts claims to have originated these clauses; while Summer Courtiers swear the shared history of their Court and these powers should be self-evident, the Lost of the Ashen Mirror often claim to have crafted it to beat the Iron Spear at its own game. Nobody mentions the fact that the Gentry so often have affection for powers just like these. Contracts of the Board are considered affinity Contracts for all changelings.
Contract Levels
The Honest Eye (•)
Winning against a skilled opponent can be difficult; overcoming a cheater can prove impossible. This clause helps a changeling level the playing field by unmasking cheating competitors. It can be used to identify a cheater in any formalized competition with a time limit and specified rules, including board games, card games, sports and even formal debates. Unfair advantages (such as those granted by kith blessings) do not count as cheating unless they break the rules of the competition.
Note that no use of the Contracts of the Board counts as cheating for the purposes of this power.
- Suggested Modifiers
- +1 Subject is a known cheater
- -1 User is a known cheater
- -3 Changeling is cheating or has cheated during the same game in which she uses this power
Catch: The changeling has caught the subject cheating (at any game) in the past without use of this Contract
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The changeling believes her opponent is playing honestly, whether or not she is.
- Failure: The changeling can’t tell whether or not her opponent is cheating.
- Success: If the changeling rolls more successes than the subject, she knows whether or not he is cheating.
- Exceptional Success: Not only does the changeling know whether or not the subject is cheating, she also knows how.
Knowing the Competition (••)
Sitting across the board from someone, an infamous chess master among the Lost used to claim, is the only way to truly know them. Chances are, he was speaking of this clause. Use of this power allows a changeling to distill through Glamour her experiences playing a game with another individual into a brief flash of insight into the individual’s methods, granting her a distinct edge.
Note that the game the characters shared must be played to completion.
- Cost: 1 Glamour
- Dice Pool: Intelligence + Wyrd
- Suggested Modifiers
- +2 Game played was directly applicable to the current circumstances (i.e. when in war against a general the character played chess against or in a fight with an Ogre the character once arm-wrestled)
- -2 The subject cheated during the game without the character’s knowledge
- Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling uses this clause during a rematch of the initial competition
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The changeling grossly misjudges her opponent. Her next roll against the individual is automatically a chance roll.
- Failure: The power fails to have any effect.
- Success: The changeling experiences a brief and sudden moment of insight into how the subject’s mind works. She gains a +4 bonus to her next dice pool rolled against the subject, no matter what the pool is. (So yes, this power allows a character to throw a more accurate punch against a person after having played a game of gin with him.) The character must play another game with the subject before using this Contract on him again.
- Exceptional Success: As per success, save the character may use the Contract again without having to play another game with the subject.
The Living Game (•••)
At times of war, the Lost are sometimes confused to find their leaders playing games by themselves. If they wait long enough, they may well be shocked to see the game play back.
- Cost: 3 Glamour
- Dice Pool: Occult Skill + Wyrd
- Suggested Modifiers
- +3 Commander of the enemy faction or team is also using this Contract and using the same game to represent the conflict
- +1 Character has played the game against the leader of the enemy group
- –2 Character has never personally met the leader of the enemy group
- –5 Character is playing a game with which she is unfamiliar
- Action: Instant
Catch: The character uses a game appropriate to the situation at hand. For example, using chess in a competition between two groups of roughly similar size and strength (such as a football game), blackjack in a situation where several groups are combating a single enemy or poker in a situation where multiple groups have taken to fighting every changeling for himself.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The character learns inaccurate information about the battle or game.
- Failure: The power fails to take effect.
- Success: The movements of the character’s phantasmal opponent’s pieces or the composition of its cards represents the developments in a different conflict (of the character’s choosing). Through this clause he gains a detailed account of the combat or competition that allows him to react to developments on the field without the need for reports. (This is especially useful when combined with the Game Master’s Table, below.) The information granted by a game is limited to tactical information. While the changeling knows that the loss of a chess piece means that an individual or unit is no longer relevant to the battle, he does not know whether or not that person was captured, injured, or killed.
- Exceptional Success: The character’s phantasmal partner performs actions before they occur on the battlefield, granting the character a +3 bonus on all rolls for determining tactics to use in the real conflict that the game represents.
The Game Master’s Table (••••)
This clause allows the changeling to use her game board to give information as well as receive it. She must provide individuals or unit leaders with small tokens appropriate to the game she intends to play (such as playing cards or chess pieces) before the conflict begins. Then she may deliver orders to her troops by moving her pieces across the board (or whatever actions are appropriate to the chosen game). The troops are not compelled by this power, but they do recognize the impulses towards given actions as commands from their leader.
- Cost: 4 Glamour or 4 Glamour + 1 Willpower
- Dice Pool: Manipulation + Wyrd
- Suggested Modifiers
- +3 Commander of the enemy faction or team is also using this Contract and using the same game to represent the conflict
- +2 Character chooses a game particularly appropriate to the conflict at hand
- +1 Character has played the game against the leader of the enemy group
- –2 Character has never personally met the leader of the enemy group
- –5 Character is playing a game with which she is unfamiliar
- Action: Instant
Catch: The character takes time beforehand to prepare each game piece or card to be given out and used on the board, personalizing it to the character it will represent. This effort takes an hour of work for a standard chess set or deck of cards, requires access to the followers, and may necessitate one or more successful Crafts rolls depending on circumstances at the Storyteller’s discretion.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The power takes effect, but the commands given come out garbled. This levies a –3 penalty on all attempts to command from behind the scenes for the remainder of the scene.
- Failure: The power fails to cause any effect.
- Success: The game becomes magically bound to the character’s followers. The character transmits commands to his followers on the field through the use of a game board or playing cards. This transmission is instantaneous and recognized by the receiver for what it is. The commands can only provide information of a tactical nature — a command to take a ridge or destroy an enemy unit works, for example, but not a command to put on a disguise or sing a song. When used in conjunction with the Living Game clause, this power allows a character to lead an army and respond to enemy movements without being anywhere near the combat.
Characters watching a changeling use this power cannot understand the connections between what she is doing and what is occurring on the battlefield unless they use the Living Game to do so. It has been said that some particularly decadent leaders duel or determine Court leadership by preparing two groups of humans (or, if rumor is to be believed, changelings) and then sitting at the same table, their dark game reflected in the deaths of dozens. Certainly the Gentry have been known to engage in such grim play. This power has a range of (Wyrd) miles. The Contract’s effect lasts for one scene, but the character may spend a Willpower point to extend the duration until the next sunrise or sunset, whichever comes first. At the end of the power’s duration, the items provided to the followers to establish the connection transform into poetically appropriate detritus reflecting the Contract’s user: a Fairest’s cards might become rose petals while a Darkling’s chess pieces may decay into dry cobwebs. The power cannot be used again without providing the followers with new pieces.
- Exceptional Success: As above, save the followers react with exceptional speed and coordination, as if an extension of their commander’s will. Characters under the user’s command gain a bonus of +2 to all actions for the remainder of the scene (regardless of the length of the effect).
The Cheater’s Gambit (•••••)
Sometimes an even battlefield simply isn’t even enough. This clause allows a changeling to wreak havoc on his enemies — by knocking over game pieces or using a marked deck in a game against an invisible opponent.
- Cost: 4 Glamour
- Dice Pool: Manipulation + Wyrd vs. Composure + Wyrd
- Suggested Modifiers
- +3 Commander of the enemy faction or team is also using this Contract and using the same game to represent the conflict
- +1 Character has played the game against the leader of the enemy group
- –2 Character has never personally met the leader of the enemy group
- –3 Subject suspects that character will attempt to cheat in some way
- –5 Character is playing a game with which she is unfamiliar
Catch: Changeling has played this game with an individual who died within the past week.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The attempt at cheating rebounds on the character, causing the group she supports to suffer a –4 to all rolls during the next turn.
- Failure: The power fails to affect the targets.
- Success: The character cheats the subject’s followers in the game of fate, levying a far-ranging if short-lived curse against their efforts. On the following turn, all followers of the subject involved in the conflict suffer a –4 penalty to any dice roll for their own actions (resistance dice pools are not affected). This penalty fades the following turn. This sudden downswing of fortune may manifest as a moment of bad weather, a broken communication line, a sudden rout or a simple turn of horrid luck. Whatever way fate takes its toll on the enemy, the subject of the Contract (i.e. the enemy leader) automatically knows that a character just messed with fate on a large scale. In short, he knows the character cheated.
- Exceptional Success: As success, save the subject doesn’t realize that a Contract was used.
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