Pledges and Pledgecraft.

[ST McDude]

So this space will be for pledge work. For those who played on EoD pledges were stifled to the point of being nonexistent. This will not be the case here, and due to this you'll likely see a huge power increase in your changelings. Seriously, pledges are crazy strong. So this place will be the spot to manufacture your public pledges, or pitch ideas for pledges you'd LIKE to use, but can't really work into your character. Or just nasty pieces of work that give you an evil chuckle that you absolutely must share.

So here's my first entry. A pledge used by the old summer king on mercenaries and militia.
Type: Corporal, Mortal Emblem (Resources)
Tasks: Forbiddance (Lesser -1 Unable to betray the summer court. Didn't go with fealty here because they aren't summer courtiers)
Boons: Adroitness (Lesser +1 Weaponry, Blessing +1 Resources [A florin a day...])
Sanctions: Pishogue (Greater -3 He would blast the traitors with the summer kamehameha.)
Duration: Season (+2)
Invocation: 1 Willpower

This one has some deceptive penalties. Given it's a corporal based on resources, should anyone survive the blast their resources merit is destroyed. So you end up nursing severe burns without a penny to your name.

[ST McDude]

Ok now for something minor. A favored vow of Spring courtiers for bringing a mortal confidant along for a changeling party. Keep in mind that one oath is sufficient for a group if they all swear it at the same time.

"I swear to you we'll kick this party up a notch! Just keep your shit in check and have a night you'll never forget!"

Type: Vow
Tasks: Alliance (Lesser -1), Ensorcellment (-2)
Boons: Ensorcellment (+2), Glamour (+2)
Sanctions: Poisoning of Boon (-2)
Duration: Day (+1)
Invocation: 1 Willpower

[Hedgebound Heart]

This sounds awesome. Just out of curiosity, who has a good handle on Goblin Vows? I've always wanted to use them more, but never really had a firm grasp of them. Like, what would some appropriate "favor" boons be? Adroitness and blessings are pretty straightforward, but a favor could be just about anything. I know folks have used them to replicate contracts, but does that upset game balance? Any thoughts?

I've also never been real good at deciding when a Goblin Vow purview is too vague or overly specific. For example, I was thinking of purchasing Goblin Vow(Blood), but is that too general? I always thought a good rule of thumb was using an adjective and a noun to define a purview, like "Spilled Blood", but is that being too specific? I'm really interested in hearing everyone's take on Goblin Vows and how we see them being used in our venue.

[ST McDude]

Took me a bit to hunt that one down. I'm ok with it frankly. The innate disadvantages involved in making those pledges serves as a solid counterweight to what you gain. It can be pretty stupidly easy to accidentally break a pledge.

On the flip side of this coin, an inanimate thing will ALWAYS fulfill it's side of the bargain. So if you accidentally trip the trigger to your flamethrower pledge at the gas station, the joke is on you.

As far as too vague or whatnot, just ask and I'll make a call if you aren't sure.

[InvertedMonkey]

Alright, so, I have a pitch, a rough-draft as it were, of our Motley Pledge. I don't have an idea of the name of the motley yet, but here's how the pledge goes:

"We're in this together, as loyal to our Freehold as to each other. For a year and a day, we'll never turn our backs on that loyalty. We'll never betray our home or each other. With that kind of trust comes strength, comes understanding, comes wisdom. We're stronger together than the sum of our parts. But Fate have mercy on whoever breaks that trust, because nobody else will."

Type: Vow
Tasks: Greater Alliance -3 (Motley), Medial Forbiddence -2 (Betray the Freehold)
Boons: Lesser Blessing +1 (Merit: Language 1 [ASL]), Adroitness +3 (Pledger's choice of 3 different Skills)
Sanction: Medial Vulnerability -2 (Violence)
Duration: Year and a Day +3
Invocation: 1 Willpower

A note on Forbiddence: Part of the reason for War-Motleys being a thing as previously discussed was a sense of not knowing who to trust. So part of the idea is that your motley-pledge is supposed to make you more trustworthy, and the Forbiddence seems to me like a great way to do that. It effectively neutralizes a lot of possible doubt that could be cast on any of us. That said, if folks don't like it, we can always pry it out and drop two levels of Adroitness to compensate.

Also, making the Sanction something as terrible as Violence could really drive home how serious we have to be about this Pledge, about this commitment. And, should anyone break the Pledge, it would give all who stayed true a huge advantage on hunting them down and punishing them, which may appeal to some of our PCs

Whatcha think?

[InvertedMonkey]

Aside: That motley pledge doesn't include a Dreaming task. So while we'd be obligated to defend each other unto death, but not to guard each other's dreams. Which is a little... eh? We could incldue it! And it would give us two more points worth of Boons. But it would mean that our characters would have to be in some kind of rotation checking on each others' dreams, or something.

[ST McDude]

I'm not saying no to having 3 different skills in adroitness, but perhaps it'd be better if you chose something more thematic for your motley, or something thematic for what you are trying to accomplish as that motley.

There are a lot of merits out there you can delve into with those points.

[Hedgebound Heart]

I honestly don't see any reason not to just use the example in the core CtL book. If this was a motley formed out of necessity/desperation/in the midst of battle, there probably wasn't much forethought put into it. However, each person could also customize their particular boons(+3 Adroitness/+2 Adroitness & +1 Blessing/etc...) to fit how their character would uphold the pledge. If anyone wants to share a Dreaming task, then that could always just be a separate pledge.

Tasks: Alliance, Greater (–3, all)
Boons: Adroitness (+1, all), Blessing, Medial (+2, all)
Sanction: Poisoning of Boons, Greater (–3, poisoning
both Adroitness and Blessing boons)
Duration: Year and a day (+3, though many long-established
motleys bear Lifelong durations)
Invocation: 1 Willpower (all)

If Molly was part of his war motley, Kyle would probably form a separate pledge with her to understand sign language. I'm just not in love with the idea of including a boon for our motley pledge that deals with such a specific character trait. Besides, that would ruin all the fun for Greebs. If our toons can all understand Molly right off the bat, then her speech impediment just becomes a gimmick(like a stuttering raccoon).

[Greebs]

For what it's worth, while I left the backstory on a cliffhanger that didn't cover anything recent, I was planning on playing her as an outsider only really brought into Freehold life by The War. It fits the character, and doesn't immediately skew the Court zen thing you have going on!

I figure when things started getting ugly, the factions started hoovering up or locking down the outliers - courtless, hermits, the little sub freehold communities that weren't quite worth the effort before - both for security reasons, and as a power grab.

Maybe whichever Autumn courtier talked her down from the metaphorical trees gambled on a very risky pledge that opened up a healthy supply of trust right out of the gate, and while her participation in the conflict wasn't enough to earn status or Summer goodwill (just two more XP!   ), she at least proved herself an asset worth the risk.

[InvertedMonkey]

I like covering several bases in one Pledge because we get to swear a limited number of them. We only get Wyrd +3 Vows, and then we'd have to start swearing on Names or Oaths and other stuff that can have rather drastic consequences. For those of us at Wyrd 1, a Freehold Oath plus a Motley Pledge leaves us only 2 free spots for Vows. But I can certainly understand the reasons not to make a Pledge quite so broad.

ASL wouldn't necessarily be a blessing benefiting just one character. After all, it could be cool for the motley to be able to communicate silently in a language that most people can't interpret. But again, I understand the arguments against. If we just want to do the standard motley pledge, I'm good with that.

@Greebs The Court Zen thing isn't all that important to me, it just tickled me a little don't worry about it. Do what you think is gonna be fun, motley or not.

[Greebs]

Okay, so managed to find the XP for a dot of Freehold Status and a dot of Summer Court Goodwill after all, which gives me some room to write some stuff that at least puts her on someone's radar.

edit: that emoji is amazing, but it needs a tweaked eye/mouth ratio ¬.¬

[Hedgebound Heart]

I totally understand killing two birds with one stone via pledges, but I actually disagree regarding Oaths and Corporals. I *want* us to swear them. The risk is what makes them fun and adds good storytelling hooks. Besides, some Mortal Emblems can actually be fluffy as hell. I mean, you can swear additional ones on a Merit, but the base mortal emblem pledge is just for any mortal connection in your character's life. Besides the Clarity roll for breaking a pledge, what's the real risk to your toon if she does lose a gym membership or get 86'd from her favorite bar/cafe? Not much, but it could give inspiration for a cool Glimpse(or are we calling them Reflections), wouldn't it? I'm not saying we should take advantage of it in every scene, but using a fluffy mortal emblem once in a while for a lesser boon in return for a good background post to justify it always seemed like a fair trade to me. I pretty much just considered it a Changeling's version of ritual magic.

Also, if you want to keep your options for Vows open, don't forget that according to the RAW, sometimes Motley Pledges are sworn on Nemesis Emblems and a Freehold Pledge can be sworn as a Commendation or Knight's Oath, which are both Corporals as well. This would leave all four of a Wyrd 1 ling's potential Vows open for business.

[ST McDude]

A small nudge at this point. I'd like people to finalize their pledges that they already have, or those that they want to get soonish and post them on their character sheets. Any that haven't been finished out by the time chapter 2 rolls around will be considered expired and you'll have to make new ones after the fact.

I'll do the same thing with the freehold pledge, since there was some ideas I was toying with. I'll be posting both a generic version and one for each court. You can choose which you want to align with, though in most cases the options will be either the generic one or the one to the court you belong in.

[Hedgebound Heart]

"The only way we're getting through this shit is if we stick together. Watch my back and I'll watch yours. If anyone fucks with one of us, they fuck with all of us. Do or die... United we stand... All for one.... Better, stronger, faster... Yadda yadda yadda..."

Mechanics:

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