FairFolkShapingCombatPrimer

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Some people have great difficulty wrapping their minds around the Fair Folk. In part, this is because of the information density of the book itself, but it also covers a set of concepts alien to most RPG settings. It's very unusual, and honestly, I've never seen it except for a few card games and RL situations that most people wouldn't think to compare to an RPG. However, I seem to have the concepts firmly in grasp, so I'd like to see if I can shed some light on the topic.

Please forgive any spelling errors or repetition. I'm doing this all rough-draft, off-the-cuff.

Shaping combat, mechanically, is not difficult. I'm sure anyone can grasp the mechanics of it (You roll for attack: the dice pools are detailed. Your target might roll for defense, he soaks, you roll damage, and inflict that on the appropriate virtue. If you "kill" your opponent, you inflict the results as per the type of combat you do (Ravaing for the Cup, Vexing for the Sword, etc). This, I think, nobody has troubles with.

Ahh, but what are the Fair Folk actually doing. That seems to be the trouble.

To understand that, and to illustrate it to your players, perform the following excercise.

Take your book. Set it aside. Take your dice. Set them aside. Take your character sheet. Set it aside.

We're going to play a little game. It has the following rule: each player has 5 minutes. He may describe anything he wishes. He is not bound by what any previous player has said (though he is encouraged to use it, if it inspires him). The game continues until the story comes to a reasonable end, and the GM (who is not participating) declares that it is finished. Each time a player makes use of an element another player came up with, the GM marks a "point" beside that players name, simply for future reference.

(If you can get it, pick up Once Upon A Time, because it does exactly this and will help explain the concepts more concisely. Also, we can try this right here: each player gets a 100 word post on a thread. None of the posts need follow in consecutive order: ie, each player may post whatever the hell he wants. He is, however, encouraged to borrow inspiration from what someone else has done).

What will happen with this little exercise?

Well, to begin with, we'll have chaos. Each player will try to define whatever he wants. The weaker players will immediately begin to follow off of a more powerful players story, but there will be story "clashes." For example, four players have chosen to join our group, two ladies named Genny and Kara, and two boys named Jamey and Tim. Genny begins:

Genny, excited and interested to try this concept: The glass window shatters as the soldiers break in. Alarms ring about the castle as the princess brings her guards close to defend her. The door bursts open and the invading champion levels his weapon at the guards and shouts "I have come for my bride."

Tim, uncertain about this whole thing and more than a little dazzled by Genny's description:Uhhh... she says... "Go to hell!"? I guess. Umm... I don't know...

Jamey, smug:There is a book locked away in a distant tower. This tower floats in the sky, and can only be reached by a bridge of sunlight that shines at noon. Beyond the thrice-locked gate, the book rests upon its pedastal. The cover is crafted of elemental dragon hide, and all five elements writhe upon it. The pages are constructed of thought, and cannot be touched with physical hands. The book is not finished, and every day it scrawls another page. Yet, the book writes itself backwards, not forwards, for it remembers the future, and cannot see the past.

Kara, blinking, seems to like Jamey's idea: Oooh, that's a cool book. Alright, the princess says "If you bring me that book, I will marry you."

Genny:"Wait, I thought she told him to go to hell. She can't do both."

Kara: "Maybe the book is in hell?"

GM, raising his hand to stop them: "It doesn't matter. It's up to you, Genny, as it's your turn."

Thus, the opening scene will be chaotic, which each player chipping in whatever they feel like. Some will falter at first, and others will begin to drift in support of a stronger player, as Tim and Kara began to support Genny (and Jamey, to a degree). Quickly, we begin to see a storyline form, but the question becomes: who will dominate it? Note that in our little example, Genny has 2 points, and Jamey has 1.

Genny: Ok, ok. Ummm. The princess stands up and cries "I do love you, Prince of Silver and Stone, but I cannot marry you and I am bound by ancient oathes to fight you." The Prince of Silver and Stone smashes the ground in frustration. "Where are these oaths, so that I may break them!" "They are written in a tome hidden on a..." yada yada, you heard Jamey.

Tim, disgruntled that he's falling behind: Oh, my turn? Ok. This mage guy shows up. He's all dark and stuff, with a beard and a sword and an eye-patch. Really mean looking. He says "I can lead you to this tower... for a price."

Jamey, rolling his eyes at Tim's weak description and annoyed that Genny's getting more of the story than he is, muses for a time, and then: The Blind King sits upon his throne of ivory and dream, his sensitive, pointed ears quivering as he hears these plans. He listens with his scrying magic, his hand tightening upon the haft of his spear. Such a fine tome! He will be the one to have it. He calls his hound and his maiden.

Kara, again, seems torn between Genny's story and Jameys, decides to find a way to intermingle to two stories: Ok, this princess, she's the Blind King's daughter, and he doesn't want her to get the book so she can't rewrite her future. That way the oaths stay, and she has to kill her beloved. Yeah.

At this point, Genny has 5 points, Kara has 2 points, poor Tim still has 0, and Jamey has 4. You can see that Genny and Jamey make a heavy impact on the story still, and Tim has a hard time keeping up. He's very ephemeral. Further, you'll note that some of the players seem to be manifesting characters: the Prince and Princess for Genny, the Blind King for Jamey, a dark wizard for Tim and Kara is so far content to be a "presence" within the story.

Conflict will happen. Look:

After some storytelling, the heroic prince, his cat-steed and the dark wizard end up in a forest of flesh. It's now Jamey's turn, and for whatever reason, the GM has changed the order of play so that Tim follows him, then Genny, then Kara.

Jamey: The sound of massive ice-wings luffing the air stuns the gathered group as the Blind King descends upon his drake. He waves his World-breaker spear at the Prince "The book is beyond your graps, princeling. Turn back now or I shall rewrite the meaning of your soul." The Prince and the wizard quail before his obvious might, their spirits shaken.

Tim: My wizard kills him. He, like, puts his hands together and shouts an ancient spell that blows the crap out of this Blind Emperor dude, or whatever, and he's dead.

Jamey: The hell he is. The Blind King is far more powerful than your... wizard. Don't waste our time, Tim.

GM: Enough, you'll get your turn soon.

Jamey: But...

GM: Genny?

Genny: Right. The massive blast strikes the Blind King in the chest, but so great is his power that he is merely wounded. Blood fountains as the Blind King is knocked from his steed...

Jamey: Oh please.

Tim: Yay!

Genny: I wasn't finished. The wizard shouts at the Prince "Make your way, I will fend him off!"

Kara: My turn? Ok. The Blind King is wounded, but not dead, and the wizards holding him off, so the Prince can see that as he rides. Just then, the sun breaks the clouds above, and its noon, and the bridge appears. The prince can get across!

You'll note that a few interesting things happened here. First, we have several different events, and Jamey, rebellious as he is, is unlikely to accept their version of events... but it probably doesn't matter. Genny, Tim and Kara seem to like this narrative flow, and Jamey continues to find himself being pushed out of the story. Tim and Kara are turning more to Genny as "story leader" and soon Jamey will have to do the same, quit, or be ignored.

Now.

What does this have to do with Fair Folk? Everything. This is precisely what they do in the Wyld. They shape. The create their own realities, their own stories, and try to impose them on the others around them. The more the others accept that story, the more power the Fair Folk has, just as Genny was clearly quite powerful in that example above. What she said had a great deal of weight. Weaker fae find themselves supporting stronger, and becoming subsumed by them, much as Kara and Tim found themselves in naturally supporting positions, as they lacked the finesse, will or ambition to take the lead. Jamey had those things, but simply failed to take control, and "lost" the shaping contest, ie, his vision of reality didn't "take" with the others as well.

Now, to paint this more accurately onto the Raksha cosmology, a pop quiz question: in the above example, who were the Fae?

If you said: Kara, Tim, Genny and Jamey, you were correct. The Blind King, the Wizard, the Prince and the Princess were merely characters in their story. A Fair Folk's natural manifestation is as a reality-shaping presence, not as a physical being. Kara never "manifested" a character, but she was just as influential as, or more than, Tim, who had manifested a character. In fact, you'll note, that Fae literally build their own characters with Charms, such as Asumption Charms. In one story, you might manifest as a Fire aspected character, in another, as an Earth... or a ghost... or as Love.

How do the mechanics work with this? Well, whenver a Fae manipulates the world around him, he does so with a shaping attack. What attack that is depends on what sort of description they do. When Jamey described the book, he was Ring Shaping: I have defined an element of the world. When Kara defined the relationship between the Blind King and the Princess, she was Staff Shaping by creating a social context. When Tim attacked the Blind King, he was Sword shaping because he created a scene of martial glory, and when Jamey described the Blind King scaring off the Prince, he was Cup shaping by creating an emotional context.

What specific ability is required is a further refinement of this. Because his attack spell was ranged, Tim might have used Archery to shape the "I cast a spell" scene (thus Dex + Archery). When Kara defined the relationship between the Blind King and the Princess, she might have used Occult, because it's a Fair Folk relationship. One need merely justify an ability to use it. Likewise, shaping weapons are element of shaping. Again, Tim's death-spell was an example of Personal Prowess and Kara certainly used People in her shaping of the Blind King's relationship with the Princess, but she might have used a Courtier's Caul to reach in and more profoundly alter the situation.

How do the attack mechanics reflect these elements? Well, the more successful your attack (ie, the more damage it does), the greater an impact your shaping made. Jamey and Genny were doing lots of damage, as we see from the fact that the story mostly followed their direction. Tim was apparantly quite weak, and even a direct narrative attack on Jamey barely affected Jamey's narrative (Tim got a little of his desire through, but Jamey was able to maintain his dictation that the Blind King was too powerful to be slain).

To be clear: if Tim had killed the Blind King, this would have been a major blow to Jamey not because the Blind King was dead, but because Tim's narrative been accepted over Jamey's.

When a Fair Folk is sufficiently damaged that he suffers Ravishment or Vexation of the like, this is because the story has progressed to the point where the Fae finds himself becoming subordinate to the other. In Genny's and Jamey's outright war on each other (note they never physically attacked each other, or even manipulated each other, but both were trying to have their narrative become supreme), Jamey was losing, and soon he would either have to submit to her story or flee. This is represented by the fact that he's taken quite a bit of damage, and is on the verge of one of the four consequences. Kara or Tim may have already suffered one, which might explain why Tim will nod and do as Genny says, having his character stay behind and fight, or accepting her narrative that he wounded, rather than killing, the Blind King.

Are we clear on this? Did I explain it well? Let me summarize to be sure. A fair folk is not a physical being, but a mobile piece of narrative change. He's a presence in the Wyld that dictates events. He can manifest as a phsyical being, but that's a character, rather than him. (Specifically, a Fair Folk is his graces. The body is just a shell for the graces. You can easily destroy the shell in the Wyld without killing the Fae. In Creation, things work a little differently, but I'll explain that some other time).

Further, when two Fair Folk fight, they do not punch and kick one another, they do not persuade one another, they do not tempt one another. Rather, they "tell a story," and whoever's story gains more narrative "weight" is the one who wins. Thus, when you see two fair folk trading physical blows, what they are actually doing is describing a fight, and whomever's description becomes more real wins that fight, not who "kills" the other.

Mechanically, the game will play out JUST as the example above, except rather than judge the merit of the descriptions alone, we toss dice and allow each Raksha's comparitive power levels to influence events. After Jamey's player's description of the book, he would have rolled Jamey's Intelligence + Craft to see how much damage he could have done to Genny. Clearly, he did a little, because the book became somewhat real.

Dodging represents a denial of what is occuring. When Jamey flat out denied what Tim had said with the Wizard-spell, that was an attempt to dodge. Parrying is shaping in such a way to minimize or change what is occuring. Genny often parried attacks against her by taking other people's attacks and "guiding" them enough so that they didn't impact or harm her story, and continued on. Finally, soak represents how well your storylines can resist the impact of others'. Genny seemed to have a high soak, because nothing Jamey threw at her seemed to matter much in the long run.

Why do we have stats? Why can't we just play it free-form like above? Well, for the same reason we don't whip out boffer weapons to decide a fight between Exalted. Primarily, it's because your character can do things you cannot. Further, it helps balance things for weaker players, like Tim's player. And, of course, it allows for interesting strategies and Charm purchases. Still, I highly advise tossing stunt dice out to reward good descriptions. Jamey and Genny probably got several stunt dice, Tim likely didn't get many.

Ok, I think that covers the basics. Does anybody have any questions?

-by Mailanka

Comments

I have to say that this is a very good explaination of shaping combat. Much Kudos! (Means I can just refer people here instead of explaining it myself.) However, it would be good if you could also describe the way normal actions and shaping actions interact, as well as how the creation-born interact with shaping combat. These are two other areas that people get confused with. -FrozenHermit

It's the best I've seen yet... unfortunately, I already (mostly) got that one, so now I'm sitting on the edge of my seat hoping that you will soon provide a similarly wonderful explanation of the interactions with creation/normal actions. That said, thanks for the clarification, and I too will be referring people here if they ask.
-- Darloth

The Creation-Born would, in this example, interact with the story in a really weird way. Namely, they'd seem to enter the thread of the tale without anyone being able to stop themselves from mentioning them, and then to come into the 'real' world where the Narrators are and deal with them personally.

Probally with the sharp end of a Daiklaive. DS

More as if, they would be characters that self-narrate, and descriptions of what happened to them wouldn't 'stick'. So, for instance, one of them might be shaped dead for the scene- but unless it was done with an actual opposed dice roll, they would just shake it off. If one was to think of it in the context of a cooperative story, involving Creation-born into it would make it so parts of the story became deadly real. A better way to think of it might be to envision a LARP; the Fair Folk are running around with boffer weapons, narrating what happens, and the Creation-born are carrying real swords. This isn't strictly accurate (because the Fair Folk are certainly dangerous in their home environment), but it might serve in a basic fashion. - Arafelis

The LARP analogy is actually really good. "Real" people are characters who are carrying "real" swords. Their cuts hurt and can kill people, while the characters made by the fair folk are just using sticks wrapped in foam. You might get dinged by them but unless they do something inventively nasty you're certainly not going to die.... What makes the FF dangerous is that Fair Folk aren't players. They're DM's. Within their own created world they define the rules. This is why the Wyld is freeking dangerous for people who aren't carrying their own rulebook (using Wyld Resistant Charms), the bastard DM's can just say whatever they want and you can't really complain without being able to cite sources. - Halloween

As for shaping creation-born, you don't need a dice roll, you can simply shape them how you like. However if they notice that it is an illusion they can just spend a willpower point, and take an eviromental penalty (equal to essence? Can't remember.) In the context of the metaphor above, they find out that the DM (raksha) is fudging the dice rolls and making up rules. -FrozenHermit

I'm having serious flashbacks to Terry Pratchett here. Sweet Cthulhu on a stick, my brain hurts. Self-aware narrative changes? DMs of reality? The mind boggles. Things will start getting really crazy when you consider that any given Fae might not even operate mentally in a way that humans could even begin to understand. It's like trying to understand the Necronomicon without lots of psychoactives. - Han'ya