This page is a brief summary of the character creation process for my Changeling games. Mostly the method is the same as for any old World of Darkness game, but in case you haven't played WoD before there should be enough info here to stat up your character anyway.

The Character Generation Process

The Most Important Bits

• Name: Well duh.
• Seeming: Not necessarily dependant on your actual age, more of an indication of how the character thinks. Seeming determines your Glamour, Banality and Willpower.
  • Childling (Childish): 5 Glamour, 1 Banality, 1 Willpower
  • Wilder (Adolescent/Young Adult): 4 Glamour, 3 Banality, 2 Willpower
  • Grump (Old): 3 Glamour, 5 Banality, 5 Willpower

  Reawakening only: Unless you want to play another character's tag-along little sister, your character will be a Wilder.

• Kith: Pick the type of faerie you are. Anything from the Changeling books is fine, and other ideas are welcomed too! Your kith determines the affinity of your magic, your Birthrights and your Frailties. In my setting, non-Sidhe can be nobles too (see the new Titles background) but are a little prejudiced-against. Being Sidhe, however, is a 1st-class ticket straight into the upper class (2 points of Title background for free). The following kiths are detailed in Changeling, from which you can choose if you wish:
  • Boggans: Often dwarflike, honest and hard workers
  • Eshu: Wanderers and storytellers
  • Nockers: Skilful and inventive artisans, imaginative and obsessive
  • Pooka: Tricksters, liars, animal-like people
  • Redcaps: Vicious, nightmarish imps
  • Satyrs: Wild, passionate and lustful
  • Sidhe: Beautiful and noble, once the sole rulers of the fae
  • Sluagh: Secretive people, mostly dark and forgotten like their homes
  • Trolls: Loyal, dutiful and strong

  Reawakening only: You may also be a commoner, if you so wish. Commoners have no kith, and no birthrights or frailties. They also do not have the normal kind of Glamour, with Arts and Realms. Commoner magic is rare, but when it does exist it is subtle and mundane, for example causing slightly better weather at harvest-time or having lucky escapes from blacksmithing accidents.

• Legacies: Choose a Seelie legacy and an Unseelie one. These are single words which effectively define the "light" and "dark" sides of your personality. There's lots of suggestions in the Changeling core books, but feel free to use legacies of your own devising.
• House: The flower-themed noble house that you are a member of (or on whose land you live, if you're a commoner).

  In Love and War only: The party should largely be from House Poppy, though some may be from other houses provided they have reason to have been travelling with the Poppies.

  Reawakening only: You are members of House Mandrake.

Attributes

As with all WoD rules, there are 9 stats, split up into:

• Physical: Strength, Dexterity and Stamina
• Social: Charisma, Manipulation and Appearance
• Mental: Perception, Intelligence and Wits

You start with one point in each of the 9 attributes. Then, order the three groups according to your character's strengths. For your best group, you have 7 points to allocate, for your next best you have 5, and for your character's worst group you have only 3 additional points to spend.

Abilities

Although the game takes place in modern times, the characters are faeries through-and-through and not quite up-to-speed on human tech. Therefore the base ability lists are a more mediaeval set rather than those from Changeling: The Dreaming. However, a character may choose modern-day abilities (shown in brackets at the end of the lists below) up to the rank of their Human Contact background. Such abilities cost twice the normal amount to buy.

Reawakening only: Hey, kids! Streetwise is no longer a 'modern-day' skill for you. You may buy it at the normal rate, and regardless of your Human Contact.

The abilities are:

• Talents: Alertness, Athletics, Brawl, Dodge, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Kenning, Leadership, Subterfuge, (Streetwise)
• Skills: Animal Ken, Archery, Crafts, Etiquette, Melee, Performance, Ride, Security, Stealth, Survival, (Drive), (Firearms), (Technology)
• Knowledges: Academics, Enigmas, Hearth Wisdom, Investigation, Law, Linguistics, Medicine, Occult, Politics, Theology, (Computer), (Science)

As with Attributes, arrange the three groups in order. Spend 13 dots amongst the abilities in your primary group, 9 in your secondary and 5 in your tertiary. If this feels restrictive, don't worry - it's easy to add new abilities with the freebie points you'll be spending at the end of character gen.

Backgrounds

You have seven points to spend between the following possible backgrounds:

• Contacts: Knowing the right people.
• Forces: The number of fighting men and women you control (pinched from Exalted: Dragonblooded)
  • Number of warriors you control = 5^(Forces rank), e.g. 1 Forces = 5 warriors, 4 Forces = 625 warriors.
  • At the beginning of the game you are restricted to at most one dot of Forces.
• Holdings: Land you own within the kingdom.
• Human Contact: How much contact you have had with the human world in recent years. Lets you cross worlds more easily and lets you take modern human abilities. (New!)
• Legacy: Faerie souls reincarnate, and regardless of who you are now you might have been someone really important in your previous life. This background represents the significance of your previous incarnation. (New!)
• Mentor: Someone who advises and supports you.
• Resources: Your disposable income.
• Retinue: The number of non-nobles who serve you.

  In Love and War only: At the beginning of the game you are restricted to at most three dots of Retinue.

  Reawakening only: At the beginning of the game you are restricted to at most one dot of Retinue.

• Title: How high in Fairyland's social structure your character is. (Modified)
  • 1: Minor noble or knight; 2: Respected noble or knight; 3: Highly-regarded noble, major landowner, Duke/Duchess' family; 4: Duke/Duchess, ruling council, generals; 5: King/Queen

  In Love and War only: Since House Poppy is very much reduced in size, at the beginning of "In Love and War" you may if you wish take a point of Title for free. This stacks with the 2 dots you may have if you are Sidhe. You are not allowed to take rank 4 or above of this skill at the beginning of the game.

  Reawakening only: At the beginning of the game you are restricted to at most three dots of Title.

• Treasures: Number and power of magical treasures you posess.

Glamour

Next you need to decide what kind of glamours the character can cast (Arts - 3 points in total) and what kind of things they can affect (Realms - 5 points in total).

• Arts:
  • Chicanery: The art of guile and deception
  • Legerdemain: Sleight of hand and illusion
  • Primal: The power of nature and living things
  • Soothsay: Divination and prediction
  • Sovereign: The enforcement of protocol, verges on mind-control
  • Wayfare: The art of efficient travel
• Realms:
  • Actor: Humans - higher levels mean less-well-known humans can be affected
  • Fae: Faerie things - higher levels mean stranger things
  • Nature: Natural things
  • Prop: Created objects
  • Scene: Your surroundings; also an addition to other realms that allows an area of effect to be set
  • Time: An addition to other realms that allows a time delay to be used

Freebie Points

That's just about it! Now all that's left is to spend 15 freebie points, at the following rates:

• Attributes: 5 points per dot
• Abilities: 1 points per dot (note change!)
• Ability Specialities: 1 point each
• Backgrounds: 1 point per dot
• Arts: 5 points per dot
• Realms: 3 points per dot
• Glamour: 3 points per dot
• Willpower: 2 points per dot

Merits & Flaws (Optional)

Feel free to use merits and flaws from any White Wolf book, so long as they're appropriate, or invent some of your own. I shan't list all the merits and flaws in WW literature here, as there's far too many!