Chapter Six: Basic Rules

  Rules are an important function of any game such as Changeling. Rules are the foundation upon which we build our house of creativity. They are the bones, muscle, sinew and brains of our characters. They outline the limitations imposed on our characters by the World of Darkness. They also allow us options that are only possible within the realm of the game. Finally, rules serve as the common judicial system on which the game is structured and through which we process the events that occur.
  In Changeling, rules are secondary to the stories that players create. The foundation of a house only makes sure the house stands. It's the story that paints the eaves, hangs the shutters and decorates the windows. However, the necessity of rules is unquestionable. They make playing a game possible. Yet if the rules ever constrict your story, feel free to discard some of them, whether temporarily or permanently, based on the type of house you want to build. Do what you please with your game. Your only limits are the depth of your creativity and the breadth of your dream.

Rules and Storytelling

  When friends gather to play Changeling, they work together to create a story, a shared dream built around the lives of their characters. No one wins or loses. The goal is to combine efforts in order to tell the most amazing story possible.
  Most players assume the roles of changelings, faeries who must live in a world wracked by Banality and fraught with danger. One friend takes the esteemed position of Storyteller. The Storyteller has the most important function in any Storytelling game. She details the structure of the story that the players move through and embellish. The Storyteller alone knows the big picture, the scope and breadth of the story. Her primary responsibility is to the players; she works with them to ensure that everyone has a good time. She has final say in any rules disputes, and may allow or disallow anything at any time in the name of furthering the dream.

Time

  Time is relative, as are all things. Changeling involves six different measurements to describe the passage of time. These guidelines delineate the amount of game time a character actually spends doing something as opposed to the amount of time it takes a player and the Storyteller to work through the action in real time.
  Turn: A turn is the amount of time required for a character to take one simple action — anything that can be done in roughly three seconds. Although the player and Storyteller may discuss a turn's action for half an hour, the time that passes for the character is much shorter.
  Scene: A scene describes a series of events that usually takes place in one location. A scene can encompass any number of turns, or can last minutes or hours depending on the nature of character interaction. A scene can usually be titled based on its setting, such as "The Bar Scene" or "The Binghamton Freehold Scene."
  Chapter: A chapter is a series of scenes strung together with a coherent beginning, middle and end, and is usually played through in one game session. A chapter could represent a day in the lives of the characters, or an entire week spent, say, gathering information on a particular villain.
  Story: Turns, scenes and chapters combine to form stories. A story is the tale that characters experience. This tale has an introduction, a conflict and climax, and a resolution. The story is the problem of the month, the adventure of the moment.
  Chronicle: A chronicle describes the big picture of the characters' lives. It is a series of stories connected by characters or setting. Long-term character development occurs through such a series as the characters become older and hopefully wiser. Characters may undergo many changes throughout a chronicle, and their goals and dreams may change as they live and learn. Characters may also come and go in a chronicle; the underlying ties are the ongoing plot and theme, as composed by the Storyteller.
  Downtime: Not all of the moments in characters' lives are roleplayed. That would be boring. Events that don't relate directly to a story being told are delegated to downtime. Events that occur in such time, such as running the day-to-day aspects of a business, learning a new skill, resting or recuperating, are described or summarized simply to account for how downtime is spent. Downtime can last hours, days, weeks or even months depending on the amount of time that passes until the next story begins.

Dice Rolling

  You need a handful of 10-sided dice, which you can buy in any game store, to play Changeling. The exact number you need is based on the statistics you set for your character. Players usually need fewer dice than the Storyteller does. Dice are typically rolled under the following circumstances:
  • When you create your character, you divide points among various Traits to represent your character's strengths and weaknesses. Your character has a certain number of dots in each of these Traits. Once your Storyteller decides which Traits are relevant to your character's actions, you gather up one die for each dot you have in those Traits. The total number of dice that you can roll, based on your character's statistics, is called your Dice Pool.
  • Next, your Storyteller assigns a difficulty number to your roll, a number between one and 10 that represents how challenging your character's action is. The Storyteller may also make rolls more difficult by reducing the number of dice in your pool, depending on the circumstances of your character's actions (such as she's attempting the task without the appropriate Ability, or her environment is making the task tougher than it might normally be). Such alterations are called modifers.
  • Once you have rolled your Dice Pool, look to see how many successes you achieve. Every die that matches or exceeds the difficulty number is considered a success. However, any "one" rolled on a single die eliminates a success. Count how many successes you have left, and that number represents the height of your accomplishment or the depth of your failure. The more successes you roll, the better your character does. If you roll no successes, your character doesn't achieve what she set out to do, and the roll is a failure. If you roll more "ones" than you do successes, your character botches, which is a catastrophic failure; not only does your character fail at her task, but something bad happens as well. (See "Botches," pg. 199.)
  Rolling dice is exciting — you don't know what's going to happen. Don't get carried away, though. The dice serve a purpose, but rolling them to determine every outcome becomes tedious. Roll dice only if roleplaying or the mutual consent of the players doesn't resolve the matter. Changeling is a roleplaying game that uses dice, not a dice-rolling game in which you play a role. Use your dice to enhance play, not to drive it.

Trait Ratings

  You define your character through her Traits. Traits in Changeling are rated one to five to represent a character's strengths and weaknesses. One is lousy; five is superb. The normal range runs between one and three, with two being the human average. A character can also have a Trait rating of zero if she is handicapped or particularly miserable at something. Use the following chart as a guide when defining your character, deciding how capable she is, and assigning dots to Traits.

X	Abysmal
	Poor
	Average
	Good
	Exceptional
	Superb

  The two most commonly used types of Traits are Attributes and Abilities. Attributes represent the basic physical, social and mental capabilities of a character, such as Dexterity, Charisma and Intelligence. Abilities include Talents, Skills and Knowledges (like Athletics, Drive and Law) that a character has learned throughout her life. When you assign dots to your character's Attributes, you determine how strong, attractive or smart she is. Choosing your character's Abilities defines what she knows, what she can do and how well she can do it.
  Whenever your character performs an action, the Storyteller decides which Traits apply to that action. For every dot that you have in the named Traits, you can roll one die. Thus, if your character performs a feat of strength and she has four dots in Strength, you get four dice in your Dice Pool for that roll.
  It's rare to roll only the dice that your character has in a particular Attribute (which are innate aptitudes). You typically add the dice from a relevant Ability (Skill, Talent or Knowledge). Your Storyteller chooses one Attribute and one Ability that she thinks applies to the task your character is attempting. This combination of Traits makes up your Dice Pool. You never combine more than two Traits to produce a Dice Pool. Furthermore, you use only one Attribute or one Attribute plus one Ability to create a pool. You cannot combine two Attributes or two Abilities.
  Any Attribute can be combined with any Ability, although some combinations are much less likely than others. For example, you might not expect to combine Stamina + Drive. However, if a character is taking a long trip and risks falling asleep at the wheel, this roll would be appropriate. Difficulties and conditions listed in the following examples are arbitrary, and your Storyteller may lower or increase them based on the circumstances of the story.
  For Example
  Michelle tells her Storyteller, Ed, that Mimi, her cat pooka character, is trying to snag a goldfish from the fountain in a Chinese restaurant. Ed decides which Attribute and which Ability applies to Mimi's attempt. He tells Michelle to roll Dexterity (an Attribute) plus Athletics (an Ability). Michelle adds the number of dots she has in Dexterity (3) to the number she has in Athletics (2) to create her Dice Pool (a total of five dice). She rolls a five dice versus a difficulty number assigned by her Storyteller (in this case 6) — she gets 1, 5, 6, 8, 9. Now she counts her successes, removing one success for each "one" that's rolled. The "one" cancels out the 6 she got, leaving her two successes (8 and 9). The total number of successes determines how well Mimi succeeds at catching a goldfish. With two successes, Mimi manages to snag her little appetizer. Now, what sauce goes with goldfish?

Actions

  Words, imagination and descriptions are the mainstay of any Storytelling game. Changeling players act out their characters' conversations and describe their actions. Your character will attempt many different things in the course of a game, from tenderly kissing the hand of his beloved to swinging his sword with gusto. You describe your character's actions to the Storyteller and the other players so that they can envision the scene and then describe their characters' actions. Your action descriptions should be detailed. This helps the others imagine exactly what your character is doing.
  Many actions occur automatically, whether because of their simplicity or because there's no opposition to them. A character who "greedily eats the steaming french fries in front of her" has no trouble doing so. Other actions are more difficult, and the Storyteller may request that a player roll her Dice Pool to see how well the character succeeds, if at all.
  Actions are broken down into several types, and a player has certain options when choosing her actions. An explanation of each type of action follows, accompanied by an example that illustrates it.

Simple Actions

  The basic type of action is the simple action. When a character makes a simple action, she performs one act. The player gathers her Dice Pool based on the appropriate Traits, the Storyteller assigns a difficulty number to the action, and the player rolls. The outcome of the roll determines the character's degree of success.
  For Example
  Wrench, a nocker, has gathered with some of his companions to share information in the Binghamton freehold, a diner in the mundane world. He scratches his head, bored, as he listens to Tomacchio the troll's long-winded tale of his own heroism. Wrench's mind and eyes begin to wander. He notices that a glass of milk balances precariously on the edge of a table. Someone bumps the table, and the glass shakes loose. He dives in an attempt to rescue the glass before it hits the floor.
  The Storyteller informs Wrench's player that he must roll Dexterity + Athletics against a difficulty number of 6. The player adds the number of dots that Wrench has in those Traits and gathers his Dice Pool. There are seven dots, so he can roll seven dice. He rolls 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 6, 8. The "ones" cancel out the two successes and, with no successes left, Wrench's player fails the roll. The Storyteller describes the tumble, resounding crash and white splash of milk as Wrench's hand grabs at empty air, just a second too late.

Multiple Actions and Splitting Dice Pools

  Sometimes circumstances demand that you try to do several things at once, which occurs often in a high-adventure game like Changeling. Your character may attempt to perform two or more simple actions in the same turn. You must split your Dice Pool among the actions to do so. For example, if your character wants to attempt to break into a car while watching for the cops, he performs a multiple action.
  Compare your character's Dice Pool for breaking into the car (Dexterity + Security) to his Dice Pool for watching for the cops (Wits + Alertness). You must use the smaller of the pools, and allocate the dice in it among the actions. Roll separately for each action. If you fail one of the rolls, you don't necessarily fail all actions (unless all rolls are failures). You can succeed at one task and fail or even botch another in the same turn.
  For Example
  Mary Contrary, a sad-faced beagle, pooka, is sitting at the table near the falling glass of milk. With a gasp, she simultaneously tries to move out of the way and lunges downward to grab her friend Tehlana's laptop computer, which hums quietly on the floor nearby.
  Mary is attempting two simple actions in the same turn. The Storyteller informs Mary's player that the rolls are Dexterity + Dodge (to avoid getting splashed) and Dexterity + Athletics (to grab the computer). Mary's player compares her two Dice Pools and discovers that her Dexterity + Athletics is the smaller of the two, with only five dice. She allocates three of those dice to dodging the milk, and two to rescuing the laptop. The Storyteller assigns a difficulty of 6 to both rolls. The player rolls, and Mary succeeds at dodging, but fails to rescue the laptop. The Storyteller describes the wet sizzle as milk splashes on the keys of the computer and causes it to malfunction. Mary's shoes are dry, though.

Extended Actions

  Simple and multiple actions require only one success per roll for a character to accomplish each task. Any successes beyond the first indicate how well the character succeeds. An extended action works differently; more than one success is required to perform a feat. An extended action requires continuous effort over a period of time, such as putting out a fire over a space of turns, quickly stitching up a torn pocket in minutes, or maybe even taking hours to hack into the United Nations database. The Storyteller defines the extended action by the number of successes the player must accumulate before her character completes her task. This number could be anywhere from three to 20 successes. You roll repeatedly over subsequent turns (or other units of time, such as minutes, depending on the enormity of the task) in an attempt to accumulate the required number of successes. Once you have collected enough successes, your character has accomplished the task.
  If a roll is botched (see below) in an extended action, all accumulated successes are lost. The whole effort is for naught and may be impossible to complete; essential tools were broken, or subjects were frightened off.
  It's also possible to fail an extended action simply because you run out of time. If you need to accomplish a task in three turns, and need five successes to do so (perhaps a bomb is counting down to detonation), you're out of luck if you have only four successes at the end of turn three. The Storyteller decides when a time limit applies to an extended action.
  For Example
Tehlana, another nocker, looks down to see her laptop fizzling. She cries out in anger and surprise, "Which one of you turkeys did this?!" She scoops up the laptop, dumps out as much milk as she can and dries out the keyboard. She pops a disk into the drive, and her fingers flicker over the key sin an attempt to save the data stored on the machine.   Recovering information is no minor task, but it's only a single task, so it is deemed to be extended. The Storyteller informs Tehlana's player that she needs seven successes on a Wits + Computer roll (difficulty 6), and that Tehlana will lose a megabyte of information from the computer's memory chip for every turn after the first that she attempts the action. The player gathers her Dice Pool and rolls. She gets four successes in the first turn, and only two in the second turn. The computer loses a megabyte of memory in the second turn. The player needs only one more success to complete the task. Her third roll botches! The Storyteller describes that the laptop makes an odd whirring sound, and a bright light flashes across the screen before it goes blank. Tehlana has lost everything, and she howls in rage. Even if the third roll had succeeded, the laptop would have lost two megs of information.

Resisted Actions

  Sometimes your character's actions are opposed directly by another character, who typically seeks to accomplish the same task. This is a resisted action. Both players roll their appropriate Dice Pools versus a difficulty number indicated by the Storyteller. The players compare the number of successes achieved, and the player who rolls the most succeeds. Each success rolled by the loser cancels out one of the winner's successes in the same way that "ones" cancel out successes. The winner's remaining successes define how well the task is accomplished. It's difficult to perform a resoundingly successful resisted action.
    For Example
Se'han and Lira, two satyr members of the Binghamton freehold, look up at the sound of the crash. Lira works at the freehold as a waitress, and begins to rise from her seat in Se'han's lap to clean up the mess. Se'han wraps his arms more tightly around her waist and grins up at her. "Let one o' the lads clean that up," he purrs, his voice deep and amused. Lira shakes her head. "No can do, Se'han. I'm the only one here today." She wiggles and squirms, trying to free herself from his embrace.
  The characters struggle directly against each other in resisted actions. The Storyteller asks Se'han and Lira's players to roll Dice Pools based on Strength + Brawl. The difficulty number she sets for each is equal to the opponent's total Dice Pool. Se'han rolls six dice against a difficulty of five, and Lira rolls five dice against a difficulty of six. Despite the odds, Se'han rolls fewer successes than Lira does, and Lira manages to wriggle out of Se'han's grasp, leaving him cold, alone and pouting.

Resisted and Extended Actions

  Actions can be both resisted and extended. Players compete to see who collects a designated number of successes first, over an extended period of time. The successes achieved in each roll are compared. Each success above the opponent's number of successes achieved in an individual roll is added to a success total. The first opponent to collect the designated number of successes wins the contest. It can take some time to accumulate the total number of successes needed.
  For Example
By this time, everyone in the freehold has turned to see what the commotion is. Johnny, a loud-mouthed redcap, begins to hoot, pointing at Tehlana. Her face turns bright red, all the way to the tips of her ears. She catches Johnny's eye and glares. They commence a staredown, neither one willing to be the first to look away.
The Storyteller decides that this is both a resisted and an extended action. He tells the players that the first one to accumulate three successes on a Stamina + Intimidation roll versus a difficulty number of 6 wins the challenge. Rolls are made every turn. Johnny's player rolls four successes, and Tehlana's player rolls three in the first turn. Tehlana's successes cancel out three of Johnny's, so the score is Johnny: one, Tehlana: zero. In the second turn, Johnny's player rolls only three successes, and Tehlana's player gets five. The score is now Johnny: one, Tehlana: two. In the next turn, Johnny rolls three successes and Tehlana rolls four. The final score is Johnny: one, Tehlana: three. Tehlana wins the staredown. She continues to glare at Johnny as he averts his eyes and undoes his smirk.

Teamwork

  Characters can cooperate to accomplish a specific task, including extended actions. Players roll their respective Dice Pools and the number of successes are added together. (The Traits of different characters cannot be shared to form a new Dice Pool.) The total number of successes rolled indicates how well the group accomplishes its task, if at all. More participants usually increase the chances for greater success. Teamwork is effective in many circumstances, such as combat, research and repairing machines. On the other hand, too many cooks can spoil the broth. The Storyteller decides how many characters can contribute to a task, if any at all.
  For Example
  All the noise and confusion upsets Mary Contrary, who is still a childling. She starts to cry, which sounds more like baying since she is a beagle pooka. Thomas, a boggan, and Mars'hia, an eshu, rush to her side and attempt to comfort her, combining their efforts.
  The Storyteller decides this involves a Charisma + Empathy roll versus a difficulty number of 6. Thomas' and Mars'hia's players roll their Dice Pools separately. Thomas' player rolls one success; Mars'hia's rolls two. Together, they achieve three successes, which constitute a solid success for this simple action.
  The players describe how Thomas puts his arm around Mary's shoulders comfortingly, while Mars'hia croons, "There, there, dear. No use crying over spillt milk." Mary is soothed by her friends' gestures, and her tears taper off into hiccups.

Difficulties and Successes

  Once you have stated your character's action, and it has been decided that a roll is necessary to accomplish the feat, the Storyteller assigns a difficulty number to the action. The difficulty number is the minimum number you must roll on any one die in order for that die to be considered a success. A difficulty number is always a number between 2 and 10. If the difficulty number is 6, and you roll 3, 5, 6 and 9, you score two successes (6 and 9). The lower the difficulty number, the easier the task is to accomplish.
  Furthermore, the Storyteller can decide to assign a difficulty number of 2 or 10 (though they're not on the list, on the next page). These difficulties should be rare. A difficulty of 2 means the action is pathetically easy. A difficulty of 10 indicates that the action is nearly impossible and your character is as likely to botch as he is to succeed. The standard difficulty number for an action is 6, unless the Storyteller states otherwise.

Difficulties
3	Easy
4	Routine
5	Straightforward
6	Standard
7	Challenging
8	Difficult
9	Extremely Difficult

  You need to roll only one success for your character to succeed at an action. However, the more successes you roll, the better your character performs. One success means your character achieves marginal success, whereas three indicate complete success and five indicate a monumental success.

Degrees of Success
One Success	Marginal
Two Successes	Moderate
Three Successes	Complete
Four Successes	Exceptional
Five Successes	Phenomenal

Automatic Successes

  The Storyteller may decide to forego making you roll to determine success at an action if the total of your Dice Pool exceeds the difficulty number of the action. This is called an automatic success. Automatic successes preserve the integrity of the story and avoid interrupting roleplaying with intrusive game mechanics. The Storyteller decides whether to allow an automatic success or to demand a roll, no matter how many dice are in your pool or how low a difficulty number is. (Actions that are always problematic or unpredictable, such as attacks, should always be rolled for, no matter how many dice are in a pool.) An automatic success is marginal at best, as if only one success had been scored. If you want better results at the action, you must make a roll.

Botches

  The last thing any player wants to roll is a botch, which occurs when he rolls more "ones" than successes. Ones cancel out successes, so a botch indicates "negative success" or a disastrous failure.
  The Storyteller decides what happens when a player botches. The results are obvious in many cases. If a character attempts to climb a rope and a botch is rolled, she probably falls. If she tries to sneak up on someone and a botch is rolled, she might knock over a vase. Other situations may not be so clear-cut. Botches require a bit of creativity on the part of the Storyteller.
  For Example
  Sergei the troll is attempting to intimidate a young boggan into leaving him alone. Sergei's player botches the roll, and the boggan misinterprets Sergei's meaning. The boggan fails head over heels in love with him, and now follows him wherever he goes.
  When deciding the outcome of a botch, the Storyteller should try to avoid the obvious disaster. Instead, try to find another alternative that might surprise and amuse the players with its inventiveness. For example, with the sneaking character example above, rather than just announcing that the character is discovered by a noise she makes, it would be much more amusing and fun for the player if suddenly the electricity went out in the building and the character was thrown into pitch darkness, losing sight of the person she was sneaking up on. Always strive to provide the most unusual and interesting result for a botch.

Trying It Again

  If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
  If your character fails an action, you may decide that he tries again. Subsequent attempts may be possible, depending on the circumstances, although the Storyteller may always rule that further attempts are pointless. In order to simulate the growing frustration a character feels as he tries to accomplish something and fails repeatedly, the Storyteller may add one to the difficulty number of each subsequent attempt. If an original difficulty was 6, it becomes 7 on the next attempt, and 8 on the third. The character accomplishes his goal on the first successful roll. Each new attempt is a separate action.
  Note that trying rolls again usually applies only to simple actions. Extended actions already allow for successive attempts, and resisted rolls are won or lost outright. However, if you want to attempt an extended or resisted action again, after failing it once, you can initiate a whole new series of rolls in which your difficulty is one higher than it was in the previous attempt.
  There are, of course, situations in which rolls cannot be tried again. If a character fails to dodge (with the Dodge Ability), for example, or throws a punch, she takes damage or misses her target, as appropriate. Future dodge or attack attempts are made normally.   For Example
  Sneezer, a nocker, is attempting to make a simple repair an an engine (Dexterity + Repair versus a difficulty number of 6). Her player fails the first roll. Sneezer is determined to keep trying, though. On the next attempt, the player must roll Dexterity + Repair, difficulty 7. With each subsequent attempt that she fails, Sneezer becomes increasingly frustrated and confused as to the reason for the malfunction. She may eventually find it impossible to repair the engine.
  Increasing difficulty also represents growing opposition from a living or aware opponent. A prime example is the eshu Sable's attempt to lie (Wits + Subterfuge) to her friend Moira, a sluagh, about where she was the night before. Sable isn't convincing in her first attempt; her player fails the roll. Each lie she tells after that risks getting her into more trouble and causes Moira to become increasingly suspicious (the difficulty of the Wits + Subterfuge roll increases by one every time Sable's player tries again).

Examples of Rolls

  Now you know the rules, how to avoid them, and how to use them to your advantage to create your own wondrous faerie tale within the realm of the World of Darkness. The dice-rolling system described in this chapter is really all you need to play the game. Rules described later in this book are intended as clarifications, options, exceptions and extensions to the basic ones detailed above. This chapter holds all the information you need to understand the rest of this book. If you feel you have missed something or don't understand a rule, re-read this chapter and you'll find that it makes more sense the second time around.
  The following are some examples of rolls and ways in which you can combine Attributes and Abilities to represent certain actions. You might even want to grab some dice and your character sheet and try a few of the rolls if you're new to this.
  • Your character fights a giant chimerical scorpion and attempts to cut off its tail with her sword. Roll Dexterity + Melee (difficulty 8).
  • Your character attempts to play a lullaby on her flute. Roll Charisma + Performance (difficulty 6). The number of successes rolled determines how well she plays.
  • Your character suddenly finds herself in the middle of a full-blown gang war, bullets flying everywhere. Roll Wits + Dodge (difficulty 8) to see if she can find a place to hide.
  • Two characters, yours and a stubborn nocker, argue the merits of building a chimerical helicopter. Both players roll Manipulation + Persuasion (difficulty 6) and the one who rolls the most successes wins the resisted action.
  • Is that redcap as mad as he seems? Roll Perception + Empathy (difficulty 7) to determine if your character can tell.
  • Your character has to solve a riddle, or the chimerical sphinx parked on the lawn won't let her in the building beyond. Roll Intelligence + Enigmas (difficulty 7) to see if she can solve it.
  • Your character attempts to threaten a pooka into submission. She lifts the pooka up by the seat of his pants. Roll Strength + Intimidation (difficulty 8).
  • Your character, a duke, tries to regain control when chaos erupts during a particularly long court session. Roll Stamina + Leadership (difficulty 7) in this extended action. A total of three successes are required.
  • Can your character charm the cop into not giving you a ticket? Roll Appearance + Persuasion (difficulty 8).
  • You suspect that the little girl with the strawberry-blonde hair might be a changeling who has yet to awaken. Roll Perception + Kenning (difficulty 8) to sense the level other Glamour.

Game Terms

  The following list provides definitions of some of the terms commonly used in Changeling. Not all of these will make sense to you yet, but as you continue to read through this book you can refer back to them to refresh your memory.
  Ability: A Trait that describes what a character has learned through experience and training. Some examples include Athletics, Drive and Linguistics.
  Action: Any activity or feat performed by a character; when a player announces that his character is going to do something, that the character is taking an action.
  Advantages: A catch-all category of character Traits that includes Backgrounds, Arts and Realms.
  Arts: An Art is an area of concentration within the field of faerie magic. A character may have expertise in more than one Art or in several. Examples of Arts include Chicanery, Legerdemain and Wayfare.
  Attributes: Traits that describes a character's innate physical, social and mental aptitudes, such as how strong (Strength), smart (Intelligence) or attractive (Appearance) she is.
  Backgrounds Traits: Traits that represent aspects of a character's life not directly related to his Attributes or Abilities. Examples of Background Traits include items the character may own (Chimera, Treasures) or people the character may know (Contacts, Mentor, Retinue).
  Banality: A measure of the degree to which mortal rationality and disbelief has affected a person, changeling or place. It is one of the Temper Traits.
  Botch: A catastrophic failure on a dice roll. A player botches when he rolls more "ones" than successes.
  Bunk: An action that a changeling must perform before casting a cantrip successfully.
  Cantrip: A spell cast by a changeling.
  Chapter: A part of a story that is usually played in one game session, made up of several scenes and characterized by a clear beginning, middle and end.
  Character: A Changeling player assumes a role in the game, creating a fictional individual to roleplay. This fictional person is that player's character.
  Chronicle: The overall scope of a game; a series of stories that reveals the bigger picture of the characters' lives. In a chronicle, the Storyteller sets the overall theme and plots the development of the characters and the imaginary world they live in.
  Dice Pool: The total number of dice that you can roll based on the number of dots you have in the relevant Traits, plus or minus any modifiers.
  Difficulty Number: This number is assigned by the Storyteller and represents how challenging a character's action is. You must meet or exceed this number when rolling your dice. Certain modifiers may affect an action's difficulty.
  Downtime: A period of time before, during or after a story when nothing of significance happens, and when it would be boring to roleplay events. Although character actions occur during this time, players simply summarize what their characters do and play moves on to the next important event.
  Experience Points: Players earn experience points during the course of a game. These points can be spent to increase their characters' various Traits. Experience points represent the personal growth and training that occurs as characters live and learn.
  Extended Action: An action that requires several successes, typically acquired over a series of turns, before the character can succeed.
  Failure: If you achieve no successes in a roll, the roll is a failure. The character merely does not succeed. The failed action, unlike a botch, does not cause anything catastrophic to happen to the character.
  Glamour: The magical energy at the disposal of changelings. It is their lifeblood, the magical mortar that holds them together, and what they mold and shape into many wondrous things. Glamour, one of the Tempers, is often spent instead of rolled.
  Realms: The spheres of influence in which changelings can use their magic. These define the areas that a character has concentrated on in her study of changeling magic.
  Refresh: The act of renewing the pool of Bunks from which a player has to choose from when his character performs cantrips.
  Resisted Action: An action that is opposed by another character. Players compare their number of successes; the player with the most succeeds.
  Scene: A period of action and time set in one location or dealing with a particular issue.
  Simple Action: An action that requires only one success to be accomplished successfully. More successes indicate a higher level of accomplishment.
  Story: A series of interconnected scenes characterized by an introduction, conflict, climax and resolution.
  Storyteller: The person who creates and guides the story, describes the settings decides rules and plays the parts of adversaries or friends that the characters meet.
  Success: Any die that meets or exceeds the difficulty number of a roll is considered a success.
  System: A specific set of rules used in a certain situation during a game of Changeling; rules to help guide the rolling of dice to simulate dramatic actions.
  Tempers: A Trait category that encompasses Glamour, Banality and Willpower. Tempers work differently from other Traits and are often spent rather than rolled.
  Trait: A qualifier that describes your character through a number of dots or points assigned to it. Some of these include Abilities, Attributes and Advantages.
  Trait Rating: A Trait rating is the permanent value of one of the Tempers.
  Troupe: The term used to describe a group of friends that meets on a regular basis to play Changeling. Troupe members work as a team to create a fantastic story through the actions of their characters.
  Turn: A period of time of about three seconds, during which a character may take one action.
  Willpower: One of the Tempers, Willpower measures the self-confidence and inner control of a character. Unlike other Traits, it is often spent instead of rolled.