r/ChroniclesofDarkness

I've just done a deep dive into Chthonic beings from Mage's Summoners, to Geist 2e's treatment, and found them lacking.

I'm not sure why I dislike them so much, and feel they need a rewrite (especially the 1e stuff). But I know what I like when I see it (like Hosts from WtF).

So what are your favourite CofD antagonists and why?

Or what kind of antagonists would you like to see? Something from Exalted or WoD? Yozis, KotE?

How do you feel about the Underworld in CofD in general and as a space to create plothooks for your games? And what would make it more interesting?

So Totems let you buy Merits that your entire package can benefit from. The listed example is Fleet of Foot: you barter it from your Totem and every werewolf, wolf-blooded, and human in your pack gets a copy.

But what if you bought something like Library or Safe Space? A Merit the party can all attribute to. Say have a party of four. Does this give you a 1-dot Safe Space or do they combine together to make a 4-dot Safe Space?

Not sure if this is the right tag for this but I wanted to share this concept I had.

So I know you can fulfill the fantasy of being a witch in basically any of the games. Vampire and the Tremere, Werewolf with Theurges, Mage with the Verbaena/Dreamspeakers etc. but I wanted to dive into the thematic elements of what a game focused around witches could be. The main inspiration I had for this game was The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina so bar that in mind.

To start let’s look at the folkloric roots of the modern conception of a witch. In the 1600s it was believed that witches were servants of the devil, and committed many dark deeds in exchange for power, including but not limited to killing babies, cannibalism, and seducing men for their semen which was believed to be their life force alongside blood.

This is the core idea of the game, bargains. How much are you willing to give up for power or the very least a decent life.

I’m not sure how this would fit in to the larger world of darkness but the conceit is that much like with Mage, humans knew magic, it came at a cost and usually but not always required rituals and it was very limited in scope. However a figure that called itself the Horned King offered magic users more power with less cost with the caveat that they served him. While he is the most famous he is not the only entity which can offer witches power.

In modern nights anyone can become a witch, it’s just a matter of finding the right tome that actually works and teaching yourself how to use it. Most witches come from long family lines, parent teaching child that sort of thing.

There are three factions which I have in mind that are all playable. Though the third I’m struggling to come up with a reason for why you would play them.

Firstly the Circle of Blood, also known as the Families, old magic families who teach their descendants how to use magic to benefit the family. In terms of pop culture witches, think Harry Potter or the witches in the Vampire Diaries. They view themselves as being a different species than humans, which to be clear is untrue. The families can range from an aristocratic English family that survived the witch hunts to a family living in the mountains of Appalachia far away from civilization.

The second has no true name, some call them the Circle of Wanderers, or the Lowborn, regardless of their name, what they are is witches who are mostly self taught. Magic hasn’t been taught in their family in generations if at all. Few ever gain enough skill to become proper witches. These guys are who the group will be presumed to be, witches who have no real ties or bonds yet, and they just decide who to make deals with and who they can screw over. They range from being a group of boarding school kids who found an esoteric tome in a long forgotten section of the library to a secret society of some old university. Regardless of origin a common thread amongst covens who fall under this circle is that they believe the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. In terms of pop culture witches think The Craft, and while this other one may not include witches but vampires, Bit (2019) is a good example of how these groups can look.

Finally the third faction is the Circle of Flesh. These are witches that have remained loyal to the Horned King all these years. They are fanatics and are emblematic of all the more monstrous tropes associated with witches. They use life force and flesh to perform their magic and are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they desire. They are the fairytale witch who lures in gluttonous children, the hag who takes the breath away from those who sleep, the naked women dancing around the fire. While they can look like the traditional European view of witches they can also be more civilized, refined in their wickedness. I’m regards to their pop culture inspirations think of The Witch (2015) or the Church of Night from The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

I have the idea of powers being divided into two categories, Blessings and Curses. Blessings which benefit the user and curses which harm someone else. The abilities (Spells seems an appropriate term) would be things like Shapeshifting, Divining, Summoning things like that.

Let me know if you have any ideas to complement this. Also I’m struggling to think of what the clan/tribe/tradition would be so any help with that would be greatly appreciated.