[AUTO PASS][R&U Bylaw Revision] Changeling R&U Changes for Kinain and Selkies

This proposal has completed its one-week discussion period without objection, and thus auto-passes

OWBN's Coordinator Bylaws, 3.C.iii. state: "Genre Coordinators must pass before Council any plot, enforced policy, R&U named characters, or binding edict they wish to use which they can reasonably expect to affect multiple chronicles and these proposals need not be seconded, but go immediately into discussion."  My formal proposal is highlighted in yellow, below.  Commentary to explain my rationale follows the formal proposal.

I, Kyle Niedzwiecki, in my duties as Changeling Coordinator do hereby propose the following changes to the Rare and Unusual bylaws:

* Place "Kinain with non-Changeling supernatural powers or traits other than Numina and Hedge Magic" in 3.D.i.
* Place "Faerie Blood 3 for a PC" in 3.G.i.
* Place "Faerie Blood 4 for a PC" in 3.G.i.
* Place "Faerie Blood 5 for a PC" in 3.G.i.
* Change "Selkies" under 3.C.i to "Selkies in chronicles that do not border a sea or ocean"
* Place "Selkies in chronicles that border a sea or ocean" under 3.G.i.

For the purposes of grandfathering, the Kinain and Faerie Blood restrictions are completely new.  Because they have no preexisting approvals on file, grandfathering shall not apply, and all chronicles with characters which meet these restrictions will need to seek approval or submit appropriate notifications within 90 days from the passage of this proposal, as appropriate for the character.  Selkies, however, have more lax restrictions and thus previous approvals for them will be grandfathered.

"Can you explain this in non-bylaw-ese, if you please?"

This proposal means that games would need to get Coordinator approval (i.e., from me) for PC and NPC Kinain who have supernatural powers from being a True Mage, Wraith, ghoul, Kinfolk, Werewolf, Vampire, or other non-Changeling creature.  "Vanilla" Kinain with powers drawn only from The Shining Host, The Shining Host Players Guide, and the Numina and Sorcery sections of Laws of the Hunt would not require such approval.  Similarly, all purchases of the Faerie Blood Background (or Merit, if you're using Laws of the Hunt) greater than 2 on PCs would need to be notified to the Changeling Coordinator and logged with the Archivist.  Faerie Blood 1 or 2 will remain unregulated.

In addition, Selkies will now be coordinator notify if they're in a chronicle that isn't land-locked; Selkie-related changes are more permissive, rather than more restrictive.

"Um ... what are Kinain?"

For those of you who are not intimately familiar with Changeling, Kinain are the "half-blooded" supernaturals for this particular genre.  They're roughly like ghouls are to vampires, or kinfolk are to werewolves.  Despite this, they have a remarkable amount of power and are sometimes also hedge mages or psychics.  That's why we don't particularly need to know about Kinain who also have some paths of sorcery or some psychic abilities.

"So why are you proposing both the Kinain Merit and the Faerie Blood thing?  Aren't they the same thing?"

Not quite.  You need to have the Kinain Merit in order to be able to buy Faerie Blood, but they are priced out differently.  You can think of Faerie Blood as kind of like a Vampire's Generation Background or a Mage's Arete, in that it limits how much other Changeling-like stuff they can buy.  I'm interested in limiting the number of Kinain who are outside of "normal" genre, which is why I'm making them Coordinator Approval, whereas I'm just trying to keep a running tally of the more powerful Kithain PCs in the org.

"OK.  Then what's up with the multiple entries for Faerie Blood?"

The intent is to require a notification whenever anyone purchases Faerie Blood of more than 2, be it during character generation or later on in the character's story arc, if it later increases.  There are significant differences in power between a Kinain at Faerie Blood 3 and a Kinain at Faerie Blood 5.  I opted for multiple entries after discussion with other coordinators.  If a more elegant idea is expressed during the discussion period on Council, I'll happily revise the proposal.

"Why would this be necessary, Kyle?  In your entire multi-year tenure as Changeling Coordinator, you have proposed no changes to R&U, and you've even said that you prefer to trust STs to have free rein with most of the genre.  Why change this now?"

First off, Selkies are supposed to be reasonably uncommon, but they're effectively nonexistent in the Org at the moment, with only two NPCs on the books, because they require Council notification for NPCs or a majority vote for PCs.  I like to trim red tape where it's necessary, and I think it'd be nice for coastal chronicles to by able to introduce selkies without having to broadcast that to the world and get buy-in from everyone on Council for PC Selkies.  They still require notification, however, which means that if an unreasonable number of selkies get created, we will know about it fairly rapidly and be able to change the rarity again.

Second, I've recently worked with a couple chronicles on some Kinain characters, and the STs in question expressed their surprise that Kinain with other genre overlap were wholly unregulated.  Couple this with anecdotal reports I have received in the last year about characters who were both Kinain and full-blooded supernaturals of other types, and I now feel that it's appropriate that we track this more fully and explicitly.

"OK.  So, why do you care about these Kinain things?"

I care for two main reasons:

1) Glamour-related powers canonically generally don't mix very well on the same sheet with other genres.  Vampires are supposed to be exceedingly Banal, and Wraiths have no capacity to be merged with a Fae soul.  Kinain do work OK with Fianna and Fianna kinfolk, though even according to the Tribebook, the camp which works with Changelings is the smallest group within the Tribe.  It's worth noting that I will be highly likely to approve such characters; I seriously considered making an exception in the R&U entry itself for this case, but "Kinain with non-Changeling supernatural powers or traits other than Numina and Hedge Magic" is already kind of a mouthful.

2) From a mechanical perspective, Changeling is frankly not very well balanced.  Several of the Arts don't have five levels, and the sole determinant of what levels of Arts a Kinain can use is the Faerie Blood Background / Merit (i.e., Faerie Blood 1 = "first Basic only," FB 2 = "second Basic," etc.).  While a Kinain with Faerie Blood 5 would probably be Glamour-starved, they would have the same theoretical magical arsenal as a full-blooded Changeling, being allowed to learn Advanced Arts.

"Why a 90 day grandfathering period?"

ST staffs are overworked and underpaid, as are appointed coordinators.  :)  In all seriousness, there doesn't really seem a need for undue haste in this case, particularly since I've been mulling over this proposal since the New Year.

"Um, all right.  Anything else you want to say about this?"

In general, however, I feel this strikes a good balance between preserving the genre I have been tasked with supervising while not placing an undue burden on OWbN Storytelling staff.  If I am suddenly flooded with notifications of Kinain with Faerie Blood 5, I may propose further changes, but I currently hope this won't be necessary.

Kyle N.
glitter coord

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