This is a cheesy, quick-start LARP scenario for a Changeling game. An old friend of mine might be trying to read it even now, so I'm making a hasty attempt to clean it up. I had just gotten out of a miserably-run game in Portland, so there may still be some bitterness of the Cam's approach to games here and there. (I understand they're tring to improve things. Good for them.) If you'd really like to know, there's A Few Things I'd do Different but what kind of GM would I be if I didn't fiddle with the rules?

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The Tor of A Thousand Towers
a LARP for a moonlit night and about 6-36 players.

ST NOTES
If I did this right, all you need to do is follow the steps below and you've got a game. If not, well you're all kinds of screwed should you not happen to read it through, first, now aren't you?

• First, let the players see the list of Blue Sheets (below.) This will give them a motivation for the evening and a group to affiliate with all in one blow. Be prepared to remind players that members of the motley are considered "friends" with eachother and should have some idea of eachother's personalities. Even people who just have to play a loner (in a game about politics and social interaction) should be strong-armed, cajouled or bribed into join a motley. You don't have to be a team player, you just need to be a on a team for this story to work.
• Ask players to make characters which either fit into the Motley they've chosen or two invent reasons for their existing characters to not only join, but support the motely they've chosen. Ask them nicely, but don't take sinister mutterings for an answer or the game will not work. (Hint: Even the world's stupidest scumbag will cooperate if ask them nicely, just this once, to try it.)
• Find out who wants to play the guys in charge. Single out the guys who want to be High Lord and make sure they are NOT NARRATORS. Please, please, please do not allow Narrators to have the most important characters in this story. Not only is it a clear conflict of interest, this scenario (say it with me) WILL NOT WORK if you do. Please, pick a non-Storyteller player who wants to be king and let them try it out for a while. (They should be in the The Folk Next Door motley.)
• Get ahold of some index cards to use for DROSS (a pack of poker cards or tarot cards you don't mind losing will work just great for this.) Collecting DROSS, glamour in solid form, is a central theme to this scenario. (You may want to handle all Glamour as if it were Dross; that is, a substance you can actually hold in your hand and trade. It's one of the many THINGS I'D DO DIFFERENTLY.) Instead of cards you could use poker chips or little glass beads or something so cute it makes you sick.
• Take the cards, glass beads or whatever for your DROSS and divide it equally among your NARRATORS (you'll need at least two, four would be best.) Give a generous amount to Them What Goes Around and a little extra to the Short Hoggers (but not as much as Them.) Each NARRATOR will be the guardian of a different part of the TOR OF A THOUSAND TOWERS. If you want, you can assign players to the role of Guardian and give each a few narrator powers, just for the night. Make sure you read the information on GUARDIANSHIP (below) and that your Guardians understand it.
• The NARRATORS do not have to read through all of the Blue Sheets, but it helps. You should read the STORYTELLER'S SUMMARY at the bottom of this page.
• Find a place to play, make sure everyone understands the setting, and get right down to it.

Blue Sheets (Motleys):
Players should have a chance to see this list and the description following each.

The Folk Next Door
A merry crowd of revellers, courtiers and bon vivants out for a good time and maybe a bit of adventure. The local fairy chieftan (high noble) is amongst them and anyone in this group has favour with the Laird of the Green, if only for this one night.
To Join the Folk Next Door, click HERE.
The Come Hitherers
A company of noble Seelie Knights, trying to reclaim the Championship from their Unseelie rivals (who probably cheated last year, anyway.) You must actually be a Knight to join this Motley, or, at least, the Squire of another player's Knight. You must be Seelie.
To Join the Come Hitherers, click HERE.
The Gentry
A bunch of Unseelie "Sportsmonsters," here for the Joust. Last year they won and, hey, if you're not cheating, you're not trying. You need to be able to pass yourself off as a Knight to be in this Motley (although it works best if you aren't really one.) You must definitely be in an Unseelie mood.
To Join the Gentry, click HERE.
Them What Goes Around
A party of adventurers from far-off lands. These strangers have a mysterious agenda and a seemingly unlimited supply of Dross (solid Glamour, used for currency and magic.)
To Join Them What Goes Around, click HERE.
The Short Hoggers
A gaggle of helpful Kithian showing a newly-awakened Changeling the wonders of the magical world. All members of this group will have to elect at least one person to be the newbie and another to be their Guide through the Chrysalis.
To Join the Short Hoggers, click HERE.
The Kindly Ratchets
A group of fairy secret policeman, hungry for people to step out of line. Your character needs to excel at chases, detection and brutality to join this motely. No one will like it if you succeed.
To Join the Kindly Ratchets, click HERE.

STORYTELLER SUMMARY
Here's a guide to actually running the game, including what's going on and what to do when it all goes wrong.

SETTING - The game takes place in a magical landscape called the Tor of a Thousand Towers. This is a very, very thin reference to Prague (city of a Thousand Towers) and a hospital where I used to work. To mortals, the Tor is a large children's hospital made of several old buildings on a heavily-forrested hill. It overlooks downtown (in whatever city you like) and borders a national forest (just barely.) To fairy eyes, it's a Gormengast-esque explosion of minarets, parapets and ramparts, looming over the city like a fractal tower of babel. It is clearly both fortress and palace, both ruin and new growth. You could get lost there for a thousand years.
You could find almost anything inside.

What players will find inside is DROSS. There is no one balefire in the Tor, it has a thousand (one for each tower, it is said.) The DROSS comes from the dreams and nightmares of the sick and injured children within (that should pull a few heart strings and annoy a few others.) Because it is such a fantastic and precious resource, the local fey are allowed in just once a year to carry away whatever DROSS they like.

It's grown into a kind of festival over the years and has become accompanied by a ghostly Rade. The Rade itself is a somber procession up to the hill from downtown, a rare chance to freak the mundanes without, quite, breaking the escheat. It's also a great place to start.

Besides the Rade, there are three major events which the STORYTELLER and NARRATORS will have to oversee for this scenario. This scenario works best when run over a four hour period. About one major event should be dolled out per hour. Not everyone has to participate in any given event.

• The Rade is a great excuse for breaking the ice. Line up all the players and have them walk past eachother, describing how they look to both mortal and changeling eyes. If you have a lot of people, keep the descriptions brief.
• The first thing that needs to happen is for the Presiding Noble to make an announcement. Hopefully, you've elected a player for this role, if only for this one game. Take the player aside or, even better, come up to them in the character of a lackey or other underling and pretend you're reminding them to open the dross-gathering. Make sure you go over the rules of dross gathering before anyone goes out seaching for it. The rules, are little more than a variation on finder's keepers and the players should be encouraged to phrase that in whatever flowery phrases (or abrupt declamations) they like. In order to actually gather Dross, each player will have to talk to a Guardian (who are explained below.)
• The second major event is the joust. This is a cause for showmanship and spectacle. Try and work up an audience (the Gentry and Come Hitherers are encouraged to do this as well.) You may wish to have challengers sign up or go around collecting ladyies' (or gentlemens') favors to give you enough time to get organized. In order to run the joust, follow these sub-steps:
  • Arrange any spectators into a line or a pair of lines, forming a rudimentary corridor. Encourage them to shout, boo or cheer at whatever levels the community noise restrictions where you play permit. Get them into it. Try a few practice boos and huzzahs.
  • Pair up one Seelie with one Unseelie at a time (one each is all you can probably hope for, although it's possible you could have quite a few.)
  • Have the Seelie start at one end of the corridor of spectators and the Unseelie start at the other.
  • Randomly pick either the Seelie or Unseelie to go first. In turn, each knight should turn to the crowd and describe their armor, heraldry and chemerical mount. Make sure you take close note of each jouster's full name, with all the knightly trimmings.
  • Stand dead between the knights and have them pantomime or describe a charge while walking toward you. When they get there, stop both jousters.
  • Ask the crowd which one should be knocked from their horse. Point to one and say their full heraldric name. Point to the other and do the same. Judge as best you can from claps, cheers and boos. If no one will cheer or you don't get a clear winner, declare that no one was knocked off and have them try it again.
  • Once someone is knocked off, you can either go on to another pairing or, if time is short, have them fight it out rock-paper-scissors. The important thing is who got knocked off, then who got clobbered. Use that criteria when deciding who won. You might even stick that ominous task up to the Folk Next Door. Use lots of Sword of Damocles and angry mob references if you do.
• Make sure you leave time to run an impromptu trial or execution, especially if you have some active Kindly Ratchets or Them What Goes Around.

GUARDIANSHIP
In order to collect DROSS, players will have to explore the Tor. Unless you want to make a map or a whole bunch of little exploration mini-games and award packages, you're going to need some help.

I suggest recruiting four players for this task, although official NARRATORS will do in a pinch (especially if you want to butter someone up but don't want to overburden them.) Make sure nobody in Them What Goes Around is picked to be a Guardian.

Tell each Guardian that they have the key to a certain tower of the hospital. Each tower corresponds to a ward of the hospital (psychiatric, burn, ER, etc.) In order to enter that part of the tor, players will need to find the Guardian and ask to be let in. Tell the Guardians that tradition demands that keys may only be used in service of those who pass a test. The test, you can say, is usually some sort of riddle or puzzle. (If someone wants to use a test of combat or magic to judge whose worthy, let them go ahead, just don't tell anyone this is an option.)

Let the guardians know that their magical keys control how long someone can enter any given tower before suddenly finding their next turn, door or screaming plunge deposits them firmly back outside.

In practical terms, this means each Guardian decides how much DROSS any player gets based on how well they answer the riddle or solve the puzzle (or face any given test.) Make sure that each Guardian understands any player who even tries to guess deserves at least one DROSS for trying. Also let the Guardians know that once they're out of DROSS, their Tower is out of DROSS.

There is a drawback to being a Guardian. You get one and only one peice of DROSS for your character for every guardian (including yourself) in the game when you first start playing. Guardians are not allowed to enter one another's towers (it's a matter of honor.)

This is one of those jobs prefect for Trolls, Slougha and even Boggans. This is one of those jobs Eshu, Pookahs, Redcaps and Satyrs will turn into a nightmare, no matter who is playing them.

You can encourage Guardians to make up their own hospital wards and they towers they correlate to (and have them explain this to anyone who comes DROSS-collecting) or you can check out this nifty list, the closest thing you'll find to a MAP of the Tor.

Last Updated, oh, say, May-ish, 2001. Originally posted in 2000, updated in May, 2001 and cut up into bite-size chunks in October, 2002. If you like it or if you hate it, contact me, Rp Bowman, at yokeltania@yahoo.com> Actually, even if you're kinda nonplussed, I'd like to hear what you think. It'd do my enormous ego no end of good to find out someone cared.