Problem Character Changelings or What to do when its your first time as Host and a Player wants to be a type of Problem Character that’s not in the game book

Say no

— unless they are cool and use she/fae pronouns and own a cool knife that looks like this:

— in which case you should come up with a Changeling-type Problem Character for them.

Charles Voss, Sandman #18

In the folklore Changelings are fairies masquerading as human babies. What happens to the baby that's replaced is nothing good -- something to build a Horror around.

So there's a crime... 

But How Can Fairies Be Horrifying?

I don't have the book in front of me but in A Red & Pleasant Land, there's a note about flavors of absurdity Alice in Wonderland figures can have for adventure role-playing. The gist I recall is

• purple cat talking nonsense: zany
• purple cat talking nonsense who you suspect has ulterior motives: creepy. 

In Pan's Labyrinth (2006), fairies are creepy. Because mundane human-engineered abominations are equally at the table, and the movie encourages the suspicion that one fictional moral universe contains both worlds, however real they are, however plausible that is. So we may be as nervous about Pan as we might be about any adult-sized stranger in a lawless place taking pains to be alone with a vulnerable child. 

A child entertaining obscure cloven benevolence isn't scary. A child in a war zone and unsure what's real is tense to observe but not Horror. Both true, both child the same child, they may start to color each other.

So -- fairies worked out from the Crime angle could be horrifying. If things are getting too High-Fantastical, I may try losing the plot in some mundane human-engineered abomination.

If obscure cloven benevolence seems cozy, I may want to focus on its cool detachment from the world the PCs act in -- a lack of discrimination. Like R&PL says for Alice in Wonderland roleplay, make the punishment never suits the offense. 

The difference though, between creepy unfair Humpty Dumpty judgement and creepy unfair fairy judgement may be that fairy judgement is old and we are separated from it by time as like a memory. There are laws. But the codices are lost to us and the courts are long out of session. 

The Rules

To start 

• PCs starting as a Changeling are in the process of realizing they are one.
  
  Calm is 0 and the PC is as if randomly Garbled
  
  (50-50 when they speak to a new NPC that they can be well understood -- the PC should know this is a possibility but the throw itself should be secret)
  
  until they steal an object that is precious to someone that if lost would cause that person to despair
  
  (an engagement ring, a child's pet, candy from a baby, etc.)
  
  Will lose 1 Toughness a day until they steal that kind of thing
  
  Cannot activate any supernatural abilities until they steal that kind of thing

Supernatural Abilities

• Regain Toughness only by stealing precious things.
• Precognitive Dreams - visions, gets to see associated cards from the Horror's deck
• Weakness to Iron - iron will harm the Fae as easily as it would a human
• Invulnerability - cannot be reduced below 0 Toughness by ordinary means
• Sense Despair
• Hoard - stolen precious things must be kept in a Hoard. Items removed from the Hoard will damage the PC, treat each removed item as one normal attack.

Fae Form

• size of a child, fur or feathers, enormous cat's-eyes, huge mouth, can speak without moving lips, weird pointed baby teeth, (cute or cartoon aspects are disturbing in the right light) throw calm checks around it
• selective invisibility: as a spell can become invisible to all but the wicked or the pure of heart
• any other acquired supernatural abilities (see downtime)

Downtime

• 1-40 Toughness +1. This benefit can be gained twice, Max 6. After that, no ability is gained on this Throw.
• 41-61 Perception +1. This benefit can be gained 3 times, Max 6. After that, no ability is gained on this Throw.
• 72-82 Appeal +1. This benefit can be gained twice, Max 6. After that, no ability is gained on this Throw.
• 83-94 Agility +1. This benefit can be gained 5 times, Max 7. After that, no ability is gained on this Throw.
• 95 Gain the ability to Lie as the necromantic spell, at an Intensity equal to Appeal. When used, the changeling must check Calm vs an Intensity of 6 or lose a point of Calm. If this is thrown a second time, no ability is gained.
• 96-00 Results in no ability being gained unless all other abilities on the table have been gained up to the maximum benefit. If they are, then:
• 96, 97 Gain the ability to Curse (as a spell, PC can throw on the Curses table in the back of the book). When used the changeling must check Calm vs an Intensity of 6 or lose a point of Calm. The changeling's maximum number of Cursed individuals is equal to their Calm. If this is thrown a second time, no ability is gained.
• 98 Animal Enslavement ability. The changeling must check Calm vs the creature’s Appeal to use this ability or lose a point of Calm.
• 99 Shadow Movement. The changeling must check Calm vs an Intensity of 6 or lose a point of Calm when using this ability. If this is thrown a second time, no ability is gained.
• 100 Transformation. The changeling must check Calm vs an Intensity of 6 or lose a point of Calm when using this ability. If this is thrown a second time, no ability is gained.

Mike Mignola, The Chained Coffin