I posted this in the first 'Crooked Kin' thread, though that seems to have run dry, and I'm really curious to find some feedback, so...
To start with, I do love the notion of the Crooked Kin...it seems perhaps a bit bland, though. I don't know, maybe it's just the common sideshow tropes in conjunction with a fantasy setting - why should there be so many people with limb issues, for example? I know that Regenerate spells don't grow on trees, but...? Also, those types of shows play on the disease we feel encountering people we define as 'less than whole' - which is fine as an effective means of fleecing the marks, only it's less interesting for some players, I think. I don't know - not trying to turn this into a criticism thread.
So, a few thoughts :
Is a calliope too modern? I was just thinking of Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show, you know? I'll have to have some other form of music, as well, but I can double-up if need be. Oh, or they may have haunted instruments! Will save versus possession for the duration of a song? Anyroad...
Lidia! I love the idea of making her a tattooed lady; I thought maybe tattooed sorceress? Illusionist-style, a storyteller. Then I'm debating a flavorful twist - each tattoo covers a horrible scar of some kind and, being magic, makes her appear unscarred. She walks up on stage, a beautiful woman, drops her robe (grabbing the audience's attention, if she didn't have it already) and begins to tell her tale by 'stripping' her tattoos into illusions which fill the stage beside her. A few examples I had were a compass rose over her left breast (hiding a puckered arrow-wound?) which could form an illusory beating-heart, or simply a flower, and also a snake tattoo wound around her neck (her familiar?) where it covered an attempted strangulation or hanging scar.
The Prince, I think, I would remake as Mwangi shadowteller - a voodoo-style ombromancer, perhaps a summoner who summons actual Shadows? Perhaps he was an accidental Synthesist - that could make for an interesting affliction. This could be used in conjunction with Lidia's show, or as a separate one. I was thinking of blending this with a sort of kabuki shadow-show, when I thought of...
Tian contortionist(s) - also may work either with the Prince or separately. They may be double-jointed, or lacking in joints, or half-bred vishkanya, or just plain freaky-flexible, as happens. Also - and something you could do with the other acts - they may or may not be Tian at all. Of course the show wants to bill as 'exotic' to draw people in, but it could as easily be a rather pathetic make-up job.
As for the Clowns, I was thinking contructs. Badly sewn-together constructs, all stuffed with leaves? Oh, and sewn out of what I wonder? I had another notion, for a white-haired witch, a young albino maybe, and I see how this could go together now. The witch crafts the clowns...and secretly is a construct herself. A patchwork girl, all twisty-Oz style.
The ringleader, I don't know - not an albino, if I'm using the witch. I'll have to think on that.
For the behind-the-scenes leader, though, I'm thinking of an old gypsy werewolf, a Harrower...male or female? Not sure yet. (S)he's also going to replace the Harrow-card system, though, for my purposes. I play-by-post, and that system is really much better suited to an IRL dynamic. Also, I intend to have the Kin either escorting the party or following them around for the entire AP.
That's as far as I've got, yet. Thoughts?
I did read your previous post and had some ideas, but my English is pretty poor so I have a hard time to express my thoughts about it:
I had the same feeling as you when I first read the entry about the Crooked Kin and I plan to either skip them altogether or drastically change them. Your thoughts inspired some Ideas tough and now I really want to implement them in a memorable way and I probably steal some of your ideas.
When I get the time I try to write up my version of the Crooked Kin.
So far, your English is better than a great quantity of native speakers I've encountered. I'd be glad to hear your thoughts, when you've time to put them down.
I love your ideas, and I was scratching my head about the Crooked Kin as well.
I get what is likely the original concept: a parallel between these people, who are different and outcast, and the Beast of Lepidstadt, who is different and outcast. Both are freak shows, and one prepares the party for an empathic relationship with the other.
But I wasn't enamored of the sideshow concept either. There is no real reason why: this world has its diseases and its genetic misfortunes as well as any, despite the magical resources. But it doesn't resonate with me.
I'd like to steal a couple of your thoughts. Your Lidia as a tattooed lady with illusionist skills, and the Mwangi shadowteller, for instance. I like the idea of this traveling caravan being more performative than visually odd.
I plan to make Aleece one of the acrobats/jugglers/contortionists, and not portray her as microcephalic. She is a teenaged sister to Gerik, Josef and Tam, naturally buoyant and curious and the "daughter" of the entire group, and they are distraught from her absence. I think my party will respond better to that.
Your ideas sound neat. I modified the Crooked Kin, but mostly kept the traditional "freak" orientation. In fact, on someone's suggestion on the prior thread, I watched the 20s or 30s movie Freaks before running the game. I modified some of the kin to match the characters from the movie (as necessary -- many are straight out of the movie) and found images for them and others online, which made a big difference for my PCs. Also, and perhaps most importantly, the movie gave the sense of the traveling freakshow as a tight-knit community of individuals, and I've really been able to communicate that to the PCs.
My PCs decided to travel with the kin, and they got attacked in the early morning by a big band of orc raiders, while the wagons were in a circle. It was a great set piece combat, and the kin participated by firing heavy crossbows from within the cover of the wagons.
I also modified S'Jeer and made her an oracle and used her to give meaningful harrow deck cards to the party and to communicate a lot of information about stuff I'd added to the game background.
In sum, I think the encounter has a lot of potential, including going forward as the Kin will be a resource, but the GM really needs to make the group his/her own.
Hrm, I think that my players' interactions with the Harrow system will be largely dependent on how they decide to interact with the Kin themselves. I'll probably make some cards up as I go, to suit the specifics, then 'apply' them with cutscenes to the gypsy in her caravan, casting the cards - and the characters feeling the effects, wherever they are. Still a work in progress - I'll have to see what crops up as we go.
I've just read an interesting short story by a fellow named John Langen, entitled The Unbearable Proximity of Mr. Dunn's Balloons. In case you intend to read the story, which I found in an anthology titled Ghosts by Gaslight, I'll put this next thought in spoilers.
This fits my Evocation Day concept brilliantly, and works well with my odd Kin. I'm not entirely certain how I'm going about the mechanics, though. Haunts? Wraiths?
Thoughts?