Author Topic: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus  (Read 12429 times)

Offline MijRai

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #30 on: December 17, 2010, 08:47:24 PM »
Getting back to the original topic, should we give him a high burglary or would you deal with that any other way?

I'd go with Stunts/Powers instead.
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Offline Drashna

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #31 on: December 17, 2010, 08:48:06 PM »
@RyanR: Actually, it *only* mentions Santa.  It never mentions the Erlking's side. Ever. :)  Which is why I counted him as part of the autumn court. Specifically, because I few the autumn and spring courts more as sub-courts as winter and summer, respectively.  

Either way, Santa is definitely a Fae, and a powerful one. And yes, he should be associated with Winter.

@devon: absolutely. It's used to case a place for entry, is it not?  To figure out the easiest way in, if not break in necessarily. And probably high investigation too.
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Offline Quazar

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #32 on: December 18, 2010, 12:16:31 AM »
Getting back to the original topic, should we give him a high burglary or would you deal with that any other way?

You mean the Knight of Claus?  Because that's the OP.  It's not phrased very well, maybe I should edit it, but this is meant to be about how to stat an Emissary of Power/Knight of Faerie associated with Father Christmas.

I think would make sense, thematically, to give an Emissary of Santa a high burglary skill.  That way he can scope out good routes for Santa's trip.

Offline deathwombat

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #33 on: December 19, 2010, 01:54:26 AM »
would there be a specific weakness tied to cookies and milk?
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Offline Buscadera

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #34 on: December 19, 2010, 04:09:36 AM »
I'm interested in guys like Buscadera's character.  Which emphasis did you place on Yuletide Magic?  Obviously air, perhaps something to do with cold?  Not an element per se, but i guess it could be run as the reverse of fire.

When I think of Yuletide magic, I imagine that it includes the domains of cold, warmth, charity and joy. Santa's emissary would be able to attack with cold like Unseelie magic, but would also be able to inspire feelings of goodwill in his opponents and veil himself well. I also view the character as relying more on his items in combat than anything else, pulling another trick from his bag of toys. I could see the 'potions' of Santa's warrior taking on the form of toy soldiers that fired magical bullets, mystic jump ropes that would bind opponents and things like that. Slightly quirky, but thematically appropriate.
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Offline dannylilly2000

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #35 on: December 19, 2010, 04:48:10 PM »
Deadmanwalking made a character who was a Knight of Santa, and was kind enough to share with me.  Here was his take on the magic...

Yuletide Magic [-4 Refresh]

Drawing on the power of the Saint Nicholas, you’re able to cast spells that fit his essential nature: warmth and coldness, charity, protection, travel, and power over secrets. These magics are under the sway and watch of Saint Nicholas himself; making use of it will inevitably catch his notice.

Cost: As normal Sponsored Magic

Effects: Standard Sponsored Magic benefits, including counting as an Evocation element, allowing evocation spell effects that encourage or make use of warmth or coldness, charity, protection, travel, and a power over secrets. In addition, Yuletide Magic may be used to duplicate Conjuration or Warding effects at Evocation speeds and methods, and receives a +1 bonus to Control and Complexity on Conjuration. Yuletide Magic’s Evocations always includes either warmth or cold in some way, depending on the element being use.

Offline Ren

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #36 on: December 20, 2010, 01:40:33 AM »
Or perhaps go the "Fred Claus" route with Vince Vaughn? Sure, your sidhe half-brother may be THE Santa Claus, but when he needs something done "off the Naughty List," you're just the sixth-law-breaking bastard that he needs to deck some other bastard's halls.

I've never seen Fred Clause but "deck some other bastard's halls" made me laugh...8)
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Offline ironpoet

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #37 on: December 20, 2010, 06:17:07 PM »
You mean the Knight of Claus?  Because that's the OP.  It's not phrased very well, maybe I should edit it, but this is meant to be about how to stat an Emissary of Power/Knight of Faerie associated with Father Christmas.

I think would make sense, thematically, to give an Emissary of Santa a high burglary skill.  That way he can scope out good routes for Santa's trip.

That actually raises an interesting question: Why does Santa Claus need knights?  What jobs would a Knight of Claus be tasked with?  That might give a better idea of what powers and skills they need.

Are they scoping out routes for Santa Claus?  Are they destroying malls to halt the commercialization of Christmas?  (Or vice-versa?)  Are they trying to convert White Council Elder Ebeneezer Scrooge to renounce his evil ways?  (I think describing the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future as Knights of Father Christmas would be cool...)

Offline sinker

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #38 on: December 20, 2010, 06:31:52 PM »
I'd like to think that one of their jobs might be protecting/punishing children, depending on whether they are nice/naughty.

Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #39 on: December 20, 2010, 06:36:11 PM »
I think one of the jobs would be to remind people about naughty and nice.  Punish the naughty, reward the nice - that sort of thing.  If you look at the old legends about him that's more or less what he does.

Like maybe one would show up and help a nice person change a flat tire because that's what the nice person deserved, then later flatten the tire of a naughty person because that's what he has coming to him.

I could also see one trying to fight the "me centric" approach to Christmas, reminding others that it's better to give than to receive, but anything to do with Christmas is a limiting factor.  If the knight/emissary is all about Christmas then what's he going to the rest of the year?

Suddenly I have a vision of the emissary running "The Naughty and Nice strip club", getting tanked off a never ending flask of "Christmas spirit", and every few days wandering out to reward the nice while smacking down someone naughty - all in the name of "the Fat Man".  All the while muttering about keeping Christmas in your heart all the year long.

Richard

Offline sinker

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #40 on: December 20, 2010, 07:17:06 PM »
Suddenly I have a vision of the emissary running "The Naughty and Nice strip club", getting tanked off a never ending flask of "Christmas spirit", and every few days wandering out to reward the nice while smacking down someone naughty - all in the name of "the Fat Man".  All the while muttering about keeping Christmas in your heart all the year long.

Love it! :)

Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #41 on: December 20, 2010, 07:34:46 PM »
I'd like to think that one of their jobs might be protecting/punishing children, depending on whether they are nice/naughty.

That's getting near a line that's hard to play around - and would need a group of players who were comfortable with it.  It's true to the source material, but some people would have a problem with a character who only protects "nice" children.  "I save the nice kid from the burning building, but the other kids were naughty so I left them to fry" isn't quite what most people accept as heroic.  As for punishing kids, a character doing that could wind up in real problem with the law.  Someone going around and handing out small presents to nice kids while spanking naughty ones (which is something that the companions of Santa supposedly did) would attract serious police attention.  Heck, a stranger handing out presents to random kids would probably get a lot of police attention.

Now if he's using powers - say sponsored magic to make it so that the nice kid skates across the finish line first while the naughty one slips on the ice and falls flat on his butt (maybe splitting his pants while he does it) - then I could see people not noticing the list of coincidences.  Then again, he should leave a little signs to show people that they've been rewarded for being nice or smacked down for being naughty because if there's no link then people won't associate their behaviour with the consequences.  Them not knowing kind of defeats the purpose of a rewards/punishments system.

The more I think of it, the more this concept would have problems with the law - at least if he told people who he was.  Dresden calls himself a wizard and all the cops who hear that assume that he's some sort of con man - because why else would anyone call himself a wizard? That's because cops generally assume the worst about people (because they see it all too often).  So if they hear about someone going around claiming to a special friend of Santa Claus they'll assume he's lying because he wants to trick children into trusting him and that just raises all sorts of red flags.  And if he talks about punishing 'naughty children' then he might "trip and fall" a couple of times on his way to the holding cell.

On the flip side of it being a PC, an emissary of Santa Claus might be an interesting thing to have in the background of a city.  If it's a major city with a million plus people then he's not going to have a huge impact.  Say he interacts with 1 - 2 kids a day, call it 700 kids a year out a city of a million.  If he stays in the poor neighbours then the authorities probably wouldn't be too involved (but various people might want to crack a cap into his ass).  While not really important in the big picture he is the sort of thing that PCs would hear about.  So they track the rumours of a man (or woman) who visits children and either gives them minor treats (candy, cheap toys - probably nothing over $5) or spanks them and discover someone with "Marked by Power" claiming to be an emissary of Saint Claus, someone who honestly believes that he/she is making a difference, then what do they do?

Do they take action to end the seemingly random beatings while trying to keep the heart lifting presents going?
Do they say "who cares about Aegis of Respect" and take the emissary out (opening themselves up to vengeance from the fairies)?
Do they try to work some sort of deal?
Do they report the madman to the police (taking the conflict nuclear)?
Do they let the gangs know about who is behind everything and stand back while they deal with "the freak going around spanking other people's kids" and then watch winter's revenge over the deed?
Do they shrug, decide that everyone is just getting what they deserve, and walk away?

Whatever they decide, I could see them getting something special at Christmas.  Maybe a simple little magic item (if they helped the emissary) or a cursed item (if they hurt the emissary) or even a special visit from Santa.

I could see this going another way (especially this time of year) where there are stories spreading about "something special" in town and the PCs finding an overworked emissary rewarding nice kids, having a conversation with it, maybe even helping do it's job.  Then they later discover that part two of the emissary's plan is to kidnap naughty kids and take them to the Nevernever as a punishment, or otherwise handout bad stuff.  Bad stuff like the kid's house burning down, or giving them cancer, or handing out beatings.  Bad stuff that they helped make possible when they helped the emissary dish out good stuff to nice kids.

This concept opens a huge number of doors and can be played countless ways.  You could take it comic christmas movie style of the hapless emissary trying to make Christmas right.  You could take it Dark Knight Returns style and have a vigilante handing out rewards and punishments according to a code that made sense in the dark ages (but not so much sense now).  You could take it Average Joe living life his way, unless he uses his fae given powers then the sponsored magic demands he act as a servant of Santa.  A "Touch by Angel" type going around rewarding the good.

It's always intriguing when something can be used in so many different ways.

Richard

Offline sinker

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #42 on: December 20, 2010, 07:42:45 PM »
That's getting near a line that's hard to play around - and would need a group of players who were comfortable with it.  It's true to the source material, but some people would have a problem with a character who only protects "nice" children.  "I save the nice kid from the burning building, but the other kids were naughty so I left them to fry" isn't quite what most people accept as heroic.  As for punishing kids, a character doing that could wind up in real problem with the law.  Someone going around and handing out small presents to nice kids while spanking naughty ones (which is something that the companions of Santa supposedly did) would attract serious police attention.  Heck, a stranger handing out presents to random kids would probably get a lot of police attention.

Actually I could see this being a great trouble. A character wants to help the children of the world so he makes a deal with clause but he doesn't realize the other side of his job. So does he do as he's told and let the naughty kids fry or does he save them all, santa's orders be damned!

Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #43 on: December 20, 2010, 07:51:35 PM »
You're right - that would make a great trouble.

Richard

Offline sinker

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Re: Knight/Emissary of Santa Claus
« Reply #44 on: December 20, 2010, 07:56:23 PM »
And yeah, the character would have to use magic to stay ahead of the law regardless of whether he was targeting kids or adults. The police tend to frown on random beatings (not nearly as much as they frown on child abuse I suppose but still).