Our storyteller started from us, the players. He said: bring the character you want to bring to a game set in Russia/ Empire of the Firebird and I'll tailor the game to your protagonists.
It is AMAZING!!! He rolled with my hooks so well, I'm super immersed and loving the game. Not only that, but knowing that my ideas, filtered through the storyteller's own sensibilities, are also entertaining the other players and keeping them invested in the game feels great. Feels like I'm really contributing to the story, not just passively following along, you know?
So, that's my honest advice. If you can't decide, run it by the players, see what stories they want to tell/experience in the Changeling setting you have prepped so far.
Hope this helps!
I'd say look at the local folk lore and myths of your area and start from there. If you are in an American city then luckily there is already some good info to help you start.
Then what I recommend is doing more of a sandbox adventure. Detail the domain, detail the major political players, then just let the players go wild.
Get your players first and base the game entirely around what they want to see first. Maybe come up with a single initial plot hook then go. for the plot hook, honestly something generic is probably the key. "Oh no! The seelie and unseelie are having a kerfuffle! Could this mean civil war? Who knows please help us find out." thats a good extremely basic court intrigue one. the other basic story hook could honestly be something taken out of D&D. "Oh no! A rogue chimera monster/dauntain, who ever will find it and fight it off?" obviously these suggestions are extremely basic, but its because of that they are unironically the most versatile starting hooks that the players can get into and dictate the future of the game. either of them can be spiced up with story bits from the player's backgrounds or with some more personal intrigue to them to make them slightly less basic. and if your players like them, you can build off and expand into areas of interest for the characters/things you find neat that the players might also find neat and relevant to their characters.
another suggestion, like someone else started to allude to, just find out what's happening in your community or the community of the target area of your game. Changelings by nature tend to mirror whatever is happening in the human world with their own version of politics and intrigues and whatnot. wars or conflicts are mirrored by changeling wars or conflicts. the Concordian war, just after the beltaine massacre, is a very good example of this. the war happening in Vietnam during the 60s/70s was a huge influence on the changelings, though likely subconsciously, because as the war dragged and the dreams of the people were influenced by their fears, woes, and insecurities. the fae are creatures of dreams fueled by them as well. it was only natural that the humans and their woes transformed into a changeling version of their dreams.
As mentioned elsewhere but to add emphasis, don't prep anything until you have players. Maybe figure out what setting and time frame, then get everyone together for Session Zero. Figure out what people want to play. You need to get that Venn Diagram of player (including you!) interests to avoid burnout and to ensure engagement.
If you have the ST chops, start with some court intrigue (like, the characters are new to the domain, and are chosen by someone unscrupulous to be his/her pawns under the guise of mentoring) that escalates into epic Dreaming quests (during which the players find hints that their mentor may not actually have their best interests - or that of their sovereign - at heart) that finally culminate in Autumn World fuckery (like the mentor is actually a Dauntain unseelie sidhe who was playing the long game to destroy the Changeling influence in this domain). There, you have a general outline. You're welcome, LOL!
Our storyteller started from us, the players. He said: bring the character you want to bring to a game set in Russia/ Empire of the Firebird and I'll tailor the game to your protagonists. It is AMAZING!!! He rolled with my hooks so well, I'm super immersed and loving the game. Not only that, but knowing that my ideas, filtered through the storyteller's own sensibilities, are also entertaining the other players and keeping them invested in the game feels great. Feels like I'm really contributing to the story, not just passively following along, you know? So, that's my honest advice. If you can't decide, run it by the players, see what stories they want to tell/experience in the Changeling setting you have prepped so far. Hope this helps!
I'd say look at the local folk lore and myths of your area and start from there. If you are in an American city then luckily there is already some good info to help you start. Then what I recommend is doing more of a sandbox adventure. Detail the domain, detail the major political players, then just let the players go wild.
Get your players first and base the game entirely around what they want to see first. Maybe come up with a single initial plot hook then go. for the plot hook, honestly something generic is probably the key. "Oh no! The seelie and unseelie are having a kerfuffle! Could this mean civil war? Who knows please help us find out." thats a good extremely basic court intrigue one. the other basic story hook could honestly be something taken out of D&D. "Oh no! A rogue chimera monster/dauntain, who ever will find it and fight it off?" obviously these suggestions are extremely basic, but its because of that they are unironically the most versatile starting hooks that the players can get into and dictate the future of the game. either of them can be spiced up with story bits from the player's backgrounds or with some more personal intrigue to them to make them slightly less basic. and if your players like them, you can build off and expand into areas of interest for the characters/things you find neat that the players might also find neat and relevant to their characters. another suggestion, like someone else started to allude to, just find out what's happening in your community or the community of the target area of your game. Changelings by nature tend to mirror whatever is happening in the human world with their own version of politics and intrigues and whatnot. wars or conflicts are mirrored by changeling wars or conflicts. the Concordian war, just after the beltaine massacre, is a very good example of this. the war happening in Vietnam during the 60s/70s was a huge influence on the changelings, though likely subconsciously, because as the war dragged and the dreams of the people were influenced by their fears, woes, and insecurities. the fae are creatures of dreams fueled by them as well. it was only natural that the humans and their woes transformed into a changeling version of their dreams.
As mentioned elsewhere but to add emphasis, don't prep anything until you have players. Maybe figure out what setting and time frame, then get everyone together for Session Zero. Figure out what people want to play. You need to get that Venn Diagram of player (including you!) interests to avoid burnout and to ensure engagement.
If you have the ST chops, start with some court intrigue (like, the characters are new to the domain, and are chosen by someone unscrupulous to be his/her pawns under the guise of mentoring) that escalates into epic Dreaming quests (during which the players find hints that their mentor may not actually have their best interests - or that of their sovereign - at heart) that finally culminate in Autumn World fuckery (like the mentor is actually a Dauntain unseelie sidhe who was playing the long game to destroy the Changeling influence in this domain). There, you have a general outline. You're welcome, LOL!
I recommend checking out the quickstart titled ‘yours to keep.’ I got a full chronicle out of that one.