Shops and learnings

Bit of a bodge together post this.
Two things I've been thinking about of late are markets/shops for the barony that was (and may still exist) and things that I learnt and went well this chronicle.

So shops, markets and stalls are kind of one of the interesting points of a lost setting, and they come from all sorts of places be they Rossetti and the poem "goblin market" or more Stardust's market place through to strange ramshackle shops tucked away in backstreets or similar that delve into the hedge itself.

Cambridge had a little from column A and a bit more from column B, inspired by the number of little alley like streets in town with small shops tucked away selling books or cheeses and so forth.

I have a few in mind but one example of these is further out of town, found by going down a winding street off the popular Mill Road. It looks like a beat up possibly long closed shop that on the outside proclaims itself to be "The Blank Tape Shop".
On the right days at the right times as shown by a yellowing note in the window the door actually opens and inside one can indeed buy blank tapes. But venture further back into the shop and things get stranger, there are tables upon which are old cardboard boxes full of papers, lists, things once whispered to conspirators or lovers, or what you wanted for dinner last week. It has the look of an old second hand comic or record shop but what is on offer are secrets and memories a record of things mundane to the strange, to browse or to buy.

Okay things that I've learnt this chronicle.

1) buddy up PCs with NPCs and make players want a stake in their lives and to care about them. Some of these NPCs I inherited from Luke others were my creation but having NPCs that a PC wanted as a friend or dependent and who got into scrapes and needed help or dragged the PC down into their issues or who just went on adventures with the PCs , in my opinion added to the game. It helped me bring plots in, gave PCs personal plot and meant at least one person in the room knew who I meant when I played someone.

- Improvement for me would be to costume better for npcs

2) people don't always downtime but people do seem to like what I call reverse downtimes where as an ST I send players snippets or overviews of what happens in the month and seed out plot elements to them all with an on going proviso that they can ignore it or change it should they desire. I can be a bit scripted but hopefully people know that I'm serious about meaning that they can change whatever doesn't suit them. Storytelling should be collaborative and sometimes my small scripts can start that off sometimes I can be a bit restrictive (unwittingly) but on the whole I think they encourage downtimes, remind people about the game and give people goals and things to talk about at the start of games.

- improvement for me would be to try and hit all players with these where I can and where it was liked.

What sort of things have people enjoyed/want to see more of?
Also what would you like to see?

I'd like to hear any constructive criticism (preferably sandwiched between some praise) and ideas of what you might like going forward.
Email privately if you like.

Barony History

Changelings have always been active in the area since records of such were kept but the first true "occupation" if the area that was to become the Cambridge Barony was in Norman times.
However the Diocese of Ely predates it as a Barony in Cambridgeshire which was settled by Blackbird Bishops and members of the Scarecrow Ministry.

Then in Tudor times a group of lost set up their own Barony taking after the University there they formed it as a College "Michaelhouse College".
Their goal was not to educate young lost but to set up a centre of deeper learning for Changelings to concentrate their studies. However it did help some lost learn the ropes.

Over the many years between then and the Victorian period the barony slowly withered until it was barely a motley with a baronial title. But then as the town grew with the railway so the barony grew again too, rejuvenated but somewhat shifted in focus, it solidified over the Victorian era into a centre of learning and research.

It became a place where newer lost came and learnt how to survive and thrive under the guidance of the winter court.
Where Spring and Autumn undertook deep research into hedge herbology and the secrets of magic and tokens.
Where Summer hosted competitions to hone skills needed to fight the gentry and adventured deep into the hedge for Glory bringing back treasures.
Winter vetted these and his many away but others supplied the libraries and laboratories of the other courts.

The leading force behind the rejuvenation was a motley that came to Cambridge from elsewhere in the freehold when it was at its lowest Ebb. They took on the names of Colleges instead of their former names.
Over the years the motley went through many incarnations as people joined others left or died. Towards the period of the fall they were given to twist naming conventions Sidney was a female autumn Darkling , Trinity a male elemental summer courtier who liked bombs, Darwin liked doing crazy stunts etc.
And they tended to be very summer court focused with other court members as "support".

(Nb other Motleys existed these were prominent in the history and to give an example motley)

Then Ten years ago, whilst everyone in the freehold if not country was focused on the cold war towards Bristol, one email was sent by Johns (a hunterheart (hound) from the colleges motley) to summer courtiers asking for assistance to arrest the Chancellor and three professors, nothing more - but then he was always a man of few words.
Half a day later the winter court of Ely receive a garbled phone call from a winter courtier from Cambridge saying refugees are inbound.
Ely moves to respond and picks up three winter courtiers who fled through the hedge along a trod one has one can't talk, another stares into the distance and the last howls in anguish. All clarity is crushed for them but the bishops have tried over the years. Others have tried to discover what they encountered but to little avail.
As of 2015 only the second still lives, however the bishops are open to questions.