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Like many (old) World of Darkness fans I eagerly waited for Changeling: The Dreaming when it was announced and rushed off to purchase it as soon as it arrived at my local game store. The game initially had me giddy like a school girl, the concept of playing one of the Fair Folk exciting me to no end. It appeared that I had, in my hnds, a fantasy World of Darkness game where a character could run around battling monsters with swords. But unfortunately the implementation had me somewhat confused in some places and although I purchased a number of supplements I never actually played the game.
So it was with much anticipation, and admitedly a little trepidation, that I waited for Changeling: The Lost to reached the far shores of Australia, and once in my hands I sequestered myself from the world to devour the contents....
WARNING: Throughout the following review many comparisons will be made between Changeling: The Lost and Changeling: The Dreaming. I think it was unavoidable due to the close link between the two games.
change·ling - the offspring of a fairy, troll, elf or other legendary creature that has been secretly left in the place of a human child
from the outside
Changeling: The Lost has a silver green cover with imagery of a thorny hedge. A single moth pierced by a thorn lies on the bottom right-hand corner and the font of the title again emphasises the thorn motif. An image of what appears to be a clock lies superimposed on the left of the front and reaches around to the back – this reminds me of the movie Labyrinth (with David Bowie) and the 13 o'clock deadline, the time the heroine had to reach the goblin city and the castle where her brother lay imprisoned - a somewhat appropriate impression.
Overall it is an impressive cover - especially when you see multiple copies of the book on the shelf of your local game store.
between the covers
The pages are bordered by a dark green thorny pattern and the titles and sidebars use the same color. The artwork, for the most part, supports the game's theme. Each chapter begins with a brief vignette (like all World of Darkness games) and an accompanying full-page artwork.
Like all World of Darkness games, Changeling: The Lost has an introduction and a Lexicon of game terms (unfortunately missing “privateer” and “loyalist” - the second able to be guessed at, the first mentioned a number of times without definition throughout the first chapter).
We are soon launched into the setting and the premise behind the existence of Changelings. In short, the characters are ordinary people who somehow attracted the attention of the Fae (also called the Gentry, Fair Folk and numerous other titles) and were whisked away, voluntarily or not, through the Hedge into Arcadia to undergo transformation, suffocating kindness, suffering and abuse and who eventually manage to escape from their Durance, returning to the world only to find the life they once knew is forever gone. This origin of Changelings is quite different to that of Changeling: The Dreaming and takes more from traditional myths – rather than being mortals with the soul of a fae you play a person who has been forever changed, both physically and mentally, by their time in Arcadia. For those familiar with Changeling: The Dreaming you will immediately see similarities between the Hedge of Changeling: the Lost and the Dreaming; both being other worlds or places between the mortal world and Arcadia.
Also covered in Chapter One are the Changeling Great Courts – the social structure set up that the characters will find themselves mired in even if they try to avoid it. The default Courts are the Western Courts of the Seasons, but brief mention is made of other Courts throughout the world: the Directional Courts of China, the Sun Courts and even Courts tied to the Buddhist cycles of reincarnation.
Changeling divergence from the 5/5/5 pattern of splats seen in the major World of Darkness Games . 4 Courts, 6 Seemings (each with a number of Kiths) and a multitude of Entitlements. From the Seemings and the Kiths available for each Seeming (Kiths can be considered to be sub-Seemings with extra benefits and weaknesses) in Chapter Two it is possible to create almost any kind of fairy creature you might find in folklore using a mix of Seeming, Kith and Contract.
The powers of the Changelings are called Contracts. Replacing than the Arts and Realms found in Changeling: The Dreaming, the Contracts of Changeling: The Lost are closer in appearance to the Disciplines of Vampire: The Requiem, but with the twist that the powers don't actually originate from the Changelings themselves, they just take advantage of ancient pacts made by the Gentry back in the mists of time with the natural world. Also Changelings themselves can make Pledges which they can derive some benefits from (increased Attributes and Abilities, improved Merits) with some costs to themselves and a threat of Sanctions (punishments) if either party breaks the Pledge.
Contracts are deserving of a little more discussion. Like Disciplines they range from one to five dot powers. Each individual power is called a Clause and each Clause contains a Catch, a way of avoiding paying for the power – a loophole that a Changeling can take advantage of. It is this Catch that is interesting as no other World of Darkness game has included a way of avoiding the cost of activating a power in the basic structure of the powers and is in keeping with the “legal nature” of the Contracts themselves. Also available to a character are Goblin Contracts – dirty little agreements that offer a quick advantage with disadvantage that strikes the user after small period of time.
Aside: One thing I noted during my reading of the game is that if someone wished they could use Changeling: The Lost to recreate Changeling: The Dreaming, but the reverse would be very difficult. The Seemings and Kiths are able to duplicate the Kiths of Changeling: The Dreaming, and the Hedge serves as a stand in for the Dreaming.
Chapter Three covers the other special rules and systems for the game: in particular Pledges and how to build one and Oneiromancy, the art of dream manipulation. I found it interesting that Changeling: The Lost kept the idea of dreams and that they are a source of Glamor for a changeling. Unlike Changeling: The Dreaming the reaping of Glamor from dreams is not as potentially harmful as that game which in turn makes regaining Glamor not as a daunting task.
The last Chapter in the game covers Storytelling. You have the expected advice on the themes and moods of the game and brief coverage of a few Antagonists to challenge the characters with. An interesting inclusion is some advice on building a story by covering how to plan a story from beginning to end. This isn't something I've seen before and think its a good idea. The advice is obvious when you read it and its nice to see it put down in writing.
The game contains two appendices: Entitlements and the default city setting of Miami. Entitlements replace the limitation of only the Sidhe Kith being Noble found in Changeling: the Dreaming - an Entitlement allows any Changeling: The Lost character to become one of the nobility and gain a small benefit, but at the cost of becoming more interesting to the Fae. One of the Gentry accosting the characters will focus its attention first on changelings belonging to one of the noble orders before deigning to notice the commonfolk. This means that, by default, all characters are “commoners” - even the Fairest (who are, one might claim, Lost's version of Changeling's Sidhe).
the good, the bad, and the ugly
I really liked the treatment of the character splats and the ability to create almost any fairy you can think of. This is something that, in retrospect, was sorely missed in Changeling: The Dreaming. The Pledges really drive home the stories about the Far Folk always keeping their word.
On the other hand although the Contracts are nice a part of me still misses the Realms and Arts from Changeling: The Dreaming, and the Dominions (Unleashing) from Dark Ages: Fae – both of which were more flexible.
I can't find anything bad to say about the book's appearance, I just love it.
in summary
I found Changeling: The Lost to be both an enjoyable read and a game I want to play. It is a worthy successor to Changeling: The Dreaming (and Dark Ages: Fae) and I recommend fans of that game to take a look at this new incarnation. White Wolf has taken a lot of inspiration from folklore and presented it as a game that is dark yet alluring. If there is one White Wolf game for the latest version of the World of Darkness setting to have, its this one.
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