|
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.
|
