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In Short

The Good: The majority of the writing here is very evocative and enjoyable to read. The suggestions for campaign resolution with the characters are well done.

The Bad: Some of the end game advice is a little silly, such as statements that “the dice should fall where they may” followed by story fudging to give characters an out. The mini-game for playing the True Fae is exceptionally weak, amounting to little more than taking turns telling free form stories.

The Physical Thing

Under the Cover

Focused more on existing player characters, this chapter provides a mix of mechanical and thematic changes that take a changeling up to the very top of the power ladder. The thematic changes focus on the difference in appearance between high Wyrd changelings and low Wyrd changelings. Towards the end of the spectrum the changelings begin to have appearances closer to the True Fae, clearly demonstrating the power they’ve gained over the years. At the very end a True Fae meeting one of these beings might even view it as an equal, and the line between master and slave becomes blurred.

The mechanical changes are well integrated with these conceptual evolutions of the changelings. New Merits reflect how intensely magical the changelings have become. Consider, for instance, Tokenmaster a three dot Merit available to any changeling with Wyrd 7 or higher. Just by being in contact with an object for a while the changeling turns it into a token. They become a sort of unintentional artificer, allowing Wyrd to bleed into nearby things to create weird and unpredictable objects of varied use.

Each Seeming gains new abilities as the changeling grows to further reflect their origin. Take Wizened, for example. At Wyrd 7 they can use the higher of Wits or Dex to determine defense. At 8 their 9 again bonus to Dexterity rolls is always on. At 9 they only require three successes to gain an exceptional success on Crafts rolls. At 10 they may add Wyrd to Speed. Disadvantages accompany these advantages, such as at 10 the Wizened being unable to purchase any more Social Skills ever again.

Most of the character based mechanical options are focused on tweaking the character to make them feel more like an alien entity, and I think they do a good job at this. More than mere tweaks, a general system for creating Contracts is included to better enable characters to make their own bargains with faerie. The system is wonderful because of how it combines a strong roleplay element along with developer’s advice on how Contracts in Changeling have been structured. A series of example Contracts based on Mirrors is included to showcase how Contract creation works.

Finally, we have four new epic entitlements, The Charmed Circle, Knights of the Widow’s Walk, The Parliament of Victors, and The Office of Vizieral Counsel are all interesting and well done. They’re epic, reserved for Changelings at the height of their power, but they’re well conceived for what they are. The Parliament of Victors, for example, reflects the best of the best of changeling heroes. They’re larger than life, striding the world putting right wrongs and saving the day. As with the other three, the Parliament itself brings a huge number of plot hooks to mind.

Chapter Two Twisted Tales - 24 pages.

A hodge podge of campaign advice with a focus on changelings at the pinnacle of their power, this chapter hits on a broad variety of topics but pays special attention to World of Darkness crossovers. The big problem with this chapter is that a lot of advice is generic. If you’re a first time Storyteller and want more assistance than what’s found in the World of Darkness and Changeling: The Lost core books then some of it may be worthwhile, but those with some roleplaying experience are already familiar with ideas like blue booking and foreshadowing.

The crossover discussion is a little more worthwhile in that it seeks to lay out all of the thematic and mechanical concerns that arise from combining Changeling with the rest of the World of Darkness line. A few ideas here and there for mixing supernatural types are also fun to think about, and Storytellers kicking around crossover ideas will at least leave the book with a few more things to think about.

Chapter Three Faerie - 46 pages.

While Chapter Two lags behind a bit, Chapter Three provides a solid take on faerie and the True Fae. The True Fae are presented as being nebulous beings that can change roles within their domain. They’re more like small gods than creatures of flesh and form, and existing as a tree or a song is as much of an option as a beautiful elf-like body. The boundary between fae is, in a sense, the metaphysical skin of their domains. Fae fight with one another, vying for supremacy or just for the fun of a game, and that conflict spurs many quests and legends within Arcadia.

Simple rules options for building the bodies (called ‘actors’) that fae use, the laws and metaphysical rules of Arcadia, and an enormous number of very useful ideas are all included here. Simply put, while Chapter One offers many worthwhile mechanical and conceptual tweaks Chapter Three makes this book worth having. Faerie will come to life for the Storyteller, and while many of the rules won’t be immediately obvious to players it’s nice to have a sort of logic behind why things happen the way they do in lands of apparent chaos.

Example fae domains, quests, and similar support make the Storyteller’s job easier. They paint an image of what a faerie realm should be like and can simply be dropped immediately into an existing Chronicle to save time. Story arcs based around faerie wars are especially viable, thanks to this chapter, and anyone wanting to have fantastic adventures in faerie will find an incredible amount of useful support here.

Chapter Four The Hardest Road - 28 pages.

While Chapter Three focuses on the nature of the fae and their realms, Chapter Four is all about getting there. Even for powerful changelings and the fae themselves traveling in this unpredictable realm can be extremely dangerous. The primary material here focuses on different paths through the hedge, guides, and threats. About seven fully detailed encounters are included to aid the Storyteller in quickly providing interesting challenges while the characters brave the realm they fought so hard to escape. Otherwise, the advice is good for Storytellers who want to really emphasize the struggle involves in moving between the two worlds.

Appendix One The Game of Immortals - 5 pages.

A very simple option for groups that want to try playing the True Fae, these five pages present a simple competitive storytelling game that uses dice to partially setup the scenario and then opposed storytelling wherein players begin stories and then address challenges added to the story by others. It’s fast and loose and for five pages offers about what you would expect. I think there are better systems for doing this and that it’s already free form enough that those interested might as well just ditch these attempts to ground the exchanges in a game system, but it may still be fun for some groups. The best that can be said for it is that it might be fun to use this framework in an existing Chronicle to interject a session of fae politics every few months of play. The impact of what happens there could trickle down to the PCs Freehold, allowing for some interesting play experiences.

My Take

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