Rites of Spring

Rites of Spring is the third supplement of the excellent Changeling: the Lost series, and doesn’t disappoint when it comes to doing what supplements were supposed to do:  expand the game in both mechanical and conceptual scope.

Rites of Spring concerns itself with the magic of the Fae, and how that magic works for them.  As beings fundamentally twisted from the human template to become something else, the Changelings are suffused in magic.  It is a magic that defines them, their dealings with each other and the world around them.  While the corebook gives a good idea of how they work, Rites of Spring opens the floodgates when it comes to the myriad possibilities of their nature.

Tentaclese explains Changeling: the Lost

Upon discusing what Changeling: the Lost should be like, Tentaclese dropped this particularly interesting tidbit:

“Changeling needs to have a dark feeling about it. If it were a chocolate it would be a nice bitter sweet dark chocolate. devoid of the presence of nuts… yet almonds who are in denial lurk deep with in its pulsating raspberry heart.”

Jess Hartley, if you’re reading this, know that you were part of a team that just made the best dark chocolate ever.

Winter Masques Review

Winter Masques is the second supplement for White Wolf’s latest “Fourth Game” six book series, Changeling: the Lost.  This series has impressed me greatly ever since I had the chance to open up the core rulebook, and the supplements continue to leave me with more than a favorable impression.

Autumn Nightmares

Having been very impressed with Changeling: the Lost, my Girlfriend and I bought a copy of Autumn Nightmares, the first supplement for C:tL detailing the various Antagonists and threats to Changeling characters.

The book sports more than just a few examples of different types of antagonists, including Changelings that will betray their fellows to buy just a few more months of freedom, the alien entities known as the True Fae, and the disturbing body doubles known as Fetches left behind after a Changeling has been abducted.

I found the descriptions of each of the antagonists to be very engaging.  Their histories are pleasingly close to the ones that player characters could have, leading the reader to experience the “This could easily have been you” sensation that you get from reading profiles of certain criminals.

I’d like to focus on that fact a bit since I’ve always felt that antagonists must somehow make some kind of sense.  Even the True Fae play by some kind of bizarre logic, which might be difficult to discern, but it’s there for the clever or lucky changeling to exploit.

This book is excellent as an addition to the Changeling: the Lost corebook and I’d say that it’s a necessary addition.  GMs will find a lot of inspiration from the sample characters, and the ones provided are easily inserted into any chronicle.

Changeling: the Lost

I’ll be perfectly honest and say that the older Changeling: the Dreaming game wasn’t really something I understood until one of the group’s GMs actually ran a game and showed me what was hiding under the whole multicolored pages and illustrations with bears and balloons. What I expected to be some sort of Baron Munchausen-esque story of weirdness actually turned into a campaign of secrets and creepy imagery.

Now White-Wolf released the new Changeling: the Lost and it’s a very interesting take on taking the Fae and making it a thoroughly horrific and wonderful experience. Subtitled, “A game of Beautiful Madness”, Changeling: the Lost focuses on survivors of a Fae abduction. Taken away forcefully from their homes and lives, and twisted irreparably into disturbing, and morbidly fascinating new forms, these changelings have managed to flee their Fae masters and have to find a way to make sense in the world that is no longer theirs.

I was so impressed by this game that the moment I read through the various seemings and kiths, I was already pounding away at a draft for a character. I’d write about him, but I wouldn’t want to bore you guys just yet. Maybe next time :p

I highly recommend that people pick this one up.