Customer Reviews

Changeling: The Dreaming, A Storytelling Game of Modern Fantasy

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Changeling: the Dreaming has many virtues and a few flaws. White Wolf has done it again. Their latest effort has many virtues. The background is wonderful and full of suprises. The blend of old stories with modern settings has many opportunities for fun and exciting role-playing. The character types are very interesting and varied. The artwork throughout the book is excellent and all of the pages are in full color. There are a couple of flaws. The first is many aspects of the game are very ambigious. A great deal of interpretation is needed in many places. The system for glamour (magic) given uses cards and is very cumbersome. The rest of the system is standard White Wolf fare. I would reccomend buying this game because it is a lot of fun to play. The player's guide (sold seperately) help clear up many aspects of the game and is almost a neccessity.

This book holds a lot of nostalgia for me; it takes me right back to 1995. Marketed as the last of the five White Wolf core game lines (before Hunter: The Reckoning and Mummy: The Resurrection, and [Noun: The Evocative Verb] proved them wrong, it was by far the brightest of the five lines. Many people say it is the lightest, this is misleading. It is the brightest, the most colorful and evocative. The other games like Vampire, and Wraith in particular can get bogged down in the dreary weeds of the World of Darkness; Changeling offers an alternative, a game where you play a character half mortal and half immortal fairie (a creature native to the realm of Dreams). You are literally awash in the dreaming life of mortals, their fantasies, idle fancy and darkest nightmares. This means that Changeling can be as dark as you wish it too, or as light-hearted as well. In fact, it is the only core game that has rules for playing children (and believe me after four years of playing angst-ridden Kindred or brutal Garou that was a revolutionary change).

Not everything is light, like the other WoD games there is an apocalypse built in, that involving the death of creativity in light of the cynical nature of our postmodern world. For a changeling, this means the terrifying prospect of the permanent loss of their fairie soul.

As much as I love the game in theory, it is a challenge in practice. First is the challenge of finding players and storytellers who really grok the game. Many gamers just can't wrap their mind around it. Secondly is the magic system: Hopelessly Broken. Changelings are also underpowered compared to other WoD characters, but this doesn't really matter as the game is a nightmare to crossover anyhow, as the Changeling characters exist halfway in their own separate reality of the Dreaming. As time went by, I also found the character creation to be rather restrictive, but back in 1995 it was still new and fresh.

The design of the book is top notch, particularly the first chapter where the authors take a playful break from the "opening fiction" of previous material. The artwork by Tony DiTerlizzi and others is top notch, and really helps you grasp the theme and feel of the game.

Changeling: the Dreaming is a game with few but passionate fans. I hope if you find it you enjoy it as much as I did the spring of 1995.

A game in that whole White Wolf family. This one is a little lighter in tone, being set in and amonster the world and peoples of faerie and the fey. A lot of sneaking around and fooling the mortals, and hopefully not being disappeared by mages, eaten by werewolves or tormented by vampires.

Forget the others. This is the one. The artwork is great, the descriptions and settings are great. The magic system IS a bit ambiguous, but who cares? It's not an impossible task to work SOMETHING out and your creative investment is well worth it. I haven't played with the next edition, but the artwork isn't nearly as good, and I get the feeling that the only reason they have a new edition at all is to make the system less all-inclusive, to sell supplements. You don't even really need to buy any of the books besides this one, especially if you have the Player's Guide to another WW game. Get out of your deep dark danky dungeons of despair for one night and give this one a shot. Buy before they've all disappeared!

I may be biased, but this is possibly my favourite role-playing game. Firstly, the subject matter appeals to me. The protagonists are fairies, magical creatures. They are hosted within not-quite ordinary people (it's a simbiotic relationship), and they live on Glamour. That translates as Fun, Exciting and Interesting Stuff. Much of the action of the game - from fighting dragons to thwarting evil barons - takes place in what the rest of the world would consider the Changelings' collective imagination. That's right, it's a giant game of make-believe. The default theme is a sort of medieval feudalism revival, but it's not the only possible one. The last point of note is that the chapter on how to run a game suggests using the basic myth structure. In this way the children (as many of the characters are) can defeat the monster, symbollicly descend to the underworld, pass through their trials, and be back in time for dinner. As an added bonus, the rules are well set out and fairly easy to find.

It's all about keeping imagination alive.

An excellent read. much better written then many other rpg's and much more thought out. as you read more suppliments the game gets more elaborate and thrilling.