Customer Reviews

*OP Isle of the Mighty (Changeling - the Dreaming)

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

There is too much to say and too little space to say it. The only people I know who like this book are people who are not native to, or have never visited, Britain. I have yet to find a British native who appreciates this book (and I have asked many).

When it comes to fitting in with the Changeling system, you can't really fault this book. It works with what has gone before and what comes after. But the point of the book was to fit the Changeling world into British history and British mentality, and at that, it fails dismally. It does not describe a Britain with which I am familiar, it does not describe a celtic past with which I, as a celt, am able to identify. I recognise the fictional setting of the World of Darkness, and yet a book that claims it is giving real life historical facts and real life modern geography, should really check whether those facts and geography are true or accurate. The depiction of the celtic regions in this book conform to stereotypes that these regions have fought *bitterly* against for years - not just against the rest of the world, but against Westminster as well. Similar portrayals within such works as World of Darkness: Gypsies generated a strong backlash by that community, that was listened to by the developers. The complaints British roleplayers have about this book are pretty much the same. The source material the authors advise reading or watching, particularly for the Welsh section, are popularist, fictional, New Ageist, and in at least one particular case, conceived by people who had never been to Britain, let alone Wales, in their life, prior to the release of the relevent works. Indeed, the film sources recommended are actually guarenteed to be the only thing on this planet that can unite the Welsh - in disgust.

If White Wolf wish to include atmospheric facts, then they should research these facts, or keep the game pure fantasy. I have not seen the problem crop up in any of the other systems, where the developers have (for the most part) meshed fantasy with reality, while not perfectly, certainly with consideration for the history and climate they are altering. There is no such consideration in this book. The coverage of history is inaccuarte, the coverage of celtic languages and practices is insulting (bearing in mind that the celtic languages are fighting for identity and survival) and the coverage of modern life in Britain is simply comical.

You can certainly get plot seeds out of this book, but frankly, if you can't come up with these plot seeds from the other books, you should not Storytelling. This book, ultimately, may be more useful for Vampire players who wish to discover (from a single paragraph) what the Tremere were *really* doing in Britain in the Dark Ages, and anyone interested in the great Glastonbury Pact formed by the supernatural community of the British Isles to fend off the Tremere threat, than it is for Changeling players - unless Changeling players really feel the need for forking out money purely for an inaccurate map of the Chimerical Kingdoms of Britain.

Anyone searching for information on Northern Ireland should not look here. It is a book for Great Britain, not the United Kingdom, and poorly done at that.

I found this a very insightful book. It told everything one would want to know about England, Scotland, and Wales and the Changlings who live there. I persoanly saw hundreds of possible story ideas for my troup. The reason I do not give this book 5 stars is because of one or two small problems I had with the book. 1) Their is to much involvement from the mages. While I do enjoy Mage:The Acension as a game this book I feel should have been mainly about the fae. 2) In the preface about Wales they mention 6 kingdoms, looking at the map their are 6 kingodms but they only talk about 5 kingdoms in the book. 3) the map misspelled the names of the kingdoms in Cymru. 4) they mention the War of Ivy the english version of the Accordance war but they dont truly tell what happened in this war. But these are small problems considering that this book is so good. I would recomened it to all fans of Changling: the Dreaming. As one of the finest in the series.