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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Changeling Guide for Players, December 31, 2007
This review is from: Winter Masques (Changeling: the Lost) (Hardcover)
Winter Masques is primarily a player's guide. It contains expanded information on the Seemings and the Kiths from the corebook, a massive amount of new Kiths, and many options for changeling politics, including two full Court systems. White Wolf's player guides tend to be more for role-playing than mechanically expanding character abilities - fluff over crunch - but this book has a strong mechanical element, aside from the blessings obviously necessary for all the new kiths. It is a good expansion of Changeling, but Autumn Nightmares is better and in my opinion more useful.
The prologue is a demonstration of the one of the new Court systems, and a nasty look at just how convoluted Changeling politics can get. The first chapter is all about Seemings. It really does cover everything. There are three sample realms of origin for each Seeming, sometimes realms of with one Keeper, sometimes a general type of realm. It examines how Keepers convert people into Changelings. Then it goes into the usual lifestyle of each Seeming, how they live and how social they are, how they interact with mortals and their usual places in the Freeholds. Each section ends with a new Contract that is quite emblematic of the expanded Seeming. It is well written, thorough, enjoyable, and a good role-playing guide. One small flaw is that several Freehold entries start by saying the Seeming is hard to pigeonhole because the Kiths are so diverse, which isn't expanded on in the next chapter.
Unfortunately, the next two chapters don't quite keep up that standard. The second chapter is all about Kiths. The marketing blurb for this book says it contains 41 new Kiths. That blurb was edited with the same care as White Wolf use on their books, as there are more like 46 new Kiths, spread over this chapter and the next. All of the original Kiths are expanded on, and there are a minimum of 4 new Kiths for each Seeming. There are guidelines on generating new Kiths. There are optional rules for removing and adding Kiths to an existing character. The new Kiths are generally good, but some seem more just peculiar than interesting and worth playing. Also, to me the expanded Kith descriptions, while they did give some new ideas for characters, did not provide much more than the information provided as part of the Seeming descriptions.
The third and last chapter is a real grab bag. It starts out by reminding the reader that the fae are based on myths and legends and encouraging players and Storytellers to read them for ideas. It also encourages stories in game that mirror the original folklore. The whole chapter is about taking the folklore of a particular land of interest (or residence) and using it in the game. There are three folklore based Kiths for each Seeming. I found them generally more distinctive and more interesting than those in the second chapter. They draw on a really broad range of cultures. That is followed by a guide to describing the Hedge for many different environments, including cityscapes, grasslands and the ocean. Any setting could serve, as long as there are mazes and plants with sharp edges. A new oddment is featured with each of the many settings.
Then come the politics. There are guides and examples to different ways of organising a Freehold. Quite a few make a mockery of the term `Free'hold. Some new Pledges are introduced. Then come the main section on the Courts. First off is a guide to changing the Seasons of a four Court system to match the actual seasons of an area, for long summers or long winters for instance. There is also a `Tornado Season' for the American Midwest, and later in the chapter is a sidebar on using a `Donkey and Elephant' rotating Court. The two full Court systems are the Directional Courts of East Asia and the Sun and Moon Courts of Eastern Europe. The descriptions are as detailed as those in the corebook and include a new Contract for the Directional Courts. Personally, I find the Courts too polarised and thus too limited compared to the Seasonal Courts. Young Changelings of the Sun or Moon Courts would never work together, let alone join the same motley. The Directional Courts are basically divided into two martial Courts and two mercantile, creative Courts.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Multicultural Take on Faerie Lore, July 6, 2008
This review is from: Winter Masques (Changeling: the Lost) (Hardcover)
This book is essentially a player's guide to Seeming and Kith for White Wolf's 'Changeling: the Lost' RPG. The book opens up with a discussion of what Seeming is and its role in both Changeling and mortal society, and follows up with detailed write-ups for each of the six Seemings. What it MEANS to be a part of a Seeming, the experiences they shared while in Arcadia, the roles they take up in the Freehold, and so forth are all explored. They also give some details on sample 'realms' within Arcadia where such Changelings are likely to experience their Durances - from the Chasms Beneath the World where Beasts become dark, crawling things, to the Well of Tears which hides Darklings within its depths, to the City of Brass where Elementals of flame and earth are born, to the Menagerie Dome where the Fairest tend exotic beasts for their Fae masters, all of them are full of ideas that will add details to any Changeling game. They also provide six new Contracts, one for each Seeming, which range from controlling one's 'den' for the Beasts to dealing with ghosts for the Darklings. Very nice stuff.
The book also examines Kith, giving more detailed write-ups for every Kith mentioned in the corebook, along with background, folklore and even sample Frailties. But the book also adds numerous new Kiths as well - Coldscales (Beasts with an affinity for reptiles), Sandharrowed (sand Elementals), Author (Wizened who write stories), Witchtooth (wise old hag Ogres) and many more. Not only that, but the book also goes into detail on multiple kiths, giving a system for Dual Kiths, gaining Kiths as part of Wyrd evolution, even loosing a Kith or gaining the Kith of a different Seeming! Moreover, the book examines the role of folklore, giving even more Kiths based off human legend, like the Nix (Germanic snake/fish Beasts), Succubus (Fairest seducer demons), Daitya (Hindu Ogres of great strength), Di-Cang (Buddhist earth Elementals) and many more. This section will not only give a great deal of inspiration for player's seeking to customize their Changelings, but will also satisfy those seeking to make a 'perfect' Troll (or Naga, Menehune, Baba Yaga, Mimi, Mothman, Djinn, Siren or any other creature from folklore).
The multi-cultural element of Changeling is continued, not only in the Kith section, but also by examining how the Hedge and Goblin Fruit appear in different environments (from deserts to swamps to tundras), different Freehold structures, new Pledges and even material that expands on Courts! Not only do we get variations on the Seasonal Courts to accommodate things like Monsoon Season, Tornado Season and Growing Season, but we also get two completely new Court systems - the four Directional Courts of East Asia, and the Slavic Sun and Moon Courts. While these are fascinating ideas (and, in fact, I've already incorporated the Sun and Moon Courts into my Chicago game) they unfortunately aren't entirely expanded upon. The Directional Courts only get one Contract shared between the four of them, and the Sun and Moon Courts get nothing. Still, we can always house rule material.
The book closes out with three new non-western Entitlements - the Phantom Tong, the Bronze Beylik (Turkish manipulators), and the Knighthood of the Dragonslayer (Changeling inquisition based out of Brazil). I absolutely loved the Bronze Beylik, and found they work really well in my chronicle, but all three are fascinating new Entitlements which add new directions to Changeling. Very cool. Over all, thats really what this book is about. Not only does it expand on Kith and Seeming, but it also gives alot of guidelines and suggestions for customizing Changeling, making it so that you can draw on, say, Greco-Roman mythology, Chinese folklore or Russian fairy tales and use them as inspiration for your character. Players will absolutely want to have this book on hand, because it makes Changeling much more adaptable without adding too much new crunch.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Winter Masques (Changeling: The Lost), January 27, 2010
This review is from: Winter Masques (Changeling: the Lost) (Hardcover)
A necessary and excellent supplement for the game, with very useful information for characters of any court, not just Winter courtiers.
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