Changeling: the Lost

Detractors will say this book isn't that great; it's too dark, the hopefulness of Changeling: The Dreaming isn't honored here, it's mired in horror and degradation. Many claiming the title of abuse survivor says this is an insult to what they've been through.

All I can say is: Grow up.

Changeling: The Lost is a masterwork; people who simply say 'this is a victim' game doesn't look at the whole. They barely even skim the surface. No one sees how retaking one's life is a POSITIVE and EMPOWERING thing -- how the metaphor of enslavement and abuse and the retaking of one's life is a HOPEFUL thing, but one that also educates the unknowing to the dangers of the world. If Dreaming -- which is a game I loved (and have thousands of dollars in out show more of print books of!) -- is about youthful vigor and hope, The Lost is about the change that comes when we must realize that some old dreams must be put aside, so that new dreams may thrive. They gloss over the finer points to paint the game with a broad brush of horror and woe. The point has been missed.

We have to grow up -- yes, it will hurt. Yes, it will change us, and we may never go home again... but that doesn't mean that we will not learn to do more then survive, but THRIVE elsewhere.

Thankfully, from it being White Wolf's #1 seller for nearly a year, I'd have to say the majority of the world 'gets it'. To those who still cling to victimhood (as if you're the only one who has ever been
hurt) or wave their 'this book hurts me because it's just not hopeful enough' -- go back to your sugarfloss Dreaming, and I'll happily get Lost.

The writing is excellent. The legends portrayed sometimes miss, but the system, the fiction, and the fluff all deliver. This should be on your gaming shelf. Yes. Even yours. show less

I was a fan of the old Changeling: The Dreaming, but it had it's problems. First, the old type of changeling wasn't based on traditional Celtic and medieval legends of changelings at all. Characters were born different, rather than being stolen away by faeries. In the new edition, changelings are people--children or adults--who are kidnapped and taken to Faery, where their ordeal alters them and gives them magical powers. Second, in The Dreaming, characters had to be children or young adults, because age caused them to 'outgrow' the chimerical side of reality. This was an interesting paean to the lost innocence and imagination of childhood, but the royal courts of children fighting against imaginary monsters, that even other show more supernaturals couldn't interact with, seemed like they were playing at dealing with serious issues, rather than having true wisdom and hardships or the same life-and-death stakes as other beings in the world of darkness. In this edition, the Lost can be of any age (somewhat independently of the age at which they disappeared) and their Fae enemies are all too substantial. Changelings still have a dual nature--one appearance for public consumption and a magical mien that only Changelings and enchanted humans can see, but hobgoblins, unlike chimaera, are visible and deadly. This is a much darker, more myth-based version of the Otherworld, and it benefits greatly from that fact. Great fun alone or in a mixed party with other WoD character types. show less

I felt great excitement and trepidation when Changeling: the Lost was announced; excitement that White Wolf’s Changeling line was getting new life (after the fizzling ending in Time of Judgment (no disrespect to the authors mind you) and trepidation because I knew it wouldn’t be like Changeling: the Dreaming. And that is something you defiantly have to keep in mind. As soon as the cover was released I knew this was a whole different game, one with a less colorful palate.

A little recap since it is impossible to talk about this book without discussing Changeling: the Dreaming: In CtD, you play a human who shares part of an immortal soul of the True Fae from mythical Arcadia. That part of you was exiled to the material world when show more Arcadia closed its gates sometime in the late Middle Ages. The whole theme of the book is longing for this mythical heritage and surviving in a world where you feed off of imagination and creativity, but both seem to be ebbing from the world. By contrast, in Changeling: the Lost the roads and gates leading to Arcadia are obscure, but woefully open and the True Fae occasionally walk the earth. In fact, your characters have been there, and will do everything they can to keep from going back with anything less than an army at their backs. You play a human who for some capricious reason has been kidnapped by the Fae and brought to Arcadia for some period of time. It is a place of passion and madness, where the laws of physics and reason do not apply; only the will of your captor matters. There they may serve as baubles to be admired, subjects to be experimented on, slave labor, perhaps even a fairy bride or lover. Your characters escape back into the material world, and finds themselves changed in body, mind, and spirit. They carry the magical taint of Fairie, something which may excite or disgust depending on bent. The theme of the game is the struggle to grip onto your humanity, find a sense of self and community, and grow powerful enough to avoid recapture.

I adore the old Changeling, but I love the changes inherent in Changeling: the Lost. It is more true to the source material (world mythology). Some have criticized it as having too much of a culture of victimization, but if you look close the first one had that as well, it was merely not as dark a series. In the first Changeling you play a benighted being who has been brought low and feels that loss strongly. In the new Changeling you play someone who has been brought low by a benighted being. It is indeed a big paradigm shift.

Also, the two major things that were broken about Changeling: the Dreaming have been addressed in Changeling: the Lost; the character creation system and the fae magic system. Character creation is more open-ended and very liberating. I like the fact that one True Fae could make a whole gaming troupe of different changelings and they all would be different depending on the roles they played in his household (say one would train the hounds, and would become doglike; one could be the master’s callow lover; one could tend the crystalline garden and find herself developing quartz-like skin. You get the idea.) Also, you can take one type of changeling, say Ogres, and make anything from an Abominable Snowman to Hindi demons, to traditional Norwegian trolls. That is such a welcome break from Changeling: the Dreaming. It should be noted that all of the original "kiths" can be represented using this character creation system. The Contracts (magic) system it is so simplified and easy to use. Plus, it draws more upon fairy tales of how such magic would actually work and what costs it would take.

Is it too dark? I do not think so, particularly when I look at how strong a theme this is in fantasy literature. When playing this game you can ask the question what would have happened to Niel Gaiman’s Coraline if she had not been able to escape the Other Mother? What if Sarah had run out of time in Labyrinth and became part of Jareth’s harem? You can go to classic literature too, what if Alice became lost in Wonderland? What if Dorthy Gale had tarried too long in Oz? What would Wendy be like if she spent decades in Neverland under the watch of a far crueler Peter Pan?

Changeling: the Lost is a welcome re-imagination of the series, and deserves to stand on it’s own merits as a masterful work of the role-playing genre. show less

A game about playing abused children who have a few powers. Yes, I know it's wrapped around myths and legend, but that's what you're doing. White Wolf threw out all the whimsy and fun of the old version, to replace it with a terribly dark world where survival is the least of your worries, and growing in power will drive you crazy. The system is better; the setting is far worse.

You were taken by the Gentry, otherwise known as the Fae. You were brought to Arcadia, and were abused in ways that are indescribable.

You escaped... only to find that no one missed you.

Do you attempt to take back your life, or make a new one? Do you hide from the Gentry, or fight against them? Will you rise to power among the Courts of the Lost, or will your ending be Grimm?

This is a book about modern fairy-tales, survival, and "beautiful madness". Those who enjoy reading Holly Black will love this book.

Wonderful book so far, filled with magical imagery and cool ideas throughout.
Makes me want to run the game stright away.
Its a hefty tome, so may take me a while to get through....

An intersting story line with action