Changeling 2nd Edition (Hardback) - Changeling

Changeling belongs to the White Wolf 'World Of darkness' Gaming series, along with such other magical beasties as Werewolf, Mage, Wraith and Vampire.

What is a changeling? Mythologically speaking, it was said that the faeires would take human babies to swell their ranks, leaving a faerie child in its stead. The faerie child would live like a cuckoo with its foster family, and then suddenly leave, drawn back to the faerie realms from ...
...A changeling is a faerie soul living in a human body. The premise behind the game is that the faerie realms (think Shakespaear's midsummer night's dream here) have been severed from the banal world we inhabit, with some faries being stranded in our world. To survive, the fragile faerie souls take human forms to live in, and must balance the needs of their mortal and fey halves. When they fey sprit is worn down by the sheer banality of the world, ... more

Changeling belongs to the White Wolf 'World Of darkness' Gaming series, along with such other magical beasties as Werewolf, Mage, Wraith and Vampire.

What is a changeling? Mythologically speaking, it was said that the faeires would take human babies to swell their ranks, leaving a faerie child in its stead. The faerie child would live like a cuckoo with its foster family, and then suddenly leave, drawn back to the faerie realms from whence it came. In game terms, its a touch different. A changeling is a faerie soul living in a human body. The premise behind the game is that the faerie realms (think Shakespaear's midsummer night's dream here) have been severed from the banal world we inhabit, with some faries being stranded in our world. To survive, the fragile faerie souls take human forms to live in, and must balance the needs of their mortal and fey halves. When they fey sprit is worn down by the sheer banality of the world, it is born afresh.

The mortal sees you as an ordinary person - a teenager with a wooden sword and a funny hat talking to something that isn't there (psychiatrists are always a threat) Whereas another faerie will see your velvet robes, your powerful sword of great antiquity, and the dragon you are deep in discussion with. Its a hard line to walk between mortal and fey, insanity claims many, banality many more.

The second edition handbook is a large, hardback text that gives you a good overview of the game. You can run Changeling games using only this book, or you can invest in more handbooks, if you feel you need more rules and ideas.

The book outlines what faeries are (as above) and gives you a set of mechanics for running a game. You need a pencil, some paper and a ten sided dice - you have a number of dice you can role, numbers you need to roll to get certain effects - it sounds complex, but once you get the hang of it, it makes good sense and is quite easy to remember. It's very flexible as a system.

The book gives you an overview of different kinds of faerie (strong mythological basis for this) and information about faerie culture, which is largely feudal. The book is designed for America, but it is easy enough to transfer the ideas to this country.

The different kith as mentioned in this text (there are others in other books).

Pooka - shapeshifting tricksters, compulsive liars and rather chaotic.
Knockers - buliders, makers and craftsmen, tend to be dour and grumpy.
Red Caps - violent, these guys can eat anything, and tend to be crude. they have no noses!
Sluagh - gothic, morbid and fond of the grotesque, they whisper, keep secrets and have no teeth.
Trolls - tall, blue, strong and noble, very good warriors.
Boggans - the friendly sort that will do your washing up and bake you a nice pie. Compulsively helpful.
Sidhe - faerie nobility, beautiful, tragic, glamorous.

There are many other aspects that help you get your character going - there are ideologies to chose between, aspects of background to chose, and points to allocate - you can make each character totally unique, which is great. There's lots of really good ideas to get you started, and the hard thing is picking what to play. Will you be a boggan tormented by half remembered images of a past life, a Sluagh in love wth a mortal, or a knocker with a demented mentor? The options are limitless.

Faeries of course can use magic - some automatic like the pooka's ability to shapeshift. Magic will allow you to 'mooch" things from other people's pockets, to cause confusion in the minds of mortals, to heal, to travel between place sand the like. Unlike the magic of mages, this is quite low pwoered stuff, it adds colour to a game but it won't solve all your troubles.

Thre are many ways of runing this game - you can play quite dark varients with the threat of insanity, being locked up and having your fey soul ripped away by those who despise all that is wonderful. You can play high fantasy, with knights, dragons and wonder, you can play dark and urban, historical, futuristic - anything you please. The only limit is your imagination.

This is a somehwat different game from the rest of the white wolf set - your character is likely to be a child, and the games tend to be elss dark than others. it does not appeal to everyone - it requires a childlike approach, a sense of wonder and a willingness to accept all sorts of strange things. Not everyone gets on with it.

If you have any enthusiasm for faerie mythology, then you will probably enjoy this game, as it is fairly well rooted in fey mythology, and can certainly be played that way. If you like your games dark, grim and realistic, this probably isn't going to suit. Its also more a game of puzzles and interaction rather than dice rolling and combat - another reason why it doesn't always suit.

Personally, I think its great, but I like my reality improbably and rich with wonder, when I can wrangle it.

Anyone interested in the game but not that up on fey mythology is welcome to email me and I will happily talk to you about it. In the meantime, read your Shakespeare and any Neil Gaiman you can get your hands on.  

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