Reviews TabletopGame / Changeling The Lost

Changeling: one of the best settings I've ever seen

I'm in love with this game. The setting is rich, nuanced, tragic and yet beautiful, and strongly thematic. The game manages to encompass its stated theme, "beautiful madness," in nearly every facet. Changeling characters have been infected with dreams, and the mad logic of dreams and nightmares is common throughout the setting, much like in Neil Gaiman's Never Where or Alice In Wonderland. The True Fae, this game's uber-boogeymen, are terrifying enemies, but not insurmountable for clever, careful characters.

System-wise, the game suffers from a certain amount of imbalance, but not horribly so. The Kith blessings, especially, can vary wildly from one another in utility and power level. However, these issues are (in my own opinion) offset by the sheer versatility offered by the creation system. The character-building tools are almost infinitely flexible, allowing a clever player with a good grasp of the system the ability to create pretty much any character concept you could think of, at all - and probably 2 or 3 ways to do so. The contracts are flavorful and thematic, encompassing common folkloric Fae powers such as time manipulation, plant control, and the ability to lull bystanders into enchanted sleep. The system of Catches, by which a Changeling who ensures that certain circumstances come to pass need not pay the Glamour (read: Mana) cost of the Contract, suits the themes of the game and offers an intriguing way for players to use their smarts while playing. The Pledgecraft system allows both a versatile and clever method for characters to gain benefits when needed and a potential snare for Player Characters and NP Cs alike. In the end, the system, even in its flaws, manages to support the setting, story, and themes of the game. And in the end, for me, that's what it's all about.

So, yeah. An excellent game.