Reviews TabletopGame / Changeling The Lost

The Fae remind us why we are scared of the dark

Imagine that, out of no fault of your own, you were snatched away from your old life by a being whose mind is so alien to yours that it nearly defies comprehension. You have been tortured, subjected to the whims of your abductor, and you've managed to escape as a broken individual twisted by the horrors you have been subjected to. Your old life is gone, whether it is because there is an imposter in your place or too many years have passed since your "death." You have no choice but to start a new life for now you are one of the Lost.

Changeling The Lost is a brilliant callback to the faeries of old, sociopathic beings that kidnap humans and twist them to their likings. The game puts a lot of emphasis on paranoia and sanity; did you truly escape the True Fae, or is your former Keeper just subjecting you to a cruel illusion that can shatter at any time? Can your sanity hold after it has been through the chaotic environment of Faerie? It is a bleak setting, one that seems almost as hopeless as any Cosmic Horror Story with the True Fae set up as super powerful entities that would gladly drag you back to Faerie and commence Round Two of the tortures they put you through originally.

Despite this bleak setting, the game also gives a glimmer of hope through the motleys. Your motley is like a support group, people who have been put through the same horrors that you have experienced. In a world where the True Fae could strike at any moment, they are your greatest hope of rebuilding your shattered life. Sticking out for each other will help keep the Fae at bay, and through friendship the changelings can keep their sanity intact, stil able to discern reality from fantasy. The changelings may have lost their old lives due to a stroke of very bad luck, but they have been given a second chance and can make the most out of it.

This is definitely one of the gamebooks that fans of the World Of Darkness should own. It has a very compelling setting and, given the fairy tale nature of this game, provides for a great number of ways to create the world of the changelings. Forget the friendly little sidekicks with butterfly wings and sparkles surrounding them. Here, in the World Of Darkness, the True Fae lurk and remind those why faeries were feared by the people of old.