[WoD] Changeling

[FatherDondo]

I've seen occasional Vampire the Masquerade games (wouldn't be opposed to one of those either), but I've not seen a Changeling game on here yet, and I've heard good things.

[Kepheren]

I was in an old style Changeling game using the original rules till very recently. The GM had to let it go due to life conflicts. It really rocked though. Would love to find another one.

[Aethera]

There are two Changeling games: Changeling the Dreaming (original WoD) and Changeling the Lost (new WoD/Chronicles of Darkness). I have seen them attempted, but I don't think any lasted long that I've seen.

I've played CtL, and it was a riot. Players are changelings who have just escaped Faerie, and are trying to reintegrate with the human world without getting caught. As I recall the prior game was something about fae being trapped in human bodies? I don't remember why I disliked that game, but there was something about it. (Now I'm going to have to go look, because it'll bug me if I don't.)

Good luck finding a Changeling game! If I had time, I would definitely join you. Unfortunately "life conflicts" is a plague.

[FatherDondo]

Changeling the Lost sounds more like what I was hearing about

[Kepheren]

I have played both, most recently the Dreaming. Both are great if you get a good GM and players. If you find one please let me know.

[Aethera]

I just added the [WoD] prefix to this thread so others who do searches on that can find it. Hopefully someday we'll get a chance to play both! I'd also be down for a one-shot of each, if such a thing can even be described in a WoD system. Compare and contrast games could be really fun.

[Optional Reality]

Originally Posted by Aethera

I just added the [WoD] prefix to this thread so others who do searches on that can find it. Hopefully someday we'll get a chance to play both! I'd also be down for a one-shot of each, if such a thing can even be described in a WoD system. Compare and contrast games could be really fun.

They are super, super different games, probably the biggest thematic break between the World of Darkness and the Chronicles of Darkness.

Changeling: the Dreaming is a game about trying to keep the lights of innocence and whimsy alive in a world that is worse than cruel -- it is apathetic. CTD's core idea is that real emotion and the passions that come with it is, in a way, a kind of magic. But that it is a kind of magic that is slowly dying as more and more people live out gray, featureless lives in cookie-cutter suburban homes and cubicle jockey jobs. Personally, I've never had a good experience with CTD. The book makes it seem like a very, very silly setting, and it's certainly easy to make VERY silly characters. But then those characters face a desperate struggle against -- not monsters exactly -- but the crushing (and possibly inevitable!) nihilism of modern humanity. It's a brutal contrast. Oh, and then the setting got super weird with Denizens of the Dreaming, but that's beside the point.

Changeling: the Lost is a much darker game on the surface, but I have always felt it's the more hopeful game. CTL's overriding theme is the struggle for personal identity in the face of supernaturally horrifying abuse. CTL isn't always an easy game. It probably needs an agreed-upon yellow/red card system more than anything except maybe Wraith (which I haven't played, but I've heard the stories). But I find it to be a hopeful game. Despite everything's that's happened to them, CTL characters can literally come to define themselves and rise above their role as victims. Personally, I find that maybe the most relatable character arc in all of White Wolf. Welll, give or take Equinox Road, which suggests that some of them are doomed to become abusers themselves. Although that's probably not wrong, just... sad.

[Kaigen]

Changeling: The Lost is a game I've always been intrigued by, but never managed to play. Like Optional Reality, I find the themes of it very compelling, even moreso than Mage: The Awakening (which is where I got into WoD).

[Aoem]

Sounds like a fun time, from the audio bytes I’ve listened, very compelling. I’m not familiar with the mechanics, so it’d be great to draft a pc. Mage the Ascension is another I’m itching for.