Changeling: the Dreaming is White Wolf’s game of romanticism, adventure, and imagination. It’s a game about how wonder is everywhere in the world, if only you know where — and how — to look; about finding ways to be in love with the world around you, and seizing the day instead of waiting for tomorrow. It’s also a game about how easy it is to lose sight of the really important things in life and let yourself be soothed into numbness — because living life to the fullest is hard. Sometimes, no matter what you do, the things that are most important to you slip away, and it’s a game about that, too. All the World of Darkness games are tragedies in their own ways, but Changeling is perhaps the darkest in its portrayal of the way that creativity and inspiration are ultimately fated either to be lost to us forever, or else chewed up and repackaged into Entertainment For The Masses.

Winter, to quote a certain well-known book series and TV show, is coming. The march of Banality cannot be stopped, and one day — perhaps within the lifetime of some of those already born — it will sweep across the fae and destroy them once and for all, with all their epic adventures, doomed romances, and legendary quests reduced to nothing more than the momentary idle fancies of the occasional dreamer who will never know even a fraction of the full scope of what’s been lost. That is the future of the Kithain, and it is set; the only question is how long it will take to come to pass, and what the fae will make of the time they have until it does.

What Should I Expect From the Changeling Sphere?

Our view is that Changeling is about both sides of the Kithain coin, rather than just one. Yes, you can expect to do battle against mythic creatures, attend fabulous faerie masquerade balls, and involve yourself in the labyrinthine politics of the Houses and the Courts. These things are amazing and awesome, they’re a key part of the game, and we have every intention of making them a big part of ours. But those aren’t the only things you can expect, because Changeling is not just a game about these things — it’s also a game about trying to strike, and keep, a balance between the two worlds that every character is part of.

Kithain characters should always have one eye on the choices they make to prioritize the fae, or the human side of their nature. If you spend too much time with other fae, in freeholds, or in the Dreaming — your human life should, and will, suffer for it. If you spend too much time attending to strictly human matters, your fae life will suffer instead. The only way to make it work, over the long term, is to try your best to balance the two, knowing that you’ll eventually fall short in one way or another. We’re looking for characters who have challenges in both worlds that they need to wrestle with, not those who have tidily arranged lives in one so that they can spend all their time on the other — that’s a quick route to either Bedlam or Undoing, depending.

Especially for new players, reading the Changeling Primer is strongly recommended.