Just a little background: I have tried my hardest to like the new World of Darkness, I really have. I used to play a hell of a lot of V:tM, most of which was interesting in its own way, but best when a game managed to avoid both overblown politics and ridiculous combat. I will take a nice, quiet, disturbing game about Caitiff finding their way in the world over trying to navigate hierarchies in a city or stab werewolves in the face. I also really got into Mage, for a fairly short period of time (roughly 3rd ed. to reboot), and it had that same dangerous, edgy, on the run kind of play available to it, too.
Then, nWoD. The core book is actually playable, and interesting. I just pretended it was Beyond the Supernatural v2, and it made for some good stories. But V:tR? I know, I know. I can't say much negative about it that hasn't already been said, but I am going to try. It's very, very solid. It's also very unadorned. Which makes it easy to like, and hard to love.
Anyway, I packed most of my books into a box (except my Malkavian clanbook, which I may have to be buried with) and gave up tabletop for a while. This isn't just because White Wolf disappointed me, but there were other factors. Then, on a whim last week, I went to wikipedia and looked up what else was going on in the nWoD. I... don't think I like it.
Mage just sounds weird, like they realized they didn't put enough flavor into Vampire, and decided to over season elsewhere. Werewolf, I was never into much at all. And Prometheans? I get the feeling I wouldn't like it.
But Changeling? Five minutes of skimming over what it was about, and I ran out (okay, really I waited until after work) and bought it. It's basically what I wanted V:tR to be, sort of. Dangerous, transformed weirdos? Yes, please.
What I've gathered from reading it once, and quickly, is that like V:tR, it allows stories for individual growth, as well as presenting a very nice open system of politics. What's even better, is that characters in game can be as interested or not in the court system as the player, without negatively affecting the gameplay too much. It also looks like one could even sketch out a fairly nice, coordinated party (or whatever the word they use is) without it being either too homogenous or supergroup-lite.
Anyway, tl;dr: C:tL is really fantastic, and I don't see anything about it on this board. Shame.
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I'm not familiar with it, but it always seemed interesting. Less backstabbing and drama.
Haven't looked at it the game yet though
I have my first game with my regular gaming group on Sunday, I'll let you guys know how it plays out.