So, it's out. Changeling 2e. Hello, Changeling 2e.
It's a moderately poorly laid-out book where I was finding issues with quickly upon starting. The stories are less compelling but more realistic and informative to the game. It's hard to compare to What Alec Bourbon Said, though, so I'll consider it fine.
The first slap of ice-cold water happens under Seemings. If you've read the first edition of CtL, you know what these are. If 2e is your first Changeling read, they do not tell you before delving into the different Seemings. The player is not lead into what a Seeming is or why it's important. The same is true for Courts. And finally Kiths, which if you're not paying attention look like it's an extension of the Winter Court write-up; Onyx Path did not use the same visual break they did for the previous two character-defining elements.
Seeming
Seemings are broken down into an introduction, the kind of personality that becomes a that seeming and why you left Arcadia ("Once"), how that affects you ("Now"), Nicknames, Blessing, Curse, Regalia (Favored Contract), and Tales (example character types).
This is where I don't like the new Changeling. What I liked about 1e was that everyone could choose to be a monster or a saint, a victim or a survivor or a warrior.
Here is how 2nd Edition describes Ogres:
You can’t erase what you did in Arcadia, but you can make up for it.
This is a typical sentiment across a lot of the breaking-point mechanics, but because this is first, the idea that Ogres are there to atone is introduced and could be a big turn-off.
The game is a lot more flexible than this, so it's a lot of a shame.
Court
The core four seasonal courts are still there, but they are far better fleshed out. Two sides to the court emotion are described, the role of each Court during their season and away from it are there, and each Court write-up describes how they share the Freehold, which was never really clear in 1e. It also explains how each Court's emotion affects the Gentry's ability or inability to do anything to the Freehold's members, which was never explained in 1e.
("What's a Freehold?" someone not familiar with Changeling would say. Yup.)
Kith
The definition of Kith is described more than Seeming or Court are, and they each are more formulaic, for the better. Each Kith gets an easier Exceptional Success condition when using a specific skill specialty, and a nice little power, but because any Seeming can take any Kith, the twelve listed seems a bit few. Each Kith fits two Seemings very well, but it's still a short list. There will be a Book o' Kiths. The game needs it.
This is all of Chapter One, and I'll stop here since I think I got most of my point across. I think I'm going to come to like this version, but Onyx Path did not write a teaching book which is a ball dropped pretty far down the rabbit hole.