Before I get into the next section, I want to encourage people not to review text this way. I'm trying to keep it mildly entertaining but my main goal is to delve into what this version of Changeling is about.
I am pretty aware when this Changeling is doing things that are being done all across Chronicles of Darkness, but there are many parallels between CtL2e and CtD, too many for me not to point out.
This is even more notable if you watched the development posts on Onyx Path's web site; this game was looking to be a lot more like oChangeling, and the fact that it isn't is very refreshing to me. But there are elements of the old Changeling (and old World of Darkness in general) that weren't bad, such as Archetypes, or Clarity's damage track compared to the old Glamour/Banality struggle.
A good remake takes old concepts and applies them in a better way. I'm not convinced that the new Changeling is a good remake, but it almost never falls into any of the original's infamy.
Oneiromancy
I still don't know how to pronounce it. Still in Chapter 4.
Dreamwalking is explained in greater detail this time around, how you get there, how to get from Point A to Point B, that Contracts work in dreams (thank you!), and re-enforcing what stats are what: We're using the Spirit/Ghost/Etc. summary of Attributes but it's not your highest Power, Finesse, and Resistance, it's your Social traits.
*ominous music at making Social this important for Changelings*
A changeling can take other individuals with her [...] as long as they’re asleep. She must be in physical contact with all potential guests and spend one Glamour point per guest [...]
One of the things I'm liking about this pass of Changeling and Chronicles of Darkness in general is that if there's a chance someone doesn't want any certain effect the book is careful to say how to resist it.
Once again, you can be stuck in dreams. Yeah, you can drag someone into dreams and leave them there. I'm almost sad that the book doesn't have a side-bar here simply saying "Muahaha!"
[[ASIDE: I'm very frustrated that the book will talk about concepts without introducing them. Perhaps the writing direction was that people could always hit up the glossary near the beginning of the book, but even saying that a Bastion is any one person's particular dreamscape before talking about how the Bastion affects these rolls would've been nice. The book is filled with this disconnect. The term "Hedgeway" is used a lot, but not explained anywhere at this point, not even the glossary.]]
Speaking of Hedgeways, the realm of dreams also connects to the Hedge. This was heavily implied if not said without explanation in CtL1e, but here we go. Entering dreams this way is your physical self, not your dream self. Enjoy the danger!
Dreamweaving
You know that aside just two paragraphs above?
An eidolon is a dream actor, a character that is part of a dream and doesn’t exist outside that context.
I'm prescient! Either that or we're seeing an author shift mid-section. Page references to the Bastion section are explicit. I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but a well-written RPG book would never have this problem.
That doesn't make this a bad game, just not well-written. I should note that this is better written than any other expansion book from the first edition, and maybe better written than CtL itself.
So each Bastion (dream) has eidolons and props, actors and things. How you change dreams is no longer just "roll this to find out that" but a series of systems and rolls and—hold onto your hat here—role-playing. Dreamweaving is a scene system in its own right. A++.
Dreaming Roads
I just want to put this here:
The Hedge is the barrier separating stone and water from the fabric of unbound desires
If anyone wonders why I get excited about Changeling, this right here is it. A lot of people focus on the survivor/abuse victim angle, but for me Changeling is a game of the allure and horrors of want.
A Dreaming Road is a thing, a pathway between dreams. People who've read Dancers in the Dusk have been introduced to most of these concepts. I've never delved too deeply into this aspect, so I'll just say: It's here, and there are rules about what happens to someone in a dream (Bastion) if the dreamer wakes up.
I find this section, even with my complaints, to be very complete and compelling.
... Next up, TOKENS (which I can pronounce just fine thank you).