Review: Rites of Spring

[picks_at_flies]

Rites of Spring (White Wolf, 2008)
After enjoying The Equinox Road so much, I was keen to try one of the other supplements for Changeling: the Lost, specifically one of the first four, 'seasonal' books.  At random I picked Rites of Spring... and got a shock.  Before I wrote this review, I checked other reviews and comments.  There are non on rpg.net, but most of the positive comments on Shadownessence seem to based on the "crunchy" stuff.  More on that later.

Content
The first half of the book focusses on giving different explanations for everything;  specifically three in most cases.  Their subjects include Arcadia, Fae, each of the other supernaturals (... published so far, but strangely not including Ghosts), the Wyrd (i.e. faerie magic).  The next chapter is an "in depth" look at pledges and then dreams.  The following chapter is nominally on the Wyrd once more, but specifically features discussions on Glamour, the Mask, Clarity and Iron.  Once more the power of three (explanations) rears its head.

After this (the first 86 pages), despite not changing chapter, the book shifts into the "crunchy" stuff.  That is, new stuff to put on your character sheet.  In the case of Changeling, that's Merits, Flaws and Contracts (three new pledges were given earlier).

The final chapter, "From the thorns", is a discussion then examples of those treasures that can be found - or made - in the hedge.  While there is some discussion - and rules - for some of the "reverse psychoactive" effects of the hedge, the joy is in the Goblin Fruit section which talks all about cultivation of the same.  It also contains more information on hollows, a great section on hedgespinning (the act of making hedgespun objects) and rounds off with tokens (those magical items found in the hedge).

You may be able to tell from this that it is a book of two halves.

The first half largely suffers from being uninspired (and uninspiring).  In many cases, the ideas put forward aren't bad in themselves, but often aren't written in such a way that feels relevant.  Certainly, I would have liked the Rule of Three to have been messed up - maybe one or two explanations written in depth, and then a paragraph on more, sketchy explanations for the subject.  Maybe Mages are humans who learned to make their dreams reality; or maybe the Fae never existed, are just powerful changelings.  It would have been more helpful to have a brainstorm at the end of each section, and certainly there is no reason why all possible explanation need to have a realistic rationalle.

The section on pledges suffers from being too short.  There are specifically two areas in which I think it's lacking although I'm sure that given a whole chapter to itself it could have included even more.  Firstly, it was suggested in C:tD and frequently in this book that changelings could write pledges that were deliberately written with loopholes and this would have been the logical place to put some examples, yet there are none.  It doesn't even go into any explanation of how those loopholes come about which is concerning when the actual pledge examples are very short.  Where is there room for loophole?  (My belief is that it comes from knowledge of the use of language, which is why I would have put it down under Academics rather than the special Merit given later in the book.)  The second area I would have liked more on is pledges in practice.  We are given examples of simple pledge use in the main book, but could we have not had an example of an experienced character with multiple pledges in force?  Or of a character with (seemingly) contradictory pledges?

On the other hand the second half of the same chapter - Dreams - is excellent.  So good, in fact, that it too could have had its own chapter.  It not only gives further details on types of dreams, but also details on dream symbolism and how it's not as clear as you might think.  I'm sure more could be said on the subject, maybe on what a changeling dreams himself and why he might change his own dream.

There are some other effective sections, such as True Names and The Mask - but even the latter misses something that I would consider to be obvious:  how much do animals see through the mask?

In the second half are lots of useful and inspiring items, and the small discussions in the last chapter are almost universally better than those in the first half. Here are some that caught my eye:

• Fighting style: Dream Combat;
• Goblin contracts of transformation (gain something now, lose something forever);
• Talking to your goblin fruit;
• How to make a door into your hallow;
• The entire hedgespinning section;  when they say every item has a story, they mean it;
• Promise Tokens.

Yet despite this, there are still flaws.  Once more, in what is an otherwise good section on doors (ways into and out of the hedge), it talks about inert doors "pulled in from the real world" without further explanation.  The amenities doesn't say how one goes about getting such items - such as the four dot Feasting Table, which would otherwise be a most valuable object unto itself.  Most of the contracts are overpowered.  It's fair to say that most of the C:tL contracts are strong, certainly stronger than, say, Forsaken's gifts, but these edge above even more than these.  It's not just that the effects are so strong (The Madness of Crowds can give everyone near the changeling a derangement, with no resistance), but also that the catches are almost trivial in some cases ("The target is currently speaking about her past").

The Look

Here at least, the book keeps up the high standards of Changeling.  In particular, I will call out Jami Waggoner (new to me, but whose style is perfect for C:tL) and Andrew Hepworth who seems to be the current champion of Changeling full-page spreads.  Generally, the art is incredibly atmospheric and complements the mood of the game completely.

The Good
There is some very good discussion in the book, and while some will find the actual example items and abilities awesome in themselves, I will argue that some of the best parts of the book are the explanations behind the finding and creation of them.

The Bad
The first and half of the third chapter feel like uninspired hodgepodge sections, and the good sections miss even some of the basic questions that you would expect them to answer.

The Ugly
The book is full of rules.  Some of them are listed as "alternative" rules, either to fit one or more of the alternative explanations for faerie phenomenon given in the discussion, or to emphasise certain elements of the game.  Frankly, I think they are a waste of space (for the most part).  My view is that the newer players probably don't want to be traipsing through other books for alternative rules scattered here and there, while more experienced storytellers would be happier to make their own rules which fit their game better.  Yes, some players like everything written down in canon, but I don't think this is going to make them any more pleased.

Elsewhere, some of the other 'discussion' sections also include rules, so we now know what dice to throw for transplanting goblin fruit.  I think my reaction to most of these is that, "well that's nice, but are dice really necessary?".

In conclusion
The second half of the book cheered me up after being so appalled by the first half and on the back of this it just about gets the job done.  Unfortunately, I got more ideas out of a single Fables comic than from this.

Execution - 6
Ideas - 4