Changeling is the fifth (and last) game in White Wolf's World of Darkness series, and the most colourful RPG ever made.

In Changeling players take the part of Human/Fairy crossbreeds, abbandoned in the mundane world of humanity by their true fay bretheren, and barred forever from the dreamland of Arcadia.

These Changelings are a mixture of a base human body and a perfect fairy soul. While their human body allows them to survive in the mortal world, and to be reborn after their deaths, just like all humans, their fairy half dies without the provision of life, art, music, imagination, what the fairies call Glamour. The Changelings must strive to conserve and gather glamour from the human world to keep themselves alive, otherwise they sink into banality and become mere mortals, unaware of their fairy soul.

As the game begins the delicate balence between the Changeling groups (Freeholds) and their mortal companions has been thrown into dissaray by the arrival of the Sidhe, five noble houses cast out of Arcadia by the rest of the fay. These nobles have come to reclaim the Changelings who were once their slaves, and both groups must learn to live with each other while fighting the rise of banality in the world, as represented by the Autumn People, for the earth is now in its Autumn and the forces of darkness (The Formori, The Autumn people, The Black Spiral Dancers, The Nephandi, etc.) are gathering.

Changeling presents a fascinating concept for a roleplaying game. The first RPG to be published in full colour its rulebook was intended to be a sumpteous artistic project reflecting the potentially peaceful and creative nature of the game. Where the characters in the other World of Darkness game are at best strange outcasts (Mage) and at worst monsters (Vampire), the Changelings are largely favourable towards humanity, and seek to return the lost Glamour to the world. A Changeling player has the opportunity to create art and beauty and take part in a game that, in itself, might become a work of strange fairy art.

Or at least that is the theory. In fact the game presents one with a kind of awful mix of American sentiment and Victorian childhood reworkings of fairy lore. The actual lore of the fairies derives much of its interest from the air of threat and obscure danger, as well as the constant sexual lure of the fairies. The fairies of legend are fickle and dangerous creatures whose actions are beyond the understanding of mortals. When one makes the players fairies and explains the supposed reasoning behind these acts they seem less like fairy mystery and more like pointless children's games.

The answer to this problem, if there is an answer, might be to restore that mystery to the game. If the actions of other fairies is as much a mystery to the players as it would be to a mortal, and their Glamour and magic seems as tempting and dangerous, then perhaps the true feel of fairy lore can be re-injected. A better treatment of Fairies in a Roleplaying game is probably that of Castle Falkenstien.