Matthew McFarland
Author of Changeling: the Lost
About the Author
Works by Matthew McFarland
Curse the Darkness 4 copies
Gazing Into You 3 copies
The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology 2 copies
Penance By Firelight 2 copies
The God-Machine Chronicle 2 copies
The Primordial Feast 1 copy
FirstFable 1 copy
Series Pitch: Hold the Chain 1 copy
Ghosts of London 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- BlackHat Matt (pseudonym)
- Birthdate
- 1974-08-15
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Ohio, USA
- Occupations
- game developer
speech and language pathologist - Relationships
- Lyons-McFarland, Michelle (spouse)
- Organizations
- White Wolf Game Studio
Cleveland Metropolitan School District (speech-language pathologist)
Growling Door Games (co-founder)
Members
Reviews
Promethean is the greatest roleplaying game you'll never play.
A game about playing abused children who have a few powers. Yes, I know it's wrapped around myths and legend, but that's what you're doing. White Wolf threw out all the whimsy and fun of the old version, to replace it with a terribly dark world where survival is the least of your worries, and growing in power will drive you crazy. The system is better; the setting is far worse.
Sharks rarely get any notification for there appearances if shapeshifter folklore and mythology today, so it is great to see them have a small place in the White Wolf's Werewolf the Apocalypse. The book nicely blends and weaves shark stereotypes in with shark fact while giving some really nice nods to actual folklore and legends about sharks. The sourcebook really helps set the reader up into how a rokea might see the world from there point of view despite it being so alien and unknown.
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Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 43
- Also by
- 7
- Members
- 797
- Popularity
- #31,988
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 14
- ISBNs
- 26
- Languages
- 3
- Favorited
- 1
All I can say is: Grow up.
Changeling: The Lost is a masterwork; people who simply say 'this is a victim' game doesn't look at the whole. They barely even skim the surface. No one sees how retaking one's life is a POSITIVE and EMPOWERING thing -- how the metaphor of enslavement and abuse and the retaking of one's life is a HOPEFUL thing, but one that also educates the unknowing to the dangers of the world. If Dreaming -- which is a game I loved (and have thousands of dollars in out of print books of!) -- is about youthful vigor and hope, The Lost is about the change that comes when we must realize that some old dreams must be put aside, so that new dreams may thrive. They gloss over the finer points to paint the game with a broad brush of horror and woe. The point has been missed.
We have to grow up -- yes, it will hurt. Yes, it will change us, and we may never go home again... but that doesn't mean that we will not learn to do more then survive, but THRIVE elsewhere.
Thankfully, from it being White Wolf's #1 seller for nearly a year, I'd have to say the majority of the world 'gets it'. To those who still cling to victimhood (as if you're the only one who has ever been
hurt) or wave their 'this book hurts me because it's just not hopeful enough' -- go back to your sugarfloss Dreaming, and I'll happily get Lost.
The writing is excellent. The legends portrayed sometimes miss, but the system, the fiction, and the fluff all deliver. This should be on your gaming shelf. Yes. Even yours.… (more)