Changeling the Podcast

For many years, the Changeling community has longed for a better take on the hsien of East Asia. In our previous episode on their introductory 2e supplement, Land of Eight Million Dreams, we discussed at length how these fae were portrayed in... not the greatest fashion, and it's a characterization that the 20th Anniversary didn't really fix. But! The latest release from Hsienfan on the Storytellers' Vault, In the Realm of Gods and Dreams, breathes new life into what was a sometimes confusing, often cringey group of changelings, and manages to re-write many of the assumptions about the game along the way, both systems and setting. We had the opportunity to sit down with the author and walk through the book in its entirety. The open dev process used for its creation means that you may have seen glimmers and drafts along the way; now we have a 300+ page chomker in all its glory to digest. lf you've been eagerly looking for some thorough information about its contents, well, here goes... (Hsienfan's appearance on our show is also dedicated to his wife, Coco Vanille, without whose publishing prep and prowess this book would not exist. Forgetting to mention this in the outro is purely on Pooka, who is terrible at reading everything in emails, and missed this request. Many thanks from us as well to Coco for helping make this tome a reality!) You can pick up the book at the Storytellers' Vault by visiting https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/492660?affiliate_id=3063731, and here are some other internet places to check out on the side: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/in-the-realm-of-gods-and-dreams-q-a-on-asian-urban-fantasy.922068/https://www.reddit.com/r/WhiteWolfRPG/comments/1f115so/in_the_realm_of_gods_and_dreams_qa_hsien_nostalgia/Land of Eight Million Dreamshttps://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-54-land-of-eight-million-dreams/ And as usual, you can bother us via: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has waiting been waiting too many years already for the film Moderate Trouble in Sensible Canada. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) journeyed into the West and all they got was this lousy T-shirt. Half of the poetry of life would be gone, if we did not feel that life was either a dream, or a voyage with transient travelers. —Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living

And so we return! We're coming back from hiatus a little bit later than anticipated, both because it was a busy summer, and because we realized there aren't really that many episodes to get through before the end of the year. So, now that it feels more like autumn in this bit of the world, it's time to get through the rest of C20 and ancillary things on our list. One of the latter is Graceful Wicked Masques, the 2nd edition Exalted book that covers the Fair Folk. While this text is solidly outside the era of "Exalted is the prehistory of the World of Darkness kinda maybe", there's still a lot of connective tissue we see between this text and Changeling: the Dreaming. (If you need ideas for Deep Dreaming games or True Fae, for example, this is absolutely a good resource.) So we are once again diving into the library and seeing what gems we can unearth...! The book PDF can be purchased at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/58880?affiliate_id=3063731, and our previous episode on the 1st edition Fair Folk book can be listened to at https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-79-exalted-the-fair-folk/. For all other social media and communication needs, see if you can surprise us at: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has commissioned a study on what happens when a Fair Folk gets re-un-shaped, but the PIs keep disappearing. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) applies Fair Folk charm names to baking; today is an Oats Enfolding Butter Berry-Surmounting Technique day. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. —Laozi, Tao Te Ching ch. 1, translated by Stephen Mitchell

One more minisode for the summer! We'll be back to our usual schedule of full episodes in September, but we thought we'd share a cross-production that we participated in a couple weeks ago. Barney Smith from Storycomic reached out to do an interview with us about Changeling: the Dreaming, our podcast, and associated thoughts. So we have shamelessly appropriated the audio from that interview and are sharing it here, which we hope will tide you over for a bit longer... Over at Barney's site, there are a dizzying number (nearly 400! how does one even) of chats with authors of all stripes. Go have a scroll through and find a few that interest you, why don'tcha? https://www.storycomic.com/https://storycomic.podbean.com/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm6frhFag219q2lHM7Fa4qQ And as usual, if you'd like to get in touch with us, our socials are below: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has been spotted at anywhere that's anywhere in the best parts of Ottawa. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) has scuttled away from detection behind the finest trash cans in Philadelphia. Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence. —O. Henry

A surprise minisode, just in time for Highsummer week! We've talked about the Immortal Eyes novels, we've talked about the Anthology of Dreams, and we've even mentioned Pomegranates Full & Fine... but what about the rest of the Changeling fiction from the 90s? This includes The Splendour Falls, a short story collection released in tandem with 1st edition; "Playing with Fire", part of the Essential World of Darkness omnibus; and "The Muse", a story in the following Quintessential World of Darkness omnibus. Pooka managed to get their hands on physical copies of each—since they are not available in PDF form, and long out-of-print—to read and expound upon their contents. It's a bit of filler until we get into the second half of Season 3 (soon!), but hopefully will whet your appetite for more. For our previous episodes on TTRPG tie-in fiction and its relevance to the game, check out: Immortal Eyeshttps://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-33-the-immortal-eyes-novels/https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-47-changeling-vampire-crossover/https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-81-anthology-of-dreams-cup-of-dreams/ Per the announcement at the start of the episode, please also check out friend of the show Fetch's new game, The Necromancer, at: https://ameliafetch.itch.io/the-necromancer! This was written for the QUEER WRATH game writing jam (https://itch.io/jam/queerwrath) and has been simultaneously submitted to the Trans FURY jam (https://itch.io/jam/trans-fury-jam). And while we are lazing our way through the days of summer, you can find us as always at: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your host Pooka G (any pronoun/they) believes that life is indeed stranger than fiction, but pretty mundane when compared to sea shanty. I am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories. —Washington Irving, "To the Reader"

And so we come once again to a bit of downtime, as we wind up the first half of Season 3. It's just another minisode on the eve of the solstice, to let you know where things stand and what we've been up to, plus some of our plans when we return in six weeks, give or take. We're getting our schedule of recordings together and making plans for getting through some books we want to read, and thinking ahead to our Changeling 30th Anniversary celebration next year... but mostly we're looking forward to a bit of rest and relaxation. Thanks for your continued support, and keep an eye out for our return! In the meantime, stay up to date with our summery goings-on at: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) will be spending the break perfecting that flan recipe. Flan for everyone! Flan for ever. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) is typing this from the other side of the planet, due to Secret Piskey Tendencies. Vacation is what you take when you can't take what you've been taking any longer. —The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz

We were going to just release this bit of content as Patreon content because it's our shortest yet, but by popular demand, here it is as a minisode...! For all of you Storytellers who feel the need to hide yourselves away from your players, or maybe just shield your dice from revealing too much, the Storyteller's screen is a time-honored tool of the trade. Changeling has had three over the years, one for each edition: some flimsy cardboard, some slightly sturdier cardboard, and most recently for C20, a glossy masterpiece of solidity. For the next eight and a half minutes, we give some comparative notes on what one finds there. May it be helpful to anyone in the market for a physical piece of obfuscation! Ourselves, we hide behind the following: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has a screen that just keeps unfolding until it fully encloses the Storyteller in an geodesic cardboard fort. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) prefers to Storytell from a raised dais, concealing dice rolls and notes from the plebs with lights and smoke. I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself. —Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Yes, we already did an episode on those long-suffering boggans, but don't you think they deserve another? Having dealt with the fanmade "old" Kithbook: Boggans previously (check out https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-77-old-kithbook-boggans/), we are now moving on to the new Kithbook: Boggans, released as a Kickstarter goal for C20. In the spirit of the older editions' kithbooks, the text deals with boggan history and society, some famous examples of their kith, and tidbits of lore for the discerning crafty-fae. This rounds out at last the full set of kithbooks from the original commoners (because the sidhe had plenty of their own books already), and also our slate of Lost in the Library episodes before our summer hiatus...! So we hope this will tide you over for book content, for the time being. You can purchase the book at: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/242685?affiliate_id=3063731 Feel free to stop by our other spaces online, as long as you wipe your feet first: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) judged the Craftlympics this year and doesn't regret giving a "3" to that one wilder; they know who they are. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) wonders if the Wife of Bath would be on Tinder. It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to. —Bilbo Baggins in J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

The freehold is the center of changeling life, providing safety, community, and a connection to the Dreaming for wayward Kithain. But what makes each of them unique? We get some extensive systems and suggestions to answer this question in Book of Freeholds, a C20 supplement that greatly expands previous editions' take on building them. It's a short but dense book, and in this episode, we scour it for the double handful of drossy tidbits that players and STs alike will find useful. You can purchase the book at: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/239407?affiliate_id=3063731 And follow the trod to find us at: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) is well known hither and yon for keeping a tidy, ship-shape thorpe. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) tried to start a freehold, but bought too many decorative soaps and accidentally made a B&B instead. My house— 't's out of the ordinary! That's right— Don't wanna hurt nobody...! —Talking Heads, "Burning Down the House"

Alternate and/or historical settings for Changeling is always something that piques our interest. So we were keen to read the Gimme Shelter Player's Guide supplement (released April 2) that presents the fae of Swinging Sixties London. We're joined this week by the book's author, Bram Clark, who talks with us about his take on this slice of pre-Resurgence life. Clocking in at over 300 pages, the Guide is one of the longest homebrews on the entire Storytellers' Vault. Our conversation goes through the development, art, design... Bram's associated Player's Kit presaged something intriguing, but this was beyond what we expected. Hopefully this episode will give you some ideas about how to use it at your table! Many a link below! https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/476344?affiliate_id=3063731https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/408608?affiliate_id=3063731https://www.esotericorders.com/https://www.instagram.com/bramclark/https://www.storytellersvault.com/browse.php?author=Chris%20%22MrGone%22%20Leland And the links for our own stuff: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) asks that you not bend, spike, fold or mutilate. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) zhooshes their riah before a bona cackle with the omi-palones, and nanti scharda. If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal. —John Lennon

Now that we're through the corebook for C20, other supplements seem like small (but no less nourishing) potatoes. This time around is a double feature: we're flipping through Yours to Keep, the jumpstart and intro adventure for the edition, and Ready-Made Characters, a set of 13 write-ups (one for each core kith) and sample motleys to use in your game. Joining us is author of the first book, Christine Beard!, who talks about some of the process for reading, running, and writing jumpstart modules like this one. The two supplements feature some solid material to get you into the game beyond the corebook proper, so we encourage you to have a listen and hear what's what...! Links and things: Yours to Keephttps://www.storytellersvault.com/product/217594?affiliate_id=3063731Ready-Made Characters https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/225641?affiliate_id=3063731https://thepetitewarlock.com/https://dice.camp/@petitewarlockhttps://crackeddie.com/ And our panoply of social media as per usual: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) runs games with ready-mades, but they are not Changeling characters; they are Duchamp sculptures. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) assumes that a horror RPG jump-start would be called a jump-scare, yes? End, begin, all the same. Big change. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. —Aughra in The Dark Crystal

And so we come to the third part of this trilogy, wherein we talk about changes to this edition. There are hundreds of little tweaks and adjustments to be found in the Changeling 20th Anniversary corebook, but we're focusing on a dozen of the most significant that stand out to us. (Slight spoiler: there's another big one that we realized after the fact we didn't talk about it... but luckily, it will apply in an upcoming episode as well.) We're looking at retconned metaplot, restructured magic systems, alternative ways of thinking about different groups of fae, and more. It's not that these three episodes have been the most comprehensive look possible at this edition and what it represents—it's just the most comprehensive we could bring ourselves to get through. If you need the first two episodes in the series, or to purchase the corebook itself: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-82-changeling-20-walkthrough/https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-83-changeling-20-the-new-stuff/https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/210616?affiliate_id=3063731 Some other bits that found passing or heavy mention in this episode include: War in Concordiahttps://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-66-war-in-concordia/Inanimae: the Secret Wayhttps://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-53-inanimae-the-secret-way/Changeling 30th Anniversary projecthttps://www.changeling30.comChangeling Cookbookhttps://forms.gle/GMvvE26hfy628GBw9 Lastly, the places you can bother us gently and politely: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) would have liked to see the Concordia map re-drawn with lines that made sense. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) could have gotten on board with the pages of each chapter having their own musky aroma. And so the days float through my eyes But still the days seem the same And these children that you spit on As they try to change their worlds Are immune to your consultations They're quite aware of what they're goin' through. —David Bowie, "Changes"

Whew. Doing a walkthrough of the corebook was kind of a marathon, but treating it as a text in isolation is only part of the story. In this (thankfully shorter, because we recorded it the same day as the first) installment, we're drawing on our grump knowledge of the previous editions to talk about the new material in this one. There's a lot that we could have covered in that description, but we're sticking with some of the big items overall: the kith creation system, Revelry, new Thallain. Everything that builds on previous editions' systems will be covered in the third and final episode of this set, on the changes in the edition. For now, these are just some ruminations and opinions on the unexpected elements that stand out to us. Some links to bits that we mentioned in this go-through include: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-67-kith-building-workshop/Kithbook: Boggans https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-77-old-kithbook-boggans/Kithbook: Ghille Dhuhttps://www.storytellersvault.com/product/381967?affiliate_id=3063731Monde des Ténèbres : Francehttps://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-63-5-le-monde-des-tenebres-france/Trolle, Träumer, Tiefe Wälderhttps://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-71-5-trolle-traumer-tiefe-walder/ And if you want to reach out to weigh in on what you think we should be doing next: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) wanted edible Treasure creation rules to roll up some nocker-crafted cheese puffs. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) demands mechanics for why so many changelings incarnate into human hosts with names nearly the same as their fae ones. Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos. —Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Well, here we are at last...! After dozens of episodes covering the earlier days of the line, we are beginning our read of Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition, the corebook proper. This first in a trilogy of episodes will be a walkthrough of the book, giving some concise information and commentary about each chapter. It's primarily geared towards new players, but if you are a veteran at this point, we hope you'll still enjoy the refresher. Next up are an episode about the new features of this, and then some of the changes (and our feelings on them). We reference a whole bunch of past installments in this recording, including: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-50-thirteen-films-for-inspiration/https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-67-kith-building-workshop/https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-38-session-zero/Dreams and Nightmareshttps://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-39-dreams-nightmares-1-near-dreaming/https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-55-advanced-storytelling-techniques/https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-31-nunnehi-roundtable/Land of Eight Million Dreamshttps://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-54-land-of-eight-million-dreams/ And if you want to reach out to weigh in on what you think we should be doing next: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) only needs eight more signatures for the petition to move the border of the Kingdom of Northern Ice. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) keeps accepting tokens of enchantment, and would you believe it, they're all caramel shortbread. The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' he asked. 'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.' —Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Behold, the bonus episode! Back in December, Pooka had a chit-chat at PAX Unplugged with Terry of Mage: the Podcast and Mike of Darker Days Radio. This was released on Mage: the Podcast a couple weeks ago, but we're cross-posting it here as some random content to tide you over until everything is ready for the C20 corebook dive in a couple days. It's just a meandering conversation about TTRPGs at conventions, the state of the hobby, and our random thoughts while sitting at a table in a room that (partway through) we were informed we really weren't supposed to be in. We're rebels like that. Go check out: Mage the Podcasthttps://magethepodcast.com/Darker Days Radiohttp://podcast.darker-days.org/ And the usual get-in-touch-with-us biz: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your host Pooka G (any pronoun/they) tried the Dallas RPG, and it was astonishingly good, but then it turned out it was all a dream. Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power. —Marcus Aurelius

We've spoken before about what novels and short stories bring to the World of Darkness. At best, they can provide a naturalistic feel for a lived-in world that players and Storytellers can explore; at worst, they confuse the reader and muddle the rules of the setting. There aren't nearly as many items in the data set as for other World of Darkness games (looking at you, Vampire, with your multiple clan novel series), but we received two for the 20th Anniversary Edition that bookended the line. C20 Anthology of Dreams is a collection of ten short stories that appeared before the corebook, and Immortal Eyes 4: Cup of Dreams is the fourth novel in the Immortal Eyes saga, as well as the final text released for the edition. It may be a little weird for us to combine (technically) the first and last books in the C20 run, but we decided that tackling the role of fiction like this all at once made the most sense. So we came, we read, we opined, and herein our thoughts on what these two books add to the line. Our previous episode on the Immortal Eyes trilogy is at https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-33-the-immortal-eyes-novels/, if you'd like to do a comparative listen. You can also buy these two books at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/209390?affiliate_id=3063731 and https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/292748?affiliate_id=3063731 for a pittance! We'd also like to highlight the Changeling Cookbook project mentioned in the intro to this episode. This is a project for our Changeling 30 initiative, to be launched next year: a dozen books released over the course of 2025, in collaboration with members of the CtP community. For this one in particular, we welcome tasty recipe submissions from our audience, which you can send in at https://forms.gle/PJspJTuMsuj4tjmr7. More information about the particulars can be found on that form; we hope you'll consider sending something in! The usual haunts for otherwise contacting us: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) drank from the Cup of Dreams and only got this lousy T-shirt. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) used the Anthology's pages to press flower chimera, and now they're pressing back. "Go and tell your master that we have been charged by God with a sacred quest. If he will give us food and shelter for the night, he can join us in our quest for the Holy Grail. "Well, I'll ask him, but I don't think he will be very keen. He's already got one, you see." —King Arthur and the French soldier in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

As much as we enjoy flipping through pages and making sweeping claims about Changeling, we have never (alas) been directly involved in the production of the official game line. So for this roundtable, we invited some guests with insider knowledge: four of the writers and developers involved with the 20th Anniversary Edition. We obviously couldn't pull the curtain back too far, but these Bears With Balloons told anecdotes, shared insights, and gave us an idea of what it's like to work on a game line like this. Much laughter ensued, and we hope you'll enjoy listening as much we enjoyed chit-chatting. We've got a whole smörgåsbord of links this time, to point you towards everyone's various web presences and projects: Christine Beardhttps://thepetitewarlock.com/https://dice.camp/@petitewarlockhttps://crackeddie.com/Charlie Cantrellhttps://twitter.com/pookaknight?lang=enhttps://www.facebook.com/RadioFreeArcadiaPublishing/Ian Lemkehttps://greenronin.com/blog/author/ianlemke/Nevermorehttps://nepenthegames.com/Nevermore https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nevermorerpg/nevermore-roleplaying-gamePeter Woodworthhttps://peterwoodworth.com/https://theonyxpath.com/category/worlds/trinitycontinuum/trinity-continuum-aether/ And for our own, should you wish to get in touch with us... https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) should have realized that attending a Round Table would be followed by a quest for the Cup of Dreams. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) would have preferred an Oblong Dolmen, but you work with what you've got. You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it. —Neil Gaiman

When we covered Dark Ages: Fae, we mentioned that it was the one canonical historical setting kind of for Changeling. That's not entirely true, because in the earliest days of the Exalted line, its world was lightly framed as the "prehistory" of the World of Darkness. While that aspect fell out of the setting pretty quickly, the first edition still echoes many of the modern World of Darkness games, recycling terms and ideas in novel ways. The counterpart to Changeling is Exalted: the Fair Folk, wherein we learn about the mysterious patterns of chaos pretending to be people that live in the Wyld outside the borders of Creation. That's close enough for our liking—join us as we read through this chomker of a tome and see what we can extract to inform a Changeling: the Dreaming game experience. Maybe what we find will be unexpected...! Or, you know, it might not. We can neither claim nor dismiss any kind of surprise. If you've a hankering for old-school Exalted fatsplat corebooks, you can snag this one at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/1602?affiliate_id=3063731 for your collection. Otherwise, our own Middlemarch Demesnes are as follows: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) practices Unexpected Magical Protagonist Style, the martial art that recounts a mass market paperback fantasy main character arc. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) searches for a Charm that reshapes those pesky human dreams and emotions into tasty baklava. HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools. —Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Word Book

Don't worry, we're not totally casting off our roots quite yet. While Changeling: the Dreaming was in deep freeze, the mantle of "modern personal horror fae game" was taken up by Changeling: the Lost, a rather different entry in the (new) World/Chronicles of Darkness. At a glance, Lost shares a lot of terms and concepts with Dreaming, but digging into it, the game diverges significantly from its predecessor. This doesn't mean it's a bad game! We're giving it a fair shake this week and talking generally about some of its setting, the unique position it carves out among the lines, and how we feel it relates to Dreaming—especially since this was maybe the primary replacement we had to work with until C20. Navigate the Hedge to leave us some goblin fruit at: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has a Contract that runs maple syrup in the veins of enemies. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) prefers goblin viennoiseries. And in his brain, Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd With observation, the which he vents In mangled forms. —William Shakespeare, As You Like It, II.7

As we alluded to in our minisode about the unreleased Book of Glamour and Keys to the Kingdom, there was one more title done dirty by the unceremonious end of Changeling's 2nd edition. The long-lamented Kithbook: Boggans was on the putative release schedule (and available for pre-order) until long after the line's conclusion. When it became clear that the book would not be materializing, [cue dramatic music] an intrepid band of netizens and boggan devotees, led by Thad Papke, took it upon themselves to assemble their own Kithbook. And this kithbook would be a beacon unto the community! For it would shine a light on the kith in all their misunderstood glory, completing the cycle and inspiring players and STs alike to rise up and say, our game! our kithbook! our Concordia! (OK, maybe the last part didn't quite happen like that.) Nevertheless, it's a solid piece of text from an era when the culture of homebrew was a lot more scattered (a historical context we discuss in this episode). Eventually, the boggans did get their own official kithbook—to be covered in a future episode—but for over a decade, this was what was on offer, setting an impressive bar for future fan efforts. Have a listen to our discussion at: You can also craft us a message via: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) proudly owns the boggan Treasure shoebox that untangles all the random wires and cables you store within it. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) absconded with the boggan Treasure toaster oven that perfectly reheats any kind of leftovers. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere. —Elrond, of Frodo, in J.R.R. Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring

We're tackling a slightly heavy subject today, talking about neurodiversity and ableism in the context of Changeling: the Dreaming. There are numerous ways in which these arise allegorically and literally in the pages of the game. We cover a few broad topics, but really we're just scratching the surface here, framing our interpretations of the themes with our particular perspectives and experiences. Regardless of what your own may be, we hope this episode encourages you to pause and think, and maybe do some exploring outside the realm of the game itself. (And if it's not your cup of tea, we won't be offended if you skip—but we look forward to seeing you next time!) To get in touch with us: https://discord.me/ctppodcast@changelingthepodcast.comhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodhttps://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) reserves Unleashings for dealing swiftly with the prejudiced and ignorant. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) swoons into phonological pleasure from the double dactylic rhythm of the word "neurodiversity". Difference is that raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged. —Audre Lorde