Changeling the Podcast

It's that time again! This second installment of our trilogy of episodes on the Changeling 20th Anniversary Player's Guide continues as we flip through Chapter Three. What's that, you say? An entire installment on a single chapter of a single book? Well, yes, because this "World of Dreams" section takes up a third of a dense text and covers a lot of ground, visiting four continents in swift succession. We're taking an honest look at how the fae histories of these regions are handled, the kiths that dwell there, and the stories one might be able to tell that connect with the game as a whole. Slight spoiler: we have a bone or five to pick, and honestly two to three of them were immediately resolved by In the Realm of Gods and Dreams, which you can hear about at https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-90-in-the-realm-of-gods-and-dreams/. But don't let all this stop you from learning a thing or two about changelings around the world and how they got that way...!

As mentioned in our last C20PG episode notes, you can pick up the PDF (or print on demand book) at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/274520?affiliate_id=3063731. Visit our own digital world of dreams around the various platforms below if you want to contact us:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) is still searching for Carmen Sandiego.

I'll put a girdle round about the earth / in forty minutes.

What is love? (Baby, don't hurt me!) In the context of tabletop RPGs, sex and relationships and all the matter around them can be tricky business to navigate for players and Storytellers alike. In the context of romance and Changeling, there are all sorts of specific considerations to think about. What are the norms of chivalrous courtship in this or that noble's jurisdiction? How do cantrips complicate physical pleasure and emotional fulfillment? Can a redcap truly feel love? Questions of this sort abound in the pages of the supplements, as it sometimes seems like every other characters has some kind of sexual or romantic thread to their story. This episode is not an exhaustive treatment of everything that might come up in the game... but we try to cover some important topics and give some pointers about handling at the table.

As for links...! We alluded to the recent episode at our sibling-show, Mage: the Podcast, on this topic; check it out at https://magethepodcast.com/adding-romance-to-games-with-friday-stout-and-sebastian-yue/. We made reference as well to our Session Zero episode (https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-38-session-zero/) on hashing out discussion around sensitive topics before you jump into a chronicle. And as usual, you can reach out to us strictly platonically at:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) theorizes that non-binary polycules are held together by them-ical bonds.

Love, love is a verb;

Changeling: the Dreaming's tagline is as a "game of modern fantasy", and it deals with folklore, epics, and magic... so when you talk to most people about it, they rarely bring up science fiction as a genre that the game ties into. We beg to differ. Dreams of technology, visions of futures utopian and dystopian alike, the consequences of humankind's hubris, and alien anxiety all fit very neatly into the setting. We're taking the opportunity to discuss how you might incorporate some of sci-fi's themes and ideas into your game, both generally and specifically. As with most such discussions, the topic is waaayyyy bigger than we could cover in a single episode, but we hope that this tip of the asteroid—along with the many media we name-drop throughout—will serve as inspiration for you to make your game as bombastically SCIENCE!-y as can be.

One of those name-dropped texts is the noteworthy homebrew Countless Dreams, available on the Storytellers' Vault at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/314491?affiliate_id=3063731. Do consider giving it a flip-through and seeing if it's your kinda thing! And while you're clicking around on the intertubes, you might as well scope out some of our online presence as well:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) keeps appointments in stardates to three decimal places.

It is said that science fiction and fantasy are two different things. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, and fantasy is the impossible made probable.

It begins...! We couldn't bring ourselves to go through Changeling 20th Anniversary Edition Player's Guide (quite a mouthful, but we have to distinguish it from the original) in one go, both because it's an incredibly dense text and because it's the Last Book. So, we're splitting it up into a trilogy of episodes. This first one covers Chapters 1 and 2, with an overarching theme of "politics and society among the Kithain." One of our episode ideas was to talk about politicking in the context of Changeling, so this kind of gets at that. Yet there are also numerous setting pieces to cover here which are somewhat tangential to that topic: Banner Houses, "secret" societies, opinions about anarchy. We do our best to give everything a fair shake, even for the stuff that may not deserve one.

The tome itself is available on the Storytellers' Vault at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/274520?affiliate_id=3063731. And naturally, if you'd like to drop us a comment, you have a surfeit of options for doing so...!

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) remembers when the Acadian sidhe had not a Resurgence, but a tintamarre.

POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

It's been a while since we've done a dive into media, so—here goes! Friend of the show Charles Siegel joins for Pooka for a discussion of how video games and tabletop games inform and resemble each other. We go through a shortlist of ten titles for inspiration to round out this series of episodes (for now) (the other big one is music, and no way are we getting the rights to do that one). In our opinion, each of these games features a variety of elements that tie into those of Changeling: the Dreaming. Obviously, there are a lot more out there, but a shortlist seems sufficient for our purposes. We're of the opinion that video and tabletop games inform each other If you'd like to acquaint yourself with the titles in question, behold some videos:

Meanwhile, Charles can be found around the following parts of the interwebsphere:

As for ourselves, drop us a line at any of the following:

Pooka G (any pronoun/they) used to tear it up at Dance Dance Revolution and is still proud of that A+ on "So Deep".

You have no chance to survive make your time. HA HA HA HA.

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:

And as usual, you can bother us via:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has waiting been waiting too many years already for the film Moderate Trouble in Sensible Canada.

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.

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:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has commissioned a study on what happens when a Fair Folk gets re-un-shaped, but the PIs keep disappearing.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.

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?

And as usual, if you'd like to get in touch with us, our socials are below:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has been spotted at anywhere that's anywhere in the best parts of Ottawa.

Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.

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:

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:

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.

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:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) will be spending the break perfecting that flan recipe. Flan for everyone! Flan for ever.

Vacation is what you take when you can't take what you've been taking any longer.