Senses and memories and fae (oh my!) mix in very particular ways. Enchantment brings mortals into the chimerical world; the Mists blur the details of that world even for changelings. While the mechanics in are solidly established in Changeling: the Dreaming, more or less, it can be tough to incorporate those two aspects into a game. This week, we're exploring how to handle that from a Storyteller and player perspective, across editions of the game. We talk about the role of enchanted mortals, the particulars of memory loss, mechanics we think would enliven the systems a bit, and more...! Have a listen, and you'll be forgiven if you can't recall any of it afterward.

A couple shout-outs from this week:

If you want to remain around sufficient Glamour to keep your knowledge of the podcast from fading in your mind, we've got a few different balefires you can sit around:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) proposes that the Mists are at their most irritating when you can't find those keys you were just holding.

"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!

We're jumping over the Lughnasa bonfires to bring you our first full-on episode in six weeks...! Herewith our dive into the Changeling Storytellers' Guide. This is the only proper ST-focused volume the line ever got, and while it's uneven, there's still plenty to enjoy within. Advice on planning the story and managing the table, reprinted crossover rules and thoughts on alternate settings, art that baffles as much as it inspires and an attempt at what the charitable would call a game-wide index—it's all here. Join us as we flip through its pages and get back into the groove of the podcast. We missed you all!

For the completionists, the book in question can be purchased at: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/55?affiliate_id=3063731

Our merry selves can be found and contacted via:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) keeps adding more Storytellers' screens to the table despite the players' pleas. Just keeps on adding 'em.

"To hell with facts! We need stories!"

Surely you didn't think we were going to leave you all completely hanging during our summer hiatus...? Granted, this is only a mini-sode, but we hope it still serves a pleasant tidbit in between are larger installments. On this occasion, we are exploring the (general) World of Darkness supplement, The Bygone Bestiary, full of all your folklore-steeped medieval-and-Renaissance creature needs. The book claims that it can be fairly easily integrated with Werewolf, Mage, or Changeling, but in practice, it's more of a Mage: the Sorcerer's Crusade book. We are nevertheless giving our best effort to talk about how you could use this for Changeling. A system for building chimera, examples of interesting lore for common creatures, ideas for bringing actual mythic beasts into the Autumn World... the possibilities, if not endless, are at the very least intriguing.

The book is available on the Storytellers Vault at: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/50?affiliate_id=3063731

Herewith also a shout-out to our sister podcast, Mage: the Podcast, whose episode on the book can be heard at: https://magethepodcast.com/tomes-of-magick-bygone-bestiary/.

And then, share your questions, comments, or screams of terror about your favorite beasts with us at:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has a permanent observership among the College of Sea Cardinals.

"O to be a dragon,

A merry solstice to all! Keep an eye peeled for any fae wheelings and dealings in your neighborhood today, and be sure not to stray into any mysterious mushroom rings... In the meantime, you can also have a listen to this state of the podcast for the first half of Season 2, where we do an assessment of how things are going so far and our plans for the rest of the year. (Just a short audio morsel to tide you over.) The biggest news herein is that we are finally converting episodes to video format for upload to YouTube. A link to the podcast channel will be included in our social media bundle moving forward, and the individual episodes uploaded so far—in case you want to go back to the beginning—are as follows:

The rest of the usual links:

Thanks for your listens and supports! And we are steadily working away for our own late-summer Resurgence...

Our fiftieth (full-length) installment! Thanks to all who have been listening, especially those with us from the start, and we hope the next fifty are enjoyable. It seemed right to close out that milestone, and the first half of Season 2, with something a bit more relaxed. So here we are with another inspirations episode, this time on thirteen films that we think are particularly suited for Changeling: the Dreaming. (It would've been ten like the other inspirations episodes, but there was no way we could have kept it to that few.) This is a mix of movies officially recommended in the books and some of our own picks, a balance between overtly fae-themed films and others that more generally reflect the themes of the game. In order of discussion, here are the trailers. Some of them are excessively Hollywood, for which you have our apologies:

We also mention like thirty others at different points, including those suggested by our listeners. And where can you get in touch with us if you have comments or contributions to share? Well:

Our freehold is always welcome to you, so do stop by.

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) moonlights as a nocker projectionist at the local cinema..

"Un film est une source pétrifiante de la pensée. (A film is a petrified fountain of thought.)"

We'll be the first to admit that the Southern US is not our primary field of expertise, and to point out that TTRPG books—especially some of the 90s White Wolf ones—are not the greatest resource for learning more. That being said, the Kingdom of Willows supplement on the Kithain realm of the same name, covering that part of the world, is one of the more robust entries in the canon. It has its curiosities, and it has its cringes, but few Changeling books can match it for density. This week, we're talking about its usefulness for running games set in that part of the world and its approach to detailing the setting, as well as its crucial role in advancing the metaplot for 2nd edition. (We also fly through the seventy pages or so of NPC biographies at breakneck speed, because those things were lengthy.)

The book is available on the Storytellers Vault at: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/173?affiliate_id=3063731

As per usual, reach out and touch Glamour at:

And we also threw references to a couple STV supplements, plus a bonus item from the outro:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) is moss-covered, moonlit, and eerie as the Devil waiting by a crossroads at midnight.

"I agreed to spend the afternoon, if only to understand the mystery of how a place could feel so strange, and yet so familiar."

This week, we're headed back to the [dramatic music] theatre... of the MIND's EYE! [thunder, etc.] as we have a small LARP roundtable with Ash and Will. They are two of the movers and shakers for One World by Night (OWbN), a group that organizes live-action games worldwide! The conversation covers a lot of material following on the heels of Episode 44, where we talked with Pete Woodworth about the genesis of Changeling LARP with his book, The Shining Host. But this one is more about putting the rules and recommendations of that book into action, and how groups have evolved and adapted in the 25 years since it was released.

Relevant links for our guests and their work include...

And you'd like to find us around the digital realm, here are some of your options:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) spices up the weekly supermarket run by adding in boffer shopping cart jousts.

"Imagination is one of the forces of nature."

Well, we managed to get to Episode 47 without covering it, but it's time at last for our final(?) WoD gameline crossover episode. This time, we're talking about Vampire: the Masquerade and its points of connection, mechanical and thematic, with Changeling: the Dreaming. We're joined for the discussion by CtP Patron, fellow podcaster, and resident vampire expert (Bryce/)(Sand)Chigg(er), as we meander through clans and bloodlines, Camarilla and Sabbat, Disciplines and other sundries. If you're interested in getting the blood parasites and the dream/emotion/creativity parasites together, we encourage you to listen. (And yes, we acknowledge that an hour and a half is not sufficient time to plumb all the possible depths here, but there's only so much VtM you can talk about before the ennui just floors you.)

Some of the usual places where you can find us online include:

And despite what the final bits of the episode might say—no, we have no plans to start up a TikTok in the immediate future. Sorry, #faemily!

Meanwhile, some places you can find Chigg around the interwebs (besides our own Discord) include:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) put all five Background dots into Generation, because that's the way to do it.

"People always ask me if I think vampires really exist, and I always say yes, because if I say no, and they do exist, they'd be like... "*tsk* Oh, right!"

There was a bit of a delay for this episode—sorry! When you party with the satyrs for the sake of episode data, you party hardy. But in the end, we have some thoughts about the kith and their presentation in Kithbook: Satyrs. To overcome the fairly one-dimensional sex maniac trope, the kithbook situates them within an extensive fae history of Greece, argues that passion can go in many directions, gives some insights into how satyrs age... not all bad stuff. That said, it's middle of the road for a splatbookl, introducing some interesting ideas without pushing the kith in any exciting new directions—which they could have benefited from. If they're your favorite kith, it's certainly worth the read.

If you'd like to take a look at the book (perhaps to consider purchasing it), here's the link: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/3468/Kithbook-Satyrs?affiliate_id=3063731

And if you want to drop us a line, you can find us at:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has a Passion for pudding, but only the instant kind.

"Passion persuades me one way, reason another. I see the better and approve it, but I follow the worse."

When it comes to themes in Changeling, there are plenty of possibilities for discussion: the bittersweetness of time, the necessity of balance, alternative forms of horror (which we talked about back in Episode 24). Two closely aligned ones that interest us are queerness and kinship. The experience of the former is often paralleled by many of the game's core ideas, and the various forms of the latter come to the foreground in the game's setting. This episode is kind of a meditation on those two themes, drawing a lot on our personal experiences. It's a discussion that could take several more hours... for now, though, we kept ourselves to one (more or less) where we muse about some of the more prominent connections we see. Hopefully it will provide you with some food for thought!

Feel free to let us know what you think about this themes episode, and these more wide-ranging discussions in general:

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) sometimes uses the term "faemily" into conversation just to see what kind of impact it has on others.

I've heard it too many times to ignore it.