Changeling the Podcast

There are a few different ways to summarize Changeling: the Dreaming and its themes. "You're a faerie in a human body" and its variations are a common starting point; "it's about the struggle to keep imagination alive" might be another. The conflict (or is it, really?) between Glamour and Banality is our topic for this week, as we try to take a holistic view of them as metaphysical forces, game systems, descriptive elements, and things in need of complication for a more nuanced game. We're trying to be pretty broad in our strokes here, but remember that this is our own take on the subject. Use as much or as little of it as like—su mesa es su mesa. And of course, if you have a different take on Glamour and Banality, you're welcome to share your thoughts with us via the following media: Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast None of what we say is gospel, after all. Maybe Changeling doesn't get quite the same level of philosophical debate as Mage, but there's still plenty to chew over, as the fan community has done for the last few decades. For our part, we're throwing ideas out there like spaghetti, to see what sticks to the wall of discourse. (Because that's what podcasting is all about!) your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) carries a never-ending hip-flask Treasure that continually refills with maple syrup dross. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) faces a Banality trigger whenever someone uses the words "untranslatable" or "thusly". The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it's indifference. —Elie Wiesel

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a tabletop RPG with a rich setting is in want of an overflow book for all the material unceremoniously cut from the corebook. Changeling's 2nd edition was no exception, and so we have the Book of Lost Dreams, a slim volume that touches on crossover rules with other WoD games, resources for Storytellers, Unseelie Houses, an introductory adventure... all of it packaged with a seemly Storytellers' Screen, behind which you can roll dice with secrecy and aplomb. In this episode, we riffle through its pages, as well as two of the associated products from the early days: the Introductory Kit and the updated Toys will be Toys adventure. These are echoes of the earliest internet days for White Wolf and Changeling as well, so naturally, we wax nostalgic more than we probably need to. If you're into buying the BoLD, here's a link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/43?affiliate_id=3063731. It's kind of intriguing how this was apparently the 43rd product ever added to DriveThruRPG; it seems that many of the early ones consisted of the White Wolf back catalog, uploaded in alphabetical order. (Aberrant is #3, Adventure! is #5, Alien Hunger is #8...) And then, the Intro Kit is free!-ly available at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/89894?affiliate_id=3063731 for your perusal. As for the Storyteller's screen illustrated by Rebecca Guay, well, check it out: A lovely pastoral scene behind which to decide the fate of your players, no? Note how it moves through the seasons as you proceed from left to right, because that's the kind of cool stuff one should do with art. Lastly, as always, here are our social media links: Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast We hope you'll get in touch! And stay tuned for our next installment... heck, follow our show on whatever platform you're reading this, why don'tcha? your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) ran the "Capture the Flag" adventure as a freeform LARP. The government of Ontario has yet to set a court date. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) lost some dreams once, but it turns out they were just buried under several sarongs and tapestries. The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. —Elizabeth Bishop, "One Art"

Greetings, Dreamers! After a couple months' hibernation, we have returned to start bringing you content once again, as we enter the enchanted realm of 2nd edition... so of course, we must begin with the corebook, a tome near and dear to both our hearts. We really tried to rein it in, and this still ended up being our longest episode yet (by the merest of hairs). This is still a legacy edition, but nearer to the most recent incarnation of the game, and still chock-full of useful material for any player or Storyteller. And frankly, the book is just beautiful, in an era when beautiful TTRPG books were by no means a given like they (kind of) are today. First, let us dust off our social media profiles so that you can reach out to us if you desire... Discord (with a shiny new link! that hopefully works!): https://discord.me/ctpEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast ...and then, if you're inclined to purchase the PDF online, behold the link to do so: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1624?affiliate_id=3063731 We have most of this shiny new Season 2 planned out, with book dives and interviews and inspirational tidbits and more, so if you haven't subscribed, we hope that you'll consider doing so! Stay tuned for (mostly) weekly episodes and see what dreams they muster... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) once invoked the Dragon's Ire at a coffeeshop when the barista accidentally used hemp milk. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) only commits Rhapsody on affluenzic "influencers" who need to be put in their place. "Dreaming is...a game of the imagination, a game that is a value in itself." —Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Hey all! This is just our quick wrap-up for the end of our first season (which we've sort of stumbled into properly calling a season now). It's a handful of thoughts on what we've accomplished, and what we'd like to do in the coming year. Thanks again for listening and supporting our podcast so far, and we hope you'll stick with us when we come back after our hiatus. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to us via our usual passel of social media spots: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast See you in 2023!

For our last long-form episode of 2022, we're diving into the library again, but this time we're headed to the fiction section, and the Immortal Eyes novel trilogy. These books tie in to the three Immortal Eyes setting/chronicle books from 1st edition, fleshing out the story and giving some more options for incorporating the plot (and metaplot) into one's own chronicle. It was a grand experiment that, while not unsuccessful, is difficult to define in terms of its actual impact on the game line. Nevertheless, they weren't a chore to read, and we wanted to take some time to discuss them—as well as the overall role of RPG-associated fiction in the game space. If you want to get in touch with us to comment, inquire, or just croon wordlessly about this (or another) episode: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast ... links in the chain You can pick up the novels on DriveThruRPG for $0.99 each. As Josh points out, they're PDFs rather than EPUBs, which makes them tough for some e-readers, but the price is actually significantly lower than what Pooka said on the show (bad research!), so there's that. Follow the links below: The Toybox: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82356?affiliate_id=3063731Shadows on the Hill: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82357?affiliate_id=3063731Court of All Kings: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82358?affiliate_id=3063731 Additionally, if you want to hear our episodes where we give deep dives into the setting/chronicle books proper and their usefulness for a chronicle, behold even more links...!: Immortal Eyes: The Toybox: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-6-immortal-eyes-the-toybox/Immortal Eyes: Shadows on the Hill: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-13-shadows-on-the-hill/Immortal Eyes: Court of All Kings: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-20-court-of-all-kings/ ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) is building a chimerical monstrosity from stripped book covers as retribution for 90s publishers' excess. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) often turns enemies to stone and pries loose their gem eyes, and so now has more Eyestones than they know what to do with. "It's not that pookas never tell the truth. It's just that our version of the truth does not always correspond with majority opinion." —Rasputin, noted street performer, decorated war hero, and Grand Nabob of the Tenderloin

Changelings are part fae, part human. But what about their fellows who are even humaner, or humans who are entirely so, with nothing inherently fae about them? This episode, we return to the library to talk about The Enchanted, Changeling's supplement for "Year of the Ally" and the final(!) book of the 1st edition. While we've seen mortal antagonists throughout the line, here we get a look at the enchanted and the fae-blooded-but-otherwise-ordinary Kinain. They've changed dramatically in the latest edition of the game, so it's a bit of nostalgia to flip through the pages of this book and see how they were presented before. If you'd like to ally with us yourself, you can do so via the social media connection point of your choosing: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast It also occurs to us that we haven't been including the actual links to the books in the show notes, in case people want to get PDFs of their own, which is... an oversight, to say the least. So here you go! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/288?affiliate_id=3063731. (We might have to go back and edit some of the older Lost in the Library posts...) ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) possesses the Fae Gift of always finding a discount on candy beans at the local shops. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) undergoes a warp-spasm whenever yet another crackpot makes an unsubstantiated claim about the Voynich Manuscript. "Faeries lead us astray to show us the way." —Brian Froud

Greetings, all! This episode is dropping a bit later than anticipated, because it's our longest yet, but also one of our most important. Today we're talking about Changeling's version of the Nunnehi, the Indigenous fae of Concordia whose presentation has been a mixed bag over the editions. We're not focused on a particular book, since they appear throughout the line, but the 1st edition Player's Guide, the Werewolf supplement Rage Across Appalachia, and the 20th Anniversary Edition corebook all get some attention. We have three guest hosts for this installment, and technology was as much a bugbear as ever, so we ask that you bear with us through the remaining unresolved audio issues for an excellent discussion. Our usual candy-box of social media links: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast The intermission track used in this episode is "Please Calm My Mind", by Oleksii Kaplunskyi. this episode's guests Wahde ᏩᏕ Galiswegi is an Indigenous gamer, Cherokee Language revitalizationist and traditionalist, with a background in Cherokee ceremonial Ian and spirituality. Wahde's website: https://sites.google.com/view/master-ct-898-mackey-wahde/home?pli=1 Liam ᎬᎮ McAlpin and Ia ᎪᎳᏄ Bull are both Cherokee language revitalizationists from the Cherokee Nation in Eastern Oklahoma. Liam is going for a BA in Cherokee Language Education and Creative Writing while Ia just started a PhD in Information Studies, with a background in archives. They are from Tahlequah, their family is from Adair County, and they are members of ᏌᎶᎵ ᎤᎾᏓᏢ ᏂᎦᏘᏲ, ᎦᏚᏩᎩ/Cherokee ceremonial community. Ia's Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@IaKholanBullLiam's Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/liam.mcalpin/ ... media and other resources Some works that might be inspirational and/or educational for you: Fiction and poetry: This Wound is a World (Billy-Ray Belcourt); Love Medicine, The Round House, and Tracks (Louise Erdrich); all of the work of Joy Harjo; The Way to Rainy Mountain (N. Scott Momaday); Almanac of the Dead and Ceremony (Leslie Marmon Silko), Winter in the Blood (James Welch)Non-fiction: Portrait of the Whiteman (Keith Basso); Custer Died for Your Sins (Vine Deloria Jr.); Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer); The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee and Myths of the Cherokee (James Mooney); Reclaiming Two-Spirits (Gregory D. Smithers)TV and film: Dance Me Outside, Reservation Dogs, Rutherford Falls, Smoke Signals, This May Be the Last Time, Winter in the BloodMusic: Anvdvnelisisgi (Performers), DJ Shub, The Halluci Nation, Maniac: the Siouxpernatural, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tanya TagaqRPG Podcasts: Nunnehi episode from Walking Away from Arcadia, Creating Indigenous Stories episode from Werewolf: the PodcastVisual arts: Roy Boney Jr., Keli Gonzales This is just a quick handful of sources that came up in our discussions, both on-mic and off. But there is a wealth of media out there by Native American and First Nations creators to explore, and we strongly encourage you to go out looking for more (with the caveat to always be mindful about what you find, the context in which it was created, and how you engage with it). ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) was recording this episode from unceded territory in Anishinaabewaki. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) was recording this episode from unceded territory in Lenapehoking. That first cry opens the earth door. We join the ancestor road. With our pack of memories Slung slack on our backs We venture into the circle Of destruction, Which is the circle Of creation And make more— —Joy Harjo, "Memory Sack"

Croeso! We are wrapping up our trilogy of episodes on Isle of the Mighty with an exploration into Wales/Cymru and the fae/Tylwyth Teg that dwell there. The unfortunate news is that Book 3 of this weighty tome has a lot of the same issues we called out previously: clunky choices for the history section, uneven distribution of information in the geography section, several NPCs whose defining adjective is "meh". But the better news is that we are taking the opportunity to do a more thorough chat about the elements of crossover with Mage: the Ascension in this section, and from there, the book as a whole. Joining us for that discussion is Terry Robinson, host of Mage: the Podcast, and a genuinely wonderful person to talk to about such things. Lend us your ears, and we'll do our best to dazzle and enlighten you. (And stick around to the end for some *super secret* Mage 5th Edition-related stuff...) where to find us (and where to no longer find us) Most of our social media links are the same as ever... Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast ...buuut we have elected to put our Twitter on ice for the time being, given a lot of the drama circulating around it these days. Instead, you can find us at our shiny new Mastodon account: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod. Check it out for the latest updates! And in the meantime, some places to find Terry include: Mage: the Podcast: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jMage: the Podcast Discord page: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comPain in the Dice podcast (with Chazz Kellner): https://www.paininthedice.com/Systematic Understanding of Everything, an Exalted podcast: https://www.exaltcast.comStoryteller's Vault material: https://www.storytellersvault.com/browse.php?author=Terry%20RobinsonTwitters include @magethepodcast and @terryrobinson ... welsh media Once again, some media items that might help you with getting in a Cymric mood for your Welsh-set game: Films: How Green Was My Valley, Just Jim, Patagonia, Pride, The Black Cauldron, The Corn is Green, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain...TV: David Macaulay's Castle (available on YouTube!), The Crown (season 3, "Aberfan" and "Tywysog Cymru"), Dr. Who (post-2005), Pobol y Cwm, Torchwood...Literature: the Mabinogion, y Gododdin, and then a bunch of other stuff: the more esoteric corners of Arthuriana, the poems of Mab Jones and Dylan Thomas (as well as his play Under Milkwood), A Swiftly Tilting Planet (partially), Chronicles of Prydain, the Excalibur comics series by Marvel...Music: Ffynnon, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Super Furry Animals, Tom Jones... There are plenty of Welsh language-learning resources out there as well! Besides the usual suspects like Duolingo, the BBC has also run Welsh lessons through a variety of programs for decades. (Pooka used to listen to Catchphrase and its affiliated programs, which you can still find at https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/catchphrase/, but they're no longer updated.) ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) added three castles to their Timecube this week. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) has yet to come across a Welsh word that isn't beautiful, no matter how many L's it has.                                    Though absent long, These forms of beauty have not been to me, As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them, In hours of weariness, sensations sweet. —William Wordsworth, "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"

The legend continues... this week, we're proceeding north to Scotland for Book 2 of Isle of the Mighty. There's more of the same in terms of bizarre history section content management, NPCs who are intriguing and forgettable in equal measure, and a geography chapter that is surprisingly good! Even though in the balance, this section probably leaves more questions unanswered than we had when we started, there are some moments of true enjoyment scattered through. (Lookin' at you, Loch Lads.) It's heavier on the vignettes and side fiction than England was—but we'll take it in exchange for how the book completely skips over some of the country's more important centuries, in favor of talking about random changeling feuds that have no bearing on the game. A little of this, a little of that. the usual suspects Herewith our social media links for the podcast: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast This might be the last time we include Twitter on the list, at least for a while. Stay tuned for more information about that... And since we also talk about the Appendix and the ghille dhu in this episode, here's a link to Pooka's STV supplement on that very kith: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/381967?affiliate_id=3063731 ... scottish media Again, here are some media items from north of the border to help you get a feel for the environment and ethos, if you're planning to run a Scotland game. Some are listed and discussed at the end of the recording, and others fall into the "damn, should've mentioned that one too" category. We trust once more that you've enough Films: Brave, Braveheart, Highlander (but not the sequel, eesh), Loch Ness, Macbeth (several versions), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Rob Roy, Trainspotting (and okay, why not the sequel), The Wicker Man...TV: Gargoyles (partially), Monarch of the Glen, Outlander... Literature: the poems of Robert Burns and Carol Ann Duffy, Knots and Crosses, Lanark, Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels (on which the TV show is based), Trainspotting (the novel), The Wasp Factory (content warning!), Witch Wood...Music: Albannach, Bannal, Capercaillie, Clann an Drumma, Mouth Music, The Proclaimers (although "I'm Gonna Be" was likely a Banality trigger for a while back in the day), Silly Wizard, Tannahill Weavers, The Waterboys, Wolfstone... One exception to the "go find it yourself" rule is this album of waulking songs by Bannal, who are decidedly un-Banal. It's a group of ladies making cloth in the traditional Highland way, accompanied by the old melodies and versifications that have a distinctive and beautiful sound. Give it a listen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9qsGKWZ6HU: ... caption this Just one image to share this time, and it's hardly a pin-up. We're still trying to figure out who these characters are, what kith they're supposed to be, and what their story is. A green-tinted hornless troll and his ghoul redcap friend? Two mortals under a mysterious curse? What even is going on with the sun in this picture? We're at a loss, so feel free to send your suggestions. ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun)'s tartan is a crisscross of every color you've never heard of, and then a few more. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) defeated Mangar, but is still trying to find the way out of Skara Brae. Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot And auld lang syne? —Traditional song, adapted by Robert Burns

So begins our trilogy of episodes on British setting supplement Isle of the Mighty, with a look at the first three chapters on England. It may seem a bit strange to dedicate so much recording time to this episode, but at just under 200 pages of text that is dense (both in terms of content and in terms of layout), we need the space. Even with the setting so richly described, the authors had to leave a lot out by necessity—so we talk about some of that in detail with special guest host, Andrew Goodman. This episode has been edited and massaged and compressed in order to get it to the point where it wouldn't be our longest episode... and we managed to get it a few seconds shorter than the corebook episode. Victory! (But we still have Scotland and Wales to do, so...) linky business Herewith our social media links for the podcast: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast And a couple places to find Andrew online: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.goodman.illustrates/Roots of Legend on the Storytellers' Vault: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/354523?affiliate_id=3063731 ... a brief list of media Near the end of the episode, we briefly go through a bunch of media items that might help you get an "English feel" to your game. The original plan was to link to videos and publishers' pages and whatnot, but the hour is late and our listeners' Google fu is strong, so here's the list of names, and we'll trust you to search them out successfully without our help: Films: Gosford Park, Howards End (and other Merchant Ivory films), Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Secret Garden... TV:The Animals of Farthing Wood, Are You Being Served?, Blackadder, Downton Abbey, (some of) Dr. Who, EastEnders, Keeping Up Appearances, Midsomer Murders, Monty Python's Flying Circus, panel shows like QI and Would I Lie To You?, The Crown, Waiting for God... Novels: The Dark is Rising, The Hobbit, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Watership Down...Music: The Beatles, Fairport Convention, The Fishermen's Friends, Jethro Tull, The Sex Pistols, Steeleye Span, The Cure... These are just the ones that we happened to mention directly, barely scratching the surface of the surface of the vast amount of media out there. Go have a look, and see what inspirations strike you for your Very English Chronicle...! ... a pair of pinups Well, maybe just one pin-up. They spared no expense on this beefcakey image of folkloric figure Wayland the Smith to open Chapter 3: On the other hand, while it was nice of them to provide a map of Great Britain and the fae kingdoms thereon, they seem to have spared a bit of expense generating it. Aside from the slightly vague borders and the fact that the map highlights several places which aren't even talked about in the book, this is best paired with another map that doesn't have quite so many misspellings. ("Glasglow", indeed...) ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) dares not dream, for fear of dwelling on the dark and arcane knowledge of Other London and Other Hull... Pooka G (any pronoun/they) ny vynn kewsel Sowsnek! "You English really don't have a sense of humor, do you?" "We do if something's funny, sir." —Gosford Park