Changeling the Podcast

Another week, another episode in our series of Octobrish delights... this time, we are returning to our bookshelves to pull some inspirational fiction for the more uncanny, eerie, and unsettling side of Changeling: the Dreaming. We're going through 10(-ish) books and story collections that keep us up at night, and seeing how we can translate that into the themes and moods of the game. (This was also kind of an unexpected topic, so we had very little time to prepare, and it shows—apologies!) Some links to our presences elsewhere in the digital realm: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast ... the list (this time) Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber — One of the earlier collections that adapt and modernize fairy tales, Carter's work takes a decidedly feminist approach. Her work was influential on many of the fantasy authors who followed her, and being a literary theorist, she knew what she was about when it came to crafting a darkly fantastic story.Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves — It's a piecemeal text drawing on numerous traditions and formats and histories. It's a retelling of the myth of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur. It's an experiment in surrealist writing. It's a horror story about a house and the family whose children disappear within it. Danielewski's work is always challenging, but the elegant precision of this novel is matched only by the madness lurking under the surface. There is a whole community of die-hard fans who discuss every little connection, hint, and reference (and there are thousands), if you feel like vanishing into an abyss of your own. Neil Gaiman, Coraline — We could have easily gone with The Ocean at the End of the Lane or Mr. Punch or any number of other Gaiman yarns, but this one seemed the Right One to talk about at the intersection of Changeling and creepy-style horror. It's a bit more Lost than Dreaming, maybe, but a pitch-perfect dark faerie tale for modern times. Check out the publisher's page for more information (or go watch the trailer for the film) (or find more about the musical, or the opera, or...)E.T.A. Hoffmann, "The Sandman" and other stories — Hoffmann is a landmark figure in the history of the German Romantic movement, known for his creepy and unsettling literary fairy tales. Freud discussed this tale at length in his essay on the "uncanny," which opens our episode; the text of that essay is freely available here from MIT.Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf — The most recent entry on this list is also the most epic, perhaps. It's set against the backdrop of African folklore, features a party of misfits in search of a missing boy, and has some of the most nightmarish tableaux ever set to paper in a fantasy novel. It's delightfully queer, shamelessly vulgar, and occasionally shockingly gory... so it fits our brief perfectly for this episode. Read Gautam Bhatia's excellent review in Strange Horizons for more.Stephen King, Misery — This novel fits more into the Autumn People and/or Ravaging and/or Autumn Sidhe Frailty realm of horror, since there are few overt supernatural elements in it. But it's definitely a good example of how even the mundane can become horrific without warning. Again, we could have chosen any number of King writings... except that neither of us has read enough to really make a thorough study of his bibliography, so this one will have to do.China Miéville, King Rat — One part Neverwhere, one part American Gods (though before it was written); one part Changeling, one part Ratkin. Miéville's debut novel explores the gritty underground of London and what one finds there, through the lens of a protagonist that discovers his connection to a pantheon of vermin-gods. It's very 90s with its aesthetics, and centers on solving a murder, and what could be more classic White Wolf than that?Edgar Allen Poe, "The Telltale Heart" and other stories — Not long after Hoffmann's heyday, Poe "invented" the American horror story with his elaborate Gothic treatments of madness, crimes of passion, guilt, and uncertain realities. His work is public domain at this point, so you can read any and all of it through Wikisource, if you've a mind to.William Shakespeare, Macbeth — Who doesn't know a thing or two at this point about the Scottish play? Besides being an epic story that combines political intrigue, high drama, and classical tragedy, the supernatural lurks on the fringes of the narrative as a force of chaos. The tale's mutability is demonstrated by the wide range of adaptations out there—including the recent one starring Denzel Washington—but Pooka would officially like to recommend the clunky madcap offering that is Scotland, PA, where the action is transposed to a suburban fast food joint in the 70s.Patrick Süskind, Perfume — A modern classic that doesn't get much attention on this side of the Atlantic, this "story of a murderer" begins with a simple conceit: a protagonist with a superhuman sense of smell, yet no scent of his own. He becomes a master perfumer, and cultivates an obsession with creating the perfect perfume for himself out of the most beautiful aroma he's encountered—that of teenage virgins. It's a lurid and gruesome work, more clinical than gratuitous, set against the backdrop of pre-revolutionary France. Check out the trailer of the so-so film for an idea of that adaptation; apparently there was a Netflix adaptation recently too? Either way, it's good material for a particularly nasty bogie. Honorable mentions go to Clive Barker and H.P. Lovecraft, but we didn't really have the space to get deeply into them. Another time, perhaps...! ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has never danced with the devil in the pale moonlight, but once patty-caked with a psychopomp in the murky dusk, which is almost the same thing? Pooka G (any pronoun/they) doesn't miss nightmares about velociraptors and whatnot, but by the same token could do without these anxiety dreams about being awkward at garden parties. 'I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud." —Stephen King

As October dawns, it's only fitting that we should get into it with a deep dive into the guide to that creepiest of kiths, Kithbook: Sluagh. We actually... don't really have many notes this time! Both of us agreed that it was probably our favorite kithbook, that there was very little we'd do to change it (except maybe axe that THEORY), and we didn't really have many asides to dump in the show notes. As mentioned last time, the show notes will from now on feature links to our social sites above the fold: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast But in the interest of having something to drop in the main portion, perhaps this little meditation on that THEORY... end of the cycle So, even more irksome than their continued positioning as the true baddies in Changeling's 1st edition, certain sluagh have a theory that each time a Kithain reincarnates, they "diminish" a bit, losing some of their fae energy. They start out as sidhe, and then come back in their next life as a commoner, working their way through the kiths until they end as sluagh (after which they might become wraiths, which is supposedly why the sluagh can talk to them). This is presented in an in-character letter from one sluagh researcher to another, but then backed up with a 5(!) point Flaw where you know this "truth" about sluagh existence. It's kind of like Dark Fate, but its in-game effect is to just make you really nihilistic and morose. To put it politely, we are less than fond of this idea. For starters, there are holes large enough to pilot a nocker airship through. While sidhe incarnating as commoners has been established elsewhere, what is the "order" of kiths that one moves through otherwise? What about all the kiths that have been introduced in the meantime—are clurichaun and ghille dhu in the mix? There are references to sluagh reincarnating as sluagh, and large swathes of the fae population as a whole have Remembrance as an actual Trait, so you'd think they'd surely have noticed this progression by now. And if the Shattering peaked in the 14th century, necessitating the Changeling Way, that's going to be longer than eight lifetimes, barring some unusual circumstances. So there must be a time delay between incarnations or there must have been large numbers of new fae souls entering the world, else the sluagh would certainly outnumber the rest of the kiths. But what matters most is that it just changes the fundamental nature of the game. Wraith: the Oblivion is the game for teetering on the edge of nonexistence; it's right there in the name. (And yet even that game has a measure of hope.) Changeling is not about that; it's built instead on epic quests and adventures, sweeping emotion and dastardly villains, intrigue and madness and camaraderie and horror. To fold in an idea that invites characters to... sit around and do nothing because they know this is their last lifetime... doesn't really seem like a good fit for most RPGs, and Changeling among the least of all. It's certainly possible for a character to be a nihilist and have this theory, but we reject the notion that it is somehow the truth of the matter—and thankfully, it seems to have slipped quietly out of the canon. Anyway, it's a footnote in the history of the game, and you are welcome to use it if you want. (You just won't see us doing so.) ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) ain't afraid of no ghost! Pooka G (any pronoun/they) fears no man, no beast, neither prophet nor priest, but trembles and balks at a pinch of fine salt. "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." —Bene Gesserit litany

Episode 20! It's pretty amazing that we've made it this far, given how hectic life has been over the last few months. But as autumn (just regular, lowercase-a autumn) sets in, and we have time to center ourselves a bit, we're trying to get things in order to keep bringing you Changeling content into the coming seasons. To that end, this week we're talking about Court of All Kings, the third supplement in the Immortal Eyes trilogy of setting/chronicle books, which focuses on Ireland and the fae one finds there. (A note from Pooka: I feel a bit of a fool, because I didn't realize that the lengthier show notes were getting cut off on certain podcasting platforms. Hopefully folks who were interested went on to the website in order to see the rest of what they were after, but in the interest of making everything visible to everyone, we'll try to keep things trim, or at least put the important stuff "above the fold" from now on... so for example, here's the link to our Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j) videos in gaeilge In the episode, we referenced an example of a monolingual Irish speaker interviewed for a documentary a number of years ago... and behold, the video. It's from In Search of the Trojan War, from 1985; the connection they make is that Irish storytelling in the oral tradition has a number of features that link it with other forms of Indo-European epic. The storyteller, Seán Ó hEinrí, passed away in 1998 and is thought to have been (possibly) the last monolingual speaker of the language. (There are plenty of other videos on YouTube if you're interested in the language and its contemporary usage. Several series of the soap Ros na Rún are on there in their entirety, and the documentary No Béarla is a pretty stark demonstration of how few people in Ireland speak Irish.) ... salmon of knowledge The sculpture known as The Big Fish in Belfast is reminiscent of the mythological salmon of knowledge: a fish who ate the hazelnuts of wisdom that fell into its pool, and was then eaten in turn (most myths say by Fionn MacCumhaill/Finn MacCool, first leader of the Fianna). Its tiles are printed with old photographs, children's drawings, snippets of maps and newspapers, and other fragments of Belfast culture: They say that kissing the fish grants one a bit of wisdom, much as kissing the Blarney Stone gives you the gift of the gab. (We can neither confirm nor deny these rumors, but please do rinse your lips carefully if you try.) In Changeling terms, this does seem like it would be some kind of powerful chimerical entity... a poll shall be posted in the Discord (link below) to decide! ... ciarán's playlist In a recent play-by-post game, Pooka had a character who was a Daireann sidhe named Ciarán that kept a "cauldronhouse" (freehold) in trust for the House, disguised as a pub in Dublin. As a character-building exercise, they created a sample playlist of songs to help set the mood. While this barely scratches the surface of the enormous variety of Irish- or Celtic-inflected music out there, it's presented here for your enjoyment, perhaps to listen to while you skim Court of All Kings—just hopefully not while you're also listening to the episode. No idea if a Spotify embed will even work on some platforms, but let's find out...! (Feel free to put this on shuffle as well, the order is pretty flexible.) ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) found an eighteen-leaf clover the other day, and it turns out, there is such a thing as too much luck. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) once climbed a statue of the púca goat in Killorglin, and the very earth shook with unbridled delight. ... Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste, ná Béarla cliste. (Broken Irish is better than clever English.) —Irish proverb (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (support us on Patreon for additional treats at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast!)

Just because we're having a chaotic summer doesn't mean we can't occasionally find time to generate some scraps of content. While we search for time to catch up on chonkier recordings, herewith is a short minisode of something that nobody asked for: a set of poems that are (arguably) Changeling-y in themes. Pooka threw this episode together solo, and recorded it very late at night, so please forgive them for the quality. And if you think you hate poetry, well, hopefully this will at least not make you think you hate it more. The poems featured in this episode: - Emily Dickinson, "To Make a Prairie" - Peter Campion, "Dandelions" - Dylan Thomas, "Fern Hill" - Natalie Diaz, "My Brother at 3 A.M." - Randall Jarrell, "The Woman at the Washington Zoo" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Khan" - Tony Gloeggler, "2B" - Langston Hughes, "Dreams" and "Harlem" - Sandy Gingras, "The Light Factory" ... your host Pooka G (any pronoun/they) thinks the ellipsis is the most air-headed of punctuation marks, while the em-dash is the sassiest. ... (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j !) (support us on Patreon! it's now live at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast)

Sooner or later, the most sinister of the Unseelie were bound to rear their greasy and/or misshapen heads, no? While Banality is an ever-present threat that changelings must struggle against, and nobles-versus-commoners is an important piece of the metaplot, it's important to remember that the balance of light and darkness is another critical conflict for the Kithain. The Shadow Court is the first supplement in the canon to really go in-depth into the Unseelie ethos, the structure and motivations of their court, and what it means to be a baddie (or a beastie, or a bogie). This week, we're taking a deep look at that tome, which is one of the densest with material in the entire line. Bear with us for the wild ride... the nature of evil This is a Big Topic that will probably get its own episode at some point, but a few things need to be said about the relationship of the Unseelie, and the Shadow Court, to eeeeviiilll. The WoD games overall trade in shades of grey, making it difficult to say that the Seelie are overtly "good" and the Unseelie overtly "bad". One could claim that the traits, actions, and outlooks that do fall into the "good" camp tend to crop up more regularly, in sum, among the Seelie, and vice versa among the Unseelie. But there are Seelie who are bloodthirsty, haughty, tyrannical, inflexible, and manipulative, following codes for their own sake and believing that they are Right about everything. And there are Unseelie who are empathetic, joyful, egalitarian, and honest. To draw a parallel with Dungeons and Dragons (yeah, yeah), the better analogy for the Courts might be "Lawful" (with a tendency towards good) for Seelie vs. "Chaotic" (with more wiggle room for evil) for the Unseelie, and where an individual falls within them is on the Good–Evil spectrum is their own thing. The Shadow Court, as a book, just kind of stirs the already-murky waters. There are Unseelie in the book who, despite their contempt for the Seelie, seem to simply be passionate freedom-lovers with the occasional bad temper. But then there are amoral jerks who engage in human sacrifice and make a career out of emotionally abusing Dreamers to get their Glamour fix. Introducing the Thallain as kiths who can never become Seelie and operate as the right hand of nightmare doesn't exactly help the reputation of the "dark side." Importantly, the Shadow Court is not the Unseelie Court; just as importantly, the former is often pulling the latter's strings. Even among the Shadow Court, though, true evil is not a given, especially because the book seems to highlight the fluidity of Court identity: changelings come and go from its ranks, rising and falling in prestige. (That being said, many Shadow Courtiers certainly seem willing to hang out with some truly twisted types...) Ultimately, the game is more interesting when the nature of good and evil isn't predetermined, and the movement between the two becomes the focus of a story, with the Court conflict as a metaphor. Why shouldn't a Thallain have a redemption arc? Why shouldn't the most prim and proper Seelie countess have a long slide into decadence? Changelings rebel against stagnation and stasis, so shifting attitudes, identities, and allegiances are perhaps more in line with this game than the others. As we mention in this episode, Changeling has a reputation for being "not dark enough" (for whom? what does that even mean?), but as this book demonstrates, there is a whole buffet of options that range from the purest of the pure to the dankest of the dank. A word of caution, though—the book's wishy-washiness extends to its use of gaming tools to protect the sensibilities of gamers when needed. It doesn't really offer a stance on how to use or not use violence, sexuality, depravity, etc., so remember: talk. to. your. players. and find out everyone's mileage for different dishes at that buffet. ... responding to hot takes We solicit comments for recordings on our Discord (and here's the link! woooo), but for this episode, we totally forgot to respond to two hot takes from one of our listeners. So, here's some brief responses: Hot Take 1: "The Thallain were never meant to interact with the Kithain. They aren't another splat, they're the main characters from a fundamentally darker game." From an in-game point of view, this certainly seems true. The Thallain came into the Autumn World at the behest of the Fomorians (or so the story goes), their goals and wishes are quite different from Kithain's, and in some cases (see: beasties), Kithain actively try to attack them. But what they were meant to be like doesn't negate the possibility of figuring out stories that accommodate both Thallain and Kithain as protagonists. You need a particularly agreeable one or more of the former, and a particularly tolerant one or more of the latter, but somewhere between the feverish kaleidoscope of Changeling: the Dreaming and the blood-soaked pandemonium of... erm, Thallain: the Horrifying?, there is potential for some interesting plotlines. Thallain who incarnate in human flesh have the same tension between their human origins and their fae natures as other kinds of changeling, and putting the two groups together towards a common goal (e.g., a common enemy that neither can stop alone) is the Extreme level of "seeing past our differences" for the sake of teamwork. Hot Take 2: "House Ailil is the only good house in the entire gameline. Ennobled Boggans of House Ailil will utterly wreck your political machinations." Debatable, and dependent on the kind of game you want to run. For direct political intrigue, Ailil are indeed hard to beat (though depending on the type of intrigue, Leanhaun can give them a run for their money). Having a boggan, or pooka, or other kith with a social benefit in the House can certainly increase the benefit, and it can be great fun to watch an Ailil go toe-to-toe with a Ventrue. But as soon as you get out of the throne room, Elysium, or wherever, how useful are they for slaying a dragon, working great magic, or simply keeping the community happy? All else being equal, Ailil nobles are good at ruling by fear and blackmail, running criminal enterprises (or running their realms as though they were criminal enterprises), and getting themselves ahead. Your mileage may vary on whether you consider that the best, the most well-rounded, the most interesting, etc. ... shout-out to harbingers of winter We mentioned this book a couple times this episode, and here we are mentioning it again...! Charlie Cantrell and Radio Free Arcadia put out Harbingers of Winter back in the spring, updating much of the content of this book (and then some) for C20. You can purchase it from the Storyteller's Vault, and you can listen to our episode #12, wherein we discuss the book with Charlie. It's definitely recommended reading for anyone looking to run a Shadow Court (or otherwise deeply Unseelie-flavored) game, so check out and help support other folks in the community. ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) thinks that Unseelie tastes like chocolate raspberry ice cream laced with codeine and bits of stained glass. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) thinks that Seelie tastes like a raw egg yolk suspended inside a solid shell of candied violet petals. ... The Neighbor: "A little boy went out to play. When he opened his door, he saw the world. As he passed through the doorway, he caused a reflection. Evil was born. Evil was born, and followed the boy." Nikki: "...I'm sorry, what is that?" The Neighbor: "An old tale... And, the variation: a little girl went out to play. Lost in the marketplace, as if half-born. Then, not through the marketplace—you see that, don't you?—but through the alley behind the marketplace. This is the way to the palace." —Grace Zabriskie & Laura Dern in David Lynch's Inland Empire (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j !) (support us on Patreon for additional treats at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast!)

So, we took an extra week off due to individual life stuff that needed sorting out. But now we're back to talk about the first of the splatbooks for Changeling, Kithbook: Trolls, in all of its blue-tinted glory. Takeaways from the book include: oaths matter; legend is more important than history; and if it's anything kind of large and fae-ish, it's probably a troll. Something to remember is that the kithbooks spanned a much larger period of time for their complete set (1996 to 2018), cutting not only across editions but also some serious changes in the world and its sensibilities—so, KB: Trolls feels very different from KB: Eshu and waayyy different from KB: Boggans. But we have to start somewhere, so the beginning seemed like a decent place to start. troll culture The word troll and the concept overall come from Norse mythology and derived Scandinavian folklore, blended in fantasy literature—and CtD as a whole—with similar concepts from other Germanic lore (including English). So it was a bit of a surprise that there was fairly little overt Norse influence on the book, or Celtic (which tends to be the top coat of paint on the entire game), save for a few names, artifacts, and artistic flourishes. It may be unfair to put too much of the burden on the ST and playgroup to bridge the gap between the text and the kind of game they want, but the text is neutral enough that you can have a troll hail from anywhere in the world that supports the myth of "big thing smash with honor". Because this book came out before Changeling's kith bloat really went into overdrive, it implies that all such folkloric beings are trolls, in some form—your mileage may vary with how much you want to fold all those legends into a single kith that is Northern European in its origin. The game has received a lot of justified criticism for its Eurocentrism; the way that different fae who smash with honor regard each other is something that can have in-game effects and consequences. Since this is first edition, there is also a strong thread of "changelings hang out with their own kind". But the rest of the game materials don't exactly bear that out; the fiction and setting materials of 1st edition imply mixed populations as common enough, and future editions make it more or less the norm. Kithbook: Trolls presents them as having almost a standalone society whose uniqueness extends back to the legendary days, with their own freeholds and societies and whatnot. There's nothing wrong with this, and it opens up the possibility of a troll-only game. But it's an oddity to read in the light of what comes after. (Pooka's note: kinship is a strong theme in Changeling, but it's different from the tribalism of Werewolf, or Vampire where bloodline is often the only kind of kinship that matters. CtD is much more supportive of the concepts of found family and building new, small-scale culture together. My take is that giving the trolls all of this material without talking about how it's integrated into Kithain society at large kind of runs counter to that theme.) ... a note on artwork Apologies if we came off too harsh about the artwork in this book. Some of it is genuinely cool! The Maul of Thunder Treasure (which the text suggests is basically the "backup" Mjölnir) genuinely looks pretty cool! And then there's like, this chapter opening with a... cop? Maybe he's after this... eco-terrorist? We're just saying, quality varies. Speaking of cops: there's a whole society of trolls, the Protectorate, who are basically love cops. Their oaths and dutiful natures are entirely centered on facilitating and protecting true love wherever they find it, because nothing makes a romantic encounter like an eight-foot-tall hulking blue dude with a massive axe standing watch over you and your beloved as you exchange honeyed words under the chimerical moonlight. (Also, he's probably watching. Awkward.) Anyway, that's a Kithain reality show we'd like to see. ... the other kithbook: trolls As one of our listeners pointed out, there was at one point another, online "Trolls Revised", from long before social media or Storyteller's Vault or any of that. (The early days of the Web were a wild place, folks!) For those who do want a more Norse-inflected version, here's the archived link: https://web.archive.org/web/20090910043150/http://www.traitorsgate.net/trolls/. We haven't thoroughly read or reviewed this yet, but may do in the future. (Initial impression: the author mentions that the original kithbook presents the trolls as a "pseudo-Celtic tribal group," which we don't think quite hits the mark. However, they are absolutely right that there are vast amounts of cultural background and history that the kithbook left unattended, so we're curious to see how this fan effort approaches these things.) But that's a saga for another day...! ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) met a troll under a bridge, but it turned out to just be a sentient shopping cart loaded with boxes of evaporated milk and flat packs of discount lunchmeat. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) wonders if trolls turn purple when they blush in fae mien. ... An eleventh I know, if needs I must lead To the fight my long-loved friends; I sing in the shields, and in strength they go Whole to the field of fight, Whole from the field of fight, And whole they come thence home. —The Poetic Edda, Hávamál 157 (tr. Henry Adams Bellows) (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j !) (support us on Patreon for additional treats at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast!)

Greetings, all! We've been taking a bit more of a break than we anticipated due to life getting in the way of podcasting, which slowed down our production process more than usual this week. But we're getting back on track, beginning with this episode, a conversation with the cast of Toronto by Day: Tales from the Rookery, a Changeling game that streams regularly on Twitch. They've just wrapped up Season 2 (though it was still nearing its finale at the time of this recording), with Season 3 on the horizon. But in the meantime, join us as we chat with Cliff (the ST), Zev (player of Volodomir the nocker) and Crystal (player of Lilly the korred) about their experiences with CtD in general and this game in particular, with some helpful wisdom to share for anyone who's thinking about running/joining a streaming game. catching up on the show in question... Our notes for this episode are rather brief, since the game sort of speaks for itself. (It is worth saying, this is probably the only time we've ever seen someone actually playing a korred.) But to that end, here's the most recent installment with the current cast. Even if you don't follow an actual play regularly to know the ins and outs of the plot, just skimming through any of their videos often gives a good idea of the timbre of the game and its players: But! If you do want to check out the series from the start, the playlist for Season 1 can be found here, and for Season 2 here. Note that the shows are hosted on YouTube by, and the game is (loosely?) connected to the world of, Vancouver by Night and its family of games; if you enjoy Vampire and other games, check out their channel for additional tidbits. ... ...and keeping up with it in the future So, if you want to watch the shows (which are pre-recorded, but broadcast live—formerly on Tuesdays, though this may change) as they air, you'll want to check out some pages: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/Vancouverbynight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/145770064177049/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vancitybynight Linktree for VbN across other sites: https://linktr.ee/jadelens (Again, as of this posting, the show is on its season hiatus, but that means this is the time to get yourself caught up for its return...!) Some of the current cast also have various web presences if you want to follow their work elsewhere: Cliff (the ST): on Instagram Zev (Volodomir the nocker): on Twitter Babe Blade (Rosaleen the sluagh): on Instagram Nahjra (Fagua the eshu): on Twitter Michael (Hunter the troll): on Twitter Once again, we'd like to say thanks to the cast for chatting with us about the experience of running the game, and encourage you all to think about starting one of your own...! ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) was trying to come up with rhymes for "livestream," but couldn't get past "thrive beam," which is a concentrate ray of good vibes that instills anyone in its path with the energy and willpower to pull themselves out of dire circumstances. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) was trying to come up with rhymes for "actual play," but immediately went to "factual splay" which sounded kind of dirty and uncomfortable, so they decided to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies instead. ... All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely Players... —William Shakespeare, As You Like It (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j !) (support us on Patreon for additional treats at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast!)

No, not the C20 one that came out in 2019; we're taking a look at the 1st edition Player's Guide from... year unclear. (We think it's 1997? But there's an ad for Hunter: the Reckoning in the back, so who knows.) As WoD Player's Guides go, the Changeling one has a lot of your standard fare: Merits and Flaws before those became standard in the corebook, additional Traits, new kewl powers. But this book also stands out for its full introduction of the Nunnehi after their brief appearance in Rage Across Appalachia (see episode 10), its thorough treatment of the nine core kiths, and some insightful short essays into the roleplaying experience from a player's perspective. It also feature a full-on errata section of material that got dropped from The Autumn People, because these were the heady days when deadlines were tight and editing was a luxury. In short, this book really packs a lot into its just-shy-of-200 pages. Let's have a look at some tidbits, shall we? art corner Changeling: the Dreaming art is often kind of a mixed bag, but especially as we approach the end of 1st Edition and its full-color books, it's nice to see some truly gorgeous examples in these page. The splash pages at the start of each chapter by Mark Jackson are especially fab, as in these examples: Thematic and evocative! There are also some pretty groovy portraits associated with each kith by Adam Rex, such as this redcap who's charging out of the page, knuckle spikes bared, but who still has some sensible heels and hefty socks for battle: And then there are these troll ladies. We're not entirely sure what's going on with them, but we include them as a reminder that no book's assortment of art will be perfect, and it is only through contrast that we learn to truly appreciate the pieces we really adore: We report, you decide! ... collective nouns Aside from established terms like a corby of redcaps and a tragos of satyrs, some suggestions for what to call a group of each kith: a nosiness or industry of boggansa rowdiness of clurichaunan intrigue of eshuan agitation or complaint of nockersa suspicion of piskiesa veracity or certainty of pookaa nibble of redcapsan excitement of satyrsa sleeking of selkiesan insufferability or pomp of sidhean unsettlement of sluagha bravado of trolls Suggestions for others welcome! ... more nunnehi research We gave some advice and shared some links last time we discussed the Nunnehi, in the Rage Across Appalachia episode. Following up on that, here are some more links that you might find useful for delving into the mythic background of the Indigenous kiths of Concordia: May-may-gway-shi: http://www.native-languages.org/memegwesi.htmRock Giants: http://www.native-languages.org/stonecoat.htm and possibly references to the Gahonga in this book from 1922Nanehi: http://www.native-languages.org/morelegends/nunnehi.htmYunwi Amai'yine'hi: not much, but there's a reference in section 78 of James Mooney's 1900 work, Myths of the CherokeeYunwi Tsundsi: http://www.native-languages.org/morelegends/yunwi-tsunsdi.htmCanotili: http://www.native-languages.org/morelegends/canotila.htmTunghat: unclear; it seems as though the name and "gamekeeper" concept might be taken from Yup'ik ritual (see for example https://www.penn.museum/sites/bulletin/1907/)Kachinas: http://www.native-languages.org/kachinas.htm and http://americanindianoriginals.com/kachina-doll-glossary.htmlSurems: https://parentseyes.arizona.edu/node/506 Water Babies: http://www.native-languages.org/water-babies.htmNümüzo'ho: references and tales in this collectionPu'gwis: mentioned on http://www.native-languages.org/kwakiutl-legends.htm; note that the -s at the end is not a plural!Inuas: less anthropomorphized than in the game; the concept of inua is apparently more abstract in Inuit lore, as outlined in this book from the Smithsonian on artwork that deals with the subject As always, it's important to be aware that one's own research might be flawed, and that digging around on the internet can't fully substitute for thorough academic books and/or talking with an actual expert on the topic. It's also worth noting that digging around for information on the folklore behind these kiths turned up, among other things, sites that claimed to give background to the myths that was directly quoted from the Player's Guide (to the point of talking about "fae mien"). Doing background research is not easy! While you might not need to dive all the way down on these legends for the sake of a game session, you should still be ready to spend more time than you think you will need to try and separate what seems authentic from what seems like the random (even if reasonably informed) invention of someone online. ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun)'s weapon of choice: frog-venom-tipped lawn darts. Pooka G (any pronoun/they)'s armor of choice: wadded-up back issues of Utne Reader tied with heavy-duty rubberbands. ... Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep... —John Milton, Paradise Lost, IV.675–676 (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j !) (support us on Patreon for additional treats at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast!)

Thanks for joining us! This week is a bit of a breather: we're talking about ten books that inspire us for Changeling: the Dreaming. The show notes are therefore pretty straightforward, as we'll just have the list below with a few notes. (You are encouraged to find, borrow, or purchase these books at a library or bookstore, for we will not be linking to a certain bookselling megacorp on this post.) In a more general sense, we're opening a conversation here about media as inspiration; we anticipate talking about another stack of books in the future, but also graphic novels, television, film, even artwork. Given that the game is to some extent about inspiration and story, it seems fitting to think about more than just "books about faeries." How can players and STs get the most out of the media they encounter for their games? What qualifies as a narrative that has something to do with Glamour and Banality, or the other themes of the game? Things to consider for future iterations of this series of episodes... (Also, we threw in three honorable mentions at the end, because stopping at ten books just wasn't going to happen.) the list Emma Bull, War for the Oaks — Blurb: "Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But her boyfriend just dumped her, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk—and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point." There was some talk long ago about adapting it for film (to the point that a low-budget trailer got made), but alas, it has not yet come to be...John Crowley, Little, Big; or, the Fairies' Parliament — A truly magnificent 25th anniversary edition just came out...which actually makes it a 40th anniversary edition, so how's that for a publishing delay? But anyway, even though that version is frighteningly expensive, you can at least get a sense for the book by reading the first couple chapters here: https://littlebig25.com/.Charles de Lint, The Wild Wood — Blurb: "A young artist returns to her cabin in the deep woods of Canada to concentrate on her illustrations. But somehow, strange and beautiful creatures are slipping into her drawings and sketches. The world of Faerie is reaching out to her for help--and she may be its last chance for survival." See an example of the Brian Froud art paired with this book below (used for the cover, in fact).Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town — This one is freely available for download, presumably because Doctorow is a big proponent of Creative Commons and whatnot: https://craphound.com/category/someone/Joanne M. Harris, Honeycomb — Author's website with some Q&A and other information: http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/honeycomb/Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere — Multimedia moment: Neverwhere was actually a TV series first, some of which you can watch for free because some kind soul has put it online (start with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKlsXquUKdA). So technically the novel is a novelization, and we might cover this again for when we talk about TV... but then, it's also been made into a stage play, and a radio drama, and a graphic novel. Many options for your media-consumer pleasure. Seanan McGuire, the October Daye series — Author's website: https://seananmcguire.com/toby.php; you can check out her other series as well here.Terry Pratchett, Hogfather (and many other Discworld novels besides) — Another one with a TV adaptation, featuring Ian Richardson and Michelle Dockery (of Downton Abbey fame), which you can fairly easily watch online as well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoWifSyA9NQ). Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories — A brief excerpt: "So Iff the water genie told Haroun about the Ocean of the Stream of Stories, and even though he was full of a sense of hopelessness and failure the magic of the Ocean began to have an effect on Haroun. He looked into the water and saw that it was made up of a thousand thousand thousand and one different currents, each one a different colour, weaving in and out of one another like a liquid tapestry of breathtaking complexity; and Iff explained that these were the Streams of Story, that each coloured strand represented and contained a single tale. Different parts of the Ocean contained different sorts of stories, and as all the stories that had ever been told and many that were still in the process of being invented could be found here, the Ocean of the Streams of Story was in fact the biggest library in the universe. And because the stories were held here in fluid form, they retained the ability to change, to become new versions of themselves, to join up with other stories and so become yet other stories; so that unlike a library of books, the Ocean of the Streams of Story was much more than a storeroom of yarns. It was not dead, but alive."Bill Watterson, any or all of the Calvin and Hobbes books — It almost seems a travesty to direct you to an internet version of the comic, but if you haven't come across the strip before, allowances must be made... you can read some of the old daily strips at https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes. ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) keeps finding library cards between the cushions, in their pockets, on buses, on trains, behind other people's ears... something mysterious is clearly afoot. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) once ate 38 pages of Finnegan's Wake, binding and all, to see what would happen, and woke up two days later drenched with absinthe in the doorway of a downtown Tarrytown taxidermy shop. ... "Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic." —Carl Sagan (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j !) (support us on Patreon for additional treats at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast!)

Hi, Mage fans! And/or Changeling fans! On this week's episode, we're having a conversation with Terry Robinson, host of Mage: the Podcast, to talk about crossover between Mage and Changeling. If you aren't well versed in Mage: the Ascension, don't worry—we'll give you some of the key terms and concepts to get you going with incorporating mages into your Changeling game. Not only that, but we hash out every crossover issue you could possibly want to deal with! (Well, okay, that was an outright lie, because we could do an entire separate podcast just on those issues.) (Maybe someday...) In any case, have a listen, and as always, feel free to hop in our Discord (link at the bottom of this page) to discuss your thoughts and ask your questions. wibbly-wobbly themey-wemeys Probably the most important thing to talk about with any game crossover situation are the themes and moods of the games and how they align. We brought this up with Terry, and discussed three that do, and three that don't: Imagination and hope are incredibly powerful. From the Changeling perspective, this is pretty self-evident and central to the game; their power stat of Glamour that reflects (in part) this theme. With Mage, it's a little more subtle. The paradigms with which the willworkers construct their magic rely on imagination—which in theory can make mages powerful Dreamers, with the right outlook—and they build (some of) their hopes upon the strength of that paradigm and their ability to manifest its power. For mages whose way of magic is danger of going extinct, hope takes on an extra veneer of urgency.Culture is valuable. The ideas of groups of mortals have literally shaped changelings into what they are, in terms of kiths. Culture has also given structure to the magic used by mages, a structure which they must follow (at least, at first). Both groups are invested in preserving their originating cultures, although the need to combine those traditions with growth and modernity presents an interesting element of tension in each game.Everything is temporary. Terry frames this in relation to the desire to keep alive the connections to the past that give both changelings and mages strength. On top of that, mages are mortal, and although changelings reincarnate, Banality often means their time as self-aware fae is limited. But how the character reacts to these facts can also provide compelling story material. Both splats may strive for immortality and struggle against the way of things, creating all kinds of interesting drama (and possibly hurting a lot of people along the way).Mortals and isolationism. In theory, both Mage and Changeling are centered on their protagonists' interactions with mortals. In practice, tables often run both games without mortals making a single appearance. We'd wager that Changeling players are guilty of this more often: many groups do Dreaming-centric games with Glamour drawn from chimera or wherever rather than interacting with Dreamers. With Mage, "Hogwarts games" entirely set in a mages-only space are rarer, and to some extent have to be, because...The shifting of destiny. Mage and Changeling start at opposite ends of a spectrum in terms of how they affect the ultimate fates of mortals. A mage wants their way of handling reality to be the correct one for everyone (because they know it's correct for them). They start with the goal of changing civilization and work their way down. Changelings, on the other hand, cultivate individual artists; it's more the philosophy that pushing a pebble in the stream might eventually change the course of the mighty river. Neither one usually ends up altering all of human destiny that much, but it's important to realize that they're coming from very different places.Balance. Changeling has this theme baked into the Glamour/Banality mechanics, and it drives the entirety of the game. Mage... does not really have this. You can add Resonance and Quiet and everything, but fundamentally, there's very little (e.g, a morality stat) stopping mages from quickly going down Megalomaniac Road. ... terry's art corner Terry mentions at one point a lovely anecdote about getting into Mage by reading the 2nd edition of the "Big Purple" and a sharp memory of some John Cobb art. For the viewing pleasure of you, the audience, here's what we believe to be the art in question that stuck in Terry's mind: And now perhaps it will stick in yours. Whatever this might say about Terry's aesthetic sensibilities, we leave to others to decide! ^~^/ ... demesne and Dreaming There's a Background introduced in Mage 20th Anniversary Edition called Demesne (pronounced like "da MAIN") which has... something to do with dreams. It's a "semi-permanent Dream Realm," according to that corebook, which doesn't really give much in the way of hard mechanics for interactions between a changeling and a mage who has such self-control over their subconscious. Some suggestions from Terry: Demesne can be a "resistance stat" to some fae shenanigans while the mage is enchanted (or otherwise perceiving the chimerical realm). Potentially this could be a kind of supplement or alternative pool for countering fae magic, and especially any kind of Oneiromancy.Demesne can "slightly tug" at that magic, altering the form of cantrips to things the mage can deal with more easily. In a way, they literally lucid dream at the changeling, using their own strength of subconscious as a shield/weapon. This is just a nudge though—perhaps the mage rolls Demesne and can change one aspect of the magic for each success.Importantly, Demesne does not help with Seekings to raise a mage's Arete, which would be quite overpowered (and not in keeping with the themes of the game). Extending this, one could say that Demesne has no impact on a mage's ability to provide Glamour; a well-developed dream life doesn't necessarily make a mage more creative or freewheeling. Statistics are not available, but it's unlikely many mages take the Background in the first place, in part because of its limited use. But in a direct crossover game, Storytellers and players may want to come up with some ways like these that Demesne can be used to facilitate interaction. Perhaps the Demesne can function as a safe island for the changelings off the Silver Path when they enter the Dreaming, and in turn they can hang out with the mage without needing to enchant them (or even physically being present). Perhaps a mage can use Demesne as an ability like Crafts or Technology to create chimerical objects for the changelings (like the "guns; lots of guns" scene in The Matrix, except... dream-guns), which they can take out of the realm for a period of time. Or from an antagonist point of view, a Nephandus might use their Demesne as a nocnitsa breeding ground, or a Technocrat's vision of ultimate conformity allows them to manifest powers akin to an Autumn Person's (assuming they don't have these already). The Background may not have been intended as a built-in connection, but... might as well use it? (And no, in this episode, we are not handling the question of "where is the Dreaming relative to the Umbra?" That will be its own thing at some point, when we each have several hours to kill and the substances of our choosing.) ... mishearings and malapropisms Just because, here are a few little verbal swishes that occurred during recording: Terry used the phrase "campaign of tactical frivolity," which needs to be the plot of like half of all Changeling games from now on.Terry also describes Changeling as being like "a cookie dissolving on the tongue": wonderful and great, but we don't get to take it with us. <3While doing sound editing on this episode, Pooka at one point misheard "Cthulhu worshipper" as "Cthulhu greengrocer", and that's an NPC waiting to happen.Rather than "manipulating," Terry used the verb "renippulating" for the "raw bits of reality." Somewhere, there is a mage whose paradigm is indeed to renipple the world around them to great effect. And importantly, there is a famous quote-drop from Hamlet, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." This is one of those cornerstones of good Storytelling (in Pooka's opinion, at least) that gets overlooked. Mechanics and definitions and explanations are all well and good, but on the altar of a chronicle, everything and anything can (and sometimes should) be sacrificed. If you want a mage antagonist or ally in your Changeling game, unless there's a player with a sheet who needs to know how many dice to roll, you don't have to make that mage correspond to what the books say. Especially for Changeling, story is paramount. And sometimes, the unexpected and inexplicable makes for a more compelling narrative, both inside and outside the game. Hamlet calls out Horatio because the latter has a hard time fitting the ghost they've encountered into his worldview. It's an extension of the Golden Rule, in a way: breaking the rules to make a narrative feel novel and mysterious, to keep the players on their toes. ... where to find terry robinson Some places online where you can find Terry: The website for Mage: the Podcast has the episodes of that excellent show (which is how this one got started, basically), for which Terry is a host... ...and the hopping Discord community is a good place to have some conversations about Mage, WoD, and various related sundries.Another podcast produced by Terry and Chazz Kellner is Pain in the Dice, which handles a bunch of gaming-related topics across a variety of lines.Terry's homebrew material on the Storyteller's Vault can be perused here; someday, that 20,000 word writeup of a 8-point Demesne will presumably make an appearance.Via Twitter, @MageThePodcast is the primary one, but also check out @TerryRobinson and @TryItCon, a convention Terry ran last year which we hope comes back someday... ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has a Familiar that fits inside a common household breadbox, but you won't guess what it is. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) has zero to three points of Arcane; the number depends on moon phase and hat currently being worn. ... "Perhaps I am too tame, too domestic a magician. But how does one work up a little madness?" —Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j !) (support us on Patreon for additional treats at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast!)