Changeling the Podcast

We're kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel for the last dregs of content from the vaults. On the LARP side of the equation, there are a few remnants from various Mind's Eye Theatre books that never made it into either The Shining Host or the Shining Host Player's Guide, which we have collected to discuss in today's minisode. These basically consist of live-action Dauntain, adapting the Time of Judgment stories, a piece of fiction, and a meditation on supernatural phenomenology (whew). We've gathered these together so that you don't have to, and we're giving a bit of commentary, but as far as we can tell, this is really it for the Dreaming official content in print (with one exception) that we know of. If you do feel compelled to pick up either Laws of the Hunt (revised) or Laws of Judgment, you can find them at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/182?affiliate_id=3063731 and https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/1621?affiliate_id=3063731, respectively. And if you're looking to chat with us instead, some places to do so include... Discord: https://discord.me/ctp Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) once threw a LARP with nothing but dollar-store buntings, a tray of mini-pizzas, shaving cream, and gumption. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) scrapes the bottom of barrels knowing that it's just barrels all the way down. The real challenge is to make art out of these bits and pieces of our reality. —Joe Lewis

Welcome to 2025, changelings and changelants! We said that Winterregnum was going to be our hibernation season... but truth be told, there are too many things to do and not enough time to do them, so yes, we're going to continue to put some content out for the coming weeks. The Season proper will launch in February as usual. Whether the episode numbering will tick up to 101 in this intercalary period remains to be seen, but for this week, at least, we'll keep with the convention for giving fractional numbers to minisodes. This time around, Pooka has a chat with Bloodied Porcelain about Hallowed Haven Studios about their upcoming Changeling: the Dreaming actual play, "District of Dreams"! The first live episode will launch on Friday the 10th, so we hope you'll be able to tune in... but if not, audio recordings will be available thereafter on their website and on podcast platforms near you. For more information and other ancillary material—teasers, prologues, etc.—check out the various HHS places around the interwebs: Website: https://hallowedhavenstudios.com/ District of Dreams home page: https://hallowedhavenstudios.com/district-of-dreams/ Hallowed Haven on Twitch (for watching live): https://twitch.tv/hallowedhavenstudios Hallowed Haven on YouTube (for post-viewing): https://www.youtube.com/@hallowedhavenstudios Hallowed Haven on Discord (for community chatting): https://discord.gg/hallowedhaven Their Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hallowedhavenstudios And our own interweb scramblings can be found at: Discord: https://discord.me/ctp Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your host Pooka G (any pronoun/they) lived in DC for a while, but had to go to Virginia just to find green hair dye, because DC was that kind of town. You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists. —Abbie Hoffman

Woo-hah! We got here at last. Yule is upon us and it's time for another State of the Podcast before we enter our Winterregnum period. As stated before, there will likely be a bit of content here and there through the coming weeks, but—with one or two possible exceptions—no full episodes until some point in February. And when we come rocketing back at that point, well, we have a thing or three in store for you. In this bit of bonus content, we're talking about statistics from the Season, plans for the next one, little life updates, and whatever else crossed our brains on a chilly weekday night. Although we won't be releasing much to the winter airwaves, you are still welcome to get in touch with us through the usual socials below! The conversation rolls on, and if you don't want to miss what's happening, our freeholds are always welcome to you: Discord: https://discord.me/ctp Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has set up the nocker sugar shack what makes the Glamour syrups and chimerical caramels. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) offers heady sacrifice to the gods in eager anticipation of First Snow...! Et quand viendra l'hiver aux neiges monotones, Je fermerai partout portières et volets Pour bâtir dans la nuit mes féeriques palais. (And when old Winter puts his blank face to the glass, I shall close all my shutters, pull the curtains tight, And build me stately palaces by candlelight.) —Charles Baudelaire, "Paysage" (tr. George Dillon)

Like any grumps, we often ruminate on the past and what it has (and hasn't) brought us. After the closing of the old White Wolf forums post-Time of Judgment, those in search of community found our way to various places on the internet, one of the most noteworthy of which for the two of us was Shadow'n'Essence, a message board forum with extensive space for each of the WoD lines (and more!) in the 2000s. You may have heard us wax poetic about it in our online games episode a couple weeks ago. The vibrant atmosphere and creative energy among the Changeling fans in particular is something still fondly remembered, and sometimes people turn up years later to talk about it—like Chris Bern (aka Swordsman), former coordinator (aka Vilicus) of the Changeling section of the site, who joins us for this minisode walk down memory lane. Tune in to hear us talk about things as they once were, and if you were on SnE, we'd be delighted to hear from you...! Chris' repository of Changeling bits from the days of yore can be found at: https://theshepherdsfreehold.wordpress.com/. And as for us, it's the usual mishmash of places: Discord: https://discord.me/ctp Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (zenten) absconded with a Glamour slushie machine and the gods of internet past can't have it back. Pooka G (AlecRavager) will use however many Chronos Unleashings it takes to stir the slumbering PHPbeast. Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to min'? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days o' auld lang syne? —traditional, adapted by Robert Burns

Once again, it happened...! Pooka is in attendance at PAX Unplugged this weekend, and spent Friday afternoon rushing around doing on-the-spot interviews with creators whose work is somewhat Changeling-aligned. Herein are five short interviews about games that touch on the fae, dreams, imagination, and more. The sound quality in this minisode is particularly awful, which is what happens when you're doing interviews in a giant hall filled with 10,000 people, but at least everybody was as lovely and informative as they could be on a frantic day. Hopefully these will inspire you to seek out new and interesting games to expand your horizons, and if you happen to be at the convention, check out the booths in questions! The various creators and their web presences: Imagining Games (publisher of Broken Tales): https://www.imagininggames.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/imagining_games/ World Champ Games by Adam Vass (publisher of Babes in the Wood and Ever Dream This Man?): https://www.worldchamp.io/ Osprey Games (publisher of Through the Hedgerow and The Terror Beneath): https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/osprey-games/ NerdBurger Games by Craig Campbell (publisher of Good Strong Hands): https://www.nerdburgergames.com/ Rown, Rook & Decard (publisher of DIE, Spire, and Royal Blood): https://rowanrookanddecard.com As for ourselves... Discord: https://discord.me/ctp Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your host Pooka G (any pronoun/they) has no voice today, and must game. (Credit to Mike from Darker Days Radio for this too-true line.) The thing about performance, even if it’s only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities. —Daniel Day-Lewis

Maybe it's pretty obvious that we do a lot of gaming online nowadays, and that as hosts of a podcasts, we are thorough netizens who have thoughts and feelings about the interwebs. Nevertheless, online games have their own particular dynamics, opportunities, and cultures that we thought it might be good to explore, for people who are less or un-familiar with the experience. We're joined by veteran Storyteller of online gaming, Fetch, who shares wisdom from her extensive experience, which we compound with hoary reminisces about the forums and text-based ditherings of yesteryear (which we would not trade for anything of this world). This isn't an episode about the digital Dreaming itself, although maybe that's yet another entry for the Season 4 wishlist; this is an episode about how, through gaming, to dream digitally. Some of the links we discussed in the episode include: Lot-Casting Atemi, a tool for all your Exalted character management needs: https://www.lotcastingatemi.com/ Hammertime, the location-sensitive timestamper for Discord: https://hammertime.cyou/ Fetch's independent games including Necromancer and Do Androids Run on Electric Spoons?: https://ameliafetch.itch.io And her Bluesky as well: https://bsky.app/profile/ameliafetch.bsky.social As for ourselves: Discord: https://discord.me/ctp Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) once used Metamorphosis with Prop 5 and Scene 5 to briefly transform all of mIRC into a single honeybee. Pooka G (any pronoun/they), upon seeing in online game a (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻, will politely do a ┬──┬◡ﾉ(° -°ﾉ). On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog. —Peter Steiner

In the annals of Changeling history, there are many books that have been promised without coming to fruition. The Changeling atlas, Kingdom books beyond Willows, Book of Glamour... the litany goes on. Things are less clear for C20, but one title with a particular twisty path was By Night Studios' Mind's Eye Theatre: Changeling, which was almost official before it was de-officialized, and then eventually released on the Storytellers' Vault, but with a different team, even though their books for the other lines are official... or something. In any case, at nearly 400 text-dense pages, this is by far the largest homebrew Changeling product on the Vault, and its vaguely formal connections to the line meant that it was a candidate for reading. Pooka is joined by special LARP correspondent Amanda to talk about the book's evolution, particulars, and reception within the community. Much mixing of opinions ensues! You can purchase the PDF from https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/326469?affiliate_id=3063731 if you're so inclined. Amanda also recommends reading the essay "The Economy Cool" by Jason Andrews at https://jasonbandrew.com/role-playing-games/role-playing-game-articles/the-economy-of-cool/. And naturally, if you want to get in touch with us, you can reach out via any of the following: Discord: https://discord.me/ctp Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your host Pooka G (any pronoun/they) wonders if the mind's eye is covered by the company vision plan. The thing about performance, even if it’s only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities. —Daniel Day-Lewis

Dive into the enchanting world of Lycians and Chimera, exploring their rich lore and gameplay intricacies. Reflect on the bittersweet conclusion to the Player's Guide journey as the hosts critique gameplay mechanics and crafting challenges. Discover the emotional depth of companions and the importance of player agency in character development. The discussion touches on future community engagement and the vibrant creativity sparked by the game, leaving listeners excited for what might come next.

What do you get when you cross the infinity of the Dreaming's possibilities with eight billion humans? Questions about how many of them are changelings, that's what. This week, we're applying the art/science of demography to the fae, throwing numbers and proportions and calculations around like so much spaghetti, so that we can see what sticks. You may ask, why does this matter—but how many and what kinds of changeling are running around the setting for your game will impact its feel. And not just the fae themselves: a local expression of the game's themes and moods depends upon Dreamers, Autumn People, and even just those mundane humans we talked about last time. So take note, Storytellers! We hope that after listening, you too will be able to graph a demo, Dreaming-style. The spreadsheet to which Josh refers to throughout the episode, with some proposed numbers based on the population of various divisions of Concordia, can be found at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rv_S2aGs1VtfeCvhyOoq_iZ10w9Eag2ERlo-UONllcY. We also refer to two episodes from our sibling show, Mage: the Podcast, on the subject of games with high numbers of mages and low numbers of mages, and how adjusting those numbers creates a different play experience. Pooka may have been using Chronos when talking about these, as it appears only the former has actually been released thus far. Nevertheless, check it out at: https://magethepodcast.com/running-and-playing-low-mage-count-games/. Our own bureaux of statistics: Discord: https://discord.me/ctp Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) bribes fae of the Kingdom of Northern Ice into filling out the census form with maple syrup dross. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) traverses the Kingdom of Apples in a balloon-ship, dropping leaflets about the benefits of mixed-use zoning. A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it. —Agent K in Men in Black

Changelings, lest we forget, are part human. Spending time in a meatsack isn't always Glamourous or exhilarating (though it can be both), but it's an inherent part of their experience that can be interesting both in and of itself, and as a contrast to the escapist fantasies that the Dreaming is built on. Yet players and Storytellers often gloss over those aspects of the characters that populate their games. So! We're here this week to try and redeem mortal life in Changeling a bit, giving due consideration to some of the more human elements that might come up at the table. Day jobs and homework, customer service interactions and strangers on the street, Dreamers and Kinain and Autumn People alike... there are many possibilities that you can explore. Naturally, we won't be covering them all, but maybe some of the tidbits here will help you craft a game experience that feels a little more real and useful for when you step away from the table at last. Our perfectly mundane contact information: Discord: https://discord.me/ctp Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcast your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) is fourth on the leaderboard for messing with Autumn People in the halls of Canadian government. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) might not be Kinain, but plays one on TV. And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack And you may find yourself in another part of the world And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife And you may ask yourself, "Well... how did I get here?" —Talking Heads, "Once in a Lifetime"