Changeling the Podcast

Just in time for Guy Fawkes Night (and a bit on the early side of our usual release day), we're looking at the breakdown of social order in fae realms... kiiiind of? Despite its title, we've uncovered in our reading that War in Concordia: The Shattered Dream is more about widespread political tensions, the occasional skirmish or violent incident, and a whole bunch of metaplot updates that, er, have all been retconned in the 20th Anniversary Edition. But! There is still plenty here to examine and appreciate, from the multifaceted accounts of then-current events to a gaggle of new and interesting NPCs. And then, there's plenty for which we wish they had done more, from the Kingdom of Apples overview (at last!) to Chapter 4's mass combat mathematical headaches. As we close in on the end of the game's original run, the chill of Autumn is in the air, but we hope the fires of revolution will warm you... The PDF of the book can be found at: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/333?affiliate_id=3063731. Our own spaces for commoner liberation are scattered around the interwebs at places like: 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) keeps a cabinet full of crackers for all the elements, from water to bug to sleaze to rubidium. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) wonders how many signal-lights to hang in the church if the attackers come by BALLOON. You tell me of degrees of perfection to which human nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances. —Abigail Adams, in a letter to her husband

They eat what they want—when they want—who they want. And what more do you need to know? Quite a bit, actually, if our readthrough of Kithbook: Redcaps is any indication. This is maybe the first book where we had serious differences of opinion about its utility: Josh says it's the best kithbook, Pooka thinks it's not worth much more than the nutritional value of the paper it's printed on. (OK, maybe that's too harsh.) But nevertheless, there are some tasty morsels in here for all kinds of would-be redcap player: connections to the primal history of mankind, details about eating habits, the usual battery of Treasures, and the wonderful bogginess of the River Hags. Join us as we make our way through this antepenultimate kithbook; whether the text nourishes you or not, we hope at least that our discussion will. For your culinary pleasure, the book is available at: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/176?affiliate_id=3063731. And herewith the menu of social media courses filled with only the cuisine of good conversation: 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) knows firsthand the bitter winds of the frozen North, and how they'd drive anyone to all-consuming hangriness. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) can't believe they ate the whole thing. Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es. [Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.] —Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Pardon us while we get a bit esoteric, but it's time to talk about time (and memory, and cyclicality). The way the fae experience it is rather different from your garden-variety fleshly linear human types—and yet at the same time, not so different at all. We're talking about the chaotic progression of time in the Dreaming and the magic that changelings use to harness it, but also their life stages and cycles of reincarnation, and how those inform the calendar they live by. As is usual for our theme episodes, we ramble our way through these and associated topics. As is unusual, we had So Many Issues with recording, which seemed appropriate. Nevertheless, we have persevered to bring you a few of our takes, so we hope you'll enjoy. This isn't a library dive, but we mention The Enchanted as a solid sourcebook for handling seemings and transitions, so if you'd care to pick it up, stop by https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/288?affiliate_id=3063731 for the PDF. And then, because Pooka is a shameless self-promoter, if you'd like to check out some of their homebrew Changeling work that deals with time and a kith largely defined by it, respectively, Book of Days (https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/412055?affiliate_id=3063731) and Kithbook: Ghille Dhu (https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/381967?affiliate_id=3063731) are both available on the STV as well! And in news from the temporal realm of Deadlines, we are still accepting submissions for our Build-a-Sluagh contest! As a reminder: email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com with a sluagh character sheet and backstory, following the C20 character creation rules. (You have the option to spend up to 100 XP to make an advanced character.) Please include everything in the body of the email, else attach a DOC or PDF. We're hoping to pick a winner by the end of this week—get your skulkers in while the shadows are still squirming. your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) never felt that the song "Turn! Turn! Turn!" needed that many exclamation points in its title. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) enjoys nonstandard temporal adverbs like "betweenhand" and "hitherforth". And they all pretend they're orphans, and their memory's like a train— You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away And the things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget That history puts a saint in every dream... —Tom Waits, "Time"

Salut, gentlefae! It's time for a solo minisode to fill in the Banal void of the working week. In this installment, Pooka discusses Le Monde des Ténèbres : France, one of the few 90s World of Darkness books not developed by White Wolf. Published by Ludis International at the start of 1997, the book only exists in French, and was the start of a series of books (which would have eventually been translated into English) that... never materialized. Each of the five major WoD lines gets a chapter, with Changeling receiving a solid 40 pages or so of material, deeply informed by French folklore, politics, and probably the home games of its authors. Pooka puts their French degree to good use in order to summarize of what's therein (including the first appearance of the morganed and korred!), so that you don't have to seek it out and translate it yourselves. Ordinarily there would be a link here to purchase the book, but such a thing does not exist for this text. It's not too difficult to knock the PDF off the back of a truck, so to speak, if you want to find your own copy. Meanwhile, for the show's own social media, it's even less difficult to find us, because we provide the links like so: 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) is, if we are what we eat, an actual sentient viennoiserie. La bonne grâce est le vrai don des fées ; sans elles on ne peut rien, avec elles on peut tout. (Gracefulness is the true gift of the fae; without them we can do nothing, with them we can do everything.) —Charles Perrault, Cendrillon

In they crawled through the long-shuttered gates, slowly they slithered into the world—the Dark-kin have arrived at last! And as we go on our flipthrough of Denizens of the Dreaming, we realized... well, not all of them are all that Dark. And they don't much act like kin. And are they even really all "of the Dreaming" any more than the Kithain? (OK, mechanically, maybe so.) We deal with these questions, and many more than we thought we'd have before we opened the thing, in this mid-Spooptober installment. The last major tranche of kiths introduced to the game, the adhene are a hodgepodge of ideas drawn from myths worldwide and tied heavily into the original game's sunset metaplot. Sworn to the Fomorians, they are the vanguard of Winter, and therefore Bad News... Check out the book at: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/111?affiliate_id=3063731. We also mention material from Charlie Cantrell's excellent supplement, Harbingers of Winter, which expands on the Dark-kin and gives a write-up (finally!) for the aslynthi: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/388455?affiliate_id=3063731. And the usual mishmash of social things from our side: 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) keeps a jar of ground Tarrarom in the cupboard for chicken, fish, and egg dishes. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) greatly admires the films of Kureksarra. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? —W.B. Yeats, "The Second Coming"

Settle down, class! If you didn't mean to attend this first lecture for the Faelosophy major, then we suggest you exit gracefully now... but if you'd just like to stay and audit, that's fine too. We're talking about Changeling metaphysics today, hashing out some of the Deeper Questions about the nature of being, the relationship between dream and reality, and what really happens when a troll walks through a doorway. Joining us again is special guest and resident metaphysicist Terry Robinson of Mage: the Podcast, to help triangulate some opinions and lay down some knowledge. Do take notes, for there will be a pop quiz down the line. A few good places to find Terry around the interwebs include: Mage: the Podcast at https://magethepodcast.com/ (through which you can also find that show's Discord, etc.) Pain in the Dice podcast at https://www.paininthedice.com/, because game are fun, but sometimes hard You probably won't find Terry at the book page for Kelefa Sanneh's Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres, but because it came up in conversation, feel free to check that volume out... ...but also, as of this posting, Terry has just released a homebrew Mage 20 book on the Umbra, so consider heading over to https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/455874?affiliate_id=3063731 and giving it a purchase! And our usual arrangement of links: 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) believes that whatever the dream of perfection might be, nockers are proof against its attainability, except when it comes to fashion. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) only exists as a concept in relation to pastries and coffees already/yet to be consumed. The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth. —Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Reverie

Egads! a crossover! We're joining forces with Josh Heath of the inestimable Werewolf: the Podcast and Terry Robinson of the redoubtable Mage: the Podcast to talk about Midnight Circus, an all-line World of Darkness book from the glory days of the mid-90s. This is back in time for all of us, relative to our respective readthroughs of each game's books, but the concept of "diabolical circus" never really goes out of fashion. So, we're doing a round robin discussion that touches on the various bits of lore, magic, mystery, and story that permeate the pages—and quite a bit there is of all of the above. You may recall that in our television episode, we mentioned Carnivàle as an inspiration for Changeling; this book taps into that same source of ideas. Now for the links! Werewolf: the Podcast lurks at https://keepontheheathlands.podbean.com/, and Mage: the Podcast dwells on https://magethepodcast.com/ Josh did an episode with us where we talked about Werewolf/Changeling crossover (https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-8-werewolf-changeling-with-josh-heath/), and while Terry has guested a few times, listen in to our episode on Mage/Changeling crossover (https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-14-mage-changeling-with-terry-robinson/) If you'd like to acquire the book for your very own, get you posthaste to https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/208?affiliate_id=3063731 And the usual mishmash of social things from our side: 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) lurks behind the Tilt-a-Whirl and messes with the gravity. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) lives in the rigging where everything and everyone is a potential trapeze. The procession moves on, the shouting is over, The fabulous freaks are leaving town. They are driven by a strange desire Unseen by the human eye... —Dead Can Dance, "The Carnival is Over"

What makes a kithbook, really? And what makes a kithbook great? Is Kithbook: Pooka, the fourth and fuzziest of the splatbooks for Changeling, a noteworthy representative of this category, or simply so much curiously stained paper to arrange on a shelf? Can these questions really be answered? Is this a rhetorical question? When you think of the pooka in all of their circumlocutory glory, do you think of fables and furries and curious mechanics for hashing out their animal forms? Or are you a Werewolf player seeking a less fraught outlet for your character's white-hot, misanthropic, environmentalist Rage? Can an entire podcast post in the interrogative mood be a type of Pooka-ese? Could we have decided to organize this post, if not this episode, any other way? Will you listen on and find out? Will you lift our spirits with your kind attention? Also, did you know that you can give feedback on our show in a bunch of places on the internet? 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) achieves an impressively low rate of cuss-language on the show for a nocker, wouldn't you say? Pooka G (any pronoun/they) isn't much of a pooka at all, are they? "Tell all the truth but tell it slant —" —Emily Dickinson

As refreshing as it was to get a taste of commoner life last week, we're not displeased to be back with the deliciously wicked warlords and courtiers of the Unseelie this time around. The lengthily-titled Pour L'Amour et Liberté: The Book of Houses 2 covers the three (at the time) Houses of the Parliament of Dreams' loyal opposition: Ailil, Balor, and Leanhaun, wyvern, serpent, and rose. (Yeah, yeah, the Ailil crest gets presented as a dragon, but in the original drawing the thing has no legs, so it's a wyvern.) It's about as long as three kithbooks if you strip out the templates and padding, so we probably get more in-depth and specific treatment of these Houses than any others in the game. Since we'd already had The Shadow Court, did we need this book? As much as we needed the first Book of Houses even though we had Nobles: the Shining Host. Does this book live up to the hype? We report, you decide. If you're into purchasing this one, check it out at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/3511?affiliate_id=3063731. We also referenced The Book of Invasions and The Ulster Cycle (specifically, the Táin Bó Cúailnge) of Irish lore, because all three Houses make use of it, having explicit ties to Ireland as they do. If you'd like to skim through these source texts yourself, there are multiple places you can do that online. Have a gander, for example, at https://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/leborgabala.html for the former and http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/sttaylor/Cooley/ for the latter. And as always, if you'd like to get in touch with us, you have a number of options: 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) steals cattle and takes names. Or is that steals names and takes cattle? Pooka G (any pronoun/they) wouldn't mind a Chronos Cage in their apartment, just to have a space to get some work done. "When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad, I'm better." —Mae West as Tira in I'm No Angel

We've heard plenty about the noble sidhe, and we'll hear plenty more. But spare a moment to think of the plights and pleasures of the common folk! Kicking off the World of Darkness' "Year of the Reckoning" in 1999 is this week's offering, Fool's Luck: Way of the Commoner. It focuses on the history of the other eight (at the time) core kiths in Concordia—and elsewhere in the world!—along with their societies, traditions, and lifeways. This is the book that gave us the tricksy pixies, the Art of Metamorphosis, and more grump war stories than have been seen before or since. And as we meander towards the conclusion of the game's 2nd Edition, the disappearance of King David continues to hang over the metaplot, as noble and commoner alike prepare for war... We're of the opinion that this is one of the more solid books in the line, so if you're in the mood to snag a copy, herewith the link: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/131?affiliate_id=3063731. Herewith also the various social media constellations in which you can contact us! 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 build-a-sluagh contest As mentioned in the episode's intro, we are currently holding a contest into the month of October in honor of the spoopiest of kiths, the sluagh. The winner will receive a physical copy of Kithbook: Sluagh, and their character will be showcased on our Discord along with two runners-up. All you have to do is send the following to podcast@changelingthepodcast.com in the body of an email, or as attachment (DOC or PDF only): A sluagh character sheet following standard C20 starting character creation rules; you may add up to 100 experience points' worth of additional dots if you wish A backstory that describes your sluagh as thoroughly as you'd like—but please try to keep it to five pages maximum! Optional: artwork, a short piece of fiction, a music playlist, or anything else that you think would enrich our understanding of your character We'll be taking entries until 10 October and announcing the winners by the end of the month. Send in your skulkiest slinking creepster today! your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) moonlights as vice-president of the Nockers' Local #621. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) plants anarchist pamphlets in every Little Free Library they can find. Sing along with the common people Sing along and it might just get you through Laugh along with the common people Laugh along even though they're really laughing at you. —Pulp, "Common People"