Changeling the Podcast

Dive into a whimsical exploration of the German supplement 'Trolle, Träumer, Tiefe Wälder.' Discover how German folklore influences changelings and their kiths, with historical context stretching from post-World War I to modernity. Unpack the dynamic interactions between supernatural beings and humans. Experience a darkly comedic changeling adventure at a garden party filled with mythic challenges. Plus, enjoy contrasts between German and British folklore that enrich this enchanting narrative.

And now for something rather different... we're stepping out of the Changeling canon and into the wonderful world of late 90s/early 00s homebrew with Changeling: the Celtic Cycle. Written by three World of Darkness authors, CtCC radically re-imagines the world of Changeling: no Glamour and Banality, no Dreamers to cultivate, no Dreaming separate from the Umbra. Instead, the fae in this version of the game are directly inspired by Celtic mythology and epic. The supplement was released in three installments as part of a zine, in all its early-days-of-desktop-publishing glory, and is as much an interesting historical artifact for that context as for its contents. But the authors also went on to be involved in Book of Lost of Houses, Dark Ages: Fae, and Changeling: the Lost, with all of which we see a few subtle connections... The text is findable online, but we'll also have it available in our Discord (link below!). Some other links include: A few homebrew books by Pooka that poke at a couple of these themes are mentioned in this episode, which you can snag at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/381967?affiliate_id=3063731, https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/418295?affiliate_id=3063731, or https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/412055?affiliate_id=3063731. While the links provided in the notes at the end of the supplement are mostly defunct or broken, a couple of them have stood the test of time... we would point you in particular to https://pantheon.org/, the Encyclopedia Mythica (a one-stop source for many a folkloric tidbit before Wikipedia was a thing), and https://www.luminarium.org/mythology/ireland/, a hefty collection of Irish myth in particular. Need some Irish curses on the spot? Take your pick from https://www3.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/donncha/focal/features/mallacht (the modern one) or https://www3.smo.uhi.ac.uk/sengoidelc/donncha/maldacht (Old Irish). As always, our own passel of social media 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) went looking for Changeling: the Danish Cycle, but only found a kith that could shapechange into flaky pastries. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) favors the Branch of Rhiannon, for which one sympathy is to wear a full-on Stevie Nicks ensemble. High on the mountain stands a boat But are they gods or real folk? We can't see the fire but we smell the smoke Who'll take the plough? Who'll be the yoke? –Horslips, "Trouble with a Capital T"

Wanderers and storytellers, tricksters and rapscallions... we're diving this week into Kithbook: Eshu and all that it has to teach about this most wonderfully wayward of Kithain. This was the last full-length Changeling: the Dreaming supplement for something like fifteen years, and as presumed final entries go, it was an intriguing one. (The last page of the original print edition, though, with the ad for a book that would never materialize... that was kind of heartbreaking.) We discuss levels of appropriateness for incorporating Yorùbá religion as this book does, get into the weeds about Birthrights, and ask important questions, such as "Talecraft: why?" It's a bittersweet sunset to 2nd Edition, all things told. And what could be more Changeling than that? Wend your way over to https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/174?affiliate_id=3063731 if you'd like to purchase the PDF. And why stop there? Let your path continue to any of the following places to find out more about the show and connect with 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 your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) travels by a compass that points in nonexistent directions, like "south–north-up" and "otherwards". Pooka G (any pronoun/they) will put a girdle round about the Earth in forty minutes. 千里之行始於足下。 Qiān lǐ zhī xíng shǐ yú zú xià. [A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.] —Laozi, loosely translated

It's the weekend of PAX Unplugged, a three-day convention for all forms of non-digital gaming in Philadelphia, and Pooka got themself a media badge. So, in an effort to justify that, they went around doing on-the-spot quick interviews with a number of RPG creators whose work is Changeling-adjacent (mostly fairytale and mythology themed). Please forgive the sound quality; the interviews were conducted using a tiny microphone in a crowded and busy expo hall, and voices don't always travel well through N95 masks. Nevertheless, here's hoping these broaden your horizons, and if you're at PAX today, here are four booths you might want to check out... The interviews are presented in the order in which they were conducted, as are the information about the creators below: Andrew Valkauskas (Pendelhaven Games): https://www.fateofthenorns.com Fate of the Norns: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/112998?affiliate_id=3063731 Charles Ryan (Monte Cook Games): https://www.montecookgames.com/author/charles-ryan/ Old Gods of Appalachia: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/447290?affiliate_id=3063731 We Are All Mad Here: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/327782?affiliate_id=3063731 Charles Ferguson-Avery: https://www.instagram.com/charlie_fergusonavery/ Feral Indie Studio: https://feral-indie-studios.itch.io/ Into the Wyrd and Wild: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/264022?affiliate_id=3063731 Stephen Dewey (Cavalry Games): https://cavalrygames.com/ We Serve Her Wintry Hunger: https://cavalrygames.com/to-serve And as usual, for CtP's own points of contact: 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) never met a fae-themed TTRPG they didn't like. Except for THAT one!

We're returning to the world of Live-Action RolePlaying this week, as we flip through the second and final of the Mind's Eye Theatre books produced for Changeling. Author and developer Peter Woodworth returns to talk about the creation of the Shining Host Player's Guide. Even if you prefer throwing dice around the table to dressing up and cantripping through the woods, there's plenty in this volume that enriches the setting. Mannikins with stories, Shadow Court slice of life, secret society emblems, elaborate court politics... as we draw ever closer to the end of the 2nd edition line, it's nice to be reminded that there was quality content even in the jaws of Judgment. (It's also nice to be reminded of the community's passion for keeping the game alive.) The book is available for purchase at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/1490?affiliate_id=3063731, and you can find/contact Pete at his website, Positively Woodworthian: https://peterwoodworth.com/! For our part, behold a mishmash of social media: 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) leads a secret society of Canadian nockers whose emblem is a maple leaf soaked in engine grease. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) hasn't tried to wear prosthetic ears since the Spirit Gum Incident of 2008. 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

Sometimes a House isn't so much lost as misplaced, but sometimes you misplace four and a half of them. This was how the sidhe did back at the turn of the millennium, but good news! Those waywards are coming back through the gates in Book of Lost Houses: The Second Coming, the tome that gave us Houses Aesin, Beaumayn, Daireann, Arcadian Scathach, and Varich to round out the complement of noble branches to thirteen. (Because if there's one thing Changeling needed, it was more nobles.) Even though they all differ slightly from their updated versions in the 20th Anniversary edition, the history and background in BoLH is helpful for any player who wants to run a character from one of these five. This is the first and basically last place they appeared, so listen in as we read through for the choicest tidbits. If you'd like to snag the book for yourself, pick it up at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/44?affiliate_id=3063731. And as mentioned in the episode, we snagged the errata, which you can get from us on the Discord! How do you reach the Discord, you ask, and perhaps other social media platforms you hadn't intended to find? WELL— 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) supports the expansion of Aesin industriousness into other occupations, like "numismatist" and "confiseur". Pooka G (any pronoun/they) prefers the Daireann meritocracy, where you get ahead by way of bear hugs and punches in equal measure. Все счастливые семьи похожи друг на друга, каждая несчастливая семья несчастлива по-своему. Vse schastlivyye sem'i pokhozhi drug na druga, kazhdaya neschastlivaya sem'ya neschastliva po-svoyemu. [Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.] —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

It's a time-honored tradition among Changeling groups to construct their own kiths, but the process has always been idiosyncratic. Doing justice to folklore and balanced game mechanics don't always go hand in hand. Luckily, the 20th Anniversary Edition has provided a basic template for creating them, so we're taking the opportunity to do a short kith-building workshop, wherein the nymphs finally get their due. (Yes, yes, Inanimae: the Secret Way tried to definitively re-cast them as Sessile Ones, but we defy that idea.) Join us as we scrape together the bits of precedent for the kith, and talk through the questions-and-answers process in C20 as applied to them. Perhaps it will give you some grist for the mill to create your own...! We mentioned two homebrew products by members of our community that informed the approach here. Check out Aaron Siddall and Andrew Goodman's Roots of Legend on the Storytellers' Vault here: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/354523?affiliate_id=3063731, and Charlie Cantrell's 5th edition hack for Changeling here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XCSfDfJUNFm6d9f0omHzQ-rt7U0kkR7b/view. As for our own presence in various places online, you might have some luck with the following platforms. It's worth mentioning that subscribers to our Patreon are getting a peek at some bonus content related to this episode today... 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 slung syrup with the nymph grump keeper of a much-storied, well-loved sugar shack. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) hunts for faults in the game mechanics that will produce the MISSINGNO. kith. To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. —Thomas Edison (like he would know...)

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"