Episodi
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And so here we are. It's time to open up the last few chapters of the Changeling 20th Anniversary Player's Guide, thereby ending our readthroughs of the game's canon. Feels weird, to be honest. When we started the show, it felt like we'd be going through the library of official texts forever, and now that there are no more, there's a bittersweetness much like when the game was canceled (and then canceled again). We don't know whether it will reincarnate in the future, as the fae are wont to do, but if there's one thing the last three years have taught us, it's that the community is as vibrant and inventive as it ever was. So while we're discussing Síocháin and Imprints and Lycians and swan maidens on this episode, our thoughts are already reaching forward to see what new dreams are on the horizon. (And we hope you'll continue with us on that journey...!)
Once again, the book can be purchased at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/274520?affiliate_id=3063731, and if you want to listen to our previous two episodes on the title:
Chapters 1 and 2: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-92-c20-players-guide-part-one/Chapter 3: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-95-c20-players-guide-part-two/And if you'd like to get in touch with us, the options are ample!
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) jousts every Wednesday with the snarky Oppidan guarding the Chaudière Bridge. Or is that Pont de la Chaudière?Pooka G (any pronoun/they) wears Goth voile that gives all movements fierce angles and has unlimited throwing shapes up the fishnet sleeves.
It is today that we must create the world of the future. —Eleanor Roosevelt
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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/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh 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
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Episodi mancanti?
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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/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh 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 shackAnd you may find yourself in another part of the worldAnd you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobileAnd you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wifeAnd you may ask yourself, "Well... how did I get here?"—Talking Heads, "Once in a Lifetime"
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It's that time again! This second installment of our trilogy of episodes on the Changeling 20th Anniversary Player's Guide continues as we flip through Chapter Three. What's that, you say? An entire installment on a single chapter of a single book? Well, yes, because this "World of Dreams" section takes up a third of a dense text and covers a lot of ground, visiting four continents in swift succession. We're taking an honest look at how the fae histories of these regions are handled, the kiths that dwell there, and the stories one might be able to tell that connect with the game as a whole. Slight spoiler: we have a bone or five to pick, and honestly two to three of them were immediately resolved by In the Realm of Gods and Dreams, which you can hear about at https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-90-in-the-realm-of-gods-and-dreams/. But don't let all this stop you from learning a thing or two about changelings around the world and how they got that way...!
As mentioned in our last C20PG episode notes, you can pick up the PDF (or print on demand book) at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/274520?affiliate_id=3063731. Visit our own digital world of dreams around the various platforms below if you want to contact us:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) is still searching for Carmen Sandiego.Pooka G (any pronoun/they) just realized while typing this post that Brazilian Carnival didn't get mentioned once, which is getting added to this chapter's ever-lengthening list of iniquities.
I'll put a girdle round about the earth / in forty minutes.—Robin Goodfellow, A Midsummer Night's Dream, II.i.175–176
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What is love? (Baby, don't hurt me!) In the context of tabletop RPGs, sex and relationships and all the matter around them can be tricky business to navigate for players and Storytellers alike. In the context of romance and Changeling, there are all sorts of specific considerations to think about. What are the norms of chivalrous courtship in this or that noble's jurisdiction? How do cantrips complicate physical pleasure and emotional fulfillment? Can a redcap truly feel love? Questions of this sort abound in the pages of the supplements, as it sometimes seems like every other characters has some kind of sexual or romantic thread to their story. This episode is not an exhaustive treatment of everything that might come up in the game... but we try to cover some important topics and give some pointers about handling at the table.
As for links...! We alluded to the recent episode at our sibling-show, Mage: the Podcast, on this topic; check it out at https://magethepodcast.com/adding-romance-to-games-with-friday-stout-and-sebastian-yue/. We made reference as well to our Session Zero episode (https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-38-session-zero/) on hashing out discussion around sensitive topics before you jump into a chronicle. And as usual, you can reach out to us strictly platonically at:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) theorizes that non-binary polycules are held together by them-ical bonds.Pooka G (any pronoun/they) prefers to get to know people in the deuterocanonical sense.
Love, love is a verb;Love is a doing wordFearless on my breath——Massive Attack, "Teardrop"
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Changeling: the Dreaming's tagline is as a "game of modern fantasy", and it deals with folklore, epics, and magic... so when you talk to most people about it, they rarely bring up science fiction as a genre that the game ties into. We beg to differ. Dreams of technology, visions of futures utopian and dystopian alike, the consequences of humankind's hubris, and alien anxiety all fit very neatly into the setting. We're taking the opportunity to discuss how you might incorporate some of sci-fi's themes and ideas into your game, both generally and specifically. As with most such discussions, the topic is waaayyyy bigger than we could cover in a single episode, but we hope that this tip of the asteroid—along with the many media we name-drop throughout—will serve as inspiration for you to make your game as bombastically SCIENCE!-y as can be.
One of those name-dropped texts is the noteworthy homebrew Countless Dreams, available on the Storytellers' Vault at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/314491?affiliate_id=3063731. Do consider giving it a flip-through and seeing if it's your kinda thing! And while you're clicking around on the intertubes, you might as well scope out some of our online presence as well:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) keeps appointments in stardates to three decimal places.Pooka G (any pronoun/they) built an ansible but couldn't connect it to 5G, so the superluminal calls keep dropping.
It is said that science fiction and fantasy are two different things. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, and fantasy is the impossible made probable.—Rod Serling
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It begins...! We couldn't bring ourselves to go through Changeling 20th Anniversary Edition Player's Guide (quite a mouthful, but we have to distinguish it from the original) in one go, both because it's an incredibly dense text and because it's the Last Book. So, we're splitting it up into a trilogy of episodes. This first one covers Chapters 1 and 2, with an overarching theme of "politics and society among the Kithain." One of our episode ideas was to talk about politicking in the context of Changeling, so this kind of gets at that. Yet there are also numerous setting pieces to cover here which are somewhat tangential to that topic: Banner Houses, "secret" societies, opinions about anarchy. We do our best to give everything a fair shake, even for the stuff that may not deserve one.
The tome itself is available on the Storytellers' Vault at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/274520?affiliate_id=3063731. And naturally, if you'd like to drop us a comment, you have a surfeit of options for doing so...!
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) remembers when the Acadian sidhe had not a Resurgence, but a tintamarre.Pooka G (any pronoun/they) wonders whether there are any foodie Banner Houses who get to just lounge around eating Dreamer-made desserts (and if so, are they taking applications).
POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.—Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
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It's been a while since we've done a dive into media, so—here goes! Friend of the show Charles Siegel joins for Pooka for a discussion of how video games and tabletop games inform and resemble each other. We go through a shortlist of ten titles for inspiration to round out this series of episodes (for now) (the other big one is music, and no way are we getting the rights to do that one). In our opinion, each of these games features a variety of elements that tie into those of Changeling: the Dreaming. Obviously, there are a lot more out there, but a shortlist seems sufficient for our purposes. We're of the opinion that video and tabletop games inform each other If you'd like to acquaint yourself with the titles in question, behold some videos:
American McGee's Alice (2000) — opening video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSMZsT4UhyQBraid (2008) – trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtSKkyJgFMFinal Fantasy (so many years) — here's the piano collection for FFVI as one example of Uematsu's music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SJisxnVFZoKingdom of Loathing (2003 – present): https://www.kingdomofloathing.com/Persona 4 (2008) – opening video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73LvR8V2LAPokémon Go (2016 – present) – one of many rare Pokémon hunts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLdWbwQJWI0Psychonauts (2005) – trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDbDShqvc_oTandem: A Tale of Shadows (2021) – trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKiv1skvUJQUntitled Goose Game (2019) longplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gruIyw_AHYEYume Nikki (2004) – longplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr4iJL1LZwYMeanwhile, Charles can be found around the following parts of the interwebsphere:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/charlessiegelStorytellers' Vault: https://www.storytellersvault.com/browse.php?author=Charles%20SiegelTellurium Games: https://www.tellurium.games/As for ourselves, drop us a line at any of the following:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostPooka G (any pronoun/they) used to tear it up at Dance Dance Revolution and is still proud of that A+ on "So Deep".
You have no chance to survive make your time. HA HA HA HA.—Cats, Zero Wing
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For many years, the Changeling community has longed for a better take on the hsien of East Asia. In our previous episode on their introductory 2e supplement, Land of Eight Million Dreams, we discussed at length how these fae were portrayed in... not the greatest fashion, and it's a characterization that the 20th Anniversary didn't really fix. But! The latest release from Hsienfan on the Storytellers' Vault, In the Realm of Gods and Dreams, breathes new life into what was a sometimes confusing, often cringey group of changelings, and manages to re-write many of the assumptions about the game along the way, both systems and setting. We had the opportunity to sit down with the author and walk through the book in its entirety. The open dev process used for its creation means that you may have seen glimmers and drafts along the way; now we have a 300+ page chomker in all its glory to digest. lf you've been eagerly looking for some thorough information about its contents, well, here goes...
(Hsienfan's appearance on our show is also dedicated to his wife, Coco Vanille, without whose publishing prep and prowess this book would not exist. Forgetting to mention this in the outro is purely on Pooka, who is terrible at reading everything in emails, and missed this request. Many thanks from us as well to Coco for helping make this tome a reality!)
You can pick up the book at the Storytellers' Vault by visiting https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/492660?affiliate_id=3063731, and here are some other internet places to check out on the side:
The RPG.net forum thread to ask author questions: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/in-the-realm-of-gods-and-dreams-q-a-on-asian-urban-fantasy.922068/Reddit Q&A: https://www.reddit.com/r/WhiteWolfRPG/comments/1f115so/in_the_realm_of_gods_and_dreams_qa_hsien_nostalgia/Our episode on Land of Eight Million Dreams, for reference: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-54-land-of-eight-million-dreams/And as usual, you can bother us via:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) has waiting been waiting too many years already for the film Moderate Trouble in Sensible Canada. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) journeyed into the West and all they got was this lousy T-shirt.
Half of the poetry of life would be gone, if we did not feel that life was either a dream, or a voyage with transient travelers.—Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living
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And so we return! We're coming back from hiatus a little bit later than anticipated, both because it was a busy summer, and because we realized there aren't really that many episodes to get through before the end of the year. So, now that it feels more like autumn in this bit of the world, it's time to get through the rest of C20 and ancillary things on our list. One of the latter is Graceful Wicked Masques, the 2nd edition Exalted book that covers the Fair Folk. While this text is solidly outside the era of "Exalted is the prehistory of the World of Darkness kinda maybe", there's still a lot of connective tissue we see between this text and Changeling: the Dreaming. (If you need ideas for Deep Dreaming games or True Fae, for example, this is absolutely a good resource.) So we are once again diving into the library and seeing what gems we can unearth...!
The book PDF can be purchased at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/58880?affiliate_id=3063731, and our previous episode on the 1st edition Fair Folk book can be listened to at https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-79-exalted-the-fair-folk/. For all other social media and communication needs, see if you can surprise us at:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) has commissioned a study on what happens when a Fair Folk gets re-un-shaped, but the PIs keep disappearing. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) applies Fair Folk charm names to baking; today is an Oats Enfolding Butter Berry-Surmounting Technique day.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness.—Laozi, Tao Te Ching ch. 1, translated by Stephen Mitchell
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One more minisode for the summer! We'll be back to our usual schedule of full episodes in September, but we thought we'd share a cross-production that we participated in a couple weeks ago. Barney Smith from Storycomic reached out to do an interview with us about Changeling: the Dreaming, our podcast, and associated thoughts. So we have shamelessly appropriated the audio from that interview and are sharing it here, which we hope will tide you over for a bit longer...
Over at Barney's site, there are a dizzying number (nearly 400! how does one even) of chats with authors of all stripes. Go have a scroll through and find a few that interest you, why don'tcha?
The website: https://www.storycomic.com/The podcast (or one of them): https://storycomic.podbean.com/The YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm6frhFag219q2lHM7Fa4qQAnd as usual, if you'd like to get in touch with us, our socials are below:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) has been spotted at anywhere that's anywhere in the best parts of Ottawa. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) has scuttled away from detection behind the finest trash cans in Philadelphia.
Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.—O. Henry
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A surprise minisode, just in time for Highsummer week! We've talked about the Immortal Eyes novels, we've talked about the Anthology of Dreams, and we've even mentioned Pomegranates Full & Fine... but what about the rest of the Changeling fiction from the 90s? This includes The Splendour Falls, a short story collection released in tandem with 1st edition; "Playing with Fire", part of the Essential World of Darkness omnibus; and "The Muse", a story in the following Quintessential World of Darkness omnibus. Pooka managed to get their hands on physical copies of each—since they are not available in PDF form, and long out-of-print—to read and expound upon their contents. It's a bit of filler until we get into the second half of Season 3 (soon!), but hopefully will whet your appetite for more.
For our previous episodes on TTRPG tie-in fiction and its relevance to the game, check out:
Our episode on the original Immortal Eyes trilogy: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-33-the-immortal-eyes-novels/Our conversation about Vampire/Changeling crossover, which touches on the novel of same: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-47-changeling-vampire-crossover/Our recent diversion into the C20 fiction offerings: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-81-anthology-of-dreams-cup-of-dreams/Per the announcement at the start of the episode, please also check out friend of the show Fetch's new game, The Necromancer, at: https://ameliafetch.itch.io/the-necromancer! This was written for the QUEER WRATH game writing jam (https://itch.io/jam/queerwrath) and has been simultaneously submitted to the Trans FURY jam (https://itch.io/jam/trans-fury-jam).
And while we are lazing our way through the days of summer, you can find us as always at:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostPooka G (any pronoun/they) believes that life is indeed stranger than fiction, but pretty mundane when compared to sea shanty.
I am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories.—Washington Irving, "To the Reader"
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And so we come once again to a bit of downtime, as we wind up the first half of Season 3. It's just another minisode on the eve of the solstice, to let you know where things stand and what we've been up to, plus some of our plans when we return in six weeks, give or take. We're getting our schedule of recordings together and making plans for getting through some books we want to read, and thinking ahead to our Changeling 30th Anniversary celebration next year... but mostly we're looking forward to a bit of rest and relaxation. Thanks for your continued support, and keep an eye out for our return!
In the meantime, stay up to date with our summery goings-on at:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) will be spending the break perfecting that flan recipe. Flan for everyone! Flan for ever.Pooka G (any pronoun/they) is typing this from the other side of the planet, due to Secret Piskey Tendencies.
Vacation is what you take when you can't take what you've been taking any longer.—The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz
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We were going to just release this bit of content as Patreon content because it's our shortest yet, but by popular demand, here it is as a minisode...! For all of you Storytellers who feel the need to hide yourselves away from your players, or maybe just shield your dice from revealing too much, the Storyteller's screen is a time-honored tool of the trade. Changeling has had three over the years, one for each edition: some flimsy cardboard, some slightly sturdier cardboard, and most recently for C20, a glossy masterpiece of solidity. For the next eight and a half minutes, we give some comparative notes on what one finds there. May it be helpful to anyone in the market for a physical piece of obfuscation!
Ourselves, we hide behind the following:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) has a screen that just keeps unfolding until it fully encloses the Storyteller in an geodesic cardboard fort.Pooka G (any pronoun/they) prefers to Storytell from a raised dais, concealing dice rolls and notes from the plebs with lights and smoke.
I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself.—Henry David Thoreau, Walden
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Yes, we already did an episode on those long-suffering boggans, but don't you think they deserve another? Having dealt with the fanmade "old" Kithbook: Boggans previously (check out https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-77-old-kithbook-boggans/), we are now moving on to the new Kithbook: Boggans, released as a Kickstarter goal for C20. In the spirit of the older editions' kithbooks, the text deals with boggan history and society, some famous examples of their kith, and tidbits of lore for the discerning crafty-fae. This rounds out at last the full set of kithbooks from the original commoners (because the sidhe had plenty of their own books already), and also our slate of Lost in the Library episodes before our summer hiatus...! So we hope this will tide you over for book content, for the time being.
You can purchase the book at: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/242685?affiliate_id=3063731
Feel free to stop by our other spaces online, as long as you wipe your feet first:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) judged the Craftlympics this year and doesn't regret giving a "3" to that one wilder; they know who they are. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) wonders if the Wife of Bath would be on Tinder.
It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.—Bilbo Baggins in J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
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The freehold is the center of changeling life, providing safety, community, and a connection to the Dreaming for wayward Kithain. But what makes each of them unique? We get some extensive systems and suggestions to answer this question in Book of Freeholds, a C20 supplement that greatly expands previous editions' take on building them. It's a short but dense book, and in this episode, we scour it for the double handful of drossy tidbits that players and STs alike will find useful.
You can purchase the book at: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/239407?affiliate_id=3063731
And follow the trod to find us at:
Discord (our digital freehold!): https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) is well known hither and yon for keeping a tidy, ship-shape thorpe. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) tried to start a freehold, but bought too many decorative soaps and accidentally made a B&B instead.
My house—'t's out of the ordinary!That's right—Don't wanna hurt nobody...!—Talking Heads, "Burning Down the House"
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Alternate and/or historical settings for Changeling is always something that piques our interest. So we were keen to read the Gimme Shelter Player's Guide supplement (released April 2) that presents the fae of Swinging Sixties London. We're joined this week by the book's author, Bram Clark, who talks with us about his take on this slice of pre-Resurgence life. Clocking in at over 300 pages, the Guide is one of the longest homebrews on the entire Storytellers' Vault. Our conversation goes through the development, art, design... Bram's associated Player's Kit presaged something intriguing, but this was beyond what we expected. Hopefully this episode will give you some ideas about how to use it at your table!
Many a link below!
The book itself: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/476344?affiliate_id=3063731The pay-what-you-want Player's Kit to give you a taste: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/408608?affiliate_id=3063731Bram's website, Esoteric Orders: https://www.esotericorders.com/Bram's Instagram, showcasing some of the art and inspiration in the book: https://www.instagram.com/bramclark/We make reference to the generous character sheet work of Chris "MrGone" Leland, whom you can support by buying through the STV: https://www.storytellersvault.com/browse.php?author=Chris%20%22MrGone%22%20LelandAnd the links for our own stuff:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) asks that you not bend, spike, fold or mutilate. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) zhooshes their riah before a bona cackle with the omi-palones, and nanti scharda.
If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal.—John Lennon
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Now that we're through the corebook for C20, other supplements seem like small (but no less nourishing) potatoes. This time around is a double feature: we're flipping through Yours to Keep, the jumpstart and intro adventure for the edition, and Ready-Made Characters, a set of 13 write-ups (one for each core kith) and sample motleys to use in your game. Joining us is author of the first book, Christine Beard!, who talks about some of the process for reading, running, and writing jumpstart modules like this one. The two supplements feature some solid material to get you into the game beyond the corebook proper, so we encourage you to have a listen and hear what's what...!
Links and things:
Yours to Keep on the Storytellers Vault: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/217594?affiliate_id=3063731Ready-Made Characters on the same: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/225641?affiliate_id=3063731Christine's website, The Petite Warlock: https://thepetitewarlock.com/Christine's Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@petitewarlockChristine's actual play podcast, The Cracked Die, for Pathfinder: https://crackeddie.com/And our panoply of social media as per usual:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) runs games with ready-mades, but they are not Changeling characters; they are Duchamp sculptures. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) assumes that a horror RPG jump-start would be called a jump-scare, yes?
End, begin, all the same. Big change. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.—Aughra in The Dark Crystal
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And so we come to the third part of this trilogy, wherein we talk about changes to this edition. There are hundreds of little tweaks and adjustments to be found in the Changeling 20th Anniversary corebook, but we're focusing on a dozen of the most significant that stand out to us. (Slight spoiler: there's another big one that we realized after the fact we didn't talk about it... but luckily, it will apply in an upcoming episode as well.) We're looking at retconned metaplot, restructured magic systems, alternative ways of thinking about different groups of fae, and more. It's not that these three episodes have been the most comprehensive look possible at this edition and what it represents—it's just the most comprehensive we could bring ourselves to get through.
If you need the first two episodes in the series, or to purchase the corebook itself:
https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-82-changeling-20-walkthrough/https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-83-changeling-20-the-new-stuff/https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/210616?affiliate_id=3063731Some other bits that found passing or heavy mention in this episode include:
Our episode on War in Concordia, a text which goes deep into the late 2e metaplot: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-66-war-in-concordia/And on the subject of Inanimae: the Secret Way, the text which previously talked about the nature fae: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-53-inanimae-the-secret-way/The Changeling 30th Anniversary project we've been talkin about here and there: https://www.changeling30.comAnd the submission form for one of the books slated for that project, the Changeling Cookbook, can be found at: https://forms.gle/GMvvE26hfy628GBw9Lastly, the places you can bother us gently and politely:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) would have liked to see the Concordia map re-drawn with lines that made sense.Pooka G (any pronoun/they) could have gotten on board with the pages of each chapter having their own musky aroma.
And so the days float through my eyesBut still the days seem the sameAnd these children that you spit onAs they try to change their worldsAre immune to your consultationsThey're quite aware of what they're goin' through.—David Bowie, "Changes"
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Whew. Doing a walkthrough of the corebook was kind of a marathon, but treating it as a text in isolation is only part of the story. In this (thankfully shorter, because we recorded it the same day as the first) installment, we're drawing on our grump knowledge of the previous editions to talk about the new material in this one. There's a lot that we could have covered in that description, but we're sticking with some of the big items overall: the kith creation system, Revelry, new Thallain. Everything that builds on previous editions' systems will be covered in the third and final episode of this set, on the changes in the edition. For now, these are just some ruminations and opinions on the unexpected elements that stand out to us.
Some links to bits that we mentioned in this go-through include:
The kith creation workshop episode: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-67-kith-building-workshop/Unofficial Kithbook: Boggans by the fans: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-77-old-kithbook-boggans/Pooka's homebrew supplement, Kithbook: Ghille Dhu: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/381967?affiliate_id=3063731Minisode on Monde des Ténèbres : France: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-63-5-le-monde-des-tenebres-france/Minisode on Trolle, Träumer, Tiefe Wälder: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-71-5-trolle-traumer-tiefe-walder/And if you want to reach out to weigh in on what you think we should be doing next:
Discord: https://discord.me/ctpEmail: [email protected]: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPodPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangelingThePodcastyour hostsJosh Hillerup (any pronoun) wanted edible Treasure creation rules to roll up some nocker-crafted cheese puffs.Pooka G (any pronoun/they) demands mechanics for why so many changelings incarnate into human hosts with names nearly the same as their fae ones.
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
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