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, hav...

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, m...

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 stag...

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 tra...

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 que...

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...

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...

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 t...

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, ye...

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 thei...

Television, it turns out, is massive . When we set out to choose ten television shows that we found inspiring for Changeling, we had no idea that there were so many options we'd end up with, even considering the criteria we set for ourselves. (We looked at shows we had seen ourselves, and ideally ones that weren't already called out as inspiration in the books.) And that was before listeners start...

Something fishy is going on this week, as we plunge into the murky waters of Blood-Dimmed Tides . Technically, this is a general World of Darkness sourcebook rather than a Changeling sourcebook, with material for the "Big Five" game lines of mostly 2nd Edition. (Coming at the start of 1999, this includes both notes about Vampire's recent Revised rules, and helpful instructions for how to party lik...

There are at least as many styles of Storytelling (or DMing, or Gamemastering, or whatever) as there are Storytellers, most of whom have Strong Opinions about the best way to do things. We've had a bit of discussion here and there over our two seasons, but this week we—along with special guest and veteran Storyteller, Fetch—are having a roundtable on advanced Storytelling techniques we favor. This...

White Wolf's "Year of the Lotus" initiative was an attempt to explore the World of Darkness' various game lines through the context of "the East" with... uneven results. Changeling was not spared, and the last book of the Year was Land of Eight Million Dreams , covering the hsien of China, Japan, and environs. There's a lot of interesting material in this book; there is also a lot of cringey, baff...

After teasing the nymphs in various shapes for nearly four years, Changeling's 2nd edition finally got around to giving us a supplement dedicated to the fae of nature. In this book's fullest presentation of who they are, Inanimae (and their Secret Way ) are elemental dreams, the product of human imagination interacting with noteworthy hunks of rock, majestic trees, pools of water, etc. They sidest...

Senses and memories and fae (oh my!) mix in very particular ways. Enchantment brings mortals into the chimerical world; the Mists blur the details of that world even for changelings. While the mechanics in are solidly established in Changeling: the Dreaming, more or less, it can be tough to incorporate those two aspects into a game. This week, we're exploring how to handle that from a Storyteller...

We're jumping over the Lughnasa bonfires to bring you our first full-on episode in six weeks...! Herewith our dive into the Changeling Storytellers' Guide . This is the only proper ST-focused volume the line ever got, and while it's uneven, there's still plenty to enjoy within. Advice on planning the story and managing the table, reprinted crossover rules and thoughts on alternate settings, art th...

Surely you didn't think we were going to leave you all completely hanging during our summer hiatus...? Granted, this is only a mini-sode, but we hope it still serves a pleasant tidbit in between are larger installments. On this occasion, we are exploring the (general) World of Darkness supplement, The Bygone Bestiary , full of all your folklore-steeped medieval-and-Renaissance creature needs. The...

A merry solstice to all! Keep an eye peeled for any fae wheelings and dealings in your neighborhood today, and be sure not to stray into any mysterious mushroom rings... In the meantime, you can also have a listen to this state of the podcast for the first half of Season 2, where we do an assessment of how things are going so far and our plans for the rest of the year. (Just a short audio morsel t...

Our fiftieth (full-length) installment! Thanks to all who have been listening, especially those with us from the start, and we hope the next fifty are enjoyable. It seemed right to close out that milestone, and the first half of Season 2, with something a bit more relaxed. So here we are with another inspirations episode, this time on thirteen films that we think are particularly suited for Change...

We'll be the first to admit that the Southern US is not our primary field of expertise, and to point out that TTRPG books—especially some of the 90s White Wolf ones—are not the greatest resource for learning more. That being said, the Kingdom of Willows supplement on the Kithain realm of the same name, covering that part of the world, is one of the more robust entries in the canon. It has its curi...

This week, we're headed back to the [dramatic music] theatre... of the MIND's EYE ! [thunder, etc.] as we have a small LARP roundtable with Ash and Will. They are two of the movers and shakers for One World by Night (OWbN), a group that organizes live-action games worldwide! The conversation covers a lot of material following on the heels of Episode 44 , where we talked with Pete Woodworth about t...

Well, we managed to get to Episode 47 without covering it, but it's time at last for our final(?) WoD gameline crossover episode. This time, we're talking about Vampire: the Masquerade and its points of connection, mechanical and thematic, with Changeling: the Dreaming. We're joined for the discussion by CtP Patron, fellow podcaster, and resident vampire expert (Bryce/)(Sand) Chigg (er), as we mea...

There was a bit of a delay for this episode—sorry! When you party with the satyrs for the sake of episode data, you party hardy. But in the end, we have some thoughts about the kith and their presentation in Kithbook: Satyrs . To overcome the fairly one-dimensional sex maniac trope, the kithbook situates them within an extensive fae history of Greece, argues that passion can go in many directions,...

When it comes to themes in Changeling, there are plenty of possibilities for discussion: the bittersweetness of time, the necessity of balance, alternative forms of horror (which we talked about back in Episode 24 ). Two closely aligned ones that interest us are queerness and kinship . The experience of the former is often paralleled by many of the game's core ideas, and the various forms of the l...