Changeling the Podcast Joshua HIllerup and Pooka Gar

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=3063731




Some 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.com



And the submission form for one of the books slated for that project, the Changeling Cookbook, can be found at: https://forms.gle/GMvvE26hfy628GBw9




Lastly, the places you can bother us gently and politely:




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) 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 eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through.
—David Bowie, "Changes"

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=3063731



Minisode 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/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) 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

Well, here we are at last...! After dozens of episodes covering the earlier days of the line, we are beginning our read of Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition, the corebook proper. This first in a trilogy of episodes will be a walkthrough of the book, giving some concise information and commentary about each chapter. It's primarily geared towards new players, but if you are a veteran at this point, we hope you'll still enjoy the refresher. Next up are an episode about the new features of this, and then some of the changes (and our feelings on them).



We reference a whole bunch of past installments in this recording, including:




Any of our media inspirations episodes, but maybe this one on films: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-50-thirteen-films-for-inspiration/



Kith creation workshop: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-67-kith-building-workshop/



Running a Session Zero for Changeling: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-38-session-zero/



Deep dive into Dreams and Nightmares (first of three): https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-39-dreams-nightmares-1-near-dreaming/



Advanced Storytelling techniques: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-55-advanced-storytelling-techniques/



Nunnehi roundtable: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-31-nunnehi-roundtable/



Deep dive into Land of Eight Million Dreams: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-54-land-of-eight-million-dreams/




And if you want to reach out to weigh in on what you think we should be doing next:




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) only needs eight more signatures for the petition to move the border of the Kingdom of Northern Ice.
Pooka G (any pronoun/they) keeps accepting tokens of enchantment, and would you believe it, they're all caramel shortbread.



The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' he asked.
'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'
—Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Behold, the bonus episode! Back in December, Pooka had a chit-chat at PAX Unplugged with Terry of Mage: the Podcast and Mike of Darker Days Radio. This was released on Mage: the Podcast a couple weeks ago, but we're cross-posting it here as some random content to tide you over until everything is ready for the C20 corebook dive in a couple days. It's just a meandering conversation about TTRPGs at conventions, the state of the hobby, and our random thoughts while sitting at a table in a room that (partway through) we were informed we really weren't supposed to be in. We're rebels like that.



Go check out:




Mage the Podcast at: https://magethepodcast.com/



Darker Days Radio at: http://podcast.darker-days.org/




And the usual get-in-touch-with-us biz:




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) tried the Dallas RPG, and it was astonishingly good, but then it turned out it was all a dream.



Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.
—Marcus Aurelius

We've spoken before about what novels and short stories bring to the World of Darkness. At best, they can provide a naturalistic feel for a lived-in world that players and Storytellers can explore; at worst, they confuse the reader and muddle the rules of the setting. There aren't nearly as many items in the data set as for other World of Darkness games (looking at you, Vampire, with your multiple clan novel series), but we received two for the 20th Anniversary Edition that bookended the line. C20 Anthology of Dreams is a collection of ten short stories that appeared before the corebook, and Immortal Eyes 4: Cup of Dreams is the fourth novel in the Immortal Eyes saga, as well as the final text released for the edition. It may be a little weird for us to combine (technically) the first and last books in the C20 run, but we decided that tackling the role of fiction like this all at once made the most sense. So we came, we read, we opined, and herein our thoughts on what these two books add to the line.



Our previous episode on the Immortal Eyes trilogy is at https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-33-the-immortal-eyes-novels/, if you'd like to do a comparative listen. You can also buy these two books at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/209390?affiliate_id=3063731 and https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/292748?affiliate_id=3063731 for a pittance!



We'd also like to highlight the Changeling Cookbook project mentioned in the intro to this episode. This is a project for our Changeling 30 initiative, to be launched next year: a dozen books released over the course of 2025, in collaboration with members of the CtP community. For this one in particular, we welcome tasty recipe submissions from our audience, which you can send in at https://forms.gle/PJspJTuMsuj4tjmr7. More information about the particulars can be found on that form; we hope you'll consider sending something in!



The usual haunts for otherwise contacting 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) drank from the Cup of Dreams and only got this lousy T-shirt.
Pooka G (any pronoun/they) used the Anthology's pages to press flower chimera, and now they're pressing back.



"Go and tell your master that we have been charged by God with a sacred quest. If he will give us food and shelter for the night, he can join us in our quest for the Holy Grail.
"Well, I'll ask him, but I don't think he will be very keen. He's already got one, you see."
—King Arthur and the French soldier in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

As much as we enjoy flipping through pages and making sweeping claims about Changeling, we have never (alas) been directly involved in the production of the official game line. So for this roundtable, we invited some guests with insider knowledge: four of the writers and developers involved with the 20th Anniversary Edition. We obviously couldn't pull the curtain back too far, but these Bears With Balloons told anecdotes, shared insights, and gave us an idea of what it's like to work on a game line like this. Much laughter ensued, and we hope you'll enjoy listening as much we enjoyed chit-chatting.



We've got a whole smörgåsbord of links this time, to point you towards everyone's various web presences and projects:




Christine Beard's website is The Petite Warlock, at https://thepetitewarlock.com/



Christine's Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@petitewarlock



Christine's Pathfinder actual play podcast, The Cracked Die: https://crackeddie.com/



Charlie Cantrell can be found as PookaKnight on many social media, such as: https://twitter.com/pookaknight?lang=en



Charlie's Changeling project Facebook page is Radio Free Arcadia: https://www.facebook.com/RadioFreeArcadiaPublishing/



Ian Lemke develops material for Green Ronin: https://greenronin.com/blog/author/ianlemke/



Ian's company, Nepenthe Games, wherein the Nevermore Gothic horror RPG: https://nepenthegames.com/



If you'd like to late-back the Nevermore Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nevermorerpg/nevermore-roleplaying-game



Peter Woodworth's website is Positively Woodworth, at https://peterwoodworth.com/



Pete and Charlie both worked on Trinity Continuum: Aether; inform yourself at https://theonyxpath.com/category/worlds/trinitycontinuum/trinity-continuum-aether/




And for our own, should you wish to get in touch 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) should have realized that attending a Round Table would be followed by a quest for the Cup of Dreams.
Pooka G (any pronoun/they) would have preferred an Oblong Dolmen, but you work with what you've got.



You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it.
—Neil Gaiman