Changeling the Podcast

And so we arrive at the Tome of Tomes, the Volume of Volumes, the Boondoggle of Boondoggles, that is the Changeling: the Lost Second Edition corebook. Because there's way too much here to discuss in a single standard-length episode, we are splitting this into a trilogy. First is just a basic walkthrough: if you are new to Lost, or even the Chronicles of Darkness in general, we hope this will be a reasonably thorough and approachable overview of the game, its concepts and principles, and the stories you can tell. If you're a veteran of the game, we equally hope this will be a reminder of the foundations. Part two will cover some major elements that are totally new in this edition, while part three will talk about changes—a similar approach to how we handled the Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary corebook back in Season Three.

And to that end, if you're new to the podcast and scoping out these show notes for the first time, you might want to check out episodes that resemble or tie into this one:

(New) World of Darkness (1e) overview: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-102-new-world-of-darkness-1e/

Changeling: the Lost 1e corebook (part one): https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-110-changeling-the-lost-1e-corebook-part-one/

World of Darkness: Mirrors (which informed some material in here): https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-131-mirrors/

God-Machine/Chronicles of Darkness (2e) update to rules and setting: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-135-the-god-machine-update/

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary corebook (part one), for comparison: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-82-changeling-20-walkthrough/

Our Book of Gremayre homebrew mentioned in passing, because we're shameless: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-117-c30-book-of-gremayre/

Naturally, we can also provide a link to where you can purchase this corebook: https://www.storytellersvault.com/en/product/248078?affiliate_id=3063731. And links to where you can find us for questions, comments, and screams of terror!:

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

Pooka G (any pronoun/they) isn't a Helldiver in real life, but does a marvelous impression of one (before being escorted off the premises).
Amelia Fetch (she/her) regularly and merrily deploys the Royal Contracts of Dice and Pencil, from whose trials no player emerges unscathed.

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's Adventures in Wonderland

We live again.. again! In the spirit of the Autumn Court and their occasionally ill-advised sense of discovery, now that their season has come, so too has the moment where at last we dive headlong into the second edition of Changeling: the Lost. The thorny glory that is this game will need a slow and winding path of exploration, and thus we begin with the relatively easy lift of tie-in fiction. Released well in advance of the corebook, the Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology presents us with a dozen-ish slices of fae life through the incipient 2e lens. Some of these concepts will return when we get to the crunchier material; some of them will vanish into the wind like so many autumn leaves. And while we certainly vibed with certain stories over others, we... well, we certainly read them all, and now you can profit from our experiences.

So, listen along with us as we hear tales of fetches who think they're humans, Lost who think they're righteous, and baby foster swans who think they're grown-ups. Learn how treacherous the Huntsmen can be and how traitorous the Courtly politics of a freehold can become. Most of all, think on the stories you want to tell and how these examples might inform your approach to roleplaying the game, which we believe is the main benefit of tie-in fiction in the end. And dream safe: chances are we've opened gates that can never completely shut.

You can snag the collection for yourself at https://www.storytellersvault.com/en/product/210042?affiliate_id=3063731, using whatever thorny snagging implement you desire. And you might be able to snag our attention in turn using any of these:

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

Pooka G (any pronoun/they) once called a hunt for the finest pastries in all the land. Decades later, the hunt goes ever on and on...
Amelia Fetch (she/her) fended off the huntsmen with pamphlets about unionization, which has caused all kinds of drama across the Hedge.

Green wind from the green-gold branches, what is the song you bring?
What are all songs for me, now, who no more care to sing?
Deep in the heart of Summer, sweet is life to me still,
But my heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill.
—Fiona Macleod [William Sharp], "The Lonely Hunter"

Halfway through! Now that the actual play trilogy has concluded, it's time for us to treat ourselves to a bit of a break... but of course, that doesn't mean we're putting everything on pause. Today's discussion of the state of the podcast for mid-Season Five covers where we've lately been, where we presently are, and where we'll eventually be (or so we suspect). Plans for the book dives that will restart in a couple months? We've got those. A wish list for topical episodes? Sure, why not. Deep paranoia that the God-Machine has taken notice of our humble media offerings? You bet (and please keep your biomechanical appendages to yourself, O Lord). Enjoy this bite-sized summary of the season's first half as the solstice dawns, and we wish safety to you and yours.

Naturally, we won't be totally silent, if approached through the proper channels:

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) baked some tarts, for which the Knave of Hearts offered an actually quite fair market value.
Pooka G (any pronoun/they) dances through thunderstorms and takes shelter from reality, or maybe it's the other way around?
Amelia Fetch (she/her) will be offering dross mocktails with little paper umbrellas on the patio at sunset, by invitation only.

Summer is butter on your chin and corn mush between every tooth.
—Calvin and Hobbes

And so we come to the final act, part three of our actual play, wherein the heroes make a last-ditch effort to accomplish their goals. What will success look like? What will they learn or gain? Where does the story go from here? All the usual questions, and a fair number of answers, will be dealt with in this installment. Thanks for sticking with us through this experiment; if you haven't yet checked out the first and second parts, do give them a listen first! And although we are technically nearing the end of Changeling: the Dreaming's 30th Anniversary year, with this episode that makes one gross of full episodes in our archives, we are continuing with our celebratory workings as best as we can. For now, though, thus endeth the first half of the season as we prepare for our usual aestivation...

...but fear not! for we can be reached as usual via the following channels until our full-time return to the airwaves:

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

Amelia Fetch (she/her) loves a happy ending. Sometimes a happy ending just involves 100,000 rainbow balloons filled with ink and glitter.

My dear, life rarely gives us what we want at the moment we consider appropriate. Adventures do occur, but not punctually.
—E.M. Forster, A Passage to India

The legend continues as we present part two of our actual play run by Fetch, to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Changeling: the Dreaming. In this installment, our intrepid band of heroes (and we use most of those words loosely) conscript allies for their meetcute plan. The place and time are set, the subjects have been lured into participating, and the Dreaming is scintillating with expectation—but as we all know, act three is when the final obstacles must be overcome. Time will tell whether they succeed! And we should also point out that if you haven't yet had a listen of the first part of this adventure, do hop back to the previous episode to catch up. Otherwise, the importance of dramatic nobles and self-peeling vegetables might be somewhat lost on you.

If you have comments about this or other podcast business, you're welcome to check out whichever the following:

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

Amelia Fetch (she/her) runs so many games at once that her ST Screen is a tesseract of colliding combat rules and quick refs.

Je crois qu'il faut presque toujours un coup de folie pour bâtir un destin.
[A touch of madness is, I think, almost always necessary for constructing a destiny.]
—Marguerite Yourcenar