Changeling the Podcast

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...

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...

Long foretold and lately managed, we finally present our three-part actual play of Changeling: the Dreaming as part of our ongoing-if-sporadic series of things for the game's 30th Anniversary year. Storyteller Fetch leads players Elerus, J, and Medi through the chimerical landscape of Phoenix, Arizona as their Kithain characters set a plan of midsummer courtly romance in motion. What could possibly go worng? This short-run actual play continues Fetch's own long-running chronicle and will round out the first half of the season before our yearly aestivation. Sit back and enjoy the mayhem; if you've not yet had the chance...

Before the sun finally goes down on Changeling: the Lost's first edition, we've got one more text to talk about. What's that you say? We've gone through all the books and all the Dark Eras, so what could possibly be left? Well, as we prepared those final episodes, author Thomas McVey released Twilit Eildon, a homebrew title on the Storytellers' Vault. It was a surprise out of nowhere, especially because it was angled towards the first edition, so we felt it right and proper to give it a read. The book claims to delve into True Fae who might...

It's been a while since we stepped into the old World of Darkness, so today we take a quick look back for one more in our series of crossover book dives. We flipped through both the original and Revised editions of the Fianna tribebooks for Werewolf: the Apocalypse. These are the most fae-adjacent of the Garou, often in the same families as Kithain and Kinain. The first book came out before Changeling: the Dreaming existed, and the second after it had essentially finished, so we get to see two very different perspectives on how these rowdy wolves engage with...

With apologies for last week's delay, we are back on track with today's readthrough of the last Changeling-focused Dark Era in the first collection, A Grimm Dark Era. The Dark Eras' not-quite-second-edition-ness stands out most of all in this offering, and it's... noteworthy. Set in early 19th-century Germany with the publication of the Grimms' faerie tales as a backdrop, we get some curious Courts, some tantalizing tokens, and a new Seeming(!) to throw into a game. Is it the kind of material with which we can live happily ever after? Opinions shall be shared, but remember that "ever after"...

To welcome in the Seelie half of the year, behold! a surprise minisode. The original Dark Eras were accompanied by a fiction volume, Tales of the Dark Eras, featuring a number of short stories associated with the modules in the supplement. The entry "Of Ravens and Roses" is set in the 17th-century France of Lily, Sabre & Thorn, so it seemed fitting to include that in the mix. (If only it had been lily of the valley instead of roses, in celebration of the day...) Pooka reads the story in this episode—a fairly traditional Lost narrative, bedecked with the tr...

Il était une fois... as we proceed through the historical dives in the first Dark Eras volume, we arrive at the next one for Changeling: the Lost—and the first one that is only for that game, though certainly no one could object if an enterprising Storyteller felt like squeezing in a random Promethean. In this installment, Lily, Sabre & Thorn, we're headed to 17th-century France and the court of Louis XIV, the "Sun King". Versailles drips with opulence as Paris swells with the unwashed masses; the Lost creep among both, leading lives as swashbuckling as they can manage. It's a t...

Time to hop in the ol' time machine as we open (at long last) the first Dark Eras book for the Chronicles of Darkness...! These smaller modules cover specific moments and places around the world through history, presented through the lens of one or more gamelines. The first collection, released in 2016, offers 16 of these chapter-length settings, with four containing material for Changeling: the Lost. We'll be proceeding through them in chronological order, so we start today with both of the crossover chapters: Three Kingdoms of Darkness, a Geist/Changeling romp through the war-torn horrors of 3rd-century China, and Requiem...

Another week, another exploration of nWoD/CofD crossover. This time, with an eye to the upcoming Dark Eras, we're taking a look at Vampire: the Requiem and approaches to integrating it with Changeling: the Lost. There are some thematic similarities: both vampires and changelings are parasites in different ways, both have a tricksy relationship with time and memory, and both are deep into politics. (We'd also pay good money to see a Daeva/Fairest walk-off, just saying.) But how do the games align mechanically? Do Keepers take notices of leeches or might Kindred try to feed on fetches? Is...

The time has come to put aside the old new World of Darkness and move into the Chronicles of Darkness, as we read through the God-Machine rules update. This is the back half of the God-Machine Chronicle released in 2013, which revised and expanded the rules for nWoD's first edition and would later become the basis for the second edition ruleset in Chronicles of Darkness (which is also lightly being considered here). Some of the changes are small; some of them are large; and some of them are just downright baffling. But as we continue to advance through the wilderness...

A wild CROSSOVER appears...! Soon enough, we'll be getting into the historical Dark Eras settings for Changeling: the Lost, some of which involve pairings with other games in the new World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness line. We'll be moving through this semi-chronologically, and the first one on our list involves Geist: the Sin-Eaters, our topic of discussion for today. This game of mediums brought back from the brink of death with a mysterious passenger is sort of oblique to the themes of Changeling, but we have some connections to pull out from the text. Where the Hedge and...

This week, we turn once more to the wonderful world of media as we consider ten films for Changeling: the Lost inspiration. We did this previously with Changeling: the Dreaming (check out episode 50!), so it seemed like the right time to pull a similar for the other fae game. There are a couple crossover titles whose themes and plots and aesthetics work equally well in both, in our opinion... but otherwise, this list has a slightly eerier, horror-inflected vibe overall, we suppose? We've tried to keep the discussion as spoiler-light as possible, but for your edification, here are the...

Rounding out our series of "blue books" from the first edition of new World of Darkness, today we're covering Glimpses of the Unknown, a rather brief assortment of story hooks, crunchy tidbits, and setting expansion for all the extant game lines at that point. And when we say "brief," we mean 48 pages, with lots of recycled art, so this episode is on the shorter side. We're considering the book through the lens of Changeling (which gets a massive Goblin Contract and... very little else), but mentioning other games is fortuitous, as we will soon be digging into the wonderful...

Through the looking glass we go, as we consider other shapes the World of Darkness might take. A collection to spark ideas along the way is World of Darkness: Mirrors for first edition nWoD, whose pages we're riffling this time around. Alternate systems, alternate settings, and a whole lot of Storyteller insights fill these pages, from the genius to the puzzling. Nearly everything can be adapted to all of the games, but naturally we're looking at this one through a Changeling lens. Both Changeling: the Lost and Changeling: the Dreaming can make use of many ideas in here. Care...

Good things come to those who wait... so forgive us for the day of delay, but we are back with a discussion of Proverbial Monsters. This slim bestiary of creatures inspired by sayings and superstitions seemed like a natural follow-up to our dive into Urban Legends. It's not specifically a Changeling book, but most or all of the options in here can fit easily into a Lost game, so it's through that lens that we turn our critical eyes. Here's the thing, though—this book is no longer available for sale, and we can find no explanation for why. Co...

And so, with some variable amount of fanfare, we are taking a deep breath and plunging into Season Five. Taking a machete to the wilderness of nWoD, we are beginning by carving a path from the last books of Changeling: the Lost's first edition towards the Hedge of the second, tackling various other books and general concepts along the way. At the top of our upcoming slate of episodes on crossovers, generic WoD titles, and assorted inspirations, is this week's dive into Urban Legends: a collection of creatures and antagonists for any game. We're stepping back to the early...

And thus we come once again to a moment of pause in our madcap readings, as winter's chill settles over the land (in this bit of the world, anyway). We may have an episode or three up our sleeves in the coming weeks, but assume that things will be fairly quiet until about mid-February—so we hope this report on the state of the podcast will tide you over until then. The usual episode data, some reflections on accomplishments from 2025, and fervent plans for Season Five(!) make up the core of our discussion, but as with all things of th...

Ahoy ahoy! We've moved forward to step back (in time) as we reach, at long last, the final supplement for Changeling: the Lost's first edition, Victorian Lost. This short-ish volume nevertheless packs in the information as the one historical book for the line, although we will get some shorter bits in the Dark Eras sequence coming up soon. Victorian Lost is also one of the earliest books in the Onyx Path canon, as the success of Vampire's 20th Anniversary Edition showed there was still enough of an appetite for World of Darkness material to keep the books coming. It...

Changelings aren't the only ones who step outside the fleshly realm from time to time. Human magi have also been known to wander the farther spaces, and it's not unreasonable that a fae might encounter one of these upstart travelers. Mage: the Ascension's 2nd edition supplement Book of Worlds provides an in-depth treatment of how these willworkers perceive and navigate the Otherworlds. The text mainly deals with the Umbrae, but also contains the first detailed description of the Dreaming—or "Maya", to use their term. (It was early 1996, so very little had even been written for Changeling: the Dreaming at...

Once in a while, you actually want to play the game you're into. But if you can't think of a good complex plot for your players or don't have the time, what to do? Why, the pre-packaged story, of course! The first edition of Changeling: the Lost had two of these released in the "Storyteller Adventure System" or SAS format: ENnie Award-winner "The Fear-Maker's Promise" and "The Rose-Bride's Plight". And here nearing the end of the run, The Fear-Maker's Promise Compilation collects them in print, along with a pre-generated "Personae" motley. Fetch took the extra step of running both...

Whatever you need, chances are you can find it—along with a few things you absolutely don't—in the goblin markets of the Hedge and similarly liminal spaces. The market is a dumping ground for any and all story hooks, an opportunity to dole out all kinds of boons, and a space to explore the more ordinary side of fae socialization. While markets are regularly featured in Changeling: the Lost books, the eponymous book Goblin Markets goes into brisk yet exquisite detail about their mechanics and possibilities. It's a short one, clocking in at less than 50 pages, but the dens...

Once more unto the breach, dear listeners, once more... Pooka is doing the PAX Unplugged thing this weekend, and spent their Friday accosting various TTRPG creators in the expo hall for short on the spot interviews. Herewith the fruits of those labors! As always for these convention minisodes, shouting through a mask over thousands of people in a cavernous space doesn't make for the best acoustics, but hopefully everything is still audible enough for you to get a sense of these games and their creators. If you also happen to be in attendance, do check out their booths (indicated...

The start of each day is the beginning of a new world, or so they say. As we open up the other half of our pair of liminal books, Swords at Dawn, we are reminded that this is a time of change and transition, new opportunities and new directions... in theory, at least. Whether or not the book itself bears out that theme is something we discuss at length in this week's episode. This is the "player-aspected" book of the dusk/dawn pairing for Changeling: the Lost's first edition, and the last of the full-on hardcovers to be produced...

Back to the Dreaming bookshelf this week...! Pooka once again attempted to flex some language skills (with a little bit of help from WordReference) to read through Sueños en Guerra, a supplement produced as part of the Kickstarter to translate Changeling's 20th Anniversary Edition into Spanish. This short adventure has never been released in English, but the folks at Nosolorol, the official Spanish publisher for White Wolf content, were kind enough to provide a copy for review so that Pooka could skim and summarize. This minisode will cover some basics about what's in the module and a bit o...

The fae are all about liminality and change, an idea reinforced by the next pair of books we'll be considering in Changeling: the Lost's first edition run. We begin with Dancers in the Dusk, a hodgepodge of strange mechanics, curious foes, subtle magics, and new allegiances that all hearken back to the notion and feel of twilight. Sometimes this is overt, as with the Dusk Court and their focus on fatalism, and sometimes more abstract, such as when we flip through an astrological schema to talk about the symbolic nature of dreams. It's a heady mix of things that...

It's the most spoopiest tiiiime of the year...! As we enter Halloweek, it seems appropriate that we're delving into a stack of antagonists gruesome and strange for Changeling: the Lost's first edition, namely Night Horrors: Grim Fears. Heartless changelings (literally, in at least one case), peculiar hobgoblins, and stranger things abound. This was the first book in the line after their decision to extend it beyond the initial six books, so it had a lot of expectation to live up to. It's focused on its brief—seriously, it's just write-ups for possible foes, one after the other—but they're done...

We're about a month late to the balance-of-day-and-night party, but it's still very much a season of shifting light, so it's appropriate that we're wandering down the Equinox Road this week. As the last book planned for the original run of Changeling: the Lost 1e, there was a lot riding on this conclusion to the line that dealt with endgames and the final portentous trek into Faerie... except the developers then decided to keep going because the game was so popular, and the road wound on. So! We've done our best to do justice to its twists and turns...

At long last...!

So, one thing after another happened in our lives this summer, and the hiatus lasted longer than we anticipated or intended. But! We are back for another handful of episodes to round out the Season, kicking off today with a readthrough of Lords of Summer. This volume for Changeling: the Lost's first edition explored the concept of freeholds and provided a wealth of information for the four main Courts, giving us a much-needed look at the politics and society of the fae. We also get some fascinating new Entitlements for the Lost who needs...

Shh, we're not really back yet... it's still the lazy days of summer, and much needed rest and recuperation is taking place. But the slow grind of content waits for no fae, and so we are dipping our toes back into the airwaves with an episode here and episode there for the next handful of weeks. To that end, today we present On the Umber Road, a homebrew book from Thomas Milare that dropped on our heads pretty unexpectedly. The book gives a thorough treatment of the Barony of Nutfield in New Hampshire, detailing places both real and chimerical...

As we drift into midsummer night dreams, it remains only to give an accounting of the State of the Podcast before we take a semi-hiatus for the next several weeks. There are a couple episodes planned, but otherwise we'll see you on the airwaves again in mid-August or thereabouts. In the meantime, we've got some data about listenership in the last six months, an update on the Changeling 30th Anniversary Project, some discussion of upcoming episodes, and the nervosa in the room: the rumors around Changeling 5th Edition. Is that enough to keep things tidy until our return? We...

Summer is arriving with a vengeance in the northern part of the globe, so it's a bit odd to be going back a season... and yet, we regret it not, as we open up the pages of Rites of Spring. This supplement for Changeling: the Lost 1e is a compendium of magics and Glamour, folklore and rumor, all of it steeped in the eponymous Court's energy of desire. In a sense, that emotion underlies the principle of magic to begin with: the desire to reshape the world as one wishes. But fae being fae, such workings are as treacherous...

Cantrips and oaths and Unleashings (oh my!) are all perfectly respectable kinds of magic, but what others might the fae be heir to? We're tackling that question with another entry in the Changeling 30th Anniversary Project lineup, as the anniversary itself approaches... The book-in-progress of our discussion today is Book of Gremayre, a compendium of systems and setting options that build upon what's in the C20 system. Inspired by the never-finished Book of Glamour for 2nd Edition, we've let our imaginations run riot with possibility when it comes to doing more with Glamour. Rarely-explored topics like infernalism and cantrip...

The emotion espoused by the Winter Court of the Lost is sorrow, but it's hard to feel too down about the sheer volume of material provided in their nominally associated book, Winter Masques. (Maybe we can shed a tear for the wild inconsistency in font sizes between sections?) While Autumn Nightmares was more of a Storyteller-facing guide, this one introduces a wealth of options that players can take advantage of as well: new kiths, new Contracts, alternate Court systems, and so forth. There are some deep dives into the nature of each Seeming and descriptions of new corners of...

The nature of evil is a wiggly thing in all the World of Darkness games, but especially in Changeling. Who's to say whether a rabid beastie or a diabolical Eiluned is more dastardly than the other? Surely it's a matter of perspective. Still, among the various groups in the game, the Thallain and the Dauntain in particular are treated as Bad News, suitable as antagonists due to their extreme disalignment with the goals and values of Kithain and Gallain. Naturally, that hasn't stopped players from wanting to play them. We're talking today about whether that's a good idea—or pe...

So, we had thought, surely the supplements for Changeling: the Lost's first edition can't be as dense as the corebook. Surely there will be some let-up in the sheer volume of material crammed into the pages. And yet, here we are with the first book in the line, Autumn Nightmares, applying nostrums to our eyes and brains after the sea of tiny text and dizzying array of concepts and creatures contained therein. Have we regrets? Always, but not about this one. The book is focused on antagonists for the Lost: their fellow changelings, their former Keepers, their fetches and...

If you've been listening to our show for a while (or hanging out on our Discord!), chances are you've heard Josh mention Dr. Jenna Moran's game Nobilis. In some ways adjacent to the World of Darkness and Exalted, in some ways adjacent to its own distinctively hallucinogenic blossom-laden spatial warp of hyperconsciousness, it seemed like a good choice for our first discussion of games outside of our usual bailiwick. And indeed, there is lots of inspiring cross-pollination to explore! We're giving an overview of the game's third edition corebook in this episode—mostly Josh explaining and trying to alleviate Po...

At long last, with this third installment, we are at last finished our readthrough of the Changeling: the Lost 1st edition corebook. Here's hoping that when we get to 2nd edition, we can just breeze through and say "nyaaahhh, it's mostly the same but here are things that have changed." (Doubtful.) This week, we're talking about Entitlements, the sample freehold setting of Miami, our thoughts overall on the book, and listener questions that we've been saving til the end. But of course, this is only the first step in our considerations of 1e Lost, for there's a handful of...

Another week, another as-rapid-as-we-dare readthrough of the Changeling: the Lost 1st edition corebook. This time, we're having a look at Chapters Three and Four. "But Pooka and Fetch," you might say, "this was supposed to be a two-part series, not a trilogy. How could you spend just under two hours talking about two measly chapters?" Well, when those two chapters clock in at ~120 pages with small text, little art, and extensive detail on both the intricate bespoke systems of the game and how to run the damn thing... as you'll discover, we had plenty to talk about. Still, we...

As the light half of the year breaks over the horizon, it's time at last for us to take the deepest of breaths and open the tome that is the Changeling: the Lost 1st edition corebook. The density of the text and the number of pages meant that this was always going to be a multi-part endeavor, but we did our best to keep the wild tangents we could have gone down to a minimum. In this installment, we're covering the introductory material and the first two chapters... which is a solid 170 pages of material with very tiny font...