[Luxifer]

Well, it's been building up to this for a while and it's something I promised the forum the first day of my role as Vilicus. I recently gained permission (via Kelly Barnes-Herrmann) to conduct a e-mail based interview with Ethan Skemp about Changeling. Although Ethan Skemp gave us some wonderful insight into the flavour of Changeling in his Gamestas interview, it was not the focus.

I'd like to present for you, an exclusive to Shadow N Essence, the first interview with a developer solely on the New World of Darkness Changeling game.

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Angelus: Dear Ethan. As the newly appointed Vilicus of the nWoD changeling forum on Shadow N Essence, I was hoping to continue the tradition of interview the developer. Considering that things are still early on in the knowledge of changeling I don't want to try and dig too deeply into the facts of the game itself; however I would like to give the forumites and other fans a snap shot of the development team and themes being dealt with. I appreciate that in giving out pieces of information you are trying to be cagey but I would like this interview to be a vehicle to engage with some of the questions that I am seeing cropping up over and over again.

In light of this I have taken the liberty to prepare a number of questions which I hope meet your satisfaction for the interview.

Let's start with the official press release given by White Wolf wherein a statement of yours is quoted. I have replicated it here:

"Changeling is a game of beauty and cruelty, of passion and loss, of dreams and madness. You have struggled your way back through the thorns only to find your life had been stolen from you. Now you make your way the best you can, attempting to piece together the fragments of your lost life or to forge a new one, chasing your ambition through the intrigues of the changeling courts and freeholds, and always looking over your shoulder lest the Others, the true Fae, return for you.”

Okay, in picking this statement apart we see a few interesting things. I will make a few observations and see if you wish to make any commentary on them.

The typically interpretation that comes up from the various forums is that it suggests that the Player Characters start of as mortal and have been abducted by the Fae, only to return forever changed. This suggests a return to the original myths on changelings and abduction. What are the development ideas on this?

Ethan: That's a complicated issue to discuss without giving away too many spoilery details ahead of time, but I'll give it a shot.

It's really easy to see what the positive aspects in a game about changelings would be like. It's a romantic concept; there's beauty and passion and exotic otherworldliness and, of course, magic. We knew we could include that sort of thing easily, and we wanted to. After all, you should find changelings appealing enough to really want to play one, right?

However, we also wanted the double edge to that sword. It's the kind of theme that goes better with a dose of tragedy. The concepts of abduction and loss, of broken relationships and fear and mistrust are all very powerful, and they're common to the best stories about the fae. Sometimes those stories have happy endings, like Tam Lin; sometimes, as in La Belle Dame Sans Merci, they do not. But they're magnificent stories, and we relate to the idea that it would be terrible to lose all these things that are so dear to you, and for what? To serve something's whimsy, their passing fancy? That's monstrous; and, of course, we at White Wolf have always been interested in the beautiful monsters.

Changelings should have things they regret, and things they dream to accomplish. They should have things that they're terrified of, and things that they will stand up to and fight against, if not for themselves, then for others. And going back to those original stories "and some of the more modern stories in that same vein” we found we had plenty of food for that kind of emotional, darkly romantic banquet.

Angelus: The use of the phrase “back through the thorns” brings up the imagery suggested by the Supernal Realm of Arcadia in Mage. We have seen speculation about the nature of the relationship between the Fae of Arcadia and the Fae of Changeling. How clear is the relationship defined in the setting?

Ethan: Things are defined from the changeling perspective, and changelings aren't assumed to have frequent and honest contact with mages sufficient to fold the Supernal Realm viewpoint into their own concept of what the world is or worlds are like. So they tell things in their own terms. We did check out the Mage perspective, however, so we made sure that there aren't conflicts with the changeling perspective; even if at first glance, it might appear otherwise.

Angelus: One of the criticisms leveled at Dreaming was its disconnection from the themes of horror of the World of Darkness. How does the development team envision the philosophy of personal horror manifesting within the new game?

Ethan: Horror isn't the first and only purpose of a World of Darkness game, but a World of Darkness game should be able to do horror easily, and it should be able to do horror well. It's an intrinsic component of the setting, and we wanted to make sure Changeling would fit in with the most excellent mood-setting writing and art of the World of Darkness core. So in short, yes, we want it to fit within the World of Darkness; that's an obvious and important goal.

But we also want it to feel different from Vampire and Werewolf and Mage and Promethean. In all of those games, horror isn't the only story you can tell: you can tell stories about passion and grief and heroism and insight and sometimes even humor, and the World of Darkness backdrop can heighten all of those. We didn't want to forget that with Changeling.

Angelus: An observation I wish to make is that the three large games all have a very large scope and heroic level upon which to play. With the release of Promethean we see the focus emphasizing the personal journey above the epic journey. Is this a philosophy that we might see continue with the smaller lines, including changeling?

Ethan: I'm not sure I'd characterize it quite like that. It's not quite epic vs. personal, because some personal journeys are really epic: Odysseus didn't exactly make it through the ten-year journey with a group of friends. Promethean's pretty epic, even if you tend to socialize only with your immediate throng and not with a greater Created society.

From a focus standpoint, Changeling's designed to be a fairly social game, and as such we want plenty of motivation to spend time with your fellow players and with changelings beyond your immediate circle. Players should enjoy getting together with their motley and setting out to try to fix some problems or navigate the courtly games of intrigue or find a safe hiding spot or whatever their goals are. With so much variety available for basic character concepts, getting together with friends helps you see more of that variety at a given time. This may just be the Werewolf developer in me talking, but I always loved those packs with a variety of tribes and auspices, producing so much diversity that each pack was a uniquely colorful quilt in its own right. A clawed, fanged, murderous quilt that would hunt you through the forest until you dropped of exhaustion and had your throat torn out, but... you know. Some quilts are like that.

Same thing with Changeling, if I haven't lost you with the quilt metaphor.

Angelus: There have been a number of people overjoyed to hear your selection as the developer for the game, considering your previous work to be exemplary. Given your artistic leadership on the project, what would you like to see realized with this game? What is your dream for this game?

Ethan: Well, I'm damn flattered by these people's faith, and I hope not to tragically disappoint them. My biggest hope, of course, is that people like what I like — that somewhere along the way, we manage to take this basic concept for a game and show other people what's evocative and powerful about it, and encourage them to go play with it themselves. I'm having a lot of fun working on this game, so clearly I'm not just pandering to a playstyle I'm not personally fond of like some game design mercenary. So if I'm not pandering, I can only hope that other people can enjoy the things that make me say "wow, that's damn cool." We're going to make it as slick and sexy as possible, and with any luck, that'll be damn slick and drop-dead sexy.

But I also hope people sympathize with the changeling viewpoint. It's not a classic escapist fantasy with the idea that the mortal world you lose wasn't worth half a damn anyway. I would hope that Changeling helps people see the beauty in what their characters have lost as well as what they've gained.

Angelus: From what we've seen in your suggestions; changeling nouveau is fairly different from Dreaming, what do you consider to be the biggest difference between the two?

Ethan: The answer to the question "what is a changeling?" Everything else ”theme, mechanics, setting, society” hinges on that one way or another.

[Christian A]

Very nice. Thanks a lot for posting, Luxifer.

[Luxifer]

tis a pleasure; I've been saving this interview for ages!

[!mpact]

Interesting...
I have read through it quickly and found one little tidbit (there are probably more):

A group of Changelings will be called a "Motley".

Not so dodgey I think, overall he gave quite clear and concise answers to the questions. Sure, he didn't evolve the answers that much, but that's not really dodgy.

[Luxifer]

Okay, these are my own impressions based on the interview:

1) the relationship between Arcadia and Faerie will be defined enough that you can establish *a* relationship, but not so strongly enough that the relationship is explicit. Similar to how the Thyrsus and Uratha have some bonds of fraternity and the Hisil and The Primal Wilds. So I'm guessing there will be room enough for player interpretation but just enough hooks to get us going. Essentially, I assume there are a number of connections between the various aspects of the nWoD cosmology, but I doubt knowledge of the others are essential to play them.

2) Changelings are very much going back to the original roots of the term. True Fae (Fair Folk/Gentry) will seem to be primarily NPCs and Changelings are very much mortals transformed.

[GhostBoy]

Interesting...
I have read through it quickly and found one little tidbit (there are probably more):

A group of Changelings will be called a "Motley".

First of all to the OP, cool interview and thanks for posting and doing it.

On this tidbit, I wouldn't put too much stock into it being a game term. Primarily because its so early that it seems unlikely they would release such details at all, especially in a written answer where it's not just a slip of the tongue.

Secondly, "motley" is usually used as an an adjective, describing "Having elements of great variety or incongruity; heterogeneous". When used as a noun it is naturally plural (motleys) and can mean two things:
1. The parti-colored attire of a court jester.
2. A heterogeneous, often incongruous mixture of elements.

I think Ethan simply used it as a descriptive of the potential diversity within a player group, which he goes on to elaborate upon in the same paragragh. As in "a motley group" rather than "a Motley". Of course nothing is certain, given the lack of solid information at this stage, but thats my impression. It would be an odd choice of word to use as the group name for Changelings.

[Christian A]

Changelings should have things they regret, and things they dream to accomplish. They should have things that they're terrified of, and things that they will stand up to and fight against, if not for themselves, then for others.

Hoo boy, lots of spoilers in this small paragraph.

[Kuroukaze]

It wouldn't be that odd, Ghostboy.

In Dreaming they were called Motleys.

[!mpact]

It wouldn't be that odd, Ghostboy.

In Dreaming they were called Motleys.

Exactly my point.

[Vampir]

Interesting interview, many praises for sharing it

I can't wait to get the corebook...

[Temple]

I have the core book, I cant wait to get the Changeling book!

(yeah yeah, I know..)

[Deimos_Masque]

How did you get in contact with him for the interview? I've been thinking of approaching Bill about an interview.

[KelleyBH]

How did you get in contact with him for the interview? I've been thinking of approaching Bill about an interview.

Contact me. Perferably with the list of questions you want answered.

kelley (at) white-wolf (dot) com

[Deimos_Masque]

Why thank you Kelly, I will do just that. I thought it was you to contact but I wanted to make sure that was the proper channel before I added e-mail to you're box.

[Annael]

Great coolness. I've never known him to produce less than terrific work, and Ethan's answers, vague as they necessarily must be at this stage of the game, give me confidence about the new Changeling. I'm excited to see what they come up with, and very happy to hear such solid ideas underlying what they're creating.

[Tyren]

Thanks for the interview and post. In all honesty I'm liking what I'm seeing.

[xrenegadexsadizt]

OMGAwesome.

So far, I love what I hear...I, like many others, cannot wait to get the Changeling RPG book.

Yay!

[Vampir]

I have the core book, I cant wait to get the Changeling book!

I don't get it

[Temple]

I don't get it

The core book being the nWoD core book.. It was a lame joke, I know..

[Vampir]

Oh... now I get it