8/3/2019 The End of the Dream
1/5
The End of the Dream
By
Matthew McFarland
I remember when Changeling: The Dreaming first came into my life. I was at a convention in
Toledo, Ohio, in August of 1995. I had started playing White Wolf games the previous fall (Wraith: TheOblivion was the first White Wolf game I ran, and it pretty much sucked me into the rest of the World of
Darkness). Anyway, a new game coming out was like Christmas morning. I wasnt, however, planning on
running it right away. In keeping with my lifelong policy of getting overextended, I had something like five
different games going and whenever three or more of my friends got together, I seemed to wind up running a
one-shot (which invariably became a chronicle, because people always loved their characters).
So I bought Changeling, and my friend Mike read it while we were still at the convention and had a
character concept in seconds. I remember that character. His name was Tal, he was a sidhe (House Fiona) and
he was a tragic love-story sort of figure.
This was back when you drew your bunks from a deck of cards, you know. My brother played a
pooka who turned into a ferret; I remember him hiding in the troll characters hair (the troll was played by my
friend Carrie Lewis; remember that name, itll be important later) and then casting a Chicanery cantrip. He
drew the Moo bunk, so what you had was a ferret leaping out of a trolls hair and crying, MOOOOO!!!
I love Changeling! was a common refrain in that group.
That chronicle, much as I loved it (I set it at a summer camp in Michigan that I used to attend; to me,
that place was a sort of Glamour) didnt really go anywhere. The next time I ran Changeling, it was much
more focused. I set the game in Detroit (the most banal city I could think of, and I dont need your hate mail,
thanks very much), gave everybody an extra dot of Banality and five extra freebies and then dangled the plot
hook. Five sites in the city could be properly prepared and then used to open a trod to Arcadia. But the nature
of the trod would be determined by the fae who opened it that is, Seelie or Unseelie.
I had two groups in that game, four Seelie characters and four Unseelie characters. I never ran them
together; wed cover one span of time with one group and then Id meet with the other group later in the
week and theyd catch up. That game never really ended, either. I have lots of great memories from it (I
encouraged folks to act out their bunks, and my friend Mark actually tore the legs of an already-dead
tarantula for a Primal bunk at one point), but the story didnt end. I dont know who opened that trod.
This seems to happen, you know. Its hard to end a dream. Typically, dreams end abruptly you just
wake up. Sometimes, thats a relief. Sometimes, its painful. Most often, its anticlimactic and a little
disorienting.
Theres a point, here, and youre probably catching on already. But Ive got some more folks to talk
about first. If youre one of those folks that gets annoyed when people talk about their characters, you may
want to skip a few paragraphs.
nd of the Dream http://www.geocities.com/blackhatmatt/end_of_d
2/24/201
8/3/2019 The End of the Dream
2/5
I havent played a lot of characters that were my own; thats the consequence of being the guy who
can run a game at the drop of a dime and always seems to have the money to buy the books and the time to
read them. As a result, I remember the few characters Ive played pretty vividly, and Changeling always
seemed to produce the ones that I was most attached to.
I played a selkie once, believe or not. The game was set in San Francisco, I believe (California,
anyway; its been a while). He was a surfer. Had some problems with the Sabbat. He swore an Oath of
Truehearts to another character (a satyr, played by the girl I was seeing at the time). She broke the oath. The
relationship went sour. Life imitates art?
I played a sluagh, once. He was a childling named Matthias, and he was a devout Catholic. He
couldnt speak above a whisper, but he could sing as a result of his faith, and he performed miracles over the
course of that game. I was lost when I played Matthias, though I didnt know it at the time. Matthias was a
fish out of water in so many ways, but he was strong and devout, no matter what horrors he saw. He was, in
some ways, what I needed to be. If you cant find a role-model, you make one.
I played a sidhe, once. He was once of House Fiona but left in an attempt to form his own noble house
with his oathcircle. It didnt work out. He wound up falling in love with a mortal girl. He was a Humanist, as I
recall. He worked in a coffee shop (the game was set in my home town of Toledo, and I worked at the coffee
shop in question, myself). He didnt want to get involved with all the supernatural craziness; he just wanted to
live his life and love his girl. I played Sir Lelio (or Damian, as he preferred to be called) when I was growing
up.
God, thats scary. Growing up is like waking up you might be relieved, but you might be
disoriented, frightened, or just a little disappointed.
Changeling isnt necessarily a game about growing up and the idyllic time that is childhood (becauseas any kid will tell you, childhood isnt all that idyllic anyway). If anything, its about the wonderof
childhood, but fear is a big part of that wonder. But it isnt necessarily about that Changelings a big
game. You can tell any kind of story with it because its about stories. And I think maybe a lot of folks missed
that. Forest for the trees, you know?
I got it. So did you. You probably got a little choked up in Autumn People in the opening fiction when
the girl opens her box and looks at whats left of her wings. Maybe you smiled in the second edition of
Changeling when the narrator talks about riding the yellow walrus. Possibly, when reading Shadow Court,
you were surprised at how easy it was to fall into the nightmare, to imagine playing a fae sworn to darkness.
You remember the kid in grade school who had imaginary friends long after everyone else had formed
their cliques? Remember the kid that just didnt really fit in well, not because of anything you could pin down,
but just because he or she was an easy target and was sensitive to what people thought and said? Oh, you
were that kid? Me, too. Funny, that.
Theres a point, here. Im pretty sure you understand, but just to make sure: Changeling appeals to
those of us who understand that these characters live. Not in a I am my character kind of creepshow, but
simply that when you spend time and energy crafting a character for any game (or any story, or whatever), it
nd of the Dream http://www.geocities.com/blackhatmatt/end_of_d
2/24/201
8/3/2019 The End of the Dream
3/5
lives, somehow, somewhere. Authors talk about characters speaking to them, demanding extra scenes in
fiction or a different ending to a story, and as an author, Ill say that you ignore your characters at your peril.
They might stop talking to you, after all.
Im rambling a little here, and thats deliberate, because its human nature to avoid bad news. You
already know this bad news, but that doesnt make it a lot easier. You ready? OK, here we go.
Changeling is going away, and its not coming back. You will never get Book of Glamour orKithbook: Boggan or Keys to the Kingdom. IfChangeling ever does come back, it wont be in the form
that you know, and youre better off not comparing the new to the old, because then youll be missing out on
the wonder of the new game. The story is ending. It is time to wake up from the dream.
God, it hurts just typing that. It feelsbanal. Like I should hit my delete key about 6000 times right
now and obliterate this whole thing. But see, thats the thing. This needs to be said. You need to know. You
deserve to know.
Changeling doesnt have to end for you, of course. As has been stated ad nauseum on more forums
than I care to think about, all you need is the core book and a little imagination and your troupe can play thisgame forever. And I hope that you will. But for me, the reality is a little harsher, because Im the guy who
gets to (has to?) oversee The End.
(Anybody who wanted to skip the sappy stuff about the game and what it means to me should start
reading here.)
When we decided to do a hardback encompassing the minor game lines (thats Hunter: The
Reckoning, Demon: The Fallen, Mummy: The Resurrection, Kindred of the East, and Changeling) we
struggled a bit to find developers. Oh, it wasnt a stretch that Ken Cliffe would do Hunter and Mike Lee
would do Demon, them being the full-time developers of those lines and all. C. A. Suleiman was only too
happy to jump back into development for Mummy, as well. Kindred of the East was a little tougher, seeing
as how Lucien Soulban (the most recent developer for that line) was up to his eyes in Orpheus, but we got
Kraig Blackwelder to do it, so thats good.
Which leaves Changeling. I think Ken was pretty relieved when I casually mentioned that Id love
the job. Honestly, I think the alternative might have been not having the section at all there was a
suggestion that we not do one, seeing as how the line had been dormant for so long.
Bullshit, says I. You know all those Changeling fans who will be horribly upset if their game doesnt
get its due? I said. Well,Im one of them.
(That suggestion was never taken very seriously, actually. But it annoyed me anyway.)
So I found myself with 30,000 words to end one of my all-time favorite games. I dont know if you
have any idea what 30,000 words looks like, but to give you an idea, the revised tribebooks for Werewolfare
about 65,000 words each. 30,000 words isnt much, but thats all Ive got. Theres a bucket of cold water in
the face for you.
I decided immediately that I needed two authors on the book, and that one of those authors had to be
nd of the Dream http://www.geocities.com/blackhatmatt/end_of_d
2/24/201
8/3/2019 The End of the Dream
4/5
metaplot savvy. I admit, I havent played Changeling much in recent years and Ive fallen behind on the
metaplot, so I wanted an author who knew what was going on and could work in as many nods to the existing,
ongoing stuff as possible. That author was Peter Woodworth, author of (among other things) Kithbook: Eshu
and House Beaumayn from the Book of Lost Houses.
The other author, though, I wanted to be someone who knew the game and, more importantly,
understoodthe game like I did, but hadnt worked on it and did not know or closely follow the metaplot. I
wanted someone who loved Changeling but who wasnt tied to what it had become who was more
well-versed in the essence of the game than its form (not saying that Pete doesnt grasp the games essence,
Im just saying I wanted him for different reasons). That author was Carrie Lewis, one of my staple Dark
Ages folks, but more importantly, one of the people who was right there with me as I discovered Changeling
eight years ago.
So whats in the Changeling section ofTime of Judgment? Possibility. A lot of different ways for
Winter to come. The potential for the fae to go out with a whimper or a bang. A lot of thoughts on how best to
run the last Changeling story, on where the fae are going, and even on what happens next. Theres hope,
theres despair, theres war. Some familiar faces show up.
Whats notin that section? The answers.
I thought about this. I really did consider combing through the books and answer all of the nagging
questions, putting definitive, canon, official stamps on everything that Changeling has left hanging. I
thought about having Pete and Carrie write up what was happening in Arcadia, what has happened to Sir Seif
and Kind David, how to open the Triumph Casque of Sorrows, and so on and on.
I didnt, and Ill tell you why those are yourstories, not ours. We gave them to you. You own them,
not us. We cantfinish them, because they havent been ours in a long time. I didnt want to tell you what todream; I dont have that right. The last material printed for Changeling: The Dreaming is going to consist
largely of suggestions, thoughts, and possibilities from and by people who love this game.
The stuff that dreams are made of, in other words. As a not-entirely tangential aside, did you know
that quote is originally from Shakespeares The Tempest? The actual line is: We are such stuff as dreams are
made on, and our little life is rounded by a sleep.
Speaking of Shakespeare, I just thought of why I knew, right from the start, that I would love
Changeling. The first add I saw for the game was in the first edition ofWraith (my first White Wolf game,
remember?). It had a quote from another Shakespeare play on a background that looked like shattered glass.
The quote had only the first three couplets of the speech, but Im ending with the whole thing. It seems like
the right thing to do.
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended;
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear,
nd of the Dream http://www.geocities.com/blackhatmatt/end_of_d
2/24/201
8/3/2019 The End of the Dream
5/5
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding than a dream.
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to scape the serpents tongue,
We will make amends ere long.
Else the Puck a liar call,
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.
Matthew McFarland, 8/8/2003
Home Essays Pictures Personal Links Fiction Contact
nd of the Dream http://www.geocities.com/blackhatmatt/end_of_d
/ /