I want to take a moment to talk about old Changeling.
Now, when spirits were brave and the stakes were high, the land was free and 2nd edition still frolicked in the fields, I was a huge fan of a little game called Changeling: The Dreaming. Set in the same World of Darkness that was made so popular by the Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse games, it strove to bring a somewhat lighter side to the Gothic-Punk setting that was part and parcel of the other White Wolf games. The theme of Changeling was wonderment, creativity, glamour, and innocence. More importantly, it was the ability to keep these things alive even in the face of the horrors that were present in the dark setting. More importantly than that, though, was the ability to keep those things alive in the face of a worse enemy still: Banality.
In a world where Vampires controlled (or influenced, in later works) the government and corrupted society to be a shell of what it once was to make it easier for the undead predators-turned-parasites to feed on the cattle-like heard of Humanity, where the warriors of Gaia fought a losing battle to save the earth from hatred and corruption both physical and spiritual, the Changelings embraced the creative, the brave, the proud, shining inspiration and romantic passion that stood against a world turned cold and creatively desolate. As Willy Wonka said, quoting Arthur O'Shaughnessy, "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."
Yet the rest of the poem fits the feel of Changeling all too well, and carries with it further themes.
"We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems."
Changeling was not a story about eternal sunshine, because it illustrated a further poetic thought. Nothing gold can stay. Banality; that cold boredom, the numb process that has become so part of our world since industrialization, the authority present in the ticking clock that marks our time to work, our time to rest, the length of our breaks, a measure of the wage we earn to continue existing to earn a wage to continue existing. It is the thing that drives away Fancy in exchange for Practicality, Dreams in exchange for Necessities. It is that thing that kills our insides so slowly that it's not until the fading spark, the emaciated passion that once drove us, is revealed, faded and grasping for something that has nearly been forgotten, that we realize it has been dying all along.
It was a game about tragedy. In the end, Banality always won.
Shel Silverstein's poem, Forgotten Language:
"Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?"
The tragedy of Changeling is the same tragedy present in the real world. We grow old, and we forget our dreams and our passions, and we take the world as it comes, because the world keeps coming (incidentally, it's also the reason "Puff the Magic Dragon" always makes me cry).
I definitely think that role-playing has been a large part of my life because it allows that expression and passion to come through. Through the shared imagination of player and Storyteller or DM or GM or what have you, we're able to explore themes and situations that are a part of humanity not usually addressed in day-to-day existence. There are many that would use the same statement to argue that RPG's lead to escapism and avoidance of real-world situations, or that they distance a person from being able to deal with real life. My opinion may be biased, but I think that it's no more "escapism" than TV, a book (people still read those, right?), or even playing a rousing game of "Sorry" with the family. Or Monopoly. Hell, Monopoly was a huge hit when it first came out because it was released during the Great Depression and it let people feel, for the brief (haha) time that they were playing the game, like they were tycoons. I guess what I'm trying to say here is, go play a role-playing game. Play a game that draws you in. Make a character that's a CHARACTER, and not dots on a sheet. And enjoy yourself.
