By Stephanie Mitchell
ROBYNN SCOTT, 21, looks incredulous. Can Lord Halfdan and his fairy minions
really cure her dying grandfather? Her round eyes grow bigger in her
green-painted face as her character, Lilliana, asks if changelings can actually
do that.
No, it's not a revival of an Edwardian drama. Scott and the other 12 characters
acting in a lounge at Dalhousie University, are part of Changeling, an
improvisational role-playing game.
Scott plays Lilliana, an 11-year-old who has just discovered she is part
nature-spirit. On this spring Sunday, Scott has dressed her character in a
brown cape and put a wreath of flowers on her head. Other characters wear an
assortment of ribbons, broadcoats, medieval dresses and worn-out jeans.
Greg Paradis, the director of the game, explains that they are in costume for
the characters they'll be acting out for the next three or four hours of
improvisation.
Paradis, 24, says Changeling started as a tabletop board game, much like
Dungeons and Dragons, but now people around the world use the Changeling
structure to play a live improvised acting game.
The players meet every second Sunday in this concrete lounge at the top of the
Life Sciences Centre and transform the room by putting shiny gold and turquoise
cloths over the faded orange chairs. Today, the characters are attending a
naming ceremony when they hear of Lilliana's ailing grandfather.
Mr. Paradis says the game company White Wolf came up with the initial concept of
Changeling in the 1980s by blending Russian, Germanic and Celtic legends.
The game's changelings are dream creatures who are stranded on earth with humans
who don't believe in them. The changelings are fighting against that disbelief.
Paradis gives the changeling characters a basic storyline before the game
begins and then the actors decide how their characters will respond to each
other and solve problems.
Paradis says about 15 people regularly play Changeling in Halifax. He concedes
the game seems to attract more men than women but five or six of the Changeling
players are women.
Aimée Watson is one of them. The 22-year-old says, if anything, it's better to
be a female player because the male characters are easier on her.
But, she says, not everyone reacts positively when she tells them she acts in
role-playing games. (She also plays in Vampire, a live-action game similar to
Changeling.)
"I've had a lot of people think I was crazy. (They say,) 'Oh, you're some
blood-sucking freak and you worship demons.'
"No, I was raised Roman Catholic. I'm pretty happy. The rest of the week I'm a
happy, smiley girl."
Paradis acknowledges there is a violent stigma that is often associated with
role-playing games - but not for his game.
"There are no real weapons in the game, but there are systems to represent that.
Because it is a heroic game, occasionally there are duels between people. If
you need to determine who's better than who, each character has a template that
determines whether one player's a better swordsman, one person's a better
speaker - everybody does have limitations on their characters."
And, he says, if there's no other way to determine the winner, they stop the
game and quickly play Paper, Rocks, Scissors.
Paradis says no players in his game have taken their characters too far.
"We keep reminding people it's just a game and these are your characters. Some
people do take their characters really seriously and they take any attacks
against their characters as attacks on them. But, through education, we manage
to cut out a lot of that."
Paradis doesn't take any of his characters too seriously and he says the game
actually makes him a better person.
"I'm very stress-free because of the fact that when I go to the game I get to
blow a lot of stress by acting and having a good time. And we laugh a lot."
Paradis says directing the game is also good career preparation - he hopes to
become an acting and English teacher.
He spends about nine hours preparing for the game: writing the script, e-mailing
other Changeling directors around Canada and reviewing which characters have
how many points.
He says the work is worth it.
"I love having the ability to assume a persona. Directing it basically gives me
the enjoyment of seeing other people do the same thing."
Stephanie Mitchell is a Halifax freelance writer.
Visit the Barony of Dark Waters (Changeling) Web site at www.oocities.org/roseandcompass/kithain/index.html
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