Photo by prettyhowtown. Used with permission.
I say without irony or deprecation that these pictures over on sun moon stars rain from the Bristol Renaissance Faire would be fantastic visual inspiration for a game of Changeling, either The Dreaming or The Lost varieties, depending on the look one wants for their game. It’s a bright version seen in these pictures, but it doesn’t cross the line into “bear in a waistcoat carrying a balloon” territory, either.
The original Changeling was one of those tabletop games that benefited most from the particular strengths of LARPing, because it inspired players to come up with excellent costumes. I remember seeing a picture of one woman who contrived a pair of faux goat legs for her Unseelie satyr and another who came up with a very cool ray gun ‘n goggles look as a nocker.
Part of it probably has to do with the central premise of Changeling that there’s a second layer of reality on top of that which everyday people see, the chimerical reality of the Dreaming — although there’s argument to be made that it’s more real, or maybe more true, than the more obvious world. Knowing that, the guy with a red bandanna and goalie stick isn’t just a hockey player out of season, but he takes on a new dimension as a redcap armed with a cudgel.
